Elon Musk of X | Daniel Oberhaus/"Elon Musk" (CC license)
Twitter, rebranded to X under its controversial owner Elon Musk, may have looked different in 2023 — but ‘Crypto Twitter’ remains alive and well.
Here are the top ten posts from 2023 that moved markets, provided much-needed comedic relief and told the biggest crypto stories of the year.
The one that foreshadowed an array of lawsuits
Genesis filed for bankruptcy in January 2023, spurring an onslaught of legal battles between and against the crypto lender and its partner Gemini.
Genesis was a lender for Gemini’s Earn product, which offered users high interest rates for lended crypto.
Attorney General Letitia James filed a “sweeping lawsuit” in October against Gemini, Genesis and parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) for allegedly misleading investors and concealing risks. The two companies and co-defendants are now on opposite sides of new legal fights.
Read more: Genesis in Chapter 11 won’t insulate Silbert, Winklevoss says
Later that month, Gemini filed a suit against Genesis to regain control over 60 million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) the exchange allegedly pledged as collateral for its loans. Then, in November, Genesis sued Gemini in an attempt to recover more than $689 million that customers of the companies allegedly withdrew during the “bank run” that spurred Genesis’ Chapter 11.
We do not envy any of the parties involved in what are sure to be some hefty legal bills in 2024.
The one that reminded us how big Signature Bank’s “marketing” budget was
The Crypto and Financial Twitter crowds had a field day when state regulators shuttered Signature Bank in March two days after authorities shut down Silicon Valley Bank.
The news sparked a resurfacing of the several music videos the bank made over the years — some as early as 2012 — for reasons not immediately apparent. (Promotion? Team building? The world may never know.)
“Now you’ve come to Signature, show your clients what you’re worth,” one employee (or hired actor, the credits were unclear) sang in the 2012 video, set to the tune of Katy Perry’s “Firework.”
“Clients just won’t let go-oh, oh,” the chorus continued.
In the end of course the clients did exactly that.
SBF providing a preview of what later played out in court
In one of his final tweets before his lawyers presumably took away his internet access, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried gave the world what he called “proof” FTX.US, the American arm of his exchange, was solvent.
The balance sheet, if you could call it that, was a screenshot of an apparent Google Sheets document where Bankman-Fried claimed Sullivan and Comwell, the New York law firm handling FTX’s bankruptcy, had “forgotten” to include $428 million in bank balances in its documentation.
When a troll responded saying “if an intern brought me an Excel file formatted like this I would literally fire them on the spot,” Bankman-Fried admitted his document was “ugly af” but was still “right.”
Read more: FTX began to unravel one year ago today: A timeline
Months later, during Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial in Manhattan, we had the pleasure of seeing just how “ugly,” unaudited and casual all of FTX’s balance sheets were, even those sent to lenders and investors.
Bankman-Fried’s Twitter account, while inactive since January 2023, is still online, perhaps ready for him to resume posting upon his release. The disgraced founder is currently an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while he awaits sentencing.
Crypto Twitter’s favorite SEC-fighting attorneys, all in one place
Chief legal officers from Ripple (Stuart Alderoty), Coinbase (Paul Grewal) and Grayscale (Craig Salm) took the stage together earlier this month at the Blockchain Association’s Policy Summit to talk about regulation. The three companies have all fought back against enforcement actions from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, providing hope to industry members that legal precedent in key issues like token classification and exchange rules
Ripple is fresh off its summary judgment win in its years-long battle with the SEC. Meanwhile, Grayscale won its case against the agency when a judge ruled that the SEC’s rejection of Grayscale’s proposal to convert its GBTC product into an exchange-traded fund was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Coinbase is still in the midst of its legal battle with the securities regulator, which started in June when the SEC sued the exchange for allegedly operating as an unregistered securities exchange, broker and clearing agency. Oral arguments in the case are currently scheduled for Jan. 17, 2024 in Manhattan federal court.
Gary Gensler reads crypto news
After being named one of CoinDesk’s most influential crypto of 2023, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler took to X to ‘thank’ the publication.
Under Gensler’s leadership the SEC issued its most enforcement actions even in its 2023 fiscal year. With 784 total enforcement actions, marking a 3% increase from 2022, there was a notable focus on crypto.
The agency sued crypto exchanges Binance, Kraken and Coinbase, plus announced settlements with Bittrex and Nexo, to name a few. Plus, Gensler has hinted that he has no plans on slowing down in 2024, so buckle up.
CZ hard-launches his health era
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao may be confined to the US until his sentencing in February, but that doesn’t mean he’s slacking on his diet.
The former CEO advised his 8.8 million followers to prioritize their health after he stepped away from his company following news that he’d agreed to settle with the US Department of Justice for a historic $4.3 billion. Prosecutors are expected to request an 18 month sentence for Zhao in exchange for his cooperation in the government’s years-long probe.
Maybe he can get some diet tips from former rival, and vegan, Sam Bankman-Fried, who could be sentenced to as long as 110 years behind bars in March.
Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.
