FTX co-CEO pleads guilty, Texas calls upon Riot Blockchain during an energy crisis while Coinbase hopes to replace Binance in Europe

The clock is ticking and the rats are leaving the sinking ship. In New York this week, Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of the FTX branch in the Bahamas (where Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested), pleaded guilty. He thus becomes the fourth person from the former FTX board of directors to plead guilty. The pressure on Sam Bankman-Fried, whose trial starts on October 3, is being pumped ever higher.

In Texas, meanwhile, authorities have paid Riot Blockchain a whopping $31 million to temporarily halt Bitcoin mining in order not to further burden the power grid during a recent heat wave.

Lastly Coinbase, the largest American crypto platform, sees Binance’s withdrawal from most European countries as an opportunity and is trying to broaden its presence in the EU.

Tick tock

The clock is ticking as the trial against FTX draws closer. Many of FTX’s former directors appear unwilling to wait out the trial and are making deals with the authorities. Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of the FTX department in the Bahamas, is now the fourth lieutenant of Sam Bankman-Fried who stated that he was willing to cooperate with the investigation in exchange for a reduced sentence.

Fourth FTX executive Ryan Salame pleads guilty https://t.co/1VwtUl5xtQ

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) September 8, 2023

Former Alameda Chief Executive Officer Caroline Ellison, former FTX technology chief Gary Wang and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh previously pleaded guilty and are set to testify.

Texas

Riot blockchain’s stock is having a great year on the stock market. This is not only because Bitcoin is seeing an increase in its price compared to the beginning of the year, but also because it can sell its extra energy very well.

Texas paid bitcoin miner Riot $31.7 million to shut down during heat wave in August https://t.co/aXHBLnasvJ

— CNBC (@CNBC) September 7, 2023

Authorities in Texas admitted this week that they paid Riot $31 million to stop Bitcoin mining during a heat wave. Riot thus has a new stream of income. As a shareholder you can only be happy, of course.

Expansio

Now that the G20 is ready to begin, Coinbase said in a blog post that it is unfortunate that the United States still does not have a legal basis for crypto trading in place, while 83% of other G20 members already did so .

Today, 83% of G20 members and major financial hubs have made progress toward regulatory clarity for crypto. But the US is an outlier.

A picture paints a thousand words. https://t.co/DpxoKFr4yV pic.twitter.com/KvQ4q0zlsn

— Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) September 7, 2023

Coinbase also announced that it is aiming to expand in Europe from the fall. Binance’s kiss withdrawal from several European countries probably has something to do with it. One man’s loss is another man’s gain of course.

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