1. Congress summons crypto executives

The Facts:

• Executives from FTX, Coinbase, Circle, Bitfury, Paxos Trust and Stellar have been summoned in front of Congress to discuss crypto regulations.
• The House Financial Services Committee called the hearing to improve the understanding of how crypto assts fit into existing regulations.
• Topics such as how crypto and stablecoins can play a role in banking unbanked individuals or how missing and unclear regulations lead to Fidelity having to go to Canada to offer a BTC spot ETF were discussed.

Why it’s important:

• Crypto executives marked a strong point on how they would welcome structured regulations and why the current environment hinders not only the companies residing in the US but the country itself to take on a leader role in the industry.
• The willingness of congress to get educated on the topic and discuss problems as well as their solutions has been a great step forward. A clear desire to collectively improve has been communicated.

2. Kleiman v Wright trial verdict reached in $50 billion lawsuit

The Facts:

• Almost 4 years after its filing in the district court of S.D. Florida, the jury trial which started on November 1st has come to an end.
• The so called “trial of the century” was centered around Ira Kleiman (acting on behalf of his late brother as director of W&K Info Defense) who claimed that there was a partnership between him and Dr. Craig S. Wright in which they mined an estimated BTC 1.1 million under the umbrella of the company.
• The defense won on all claims except conversion on which count the jury awarded $100 million to W&K Info Defense. No punitive damages have been charged.

Why it’s important:

• Wright will have to pay the conversion in the amount of $100 million. There are different opinions around Dr. Wright being Satoshi Nakamoto and having access to some of the first blocks, which is a topic that could potentially be addressed by him moving coins to pay the stated amount.
• Before any transfer is expected, there is still the open question whether the plaintiff had any right to act in the name of W&K Info Defense. A separate case has been opened to resolve the situation.

3. Evergrande defaults for the first time

The Facts:

• Credit rating agency Fitch downgraded the developers’ offshore bonds to default after they failed to repay $82.5m in interest payments.
• The company has liabilities exceeding $300 billion.
• A running restructuring process with assistance from local government officials serves as attempt to stabilize the market and general damage limitation.

Why it’s important:

• The downfall of the development giant has heavily impacted the Chinese market over the last couple of months. Last Friday the company revealed its struggle to meet its obligations on $260 million of debt, leading to average yields on Chinese high-yield dollar bonds falling by 1%.
• It will be interesting to see how the Government intervention impacts the future of the company and the development of the market, since markets were already pricing in a high probability of default.

In other news

• BitMart suffers $200 million hack. (via Bitcoinist)
• CME launches micro ether futures for more precise delta hedging. (via Cointelegraph)
• Gemini partners with Bancolombia. (via Cointelegraph)
• What’s up with Solana? – DDoS Attack. (via Cointelegraph)

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