Bitcoin News Media Blog
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Saturday, December 17, 2022
Thursday, December 15, 2022
Bitcoin News Media Blog: Donald Trump Announces $99 Digital Trading Card NFTs The edition of 45,000 NFTs features the former president in various fantasy costumes and poses. It will be minted on Polygon.
Donald Trump Announces $99 Digital Trading Card NFTs The edition of 45,000 NFTs features the former president in various fantasy costumes and poses. It will be minted on Polygon.
Collect Trump Cards (Image credit: Trump Trading Cards)
New York: Donald Trump teased a “major announcement” just weeks after declaring a third presidential run, leading political-watchers to speculate about big campaign moves.
Instead, he hawked digital trading cards with his head atop cartoon super-hero figures in an NFT market that’s already sagging.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the “Donald Trump Digital Trading Card collection” could be collected like baseball cards and stored digitally (a NFT, or non-fungible token, is essentially a unique digital file). The “cards” cost $US99 ($147) each and people who buy them are also entered into a sweepstake for prizes including a golf outing with the former US president.
They are being offered by NFT INT LLC, which says on its website that they are not connected to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and the company is not owned, managed or controlled by Trump, his company, or their affiliates. Trump gets paid under a licence for use of his name and likeness, according to the website.
Trump has over the years licensed the Trump brand to a number of third-party, and mostly failed, products including steak, vodka, an airline and a university.
The market for NFTs has fallen sharply in recent months along with the rest of the crypto universe, which has endured a series of spectacular blow-ups including the November implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX digital-asset empire.
Trump had teased the announcement with a post on his social platform on Wednesday depicting himself as a Superman-like character standing in front of Trump Tower with lasers shooting from his eyes saying, “America needs a superhero”. In crypto parlance, laser eyes are a bullish signal and that picture is now one of the available digital cards.
There was speculation that the “major announcement” would be something dramatic like Trump returning to Twitter or running to be House speaker.
Trump announced on November 15 that he would wage a 2024 White House bid.
Trump’s comeback run has so far been marked by one downturn after another, including being blamed for a disappointing Republican midterm showing; the growing popularity in the party and among voters of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; the public dinner he held with two well-known anti-Semites; deepening legal woes; subpar online fundraising and polls showing him losing favour among his base.
President Joe Biden took a jab at Trump on Twitter, noting that he, too, had some “MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS,” over the last couple of weeks, including signing the Respect for Marriage Act and securing the release of basketball star Brittney Griner from a Russian prison.
Shortly after his NFT announcement, Trump posted a video to his social site to outline what he described as a platform to “reclaim” the right of free speech should he retake the White House in 2024.
Bitcoin News Media Blog: With the casino and the beds, our passengers will have at least two ways to get lucky on one of our flights. Richard Branson (Virgin Group)
With the casino and the beds, our passengers will have at least two ways to get lucky on one of our flights. Richard Branson (Virgin Group)
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Bitcoin News Media Blog: Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested in Bahamas, Being Extradited to US
Bitcoin News Media Blog
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested in Bahamas, Being Extradited to US
The former CEO of failed cryptocurrency firm FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been arrested in the Bahamas and is set to be extradited per a request by the U.S. Government.
The arrest occurred late Monday with a U.S. criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday morning.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams confirmed that Bankman-Fried had been under criminal investigation by U.S. and Bahamian authorities following the collapse last month of FTX.
The cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, when it reportedly ran out of funding. Bankman-Fried has remained at his Bahamian luxury compound in Nassau since the company’s failure, according to reports.
“We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” Williams said.
Bahamian Attorney General Ryan Pinder said the Bahamas would “promptly” extradite Bankman-Fried to the U.S.
One of those involved in FTX, Dan Friedberg, turns out to be an attorney once tied to a poker cheating scandal. Years later an audio tape emerged showing whereby he appeared to be complicit in the scheme. CoinGeek's Steven Stradbrooke had warned of Friedberg's involvement in the collapsed crypto exchange nearly two years prior to FTX going under.
He was added as a defendant last week in an FTX lawsuit recently filed by Gregg Podalsky, Gary Gallant, Skyler Lindeen, Alexander Chernyavsky, and David Nicol. No word yet on whether charges will be filed against Friedman.
While at FTX, Friedman held four job titles over a two year span at FTX, including Head of Compliance.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also accused Bankman-Fried of “orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors”. They accuse him of deliberately misleading customers out of millions of dollars.
“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” the S.E.C. chair, Gary Gensler, said in a statement.
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