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29 Apr 2026, 17:00

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Loses Bid For Retrial

Sam Bankman-Fried’s attempt to get a new trial collapsed Tuesday when a federal judge called his legal arguments baseless — and suggested the whole effort was less about justice than about fixing his public image. Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Bankman-Fried’s 2023 fraud trial and later sentenced him to 25 years in prison, rejected the motion in a written order. He said the filing appeared to be “one part of a plan to rescue his reputation” — a plan Bankman-Fried reportedly put to paper after FTX’s bankruptcy but before he was ever charged. Witnesses Were Never A Secret At the center of Bankman-Fried’s argument were three former FTX insiders he claimed could have challenged the government’s case that the exchange was insolvent. He named Ryan Salame, FTX’s former Bahamian CEO, Daniel Chapsky, the exchange’s former head of data science, and Nishad Singh, FTX’s onetime engineering lead. The argument didn’t land. Kaplan wrote that none of the three qualified as newly discovered witnesses. Bankman-Fried had known all of them well before trial and already knew what he wanted them to say. The judge pointed out that he could have sought to compel their testimony but chose not to. Singh had actually testified — against Bankman-Fried. He cut a plea deal with prosecutors and avoided prison time in exchange for his cooperation. Bankman-Fried argued Singh had changed his testimony under pressure from the government. Kaplan dismissed that claim outright, calling it “wildly conspiratorial and entirely contradicted by the record.” Salame, for his part, was not available as a friendly witness. He had pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and running an illegal money-transmitting business, and was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in May 2024. A Motion Filed Without Lawyers The bid for a new trial was unusual from the start. Bankman-Fried filed the motion in February without consulting his legal team — a rare move that raised eyebrows on its own. He also asked that a different judge oversee any new proceedings, citing doubts about getting a fair hearing from Kaplan. Then he tried to pull the motion entirely. In a message to the court, he told Kaplan he didn’t believe he would get a fair hearing “on this topic in front of you.” That request to withdraw was denied too. Bankman-Fried is currently serving his sentence at a federal prison in Lompoc, California. A separate appeal of his conviction and sentence remains before an appellate court. The jury that convicted him found he had illegally moved billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to Alameda Research, the trading firm he also controlled. Those funds were used for risky trades that helped bring down one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. Featured image from MetaAI, chart from TradingView

29 Apr 2026, 16:35

Kazakh authorities move against top crypto platforms in legality probe

Kazakhstan’s main financial regulator has accused several global crypto exchanges of conducting illegal operations in the country. Obtaining a license is mandatory for all coin trading platforms in the Central Asian nation and international popularity is not accepted as excuse. Leading crypto exchanges banned from trading in Kazakhstan The Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA) has issued a warning about unlicensed crypto trading, specifically mentioning some of the world’s top players in the sector. Organizing the exchange of digital assets without the appropriate permit, issued in accordance with existing law, is prohibited, the watchdog said in a notice. Under Kazakhstan’s current legislation, such licenses are issued within the legal regime governing the Astana International Financial Center ( AIFC ). The financial hub in the capital city hosts the country’s authorized cryptocurrency exchanges, although Kazakh authorities intend to expand licensing beyond its jurisdiction. A number of unlicensed crypto platforms advertise and promote their services in the Republic of Kazakhstan, the regulator stated Tuesday. These include HTX, Bitget, OKX, and MEXC, the government agency detailed in a press release and reminded: “Only entities licensed by the AFSA are legally authorized to conduct regulated activities in or from the AIFC, including activities linked to digital assets and related services.” The regulatory body then warned that using unlicensed exchanges brings a lot of risks, such as loss of investment, leak of personal data and hacks , lack of protection for consumer rights and potential involvement in fraudulent schemes. The AFSA also noted that just because a crypto exchange is widely known and convenient, that doesn’t mean it has the right to work in Kazakhstan. Quoted by RBC and Bits.media, it insisted: “Even if a platform is considered a global leader, it must be authorized to operate within the jurisdiction of the republic.” The authority admitted it does not maintain a dedicated blacklist of illegal crypto service providers and urged users to check the status of each individual company through its official public register. The latter currently lists 30 companies offering services related to digital assets. Among them are some other prominent names in the industry, like Bybit and Binance, through its local subsidiary, which hold AFSA licenses. Kazakhstan is cracking down on illegal crypto exchange services Already a mining hotspot in Central Asia, Kazakhstan has been making efforts lately to establish itself as a crypto hub in the wider Eurasian region. While the government in Astana is trying to liberalize the market, it is also taking measures to clamp down on illegal activities, including in trading. According to Kazakhstan’s Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM), nearly two dozen illegal crypto exchanges were closed down over the past year. Hundreds of such businesses have been dismantled in previous periods. On Wednesday, the body shared details about its investigation into what has been described as “the largest shadow crypto service in the Commonwealth of Independent States,” the RAKS Exchange . The financial intelligence unit said the platform facilitated transactions worth over $224 million for more than 200 drug shops operating in Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova. Quoted by Tengrinews.kz, the AFM revealed its specialists analyzed over 4,000 crypto wallets linked to drug trafficking and activities on darknet marketplaces. When Kazakhstan’s financial and law enforcement authorities busted the exchange in September 2025, they froze 9.7 million USDT of its assets, as reported by Cryptopolitan. The watchdog now announced, 3.2 million Tether have been already confiscated. If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter .

29 Apr 2026, 16:26

Change Log: Version 1.131

The Bitfinex Change Log is an overview of all performance and UI changes made to the Bitfinex trading platform. For an overview of all previous changes, please refer to blog.bitfinex.com/category/changelogs . Version 1.131 Improvements Updated the error screen display Updated timezone settings to add a dropdown search Updated wire deposit field order Updated the deposit wire providers’ layout Updated LZero currency movements info and data handling in the Tether flow Added Twitter/OG card configuration per page Bug Fixes Fixed balances symbol renamed to XAUt for XAUT0BNB Fixed XAUt modal company name Fixed the Trade Desk template name duplicate check Fixed balances LZero currencies displaying full name Fixed multi-order edit, ignoring the visible on hit setting Fixed language change not working or running slowly Fixed zero fee banner closed state not persisting Fixed the show liquidations checkbox not being visible on small screens Fixed Google link warning modal styles Fixed account deactivation modal referencing the deprecated Bitfinex Securities account Fixed CN email encryption translations Fixed balances page XAUT0 renamed to XAUt Fixed the withdrawal provider selector field resetting Fixed movement address, broken layout Fixed balances missing translations Fixed LZero withdrawal wizard button styles Fixed conversion modal symbol for XAUT0BNB displaying as XAUt Fixed wallet performance chart tooltip position Fixed QR code scanner generic error showing translation key Fixed zero trading fee icon image Fixed Borrow second input error colour Fixed channels page info banner alignment in non-default locales Fixed channels page info icon visibility Fixed the “account not linked” error message Fixed order book currency select option colour Fixed the order book header gap with rows Fixed the auth page layout stretching Fixed auth layout issues Fixed the logout feedback alert remaining open Removed duplicate USTBL entry The post Change Log: Version 1.131 appeared first on Bitfinex blog .

29 Apr 2026, 16:13

Bitcoin's widely tracked Coinbase Premium turns negative as realized losses spike to $6 billion

A metric tracking U.S. spot demand has flipped red just as onchain data shows realized losses surging to $5.97 billion.

29 Apr 2026, 15:36

Binance CZ Reacts to New Crypto Listing on Trust Wallet

A major update from Trust wallet involving the addition of Hyperliquid to its platform has sparked reactions from Binance’s CZ who highlighted Trust Wallet’s growing expansion.

29 Apr 2026, 15:33

Gold Futures on Binance Hit the $100B Volume Milestone

Gold futures on Binance have now reached a total trading volume of $100 billion in just four months since the platform opened trading in January. Verified CryptoQuant analyst, Darkfost, called attention to the recent milestone, which comes even as gold prices have struggled since January 2026, down more than 16% from the January peak. Visit Website