The former CEO of Alameda Research and ex-girlfriend of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), Caroline Ellison, has revealed in court that SBF had “directed” her to use customer funds to pay back loans.

Israeli authorities have frozen cryptocurrency accounts linked to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group responsible for a recent multi-pronged attack on the country that triggered a full-blown war that is still raging and has killed thousands.

The Bitcoin network has seen a significant decline in daily transaction numbers after hitting a historic high in September, to now reach the lowest point since Ordinals, which can serve as individual NFTs or fungible BRC-20 tokens, became popular on it.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Ex-Alameda Chief Says Bankman-Fried ‘Directed’ Her to Commit Crimes
• Israeli Authorities Freeze Hamas-Linked Cryptocurrency Accounts
• Bitcoin Transactions Plummet to February Levels as Ordinals Lose Steam
• Chart of the Week: Altcoins Suffer Against BTC as Market Uncertainty Continues

Ex-Alameda Chief Says Bankman-Fried ‘Directed’ Her to Commit Crimes

The former CEO of Alameda Research and ex-girlfriend of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), Caroline Ellison, has revealed in court that SBF had “directed” her to use customer funds to pay back loans.

Ellison testified that Alameda took around $14 billion from FTX customers and used the funds to repay loans and to trade. Per Ellison, Alameda was able to return some of those funds to the exchange before the collapse.

During the trial, Ellison also revealed that SBF “was the one who set up these systems that allowed Alameda to take the money and he was the one who directed us to take customer money to repay our loans.”

Ellison also revealed that, at the direction of Bankman-Fried, she sent the firm’s lenders balance sheets “that incorrectly stated the amount of our assets and our liabilities and made Alameda's balance sheet look less risky than it really was.” At times, according to Ellison, she raised concerns about the line of credit Alameda being spotted by auditors.

She also revealed SBF decided to buy back FTX’s equity from Binance with customer funds, received a large percentage of FTT’s supply when the token was launched, and was instructed to defend specific FTT price levels at times.

Bankman-Fried defense has maintained that Alameda acted rationally in its dealings with FTX, and asserted in their statements that the firm’s troubles were caused by Ellison’s failure to follow SBF’s warning to safeguard the company from crypto market volatility.

Israeli Authorities Freeze Hamas-Linked Cryptocurrency Accounts

Israeli authorities have frozen cryptocurrency accounts linked to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group responsible for a recent multi-pronged attack on the country that triggered a full-blown war that is still raging and has killed thousands.

Following the attack, the Israeli defense minister imposed a complete blockade of Gaza, the Palestinian territory where Hamas’ attack originated. Per local news outlets, the  Lahav 433 unit of Israel Police’s cyber division worked with the defense ministry, intelligence agencies, and cryptocurrency exchange Binance to locate and freeze the accounts.

The report states that any funds confiscated from Hamas will be transferred to Israel’s national treasury. Binance said in June that it had cooperated with Israeli authorities before to stop “a terrorism financing operation linked to Iran’s Quds Force and Hezbollah.”

Since 2021, Israeli authorities have taken over about 190 Binance accounts that they suspect are connected to terrorist groups, with blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis having helped the Israeli government seize cryptocurrency addresses associated with fundraising efforts then.

Bitcoin Transactions Plummet to February Levels as Ordinals Lose Steam

The Bitcoin network has seen a significant decline in daily transaction numbers after hitting a historic high in September, to now reach the lowest point since Ordinals, which can serve as individual NFTs or fungible BRC-20 tokens, became popular on it.

The drop appears to coincide with a decline in Ordinals creation activity. Ordinals, created by Casey Rodarmor in January, allow every satoshi (Bitcoin’s smallest unit) on the network to be indexed and tracked. This is done through an inscription process, which assigns image or other data to each satoshi.

Between May and mid-September, Bitcoin had an average of 400,000 to 500,000 transactions per week. It reached its peak of 600,000 on September 20, the highest ever.

By October 9, the average weekly transaction number had dropped to about 283,000, a level not seen since February.

Chart of the Week: Altcoins Suffer Against BTC as Market Uncertainty Continues

In October, Bitcoin’s dominance saw a notable increase that dominance coincides with a period where major cryptocurrencies have found it challenging to keep pace with BTC, a scenario often witnessed during bear markets.

During this timeframe, ETH has seen a decline of 7.45% against Bitcoin while other digital currencies including LINK, DOT, and AAVE have also experienced decreases of 12.9%, 8.87%, and 7.23%, respectively.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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