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Good morning. Here’s what’s happening:

Prices: Bitcoin was maintaining a firm position slightly below the $30,000 mark.

Insights: The ongoing tragic tale of Sam Bankman-Fried took a further somber turn as a judge, on Friday, decided to revoke the bail previously granted to the former CEO of FTX. In an insightful piece, CoinDesk columnist David Morris elaborated on why this verdict had an air of inevitability about it.

Prices

Bitcoin (BTC) $29,347 −59.3 ▼ 0.2%	Ethereum (ETH) $1,847 −1.3 ▼ 0.1%	CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) 1,226 −0.1 ▼ 0.0%
S&P 500 4,464.05 −4.8 ▼ 0.1%	Gold $1,946 +31.3 ▲ 1.6%	Nikkei 225 32,473.65 +269.3 ▲ 0.8%

BTC/ETH prices per CoinCryptoUs, as of 7 a.m. ET (11 a.m. UTC)

 

Bitcoin (BTC) was maintaining a firm position, hovering just below the $30,000 mark.

"The price stability is a positive sign, indicating consolidation around these levels that can potentially support another leg up," Joe DiPasquale, CEO of the crypto hedge fund BitBull Capital, told CoinDesk in an email on Sunday.

DiPasquale mentioned that he was still processing the recent revelation made by PayPal about their newly introduced stablecoin tied to the U.S. dollar.

"This is a major set forward since it’s the first issuance of its kind by a traditional, global payments service with hundreds of millions of users," DiPasquale said. "We believe such developments are likely to shape the market behavior moving forward, even if the general response is relatively muted at this point."

Insights

Sam Bankman-Fried's Almost Unavoidable Return to Jail

This story by CoinDesk columnist David Morris was published shortly before Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked Sam Bankman-Fried's bail and returned him to jail.

During 2021 and a significant portion of 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried skillfully molded himself into the persona of a cryptocurrency tycoon. A judicial proceeding today will ascertain whether his words have led him to transition from a comfortable period of house arrest to the confines of a solid, unforgiving prison cell.

The focal point of today's court hearing overseen by District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan originated from Bankman-Fried's disclosure of Caroline Ellison's personal journal. Bankman-Fried had previously appointed Ellison as the figurehead CEO of FTX, but later purportedly instructed her to partake in fraudulent activities. The prosecution asserts that the motive behind the diary leak was to undermine or instill fear in Ellison before the trial, during which she is anticipated to provide testimony as a collaborative witness.

However, this is just the final tipping point: Sam Bankman-Fried has been employing misleading public statements and covert private conversations to exert control over his trial since the very onset of FTX's downfall.

In the lead-up to his arrest, he conducted a seemingly countless series of interviews and public engagements. Even during his period of house arrest, he persisted in granting interviews where he asserted his innocence, albeit with less prominence. Long before making Ellison's diary public, he purportedly made efforts to establish contact with several individuals anticipated to be witnesses against him.

Source Coindesk