First Mover Americas: Crypto Auditing Hits Snag
The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Dec. 16, 2022.

This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.
Top Stories
Binance’s proof-of-reserves auditor Mazars has paused all work for its crypto clients, Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, said in an emailed statement. "Mazars has indicated that they will temporarily pause their work with all of their crypto clients globally, which include Crypto.com, KuCoin and Binance. Unfortunately, this means that we will not be able to work with Mazars for the moment," a Binance spokesperson said. The accounting firm performed a proof-of-reserves assessment of Binance earlier this month, finding its bitcoin reserves were overcollateralized. Bitcoin coin (BNB) fell after the announcement. It has lost about 5% in the past 24 hours, CoinDesk data shows.
FTX, the crypto exchange that filed for bankruptcy last month, wants to sell its functioning units, including its U.S.-based derivatives wing LedgerX. On Thursday, the exchange petitioned a U.S. bankruptcy court for permission to sell several subsidiaries, including FTX Japan, FTX Europe and Embed Business. "Based on their preliminary review, the debtors own or control a number of subsidiaries and assets that are regulated, licensed and/or largely not integrated into the debtors’ operations, within and outside of the United States," the filing said. "The debtors believe a number of these entities have solvent balance sheets, independent management and valuable franchises."
Crypto trading firm Amber Group changed its fundraising strategy to raise $300 million in a Series C round, as a reaction to the fall of FTX. The collapse of the exchange affected some of Amber’s products and customers, increasing the need to raise capital quickly. Amber decided to move from its efforts to raise a Series B+ round at a $3 billion valuation in favor of a Series C. "Post the FTX collapse, we paused [the series B+ fundraise] after a partial closing and instead moved forward on Series C," the firm said.
Bitcoin (BTC) was down 4% to just below $17,000 early Friday Eastern time, and ether (ETH) dropped 6% to $1,212 as more bad news in the crypto world keeps coming forth. U.S. stock futures also pointed down after the Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 764 points on Thursday on recession fears.
Chart of the Day

- The chart shows daily trading volume in bitcoin and ether futures markets since December 2020.
- Trading activity has slowed to levels last seen roughly two years ago, representing the impact of global liquidity tightening and widespread deleveraging and contagion from the collapse of several industry bigwigs, including Terra, Three Arrows Capital and FTX.
- The exodus of leverage traders means less speculation, which is perhaps a positive development in the eyes of those averse to the cryptocurrencies' high volatility. It's not great for liquidity, however.
– Omkar Godbole
Trending Posts
More For You
Pudgy Penguins: A New Blueprint for Tokenized Culture

Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
Sizin için daha fazlası
Binance to shift $1 billion user protection fund into bitcoin amid market rout

Binance will convert the stablecoin holdings in its $1 billion Secure Asset Fund for Users to bitcoin over the next 30 days, with plans for regular audits.
Bilinmesi gerekenler:
- Binance will convert the stablecoin holdings in its $1 billion Secure Asset Fund for Users to bitcoin over the next 30 days, with plans for regular audits.
- The exchange has pledged to replenish the fund to $1 billion if bitcoin price swings cause its value to fall below $800 million.
- Binance framed the change as part of its long-term industry-building efforts.









