SBF’s new charges, Shapella’s fork date, emojis as financial advice

Top Stories This Week

Unsealed superseding indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried includes 12 criminal charges

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was charged on four new criminal counts by a federal judge presiding over his case. According to a superseding indictment, there are now 12 criminal charges against Bankman-Fried, including eight conspiracy charges related to fraud as well as four charges of wire fraud and securities fraud. In an attempt to possibly modify his bail terms, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys will hire a security expert to assist the federal judge overseeing his fraud case. The technical expert will help the judge navigate issues regarding encrypted messages, privacy-focused messaging apps and VPNs.

Ethereum Shapella upgrade gets new date, making way for un-staking ETH

Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko announced the blockchain’s Shapella upgrade is scheduled for Feb. 28. The Shapella network upgrade will activate on the Sepolia network at epoch 56832. Major changes to the consensus layer include full and partial withdrawals for validators and independent state and block historical accumulators, replacing the original singular historical roots. After the Sepolia fork, the next step would be the release of the Shanghai upgrade on the Ethereum Goerli test network, planned for March.

US lawmaker introduces bill aimed at limiting Fed’s authority on digital dollar

United States Representative Tom Emmer has introduced legislation that could limit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). According to Emmer, the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act seeks to protect Americans’ right to financial privacy. The bill could prohibit the Fed from issuing a digital dollar “directly to anyone,” bar the central bank from implementing monetary policy based on a CBDC, and require transparency for projects related to a digital dollar.

Emojis count as financial advice and have legal consequences, judge rules

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