Binance
Even for a sector regularly rocked by bankruptcies, the collapse of FTX –- a cryptocurrency platform worth $32 billion at the beginning of the year -- came as a shock.
Sam Bankman-Fried has undergone a rapid transformation from top of the heap in the world of cryptocurrencies as chief of the FTX digital exchange to embattled executive forced to seek help from rival Binance. The rapid about-face was a shock: Only Monday, Bankman-Fried insisted FTX was financially stable.
One of the world's biggest tech conferences will get going in Lisbon on Wednesday, after Ukraine's first lady formally opened the event by urging participants to use their skills to save lives rather than end them. But at Tuesday's opening ceremony, Changpeng Zhao, boss of one of the world's biggest crypto companies Binance, tried to play down the crash.
One of the world's biggest technology get-togethers kicks off in the Portuguese capital on Tuesday, with organisers saying a key aim is to ask tough questions about cryptocurrencies. Conference organiser Paddy Cosgrave told AFP there were "a lot of questions to be answered" about crypto, describing it as "largely smoke and mirrors".
Scammers stole cryptocurrency worth roughly $100 million from Binance, the world's biggest exchange for cryptoassets, the firm said on Friday. It is among the biggest thefts in cryptocurrency history and comes in a year where scammers preying on the sector have got away with billions of dollars.
The bitcoin boom spawned new billionaires and videos of beach parties and Lamborghinis. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency.