Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies

[Typhoon]

Open letter to US Congress re cryptocurrencies and blockchain

"A solution in search of a problem" is the best succinct description of the crypto stuff that I have read to date.

[Typhoon]

BBC | "Cryptoqueen": How this woman scammed the world, then vanished

[Heracleum Persicum]

BBC | "Cryptoqueen": How this woman scammed the world, then vanished

.

In Uk, London, there are socially very high level individuals who are expert in billion dollar scams .. they discover financial fields where "naive" people looking to getting rich quick, they use "fronts" like this woman, orchestrate "financial respectability" etc etc .. front participants either disappear or are "eliminated" .. this happens often in London, Authorities and big banks know this .. all this done through offshore Caribbean entities not reachable by any law.

A good sample of this are those "Nigerian" scams, directed from LDN.

Routine .. nothing to report of
.

[Typhoon]

Matt Taibbi doing what an investigative journalist is supposed to do.

Taibbi - Substack | The Financial Bubble Era Comes Full Circle

An unstable encounter with a $50 billion stablecoin

Taibbi - Substack | Return of the Great American Bubble Machine

Albeit with new wrapping and new jargon, crypto has been infected by the same old problems of insider finance

[Typhoon]

FT - Alphaville | The Ethereum "Merge" [pwed?]

Bryce Elder

Happy Merge Day to those who observe it, which for the avoidance of doubt is almost no one.

Articles abound elsewhere about The Merge. They’re called things like “Everything you need to know the Merge” and the essential information they contain is that you don’t need to know about The Merge.

What’s happening is that Ethereum is switching its default blockchain validation from one type of luck to another. The old system is a guessing game and the new one’s a bit like Premium Bonds. The old system’s bad because it’s a competition to waste the most energy and the new system’s bad because it’s a recursive concentration of control. That’s it, pretty much.

Commentators from Levine downwards have written insightfully and/or at length about the ways in which concentration matters. But unless you’ve been mining from under a rock for the past two years there should be no urgency to care. In event terms it’s about as important as a midmarket brokerage moving its back office from MongoDB to DynamoDB, which is to say it’s only exciting if it goes wrong.

Then why are we all talking about it? The usual reason: crypto values correlate with publicity. Social media noise can push token prices around (Tandon et al), but not as effectively as mainstream media coverage (Coulter). The most powerful crypto price accelerant is a positive-sounding theme from an influential source that’s encouraging to a silent majority (Mei et al). It’s therefore directly in the interests of ethereum whales (Coinbase, Binance, Kraken etc) to make The Merge seem like a very big deal and we in the generalist press have been happy to oblige. Thank us later, bros.

[Typhoon]

I was thinking of a slogan for cryptocurrencies and the best that I could come up with is

"Cryptocurrencies: more fiat than fiat."

[Typhoon]

Another "major" cryptocurrency empire built on bullsh*t swirls 'round the bowl.

FT | FTX on brink of collapse after ‘liquidity crunch’ at crypto exchange [paywalled?]

Joshua Oliver, Scott Chipolina and Nikou Asgari in London 32 MINUTES AGO

The digital assets industry has been shaken by the near collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges, which was rescued by arch-rival Binance after a surge in customer withdrawals sparked a liquidity crisis.

Binance chief executive Changpeng “CZ” Zhao wrote on Twitter that FTX had “asked for our help”, adding: “There is a significant liquidity crunch.” Binance has signed a letter of intent to buy FTX but said it had “the discretion to pull out from the deal at any time”.

The bailout of one of the biggest and most prominent companies in the global cryptocurrency industry by its chief competitor reverberated across the market. Bitcoin, the most actively traded token, fell 9 per cent while smaller coins faced steeper falls.

FTX hit a valuation of $32bn at the start of this year, with blue-chip investors including BlackRock, Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and SoftBank backing the company. In an industry that has been called the “wild west” by Wall Street’s top regulator, FTX was widely considered to be one of the better-managed players, with its founder Bankman-Fried regularly lobbying lawmakers in Washington.

Known as SBF and noted for his unofficial uniform of shorts and T- shirt, Bankman-Fried had a paper fortune of an estimated $24bn only six months ago. He is among the best known crypto players, often appearing at conferences where he has interviewed the likes of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.

The deal with Binance ends an explosive and very public row between Bankman-Fried and Zhao and will combine two of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges.

FTX’s troubles accelerated over the weekend when Binance said it intended to offload its holdings of FTX’s token FTT, citing concerns over the exchange’s financial stability and sending the token plunging in price.

Bankman-Fried responded on Monday, saying a “competitor is trying to go after us with false rumours”. He added he would “love it” if he could work with Zhao “together for the ecosystem”.

The FTX chief also tried to calm markets by saying: “FTX is fine. Assets are fine.” Bankman-Fried vowed after the deal was agreed on Tuesday that all customer assets would be “covered one for one”.

But on Tuesday, he tweeted: “CZ has done, and will continue to do, an incredible job of building out the global crypto ecosystem, and creating a freer economic world.” FTX confirmed the deal; the two companies did not immediately disclose the terms.

If completed, the deal will consolidate Binance’s position as the largest platform in crypto trading.

“This elevates Zhao as the most powerful player in crypto,” said Ilan Solot, co-head of digital assets at Marex Solutions. “Zhao’s view of the world will matter a lot more, in terms of how he wants to interact with regulators and policymakers . . . the weight of his views will be much more powerful.”

The crypto industry has struggled over the past year, particularly since the failure of the terra and luna tokens in May. The price of flagship tokens bitcoin and ether plunged and several big companies have collapsed, including lender Celsius Network and hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

The rescue deal is also a major setback for Bankman-Fried, who has long been viewed as a relatively stable and ambitious figure in the often shaky world of crypto.

In the wake of this year’s crypto market collapse, he earned a reputation as an industry saviour after aiding failing companies. In June, the FTX chief announced a $250mn loan to ailing crypto lender BlockFi.

The loan followed further assistance for crypto broker Voyager Digital, which was rescued by an FTX loan worth about $485mn in cash and bitcoin.

But Bankman-Fried’s ambitions also extended to traditional markets: his exchange sought to shake up trading of Wall Street futures and equities markets, buying a stake in Robinhood, the retail broker.

In 2021, FTX signed a 19-year deal to rename the Miami Heat’s basketball arena as the FTX Arena. In 2021, Bankman-Fried said that buying Goldman Sachs was “not out of the question at all”.

https://crypto.com/price/ftx-token

[Typhoon]

Next up, stable coins? So-called.

https://crypto.com/price/tether

https://crypto.com/price/usdd

[Typhoon]

FTX and its affiliated companies declare bankruptcy.

Sam Bankman-Fried [really?] resigns.

FT

"Contrast that with Sequoia’s gushing assessment of FTX’s prospects in an extremely lengthy piece it published online less than two months ago. In a now-deleted 13,800-word profile (that’s around 16 times the length of this column), Sequoia described Bankman-Fried’s “status of legend”. His explanation of how one day you could use FTX to “buy a banana” (I’m not joking) left the Sequoia team in rapture. “I love this founder,” one said. “It was a vision about the future of money itself,” the profile explained. Now, you will struggle to retrieve your funds from FTX, let alone use it to buy fruit."

Sequoia Capital, a major VC fund, has written off its US$ 210 million investment in FTX.

[Parodite]

Tulipistan. Hard to understand why so many people bought into these Ponzoids. There is always a bottom of the pyramid that gets suckered.

[Typhoon]

Tulipistan. Hard to understand why so many people bought into these Ponzoids. There is always a bottom of the pyramid that gets suckered.

Tulipstan - bananastan.

Reuters | At least $1 billion of client funds missing at FTX

Post declaration of bankruptcy.

FTX hit by rogue transactions, analysts saw over $600 million outflows

Inside job?

There again we could be foolish
Not to quit while we're ahead
For distance lends enchantment
And that is why
Exiles are not Epsteined
More important, they're not dead
I could find job satisfaction in Paraguay

~ After Perón in "Evita"

[Zack Morris]

FTX and its affiliated companies declare bankruptcy.

Sam Bankman-Fried [really?] resigns.

FT

"Contrast that with Sequoia’s gushing assessment of FTX’s prospects in an extremely lengthy piece it published online less than two months ago. In a now-deleted 13,800-word profile (that’s around 16 times the length of this column), Sequoia described Bankman-Fried’s “status of legend”. His explanation of how one day you could use FTX to “buy a banana” (I’m not joking) left the Sequoia team in rapture. “I love this founder,” one said. “It was a vision about the future of money itself,” the profile explained. Now, you will struggle to retrieve your funds from FTX, let alone use it to buy fruit."

Sequoia Capital, a major VC fund, has written off its US$ 210 million investment in FTX.

The whole Sequoia/FTX saga reads like an episode of Mike Judge's "Silicon Valley". The writers would have passed up material written like that for fear it would seem too unbelievable but here we are in 2022...

[Nonc Hilaire]

The WEF took their FTX partnership page down, but did not get the archive.

It’s looking like FTX was a scheme to funnel US foreign aid to the Ukraine through to the WEF.

They arrested the Fried Bankman in the Bahamas on his way to Dubai.

[Typhoon]

The WEF took their FTX partnership page down, but did not get the archive.

Yes.

It’s looking like FTX was a scheme to funnel US foreign aid to the Ukraine through to the WEF.

Source?

Rather lobbying for his own interests.

https://www.ft.com/content/428c7800-c72 ... 76fea6e263

2nd largest donor to the US Democratic party after Soros.

FTX heads doled out nearly $72mn to Democrats and Republicans this election cycle.

They arrested the Fried Bankman in the Bahamas on his way to Dubai.

Source?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftx-bank ... 15647.html

[Typhoon]

Counterpoint.

FT | Wait, wasn’t bitcoin supposed to solve this? [paywalled?]

Jill Gunter

Jill Gunter is a co-founder of blockchain company Espresso Systems. Previously, she was a venture capitalist focused on crypto. She started her career as a trader at Goldman Sachs.

A popular refrain among crypto advocates over the years has been “bitcoin solves this”. But the same phrase has also become a popular meme among critics of cryptocurrencies and blockchains.

Sceptics offer the phrase in reply to overzealous crypto acolytes who try to apply blockchain technology to everything from salad provenance to social media. “Bitcoin solves this,” they eye-roll, gesturing to the fact that no amount of blockchain will be a panacea to the problem at hand.

Over the last week, as crypto exchange FTX crumbled into bankruptcy amid revelations of misappropriation of customer funds, imaginary marks and risky bets, crypto’s proponents and detractors alike have turned that phrase into a question. “Wait, wasn’t bitcoin supposed to solve this?”

After all, cryptocurrency was invented explicitly to counter Wall Street’s opaque and overleveraged practices. The original Bitcoin whitepaper proposed a system that would end the reliance on trusted financial institutions, reduce fraud and protect consumers. At the moment, this couldn’t feel more ironic.

But not having to trust anyone is a seductive promise! According to Gallup, trust in government, media, banks and beyond has been in a steady decline for decades, but really, all you need to do is log on to Twitter this week and check out the chaos to see that society has a trust problem. It is little wonder that blockchains with their vows to obviate the need for trust have captured the imagination of many.

And to their credit, I think blockchains and their “decentralised finance” (DeFi) applications have actually delivered on this promise. Individuals can custody their own crypto assets, audit the ledger of transactions by themselves, and even participate as keepers and overseers of the whole system. Millions of people now only need to rely on code.

These cryptocurrency users might have lost sleep this week as they watched the value of their assets plummet, but at least they weren’t worried about whether they’d ever get access to their funds again, as they have with centralised crypto exchanges like FTX.

While FTX’s customers scrambled and failed to withdraw their funds, users of major decentralised finance products like Uniswap, Compound, and Aave had continuous access to their assets and benefited from orderly and transparent processing of their trades, transactions, and, yes, liquidations. For the users who hold their own coins and only trade on decentralised finance platforms, crypto came through. It turns out that blockchains can mitigate the risks posed by intermediaries!

Unfortunately, not all crypto holders have taken advantage of these properties. That’s because there are major trade-offs.

In order for crypto users to gain the benefits of blockchains, they must use new and clunky products that carry their own risks. The stakes are high if they make any mistakes, and they will only have themselves to blame. The man who famously threw away hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin in a garbage dump was “acting as his own bank”. As he demonstrates for us, there’s a major drawback to being your own bank. You have no recourse, no customer support, and no one to sue if you lose from your own negligence.

DeFi users also take on the risks inherent to an anarcho-utopia (or dystopia?) where code is law. If a user makes a typo in the address to which they are sending their assets, there is no way to undo that. Similarly, if a hacker finds a bug in the code of a DeFi product and extracts user funds, the victims will have little protection. It is like the ultimate “finders keepers.” The technology is still in a state where these types of hacks happen all the time. For many users, it is not worth the inconvenience and the risk to gain the benefits of “trustless” systems like those of DeFi.

Users who do not want or need to hold their own crypto can do it the old fashioned Wall Street way: they can trust a custodian. Custodial exchanges not only enable crypto users to cash in and out of coins and tokens, they also hold on to users’ assets as deposits. Of course users who hold and trade on exchanges are not really using crypto. They aren’t deriving any of the features crypto was designed to offer, like self-custody and censorship-resistance and transparency. They are just holding or speculating on whether “number go up” or “number go down”.

Still, it’s fair to say that millions of users benefit from the convenience of holding their assets on these exchanges. Today it turned out that at least a million of those users — namely the ones who used FTX — would have been better off if they had taken advantage of crypto’s value proposition and held on to their funds themselves.

And the grim reality is that despite bitcoin and other blockchain products offering alternatives, as of today, the cryptocurrency market has created more intermediaries than it has eliminated. For the last several years, no one has really cared about the genuine utility that may be found in crypto.

With global floods of easy money pouring into asset classes of all kinds, and pushing people further out the risk spectrum, entrepreneurs, developers, and investors found themselves incentivised to play into the building of a large speculative bubble as opposed to delivering durable value.

Too much of the time, energy, money, and attention that has gone into crypto over the past few years has gone toward building gambling markets around magic beans — instead of creating products taking advantage of the openness, transparency, and autonomy that the tech offers.

FTX and its violation of user trust serve as the starkest reminder the industry could ask for in returning it to its original vision. The demise of FTX feels like the end of crypto at the moment, but it may become the catalyst to drive the industry to the areas where cryptocurrencies and blockchains can solve real problems.

Already, many more custodial exchanges have announced that they will take advantage of the transparent nature of blockchains to provide the public with a cryptographic “proof of reserves”. This is a great example of leveraging the technology for its true utility: improving accountability.

It feels optimistic in this hour of shame and darkness, but one can hope that crypto might actually deliver on a more open and transparent system so that in a decade we will look back and be able to say: bitcoin solved this.

Perhaps she is simply "talking her book". On the other hand, Companies such as Google and Amazon did emerge from the wreckage of the first internet stock bubble collapse.

However, blockchain still seems, to me, to be a solution in search of a problem.

[Parodite]

It seems to me that blockchain and its marketed solution to whatever one can envision going wrong with standard finance, was merely a ploy to camouflage Bitcoin's core business model: a non-productive Ponzi scheme where you will always need new suckers to buy the dog-poo from previous suckers to keep the business going. Blockchain tech doesn't change that fact; it is just a break on the speed new dog-poo Ponzi Tulips is added to the market. The Ponzi-Pyramid thusly grows in a slower and more controlled way. But it will eventually always implode, that's the point. Controlled demolition or uncontrolled implosions. Same end-result.

Crypto also attracts the usual scamming scumbags that roam the financial markets for easy profit; non-productive speculative schemes filled with derivative toxic dung produced by investment banksters like Goldman Sachs. Crooks that are given a free hunting license in commercial banking land since Glass-Steagall was repealed.

Central banks are serious about developing and introducing their own digital currencies within a few years. That will give them unprecedented power. My perhaps "wishful thinking inspired theory" is however, that these central banks will go down like any dog-poo Ponzi because it will be the same bankster pranksters running them. For some reason, nature doesn't really like monopolies that much. They exist, but like any plague not for very long.

[Typhoon]

[Nonc Hilaire]

The WEF took their FTX partnership page down, but did not get the archive.

Yes.

It’s looking like FTX was a scheme to funnel US foreign aid to the Ukraine through to the WEF.

Source?

Rather lobbying for his own interests.

https://www.ft.com/content/428c7800-c72 ... 76fea6e263

2nd largest donor to the US Democratic party after Soros.

FTX heads doled out nearly $72mn to Democrats and Republicans this election cycle.

They arrested the Fried Bankman in the Bahamas on his way to Dubai.

Source?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftx-bank ... 15647.html

The story is being softened in the globalist press.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/1 ... democrats/

https://m.economictimes.com/tech/techno ... 489919.cms

[Typhoon]

Hit the "edit" button, instead of the "reply" button. Sorry.

[Typhoon]

The WEF took their FTX partnership page down, but did not get the archive.

Yes.

It’s looking like FTX was a scheme to funnel US foreign aid to the Ukraine through to the WEF.

Source?

Rather lobbying for his own interests.

https://www.ft.com/content/428c7800-c72 ... 76fea6e263

2nd largest donor to the US Democratic party after Soros.

FTX heads doled out nearly $72mn to Democrats and Republicans this election cycle.

They arrested the Fried Bankman in the Bahamas on his way to Dubai.

Source?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftx-bank ... 15647.html

The story is being softened in the globalist press.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/1 ... democrats/

"Sam Bankman-Fried admits that FTX is a crypto laundromat for the Ukrainian government."
SBF said nothing of the sort in the interview*.
Why not donate directly to the US Democratic party as he is already known to have done.
Weak beer, even by conspiracy theory standards.

https://m.economictimes.com/tech/techno ... 489919.cms

Why do you think that the Econ Times of India has better access to information?
Rather, it has been known to publish rumours, much like other MSM.
Maybe the SBF and his gang tried to make a run for it, maybe they didn't. So what?

*SBF interview: Is he on some stimulant - drug? Or does he have some disorder?

[Doc]

The WEF took their FTX partnership page down, but did not get the archive.

Yes.

It’s looking like FTX was a scheme to funnel US foreign aid to the Ukraine through to the WEF.

Source?

Rather lobbying for his own interests.

https://www.ft.com/content/428c7800-c72 ... 76fea6e263

2nd largest donor to the US Democratic party after Soros.

FTX heads doled out nearly $72mn to Democrats and Republicans this election cycle.

They arrested the Fried Bankman in the Bahamas on his way to Dubai.

Source?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftx-bank ... 15647.html

The story is being softened in the globalist press.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/1 ... democrats/

"Sam Bankman-Fried admits that FTX is a crypto laundromat for the Ukrainian government."
SBF said nothing of the sort in the interview*.
Why not donate directly to the US Democratic party as he is already known to have done.
Weak beer, even by conspiracy theory standards.

https://m.economictimes.com/tech/techno ... 489919.cms

Why do you think that the Econ Times of India has better access to information?
Rather, it has been known to publish rumours, much like other MSM.
Maybe the SBF and his gang tried to make a run for it, maybe they didn't. So what?

*SBF interview: Is he on some stimulant - drug? Or does he have some disorder?

If it happened before it can (and will WRT politics)again I wouldn't put it past a large segment of Congress. DO you remember Koreagate? Most don't since the story was squelched almost immediately, My understanding is that over half of congress was taking money in exchange for Military aid from the US. Sound Familiar?


https://www.foxnews.com/media/what-alle ... ts-ukraine

What is the alleged connection between Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX, Democrats and Ukraine?
Bankman-Fried donated nearly $38 million to Democratic candidates
By Ashley Carnahan | Fox News

Cryptocurrency exchange founder was the cash cow of the left: Miranda Devine
New York Post columnist Miranda Devine weighs in on the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and founder Sam Bankman-Fried's multi- million dollar campaign donations to Democratic candidates on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'

Former billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of cryptocurrency exchange company FTX, funneled millions of dollars to Democratic campaigns, becoming one the party's largest donors, second only to George Soros.

Bankman-Fried donated nearly $38 million during the midterm cycle, according to Federal Election Commission data. His company also reportedly set up a website, Aid for Ukraine, to raise funds for Ukrainians amid the ongoing war against Russia. The initiative was powered by the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, FTX and Ukrainian-web company Everstake.

Cryptocurrency donations were sent to the National Bank of Ukraine. The 30-year-old crypto financier wrote on Twitter in early March he was "excited and humbled to be working with the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance and others to support crypto donations to Ukraine."

10 COMMON CRYPTOCURRENCY TERMS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Last week, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a liquidity crisis at the company, and Bankman-Fried is estimated to have lost roughly $16 billion in a week.

Aid for Ukraine was a website reportedly created by FTX to accept crypto donations for the country amid its ongoing war with Russia.
Aid for Ukraine was a website reportedly created by FTX to accept crypto donations for the country amid its ongoing war with Russia. (iStock)

New York Post columnist Miranda Devine questioned Monday on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" why a country at war was "dabbling with cryptocurrency."

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and chief executive officer of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"Why on earth the American taxpayer is funneling tens of billions of dollars over to Ukraine so that they can fight Russia, and why on earth they would be involved, the Ukrainian government, with this now collapsed cryptocurrency exchange we need to know," she told guest host Tulsi Gabbard.

"Why on earth was a country at war dabbling with cryptocurrency which everybody knows is shady?" Devine asked.

Is this the end of crypto craze?Video
Devine added Bankman-Fried was in the "bosom of the left" and "indulging in all sorts of woke causes."

Alex Bornyakov, deputy minister of digital transformation of Ukraine, refuted claims the country used government funds to invest in FTX, which in turn donated to Democratic candidates, calling the theory "nonsense" on Twitter.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Bankman-Fried and his company are currently under investigation by Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to the Wall Street Journal.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This report has been updated to clarify the amount of Bankman-Fried's estimated donations in the 2022 election cycle.

[Typhoon]

Well, FTX is now history.

Now more interested in the so-called stable coins, eps Tether and whether each unit is actually backed by a US dollar or liquid equivalent [US govt bonds, etm.] or not.

[Nonc Hilaire]

Well, FTX is now history.

Now more interested in the so-called stable coins, eps Tether and whether each unit is actually backed by a US dollar or liquid equivalent [US govt bonds, etm.] or not.

Documents linking McConnell and Zelensky to FTX

https://thetruthpatriots.com/terrible-y ... -fec-docs/

[Typhoon]

Well, FTX is now history.

Now more interested in the so-called stable coins, eps Tether and whether each unit is actually backed by a US dollar or liquid equivalent [US govt bonds, etm.] or not.

Documents linking McConnell and Zelensky to FTX

https://thetruthpatriots.com/terrible-y ... -fec-docs/

FhisBhkXoAAP651.jpg (201.89 KiB) Viewed 2515 times

[John W.] Childs is a major Republican donor, giving $1 million to Mitt Romney's campaign and $1.1 million to the Club for Growth, as well as donating to the campaigns of Congressmen Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan.

Valero Energy Corporation, through its subsidiaries (collectively, “Valero”), is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of petroleum-based and low-carbon liquid transportation fuels and petrochemical products, and sells its products primarily in the United States (“U.S.”), Canada, the United Kingdom (“U.K.”), Ireland and Latin America. Valero owns 15 petroleum refineries located in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. with a combined throughput capacity of approximately 3.2 million barrels per day. Valero is a joint venture member in Diamond Green Diesel Holdings LLC, which through its subsidiary owns a renewable diesel plant in Norco, Louisiana with a production capacity of 700 million gallons per year, and Valero owns 12 ethanol plants located in the Mid-Continent region of the U.S. with a combined production capacity of approximately 1.6 billion gallons per year. Valero manages its operations through its Refining, Renewable Diesel, and Ethanol segments.

FTX is known to have donated to both US parties, although mainly to the US Democrats.

Your sources come across as abject morons if that's all they have yet claim to have found a "smoking gun".

[Nonc Hilaire]

It’s not a smoking gun. It is a criminal investigation in progress, and it is revealing how cryptoscams work.