Binance CEO CZ resigns
Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, pleaded guilty to money laundering violations in a stunning blow to the global crypto industry. Binance not only admitted its guilt, but also agreed to pay the government an impressive $4.3 billion in fines. By signing an agreement with the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Binance has finally concluded years of investigations into its activities.
In this regard, CZ agreed to pay a fine of $50 million and resign as CEO of the company. He faces up to 18 months in prison, according to Justice Department sources, but prosecutors have not ruled out seeking more serious penalties.
Binance also agreed to the appointment of a government monitor responsible for overseeing the company's affairs. Once this supervisor is appointed, CZ will be disqualified from participating in the management of Binance for three years.
OpenAI drama: CEO's sudden dismissal
On November 17, OpenAI announced a shocking event - the dismissal of CEO Sam Altman, which caused genuine unrest within the company. The decision was the subject of protests from several employees, and major investors were taken aback by the unexpected turn of events. The official statement states that the reason for the dismissal was an internal audit, which revealed that Sam Altman “did not always maintain honest communication with the board of directors.” Mira Murati, who previously served as chief technology officer, became interim CEO.
Following this shocking dismissal, OpenAI's president, Brockman, announced his resignation, followed by head of preparation, Alexander Madfrey, and director of research, Jakub Paczoki. Internal sources say OpenAI's top management, including interim chief Mira Murati, chief strategy officer Jason Kwon and chief operating officer Brad Lightcap, are actively pushing for the former CEO to return.
However, on the evening of November 19, The Information reported unexpected news - the appointment of Emmett Shear, one of the co-founders of the streaming platform Twitch, as the new CEO of OpenAI. The move created additional tension within the company and added uncertainty to OpenAI's future.
Bitcoin hits annual high again
On November 24, the cost of the first and most famous cryptocurrency surpassed $38,200, reaching a new annual maximum. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin rate fluctuates around $37,750.
Another recalculation of mining difficulty took place
This week there was another recalculation of the difficulty of Bitcoin mining. As a result, the mining difficulty increased by 5%, updating the figure to 67.96 T. The average hashrate increased by 486 EH/s. The average interval between blocks was 9.5 minutes.
According to Glassnode reports, the smoothed 7-day moving average peaked at 507.1 EH/s on November 25th, followed by a slight correction to hold at 499.1 EH/s at the time of writing.
Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon extradited from Montenegro
The court in Podgorica made a positive decision on the extradition of the founder of Terraform Labs (TFL), Do Kwon. The decision, announced in an official press release, recognized the legitimacy of the requests from both South Korea and the United States. Now the final decision on Kwon’s fate will be made by the Minister of Justice of Podgorica. Extradition will become possible only after the completion of the four-month prison sentence that the head of TFL will have to serve on charges of forgery of documents.
In March of this year, Do Kwon was arrested by Montenegro police while trying to leave the country with fake documents at Podgorica airport, heading to Dubai. In May, like his former chief financial officer Han Chang-jung, he refused to admit wrongdoing. Kwon was granted house arrest in June, requiring a hefty bond of €400,000 ($436,000).
South Korea has already expressed its request for Kwon's extradition, but the United States is also seeking his extradition, as he faces fraud charges in New York from the SEC and Federal Prosecutors' Office.
An unknown person paid a commission of 83.65 BTC
On November 23, an unknown user, making a transaction of 55.77 BTC ($2.1 million), suddenly paid a fee of 83.65 BTC, which is more than $3.1 million. The transaction was completed at 9:59 UTC, and the sender accidentally overpaid 120,528 times. While the average commission on the Bitcoin network is 0.00028 BTC ($10.51). According to Blockchair data, the transaction itself fell into block No. 818,087, which was mined by AntPool. So far, representatives of the mining pool have not commented on this situation.
Netflix director spent series budget on DOGE
Director Carl Erik Rinsch, having received funds from Netflix for his new project, invested them in Dogecoin. From November 2018 to March 2020, Netflix committed a total of $55 million to produce a sci-fi series called Conquest. However, not a single episode of this project was ever completed. Carl Eric Rinsch invested $11 million of this amount in the stock market, but suffered serious losses and almost completely lost his investment.
There is currently a lawsuit between Netflix and Carl Eric Rinsch. Netflix accuses the director of violating the terms of the agreement, while Rinsch himself claims that the root of the problem is late payments from Netflix, which reached $14 million. The trial takes place behind closed doors.
