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FTX seeks to claw $700M from Bankman Fried friends and affiliated funds

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After a Hollywood dinner party, hundreds of millions of dollars of “avoidable” transfers were sent from Alameda to investment firm K5 Global, the suit alleges.

FTX has filed a lawsuit in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware against some of the investment firms it had ties to before its collapse. The suit, filed June 22, contains 16 counts and seeks over $700 million from the defendants.

The lawsuit filing names as defendants incubator and investment company K5 Global, Mount Olympus Capital and SGN Albany Capital, as well as affiliated entities and K5 Global co-owners Michael Kives and Bryan Baum. Kives is a former agent for the CAA talent agency and a former aide to Hilary Clinton. The suit noted the then-CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), attended a social event hosted by Kives in 2022:

“True to Kives’s reputation as a high-profile ‘super-networker,’ the attendees at the dinner party included a former Presidential candidate, top actors and musicians, reality TV stars and multiple billionaires.”

Subsequently, the suit alleged, FTX-affiliated crypto trading firm Alameda Research transferred $700 million to Kives, Baum and K5 Global, but they constructed the deals as coming from shell companies SGN Albany and Mount Olympus Capital.

The suit seeks the return of funds transferred from Alameda Research that ended up in SGN Albany Capital and funds transferred from Kives, Baum and SGN Albany Capital to Mount Olympus Capital.

The transfers were described as being carried out “without receiving equivalent value” and, crucially, as avoidable. In U.S. bankruptcy law, an avoidable transaction is one that can be reversed under the Bankruptcy Code or other laws.

Kives, Baum and SBF also developed close personal ties, with Baum even having his own bedroom in the FTX executives’ Bahamas residence, the suit said. After FTX’s collapse,

“Kives and Baum worked behind the scenes with Bankman-Fried on a strategy to find someone to bail out the FTX Group (and to protect their golden goose).”

‘Lawsuit is without merit,’ says K5

In a statement, a spokesperson for K5 Global said the lawsuit is “without merit.”

“K5 is a Venture Capital firm with over $1 billion in assets under management (apart from any funds from SBF and his affiliates) and has investments in 148 companies. In mid-2022 an affiliate of Sam Bankman-Fried and Alameda bought a third of K5’s general partnership for cash and stock, and ultimately made a $400 million investment in certain funds managed by K5,” said the spokesperson

“K5 was under the impression – like many others – that SBF was completely legitimate and they were entering into a fair, long-term, and mutually beneficial business relationship. Our belief is that the lawsuit is without merit.”

Nine of the counts in the suit concerned fund transfers. Kives and Buam were personally charged with aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty and dishonest assistance, and SGN Albany Capital was charged with unjust enrichment.

Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin Price Analysis: What’s Next for BTC After Breaking Above $104K?

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Bitcoin kicked off the second week of May with a powerful continuation move, breaking through key resistance levels and climbing to fresh local highs. While the rally has been rapid, and the current technical signals suggest there’s still gas left in the tank, caution is still warranted.

The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, BTC has pushed decisively above the $100K resistance and is now hovering around the $104K mark. This breakout marks a clear escape from the month-long compression between the rising trendline and the 100 and 200-day moving averages.

The price has reclaimed both the moving averages around the $90K price level, and the RSI is holding above 70, indicating strong momentum. However, it also points to slightly overbought conditions. If the buyers maintain pressure and avoid sharp rejections, a run toward a new all-time high is likely.

The 4-Hour Chart

Zooming into the 4H chart, the breakout becomes even clearer. BTC exited an ascending channel pattern to the upside, rallying through the previous key supply zone around $98K with almost no resistance. Since then, the asset has been grinding higher in an orderly fashion, supported by the RSI cooling off.

The latest price action shows signs of slowing momentum, but there’s no reversal confirmation yet. A healthy pullback into the $100K–$98K range would be a logical area to look for continuation setups if the buyers remain in control. However, if that level fails, support at $94K could catch the next wave of bids.

Onchain Analysis

Miner Reserve

On-chain data reveals a persistent downtrend in the Bitcoin Miner Reserve, which has now dropped to around 1.8M BTC, the lowest in recent years. This suggests that miners are not accumulating, but rather continuing a long-term distribution pattern. Instead of increasing their holdings during this rally, they appear to be gradually offloading BTC, possibly to capitalize on higher prices or manage operational costs post-halving.

While this doesn’t necessarily signal aggressive selling, it does indicate that miners are not contributing to long-term supply tightening at the moment. Their lack of accumulation, in contrast to strong spot buying, reinforces the idea that current demand is being driven by other market participants, such as institutions and retail investors.

 

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Cryptocurrency

AB Foundation and AB Blockchain Jointly Champion Tech-driven Global Philanthropy: Building Trust through Technology

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[PRESS RELEASE – Dublin, Ireland, May 11th, 2025]

The AB Foundation and AB Blockchain successfully hosted the inaugural “Tech-driven Global Philanthropy Closed-door Forum” today in Dublin.

The forum brought together distinguished global leaders, including His Excellency Bertie Ahern, former Prime Minister of Ireland and former President of the European Council; His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria and former Chairperson of the African Union; Malcolm Byrne, Member of the Irish Parliament and Chairperson of the Artificial Intelligence Committee, alongside other prominent states persons and scholars. The attendees convened to discuss the transformative potential of cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence in global philanthropy.

The forum was chaired by Bertie Ahern, Chairman of AB Foundation, former Prime Minister of Ireland, and former President of the European Council, who delivered the keynote speech titled “Technology and Trust: Building a New Global Philanthropic Order.”

Subsequently, Anthony Tsang, spokesperson for AB Blockchain, presented key developments on AB Blockchain’s high-performance mainnet, innovative cross-chain system AB Connect, and the groundbreaking zero-Gas stablecoin protocol Universal Transfer. He emphasized AB Blockchain’s mission to provide fully compliant infrastructure platforms for global philanthropy.

The AB Foundation will actively forward the key proposals from this forum to relevant international organizations and partners, continuing to promote a new global paradigm of “Technology for Good.”

About AB Foundation

The AB Foundation is an independent international non-governmental organization registered in Ireland with recognized legal status within the European Union. Supported by technology and funding from AB DAO, the Foundation leverages advanced technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence to create transparent, trustworthy, and traceable philanthropic infrastructures, thus promoting sustainable development in education, healthcare, environment, and humanitarian aid.

For more information, users can visit the official website: www.ab.org

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Why ETH’s Undervaluation May Not Signal a Buying Opportunity: CQ Report

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Ethereum (ETH) plunged into territory not seen since 2019 before it posted a substantial recovery in the past few days. However, it’s still trading at a steep discount to Bitcoin (BTC).

According to the latest weekly report from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant, the ETH/BTC MVRV ratio, which measures market value relative to realized value, has entered “extremely undervalued” territory, a level that in past cycles set the stage for major ETH rebounds.

 A Discount Amid Growing Headwinds

CryptoQuant’s analysis noted that Ethereum’s deep discounts against BTC have historically signaled prime buying opportunities.

However, it pointed out that the current environment is markedly different, with a series of fundamental headwinds responsible for the undervaluation. These include the unraveling of Ethereum’s once-promising deflationary supply narrative, with the asset’s total supply hitting an all-time high of 120.7 million.

The analytics platform attributed the reversal to March 2024’s Dencun upgrade, which drastically reduced transaction fees and collapsed the ETH burn rate. With fewer tokens being burned, inflationary pressure found its way back into the ETH market.

Further compounding the issue is that on-chain activity has been stagnant for a while. Since 2021, key metrics such as transaction counts and active addresses have dropped, mostly because Layer 2 (L2) networks diverted usage away from the Ethereum mainnet. Even though they have improved scalability, L2s have also diluted demand for base-layer block space, undermining ETH’s utility narrative in the process.

CryptoQuant also noted that institutional interest in the asset has been waning. The amount of staked ETH has reportedly dipped from its November 2024 peak of 35 million to about 34.4 million. ETF holdings have also shed as much as 400,000 ETH since February this year, reflecting weakening investor confidence.

“Bitcoin is benefiting from robust institutional demand, capped supply, and ETF-driven inflows,” read the report, contrasting the fortunes of the two cryptocurrencies.

Undervalued but Not Without Risk

Despite the obstacles, ETH staged a sharp rebound towards the end of the week. It shot up to roughly $2,400 on Friday.

Additionally, over the past week, the altcoin soared just above 30%, crushing Bitcoin’s 7.5% climb and vastly outpacing the global crypto market’s 8% gain. The rally coincided with the successful activation of the long-awaited Pectra upgrade on May 7, which introduced account abstraction and improved staking mechanics via 11 bundled EIPs. However, its impact may be muted.

Past experiences show that Ethereum’s discount to Bitcoin is often a buying signal. Still, CryptoQuant’s analysis suggests that the returning inflation, weakening demand, and stagnant activity may mean that this could be the first cycle in which ETH’s undervaluation isn’t a springboard but a trap.

“While ETH appears undervalued on a historical basis, its recovery path may be more complex and slower than in prior cycles,” CQ concluded.

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