BlockFi, formerly a leading lender in the crypto industry, said that “significant exposure” to FTX and its sister company Alameda Research was a key contributing factor to the firm’s bankruptcy filing. In June, FTX agreed to supply the company with a roughly $400 million credit line after BlockFi didn’t have enough cash to meet customer withdrawals. BlockFi had already suspended customer withdrawals earlier this month amid FTX’s collapse. 

BlockFi now owes creditors at least $1.2 billion, and has just $257 million in cash on hand. Alameda Research also owed BlockFi about $680 million in unpaid loans, according to bankruptcy documents.

Genesis Global Capital, another crypto lender that dealt with FTX, is also reportedly at risk of filing for bankruptcy. The firm had about $175 million in assets that were frozen on the exchange and has also halted customer withdrawals. 

Coinbase, which regularly proves its reserves via audited financial statements, said in a blog post that it’s exploring “various novel ways to prove reserves using more crypto native methods,” and announced a $500,000 developer fund aimed to support on-chain accounting initiatives.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that the company would begin to publish its reserves, starting with its BTC reserves. In a web page published Nov. 25, Binance revealed that it held 582,485 BTC, compared with 575,742 BTC in deposits, and said it would be adding information for more tokens soon. 

Jesse Powell, the co-founder of the crypto exchange Kraken, called Binance’s attestation incomplete, however, saying that the “statement of assets is pointless without liabilities.” Kraken has provided regular proof of reserve audits for years, using an advanced cryptographic procedure called a “merkle tree” that is conducted by an independent auditor.

The Bahamas was betting big on crypto as its industry of the future. FTX was considered a launchpad for this ambition, but the collapse of the $32 billion firm under Bahamian regulators’ watch — and their reaction to the initial aftermath — has dampened the country’s credibility as a crypto hub.

Almost immediately after FTX declared bankruptcy, Bahamian regulators forced the firm to move hundreds of millions of dollars, including some money owed to Bahamian citizens, into a wallet controlled by the government, an unusual action amid a bankruptcy proceeding. Bahamian regulators have also contested the U.S.’s jurisdiction over the bankruptcy (FTX filed in Delaware), setting up a potential fight for control.

Responding to critics, Bahamian Attorney General Ryan Pinder defended his actions in a nationwide address about the issue on Sunday. “Any attempt to lay the entirety of this debacle at the feet of the Bahamas, because FTX is headquartered here, would be a gross oversimplification of reality,” he said.

EIP 4895 will finally enable users to withdraw staked (hence, Proof of Stake) ether, which has been accumulating on Ethereum’s blockchain since December 2020. Right now, more than $18 billion worth of ETH is staked and locked into Ethereum’s Beacon Chain.

EIP 4844, which is also known as (the colorfully named) proto-danksharding, is an improvement that would make Ethereum more scalable via a method that splits up the network into smaller “shards” to increase capacity and lower gas fees.

The Ethereum Virtual Machine will see five new EIPs. The EVM is responsible for the network’s deployment of smart contracts, and the collection of proposed improvements aim to make smart contract execution safer.

On the latest episode of the Around the Block podcast, Brian Armstrong leads a discussion about what the U.S. midterm election results could mean for crypto and how we can work with policymakers to establish rules that protect crypto investors and users.

Coinbase has collaborated with Code.org on developing a game to teach students the basics of crypto as part of the annual Hour of Code event. You can play the game here and/or share it with your kids, friends, and family. Code.org’s mission is to bring more students into the world of technology. 

WooCommerce merchants can now offer consumers the flexibility to pay with crypto through a partnership with Coinbase Commerce. WooCommerce is the most popular open source e-commerce platform in the world, and its merchants are now able to accept Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, DAI, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, or USD Coin.