THE HASH: Babel Finance Reportedly Lost $280M Trading Customer Funds, and KuCoin to Offer NFT ETFs
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 29 July 2022
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The most valuable crypto stories for Friday, July 29, 2022.
"The Hash" group discuss a report that troubled crypto lender Babel Finance has lost $280 million in customer funds through proprietary trades, and crypto exchange KuCoin offering retail investors fractional ownership of top non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the form of an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
See also:
Babel Finance Lost $280M Trading Customer Funds: Report
KuCoin Claims Bragging Rights as First Exchange to Offer NFT ETFs
This episode has been edited by Michele Musso. Our executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Neon Beach.”
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the hash podcast. |
| 0:09.8 | Stay informed with the latest on Bitcoin, ETH, the Metaverse, Web3, and more, |
| 0:14.6 | with stories that matter to the crypto world, all on the hash for your ears. |
| 0:20.4 | You're listening to the Coin Desk Podcast Network. |
| 0:24.6 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Hash on a Friday. |
| 0:28.1 | You were watching us on Coin Desk TV and listening to us on the Coin Desk Podcast Network. |
| 0:33.2 | I'm Jen Sanasi, and on today's show, we got Sunderley Handegama, Will Foxley, and Adam B. Levine. |
| 0:39.6 | It's going to be a fun Friday show, everyone. Sondali, you're going to kick us off with our |
| 0:44.0 | only real upsetting story of the day. So let's get into it. I know. I always get the upsetting ones. |
| 0:50.5 | I feel like I love these. Let's go. Hong Kong crypto lender Babel Finance reportedly |
| 0:56.4 | lost $280 million in proprietary trades with customer funds, according to a report by the block. |
| 1:04.8 | Real quick, proprietary trading is when a firm or bank invests directly in the market for gains |
| 1:09.9 | as opposed to investing or trading |
| 1:12.3 | on behalf of clients. Babel suspended withdrawals last month due to liquidity pressures. The firm |
| 1:20.3 | reportedly lost around 8,000 Bitcoin and 56,000 ether in June. It's looking to convert the hundreds of millions of dollars of debt |
| 1:29.1 | into equity. All this was revealed in a restructuring proposal deck as it looks to get set up |
| 1:35.5 | for a line of credit to raise funds. The sad thing is that this is not the first time Babel has |
| 1:41.2 | reportedly messed with customer funds. In 2020, CoinDest published |
| 1:46.0 | this incredible saga involving leaked recordings of a private conversation with suggested |
| 1:51.8 | that Babel leveraged some user funds to long Bitcoin and faced potential default risks |
| 1:57.6 | during the Black Thursday market crash in March of 2020. |
| 2:02.0 | Following that crash, Babel allegedly asked for credit loans from Tether, so it could |
... |
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