Canadian entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary today slammed crypto exchange Binance—and claimed it caused the collapse of FTX on purpose, Decrypt reports.

Speaking at the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs hearing, the celebrity businessman also said Binance is a “massive, unregulated monopoly now.”

O’Leary—who was heavily invested in FTX—told the hearing: “I have an opinion, not the records. One put the other out of business—intentionally.”

Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, played an early part in the collapse of mega exchange FTX last month. Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao announced that he would be selling the exchanges holdings of FTX’s native token, a move that triggered a liquidity crisis. Days later, FTX filed for bankruptcy.

The exchange’s bankruptcy trashed the crypto market—including several companies with exposure to the behemoth.

O’Leary also argued for stronger regulation today, noting that FTX-owned derivatives trading platform LedgerX was the “only entity that didn’t go to zero” following the crash because it was regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

CoinDesk reports that the Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, a press statement said.

The arrest came after the U.S. filed criminal charges against Bankman-Fried, the statement said, and the nation expects the U.S. to request The Bahamas extradite Bankman-Fried in short order.

"As a result of the notification received and the material provided therewith, it was deemed appropriate for the Attorney General to seek SBF’s arrest and hold him in custody pursuant to our nation’s Extradition Act," the statement, attributed to Attorney General Ryan Pinder, said. "At such time as a formal request for extradition is made, The Bahamas intends to process it promptly, pursuant to Bahamian law and its treaty obligations with the United States."

A tweet from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York confirmed that prosecutors in the U.S. indicted Bankman-Fried, though the indictment remains under seal.

USA Damian Williams: Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY. We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.

— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) December 12, 2022

Bitcoin could drop to $5,000 next year in a market surprise that investors are under-pricing, according to Standard Chartered, CNBC report.

If that level is reached, it would mark a roughly 70% plunge from Monday’s price of just over $17,000 for one bitcoin.

In a note entitled “The financial-market surprises of 2023,” Standard Chartered outlined a number of possible scenarios that “we feel are under-priced by the markets.”

Eric Robertsen, global head of research at Standard Chartered Bank, said in the note Sunday:

Yields plunge along with technology shares, and while the Bitcoin sell-off decelerates, the damage has been done. More and more crypto firms and exchanges find themselves with insufficient liquidity, leading to further bankruptcies and a collapse in investor confidence in digital assets.

Robertsen said the somewhat extreme scenarios “have a non-zero probability of occurring in the year ahead, and ... fall materially outside of the market consensus or our own baseline views.”

The UK Treasury is reportedly finalizing a framework for the regulation of the cryptocurrency industry, Investing.com reports.

According to The Financial Times, the country’s financial authorities are currently putting the finishing touches on the significant crypto regulation. This includes prohibitions on international businesses selling to the UK, strategies for dealing with business failures, and regulations for product advertising.

A Treasury spokesperson stated:

The UK is committed to creating a regulatory environment in which firms can innovate, while crucially maintaining financial stability and regulatory standards so that people and businesses can use new technologies both reliably and safely.

The United Kingdom’s new move of crypto regulation occurred amidst the entire cryptocurrency industry suffering from the collapse of one of the leading exchanges, FTX. “Ministers will shortly launch a consultation on the new regulatory regime,” as per the report

Cointelegraph reports that Crypto lender Genesis and its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) allegedly owe $900 million to Gemini’s clients, according to a Financial Times report disclosed on Dec. 3, citing people familiar with the matter.

The issue derives from the FTX dramatic collapse in November. Crypto exchange Gemini operates a product called Gemini Earn in partnership with Genesis, offering investors the opportunity to earn 8% in interest by lending out their crypto, including Bitcoin and stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies.

On Nov. 16, Genesis announced it had temporarily suspended withdrawals citing “unprecedented market turmoil,” days after disclosing around $175 million worth of funds stuck in an FTX trading account. Genesis is reportedly facing difficulties raising money for its lending unit but refuted speculation of its “imminent” bankruptcy.

Also on Nov. 16, Gemini Earn started experiencing issues with deposits, according to the exchange status page. The product remains unavailable at the time of writing, while all other Gemini services, including the exchange trading engine and the Gemini Credit Card, remain available.

Gemini has formed a creditor’s committee and is working to recoup the funds from Genesis and DCG, noted the report. In an effort to restore clients’ trust amid fears of contagious spread following FTX’s fall, Gemini announced on Nov. 29 its Trust Center, a dashboard showing metrics for funds held by Gemini and on the exchange’s behalf.

Brazil's Congress has passed a bill that would regulate the use of cryptocurrency as a means of payment throughout the country, potentially providing a boost toward the adoption of digital assets in the South American nation, Decrypt report.

What this means is that banks, if they chose, could soon begin offering crypto payment services, facilitating the use of crypto for buying and selling ordinary goods, in the same way that consumers currently use credit cards or other similar services.

Some banks in Brazil are already today experimenting with crypto custody, such as the Brazilian subsidiary of the Spanish banking giant Santander, which has plans to begin offering crypto trading services as well. Other banks like Itaú, one of Brazil's largest private banks, plans to launch its own asset tokenization platform. None, however, have yet developed a service to process payments in crypto.