Crypto exchange Gemini will begin distributing billions of dollars locked up in its now-defunct lending program. Bad news for Cardano: The recent rush of memecoin launches knocked it out of the crypto top 10. Meanwhile, former FTX executive Ryan Salame was sentenced to 7.5 years in prisreceived a 7.5-year prison sentence on May 28.
Gemini set to return $2.18B to Earn users
Following an 18-month withdrawal freeze, cryptocurrency exchange Gemini has announced that it will distribute $2.18 billion to users of the Earn lending program.
According to the May 29 announcement, Gemini’s Earn users will be made whole for participating in the now-defunct program. When the distributions are complete, users will have received 232% of the value of their digital assets back. That includes initial deposits, plus any appreciation of assets that were lent out through the Earn program.
“This means, for example, if you had lent one Bitcoin in the Earn program, you will receive one Bitcoin back. And it means that you will receive any and all appreciation of your assets since you lent them into the Earn program,” the company said on X.
The distribution was announced after crypto lending firm Genesis was recently approved to pay out $3 billion in creditor claims. Gemini had billions of dollars in client funds locked up at Genesis when the lender filed for bankruptcy in January 2023.
Memecoin mania sees Cardano knocked out of the top 10 crypto rankings
The bullish memecoin run over the past couple of weeks has helped Shiba Inu dethrone Cardano from the top-10 crypto rankings by market capitalization.
The memecoin mania has seen another bullish run over the past couple of weeks, with Pepe (PEPE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogwifhat (WIF) and several others touching new all-time highs (ATHs). Many of these memecoins have dethroned several crypto heavyweights.
Cardano (ADA), once ranked third in the crypto rankings during the 2020-21 bull run, is currently placed 11th after SHIB. Shiba Inu currently has a market cap of $16.4 billion, while Cardano’s market cap is $16.3 billion.
Cardano is trading at $0.45, more than 80% below its all-time high of over $3.10. At a time when Bitcoin (BTC) and other altcoins have recovered most of their losses from the last cycle and some are making new ATHs, Cardano, similar to Ripple (XRP), seems to be stuck in a price range.
Former FTX executive sentenced to prison
Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, was slapped with a 7.5-year prison sentence on May 28.
Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the sentence in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Salame was found guilty of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and engaging in fraudulent campaign financing. He pleaded guilty to the charges in September 2023.
"Ryan Salame agreed to advance the interests of FTX, Alameda Research, and his co-conspirators through an unlawful political influence campaign and through an unlicensed money transmitting business, which helped FTX grow faster and larger by operating outside of the law,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
Salame exposed FTX's fraud in November 2022, mere days before Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO. In March, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Additional reporting by Geraint Price, Sam Bourgi and Felix Ng.
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