CoinMarketCap News, Dec. 7: Saylor and CZ Attack SBF — and Don't Pull Any Punches

MicroStrategy's executive chairman Michael Saylor has criticized Sam Bankman-Fried following the collapse of FTX — calling him the "poster child" of "shitcoinery." Speaking to the Valuetainment podcast, Saylor described large parts of the crypto industry as "greedy, arrogant or foolish" — and claimed SBF had created tokens out of thin air. "Sam scraped billions from unsuspecting investors in Silicon Valley. They should have known better. He took billions from crypto hedge funds and crypto banks like BlockFi and Voyager — they should have known better. And then he took probably $10 billion or more from depositors on his exchange," the Bitcoiner said.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao isn't pulling any punches either. CZ has described the 30-year-old founder of FTX as among the "greatest fraudsters in history," adding: "He is also a master manipulator when it comes to media and key opinion leaders." The entrepreneur denied that he was responsible for the exchange's downfall, and said FTX "killed themselves (and their users) because they stole billions of dollars of user funds." CZ went on to argue that "no healthy business can be destroyed by a tweet" — defending his decision to make a bombshell announcement that he was planning to offload more than $500 million in FTT tokens last month.

Sam Bankman-Fried has hired the prominent New York defense attorney who defended Jeffrey Epstein confidant and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, according to Reuters. Mark S. Cohen is a former federal prosecutor who specializes in white-collar crime and civil litigation. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of trafficking underage girls for the disgraced financier. Cohen may well have his work cut out for him with Bankman-Fried, who has admitted that he is ignoring legal advice by continuing to give a flurry of media interviews. Whether he'll listen to Cohen remains to be seen.

The creator of the original Apple iPod has teamed up with Ledger to unveil a sleek, new hardware wallet. Ledger Stax boasts a wraparound electronic ink screen — and the front cover of the book-like device can even display a NFT. The timing of this new device could hardly be better. Interest in the self-custody of cryptocurrencies has surged after a series of unfortunate hacks, with several high-profile firms freezing withdrawals and even going bankrupt as the bear market bites. Overall, Ledger hopes this new flagship product — which supports over 500 cryptocurrencies and uses Bluetooth connectivity — will "make crypto journeys infinitely more intuitive."

Nike has revealed that its next NFT drop will connect virtual sneakers to real ones. The Cryptokicks iRL collection will have a limited edition of 19,000 sneakers in four styles that Nike is calling "the first native Web3 sneaker" line. Prices will run from $450 to $1,333 — with payment accepted in ETH. The physical shoes will ship in May and only to U.S. addresses, which is causing some grief in the fairly intense collectible sneaker market. The shoes will feature the auto-lacing technology the firm designed for the Air Mag more than 30 years ago for the film Back to the Future 2, as well as haptic feedback, gesture control, app connectivity and wireless charging.