The Daily: SBF asks the Supreme Court to toss his conviction and $11B forfeiture, plus more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Friday! Bitcoin and ether rose after a largely in-line CPI print, with 21Shares' Matt Mena arguing that slightly hotter core inflation need not derail the crypto rally despite rising odds of a September Fed hike.

In today's newsletter, Sam Bankman-Fried turns to the Supreme Court, Senate Republicans unveil a revised crypto bill, Blockstream refuses a ransom demand from the Liquid Network exploiter, and more.

Meanwhile, the ESMA questioned Polymarket and Kalshi's partial EU geo-blocks.

P.S. Don't forget to check out The Funding, a biweekly rundown of crypto VC trends. It's a great read — and just like The Daily, it's free to subscribe!

Sam Bankman-Fried asks Supreme Court to overturn fraud conviction and $11 billion forfeiture

Sam Bankman-Fried has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his fraud conviction and $11 billion forfeiture, seeking a new trial.

• The founder of now-defunct crypto exchange FTX is currently serving a 25-year sentence after a jury convicted him on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering for misappropriating customer funds and defrauding investors and lenders.
• His lawyers argued the trial court wrongly prevented him from showing that FTX and Alameda, though "temporarily illiquid," held enough assets to eventually repay customers, as they've since been made whole with interest.
• Bankman-Fried also claimed that the order to forfeit $11 billion violates the 8th Amendment's bar on excessive fines.
• The appeal challenges the Second Circuit's June decision, which upheld the conviction by leaning on the Supreme Court's 2025 Kousisis v. United States ruling that fraud can occur without intent of net economic harm.
• The Supreme Court is expected to decide later this year whether to hear the case.

Senate Republicans unveil revised crypto bill ahead of key Clarity Act vote next week

Senate Republicans released a revised 630-page Clarity Act text ahead of the bill's first procedural vote on Sept. 15, with Sen. Cynthia Lummis saying more than 114 provisions had been added at Democrats' request.

• The new version adds rules for "non-decentralized finance trading protocols," which would have to register with the CFTC, and directs the CFTC and Treasury to write further rules.
• However, the ethics section stayed largely unchanged, still giving the DOJ lead enforcement authority, with Politico reporting the latest text has no Democratic support, which is crucial to the bill's passage.
• The bill faces a tough path amid other unresolved conflicts over stablecoin rewards, illicit finance, and how to handle Trump's growing crypto wealth tied to World Liberty Financial and his TRUMP memecoin.

'Return the bitcoin': Blockstream refuses ransom demand for remaining 600 BTC from Liquid exploit

Blockstream refused to pay a ransom for the remaining 598.5 BTC from the Liquid Network exploit, telling those responsible to "return the bitcoin" and calling it theft, not white-hat activity.

• The attacker previously returned about 3,400 of the roughly 4,000 BTC taken but kept the rest, demanding a 10% "bug bounty" that Blockstream said it won't pay.
• Blockstream, founded by Adam Back, warned it will work with law enforcement, exchanges, and forensic specialists, among others, to trace the funds and identify those responsible if they aren't returned.
• Liquid has since patched the Elements bug behind the exploit and resumed producing blocks and transactions, though peg-outs remain disabled as a precaution while recovery efforts continue.

Metaplanet reverses course on executive options with 41% cut to potential shares, scraps employee warrant plan

Metaplanet is reversing course on its controversial executive compensation plan, cutting the potential shares tied to its Series 10 rights by 41% after a backlash.

• More than $220 million in warrant value will disappear under the changes, according to CEO Simon Gerovich, who said bitcoin held per diluted share will rise about 8.8%, acknowledging the fixed-percentage ownership setup gave Series 10 holders "disproportionate value" relative to others.
• The remaining options were also pushed back, with one-third exercisable in each of 2029, 2030, and 2031, while the firm also dropped a plan to move some of the old Series 10 rights into a new employee incentive pool.
• The reversal follows a rough week for Metaplanet, with its shares dropping about 17% over two sessions, leaving the stock down more than 38% this year, well behind bitcoin's 10% and Strategy's 13% drop.

Bitwise shuts down Dogecoin ETF less than a year after launch

Bitwise is liquidating its spot Dogecoin ETF (BWOW) just 10 months after launch, with the last trading day on the NYSE set for Oct. 14.

• The fund struggled to catch on, peaking around $3 million in daily volume at launch and attracting just $318,000 in net inflows last month.
• Dogecoin ETFs have collectively generated about $300 million in cumulative volume, far behind similar altcoin products tied to Hyperliquid, Zcash, and Chainlink, while DOGE has also dropped out of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

Looking ahead to next week

• UK CPI inflation figures are due on Wednesday alongside U.S. mortgage data and the Fed's latest interest rate decision. The Bank of England's interest rate decision follows on Thursday alongside U.S. jobless claims numbers.
• Starknet, Arbitrum, Aerodrome Finance, ZKsync are among the crypto projects set for token unlocks.
• ETHRome continues in the Italian capital. ETHTaipei, TDC Convergence Forum NYC, Digital Asset Forum Canada, the European Blockchain Convention, Avalanche Summit, and ETHSpain all get underway.

Reader poll

Bitcoin is up after an in-line CPI print. Does it hold above $75,000 through next week's Clarity vote and Fed decision?

YES, HOLDS $75K

NO, BREAKS BELOW

One click records your pick. We'll share the result in a later edition.

*65% of respondents in last Friday's poll correctly predicted bitcoin would reclaim $80K by Monday (though it was short-lived).

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