Ethereum exec exits; Capital B OKs €105B; Bond indicted

Hsiao-Wei Wang, co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, resigned effective immediately after a recent sabbatical. Wang posted on X that she had stepped down and wrote, “Ethereum has always been bigger than any role.” Vitalik Buterin posted that Wang had taken on “the most challenging position in the Ethereum Foundation,” a role she shared with Tomasz Stanczak, who resigned earlier this year. The foundation has recorded about 19 layoffs and departures so far this year.

France-listed Capital B reported that shareholders voted by more than 95% to authorize financing capacity of up to €105 billion to support future Bitcoin purchases. The approvals include authorization to raise up to €5 billion in new capital, which equals as many as 125 billion new shares at the current nominal value, and the issuance of up to €100 billion in credit instruments. Capital B reported 300.65 million shares with voting rights at the meeting and said the authorizations are intended to accelerate its Bitcoin accumulation plan. If the full authorization to issue 125 billion new shares were exercised, existing shareholders would be diluted to about 0.24% ownership.

In federal court in Manhattan, Judge George Daniels denied Michelle Bond’s motion to dismiss an indictment charging her with illicit campaign finance activity. Prosecutors allege Ryan Salame arranged a $400,000 consulting agreement between Bond and FTX to help fund her 2022 congressional campaign. Bond argued that a 2023 meeting with then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon left her lawyer with the impression that prosecutors would “conclude the aspects of our investigation that concern” Salame if he pleaded guilty. Judge Daniels found evidence that prosecutors had not promised Bond immunity by the time Salame entered his guilty plea, and a former lawyer for Bond said she did not interpret Sassoon’s statement as a promise at the time.

Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May 2024 to seven and a half years in prison after admitting to conspiring to make illegal political contributions and operating an illegal money transmitter.

The three developments were reported separately: Wang’s resignation at the Ethereum Foundation, Capital B’s shareholder approval of a large financing authorization for Bitcoin purchases, and the federal court ruling that allows the indictment against Michelle Bond to proceed.