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Crypto Weekly: Stable coins, wobbly exchanges

STORY: From why fans say one stablecoin is the safe kind of crypto, to a wild week for Binance, these are the week’s big stories in the world of alternative money…

Former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried has asked a court to throw out 10 of the 13 charges against him.

His lawyers say prosecutors moved against him with “troubling” haste, and tried to turn civil issues into federal crimes.

Bankman-Fried is accused of stealing billions of dollars of customer money to plug holes at an associated hedge fund.

His trial is due to start in early October.

Tether is laying claim to the title of safest crypto token.

The so-called “stablecoin” is anchored by a 1-to-1 peg against a cache of dollars.

Its market value has soared of late, and data shows it’s the top performer among such tokens.

Fans say Tether is seen as safer than rivals, and less exposed to meddling by U.S. regulators, as it’s not based in the country.

And it was a mixed week for big crypto exchanges.

Coinbase beat earnings forecasts, thanks to cost cuts and a more diverse set of revenue sources.

Rival Bittrex filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. though, weeks after it was sued by regulators for operating an unregistered securities exchange.

And market leader Binance rattled markets by twice suspending bitcoin withdrawals, blaming a glut of pending transactions.

Bitcoin took a hit on the news, dropping to one-week lows below $28,000.