Sam Bankman-Fried's personality was drawn out on the witness stand, Crystal writes.

Driving the news: Wrapping up his direct testimony yesterday, fielding friendly questions from his own attorney, SBF was focused and confident.

• He cast doubt on the stories the prosecution's witnesses have been telling — offering slightly different versions that portrayed him as the good guy trying to do the right thing.

Yes, but: The cross-examination drew out a different SBF, appearing to take aim at his duplicitous side.

• The former FTX chief was evasive and visibly annoyed while answering questions from prosecutor Danielle Sassoon — not the best face to present to a jury that is days from deliberating and delivering a verdict.

Details: When he said he didn't remember or distanced himself from certain documents or communications, Sassoon produced government exhibits proving otherwise. And she made him read those documents aloud.

• SBF, a man so used to controlling his own narrative, seemed to quickly grow frustrated that he was being checked.

Between the lines: Sassoon had him read a public tweet from last year from a thread that began "Today, we are older, and wiser," in which SBF wrote: "But the truth is, there's always been regulation in crypto."

• Immediately after, she produced a direct message from him to a Vox reporter — that he never intended to become public — in which he said: "Yeah. Just PR. F*** regulators."

💭 Crystal's thought bubble: There were a couple of moments from SBF's testimony that reminded me of former President Clinton's famous meaning of "is."

Zoom in: When SBF was asked how involved he was in his hedge fund Alameda Research's trading decisions, he said: "Depends on how you define trading."

At another point, he played with the definition of "margin trading."

• Prosecutor Sassoon: "Just to be clear, Mr. Bankman-Fried, taking money from FTX to pay back lenders, that's not margin trading, is it?"
• SBF: "I'm not — I don't think that's what happened, and I'm also not saying that's not margin trading."
• After the judge prodded him to answer, he said: "It's my testimony that it depends on the details, but that very well could be a margin trade."

The clincher: SBF's frustration peaked when Sassoon presented a document on FTX key principles submitted to Congress in early 2022. It included a statement that, "adequate liquid resources to ensure the platform can return the customer's assets upon request."

• When asked to read a portion of this document aloud, SBF mocked an informercial-like voice.

What we're watching: Cross-examination continues today.

• The judge warned jurors yesterday that the trial, expected to conclude this week, could carry over to next week.

"We didn't care if a user withdrew funds and used them to buy muffins, to pay business expenses, to invest, or anything else."

Under direct examination Friday, SBF made it sound like any user of FTX could borrow money and take it off the exchange, Brady writes.

• "In general, FTX didn't have restrictions on what people could do with funds that they borrowed," the fallen founder said as his attorney asked him about borrowing conducted by Alameda, the trading firm he founded in 2017.
• SBF testified that he wasn't sure where the funds that Alameda borrowed came from, but that he thought it was from collateral posted by margin traders.

The intrigue: This is the first time Axios has heard of any users other than Alameda being permitted to withdraw borrowed funds.

• The defense presented no further evidence Friday to support this rather extraordinary claim.

What happened next: The prosecution also found the muffin discussion interesting.

• SBF was evasive.

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More than 200 fresh warning notices have been doled out from a U.K. regulatory agency as part of a new crackdown pointed at crypto advertising, Crystal writes.

Catch up fast: The country's Financial Conduct Authority authorizes and regulates a wide range of financial services (even funeral homes).

• And with relatively new powers granted to the agency, its purview has been expanded to include crypto.

Why it matters: As much as the crypto industry has been gesturing to friendlier jurisdictions outside of the U.S., the U.K.'s crypto rules — whether they relate just to promotions or to how businesses should operate — will impose stricter standards that will force crypto firms that want to have U.K. customers, to change.

Between the lines: Crypto businesses operating without permission and promoting products to U.K. consumers would be breaking the law, says Jonathan Master, a consultant at U.K.-based Eversheds Sutherland, which provides advice on legal and compliance matters.

• "The recent changes earlier this month relate to financial promotions that is effectively inhibiting the ability for people to market crypto assets to U.K. crypto consumers, unless the communication is made in compliance of financial promotion rules," Masters said.

Context: Last week the FCA published three common issues with crypto advertisements including:

• Promotions with claims about "safety," "security" and "ease of use."
• Low or no visible risk warnings due to small fonts and hard-to-see colors, or poor positioning.
• Plus, firms failing to provide enough information about the related risks.
• (There's also a running list of unauthorized firms running amok of those rules.)

Of note: Firms that are registered for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism purposes, are allowed to communicate promotions for the time being with caveats, but they will also be asked to take further steps as new rules go into effect.

Meanwhile, the FCA's rules of crypto marketing will converge with other crypto regulation set to come into effect down the line.

• One such regulation will require crypto firms to split up various functions such as custodial, advice, and exchange-based trading.

The bottom line: The ability to have everything together is not going to survive in the U.K., according to Tom Pritchard, principal associate at Eversheds Sutherland.

🗑️ Do Kwon's Terraform Labs filed for early court rejection of its SEC case. (CoinDesk)

⛏️ Mining companies aren't that excited about a spot bitcoin ETF. (Decrypt)

Any LastPass users out there?

• If you have your seed phrase for any cryptocurrency wallet on LastPass, you really need to move all those assets to a new wallet, Brady writes.

Driving the news: At least 25 users got a collective $4.4 million stolen on Oct. 25.

Catch up fast: Brian Krebs has reported $35 million worth of crypto assets stolen after a LastPass breach last year.

Be smart: LastPass is a password manager. It makes it easy to keep track of lots of impossible-to-guess passwords.

• Everyone should use password managers, but this is a very bad look for LastPass.

The upshot: If you don't know what a seed phrase is, you're probably OK. If you do and you use LastPass, check to see if your assets are safe.

• If they are, spin up a new wallet and move them right now. Save your new seed phrase on paper in more than one location. Don't store it in the cloud.