and then the collapse of the ftx cyrptocurrency exchange in november 2022, and the ftx founder was found guilty of fraud and money laundering last month. also in november, the ceo of binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, pleaded guilty to anti money laundering and us sanctions violations and paid a $50 million fine and the company paid a $4.3 billion fine. but bitcoin, it seems, is no worse for the wear. the price climbed above $44,000 tuesday and shares of coinbase global, the largest crypto exchange in the us were up as well. bitcoin minors traded up as well. here are some of the wind in their sails. us regulators are expected to approve an exchange traded fund that directly holds bitcoin. that could happen as early as next month and traders are betting on it. australia s economy barely grew in the third quarter with gdp rising just 0.2%, the slowest growth in a year. households have been cutting back on spending and exports have also been flagging and data further