Sam Bankman-Fried wants to testify in court

New twist in the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried. The founder of the insolvent crypto exchange FTX will apparently take the witness stand himself. This is reported by the New York Times, which cites a conference call that took place yesterday between the prosecution, the defense and the court.

SBF's lawyers reportedly confirmed that the 31-year-old will testify. However, when exactly is still unclear. The defense is currently preparing its presentation of the case and has already called several witnesses.The trial is currently paused. Proceedings will not resume until today.

Sam Bankman-Fried has been on trial in the United States since early October. He allegedly defrauded investors on his crypto exchange FTX of billions of US dollars. You can find the main developments in the trial against him here: SBF in court: Everything you need to know about the FTX trial.

Things have not gone well for SBF in court so far. Several key prosecution witnesses have heavily impeached the FTX founder. Among them: Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh.

It is not common in the United States for defendants to take the witness stand in a criminal trial because it exposes themselves to cross-examination by the prosecution.