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Citing potential fraud risks, British banking titan Chase has chosen to halt cryptocurrency-related payments from October 16th. “If we think you’re making a payment related to crypto assets, we’ll decline it,” was the message relayed to clients via email. The bank also emphasized that those intent on investing in cryptocurrencies have the liberty to switch to other banks or providers.
Bridging the gap between fiat and the stablecoin USDC, MoneyGram has unveiled its non-custodial crypto wallet. The payment solution ensures compliance with all KYC norms and maintains adherence to sanction regulations. “We’re turning MoneyGram into a global ATM concept using blockchain,” shared CEO Alex Holmes.
The Wall Street Memes (WSM) meme token is slated for listing on OKX Exchange, happening today at 10:00 GMT. A similar event with PEPE saw the token’s price soar with a 15x increase. But what exactly is Wall Street Memes? Originating from Reddit a few years back, this meme community has grown to nearly 800,000 members across different social media platforms, humorously dissecting crypto and financial news. Before rolling out the WSM token in May, they were renowned for their Wall Street Bulls NFT collection. Their token’s presale has drawn to a close, amassing approximately $25 million with the token’s cost fixed at $0.0337.
“We will compensate users for up to 50% of the stolen assets. Additionally, ‘tokenized claims’ will be issued, with an intent for Mixin to buy them back from future profits.” Moreover, the BTC.TOP mining pool’s CEO is adamant that the bitcoins held within Mixin’s protocol shouldn’t have gone missing. He emphasized that Mixin’s standard practice was to keep their bitcoins in cold storage, making them impervious to the cloud server breach that compromised their hot wallets.
Yesterday, the Cyvers team raised alarms over a questionable HTX transaction. Their concerns grew when there was no communication in return. Fast forward to today, the damage is clear: 5,000 ETH, or $7.9 million, is gone, snatched by a hacker. The HTX team has proposed a 5% reward for the return of the funds. Should the hacker decline, they plan to engage law enforcement. “Compared to the $3 billion in assets held by Huobi HTX users, $8 million is a small number. This is only equivalent to two weeks of revenue from the HTX platform,” Justin Sun stated in X. The underlying issue behind the breach has been eliminated, he adds, and the exchange will reimburse the lost amount.
Ukraine’s law enforcement officers are leveling up with cryptocurrency training, thanks to a collaboration between tax authorities from the US, UK, and Netherlands. This initiative aims to boost their skills in handling decentralized assets, detecting illicit transactions, and curbing tax and sanctions evasion. “Knowledge sharing is one of the priorities within these international partnerships and can contribute to greater know-how to counter cybercrime,” said the director general of the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service.
The court has granted Justin Sun additional time to respond to the SEC allegations, pushing the deadline to December 8. The SEC accuses Sun, along with Tron Foundation, Bittorrent Foundation, and Rainberry, of offering TRX and BTT tokens as unregistered securities, infringing upon U.S. legislation. Additionally, the SEC is leveling charges against Sun for manipulating the market value of TRX.
DMarket, hailing from Ukraine and specializing in game skin trades, has carved a niche for itself in the NFT world. According to CryptoSlam!, marketplace raced past a trading volume of $1 million, leaving behind popular NFT collections such as Sorare, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and CryptoPunks. Additionally, CSGO skins have chalked up a hefty $216 million in secondary sales.
Reports are surfacing that OpenSea, the NFT marketplace, has potentially suffered a data breach. Due to a vendor’s security lapse, OpenSea’s API keys may have been compromised, and users have been alerted via email. The best course of action? Replace those keys. Yet, there’s been a noticeable absence of official comments from OpenSea on platform X.
Uniswap has rolled out “Swap Protection” to shield Ethereum mainnet transactions from sandwich attacks and front-running. When users enable this feature in the Uniswap Wallet, swaps are directed to a private transaction pool, enhancing security against potential threats. Due to this added layer, some swaps might have higher auto slippage to boost the likelihood of successful transactions.
Crypto analytics platform Nansen revealed a security breach stemming from a compromised third-party vendor. This breach led to the exposure of emails, password hashes, and some blockchain addresses for 6.8% of its users. The attacker gained admin access to an account used for customer platform access. Nansen has reached out to affected users, urging password changes and caution against phishing attacks.
Binance Holdings and Changpeng Zhao have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit lodged against them by the SEC. Company representatives assert that the financial watchdog is overstepping its bounds in the ongoing legal battle.
Singapore witnessed one of its largest crackdowns on money laundering last month. 400 police officers coordinated raids throughout the city-state, detaining 10 foreigners. These individuals allegedly were “laundering the proceeds of their overseas organised crime activities, including scams and online gambling”. The seizures were significant, totaling $1.76 billion, with cryptocurrencies accounting for nearly $30 million. The operation also led to the confiscation of 68 gold ingots, 110 real estate holdings, and 62 cars. Sketches released provide a look at those under suspicion.
The Authors Guild, backed by renowned writers like George R.R. Martin and Jodi Picoult, has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI. The suit alleges that OpenAI’s ChatGPT, by using copyrighted works, commits “flagrant and harmful” copyright infringement. The technology is accused of feeding copyrighted manuscripts into its algorithms, generating human-like text responses. The Authors Guild argues that this not only diminishes writers’ earning potential but also creates AI-generated copycat works.
The likelihood is high, at 99%, that the interest rate will stay the same. This is because the Federal Reserve is still gauging the effect of the current rate on the economy. Following the decision, there will be a press conference by Jerome Powell 30 minutes later. Given the potential for market shifts from his remarks, traders are advised to hold off on transactions.
A spokesperson for the university stated that they have been in talks with FTX debtor attorneys to facilitate the full return of the donated funds. It’s worth noting that Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents have a longstanding association with Stanford Law School, serving as legal scholars and professors there. The donations in question, totaling approximately $5.5 million, were made by FTX-related entities between November 2021 and May 2022 for pandemic-related prevention and research.
Kenya’s interior cabinet secretary Kithure Kindiki stated that individuals attempted to exit the country but were detained. However, the U.S. government stepped in, asserting they should be permitted to depart since they hadn’t been formally convicted of any wrongdoing. The U.S. further promised to ensure their return if needed for legal proceedings. The committee probing Worldcoin has until September 28 to submit its findings. It’s interesting to note that last week, Sam Altman was seen in a private meeting with Kenya’s President William Ruto and some other individuals.
However, it’s not tied to quests… Layer 2 blockchain Optimism initiated its third wave of token distribution exclusively for OP delegators. To qualify for the rewards, participants needed to accumulate 18,000 points. The points were calculated by multiplying the number of delegated OP by the delegation days, which must exceed 7 days. If the delegate actively engaged in voting, a minimum of 9,000 points was required. There’s no claiming process or forms to fill out! Tokens have been automatically sent straight to users’ wallets. In total, over 19 million OP tokens have been distributed to 31,870 unique addresses.
FTX’s portfolio liquidation is unlikely to shake the market significantly, as noted by Coinbase in their latest weekly report. They cited multiple reasons supporting this claim. 1. Weekly Sell Limits: Initially, liquidations are capped at $50 million per week for digital assets. This limit will gradually increase to $100 million in subsequent weeks. Any permanent increase to a maximum limit of $200 million requires approval from two committees representing FTX debtors. 2. Insider-Affiliated Tokens: Stricter controls govern the sale of “insider-affiliated” tokens, necessitating a 10-day advance notice to the same committees. 3. Locked Holdings: A significant portion of FTX’s SOL holdings, along with some other tokens, are locked until approximately 2025 due to token vesting schedules, limiting their availability for sale. 4. Hedging Measures: FTX has the option to hedge its sales of BTC, ETH, and other debtor-identified assets through an investment advisor, contingent on prior committee approval. These precautions ensure a measured and controlled approach to asset liquidation.
NYDFS wants to increase transparency from cryptocurrency companies operating in the state, particularly in their processes for listing and delisting cryptocurrencies. The new framework will require firms to develop their coin-listing policies in three key areas: governance for the coin-listing process, risk assessments of coins, and procedures for monitoring coins. The framework will also require firms to provide detailed information on their criteria and decision-making process for delisting a coin. The proposed legislation is open for public comments and will remain so until October 20th.
Hong Kong police have arrested Joseph Lam, a crypto influencer and former lawyer, in connection with the ongoing investigation into cryptocurrency exchange JPEX. Lam, who has over 190,000 Instagram followers, was arrested today and his office was raided. The arrest follows the Securities and Futures Commission’s warning against JPEX for misleading statements about its licensing status. The police have received at least 83 complaints involving JPEX, with virtual assets worth about HK$34 million ($4.3 million) reported.
Coinbase’s blockchain, Base, has set a new daily transaction record, reaching 1.88 million transactions. This achievement surpasses its previous high of 1.41 million transactions, established shortly after its launch in August. Notably, this number surpasses the combined daily transactions of both Optimism and Arbitrum, which totaled 878,000 transactions.
The Optimism Governance has announced a direct distribution of unclaimed tokens from the inaugural airdrop. They aim to distribute (if not already done) 48 million OP across over 88,000 distinct addresses. This accounts for about 25% of all the addresses originally qualified to receive tokens. This decision was made to allow the team to shift their focus to other endeavors related to smart contracts and upcoming airdrops.
Several iToken wallet users found their private keys and secret phrases exposed because of a Trojan virus created by a former Huobi employee. Upon this unsettling discovery, iToken’s team swiftly notified the endangered users, making them aware of possible wallet risks. The investigation has kicked off, focusing on Huobi employee’s involvement.
The cache of sealed documents consists of 117 pages. These encompass internal Binance.US records, electronic correspondences, and SEC legal filings.
Crypto Kaleo is a renowned crypto trader and one of the most followed influencers in the industry. Active since 2017, he has built a strong presence on X, TradingView, and other platforms, sharing technical analysis, market predictions, and insightful commentary on the crypto space.
Are sky-high Ethereum fees getting you down? The folks at Zora have come up with an alternative, introducing their Layer 2 solution with lower transaction fees. This article will walk you through how to get involved with the project and earn some rewards.