Cryptocurrency news by Protos

Twitter scammers impersonating Elon Musk are reportedly pivoting from free accounts to paid ads as they attempt to lure victims with promises of free crypto, trips to Mars, and Neuralink brain chips.The numbers of ads featuring the Twitter CEO’s photo seem to be on the rise. Forbes even suggests that Twitter is either “knowingly or unknowingly profiting from crypto scams on its platform.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New research suggests that there’s a “good chance” Terra’s collapse was largely triggered by quant trading firm Jane Street.Igor Igamberdiev, head of research at crypto market maker Wintermute, believes that Jane Street is likely related to the notorious ‘Wallet A,’ which swapped 85 million UST for USDC and imbalanced the UST/3CRV Curve pool. Wallet A is often considered to be a major contributor to the depegging of Terra in May. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Despite nearly six years passing since the inception of decentralized finance (DeFi) in 2017, it’s still experiencing child-like growing pains in 2023. DeFi underpins many Web3 properties which experience hacks and exploits weekly. Multi-million dollar exploits remain commonplace.In 2023, DeFi could continue its slow development, or it could pass as an unsustainable fad. In any case, here are the most recent problems facing three large DeFi platforms today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An Australian man has been charged with extortion for giving authorities in Queensland a fiery ultimatum: hand over $5 million AUD ($3.4 million) in crypto or he would intentionally start a bushfire. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Payment processors Mastercard and Visa say they have no plans to alter their crypto strategies despite delaying plans to forge new relationships in the industry, following the high-profile collapses of a number of prominent firms.As reported by Reuters, the spectacular implosions of companies including FTX and BlockFi have led to the financial giants pumping the brakes on a number of crypto-related products and services. According to anonymous sources close to the matter, the delays will remain in place “until market conditions and the regulatory environment improve.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A prominent designer based in Tel Aviv was arrested on Sunday by Israeli authorities for allegedly failing to disclose cryptocurrency earnings in tax reports. Ben Benhorin, a digital artist and owner of independent studio Wuwa, creates generative code-based art and sells pieces on its OpenSea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you’re wondering about the state of the cryptocurrency industry post-FTX’s dramatic collapse, here’s some news: a token associated with CoinFLEX, a bankrupted crypto futures and lending exchange, has rocketed by 3,000%.The FLEX token has jumped from five cents to $1.50 since it was revealed that it would be utilized as the token of choice for the new Su Zhu, Kyle Davies, and Mark Lamb-run cryptocurrency bankruptcy claim exchange, OPNX. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Decentralized finance protocol LaunchZone has claimed an attacker has drained 80% of funds in its liquidity pool, worth $700,000.LaunchZone claims to be “the ultimate DeFi platform.” The BNB Chain-based protocol paused trading and transferring of its native token, LZ, until “the problems are solved,” it announced on Twitter earlier today, in a post that restricts replies. However, it shared an announcement by crypto exchange Biswap that LZ will be delisted due to its alleged hack. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Earlier this month, Tether Holdings Limited reported a 2022 Q4 profit of $700 million and excess reserves of $960 million. The report couldn’t be independently verified but if true, these figures would be remarkable given the pain currently being felt across much of the rest of the crypto industry. When we examine headlines from a year ago, it’s clear that most of crypto’s big players had it tough. Those who have survived and prospered are particularly interesting. Although it’s not possible to verify many of the claims coming directly from Tether, public information suggests that one of its little-known cousins, Heka Funds, has been consistently making money without pause. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Crypto personality Richard Heart has delayed the launch of PulseChain and PulseX for months. Hundreds of millions of dollars in user funds are inaccessible within sacrificed wallets for the two projects, while ongoing delays have caused finger-pointing among Heart’s “Hexican” following from his original ICO, HEX. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Wednesday, Polygon experienced a blockchain quirk affecting 157 blocks or approximately five minutes worth of network activity.After blocks appeared to have stopped being produced for several minutes, the Ethereum side-chain’s co-founder Sandeep Nailwal tweeted that (block explorer) Polygonscan was “having some issues.”In actual fact, the interruption was down to a chain reorganization or ‘reorg’, a problem that Polygon is attempting to fix. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A UK crypto firm that disappeared, leaving 8,000 investors, including a Premier League footballer, locked out of their investments, has ignited fierce debate around the issue of corporate lobbying in UK politics.Phoenix Community Capital was at one point rumored to be worth $800 million and offered its customers investments that would supposedly make them their money back in 45 days. However, as The Guardian reports, the firm vanished in 2022, locking an estimated 8,000 investors out of their funds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A New York judge has ruled that a proposed class-action lawsuit against Dapper Labs and its Top Shot Moments NFT collection can move forward because the offering could have been an unregistered securities offering.In the eyes of the plaintiffs, the offering should have registered with the SEC but instead, it opted to withhold important information from investors about the risks of investing in its NFTs. Many of these have collapsed since their purchase. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A superseding indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried has been filed in the Southern District of New York, newly charging him with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, commodities fraud, and securities fraud.This is an addition to the existing conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions, wire fraud, and conspiracy charges. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Crypto traders in the UK have turned to the police for help after losing nearly $2.3 million following the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) FTX empire.As reported by CityAM, a freedom of information request (FOI) submitted by trading website Investing Reviews to the City of London Police revealed how 32 crypto traders lost a collective £1.9 million ($2.28 million). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Tuesday, web 3.0 company CanaryLabs.XYZ sold 71 pieces from the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Apes collections, raking in a total of up to 5,500 ETH or $9 million.Surprisingly, the unusually large dump, which came after allegations that Yuga Labs plagiarised its logos, didn’t move the floor price at all. At the time of writing, Bored Ape Yacht Club’s (BAYC) 24-hour trading volume stands at around 13,723 ETH. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Liquidity on crypto exchange Binance evaporated on Wednesday morning as its stablecoin, BUSD, dropped to a low of $0.20 against the DAI stablecoin.A single sell order of $647,000 triggered the steep tumble. However, BUSD instantly regained its peg against DAI, as arbitrage traders snapped up the discount and sold it for $1 on other exchanges.Binance’s orderbook revealed $3.38 million in aggregated sell orders made while BUSD depegged against the DAI, CoinDesk reports. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Could it be beneficial for the prosecution to let Sam Bankman-Fried stay online and talking? Yes, but it’s also a detriment to society.As FTX collapsed around him, Sam Bankman-Fried took to Twitter in an attempt to ease the disparate and panicked cries from traders, investors, and employees. Everything was fine, he assured the Twitterverse; the company was simply experiencing a liquidity crunch. It was all things SBF, all the time. Even when headlines read “SBF lies again” or “nothing he says makes sense," it somehow felt like he was controlling the narrative.Then, about a month ago, there was resounding (and very welcome) silence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fred Schebesta, the founder and former CEO of Australian financial services comparison application Finder, self-describes as the ‘Crypto King of Australia.’ He sold his over-the-counter trading (OTC) desk to Alameda Research which was then used to bank FTX.Schebesta is also connected to a variety of different investment vehicles, though the full relationship between these entities is somewhat difficult to parse.Protos investigated the tangled web of Schebesta's empire and mapped out how various entities are deeply entwined. From HiveEx to FTX, there's a lot to explore. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In early 2023, the cryptocurrency industry has been characterized by unexpected price pumps and mounting regulatory pressure, yet it’s been a fairly quiet time for the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.DeFi, which usually suffers from a near-constant barrage of hacks, scams, and rug pulls, has flown largely under the radar while the likes of Binance and Kraken have faced off repeatedly with the SEC.However, just because things in that particular part of the cryptosphere appear quieter, doesn’t mean that DeFi hasn’t had its fair share of drama. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An unidentified NFT trader has lost more than 1,000 ETH, most of it via purchases of the much-hyped Moonbirds.Moonbirds was launched in April last year by Kevin Rose’s Proof Collective and was supposed to build connections between NFT collectors. It was also planning to host an NFT conference, however, this has now been canceled. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new report by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reveals most retail crypto investors bought the dip in the wake of Terra Luna and FTX’s collapse while larger investors mainly sold. As a result, a majority of crypto app users in “nearly all economies” have made losses on their bitcoin holdings, with whales selling “at the expense of smaller holders.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the world’s oldest blockchain, Bitcoin is a popular place to hunt for hidden gems. It has storied lore within communities of cypherpunks, gamers, and cryptographers, and with millions of users across its 14 years in operation, there have been more than a few Easter eggs hidden away. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the US, state and federal bail restrictions can differ wildly and, unless there’s some reason to believe that a charged individual will hurt themselves or others or flee before their trial, federal bail conditions are usually quite reasonable.In the case of Sam Bankman-Fried, while he’s charged with the third largest corporate fraud in history (surpassed only by Bernie Madoff and Enron), he’s also never committed another crime, was relatively easily extradited from The Bahamas, and comes from a well-connected family at Stanford University. Meanwhile, Avraham Eisenberg, the exploiter of the decentralized exchange Mango Markets, also faced bail hearings this month. Only, Eisenberg waived his right to bail entirely and went directly to jail.So, why were their bail cases treated so differently? Protos reached out to several lawyers who spoke on background to provide some answers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yuga Labs has nixed its Bored Ape Kennel Club logo after it was revealed that it plagiarised an image from a drawing guide called Easy Drawing Tutorial.Yuga Labs co-founder, Greg Solano, seemingly dismissed the revelations as “claims'' despite the logo looking identical to the drawing in the guide by Rauno Tolonen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sources familiar with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Do Kwon have named Jump Crypto as the beneficiary of $1.28 billion dollars in profit from his decimated crypto empire, Terra Luna.Do Kwon is facing civil charges in the US. The SEC alleges that he and his company, Terraform Labs, raised billions of dollars through unregistered securities.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The blockchain gaming industry had an impressive 2021. Play-to-earn, move-to-earn, NFT games, and prices for all sorts of blockchain entertainment were surging.Of course, it was all just a flash in the pan. Within a few months, the bottom fell out of the market and both active users and market capitalizations cratered.Now that much of the dust has settled, a new report by Delphi Digital examines the extent to which so-called Sybil attacks inflated growth metrics for blockchain gaming. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against Terraform Labs and Do Kwon alleging that they defrauded investors in a scheme involving multiple unregistered securities.The SEC highlights claims by Terraform Labs and Do Kwon that Chai, a Korean payments application, used Terra. This was despite the payments actually being mirrored onto the blockchain and made using conventional means. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reuters has reported that Binance directed over $400 million to be transferred from Binance US's account at Silvergate bank to Merit Peak, a firm controlled by Changpeng Zhao. The transfers reportedly began in late 2020 and continued through the first three months of 2021. Catherine Coley, the then CEO of Binance US, reportedly didn't understand the transfers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The director of a spoof movie based on the reimagined antics of pseudonymous bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto has claimed that a group of ‘crypto hackers’ has anonymously threatened him and his wife.  The director behind Decrypted, told the Daily Mail how the hackers sent him “unsettling” videos before the film’s US launch earlier this month.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Venture capitalists at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) could control at least 41.5 million and likely over 55 million Uniswap (UNI) tokens. Globally, there are 753.7 million circulating UNI, and if a16z does indeed hold this number of tokens, it would allow the firm to unilaterally reach quorum for voting on Uniswap proposals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New crypto projects have been advised to postpone their launches by up to six months after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) Alameda Research sapped liquidity across major tokens by up to 50%.Applications tailed off toward the back end of 2022 as SBF’s major market maker imploded, taking billions of dollars in liquidity with it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is proposing a modification to the custody rule for investment advisors holding client assets that would reduce choices for advisors managing cryptocurrencies.The rule expands the requirements to all client assets, rather than just securities and funds. This would require all adviser-held assets to sit with a qualified custodian — generally, a bank, trust company, broker-dealer, futures commission merchant, or some foreign financial institutions. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now-bankrupt Ponzi scheme Celsius Network has reached a deal with NovaWulf Digital Management LP to sell its crypto platform, in an ongoing bid to refund customers.Celsius must still seek the approval of bankruptcy court, as well as the blessing of the majority of its customers, before the deal can go through. If all goes to plan, users can expect a share of their trapped crypto on the platform to be returned in bitcoin and ether. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Blockchain data suggests that the Waves team may have sold its own stablecoin, USDN, to top-up the bridge of its DEX and also buy back the debt accumulated by its Vires lending platform after a crypto analyst alleged the Waves team sold up to $138 million in USDN since April last year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The turmoil that hit digital assets markets last year plunged several prominent exchanges and hedge funds into bankruptcy. Among the most high-profile was the collapse of the gargantuan, once-$29 billion Terra LUNA ecosystem which, many will say, was the first domino that eventually destroyed Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX. However, this would be a misunderstanding of causality. In actual fact, it started with MobileCoin (MOB). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ransomware scammers in the US have incorporated the classic gore-filled videogame Mortal Kombat into their latest attempts to relieve unlucky victims of their bitcoin.As reported by PCMag, the attack targeted Windows computers via emails purporting to be from crypto wallet and payment platform CoinPayments. The emails informed users that their attempted payments “timed out” before a malicious ZIP file locked their computers and presented a Mortal Kombat-themed ransom note. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Billionaire Ken Griffin’s behemoth Citadel Securities has declared a 5.5% stake in Silvergate Capital worth around $25 million, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robinhood made waves in 2013 by offering free shares in companies for new customers and gamifying complicated options contracts. In 2020 and 2021, covid restrictions and US government checks to citizens created the perfect climate for the broker, with gambling on stock markets rising in simplicity and popularity. Streamers, TikTokers, and YouTubers went full “not financial advice” on their audiences.Ever since February of last year, however, it’s become abundantly clear that Robinhood picked the wrong time to go public — and the broker is struggling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rumors are circulating that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon issue an enforcement notice to Circle over its stablecoin USDC.The move comes as part of the SEC’s current crackdown on stablecoins and follows its enforcement letter to Paxos, demanding the exchange stop minting Binance stablecoin BUSD because it may be a security. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

PayPal has halted the debut of its stablecoin amid heightened regulatory scrutiny in the crypto industry and news of a probe by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDF) into its key partner, Paxos.Crypto firm Paxos was working closely with PayPal to launch a ‘PayPal Coin,’ announced last year when it was leaked by Bloomberg. The coin was intended to be backed by the US dollar. However, the incumbent launch was halted on Friday. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paxos has announced that from February 21, it will no longer issue new Binance USD (BUSD) tokens.Binance USD is a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Paxos that carried the Binance brand name. Protos previously reported on the work of Jonathan Reiter which showed that Binance Peg BUSD, a token pegged to BUSD issued by Binance, hadn’t always been appropriately backed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Crypto wallet holders were targeted this weekend when domain registrar Namecheap was hacked, allowing scammers to send out a raft of phishing emails impersonating MetaMask and DHL, reports BleepingComputer.Namecheap’s email system was breached on Sunday and messages attempting to steal personal details and crypto wallets were fired out via the company’s email platform SendGrid.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bitcoin inscriptions using ordinals are becoming increasingly popular. As the hype cycle begins for the “NFTs on Bitcoin” movement, profiteering ordinals pump groups have quickly sprung into action. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A woman in Hong Kong lost nearly $800,000 when she attempted to adopt a kitten but instead got caught up in an elaborate crypto scam, reports Alarabiya News. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and other FTX executives were major US political donors. But they were also active internationally, with one related Australian entity making $27,540 in donations in the 2021-2022 cycle according to Annual Returns published by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Crypto exchange Kraken has agreed to pay $30 million and discontinue offering staking-as-a-service in the US, in order to settle charges of offering an unregistered security with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).The complaint against Kraken details how the SEC feels that the pooling of staking user assets and efforts to derive profits for them results in the staking product being a security. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the end of 2022, I vowed to start the new year with a column called So You Don’t Have To. The idea was simple: I’d read crypto books, watch fluff documentaries, and play Ponzi games. Then, after torturing myself enough, I’d report back with an honest review.Unfortunately, I couldn’t have started with a more loathsome, vanilla, and hypocritical book than Catching Up To Crypto: Your Guide to Bitcoin and the Digital Economy by the equally loathsome, vanilla, and hypocritical Ben “BitBoy” Armstrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tether has released a new assurance from BDO Italia, as required by its settlement with the New York Attorney General (NYAG), revealing an increase in Tether ‘Shareholder Capital Cushion’ to over $960 million.Interestingly, this number seems quite different from what Tether had previously disclosed on its transparency page. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A dramatic week has resulted in the mass-resignation of Umami Finance’s core team and a crash in the price of the UMAMI token, as the project’s ex-CEO allegedly dumped his token holdings.Umami Finance claims to be “pioneering the institutional adoption of DeFi,” but TradFi investors are likely to be put off by recent developments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.