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The ban on the use of Tornado Cash wants to be canceled through the court
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase upheld a lawsuit filed against the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to lift sanctions against the Tornado Cash mixer.
On April 5, six people went to court in the US state of Texas to appeal OFAC's decision to ban the use of Tornado Cash. According to the plaintiffs, the department exceeded its powers and violated the right to freedom of speech, enshrined in the Constitution.
The legislation allows OFAC to apply restrictive measures to property owned by foreigners. The open source software, which is Tornado Cash smart contracts, is not private property, and therefore the management illegally condemned the use of the platform software.
In addition, the plaintiffs believe that imposing sanctions against the mixer essentially constitutes censorship and restricts people's freedom. Money laundering transactions accounted for only 0.05% of transactions performed by Tornado Cash customers. Accordingly, the total ban of the site was devoid of common sense.
Given the above facts, the plaintiffs ask the court to remove all restrictions on the use of Tornado Cash and permanently prohibit OFAC from interfering with the operation of the platform.
The outflow of funds from USDC stablecoin exceeded $10 billion
A few weeks after the bankruptcy of a number of American banks, as well as the crisis in Credit Suisse, the cryptocurrency market has significantly improved its performance, which cannot be said about the well-known stablecoin USDC.
Trust in Circle's stablecoin is still at a fairly low level, and investors, trying to sit out the crisis, continue to choose Tether (USDT), despite its controversial reputation.
USDC's market capitalization is down to $33.2 billion, down more than 42% from its all-time high of $57 billion last June.
The decline was driven by stablecoin issuer Circle holding $3.3 billion of assets in Silicon Valley Bank (SVb). This fact temporarily reduced the price of the token to 88 cents instead of its usual price of one dollar.
To facilitate USDC payments, Circle has expanded its ties with BNY Mellon, which already provides the company's reserve custody services.
A few days later, the firm announced that it had transferred almost all of its cash to the new bank, with the exception of a limited amount of funds held by operational partners. Even though these measures helped the token regain its peg to the US dollar, the massive outflow continued.
Since the SVB crash on March 10, USDC net outflows have exceeded $10 billion. As for its rival USDT, its market capitalization is hovering around a record high of almost $80 billion, holding the largest market share since May 2021. USDT currently represents 60% of all stablecoins in circulation.
A similar fate befell another stablecoin, BUSD, which fell from a high of almost $30 billion to $7.69 billion. The figures reflect a decline of more than 67% in less than four months.
However, Circle is looking to integrate USDC across multiple blockchains, with the stablecoin issuer announcing the launch of the token on Cosmos via the Noble network.
The Noble team said that USDC will be the first stablecoin in their network with high liquidity and full collateral. Note that this network interacts with the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBS) protocol from Cosmos.
The court did not arrest the co-founder of Terra
A Korean court did not arrest Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin. This is written by the local edition of Yonhap News, citing a court order.
Seoul prosecutors called for Shin to be arrested. According to investigators, the co-founder of Terraform Labs made illegal profits of about $105 million through the sale of luna tokens (LUNA) before the collapse of the ecosystem. However, the court denied the arrest warrant for the second time.
According to the court, the prosecutor's office did not provide evidence that Shin plans to hide from the investigation as part of the Terra case. The tire is accused of fraud, as well as market fraud. He himself denies the accusations and emphasizes that he left the project two years before Terra's problems.
Earlier, South Korean law enforcement agencies raided the offices of Chai Corporation. According to the media, the company was founded by Shin and focused on payment technology. However, local authorities believe that Shin used the company solely to promote LUNA. The scale of the scheme remains unclear.
Recall that earlier the co-founder and main ideologist of the Terra ecosystem, Do Kwon, was arrested at the airport in Montenegro while trying to get to Dubai. According to the local Interior Ministry, he was detained with forged documents.
New York prosecutors are charging Kwon with eight counts, including conspiracy to defraud, financial fraud and market manipulation. The US authorities will seek the confiscation of Kwon's property obtained as a result of fraud, the ruling noted.
The investigation into Terraform Labs and Kwon began last May after the collapse of the ecosystem. The plaintiffs were investors who lost millions of dollars from investments in Terra.
At the end of October, 359 investors filed a class action lawsuit against Kwon for $57 million. According to them, Kwon and top managers of Terraform Labs deliberately misled investors about the technical condition of the terraUSD (UST) stablecloine.
The head of CryptoQuant spoke about the habits of South Korean traders
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Yong Joo added to a Twitter post he left back in 2021. There, he described the habits of South Korean traders and noted that they were actively pumping cryptocurrency assets.
According to the expert, this is due to the fact that South Korea has rather strict capital controls, within which arbitrage opportunities between exchanges are blocked. Ki Yong Joo stressed that the local government could make things worse.
Today, the expert added that South Korean traders now prefer to pump and dump altcoins. In support of his words, he added several video clips.
Over the past day, the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has increased by 0.42% and is located near the $1.19 trillion mark. Bitcoin dominance is estimated at 46.6%, up 0.51% from the previous day.
It is noteworthy that of all the digital assets included in the top 10 by capitalization, only Bitcoin is traded in the black. Over the past 24 hours, the coin has risen by more than 1%.
Earlier, analysts from CryptoQuant reported that open interest in BTC futures contracts continues to grow steadily. This suggests that traders have begun to open new short positions more actively. It is possible that this dynamics may cause increased volatility in the price of bitcoin in the near future.
Experts called the difficulties of implementing blockchain identification
Blockchain technology is actively used in the cryptocurrency segment, but its application is not limited to the financial industry. Digital identity management is one area where blockchain technology is gaining more interest. Financemagnates specialists spoke about the potential difficulties of implementing this tool.
It’s worth starting with the fact that there is currently no single standard for digital identification. And this can provoke systemic problems with interoperability between different ecosystems. As for the regulatory framework, uncertainty reigned here as well.
According to experts, users who are unfamiliar with blockchain technology may encounter adaptation problems. The fact is that it is quite difficult to deal with all the nuances of this topic.
Specialists emphasize that in order to accommodate a large number of users and transactions, digital blockchain identification requires a stable and scalable infrastructure. There are certain difficulties with this too, since public blockchains have limited scalability.
However, one of the most significant dangers of digital identity remains the possibility of a single point of failure. Essentially, all user data is stored in one place, and potential data leakage compromises the privacy of all consumers. In theory, hackers can gain access to private data, including financial information and medical records.
The experts concluded that as this segment develops, it is necessary to focus on solving the above problems in order to achieve wide distribution, as well as to fully put into practice all the strengths of digital blockchain identification.
BTC course expands consolidation and may soon start a new takeoff
The bitcoin rate began a downward correction after it failed to overcome the $28,800 resistance zone. BTC dropped below the $28,000 level and even broke through the $27,500 support zone
However, the bulls were active near the $27,000 support zone. The low was formed around $27,007 and it started a new uptrend. There was a clear move above the $27,500 resistance zone. BTC broke the 50% Fibonacci retracement level on a down move from a swing high of $28,798 to a low of $27,007.
BTC is currently trading above $27,500 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. On the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair, a key bullish trend line is also forming with support near $27,500.
On the other hand, immediate resistance lies near the $28,120 level. It lies near the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level of the down move from the $28,798 swing high to the $27,007 low. The next major resistance lies near the $28,150 zone.
A close above the $28,150 resistance could lead to another significant upside. In this case, BTC may rise to the level of $28,800. Further growth may direct the course towards the $29,500 resistance zone.
If Bitcoin fails to overcome the resistance at $28,150, it may start a new decline. Immediate support on the downside is near the $27,800 zone and the 100-hour SMA.
The next major support is near the $27,600 zone or trend line. Any new losses could send the course towards the $27,150 support zone. The next major support is near the $27,000 level.
The European Parliament may ease restrictions on crypto payments
Politicians in the European Parliament have agreed on the text of an anti-money laundering bill due to be voted on March 28, and the crypto industry appears to have received partial relief.
Due to concerns expressed by participants in the digital asset industry, politicians have decided to revert to the original wording of the commercial payment proposal.
The article that the MEPs introduced into the bill limited transactions with an incompletely identified crypto wallet.
Changes previously made to the draft regulation meant that only transfers made from an EU-licensed cryptographic service provider could exceed the equivalent of €1,000 euros ($1,090). This wording caused serious resistance from the European crypto industry.
In the latest version of the bill, cash transactions will be capped at €7,000 for commercial payments, as opposed to the €1,000 maximum for cryptocurrency transactions.
The text of the bill allows for the elimination of the €7,000 cash threshold for interpersonal payments, unless they relate to real estate, luxury goods or a deposit with a financial institution.
The text must now be approved by a vote in the Parliamentary Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. It will then need to pass a plenary vote before entering into interagency negotiations.
SEC is threatening to sue Coinbase for violation of securities laws
The Coinbase leadership reported that the regulator notification concerns the indefinite digital asset segment, Coinbase Earn and Coinbase Prime, as well as the Coinbase Wallet wallet.
The exchange is given the time to provide the department with explanations and refute his accusations. A potential lawsuit can lead to a court ban on the listed Coinbase services and fines.
Coinbase claims that the crypto actes trading on the platform are not securities and undergo a thorough check before listing.
The main legal adviser to Coinbase Paul Grewal noted that Coinbase programs are very different from those that the Kraken exchange, which has recently been persecuted by SEC. As a result, Kraken closed the Steiking program and paid a fine of $ 30 million.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that the exchange would continue to provide its products and services as usual, as I am sure of the legality of the site.
“We welcome the trial if it brings clarity to the regulation of the industry. This will once again demonstrate that the SEC position is unfair and unreasonable when the department deals with digital assets, ”Gruel added.
The management of Coinbase expressed disappointment regarding the SEC approach to crypto actures, saying that the exchange tried to interact in good faith with the regulator. At the same time, it is still unclear how cryptocurrency exchanges should apply existing rules.
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Study: CBDC transactions to exceed $210 billion by 2030
A study by analytics firm Juniper Research found that payments in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could reach $213 billion by 2030.
The company believes that governments around the world will use this product to expand access to financial services and improve the monetary situation in emerging economies. This opinion, of course, stands out from a number of rational ones.
Juniper Research experts analyzing the fintech and payments market believe that by 2030, CBDC transactions could skyrocket from $100M in 2023 to $213B, or 213,000%.
The specialists noted that while the financial product is at an early stage of development, however, central banks will focus their attention on it in order to improve digital calculations and, as an option, use it to gain control over consumer finances and oversee their activities.
The issuance of CBDC is supported by government officials and central banks, who believe that this instrument will be a better solution than bitcoin.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen argues that the digital dollar could outperform BTC, which has "high fees and slow transaction processing times."
Most cryptocurrency advocates oppose CBDCs, reasonably believing that centralized organizations will use them to increase their control over people's cash flows.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back is confident that these products are worse than bank accounts, while Bitcoin is “apolitical bearer money that cannot be withdrawn.”
China is undoubtedly at the forefront of central bank digital currency development; Brazil, Japan and South Korea have also introduced pilot CBDC programs.
Chainalysis: Investors buy USD Coin and transfer it to DEX
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank led investors to transfer their assets to USD Coin, moving funds from centralized exchanges (CEX) to decentralized exchanges (DEX).
The outflow of funds from centralized exchanges increases sharply when markets are in a volatile state, according to chainalysis, an analytics company, as users worry about losing access to their assets.
Funds sent from CEX to DEX after the SVB crash. Source: Chainalysis
Chainalysis data shows that since the shutdown of Silicon Valley Bank by the California regulator on March 11, outflows from CEX to DEX have risen by more than $300 million.
A similar phenomenon was seen during the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange last year due to fears that the problems would spread to other crypto firms.
However, data from blockchain analytics platform Token Terminal suggests that the rise in daily trading volumes on major DEXs was short-lived in both cases.
Daily trading volumes on major DEXs from September to March. Source: Token Terminal
USDC has been identified as one of the main assets being moved to the DEX, which is not surprising since after the USDC depeg, many CEXs, such as Coinbase, temporarily suspended USDC trading.
What is surprising, as Chainalysis noted, is the surge in USDC acquisitions on major DEXs such as Curve3pool and Uniswap.
Clients of the Indian Bank SVC confused it with SVB
The similarity of the abbreviations of the two banks-Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Shamrao Vithal Co-Operative Bank (SVC)-caused confusion among India citizens. Many of them began to worry that they would lose their traditional assets, as well as cryptocurrencies.
The fact is that consumers heard about the closure of a financial institution in the United States, but without understanding that it was concerned with the local bank.
Soon after March 10, 2023, the first reports appeared about the inevitable closure of SVB, panic spread around the world. The leadership of the cooperative bank Shamrao Vithal Co-Operative Bank (SVC Bank) has published a distance of distance from the American bank.
The report says: SVC Bank is completely unrelated to Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which was based in California (USA). In addition, the leadership reserved the right to sue rumors distributors for the fact that they stained the image of the brand.
In addition, the Indian bank advised its members, customers and interested parties to ignore all rumors about the possible closure of the financial institution in India. Earlier, on March 13, 2023, US President Joe Biden announced his plan.
He expressed a desire to help traditional SVB and Signature Bank banks. The head of state promised: all customers will be able to return their funds stored in these banks.
The cryptocurrency market reacted quite ambiguously. At first, the total capitalization of the industry fell sharply. This was the result of the fact that numerous traders and investors began to sell their crypto acts in a panic, fearing the next liquidity crisis.
In addition, users' trust was seriously shaken by the USD Coin (USDC) prison to the cost of the US dollar (USD). However, after the government’s statements, the bitcoin cryptocurrency rate increased by 18% and reached $ 25,000. The community showed great confidence in the industry, calling the traditional market the most dangerous.
The community was concerned about the collapse of banks friendly to cryptocurrencies
The problems of three banks - Silvergate Bank, Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) - caused concern among the cryptocurrency community regarding the future fate of the companies related to industry.
“The depositors will be saved, but in the USA there will be practically no one to serve crypto companies,” wrote the leading podcast The Wolf of All Streets Scott Melker.
CoinShares Director Meltmo Demirce expressed similar fears. She emphasized that "in just a week, cryptocurrency in the United States lost all banks."
Crypto -investor and blogger Lark Davis noted that Signature Bank was the “last large bank”, which served the company's digital assets.
Against the background of the situation in the US banking sector, the co -founder of Castle Island Ventures, Nick Carter predicted a possible reduction in market liquidity. In an interview with CNBC, he said that Sen and Signet payment systems were a key source of fiat for many companies.
Jake Chervinsky, head of the digital asset promotion department in Blockchain Association, noted that the closure of financial organizations is creating a “huge gap” on the crypto car.
“There are many banks that can take this opportunity, without taking the same risks as these three. The question is whether the regulators will try to stand in their way, ”he added.
Blocktower Capital General Partner Mike Buchella told CNBC that many in the industries are already moving to Mercury Bank and Axos Bank.
“In the near future, cryptobanking for North America will be a difficult test. However, there is a long list of fraud banks that can replenish this gap, ”he explained.
The head of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, Chanpen Zhao, also spoke about the situation with banks, but later deleted his tweet. According to the screenshot, he doubted the need to save problematic financial institutions - in his opinion, such help reduces incentives to manage risks.
Messari General Director Ryan Selkis also expressed concern about the future Stablecoin USDC.
“From that moment on, the whole industry must frantically fight for the protection and promotion of the USDC. This is the last support for cryptocurrencies in the United States, ”he said.
President of the Euro Pacific Capital Bank, Peter Schiff, expressed the opinion that the Fed realized how unstable the situation is in the economy, and that SVB collapse would cause a financial crisis.
“This proves that [the head of the Fed Jar] Powell lied to both the power of the US economy and his determination to fight inflation,” Shiff said.
Against the background of SVB collapse, the USDC stablecoin and the algorithmic “stable coins” of DAI and Frax have lost a binding to the US dollar. On March 13, the USD Coin issuer, Circle assured in solving problems with banking asset.
USDC and DAI deviated from the dollar due to the storage of reserves in the troubled Silicon Valley Bank
The collapse of the Silicon Valley bank was the largest since the 2008 crisis in the United States. The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was forced to take action and take control of the bank's operations. Silicon Valley has served many tech companies, including Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin.
Considering that USDC capitalization exceeds $41 billion, the temporary unavailability of $3.3 billion should not be a significant problem, especially since deposits in Silicon Valley are insured by the FDIC, although there are rumors of a possible loss of 40% of these funds.
The announcement that Circle was holding significant amounts of funds in the bank led to some panic. The stablecoin exchange rate got rid of the dollar exchange rate and decreased by 2% on some sites. USDC is currently trading at $0.93.
The DAI stablecoin also had problems - the security of this token is partially contained in USDC. Therefore, the DAI rate also untied the dollar. The tokens are currently trading at $0.94.
Circle representatives said they are not taking any special action yet, but are waiting for "clarification of the situation" from US regulators.
Currently, about 25% of USDC reserves are held in six US banks, including the bankrupt Silvergate and Silicon Valley. Some sources say there are problems with Signature Bank, where Circle also holds part of the reserves.
Against this background, the American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has suspended the conversion of USDC into fiat currency. In a statement, representatives of the site said that the service will be restored on Monday, when banks have working hours. Binance, the largest exchange, has suspended the conversion of USDC to BUSD.
Reports have also begun to surface that various cryptocurrency exchanges have suspended deposits in USDC. One of the reasons may be the desire to smooth out the impact of sales on the stablecoin price.
However, the use of smart contracts for the exchange of USDT, USDC, DAI and others has grown significantly - investors are trying to get rid of problem assets. Against this background, the volume of gas for transactions in the Ethereum network has grown to 220 Gwei.
The situation also affected arbitrage traders - many began to take loans in USDT to trade on the difference in rates in stablecoins. Interest on the use of funds almost instantly soared to 100% per annum.
Interestingly, the Tesla CEO has already announced a possible purchase of Silicon Valley Bank and its transformation into a digital bank.
Criminal transactions with cryptocurrencies in South Korea exceeded $4 billion
According to the South Korean Customs Service, the amount of criminal transactions with digital currencies in 2022 amounted to 5.6 trillion won ($4.3 billion).
These funds were seized by law enforcement agencies as part of a policy to tighten control over the crypto market. In 2021, the amount of criminal transactions involving digital assets amounted to 3.2 trillion ($2.5 billion).
Nearly 70% of criminal capital in South Korea intercepted by law enforcement moved in digital currencies, local media reported.
In August last year, Korean customs detained 16 people belonging to the criminal community. They were engaged in the legalization of criminal proceeds through cryptocurrency.
In total, they were able to legalize about $2 billion.
According to the legislation in force in the country since 2017, companies sending and receiving funds in cryptocurrencies must obtain a license from supervisory authorities.
Operations carried out by investors without a license from the Financial Services Commission are considered illegal by the authorities. That is why the scale of such transactions remains high.
Bitcoin miners' income has grown by 28.7% since the beginning of the year
The income of bitcoin miners in the 1st quarter of 2023 increased by 28.7% compared to the 4th quarter of 2022 and reached $1.98 billion. According to The Block, in March alone, BTC mining brought in $755.4 million to market participants, of which more than $23 million was received as transaction fees.
From January to March, the rate of the first cryptocurrency increased by 72% - from $16,500 to $28,400. As the value of the asset increased, the income of miners gradually increased, amounting to $601 million in January, $627.1 million in February, and $755 in March. 4 million
According to Blockchain.com, among the industry participants, the largest share belongs to the American mining pool Foundry - 29.9%. It is followed by AntPool with 23.71%, and F2Pool closes the top three with 12.21%.
On April 4, 18:20 Moscow time, BTC is trading at $27,992, having decreased by 0.16% per day. At the same time, over the past week, the asset has added 5.12%, according to Binance. Bitcoin mining difficulty is a record 46.84 T, the total hashrate is 337.87 EH / s, according to the aggregator BTC.com. The historical maximum of the latter was recorded on March 23 at around 398.15 EH/s.
The hashrate is the total computing power on the bitcoin network. Mining difficulty determines the amount of computing power required to find a new block in the blockchain. The parameter changes every 2016 blocks, or about once every two weeks. Thanks to this, the block time is about 10 minutes.
On March 10, a single miner mined a whole block of bitcoin, earning 6.25 BTC, as well as a fee of 0.63 BTC (total about $137,270 at the exchange rate at that time).
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation proposed to oblige miners to declare income. According to the bill, in case of violation, they face criminal liability, providing for up to four years in prison.
The Danish Supreme Court ruled that profits from BTC, including those mined, should be taxed, and US President Joe Biden called for a 30% tax on electricity for miners in the 2024 budget plan.
UK banks refuse to work with crypto companies
SavingsBlocks is a crypto company with approximately 200 clients that has approached nine banks to open an account but has only been successful on two occasions.
Moreover, the two organizations that agreed to deal with SavingsBlocks have already contacted the company's CEO, Edouard Daunizeau, several times, requesting additional information about customer transactions. Doniso stated that it had become difficult to find a service provider in the United Kingdom:
“Not many opportunities are available – most traditional banks will not offer banking services to crypto firms. Given recent events, it will be even more difficult. We are looking for a license in France, where we think it will be easier.”
The current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, as Chancellor of the Exchequer under the previous Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has stated his ambition to make the United Kingdom a cryptocurrency hub. The politician insisted that the measures taken "will help to provide companies with guarantees of a free opportunity to invest, develop and expand in the country."
However, starting from February 2023, the situation is not conducive to the implementation of Sunak's ideas. Some banks have introduced limits on the amounts that a client can transfer to a crypto exchange. Earlier in the UK, a crypto investor was convicted of drug trafficking.
The developer of the game Final Fantasy VII has released a deluxe series of NFTs
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Final Fantasy franchise, publisher Square Enix has unveiled the Final Fantasy VII Anniversary Art Museum: Digital Card Plus NFT card collection. You can pre-order through the Square Enix online store.
The collection includes over 200 works of art available digitally and physically. To be precise, the series consists of 207 cards, which can be divided into the following categories:
3 secret cards
3 premium foil Variant cards
3 Common Variant class cards
99 premium foil cards
99 common cards
There are 20 sets in total, and each set contains 6 physical trading cards and one NFT card. Collectors can purchase sets in a special cardboard box. 20 sets will cost the buyer $ 79.80 (or 79.99 euros).
To redeem NFTs, users will need to register with an Enjin wallet.
$100 million crypto fund set up in Hong Kong
In 2023, a new Hong Kong-based fund plans to raise $100 million to invest in digital asset startups. The fact is that the government is striving to become a regional center for financial technologies and an Asian cryptocurrency hub.
The fund was led by venture partner at Asian private equity firm SAIF Partners Benom Ng and investor Kurt Shea. The organization has already received funding commitments of at least $30 million. Those who joined the first round of the ProDigital Future Fund included Sunwah Kingsway Capital Holdings Ltd. and Golin International Group Ltd.
Hong Kong is serious about attracting the best cryptocurrency companies and industry talent. “I understand the concerns, but nothing is perfect given the complexity of the crypto economy and the current geopolitical landscape,” Shi said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “Our strategy is to continue to monitor how things are going.”
ProDigital Future is aimed at growing businesses. First of all, it was about technology companies that were moving to Web3. At the moment, the fund has already invested in the first 6 projects related to digital assets. These include Hong Kong's GigaSpace metaverse and Australia's One Future Football virtual sports club.
Market researchers noted: investors were wary of investing in new crypto projects. However, "fundraising went relatively smoothly," Shi said. According to him, many Hong Kong organizations that want to develop the cryptocurrency industry and contribute to the evolution of blockchain technology in China, Singapore and other Asian countries have shown interest.
“I believe that Hong Kong will maintain a certain degree of openness and flexibility,” Shi said. "While our portfolio and fund will cover Hong Kong, we will expand our presence in Australia, Singapore, as well as Europe and the US."
Twitter froze the official Arbitrum account
The official Arbitrum Twitter account was suddenly frozen. At the time of publication, the reasons for the blocking remain unclear.
Harry Kalodner, co-founder of the company behind the project, Offchain Labs, confirmed the suspension of the account and said the Arbitrum Foundation was conducting its own investigation.
The blocking came less than a week after the highly publicized airdrop of the Arbitrum governance token.
Perhaps it was caused by the rise in the number of scammers who used fake accounts and sophisticated phishing schemes to steal ARB. Many of these scam accounts are still active and are ignored by Twitter.
The developer of L2-blockchain Scroll Togrkhul Mahararramov was outraged by the fact of blocking, urged Twitter to pay attention to scammers and called the social network “consistently terrible.”
Hacker Euler Finance returned $90 million
The hacker who claimed responsibility for the $200 million Euler Finance decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol exploit has returned some of the stolen funds.
He hacked the product in early March 2023 and spent several weeks negotiating with developers who asked him to transfer back a large amount of stolen funds. He ended up transferring 51,000 Ethereum (ETH) worth $89.59 million.
Such data was provided by the researchers of the analytical company LookonChain, who attached a link to the transaction in the blockchain explorer. They confirmed that almost $90 million was sent back to the smart contract of the Euler Finance protocol.
However, the researchers emphasized that the attacker also made several other transactions. He transferred several tens of millions of US dollars (USD) in Dai (DAI) stablecoin to unknown wallets.
The researchers recalled that last week the developers of Euler Finance offered a reward of $1 million to anyone who provides information about the hacker. They asked him to return the stolen cryptocurrencies in exchange for a promise not to sue the cybercriminal.
The Euler Finance lending protocol was exploited a few weeks ago. As a result, the attacker made 4 transactions in Dai (DAI), Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), Staking Ether (sETH), and USDC stablecoin.
The cybercriminal used a standard scheme. He activated the flash credit to carry out the attack, fooling the protocol and its participants. Native EUL tokens have risen in value by almost 25% over the past 24 hours, with the biggest price movement coming after a hacker put the tokens back into the protocol.
This action likely provoked positive sentiment among traders. Earlier it became known that one of the users asked the hackers to return 75 ETH, and received a transfer of 100 ETH from the attacker.
FTX seeks $460 million from Modulo Capital
Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX is suing venture capital firm Modulo Capital, which received a significant investment from Alameda Research last year.
The lawsuit seeks the return of $460 million in client money that FTX allegedly mishandled into the fund. Thanks to the settlement, both companies can avoid costly litigation; however, this money is only a small percentage of FTX's total asset shortfall.
In the course of bankruptcy proceedings, payments made to organizations prior to the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings may be claimed and redistributed among creditors.
The repayment period for most unsecured creditors is set at ninety days, but for "insiders," meaning companies that are general partners, it is set at one year.
Modulo Capital was formed in March 2022 by three executives formerly of New York-based Jane Street, which previously hired Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison.
Some people believe that SBF had a romantic relationship with one of the company's founders, Xiaoyun "Lily" Zhang, which pushed him to decide to invest in an unknown venture capital firm. This theory is based on the fact that SBF was reported to have been involved in a relationship.
Alameda Research, FTX's sister trading company, is believed to have invested about $400 million in Modulo in 2022. It was one of the most significant investments made by FTX while SBF was running the company.
The March 22 FTX filing states that Alameda Research's investment was made at the behest of Sam Bankman-Friel (SBF), with Alameda investing $475 million in Modulo as part of a series of transfers starting in May 2022.
Alameda entered into a limited partnership agreement with Modulo on June 16, the statement said. As a result of this agreement, Alameda transferred the previously mentioned cash to Modulo in exchange for ownership of 20% of Modulo's Class A shares. This transaction was recorded as completed.
Under the terms of the settlement, Modulo agreed to pay $404 million in cash and waive its claim to $56 million worth of assets that were held on the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. This represents approximately 97% of FTX's initial investment.
As part of the settlement, Alameda will also waive any claim to Modulo shares it previously held.
The agreement has yet to be approved by US Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey, and a hearing on the request to approve the agreement is set for April 12.
EVM Compatibility Coming to Zilliqa Mainnet April 25, 2023
Zilliqa has announced that it will launch the first version of full EVM compatibility on the mainnet. In December 2022, Zilliqa unveiled an EVM interoperability testnet to deploy smart contracts written in Solidity directly on the blockchain and hopes to promote the project to the wider blockchain developer community.
After the implementation of this testnet, the first full version of EVM compatibility will be added to the Zilliqa mainnet, which is scheduled to launch on April 25, 2023. Users will be able to send native ZILs using wallets like MetaMask and deploy Solidity smart contracts using tools like Truffle and Hardhat.
According to Valery ZAMARAYEV, Director of Distributed Systems Development at Zilliqa, the way Zilliqa implements EVM compatibility is preferable to many layer 2 protocols due to the ability to transfer tokens without complex and unnecessary conversion operations.
Bitcoin supporter Nayiba Bukele is supported by more than 90% of El Salvadorans
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele was able to push through the adoption of a law on the legalization of bitcoin in 2021. BTC has been recognized as a means of payment in the Latin American state, despite protests from the IMF and the World Bank.
In addition, Nayib Bukele promised to maintain the course towards the development of cryptocurrency infrastructure. To do this, he plans to participate in the presidential campaign in 2024.
From a poll conducted by La Prensa Grafica, it follows that 91% of the people of El Salvador support their leader. The opposition has almost no chance of a successful election campaign.
Nayib Bukele came to power in 2019. His support increased from 85% to 91% in four years. Only 7% of respondents do not support the actions of the head of state.
The vast majority of young Salvadorans are completely satisfied with the financial and social policies of the president.
According to Nayib Bukele, the tourism sector in El Salvador is growing steadily thanks to the legalization of cryptocurrency. A large number of foreigners come to the country and pay for goods and services with bitcoin.
Institutional Bulletin: Scroll Raises $50M, Web3 Startup Matchday Raises $21M
Scroll, a tier-two network for scaling Ethereum using ZK-Rollups technology, has raised $50M in a recent funding round.
Investors include Polychain Capital, Sequoia China, Bain Capital Crypto, Moore Capital Management, Variant Fund, Newman Capital, IOSG Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners.
Scroll representatives declined to disclose the structure of the round and name the final evaluation of the company. The startup will use the proceeds to launch the mainnet and expand the ecosystem.
Football Web3 startup Matchday has raised $21 million in seed funding.
One of the investors was the venture capital company of the famous football player Lionel Messi - Play Time. The round also included Courtside Ventures, Greylock, HackVC, Capricorn Investment Group and Horizons Ventures.
Coinbase spoke about the actions after the Shapella Ethereum hard fork
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will begin accepting orders to withdraw Ethereum (ETH) from staking within 24 hours after the activation of the Shanghai and Capella updates, collectively known as Shapella, on the network.
“While [hard fork] Merge moved the Ethereum network from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake in September 2022, users have not yet been able to unstake ETH,” the company recalled.
A similar opportunity will provide an upgrade to Shanghai, scheduled for around mid-April. On March 14, Ethereum developers activated Shapella on the Goerli testnet, which was the final check for updates.
Coinbase noted that no action will be required from users during the upcoming forks. They will still be able to stake assets at up to 6% per annum.
The exchange will begin accepting applications for the withdrawal of cryptocurrency within a day after the hard fork. However, the Coinbase team expects that a queue may form on the network.
“Because the process of withdrawing from staking is controlled by the Ethereum protocol, and we are just a channel, we are not able to accurately indicate the waiting period.
We believe that immediately after the update, demand will be high, and it may take weeks or months for the network to process requests,” the exchange specialists noted.
More than $2 billion USDC was burned in just a day
Over $2.2 billion USD Coin (USDC) has been burned since the start of this week, with redemptions hitting $4 billion on Tuesday evening. According to The Block, citing data from Arkham Intelligence, 723 million USDC were burned in a single transaction early Wednesday morning alone.
The data also shows that several other USDC burns occurred within multiple separate transactions ranging from $300 million to $600 million. This resulted in a total USDC value burned of over $2.2 billion in just over one day.
Burning tokens means effectively taking them out of circulation by sending them to an address that no one controls. The USDC burn was likely due to reduced reserve coverage or redemptions.
Meanwhile, USDC net redemptions topped the $4 billion mark on Tuesday. This comes after issuer Circle said over the weekend that it would process all transactions and execute redemptions.
The dollar-pegged stablecoin failed to win back investors after it was deannounced last week. Circle Internet Financial's USDC stablecoin deviated significantly from its $1 target on Friday night, after Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), where Circle held more than $3.3 billion of assets, was shut down by regulators.
USDC returns peg to dollar after $3 billion token burn
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) led to an unprecedented collapse in the value of USDC. The stablecoin issuing company Circle burned almost $650 million worth of USDC over the past 24 hours, and issued $16.7 million worth of USDC.
The day before, the picture was similar, only on a larger scale: they burned $2.34 billion of tokens and issued $366 million. These actions helped return the USDC rate to $0.97 after a hard fall to $0.88.
USDC was one of the first victims of the SVB collapse, as the bankrupt bank held approximately $3.3 billion worth of these stablecoins. As a result, USDC lost its peg to the dollar.
Following the news of the SVB, Circle assured the community that it would continue with standard operations pending clarification regarding the transfer of SVB assets to the Federal Fund Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and how these actions would affect contributors.
Burning and issuing tokens was just one of the measures that helped to continue providing services to customers.
Huobi and Justin Sun's Poloniex merge, HT drops 93%
In the midst of a harsh crypto winter, Justin Sun merged the operations of the Huobi and Poloniex exchanges under the Huobi brand. The disclosure comes from a letter from an employee that was released to the media.
Under the new corporate structure, Poloniex departments such as product design, liquidity, assets, market and operations, customer service, and compliance will be brought under the Huobi brand. ChainCatcher wrote about this on March 9, 2023 on Twitter.
While details are scarce at this point, moving to a combined company could save the group money and focus spending on a single brand.
Sun has a reputation for being a bold and ambitious entrepreneur, and this move certainly lives up to that reputation. The merger of these two exchanges will create a giant in the crypto world with a combined user base of over 10 million users and billions of dollars of daily trading volume.
Also, this news comes at a time when many companies are leaving the crypto space. Market darling Silvergate Capital has decided to wind down its bank, showing just how tough the market has become.
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