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⚪️ Nexo sees withdrawals of $158 million in day after Bulgaria raid
Crypto lender Nexo has seen withdrawals worth more than $158 million in the last 24 hours after Bulgarian authorities raided its offices. according to real-time attestation provided by Nexo's auditor Armanino on its website.
Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev told The Block that the withdrawal number is about 2% of the firm’s total assets under management. It was not clear if the attested numbers included only Nexo customers' bitcoin holdings or all their crypto holdings converted into bitcoin. Trenchev did not comment on it, but said that Nexo's partnership with Armanino was still on, although the latter reportedly announced exiting the crypto space last month.
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📣 Ethereum Layer 2 Network Mantle Testnet Is Now Live
Layer 2 Ethereum solution Mantle declared that its testnet launch had been successful. Developers can now register and submit an application to gain access to the testnet. Nodes created specifically to handle off-chain transactions are used in this kind of computing.
BitDAO created the optimistic rollup known as Mantle. It employs a modular structure, where the essential operations of a blockchain are carried out on specialized levels, with the goal of lowering costs and improving overall performance. With 37,000 developers already signed up for the launch, BitDAO has opened the testnet. The public can access the testnet, and developers are encouraged to sign up to test their applications on the network.
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🇺🇸 Man Pleads Guilty to Stealing Bitcoin 'Seized' by US Government
An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to stealing over 712 bitcoin that was “seized” by the U.S. government in another criminal case. He has agreed to forfeit some bitcoin, ether, and dogecoin as part of his plea. “Due to the increase in market prices, the total value of these forfeitable properties exceeds $12 million,.
The stolen bitcoin was stored in a Trezor hardware wallet that was seized by the federal government in connection with Larry Harmon, who was arrested in February 2020. The device was stored in an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) evidence locker. The federal authorities had not taken control of the coins due to the device’s complex security, the DOJ explained. Larry Harmon pleaded guilty in August 2021 to money laundering conspiracy in connection.
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📣 Gemini-DCG Fiasco May Shape to Be ‘Market Bottom Event’ in 2023: Report
According to the latest edition of Arcane Research, the entire market appears to be stabilizing even though there’s still some uncertainty left. Bitcoin’s current price action was defined as stale as its volatility slumbered toward rare lows.
The current numbers were only visited once since February 2019 – during the stagnant markets of July 2020. Meanwhile, the 30-day volatility also follows a similar trend as it currently hovered near 1.4% and coincided with levels that were briefly touched before the FTX collapse in early November. In fact, the figure has only been lower on seven occasions since February 2019.The futures market, on the other hand, was observed to be reigning in a flat regime.
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🪙 Binance Remains Quiet On Gopax Acquisition Rumors
The largest crypto exchange in the world, Binance, declined to comment on local media claims that it is in advanced negotiations to buy the South Korean digital asset exchange Gopax. Regarding this acquisition, Binance refused to give an official answer.
According to a local news outlet, Decenter, which cited an unknown industry official, Binance is attempting to negotiate with Lee Jun-haeng, Gopax’s founder and main shareholder, and intends to keep Lee in his current position as CEO. One of the five South Korean cryptocurrency trading platforms (Upbit, Bitsum, Coinone, Corbit, and Gopax) authorized to offer consumers fiat-to-crypto services is Gopax.
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📣 PO Street Capital Empire Operator Trades $2 Billion In Crypto Working At Home
Darren Nguyen has had some success with his business, PO Street Capital, but has remained tight-lipped and hasn’t said anything about it until a January 2 article in The Australian highlighted it through public records.
According to documents provided by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Nguyen’s cryptocurrency business, which is registered at his parents’ Guildford, Sydney, residence, generated an after-tax profit of A$10.41 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021. The statistics reveal his net profit climbed by 1,404.12% in 2021 compared to the prior year, according to PO Street Capital auditors’ report.
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🇧🇸 FTX Says Bahamas Regulators Hold Only $296 Million Of Company’s Assets
According to Reuters, FTX refuted the statement that the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) holds $3.5 billion worth of the exchange digital assets. any of the cryptocurrencies seized, the company said it would seek the recovery of any assets that have been taken.
FTX said in a statement that when SCB seized its digital assets in November of this year, they were worth only $296 million. SCB said on Thursday that it had controlled more than $3.5 billion in digital assets of the exchange, which will be used to repay the customers and other creditors in the future. SCB did not specify the type of assets or their value. SCB began the liquidation of its Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets Ltd.
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📣 FBI Is Investigating 3Commas For Data Breach
3Commas employees are suspected of being the culprit. For the data breach that leaked information on 100,000 API keys on exchanges, the FBI is investigating 3Commas with the suspicion that the platform’s employees are the culprit.
Recently, a large-scale data leak from 3Commas caught the attention of the FBI. The unit has entered the investigation after weeks of criticism from users of the trading bot platform. The community expressed displeasure when the project CEO repeatedly ignored warnings about leaking customer data. Initially, 3Commas said users were likely to be scammed and asserted that the platform was safe.
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📣 Crypto Investment Firm Midas Shuts Down Platform
According to a blog post on December 27 by CEO and founder Iakov “Trevor” Levin, Midas Investments, an investment business focusing on DeFi yields, is closing down its platform following huge losses in 2022.
Levin stated that the Midas DeFi portfolio lost $50 million, or 20% of its $250 million in assets under management (AUM) and that after the collapse of Celsius and FTX, its platform had over 60% of AUM removed. the extensive withdrawals due to the insolvency of Celcius and FTX, coupled with reduced yield opportunities on the market, made it impossible for the firm to cover daily payouts to users due to the assets deficit.
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📉 Octopus Network Cut Off 40% Of The Core Team
On December 26, Louis Liu, the founder of Octopus Network, a Near ecological multi-chain network, published a blog post saying that the core team of Octopus Network will launch a voluntary resignation plan to achieve restructuring.
Octopus Network was designed to support Web3 applications which takes a big chunk of resources to support an appchain in terms of IT infrastructure and community mindshare, but the Octopus community can’t afford to onboard a batch of appchains only to lose most of them in one year, according to the statement.
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💰 Caroline Ellison admits to concealing billions of dollars of FTX loans
FTX associate Caroline Ellison admitted during her plea deal that she concealed billions of dollars worth of loans, according to a Reuters report on Dec. 23. FTX to borrow funds from Alameda without limit. The two executives also hid that fact from investors and the wider public.
Alameda Research is generally considered a sister firm of FTX, as Bankman-Fried founded both firms. While FTX operated as a cryptocurrency exchange, Alameda served as a hedge fund, allowing the two companies to work together closely. Ellison admitted to the lending arrangement in a statement to U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan federal court.
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🏦 Genesis and DCG creditor committee propose plan for asset recovery
Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss took to Twitter to explain the path for asset recovery for Gemini Earn users. "This plan is based on information received from Genesis, DCG, and their respective advisors to date.
Gemini has been working with Genesis and DCG since Nov. 22 to help customers get their Earn redemptions. Genesis owes Gemini Earn users $900 million, The Block previously reported. Gemini formed the creditor committee on Dec. 6 following the Gemini Earn freeze, and Houlihan Lokey has been the financial advisor to the creditor committee since Dec. 9.
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💰 Polygon co-founder launches web3 startup accelerator Beacon
Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon and Symbolic Capital, has launched a web3 startup accelerator. the New York City-based accelerator said it will support early-stage crypto projects through mentorship and financing.
Beacon is part of Nailwal's Symbolic Capital, a crypto venture capital firm he launched in August with a $50 million fund. Nailwal runs Beacon with Kenzi Wang, co-founder of Symbolic Capital, Prateek Sharma, former vice president at Sequoia Capital, and Uri Stav, former chief security officer at Digital Currency Group, among others.Beacon offers a 12-week program to mentor and finance startup founders.
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⚡️ Mad Money's Jim Cramer: I Trust My Money More in Draftkings Than I Would Binance
The host of Mad Money, Jim Cramer, has cast doubt on the trustworthiness of crypto exchange Binance. “Why can’t people in charge just admit that Binance has no real legitimacy after what happened to FTX?”.
The crypto exchange founded by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Nov. 11, and an estimated one million customers and investors lost billions of dollars from its collapse. Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas and the U.S. government and several regulators have brought fraud charges against SBF and the crypto exchange.
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📣 Mazars to pause all crypto exchange proof-of-reserves reports
Accounting firm Mazars is temporarily ceasing all work for its crypto exchange clients, including proof-of-reserves reports for the likes of Binance, KuCoin and Crypto.com. A Binance spokesperson says Mazars has stopped working with crypto clients.
Mazars has been working with crypto exchanges to publish proof-of-reserves reports since last month's collapse of FTX. These reports show the platform’s crypto holdings as a means of proving whether their reserves are adequately collateralized. While exchanges say these reports help to improve transparency, critics say it is not enough as they do not provide details about a platform's liabilities.
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📣 Ondo Finance Helps Stablecoin Holders More Investment Options In US Government Bond
Holders of stablecoins can now invest in bonds and US Treasury securities thanks to a tokenized fund developed by Ondo Finance, making traditional capital markets more accessible to investors who collectively hold more than $100 billion of non-yield-bearing stablecoins.
US Government Bond Fund (OUSG), Short-Term Investment Grade Bond Fund (OSTB), and. High Yield Corporate Bond Fund (OHYG) are three of the institutional-grade yield offers that Ondo Finance will offer upon launch. OUSG will invest exclusively in short-term US treasuries, initially via the Blackrock US Treasuries ETF (SHV). OSTB will invest in short-term investment-grade corporate bonds, initially via the PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Active ETF (MINT).
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💰 Cardano Received $1.5 Billion In One Day; The Value Of ADA To Skyrocket
More than $1.5 billion has been invested in Cardano in the last 24 hours, bringing the ADA cap to a daily high of $11.74 billion. Significant purchasing pressure has caused the value of ADA to surge, with the coin currently trading at $0.32, a gain of more than 14% in 24 hours.
Over the last 24 hours, more than $1.5 billion has come into Cardano, boosting the ADA cap to a daily high of $11.74 billion. Significant purchasing pressure has led the value of ADA to skyrocket, with the coin trading at $0.32 at press time, a gain of more than 14% in 24 hours. The asset’s price has risen by more than 28% in the last week. the number of Plutus smart contracts as of January 8 is 4,803, a rise of 780 smart contracts in December alone.
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🇨🇳 Chinese criminal steals $4.1M in crypto from victim’s car
An attacker used a crypto investor’s facial ID to unlock his wallet by force and transferred $4.1 million to his own address in China on Jan.1, as reported by local news outlets.Then, the attacker forcibly used the investor’s facial recognition to unlock his phone and crypto wallet.
The attacker located the investor in an on-site gathering hosted for crypto investors. After the event, the attacker followed the investor to the car park and restrained him in his car. Then, the attacker forcibly used the investor’s facial recognition to unlock his phone and crypto wallet. Once the transfer was completed, the attacker left the crime scene. The investor immediately applied to the legal authorities.
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📣 Genesis Is Considering Filing For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection
DCG’s subsidiary, which suffered heavily after the collapse of FTX, is Genesis Global Trading, with a stranded amount of up to $175 million. Genesis is considering filing for bankruptcy after cutting another 30% of its staff yesterday.After a long time of “buying time,” the company could not settle Gemini’s 900 million debt.
Genesis hired investment bank Moelis & Company to review Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. A Genesis spokesperson told the Journal that the move is designed to “preserve customer assets and drive the business forward.”. The magazine reported that Alameda received millions of dollars from Genesis before it collapsed. After Alameda went bankrupt, Genesis froze its client funds in November.
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🇧🇸 Bahamas SCB Said New FTX CEO’s Latest Statements On Its Actions Were “Unfounded”
The Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) had to clarify major misstatements made by John J. Ray III, who took over as CEO of FTX when founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned in November, in press releases and court papers, according to a statement made public on January 3.
According to the statement, during a court filing before the US House of Financial Services Committee, FTX CEO John J. Ray III made public statements asserting that the Commission had authorized FTX to mint a considerable amount of fresh tokens under “oath.”.The Chapter 11 Debtors had “publicly challenged” the Commission’s estimations of the value of digital assets moved to digital wallets under its management in November 2022, the statement said.
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⚪️ Lido Now Hit A High Record Of TVL Overtaking MakerDAO
Procedure for liquid staking given that Lido Finance’s total value locked (TVL) is now ranked first among other decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, it appears that Lido Finance profited the most from the September Ethereum Merge.
In comparison to MakerDAO’s $5.89 billion and AAVE’s $3.7 billion in TVL, Lido‘s liquid staking protocol currently commands $5.9 billion in TVL, according to statistics from DeFiLlama. The website of Lido Finance states that as of January 2, $5.8 billion worth of ether was staked. Around $23.2 million was bet on Solana, $43.9 million on Polygon, $11 million on Polkadot, and $2.2 million on Kusama at the same time.
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🟠 Deposits And Withdrawals For Binance-Peg BUSD Is Now Available On TRON Network
Binance announced that the integration of Binance-Peg BUSD on the TRON network was successfully carried out. the Binance-Peg stablecoin across the Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, and TRON networks.
The Binance-Peg BUSD trading pair is currently accepting deposits and withdrawals via the TRON network. The BUSD stablecoin, which works on the BNB Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, and TRON networks, is currently available to users. As a result of this development, users will now be able to send BUSD and Binance-Peg BUSD across the TRON network
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💰 FTX customers file class action suit to have their payments prioritized
FTX customers say they “should not have to stand in line” with other creditors waiting for fund recovery from the collapsed crypto exchange. Four FTX customers filed a class action lawsuit demanding priority in repayment, citing $2 billion in customer funds which have gone missing.
The suit was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, where FTX's bankruptcy proceedings are ongoing. Retail customers who suffered financial losses following the bankruptcy filing of FTX and sister company Alameda Research “should not have to stand in line” with other creditors waiting for fund recovery, the complaint argues. as well as common law and basic principles of honesty and fair dealing.”
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📣 CryptoPunks Fraction Token Officially Launched On Gate.io
According to the official announcement, Gate.io announced the launch of its first NFT fragmentation token, CryptoPunks Fraction Token (IPUNKS).This token is a USDT-based product that represents a fixed set of NFT assets. Its first online project is CryptoPunks.
The CryptoPunks are the 24×24-pixel, 8-bit-style unique avatar that is an NFT image, one of the earliest examples of NFTs on Ethereum and the inspiration for the ERC-721 standard. They are valued significantly on the NFT market and represent a novel kind of asset tokenization, often fetching millions of dollars. were initially given away by the developers before they gained popularity and value.
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💰 Bankman-Fried posts bail and other major crypto news of the past week
The FTX saga continued to unfold this past week with disgraced former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried now out on bail. Some of Bankman-Fried’s associates have pleaded guilty to fraud charges and are said to be cooperating with investigators.
More exchanges published proofs of reserves in the wake of the FTX collapse. Still, such transparency efforts by crypto exchanges were dealt a blow as reports emerged that a major accounting firm was no longer willing to work with them. Disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried posted bail with a $250 million bond package after being extradited to the U.S.
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📣 Peter Thiel-backed Crypto Exchange Bullish Calls Off $9B SPAC Plan
The Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish and special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Far Peak Acquisition Corporation have mutually agreed to call off their planned merger. SPAC aspirations amid an uncertain regulatory climate for crypto firms.
A SPAC, otherwise known as a “blank check company,” is a company with no business operations and is formed to raise capital via an Initial Public Offering or merging with another firm. In July 2021, Far Peak and Bullish agreed to a merger that would see the crypto exchange publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
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🪙 Wave Labs reveals DAXA warning caused significant damage to WAVES token
Waves Labs has reported that Futures data revealed that a DAXA warning on Dec. 8 did more harm to the WAVES token than the depegging of the USDN stablecoin “ever could.”
The Open Interest (OI) on WAVES across various centralized exchanges (CEXs) dramatically increased, following an Upbit announcement to suspend WAVES token deposits on Dec. 8, according to Waves Labs. The South Korean exchange Upbit suspended WAVES deposits on Dec. 8 after receiving a warning from Digital asset collective DAXA.
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💰 Bitcoin mining jumps 3.27% after substantial dip
Bitcoin mining difficulty in October had its highest spike since last summer, when China cracked down on the industry and forced mining firms to flee to other countries. Meanwhile, its lowest ebb since then was just a few days ago.
A probable explanation is the switching on and off of machines depending on spot energy prices and profitability, with more efficient models also being deployed. But it also might be a case of luck, said Daniel Frumkin, director of research at Braiins. The difficulty adjustments are based on what is the average block time for that epoch.
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🇺🇸 60% of Americans Believe Crypto Investing is Highly Risky (Survey)
CNBC’s “Your Money Survey” estimated that 60% of the American participants consider the risk of investing in cryptocurrencies to be high. Just 5% of the respondents believe it is entirely safe to allocate some wealth to the asset class.
The decline of the cryptocurrency market, as well as the various adverse events in the sector, have had an impact on the sentiment among many Americans. CNBC’s latest research found out that 60% of the US respondents think of crypto investing as highly risky, while this figure was 45% in August 2021. 26% think delving into bitcoin and alternative coins hides a “moderate” risk, while only 5% consider it to be totally safe.
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⚡️ CFPB not planning crypto crackdown, says Bureau Director Chopra
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is not planning an immediate crypto crackdown, its director said today, while choosing his words carefully.“Crypto is not a product. Certain electronic consumer transactions are,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra told The Block after an hours-long congressional hearing.
Digital asset policy came up frequently during a regular appearance by Chopra before the House Financial Services Committee, including further prodding around whether a recently published consumer alert bulletin related to crypto meant the bureau would step up enforcement on crypto companies. which led to the company’s announcement that it would gradually leave the U.S.
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