China has announced the launch date of the state-owned NFT marketplace
The PRC authorities have made it clear that on January 1 they will launch the first regulated platform for trading non-fungible tokens. The platform was created by the state-owned China Technology Exchange, the private corporation Huban Digital Copyrights, and the State Art Exhibition of China.
In addition to NFT trading, the marketplace is going to popularize and promote the trading of copyrighted digital assets. The initiative aims to regulate and prevent excessive speculation in the secondary NFT markets.
TPCi wins injunction against releasing Pokémon-related NFTs
An Australian court has granted a motion by the Pokémon Company International (TPCi) to stop KOTIOTA Studio from releasing Pokémon-themed NFTs.
TPCi states that related companies The Pokémon Company, Nintendo of America, Inc, Nintendo Co. Ltd will suffer significant damage if the defendants release the games and NFTs they are currently working on. The court granted TPCi's claim, finding the company's claims reasonable.
Some in the NFT industry feel that a shortage of Pokémon would be against the developer's vision. However, other NFT proponents are confident that "Pokemon"-themed tokens can outperform even the "bored monkeys" from the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection.
Sam Bankman-Fried appoints new judge
The criminal case of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been transferred to a new American judge, Lewis Kaplan. It is reported by Reuters.
The relevant appointment came after the previous judge of the Southern District of New York, Ronnie Abrams, recused himself due to a possible conflict of interest.
At the Dec. 19 meeting, she revealed that law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, in which her husband is a partner, had advised FTX in 2021. It is not known why Abrams did not recuse herself earlier.
The dog that has become a symbol of Dogecoin is seriously ill
Shiba Inu named Kabosu, who became the hero of the meme and the face of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency, had serious health problems. This was reported by the owner of the dog Atsuko Sato.
The Japanese woman said that Kabosu "is in a very dangerous situation":
“Today they donated blood in the hospital. The doctor called me in the evening. I was told it was very dangerous. I didn't expect it to be this bad."
One Twitter user offered to fully cover "any costs necessary to ensure the best possible treatment," and Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus asked his 2 million followers to send "love, prayers, and good cheer" to Sato and Kabos.
Glassnode: 78% of BTC moved from exchanges to cold storage
Over the past 6 months, several events have occurred in the market, which led to the fact that about 550,000 BTC were withdrawn from exchange accounts by users and transferred to cold storage. According to the analytical company Glassnode, the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which lost more than 90,000 BTC, became the leaders in the withdrawal of bitcoins. About 200,000 BTC were withdrawn from Coinbase, and the FTX exchange lost over 70,000 BTC before blocking all transactions by the judiciary.
As of the end of December, the current BTC reserves held on exchanges represent less than 22% of the total BTC supply. Glassnode analysts note that in January, OTC storage of BTC was recorded at about 14 million units, but as of December it exceeded 15 million. This confirms the conclusions of experts that 78% of working capital in BTC is stored in cold wallets.
CryptoCompare: FTX default will continue to affect the industry in 2023
The exchange was financially connected with a large number of companies, therefore, according to experts, in 2023 we will see more bankruptcies.
Nevertheless, the situation with FTX, analysts write, will definitely push crypto companies to work on the sustainability of their business. Therefore, next year more attention will be paid to projects and protocols that will offer effective ways to save money.
Of course, they say in CryptoCompare, it will not do without strict regulation - supervisory authorities will seek to protect investors. Perhaps the development of global rules for the industry will go far. Analysts believe that the rules will become more effective if they separate centralized and decentralized projects - after all, most of the failed companies belonged to the first category.
The data of Vitalik Buterin, Kevin O'Leary and another 400 million Twitter users were leaked to the network
The hacker put up for sale a database of 400 million Twitter users, including contact information for Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, Shark Tank star Kevin O'Leary, and billionaire Mark Cuban. Hudson Rock drew attention to this.
In an announcement published on December 23, the seller claims to have received the data in early 2022 due to a vulnerability in the social network. The database contains names, mobile phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
An unknown person provided a data fragment of 1000 famous users as a sample. He also suggested that Twitter CEO Elon Musk buy the database in order to avoid its sale and subsequent legal fines for the leak in the amount of $276 million.
Stephen Cecchetti: Cryptocurrency Market Resembles Online Game World of Warcraft
Brandeis University of Massachusetts International School of Business Stephen Cecchetti compares the cryptocurrency market with World of Warcraft, an online game popular with millions of users.
“The strongest argument, I think, against regulation is the discussion of legitimacy. The cryptocurrency market has nothing to do with the real economy and rather develops in parallel with traditional financial institutions,” the scientist said at a crypto debate held by Brookings University.
According to the expert, the industry resembles the system in the World of Warcraft online RPG, where there are about 120 million players and their own economy. Cecchetti points out that the positive thing about World of Warcraft's in-game economy is that there is no financial regulator. No one, including the developers and publishers of the game, would want any additional oversight of the players.
North Korean hackers have stolen $1.2 billion in cryptocurrencies since 2017
North Korean-linked hacker groups stole $626 million worth of cryptocurrencies in 2022, according to South Korean intelligence, and $1.2 billion worth of assets have been stolen in attacks since 2017.
In their report, the intelligence officers emphasized that since 2017, $78 million worth of assets have been stolen from the cryptocurrency platforms of South Korea. At the same time, thanks to the constant work to tighten control over companies, in 2022, North Korean hackers never managed to steal cryptocurrencies from South Korean users.
“In South Korea, transactions with virtual assets began to be signed with real user names, and security was also strengthened. Therefore, we have no damage,” said an intelligence (NIS) spokesman in an interview with local newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun.
Bitcoins stolen from Russian darknet marketplace sent to help Ukraine
A Ukrainian stole $25,000 in bitcoins from Solaris, one of the largest darknet marketplaces in the Russian Federation, and sent them to a charitable organization from Kyiv. It is reported by Forbes.
Cyber intelligence expert Alex Holden left Kyiv as a teenager in the 1980s due to the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster and now resides in the United States. Together with his team at Hold Security, he managed to take control of much of the Internet infrastructure that runs Solaris.
“I was able to access several marketplace administrator accounts, the source code of the site, its user database, and drug distribution points,” Holden said.
Media: Yandex registered an AI holding to circumvent sanctions
Yandex Corporation has registered Beyond ML holding company in the United States and Armenia to circumvent sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation after the invasion of Ukraine. RTVI writes about it.
A company representative confirmed that Beyond ML is a project to promote B2B services and technologies. Yandex called it not a tool for circumventing sanctions, but an “internal experiment.”
According to journalists, employees were directly told that Beyond ML was created to “level out country risks” and continue to work in Western markets.
At the same time, the company does not want to make the holding's brand “anything noticeable”.
Judge releases Sam Bankman-Fried on $250 million bail
The Southern District of New York has set bail of $250 million for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Freed. He was released into the care of his parents.
At a December 22 meeting, federal prosecutors called the amount set "the highest" in the history of pre-trial hearings, writes Decrypt.
The terms of the bail also include a ban on financial transactions in excess of $1,000, house arrest and wearing an electronic bracelet. Violation of the agreement threatens to pay $ 250 million.
Media: Sam Bankman-Fried ready to plead guilty in FTX fraud case
Sam Bankman-Fried will formally plead guilty next week to criminal charges of defrauding investors and embezzling client funds, according to Reuters.
Recall that before his arrest on December 12, Bankman-Freed acknowledged the flaws in risk management at FTX, but said that mistakes made through a misunderstanding should not threaten him with criminal liability.
Kraken exchange ceases operations in Japan
In a message to users, the Kraken team stated that it has decided to cease operations in Japan as of January 31, 2023. The decision is part of Kraken's global strategy to prioritize resource investment where it is best suited for the exchange's long-term success.
“After considering the current situation around the Japanese market and the weakness of the global cryptocurrency market, we concluded that it will be difficult for Kraken to invest the necessary resources to further develop its business in Japan. Kraken will no longer serve Japanese customers,” the exchange said in a statement.
Bankman-Fried talks about $546 million loan from Alameda to buy Robinhood shares
FTX co-founders Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and Gary Wang borrowed $546.4 million from Alameda Research to buy a 7.6% stake in Robinhood. This is stated in the documents for the court.
In testimony, the SBF said it formed Emergent Fidelity Technologies with Wang to acquire the online broker's securities.
“I borrowed $491,743,563.39 and Gary borrowed $54,638,173.71 from Alameda [Research]. All funds were capitalized in Emergent as working capital so that [the company] could buy shares in Robinhood,” explained the former CEO of FTX.
According to him, on April 30 they borrowed $316,667,182.50 and $35,185,242.50, and on May 25 - $175,076,380.89 and $19,452,931.21. The funds were paid in tranches within a few days before and after the dates specified in the application.
NATO calls AI cyberattacks a 'critical threat'
Artificial intelligence plays a huge role in cyberattacks and turns out to be both a "double-edged sword" and a "huge problem". This was stated by representatives of NATO, writes Euronews.
“AI allows you to automatically scan networks and repel attacks, rather than doing it manually. However, it also works the other way around,” said NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges David van Veel.
According to him, artificial intelligence can be used to hack networks using credentials and algorithms. Wil added that trying to match combinations is a "huge problem", but the allies are striving to "use AI ethically".
Truecaller: Phone scammers have become more active in defrauding crypto investors
Clayton LiaBraaten, senior executive adviser at phone security company Truecaller, said professional phone scammers targeted cryptocurrencies following the FTX default.
The most popular scheme is a call allegedly from the technical support of a large crypto exchange and the use of all available information about the user in order to extort data about crypto wallets or accounts. LeaBraaten says the current time is perfect for this kind of activity, with people posting an alarming amount of information about themselves on social media.
“Scammers use utilities to collect and structure a lot of information about people. These charts are very easy to build and start targeting specific personas. The current conditions make it possible to collect a lot of material for social engineering, especially against the younger generation,” the expert says.
Martin Shkreli gives Bankman-Fried tips for surviving prison
American investor and hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli, who was convicted for fraud, gave some advice to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Freed about surviving in a federal prison on the Unchained podcast.
Shkreli spent about four years behind bars, from 2018 to 2022. According to him, the ex-CEO of FTX should shave his head, make his voice rougher and learn to understand gangster culture and rap.
He also advised Bankman-Freed to change his name because "being a rich white guy from a nice neighborhood doesn't sound great." Shkreli also believes that it is not necessary to mention his place of study - Stanford University.
Sam Bankman-Fried and Elon Musk named the worst tech CEOs of 2022
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has received the highest score on The Guardian's list of the worst tech CEOs of 2022.
The publication awarded SBF 10 out of 10 due to the collapse of FTX. Earlier, US prosecutors charged him with eight criminal offenses, and lawsuits were also filed by the SEC and the CFTC.
Elon Musk was also on the list - the newspaper awarded him 7 out of 10 points. On October 28, the billionaire closed a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. Later, he fired the social network's ethical AI team and implemented a new content moderation policy, which caused dissatisfaction among users.
Journalists named Mark Zuckerberg as another worst leader. They recalled the interest of the head of Meta in the metaverse and the February failure - after the publication of the report for the fourth quarter, the corporation lost almost 25% of its capitalization.
Over 32,000 Users Participated in Bitget's KCGI 2022
One of the largest crypto exchanges, Bitget, has announced the end of its biannual King's Cup Global Invitation (KCGI) trading tournament, which was attended by a record number of users. This time the tournament was dedicated to the FIFA World Cup, which ended in December in Qatar.
The KCGI tournament, which ran from November 21st to December 19th, featured 32,174 users in team, individual, and invite tournaments. This time around, the contest has the highest number of entries of all time, with the winners sharing a prize pool of over half a million USDT.
To attract users to the 2022 World Cup, Bitget has prepared various prizes and activities, including football fan tokens, Messi autographed T-shirts, trophies, a World Cup match prediction contest, and prize draws.
Reuters: Investors in France File a Complaint Against Binance
A group of French investors have filed a complaint against the local division of Binance for misrepresentation and non-compliance with the laws of the country. Reuters writes about it.
According to the agency, clients of the bitcoin exchange turned to the prosecutor's office in Paris. According to them, Binance conducted marketing campaigns on Instagram and Telegram before receiving approval to work from the country's authorities.
According to local media, the complaint was filed on December 14 on behalf of 15 investors. They also claim that the exchange advertised the UST algorithmic stablecoin as backed by the US dollar. After the collapse of Terra, they allegedly lost more than €2.4 million.
Record burning did not lead to an increase in the cost of SHIB tokens
On Saturday, December 24, the Shibburn tracker recorded a 642% increase in the number of destroyed tokens. More than 28 million SHIBs were burned that day. However, the price of the digital coin, according to the Bitfinex exchange, increased by only 0.73%. This is explained by the fact that although 28 million is a large figure, it is about $233 in fiat money, which did not have a strong effect on a cryptocurrency with a capitalization of more than $4.5 billion.
On Sunday, December 25, the situation repeated itself - about $30 million of SHIB tokens were burned, and the price fell by a little less than 0.5%. U.Today analysts drew attention to the lack of growth in the value of the token during the record liquidation of coins.
Despite this, Shiba inu is still an extremely popular meme-coin among Internet users and even ranks among the top 5 cryptocurrencies in terms of the number of search queries.
Jim Cramer urges regulators to do a 'big cleanup' of the crypto industry
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should tighten the regulation of cryptocurrency companies and conduct a “big sweep” of the industry. This was stated by the former manager of the hedge fund Cramer & Co. and Mad Money show host Jim Kramer.
Kramer urged the SEC to intensify its efforts to prosecute unscrupulous players in the cryptocurrency market. In his opinion, this is how you can protect investors and prevent illegal enrichment of scammers.
“I think they need to do a big cleanup. They have to stop people creating money out of thin air,” he added.
Caroline Ellison: "Sam and I deliberately defrauded FTX and Alameda creditors"
During a public hearing in federal court in Manhattan, Caroline Ellison said that she understood the wrongness and illegality of her actions. Sam Bankman-Fried has previously stated on multiple occasions that he was unaware of the significant cash gap caused by Alameda's lending. But Allison completely denied his words:
“I knew that from 2019 to 2022, Alameda had access to the FTX line of credit. In practice, this arrangement allowed Alameda to leverage indefinitely, without the need for collateral, negative balances, and margin requirements on FTX.com's liquidation protocols,” said Alameda's former CEO.
The authorities of Italy and Albania uncovered a fraudulent scheme with crypto investments
According to preliminary data, the scheme brought in €15 million (~$16 million) to the organized crime group. The call center was based in Tirana.
The attackers contacted the victims by phone using a VPN and unidentifiable virtual numbers and urged them to open an account on an unnamed platform.
People were promised quick returns with a small initial investment in “zero risk” cryptocurrencies. In the future, the scammers persuaded the victims to increase investments, used software for remote access to a computer, and changed account data.
Brazil recognizes bitcoin as a means of payment
In Brazil, bitcoin can be used as a means of payment and an investment asset. The law that secured this status for him was signed by President Jair Bolsonaro.
The head of state approved the document proposed by the Congress without changes. It will enter into force 180 days after signing. In the law, bitcoin is characterized as a digital representation of value.
The Bank of Brazil is expected to be responsible for using the first cryptocurrency as a payment. The Securities and Exchange Commission will take responsibility for overseeing digital gold as an investment asset.