Crypto Power - Shilling

2023-10-01 22:52:39 Millions in Ether Tied to FTX 'Hacker' on The Move

Around 2,500 ether (ETH), worth just over $4 million, tied to last year’s apparent exploit of the FTX exchange started moving early Saturday, blockchain data shows. Ether held in a wallet associated with the FTX accounts drainer began moving for the first time in nearly a year. The funds were split into two, and then a few times in subsequent transactions, with 700 ETH transferred using the Thorchain Router, about 1,200 ETH being moved through the Railgun privacy tool. Another 550 ETH is sitting in an intermediate wallet.

Railgun is a privacy wallet that lets users store tokens and use funds for decentralized financial services, such as lending and borrowing. These transactions are shielded, meaning the exact use of such funds is not known. On the other hand, Thorchain is a bridge that lets users swap tokens between different blockchains. Accounts tied to FTX and FTX US were drained on Nov. 11, 2022, mere hours after the company filed for bankruptcy and founder Sam Bankman-Fried resigned from the crypto empire he ran. The attacker took over $600 million worth of ether at the time. In a since-deleted tweet, the then FTX general counsel Ryne Miller said the exchange was taking “precautionary steps” to secure funds from other FTX wallets. John J. Ray III, the CEO and Chief Restructuring Officer of the FTX Debtors. Open / Comment

2023-09-29 11:20:37 Former Binance employees may have joined Russia successor CommEX: CZ

Binance, which announced Wednesday its Russia business sale to CommEX, said a few former Binance employees have joined the newly launched exchange. Changpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, said in a post today on X (formerly Twitter), that some former Binance cryptography and information security team members may join CommEX “or have already done so.”. Zhao’s comment comes after the world’s largest crypto exchange said that it has decided to fully exit Russia and sell its business there to CommEX.

Zhao said that CommEX does not service users from the United States or the European Union. “They have IP and KYC blocks. This is a term we asked for in the deal,” he added. Zhao also pointed out that he is not the ultimate beneficial owner of CommEX, and he does not own any shares in the new exchange. “The deal does not have any buy back options,” he continued. “A Google search seem to show some businesses like Mercedes, McDonalds, Nissan have buy back options in their Russia sell off deal. This is not the case here.” In a statement published Tuesday, CommEX said it offers "a wide range of product suites including Spot, Futures, Simple Futures and P2P service to engage with the world of cryptocurrency." Open / Comment

2023-09-27 13:40:06 Celsius creditors vote in favor of reorganization plan

The majority of creditors impacted by the Celsius bankruptcy voted on a plan that would return crypto back to them and distribute equity in a new company. Most classes voted in favor of the plan by more than 98 percent, according to bankruptcy firm Stretto. Next, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York will hear the case and rule on final approval at a hearing currently scheduled for Oct. 2. The deadline to vote on the plan was Sept. 22.

Under the plan, which had support from the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, debtors will distribute about $2 billion worth of bitcoin and ether to creditors, according to a letter from that group in August. "The Debtors will also distribute equity in a new company ('NewCo') to creditors," the committee said last month. "NewCo will operate and further build out the Debtors’ Bitcoin mining operations, stake Ethereum, monetize the Debtors’ other illiquid assets, and develop new, value-accretive, regulatory-compliant business opportunities." NewCo will be managed by the Fahrenheit Group, they added. Fahrenheit is a consortium that made the winning bid to acquire Celsius’ assets in May. Open / Comment

2023-09-25 00:11:52 Circle Enhances Clarity With USDC And EURC Stablecoin Rebrand

Circle, a prominent stablecoin issuer, has officially renamed its US dollar and euro-pegged stablecoins to USDC and EURC, respectively, in a bid to streamline its product naming and symbols, reducing confusion among users. Previously known as USD Coin and Euro Coin, the stablecoins will now simply go by USDC and EURC. USDC is notably the second-largest stablecoin by supply, following Tether USD (USDT).

USDC is a digital stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar, managed by the Centre consortium, founded by Circle and involving members from Coinbase and Bitmain. It’s crucial to note that USDC is issued by a private entity and should not be confused with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In addition to the rebranding, Circle has joined the World Economic Forum’s Humanitarian and Resilience Investing (HRI) initiative. This partnership aims to mobilize $10 billion in capital to support the growth and operation of 1,000 local and international businesses in frontier markets by 2030, uniting humanitarian and development organizations, donors, governments, and various stakeholders in this noble cause. Open / Comment

2023-09-21 23:32:10 UK bill to seize illicit crypto moves to final stages of approval

The bill will give local courts and law enforcement agencies new powers to quickly seize crypto assets used to launder money, traffic drugs, commit cybercrime or facilitate terrorism offences. The new legislation eliminates specific legal hurdles that currently slow the process of asset seizure, and provisions in the bill allow digital assets linked to criminal activities to be seized by authorities under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The UK's Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill has been passed to the final stages of approval by the House of Lords. Currently, crypto assets that are associated with illegal activities can be frozen but cannot be seized in criminal proceedings unless there is an arrest or conviction. If final approval is granted later this year, it will give local authorities more power to freeze and confiscate crypto assets associated with crime. The Bill was introduced in September 2022. Since then it has progressed through the House of Commons to the House of Lords, and is currently in the final stages of approval. To become law, it needs to go through a final assessment by the House of Commons and then be granted Royal assent by King Charles. Open / Comment

2023-09-19 15:41:08 Krafton enters NFT-integrated metaverse gaming landscape

Krafton, which is a colossus in the field of iGaming in South Korea, is entering the NFT-incorporated iGaming sector with its own game, Overdare. Initially, the game was named Project Migaloo, and plans are afoot to introduce the game towards the end of the year. The entirety of the delivery will occur between January and July of 2024. Most notably, Krafton has unveiled Settlus, a blockchain technology built particularly for Overdare. The platform is often compared to Roblox and will get boosted by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. Krafton is known for its achievement, PUBG.

Overdare is established to provide developers with generative AI tools. This will help form various game groups, from sharpshooting to delicate role-playing content. Over and above that, Overdare will render service to the social space, allowing users the option of putting together avatars and carrying out replicated interactions. An initial preview exposes a spread-out virtual universe. In this, players will have the chance to utilize AI tools for creating complex games. Krafton initiated the project in partnership with Naver Z, a company specializing in augmented reality technology. As of the present equity stake, Krafton holds a majority of 85 percent of Overdare’s shares. Naver Z holds the remaining 15% market share. The create-to-earn economic model of Overdare will motivate players to convert virtual in-game assets into non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Open / Comment

2023-09-18 20:10:01 Islamic Coin offers its coin via Republic ahead of its exchanges launch!

According to the Islamic Coin's socials the official public token offering in collaboration with Republic has launched recently. Before its grand entry on both centralized and decentralized exchanges coming later in September, Islamic Coin is offering a golden opportunity to secure $ISLM at a presumably better price.

Islamic Coin is a new crypto project that has designed to create ethical finance. The coin is the native currency of HAQQ Network, a blockchain with a Proof-of-Stake algorithm and high transaction processing speed. The coin has a potential audience of over 2 billion holders (1.8 billion Muslims + crypto-enthusiasts). And they already have the biggest Twitter account among crypto Muslim community with 1.3 million followers. The project has already secured $400M from private investments and from ABO Digital and now is ready to go public. Collaborations with Sushi and Pyypl further expand Islamic Coin's ecosystem, providing liquidity and staking assets, and setting the stage for lucrative token mining opportunities. If you also want to participate in public sale and buy Islamic Coin - here's the link. Open / Comment

2023-09-17 13:24:45 Optimism Transfers 130M OP Tokens For Fund Management

Optimism, a prominent Ethereum scaling solution, recently announced a planned internal transaction involving the transfer of 130 million OP tokens between wallets for fund management purposes. The project’s intent is to keep the community informed about this strategic move. In the crypto market, Arbitrum‘s governance token ARB experienced a significant drop on Tuesday, hitting a new all-time low of $0.747, as reported by CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, OP was trading at $1.33.

The tumultuous start to the week in the crypto world resulted in Arbitrum’s market capitalization slipping below that of its rival, Optimism. Both Optimism and Arbitrum have consistently maintained their positions as the top Ethereum scaling solutions. What’s less known is their ability to retain a substantial user base actively participating on their respective mainnets. High user retention rates indicate satisfaction with the projects’ offered use cases. Optimism’s recent price resurgence is not unprecedented, given its previous prominence in the digital currency landscape. The sustained growth of OP tokens over the past seven days reflects the confidence and support of its buyers, underscoring the project’s resilience. Open / Comment

2023-09-14 23:45:58 Fidenza creator raises $17M in 30 minutes for new NFT project – The Defiant

The auction started at 50 ETH and ultimately sold out At 14 ETH. Collectors who bid higher were refunded the difference, meaning everyone who participated paid the same price. These passes will allow holders to create custom NFTs using the QQL algorithm, which has been available to the public for some time now. The QQL hoard has seen strong action on secondary markets, pushing it to number two on OpenSea’s leaderboard with a trading volume of over 3,300 ETH ($4.5M). The minimum collection price is 20 ETH, which is up almost 50% in just two days.

Hobbs’ inaugural Fidenza Collection remains one of the most popular generic NFT projects. During the Art Blox boom of 2021, a rare NFT from the collection, nicknamed ‘The Tulip’, sold for 1000 ETH ($3.3 million at the time). CryptoPunks have long been considered the ‘original’ profile picture (PFP) NFT. Given away for free in 2017 by creators Larva Labs, Punks really came into their own in the NFT bull run of 2021 and inspired later projects like the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). One of only 24 ape punks in the collection, CryptoPunk #2924 changed hands for 3,300 ETH ($4.45 million) on September 28. Secondary sales volumes continued to decline, with only $114 million traded in the week ending September 26. Volume in dollar terms has now fallen for seven consecutive weeks. Open / Comment

2023-09-12 12:42:04 The Relationship Between Bitcoin and Interest Rates Is Breaking Down: Arthur Hayes

KOREA BLOCKCHAIN WEEK, SEOUL – By all accounts, the United States should be heading into a recession, and risk assets like bitcoin, or tech stocks such as Nvidia (NVDA), should be nowhere near their current values, thanks to the steepest Federal Reserve (Fed) rate hike cycle in decades. But the opposite is happening. Economists have increasingly course corrected on their recession forecasts, bitcoin has doubled since crypto exchange FTX’s multibillion collapse, and Nvidia shares are soaring.

The standard playbook is starting to break down,” Arthur Hayes, the founder of BitMEX and current Chief Investment Officer at Maelstrom, said during a keynote at Korea Blockchain Week attended by CoinDesk. Rising financial asset prices can boost capital gains taxes and government revenue, but when the Fed raises interest rates, these prices can stagnate, reducing tax revenue, Hayes opined. “All the while, this, coupled with the political hostility of austerity, increases deficits, leading the U.S. Treasury to issue more bonds. The resulting interest payments to the wealthy stimulate spending and nominal GDP growth, creating a paradox where the Fed's rate hikes inadvertently fuel economic growth," Hayes said. Open / Comment