Crypto Land

2023-10-21 17:01:47 Testimony from the FBI, Kendall Jenner, and Revealing Twitter Messages

The prosecution started with a bang as Nishad Singh delivered a powerful testimony against the now-disgraced FTX founder. Singh testified that customer deposits into FTX were "spent and lost" by sister company, Alameda Research, on "real estate investments, VC investments, campaign donations, and speculative events in trading."

The former head of engineering for FTX went on to say Bankman-Fried spent in "excess," claiming that the disgraced crypto founder spent nearly $1 billion on promotional deals for the company. Bankman-Fried's lavish lifestyle was widely reported on, with the former "king of crypto" bankrolling a $35 million luxury penthouse for himself and nine other FTX and Alameda Research employees. While Singh claimed he had "the nicest room in the house," he often felt "confused" about its "ostentatious" nature.

The prosecution went on to share an email from Bankman-Fried in early 2022 detailing a Super Bowl party attended by the FTX founder. Thrown by venture capital firm K5 Global, the party featured "the most impressive collection of people," including former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, and supermodel Kendall Jenner. Open / Comment

2023-10-19 17:02:17 An announcement about the Sundae project has appeared in the public space. Bloggers, stars and opinion leaders are discussing this project.

One of the creators of Sundae published information about the project in Telegram, and 20 minutes later Ilon Musk posted a photo of himself eating Sundae ice cream as a child. It may be a coincidence, but it could also be Musk's idea.

What's known about the project. Something partly crazy, partly grandiose is coming.

Sundae: it's a crypto-token that equates to digital art. According to the project's philosophy, without community appreciation, a Picasso painting is worthless. The value of a work of art depends on community appreciation.

Right now Sundae is available for the price of an ice cream, but in a month the token may be worth $5, and then $50, $100, $1000. With each new purchase, the "Picasso painting token" will become more and more difficult to buy. The current capitalization of the project is only $20 million.

According to the project's White Paper, Sundae holders are expected to receive multi-million dollar dividends, as well as the right to medical and legal insurance, pensions and free use of the corporation's assets.

Investing in Sundae today might be like buying McDonald's stock on the day it opened in 1940 or accidentally buying a Picasso drawing for ten dollars.

The Sundae project was created by the team behind the popular meme token Grimace, which grew in value hundreds of times in six months, making many investors millionaires. Open / Comment

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2023-10-18 17:00:43 Major Japanese Businesses Ask Gov’t to Reform Crypto Tax System

Some of Japan’s biggest businesses have asked the nation’s government to make crypto tax reforms, as the country continues to pivot to Web3 and crypto. Per an official Japan Association of New Economy (JANE) announcement, the group has submitted a tax reform proposal to Tokyo.

JANE has asked the government to “reduce tax rates” in 2024 to “encourage growth and increase tax revenue.” The request refers to various forms of tax, but also makes specific mention of crypto-related taxes and Web3 growth.

The request states that the current crypto tax system is causing “promising Web3 companies” to leave the country.” JANE also warned that if steps were not taken to ameliorate the situation, Japan could be “left behind” in the Web3 sector.

And JANE claimed that “urgent measures” were needed to foster promising businesses and “develop the token economy.” JANE has previously called Web3 a “new opportunity” for Japan.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has repeatedly talked up NFTs and Web3, calling them potential growth engines for the economy. Open / Comment

2023-10-15 21:02:06 French Regulator Concludes DeFi Public Consultations, Views Ecosystem as “Disintermediated”

The Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), a body within the French Central Bank published a summary of the public consultation it held on decentralized finance (DeFi).

The document released on Oct 12, outlines a key path toward regulations in the sector to address the risky areas highlighted by stakeholders in web3 in a bid to reshape finance.

Aiming to address the contemporary issues in web3, the regulator held its public consultation for two months (April - May) recording views and opinions from market participants in France, Europe, and other continents.

”This public consultation has enabled us to gain a deeper understanding of this ecosystem, thanks to the number, variety, and depth of contributions received. This makes the regulatory avenues outlined by the ACPR even more relevant, and will provide us with an opportunity to weigh in on the forthcoming regulatory discussions at the European level.”

A key revelation by the body goes to the root of blockchain mechanisms with the body citing operational risks due to the high concentration of infrastructure on cloud service providers playing central roles. Open / Comment

2023-10-12 17:30:34 Parsec Crypto Analytics Firm Raises $4 Million in Investment Round Led by Uniswap and Billionaire Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital

Pro on-chain DeFi and NFT analytics platform Parsec has secured $4 million in an investment round. Sharing the news on X, the crypto-facing analytics platform revealed that the investment round was led by billionaire pro-crypto investor Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital.

Other key investors include the popular decentralized exchange (DEX) and automated market maker (AMM) Uniswap. In addition, Robot Ventures, CMT Digital, and several other investors.

The Parsec platform also mentioned Will Price, Rice Maximalist, and Freddie Framer as part of its angel investor teams. Since launching in 2020, Parsec Finance has focused on providing crypto-facing institutions with transparent and practical data they need to make decisions.

The platform enables crypto degens and institutions to access verifiable information across multiple blockchain networks and layer-2 scaling solutions as liquidity rapidly moves. Open / Comment

2023-10-09 19:02:38 US Consumer Protection Agency Might Introduce E-banking Laws to Digital Assets

The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) disclosed that the agency is considering transplanting e-banking laws to digital assets.

Speaking at the Bookings payment conference on Oct 6, Rohit Chopra said that the agency might apply the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) to protect investors and users in the crypto ecosystem.

According to him, to create a safe space for users, the CFPB mulls rolling out traditional finance measures for virtual assets.

“To reduce the harms of errors, hacks, and unauthorized transfers, the CFPB is exploring providing additional guidance to market participants to answer their questions regarding the applicability of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act with respect to private digital dollars and other virtual currencies.”

This comes on the heels of recent spikes in activities of bad actors in the digital asset market.

If the EFTA gets applied to crypto, virtual asset firms will be required to make certain changes to their operations regarding disclosures and other issues. Open / Comment

2023-10-09 15:00:10 Our friends at Bets.io are holding yet another amazing giveaway, and this time it’s bigger, badder and radder! Yeah, you heard it right — this time it’s five iPhones 15 Pro 256 GB and twenty five $200 cash prizes!

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As for additional conditions: no double entry, only legit accounts and if we can’t send you the iPhone, we’ll provide its cash equivalent. All the cash prizes will be credited to your account.

Good luck and have fun at Bets.io! Open / Comment

2023-10-06 17:00:59 PayPal is "Highly Unlikely" to Become a Dominant Player in Stablecoin Market

William Quigley, one of the co-founders of Tether (USDT), believes PayPal's stablecoin won't achieve notable adoption, particularly outside the United States.

"It is highly unlikely that PayPal will play a dominant role in the stablecoin market, certainly not outside of the US," Quigley said in a recent interview with Cryptonewscom.

The crypto veteran, who is also a co-founder of WAX, one of the world’s largest entertainment NFT networks, argued that stablecoins, like all cryptocurrencies, are judged by their performance across market cycles.

Therefore, as a new entrant in the crypto space, PayPal’s stablecoin will need time to earn the confidence of the crypto community. He added that the majority of existing crypto users already have one or two preferred stablecoins.

Back in August, PayPal announced that it is rolling out its PYUSD stablecoin soon. The dollar-pegged asset is issued by Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure firm that used to issue Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin. Open / Comment

2023-10-03 17:00:56 September 2023 Marks Record-High Crypto Exploits with $329 Million Stolen

On September 30, CertiK confirmed that a total of approximately $332 million had been lost to various exploits, hacks, and scams throughout September.

September 2023 has emerged as the most concerning month for crypto-related exploits, as reported by CertiK. In September, the crypto space witnessed various types of incidents. Exit scams accounted for around $1.9 million in losses, while flash loans led to losses of approximately $400,000. The most significant contributor to the month's total, however, was exploits, which amounted to roughly $329.8 million in losses.

One notable event was the Mixin Network attack on September 23. The Hong Kong-based decentralized cross-chain transfer protocol suffered a substantial breach, resulting in a loss of $200 million due to a breach of its cloud service provider.

Another major incident occurred on September 12, when CoinEx, a cryptocurrency exchange, experienced a suspected attack following a substantial outflow from four of its hot wallets. This breach led to losses exceeding $53.1 million across the hot wallets. Open / Comment