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Aussies revealed as prime targets of Israel crypto scam syndicate.💸
Evidence found that Australians were among the top countries targeted in a sophisticated cryptocurrency investment scam network, which has suspected kingpins in Israel.
Australian residents have been identified as the primary targets of a sophisticated network of cryptocurrency call-center scammers — suspected to be run by Israel-based crime bosses.
Evidence uncovered after a full-scale raid of four Serbian call centers and 11 residences by Serbian, German, Bulgarian and Cypriot authorities found that Australians were among the top countries being targeted. The news came from a Feb. 23 report by The Australian.
The raids saw fifteen people arrested and $1.46 million in cryptocurrencies seized.
According to the report, scammers from these call centers allegedly used advertisements on social media to lure in victims and offer promising investment opportunities with lucrative returns.
Private investigation firms told the outlet that Australians were particularly sought after by scammers because of their relative wealth and a purported history of weak investigative efforts by federal and state authorities👇:
“Australia’s wealth💰 combined with a long history of state and federal authorities being unwilling or unable to investigate online investment fraud has made the country a sitting duck for the international crime syndicates behind the scams.”
Mark Solomons, Senior Investigator at IFW Global, a private intelligence firm, explained that because many Australians are “friendly” and “open-minded,” they’re more likely to pursue online relationships — particularly “if the right buttons are pressed.”
“Australia and Canada vie for the top spot. They are rich countries with a low likelihood of a disciplined investigation or detection.“
Solomons said much of the stolen cryptocurrencies are being used to fund the scammer’s lavish lifestyles:
“There are Israelis getting very, very rich by ripping off Australians and sucking superannuation and retirement savings out of the Australian economy.”
Terra Luna Classic Price Prediction as LUNC Reaches $1 Billion Market Cap ⭐️
The Terra Luna Classic price has dipped to $0.00016810 today, marking a 1% loss in a day and also a week. LUNC is also down by 6% in a month, with the token hurt by the recent news that the SEC is charging Terraform Labs and CEO Do Kwon with running a multi-billion dollar securities fraud.
While the SEC's action doesn't specifically address Terra Luna Classic, LUNC may continue to be hurt by the regulator's case in the short term. However, the cryptocurrency still looks good for the medium and long term, and has recently regained its $1 billion market cap, helped by efforts to re-peg sister stablecoin USTC and burn more LUNC.
Likewise, LUNC's 30-day moving average (red) remains below its 200-day average (blue), and could decline further before bottoming out and beginning to recover.
LUNC's support level at the moment appears to be around $0.000166, with the coin testing this support a couple of times today. In each case, it bounced back, signaling that if it's going to fall a little further today, it won't be much further.
As we noted above, things aren't looking great for LUNC at the moment, with the SEC having charged Terraform Labs and Do Kwon with securities fraud.
Sen. Warren vows reintroduction of AML bill that extends to DAOs and DeFi.
While the Senator did not expand on other details of the upcoming bill, she suggested that DeFi should not be exempt from AML laws.
A bi-partisan Anti-Money Laundering (AML) bill that covers “decentralized entities” such as decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) will soon be reintroduced to Congress, according to United States Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Warren, a vocal crypto critic, argued at the Feb. 14 Senate Banking Committee’s hearing entitled, “Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets,” that the crypto community wants decentralized entities running on code to be exempt from AML requirements:
“In other words, they want a giant loophole for DeFi written into the law so they can launder money whenever a drug lord or a terrorist pays them to do so.”
Due to this, Warren said she would re-introduce the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2022 that she first introduced on Dec. 15, 2022. It was read twice before being referred to the Senate Banking Committee and has received no further traction.
If legislated as it was, the seven-page bill would have prohibited financial institutions from using digital asset mixers, such as Tornado Cash, designed to obscure blockchain data.
Senator Warren speaking at the “Crypto Crash” committee hearing on Feb. 14. Source: U.S. Senate Banking Committee.
It also would have resulted in unhosted wallets, miners and validators being required to write and implement AML policies.
The Senator noted current AML laws “don’t cover big parts of the crypto industry” and claimed crypto exchange ShapeShift took advantage of the lack of regulation when it restructured itself as a DeFi platform in July 2021, adding:
“They said we’re making this shift, quote, ‘to remove itself from regulated activity.’ Translation: Launder your money here.”
Warren claimed “big-time financial criminals love crypto” and argued that crypto was “the method of choice for international drug traffickers,” North Korean hackers and ransomware attackers, adding:
“The crypto market took in $20 billion last year in illicit transactions, and that’s only the part we know about.”
Metropoly Crypto Presale Review - Should you Invest?
Metropoly is an upcoming cryptocurrency project that adds real-life utilities to NFTs by tying them to real estate properties. Devs have envisioned this project to let all interested parties participate in the thriving real-estate economy without the need for roadblocks such as paperwork and overly zealous regulations.
The Metropoly project features an NFT marketplace through which users can buy a fraction of the Real Estate NFTs (REN) and, in the process, gain perks such as passive income.
Metropoly presents itself as the world's first decentralized real estate marketplace offering people fractional ownership of properties located across the globe without the need for banks, paperwork, or hidden fees.
In this Metropoly crypto presale review, our team has gone through all the aspects of this project, from the marketplace to fundamentals to tokenomics, to assess whether this crypto project is a good investment. We also include the steps one can take to participate in the Metropoly presale.
Metropoly is a decentralized NFT marketplace featuring non-fungible tokens backed by real-world assets, which are real estate properties. The project aims to democratize real estate investment by providing fractional ownership of these properties by fragmenting the NFTs attached to them. Buying these fractional NFTs, which cost as low as $100, will allow the NFT owners to share the revenue generated through the said properties.
Real-world utilities for NFTs have always been a matter of discussion - and Metropoly is making it real by attaching NFTs with income-generating assets. All properties are hand-selected by The Metropoly Trust, which houses highly professional realtors. The properties will then be tokenized - and then the NFTs attached to them will be put on sale in a decentralized marketplace.
Russian government subsidizes crypto mining facility in Siberia.
The facility, which opens this year, will possess 30,000 crypto mining machines, hire 100 workers and consume 100 megawatts from the power grid.
The crypto mining industry has faced moratoriums in some parts of the United States and Canada in recent months. Now, Russia provides tax incentives for those who want to invest in crypto mining. With the government’s direct support, the new $12 million crypto mining center will open in east Siberia.
According to local media, the state-owned Corporation for the Development of the Far East announced the launch of the crypto mining center in Buryatia — a republic in east Siberia and part of the Russian Federation.
The facility will possess 30,000 mining machines, hire 100 workers and consume 100 megawatts from the power grid. It will open in the first half of 2023 and be owned and run by BitRiver, Russia’s largest crypto mining colocation services supplier.
The mining center will enjoy a broad set of incentives, from zero land and property taxes to a lowered income tax rate. The electricity prices will be cut by half for the mining operator.
The government support can be explained by the legal status of Buryatia, which is a “territory of advanced development” — a special economic zone incentivized to attract national and foreign investments. The Corporation for the Development of the Far East is a subsidiary of the Ministry of the Development of the Far East and Arctics and specializes in supporting investment projects.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the financial sanctions that followed it, the Russian government has reversed its anti-crypto position, particularly on mining. In July 2022, a state-owned gas giant Gazprom Neft entered into a partnership with BitRiver to provide it with electricity generated from petroleum gas. As part of the collaboration, BitRiver started developing a digital infrastructure in the oil fields where Gazprom provides flare gas for crypto mining facilities.
Interpol wants to police metaverse crimes, reveals secretary general.
According to Stock, criminals have started targeting users on platforms similar to the metaverse, adding that “we need to sufficiently respond to that.”
The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO), or Interpol, is investigating how it could police crimes in the metaverse. However, a top Interpol executive believes there are issues with defining a metaverse crime.
According to BBC, Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock revealed the agency’s intent to oversee criminal activities on the metaverse. Stock highlighted the ability of “sophisticated and professional” criminals to adapt to new technological tools for committing crimes.
The move to police the metaverse comes nearly four months after Interpol launched its own metaverse in October 2022 at the 90th Interpol General Assembly in New Delhi, India.
During the launch, the announcement read:
“As the number of metaverse users grows and the technology further develops, the list of possible crimes will only expand to potentially include crimes against children, data theft, money laundering, financial fraud, counterfeiting, ransomware, phishing, and sexual assault and harassment.”
According to Stock, criminals have started targeting users on platforms similar to the metaverse, adding that “we need to sufficiently respond to that.” However, the organization faces issues with defining a metaverse crime. Madan Oberoi, Interpol’s executive director of technology and innovation, stated:
“There are crimes where I don’t know whether it can still be called a crime or not. If you look at the definitions of these crimes in physical space, and you try to apply it in the metaverse, there is a difficulty.”
Moreover, he revealed that Interpol is also challenged with raising awareness about possible metaverse crimes.
In parallel to launching into the metaverse in October 2022, the organization created a dedicated unit to fight crypto crimes.
The initiatives followed Interpol’s “red notice” to global law enforcement in September for the arrest of Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon.
Bitcoin Loophole Review - Scam or Legitimate Trading Software?
Our review of Bitcoin Loophole focuses on evaluating the features of this cryptocurrency trading platform. The platform claims to support a range of the most popular digital assets, including Bitcoin, Dash, XRP, Cardano, and Binance Coin.
Our objective is to give investors an understanding of Bitcoin Loophole's features, withdrawal processing times, minimum deposit, and other relevant information. Additionally, we will examine the legitimacy of Bitcoin Loophole as a crypto trading platform. Let's begin.
According to the Bitcoin Loophole website, this organization functions as a cryptocurrency trading platform. The website also mentions that members could buy and sell top digital tokens, including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Since January 2023, we have been witnessing a potential revival in the crypto space. Bitcoin has surged by more than 40% in January, while Ethereum has also increased by over 37% in the same time. Both these tokens are supposedly available to trade on Bitcoin Loophole, along with many more.
Users can supposedly access the Bitcoin Loophole platform after opening a new account and making a $250 minimum deposit.
After reading through other Bitcoin Loophole reviews, we have learned that this platform claims to offer a customer department to assist users. On Bitcoin Loophole, withdrawals apparently take a maximum of 24 hours to complete.
The Bitcoin Loophole trading platform can apparently be accessed via desktops and laptops. While there is no Bitcoin Loophole mobile app, the platform can supposedly be accessed on mobile phones through online browsing.
Investors are Flocking to This New Crypto Platform as the Presale Shoots Past $2.2 Million Raised.
Meta Masters Guild has now raised $2.2 million in its presale, which has four days left to run before it moves to its fifth stage (out of seven). This means that the offering price of one MEMAG token will rise from $0.016 to $0.019, with the sale set to offer 35% of the coin's maximum supply of 1 billion.
Given how quickly the Ethereum-based play-to-earn gaming platform is gaining new converts, it's likely that this entire allocation will sell out by the end of the offering. This gives interested parties only a limited window of opportunity if they want to obtain some MEMAG before it lists on exchanges in the next couple of months.
Some two weeks ago, the Meta Masters Guild's presale had raised only $500,000. However, it has been helped along in recent days by growing word-of-mouth, with some 24-hour periods witnessing raises of over $100,000.
As a result, the sale has passed the $2.2 million mark and is heading toward the next presale stage, where the price will increase from $0.016 to $0.019. From there, it could easily sell out its allocation of 350 million MEMAG.
Investors can participate in the sale by visiting the official Meta Masters Guild website and connecting either their Wallet Connect or MetaMask wallets. MEMAG can be purchased using either ETH or (ETH-based) USDT.
The sale will close with one MEMAG token costing $0.023, representing a 228.6% increase over its initial sale price of $0.007. Of course, with the coin set to list on exchanges soon after, this price could continue to rise.
Smart contracts to power day-to-day Web3 company operations.
The project aims to help decentralized autonomous companies by providing an operating system that integrates various tools for governance and management.
Web3 firm MetisDAO Foundation launched Koris, a smart contract-based platform that allows decentralized organizations to operate and manage communities through an end-to-end operational infrastructure.
In an announcement sent to Cointelegraph, the company said that Koris aims to turn decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) into DACs or “decentralized autonomous companies” by providing an operating system consisting of various governance and management tools.
The team believes that while DAO platforms have collective decision-making and operational functions, they can be taken further by providing tools to help grow Web3 businesses.
Chelsea Kubo, the co-founder and COO of Koris, said that there is a growing demand for DAOs with increased management transparency. She added:
“These infrastructures and management models are reflected within a DAC, and KORIS works as a platform to help businesses excel in a web3 space. Having said that, it is only time until large enterprises and web2 companies begin to make this move.”
The project is currently in its closed beta phase. However, the company said that in the future, anyone will be able to create their own DAC on Koris. This includes established Web3 firms and people who want to start their own community.
DAOs have gained a lot of support to develop recently. Apart from Koris, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has also voiced its support for DAOs by releasing a toolkit on Jan. 17. The document contains the work of more than 100 contributors and aims to give a starting point for DAOs in developing effective strategies in governance, operations and legal matters.
In an episode of The Agenda podcast, co-founders of DAOs like TheLaborDAO and theCaféDAO sat down with Cointelegraph's Jonathan DeYoung and Ray Salmond to discuss the state of workers’ rights in the United States. The group explored how DAOs can strengthen the rights of workers and how blockchain can play a part.
Why Crypto Prices Are Lower Today But A Rebound is On the Cards.
Crypto prices have fallen a little today after over a week of consistently bullish news, but investors need not be worried as there are several opportunities left to capitalise on in the market.
Although the retracement has only been in single digits, there are some who are lamenting the recent price decline in the crypto markets after the recent bullish streak over the course of the last few weeks.
The lower crypto prices are nothing unusual considering the broader market; retracements are normal and to be expected.
Some speculators believe that the markets will rebound strongly in the coming weeks and months, and as such they are bullish on a variety of different projects moving forward.
In particular, speculators who have a high risk tolerance are considering investing in early stage projects where they believe that they will be able to find the highest possible returns on their investment. Meta Masters Guild is a gaming guild that creates its own games, and thus far has been welcomed by its community who are hugely bullish on the project forward, particularly thanks to the kart racing game that is exciting the world of play to earn racing games.
Calvaria is a brand new play to earn gaming ecosystem whose presale for their native token RIA has been selling out extremely quickly over the course of the last few weeks.
The RIA presale has now entered its final stage, and there are fewer than $300k worth of RIA tokens left to be sold before the presale concludes in 12 days.
This means that anyone who wants to secure RIA tokens at a significantly discounted price ought to head over to the Calvaria website as soon as possible, before the token begins listing on a range of centralised exchanges.
Huobi and Solaris crypto-to-fiat debit card launches in the EU.
The Visa-backed debit card will allow Huobi users in the European Economic Area to pay from their crypto accounts at point-of-sale stations globally.
As the crypto space continues to expand into the mainstream, bridging the gap between digital and fiat currencies is a priority for many legacy financial institutions.
Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi announced its partnership with Solaris, a European financial services provider, to launch a crypto-to-fiat debit card.
The program, approved by Visa, allows Huobi users to use their digital assets globally at the point of sale. Users residing in the European Economic Area (EEA) will have access to the card beginning in the second quarter of 2023.
The EEA comprises all 27 European Union (E.U.) member states, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
Commenting on the partnership, Andrea Ramoino, the chief strategy officer at Solaris, hinted at future developments in its collaboration with Huobi.
“This is just the first step in our partnership as we look ahead to delivering more payment options to users in the EEA region and beyond.“
This is not the first crypto-to-fiat card available to residents of the E.U. In 2020, Binance launched its own Visa-accredited crypto-to-fiat card, which allows Europeans to pull funds straight from their Binance accounts.
Outside of the E.U., Visa has been an active proponent in bridging the crypto-fiat gap. In October 2022, Blockchaincom announced its partnership with Visa to offer a crypto debit card, which is only available to residents of the United States.
Prior to its collapse, FTX had also partnered with Visa to offer a debit card in 40 countries.
Most recently, the financial service provider worked with the fintech company, ZELF, to launch an anonymous debit card with a crypto recharge. This allows users to open a checking account based on the U.S. dollar with only their name, email and phone number.
Before the start of 2023, Visa also hinted at a feature allowing users to auto-pay bills from their crypto wallet.
Ripple exec expects more crypto acquisitions by TradFi in 2023.
Crypto acquisitions in 2023 will further strengthen the industry in the aftermath of casualties like the FTX collapse, a Ripple exec predicted.
The cryptocurrency industry will see increased consolidation in 2023 as healthier companies acquire more crypto and blockchain companies, according to a senior executive at Ripple.
Sendi Young, Ripple’s managing director for Europe, took to Twitter on Jan. 9 to share a set of industry predictions for 2023, expressing confidence about crypto in the near future.
According to Young’s forecast, the coming year will bring many acquisitions in the blockchain and crypto industry, which will help such companies and startups fill the gaps in their capabilities. The acquisitions will further strengthen the industry in the aftermath of casualties like the FTX collapse as well as other issues experienced by firms like Celcius, Voyager, Three Arrows Capital and others, the Ripple exec noted.
Young also predicted that cryptocurrency and blockchain firms will be increasingly acquired by traditional financial (TradFi) companies and other established companies in 2023.
Young’s predictions about the state of crypto acquisitions in 2023 come amid the increasing interest by traditional finance giants in buying subsidiaries of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX. As many as 117 financial and strategic counterparties have expressed willingness to purchase one or more of FTX’s branches like FTX Japan, FTX Europe, LedgerX and Embed, according to a court filing from Jan. 8.
The cryptocurrency industry has seen some major acquisitions recently, with Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital acquiring Argo Blockchain’s flagship mining facility Helios for $65 million in late December. According to Novogratz, the Helios mining deal was a transformative acquisition for Galaxy as the firm works to increase its exposure to the Bitcoin mining sector.
Among other predictions, Young also forecasted that 2023 will see greater adoption of fiat-backed stablecoins as institutions realize the benefits of blockchain for real-time merchant settlement.
DeFi auditor nets $40,000 for identifying Uniswap vulnerability.
A security firm flagged a now-fixed vulnerability to Uniswap, highlighting the potential for reentrancy attacks on the protocol’s Universal Router smart contract.
Uniswap’s recently launched bug bounty program has led to the discovery of a now-fixed vulnerability of the protocol’s Universal Router smart contract.
The automated market maker released two new smart contracts to its platform in November 2022. Permit2 allows token approvals to be shared and managed across different applications, while Universal Router unifies ERC-20 and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) swapping into a single swap router.
Uniswap also advertised a lucrative bug bounty program to identify potential vulnerabilities in its smart contracts toward the end of 2022 as it looked to assure the safety and efficacy of its protocol.
Smart contract security and auditing firm Dedaub announced that it had received a bug bounty after flagging a vulnerability in the Universal Router smart contract that would have allowed reentrancy to drain user funds mid-transaction.
According to Dedaub’s breakdown, the Universal Router allows users to perform diverse actions including swapping multiple tokens and NFTs in one transaction.
The router embeds a scripting language for a wide variety of token actions, which could include transfers to third party recipients. If correctly implemented, transfers would go to the recipient within specified parameters.
However, Dedaub identified a vulnerability in which a third-party code was invoked during the transfer, allowing the code to re-enter the Universal Router and claim any tokens that were temporarily in the contract.
Dedaub then suggested a straightforward remedy, advising the Uniswap team to add a reentrancy lock to the core execution of the new router. Uniswap awarded the auditing firm a total of $40,000 for flagging the vulnerability. The amount included a 33% bonus for reporting the issue during Uniswap’s bonus period in November 2022.
Fiji elects pro-Bitcoin prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka.
Fiji elects a pro-Bitcoin prime minister, signaling a positive future for Bitcoin adoption in the pacific island nation.
A newly elected pro-Bitcoin Prime Minister has taken office in the Pacific Islands of Fiji. The new leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, took the Fijian office on Dec. 24.
Lord Fusitu’a, a Tongan noble and a former member of the Tongan parliament, took to Twitter to share the news from his neighboring nation. Fusitu’a stated that he had explained to Rabuka step by step “how Fiji can do Bitcoin legal tender like Tonga,” and there could be two “Legal Tender Bills for the Pacific in 2023.”
Lord Fusitu’a explained to Cointelegraph in Twitter messages that “The new PM is definitely pro-Bitcoin”
“He asked to meet with me which we did via zooms since last year to walk him through step by step, how he could adopt bitcoin legal tender.”
Tonga’s timeline for introducing Bitcoin as a legal tender is public and could pass as early as February 2023. Fiji faces similar economic and developmental challenges to Tonga due to its location and history. However, with almost 900,000 people, Fiji’s population is more than nine times the size of Tonga.
The potential for Bitcoin to improve financial inclusion in Fiji is particularly significant given the country’s geography and economic situation. Located in the Pacific Ocean, Fiji is made up of over 330 islands. It is classified as a middle-income country but still faces significant development challenges, including high poverty rates, limited access to financial services and energy dependence on fossil fuels.
Indeed, the World Bank reports that remittance into Fiji is over 11% of its GDP. Plus, while Fiji’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy reports strong growth in financial inclusion in recent years, just half of the female population has access to a bank account. Bitcoin could act as a tool to improve remittances and bank the unbanked, following El Salvador’s example.
FTX collapse calls for ‘prudent regulation’ in the UK.
The United Kingdom is taking cautionary lessons from the collapse of FTX as calls for greater regulation come from public and private sector institutions.
The collapse of FTX is being viewed as a cautionary tale and a precursor for more prudent regulation by public and private sector players in the United Kingdom.
Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe made headlines ahead of the Christmas weekend in an interview with Sky News, outlining his belief that greater protection needs to be afforded to investors in the U.K. looking to gain exposure to cryptocurrency markets.
Cunliffe stressed that prospective cryptocurrency users and investors should have a structure to invest in the asset class that ensures similar consumer protection and integrity to conventional financial markets.
The deputy governor highlighted increased interest in cryptocurrency markets from financial institutions and retail users as a driving force behind the need for greater regulatory oversight in the country:
“We had banks and investment funds and others who wanted to invest in it and I think we should think about regulation before it becomes integrated with the financial system and before it becomes a systemic problem.”
Cunliffe also used the collapse of FTX as an example where existing regulatory parameters guiding the traditional finance sector may have provided protection to users that have been left out of pocket:
“We saw things like clients’ money appears to have gone missing, conflicts of interest between different operations, transparency, audit and accounting.”
Drawing parallels to the gambling sector in the United Kingdom, Cunliffe said that investors should have access to a regulated environment that prevents losing access to funds as was the case in the collapse of FTX.
Cointelegraph reached out to Mitch Mechigian, partner at investment firm Blockchain Coinvestors, for more insight into the current regulatory environment for the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem in the United Kingdom.
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MakerDAO voting on $100M loan participation with Florida commercial bank.
Florida’s Cogent Bank is proposing a $100 million participation in loans to MakerDAO’s RWA Master Participation Trust.
Crypto lending platform MakerDAO is voting on a new proposal to bring another commercial bank into its ecosystem, strengthening the connection between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance.
As per MakerDAO’s governance forum, Cogent Bank — a Florida-based commercial bank — is proposing to participate with $100 million in loans to MakerDAO’s RWA Master Participation Trust.
The proposal is part of MakerDAO’s monthly governance cycle and seeks the same terms and conditions applied to Pennsylvania-based bank Huntingdon Valley Bank (HVB), which entered into a collateral integration with the crypto firm in July 2022, allowing the bank to borrow against its assets using DeFi.
Under the same conditions, MakerDAO would use its trust arm to link the capital available at Cogent Bank with MakerDAO’s Dai stablecoin. The trust entity would be responsible for ensuring DAI minting and destruction from the vault, as well as managing the partnership with the bank.
The DeFi protocol would gain exposure to the credit market in at least eight categories, including commercial real estate, industrial, life insurance, consumer and public finance, with loans issued mostly on a fixed-rate basis.
Among the revenue sources for MakerDAO are fees associated with maintaining the vault, minting DAI, and yields. The benchmark 30-day average secured overnight financing rate stood at 4.15% as of Jan. 5.
Before its acquisition in 2018, Cogent Bank was known as Pinnacle Bank. The Florida bank has $1.3 billion of assets under management and is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. According to the company, loans originated in the first three quarters of 2022 totaled $602 million and summed $873 million in 2021.
In a bid to endure the crypto winter in 2022, MakerDAO disclosed a governance process for its first collaboration with a traditional bank, Huntingdon Valley Bank. At that time, the DeFi protocol announced plans to onboard other banks depending on the results of its integration with HVB.
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Silvergate suspends dividends to preserve ‘highly liquid balance sheet’.
January has been a rough month for Silvergate, with the dividend halts coming just a few weeks after it announced a Q4 2022 loss of $1 billion and laid off 200 employees.
California-based crypto bank Silvergate has suspended dividend payouts to preserve its “highly liquid balance sheet.”
In a Jan. 27 announcement, the firm stated that it is halting “the payment of dividends on its 5.375% Fixed Rate Non-Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A, in order to preserve capital.”
The company outlined that it made the decision to weather the storm of crypto winter but stressed that it still maintains a “cash position in excess of its digital asset customer-related deposits.”
“This decision reflects the Company’s focus on maintaining a highly liquid balance sheet with a strong capital position as it navigates recent volatility in the digital asset industry.”
“The Company’s Board of Directors will re-evaluate the payment of quarterly dividends as market conditions evolve,” the firm added.
The announcement comes just 11 days after the company posted a hefty $1 billion net loss in its Q4 2022 report on Jan. 17. Silvergate attributed its poor performance to the overall sour market sentiment, which has seen investors opt for a “risk-off” approach over the past year.
In the Q4 report, Silvegate CEO Alan Lane also used similar language to the latest announcement, noting that the company is still bullish on the crypto sector but is working to maintain “a highly liquid balance sheet with a strong capital position.”
The news of suspended dividends on Friday was met with notable losses in both its preferred (SI-PA) and common (SI) stock prices.
According to data from Yahoo Finance, the price of SI-PA dropped by 22.71% to $8.85, while SI declined by 3.76% to sit at $13.58 by market close.
Zooming out also paints a grim picture for SI-PA and SI, with the share prices declining by 60% and 87.46% over the past 12 months.
This is not the only action the firm has taken to shore up its coffers this month, after it announced on Jan. 5 that it had laid off 200 employees — representing 40% of its headcount — in a bid to keep afloat.
SBF to forfeit $700M worth of assets if found guilty of fraud.
While most of SBF’s assets have been seized, Federal prosecutor Damian Williams outlined that the government is also looking to take control of three of his affiliated Binance accounts.
According to new court filings, disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) will be subject to the forfeiture of roughly $700 million worth of assets if he were to be found guilty of fraud.
In a court document filed on Jan 20, U.S. federal prosecutor Damian Williams outlined that the “government respectfully gives notice that the property subject to forfeiture” covers a long list of assets across fiat, shares and crypto.
The filings state that most of the assets were seized by the government between Jan.4 and Jan. 19, while it is also looking to lay claim to “all monies and assets” belonging to three separate Binance accounts.
Looking at the list of seized assets, the biggest allocations include 55,273,469 Robinhood (HOOD) shares worth roughly $525.5 million at the time of writing, $94.5 million held at Silvergate Bank, $49.9 million held at Farmington State Bank and $20.7 million at ED&F Man Capital Markets, Inc.
The government has submitted a forfeiture order in this instance as it alleges that these assets have been obtained unlawfully via the use of customer deposits.
While members of SBF’s inner circle such as Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang have fessed up and cooperated with prosecutors over their roles in FTX’s collapse, the man himself has pleaded not guilty to all eight criminal charges laid against him.
In other FTX-related news, a Jan. 18 report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) highlighted poorly aged marketing that the exchange released in Africa not too long before it went bankrupt in November.
The campaign in question touted USD-pegged stablecoins as safer investments than local currencies concerning inflation, while also promoting the potential to earn 8% yearly via staking rewards programs.
While those inflation sentiments may generally be true given that African currencies such as the Nigerian naira and Ghanaian cedi have plummeted against the USD, any African FTX customer persuaded by the marketing of course went on lost funds when the firm went bankrupt.
Iran and Russia want to issue new stablecoin backed by gold.
The potential stablecoin aims to enable cross-border transactions instead of fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, the Russian ruble or the Iranian rial.
The Central Bank of Iran is reportedly cooperating with the Russian government to jointly issue a new cryptocurrency backed by gold.
According to the Russian news agency Vedomosti, Iran is working with Russia to create a “token of the Persian Gulf region” that would serve as a payment method in foreign trade.
The token is projected to be issued in the form of a stablecoin backed by gold, according to Alexander Brazhnikov, executive director of the Russian Association of Crypto Industry and Blockchain.
The stablecoin aims to enable cross-border transactions instead of fiat currencies like the United States dollar, the Russian ruble or the Iranian rial. The report notes that the potential cryptocurrency would operate in a special economic zone in Astrakhan, where Russia started to accept Iranian cargo shipments.
Russian lawmaker Anton Tkachev, a member of the Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, stressed that a joint stablecoin project would only be possible once the digital asset market is fully regulated in Russia. After multiple delays, the Russian lower house of parliament once again promised to start regulating crypto transactions in 2023.
Iran and Russia are among the countries that banned their residents from using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and stablecoins like Tether (USDT) for payments. At the same time, Iran and Russia have been actively working to adopt crypto as a tool of foreign trade.
In August 2022, Iran’s Industry, Mines and Trade Ministry approved the use of cryptocurrency for imports into the country amid ongoing international trade sanctions. The local government said the new measures would help Iran mitigate global trade sanctions. Iran subsequently placed its first international import order using $10 million worth of crypto.
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Crypto Whale Invests $18k in Move-to-Earn Coin Fight Out – Here's What's Attracting the Big Money.
The Move-to-Earn (M2E) movement has proved that it is not just a hype but a worthy course aiming to change how people live. Ecosystems like STEPN, Sweat Coin and Step App are gradually becoming competitive by incorporating new tech solutions in Web3.
Still, fitness enthusiasts do not feel quite at home, mainly because of the high costs associated with personal trainers and fitness boutiques. On the bright side, FightOut (FGHT), the newest kid on the block, is here to change the narrative.
The team behind the new M2E ecosystem is removing all barriers to entry to provide an opportunity for everyone to benefit from living a healthy lifestyle. At FightOut, a healthy lifestyle means more than just weights and machines.
Every workout is personalized according to the user's needs, goals, and abilities. Bringing down the current prohibitive costs associated with the fitness industry is FightOut's biggest goal. In reality, community members would be rewarded for their effort, progress, and the value that such a lifestyle brings to the wider society.
Investors interested in this niche M2E sector of the crypto economy are looking no further than FightOut. It's barely a day since an Ethereum whale spent over $18,000 to buy FGHT, the native token powering FightOut's ecosystem.
FightOut's presale has been selling fast as investors reorganize the constituents of their crypto portfolios, with the disastrous 2022 behind us. Slightly over $2.67 million has been raised by selling 1 FGHT for $0.0166.
Investors are taking advantage of a 50% presale bonus to maximize their holdings. The presale is valid until $5 million has been raised. FightOut's presale will close on March 31, with the first centralized exchange scheduled for April 5. FGHT will debut on the CEX at $0.0333.
US lawmakers under pressure following FTX collapse.
In response to FTX's fall, United States lawmakers are reevaluating the crypto industry's regulatory needs for 2023.
Legislators in the United States seem to be reevaluating the crypto industry and its regulatory needs in light of FTX's collapse. According to the Wall Street Journal, since the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy in November, lawmakers have been under pressure to set a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.
Several proposals are in the works that would apply existing banking, securities, and tax rules to cryptocurrencies, and lawmakers are calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt an aggressive approach to the crypto market.
In a December House hearing, Rep. Jake Auchincloss, who is also a member of the bipartisan Congressional Blockchain Caucus, reportedly noted that "it’s time for the blockchain investors and entrepreneurs to build things that matter or to lose more credibility,” adding that in 14 years crypto has only delivered "white papers and podcasts".
Senator Roger Marshall, an advocate for blockchain technology's potential to stop fraud, is also pushing for tighter regulation in the United States. "Someone needs to convince me that it's not all just a Ponzi game," he claimed.
Among the few legislators willing to stand up for the crypto industry, Rep. Patrick McHenry stated that it is necessary "to separate out the bad actions of an individual from the good created by an industry and an innovation.” The House Financial Services Committee will be led by McHenry in the new Congress.
FTX former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's lobby in Washington was focused on a bill that would give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) authority to regulate cryptocurrencies. The bill was expected to be included in the budget spending package for 2023, but now it's unlikely to advance due to the past weeks' developments.
As reported by Cointelegraph, Bankman-Fried was a significant donor to Republicans and Democrats in Washington. Earlier this year, he considered spending up to one billion dollars to help influence 2024 presidential election campaigns.
MAPay and its crypto subsidiary MPayz, a global healthcare technology firm with a focus on decentralized payment networks, unveiled its partnership with the Ministry of Public Health and Family Welfare in the Government of Maharashtra, India, to provide NFT technology that will store personal health data on the blockchain for the first time. Built on Algorand, the first deployment will introduce upwards of 100 million NFTs for this purpose.
MAPay will use its proprietary NFT technology to enable secure, decentralized storage. This application for NFTs will help eliminate intermediaries in the healthcare system that routinely cause bottlenecks, introduce risk, and drive up costs for all parties – including patients; public, private, and government health providers; insurance companies; and banks. See the full press release here:
https://rb.gy/jkecc3
Stay up to date on the project's launch date to get in before institutional money moves in. Click the link to join the telegram group!
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Crypto Twitter confused by SBF’s $250M bail and a return to luxury.
The crypto community raised many questions about how FTX’s former CEO was able to secure bail and the conditions it will come with.
Crypto Twitter has seemingly taken issue with Sam Bankman-Fried’s $250 million bail bond, which allows him to spend Christmas in his parent’s Palo Alto home without paying a single dime upfront.
The former FTX CEO arrived in New York from the Bahamas on Dec. 21 and appeared in court on Dec. 22, where he was released on bail via a “personal recognizance bond” — essentially a written promise from the defendant that they will show up for future court appearances and not engage in any illegal activity while out on bail.
According to the release agreement filed on Dec. 22, no cash was required to be deposited with the court, but the bond conditions see to it that Bankman-Fried’s parent’s five-bedroom home in Palo Alto will be used as collateral for the $250 million bond.
Some of the crypto community on Twitter were initially confused by the $250 million no-upfront-cost bail conditions, questioning how Sam Bankman-Fried was able to post the $250 million bail figure after he previously claimed he had less than $100,000 in his bank account.
Under the bail agreement, the bond is only paid up if Bankman-Fried doesn’t appear for future court appearances or violates other bail conditions, such as a requirement to surrender to serve a court sentence.
Meanwhile, those who reviewed the court documents instead shared concerns over Bankman-Fried’s guarantors — including his father, Allan Joseph Bankman, and mother, Barbara Fried — who would be on the hook should SBF violate his bail conditions.
Host of the Wolf of All Streets podcast, Scott Melker, tweeted on Dec. 23 that while SBF didn’t have to pay $250 million to stay out of jail, if he “skips bail,” his parents will have to work “17 extra jobs” to come up with the money.
Vocal Crypto Twitter user Autism Capital elaborated on the matter, explaining that while Bankman-Fried has not had to pay any money upfront, he has put his parents, relatives and non-relatives in a difficult situation.
