Crypto news
Iran set to freeze bank accounts of women who refuse to wear a hijab
A member of the Iranian parliament has told local media the government plans to impose new punishments on women who do not wear a hijab in public, with individuals who refuse to comply after two warnings possibly having their bank accounts frozen. Hossein Jalali, a member of the Cultural Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, told Iranian media on Dec. 6 that “unveiled persons” would be sent an SMS urging them to respect the law and wear a hijab before entering a “warning phase” and finally having their bank account potentially frozen. “In the third stage, the bank account of the unveiled person may be frozen.” Similar actions taken by governments in the past have seen protestors and dissidents turn to cryptocurrencies to continue accessing financial instruments...
Nifty News: Winamp adds NFT support, Atari gets physical and more
NFT music on Winamp Old school classic PC-friendly media player Winamp has rolled out support for Ethereum and Polygon-based music nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in the latest update of its desktop player. Winamp has been around since 1997 and was one of the most popular media players for PC users but has since been overtaken by Windows Media Player and Apple’s dominant iTunes. It has a reputation for supporting a wide range of media files, and in the latest update announcement on Dec. 7 the Winamp team noted that NFT support is officially live and ready to go. @winamp I have fond memories of Winamp from back in my youth. Are we ever going to see a official integration with @Spotify? I’d love some sweet early 2000’s visualizations with my beats — Sjoerd Stottelaar (@sjoerds) Decembe...
Blockstream raising funds for mining at 70% lower company valuation
The depths of a bear market may not be the best time to raise funds but that is exactly what Blockstream is doing. The crypto infrastructure firm is seeking fresh funding, but at a much lower valuation than previous rounds, according to a Dec. 7 Bloomberg report. Blockstream was valued at $3.2 billion when it held its last Series B funding round raising $210 million in August 2021. Today that valuation may have fallen almost 70% to below $1 billion according to the report. The company, founded in 2014, has raised a total of $299 million in funding over four rounds, according to CrunchBase. Blockstream CEO and cryptographer Adam Back did not share details of the latest funding round but did reveal that the capital will be invested into expanding the firm’s mining capacity. “We rapidly sold ...
3AC subpoenas issued as dispute grows over claims of Terraform dump
A federal judge overseeing Three Arrows Capital’s (3AC’s) bankruptcy proceedings has signed an order approving subpoenas to be delivered to 3AC’s former leadership, including co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies. The subpoenas require the founders to give up any “recorded information, including books, documents, records, and papers” in their custody that relates to the firm’s property or financial affairs. The infamous hedge fund, worth $10 billion at its peak, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy on Jul. 1 with its troubles tied up in too much leverage and the collapse of Terra Luna (LUNA), known now as Terra Classic (LUNC), and its algorithmic stablecoin formerly known as TerraUSD (UST). Since then, the liquidators — advisory firm Teneo — have been trying to hunt down the firm’s assets and pin ...
Cryptocurrency has become a playground for fraudsters
News involving crypto and fraud is ubiquitous in the white-collar crime sphere and, perhaps more worryingly, these fraudulent activities in the crypto sector are not limited to a single type of crime. Diverse and distinct yet with one common thread, these crimes involve real money and crypto investors are the victims. Many people have placed their life savings into crypto and, on a larger scale, private equities, pension schemes and even nation-states are principal investors and losers. There are con artists who will try and entice their targets to invest in a get-rich scheme that turns out to be a Ponzi. On Nov. 21, officials announced that two Estonian citizens were arrested in a $575 million cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering scheme. Additionally, in September, United States...
North Korean Lazarus Group is targeting crypto funds with a new spin on an old trick
Microsoft reports that a threat actor has been identified targeting cryptocurrency investment startups. A party Microsoft has dubbed DEV-0139 posed as a cryptocurrency investment company on Telegram and used an Excel file weaponized with “well-crafted” malware to infect systems that it then remotely accessed. The threat is part of a trend in attacks showing a high level of sophistication. In this case, the threat actor, falsely identifying itself with fake profiles of OKX employees, joined Telegram groups “used to facilitate communication between VIP clients and cryptocurrency exchange platforms,” Microsoft wrote in a Dec. 6 blog post. Microsoft explained: “We are […] seeing more complex attacks wherein the threat actor shows great knowledge and preparation, taking steps to gain their targ...
Sam Bankman-Fried hires defense attorney as US authorities probe FTX: Report
Former FTX chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried has reportedly hired Mark Cohen, a former federal prosecutor, to act as his defense attorney. According to a Dec. 6 report from Reuters, Bankman-Fried’s spokesperson Mark Botnick said the former FTX CEO has retained Cohen amid a flurry of civil litigation from investors in the crypto exchange and investigations by lawmakers and regulators in the United States. Cohen, a co-founder of law firm Cohen & Gresser, was a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York who also on the defense team for the high-profile case involving Ghislaine Maxwell — sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex trafficking and related charges. Lawmakers with the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have announced separate hea...
Fan tokens struggle to hold on as World Cup quarter-finals draw nearer
Cryptocurrencies tied to national soccer teams have failed to keep the attention of 2022 FIFA World Cup fans, with many soccer-linked fan token prices plummeting since the tournament began. Between Portugal, Spain, Brazil and Argentina, the associated digital fan tokens have fallen between 60% to 88% percent in price since the start of the World Cup on Nov. 20, according to CoinGecko. This is despite Brazil, Argentina and Portugal reaching the quarter-finals, while Spain was a strong contender up until they were knocked out on Dec. 6. The tokens do generally react to immediate results, with Spain’s SNFT token down 39.1% over the past 24 hours following the team’s loss against Morocco, however, Portugal’s POR token is also down 6.1% over that same time fram...
The impact of CBDCs on stablecoins with Bitget’s Gracy Chen
For over 14 years, central banks worldwide have seen blockchain technology deliver highly secure, immutable, verifiable and transparent financial ecosystems, starting with the Bitcoin network. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) stood out as one of the ways for fiat currency to harness a part of what cryptocurrencies achieve today. To not only keep up with rising inflation and cut down on operational costs but also to counter money laundering and related concerns, 98 of 195 countries — representing over 95% of global GDP — have either launched or are researching and developing their own versions of CBDC. Global CBDC initiatives overview. Source: Atlantic Council With CBDCs joining the race to dominate the future of finance, the relevance of the stablecoin ecosystem — cryptocurrencies b...
‘Father of the iPod’ helps Ledger create new cold crypto wallet
Hardware wallet provider Ledger, known for its cold-storage devices, announced its seventh crypto wallet in collaboration with the creator of the original iPod. Tony Fadell, the inventor of the iconic iPod Classic model, has partnered with Ledger to help the company design its latest wallet device known as Ledger Stax. The company broke the news on Dec. 6 at Ledger’s bi-annual Web3 developer event, Ledger Op3n, in Paris. Ledger’s upcoming new hardware wallet is a credit card-size device that features a large E Ink display, capacitive touch, Bluetooth support, wireless charging and more. For the first time in Ledger’s product line, Stax contains a curved E Ink display which can be used to show the holder’s name or other wallet information, just like a book spine. The device is a...
Sushiswap chief says it only has 1.5 years of treasury runway left
According to a new proposal dated Dec. 6, Jared Grey, CEO of decentralized exchange Sushiswap (SUSHI), disclosed that the project’s Treasury has less than 1.5 years of runaway left, and the “significant deficit in the treasury threatens Sushi’s operational viability, requiring an immediate remedy.” Grey explained that Sushiswap’s annualized operating expenses amounted to roughly $9 million in October, however, that has since been reduced to around $5 million. “We made the reduction possible by renegotiating infrastructure contracts, scaling back underperforming or superfluous dependencies, and instituting a budget freeze on non-critical personnel and infrastructure.” To remedy the situation, Grey proposed setting Sushiswap’s “Kanpai,...
Bitcoin clings to $17K as ARK flags ‘historically significant capitulation’
Bitcoin (BTC) and decentralized blockchains are “as strong as ever” in the wake of the FTX meltdown, ARK Invest says. In the latest edition of its monthly newsletter, “The Bitcoin Monthly,” the investment giant came out firmly bullish on BTC. ARK: FTX scandal may be “most damaging event” ever With BTC price volatility ebbing into December, the industry is still reeling from ongoing FTX contagion. As lawmakers only begin to get to grips with the events, when it comes to Bitcoin, ARK is doubling down on its conviction — and setting it firmly apart from centralized alternatives. “The fall of FTX could be the most damaging event in crypto history,” one of the latest report’s “key takeaways” states. While acknowledging that even Digital Currency Group (DCG) — one of whose products, ...
