Crypto exchange KuCoin has worked out who hacked its cryptocurrency exchange for $281 million. CEO Johnny Lyu tweeted today that, "After a thorough investigation, we have found the suspects of the 9.26 #KuCoin Security Incident with substantial proof at hand. Law enforcement officials and police are officially involved to take action." Download The Decrypt App. Get our app for the top news and features at your fingertips. Be the first to try the Decrypt Token and much more. The hack took place on September 26. KuCoin said that the hackers used a leaked private key to access the exchange's wallets. KuCoin says that it has enough money in the bank to cover all of its losses. After the hack, crypto projects worked to freeze or render useless most of the assets. Many teams updated their blockchain to make this happen. Lyu said that $204 million worth of cryptocurrency, or 72% of the total hack, is "out of the control of the suspicious addresses." https://decrypt.co/43806/kucoin-has-found-the-hackers-who-stole-281-million |
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CFTC, Department of Justice file charges against owners of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEXThe U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have filed charges against crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX and its owner-operators, including co-founder and CEO Arthur Hayes. Hayes — along with co-founders Ben Delo and Samuel Reed — are accused of operating an unregistered trading platform as well as violating CFTC rules, including anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations. "The complaint charges BitMEX with operating a facility for the trading or processing of swaps without having CFTC approval as a designated contract market or swap execution facility, and operating as a futures commission merchant by soliciting orders for and accepting bitcoin to margin digital asset derivatives transactions, and by acting as a counterparty to leveraged retail commodity transactions. The complaint further charges BitMEX with violating CFTC rules by failing to implement know-your-customer procedures, a customer information program, and anti-money laundering procedures," the CFTC said in a statement. In a separate action, the Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Hayes, Delo, Reed and BitMEX head of business development Greg Dwyer with violating the Bank Secrecy Act. According to the DOJ press release, Reed was arrested in Massachusetts on Thursday morning "and will be presented in federal court there." “As we allege here today, the four defendants, through their company’s BitMEX crypto-currency trading platform, willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act by evading U.S. anti-money laundering requirements," FBI assistant director William Sweeney said in a statement. The 40-page CFTC complaint also names HDR Global Trading Limited, BitMEX's parent company, as well as 100x Holdings Limited, ABS Global Trading Limited, Shine Effort Inc Limited and HDR Global Services (Bermuda) Limited as defendants. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/79483/cftc-bitmex-charges-lawsuithttps://www.scribd.com/document/478302514/Enf-Hdr-Global-Trading-Complaint-100120?language_settings_changed=Englishhttps://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8270-20
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A Goldman Sachs partner will join Galaxy Digital to help bridge the gap between Wall Street and cryptoMike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital is bringing on a Goldman Sachs partner as its co-president and head of global markets. Damien Vanderwilt will be joining Galaxy Digital after more than 20 years with the bulge bracket bank. He most recently served as its global head of FICC Execution Services. At the bank, he also played a role in building out Goldman's Marquee Trader, a single dealer trading platform. He got his start in equities execution services and trading in 2000. His tenure at the bank spanned roles in London, Hong Kong, and Sydney, as per his LinkedIn. In his role at Galaxy, the Vanderwilt will leverage his contacts from the Wall Street world to drum up business across its respective units. In an interview with The Block, Novogratz said that a recent influx of macro hedge funds and pensions into the digital asset market made the pipeline for its products stronger than it has been historically. In many periods of Galaxy's history, it has struggled to churn a profit and keep on talent. "In January, I was cautious and frustrated," Novogratz, a former macro trader, said. "But now I've been on so many freaking calls. The wealth channel is exciting, pensions are looking at more venture stuff and it feels like the business is growing fast." "You have multiple hedge funds buying bitcoin as a macro play and almost every fund is looking at it," he added. The firm has been building out its trading capabilities to meet the needs of these clients, partnering with custody provider Bakkt on a service that aims to help large investors tap into the digital asset market. Galaxy also built out its electronic sales and trading platform and, like many companies in the market, it has been eyeing prime brokerage services. Aside from trading, Vanderwilt will also help the investment banking business raise capital for clients and ramp up deal flow. The company is said to be raising for a large mining company and is working on bringing in more talent as it adjusts for the upcoming exit of Ian Taylor, who has led the business since 2018. Taylor will rejoin Goldman Sachs later this year. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/79372/a-goldman-sachs-partner-will-join-galaxy-digital-to-help-bridge-the-gap-between-wall-street-and-crypto
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Ethereum miners made more money from gas or transaction fees than from block rewards in September.The event has occurred for the first time in Ethereum's history, according to The Block Research. Miners made about $172 million from fees last month and about $150 million from block rewards, taking their total revenue to more than $320 million.  Overall, Ethereum miners made 53.4% more in September than August when their total revenue was about $285 million. This is because gas fees peaked last month, driven by the continued growth in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. Ethereum transaction fees have subsided since then and the current average fee is about $3 per transaction, according to tracker BitInfoCharts. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/79452/ethereum-miner-revenue-september-gas-fees
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Diginex Stock Goes Live on Nasdaq Following $50M in SPAC and Private FundingBlockchain services firm Diginex has become the first crypto exchange operator to list on Nasdaq. The stock went live Thursday morning under the “EQOS” ticker symbol, a nod to the firm’s EQUOS.io trading platform. Diginex’s back door listing came through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called 8i. After raising private capital and redeeming shares of the SPAC, the company now has $50 million in capital for strengthening its balance sheet and investing in the business. Diginex CEO Richard Byworth said he expects a mix of global retail and institutional investors to buy shares. Over time, he expects the majority of Diginex shareholders to be U.S. investors because of the Nasdaq listing. https://www.coindesk.com/diginex-stock-eqos-nasdaq-listing
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Ethereum 2.0 developers will run yet another testnet "Zinken" in the coming days as the Spadina testnet didn't go smoothly enough.
Danny Ryan, a core Ethereum developer, said Spadina suffered long waits to block finality and low participation from Ethereum 2.0 clients, or parties that run nodes to validate transactions. "Even though we expect moderately low participation on a short-lived non-incentivized testnet, small errors in the client release process great[ly] exacerbated this problem, resulting in ~1/3 participation in the first few epochs," said Ryan. "In response to these issues, we'll be hosting -at least- one more dress rehearsal -- Zinken -- prior to genesis." Prysmatic Labs, one of the Ethereum 2.0 clients, said the issues with the Spadina testnet gave a "bad look for this 'genesis rehearsal.'" However, it wasn't a critical bug or a consensus error, "but rather something due to configuration parameters which can be fixed with a release," said Prysmatic. The Zinken testnet is expected to run "in a week and a half," said Ryan. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/79261/ethereum-2-another-testnet-zinken
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Crypto exchange Gemini has added support for "shielded" Zcash (ZEC) withdrawals for an additional layer of financial privacy.Gemini said the move makes it the first regulated exchange to offer this feature. Gemini's rival, Coinbase, does not yet support shielded ZEC withdrawals. ZEC addresses are of two types: "Transparent" that start with a "t," and private or shielded, which begin with a "z." Transactions made with t addresses are traceable, while transactions with z addresses are all encrypted using a technology called zero-knowledge proofs. Gemini said using a shielded address allows users to protect their identity and size of transactions. "If you'd like to take advantage of a shielded withdrawal, simply withdraw your ZEC to a z-address," said the exchange. A Gemini spokesperson told The Block that the exchange has been able to implement this feature following "ongoing conversations with regulators and further education on privacy-enabling cryptos." When asked how would Gemini trace fund movements via shielded ZEC addresses, the spokesperson said: "Gemini maintains a record of every withdrawal that leaves our system. While we have full transparency into the flows at this point, once the funds are in the shielded pool — and at that point encrypted — we no longer have insights and we don’t track customers’ withdrawals after they leave." Gemini already supports ZEC deposits from a shielded address, and so does Coinbase. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/79098/gemini-supports-shielded-zcash-withdrawals
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The DeXe token sale has officially started! The first strategic round is held for those participants who will be able to bring value to the product and will be able to support the platform in scaling and development! Sale duration will be 22 days, where 1 round continues 24 hours. Participants of the rounds will receive daily dynamic staking rewards in case they continue to hold DEXE tokens in the next rounds. DEXE price will be formed at the end of the first round and will be announced tomorrow! https://sale.dexe.networkhttps://t.me/cryptodiffer/3420 |
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Binance has unveiled a new “decentralized” stablecoin system called Venus.The system is built on the Binance Smart Chain and will mint the decentralized stablecoin called VAI, backed by a basket of various BEP-20 tokens (BEP-20 is Binance's token standard). The Venus protocol can be seen as a mixture of MakerDAO and Compound, said Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. "VAI is minted by the same collateral that is supplied to the protocol. Users can borrow up to 50% of the remaining collateral value they have on the protocol from their vTokens to mint VAI," said Binance. "The collateral provided to Venus will be represented by vTokens (such as vBTC) which will enable users to redeem the underlying collateral as well as to borrow against it." Using the Venus protocol, users will also be able to stake their Binance coin (BNB), Binance stablecoin (BUSD), and Swipe (SXP) tokens into separate pools to farm Venus (XVS) tokens, beginning Tuesday. Binance will then list XVS into the Innovation Zone on October 6 and open trading for XVS/BTC, XVS/BNB, XVS/BUSD, and XVS/USDT pairs. The protocol is developed by Swipe Wallet, which Binance acquired earlier this year for an undisclosed amount. Binance said the protocol removes “current pain-points” of Ethereum, such as network congestion and high transaction fees, as it is built on the Binance Smart Chain. Binance first revealed a project called Venus last August. At the time, Binance said Venus would be a "regional version of Libra." unveils a new ‘decentralized’ stablecoin system, Venus https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/78968/binance-new-decentralized-stablecoin-system-venus
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Researchers from the Santiment team recorded a weakening of interest among Twitter users in bitcoin. The number of posts mentioning the largest cryptocurrency fell to a two-year low. This trend is a direct result of the recent drop in the value of BTC, analysts say. Recall that in September Bitcoin could not gain a foothold above $ 12,000 and fell in price to $ 10,000. At this level, the support grew every time. Traders are clearly not interested in a more significant weakening of the bitcoin rate. According to the co-founder and CEO of Gemini exchange Tyler Winklevoss, the $ 10,000 mark is essential for BTC. It is from this level that a new breakout is expected to start. The Santiment review says that typically, a drop in interest from Twitter users in Bitcoin precedes a sharp increase in volatility in the crypto market. This is the trend that was observed before the March fall in BTC ("Black Thursday"). Then, on the contrary, positive sentiment dominated among Twitter users. However, instead of growth, the market crashed. https://cryptocurrency.tech/kolichestvo-upominanij-btc-v-tvittere-upalo-do-dvuhletnego-minimuma-stoit-zhdat-rosta-tseny/Translated from Russian
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The hacker, who stole about $ 200 million in various cryptocurrencies and tokens from the KuCoin exchange, is gradually exchanging the assets at his disposal for Ethereum using decentralized services. According to the analytical resource Whale Alert, 50,000 LINK ($ 530,000) were sent from his wallet to an unknown address today at 11:53 Moscow time. In total, several such transfers were recorded. OKLink analysts claim that he decided to use the Kyber Network decentralized exchange to exchange LINK for Ethereum.   The hacker has at his disposal about $ 2 million in LINK, which is significantly less than in some of the other assets he stole. Not long before that, he conducted similar transactions with SNX tokens worth $ 6.7 million and OCEAN. To exchange them, he used the Uniswap decentralized exchange. https://cryptocurrency.tech/haker-nachal-likvidirovat-tokeny-pohishhennye-s-kucoin/
UPDATED: The hacker sold:
320k OCEAN (worth $ 120K).
578k SNX ($ 2.9M)
10K COMP ($ 1.35M)
203k LINK ($ 2.16M)
10k DIA on the go |
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Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has launched tether (USDT)-settled perpetual contracts that track two European equity market indices.CryptocurrencyPerpetual contracts on Europe 50 (EUROPE50IXF0: USTF0) and Germany 30 (GERMANY30IXF0: USTF0) will go live at 09:00 UTC on Monday, the firm said in a press release. Each contract offers up to 100x leverage and will be settled in stablecoin tether (USDT). A perpetual contract is similar to a traditional futures contract, but has no expiry and mimics a margin-based spot market. The STOXX Europe 50 includes 50 stocks from 18 European countries and provides a blue-chip representation of supersector leaders in the region. Meanwhile, the German 30 or DAX 30 is a stock index that represents 30 of the largest and most liquid German companies that trade on the Frankfurt Exchange. “This is the first time that an exchange from the digital asset space has launched a product that bridges the gap with traditional stock markets, representing a significant milestone in the evolution of crypto as an established asset class,” said Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex Derivatives. Using tether – a so-called stablecoin designed to maintain a value of per token – will facilitate settlement in cross-asset class trading strategies, hedging and risk management, Ardoino added. The perpetual contracts will be open for trading 24/7, unlike equity exchanges which are open for business for a limited number of hours, five days a week. As such, traditional market investors may turn to Bitfinex’s perpetual swaps on data- or event-heavy weekends for price discovery ahead of Monday's opening bell. “Over the weekend, we may reasonably expect lower volumes than on weekdays in the normal course of a business unless there are significant economic developments over the weekend, such as a central bank policy shift, etc,” Bitfinex told CoinDesk in an email. The exchange will aim to ensure price stability by putting a +/-5% cap on the final mark price from 4:30 PM UTC until 8:00 AM UTC on the following day. exchange Bitfinex has launched tether (USDT)-settled perpetual contracts that track two European equity market indices. https://www.coindesk.com/bitfinex-tether-perpetual-contracts-european-equities-dax-stoxx
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Uniswap becomes first DeFi protocol to hit $2 billion in total value lockedTop non-custodial exchange Uniswap has become the first decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol to cross $2 billion in total value locked (TVL). Uniswap's TVL, or the total value of all assets deposited in the protocol, stands at $2.03 billion at the time of writing, according to tracker DeFi Pulse. Ether (ETH), Tether (USDT), and Wrapped bitcoin (WBTC) are Uniswap's top three tokens by liquidity. Uniswap's dominance, among other DeFi protocols, is about 18%. The combined TVL of all protocols has hit more than $11 billion as the yield farming trend continues. Decentralized lending protocol MakerDAO is not too far away to hit $2 billion in TVL. The builder of DAI stablecoin has $1.95 billion in total deposits. Aave follows next with $1.54 billion in TVL.  https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/78943/uniswap-2-billion-total-value-locked-tvl
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This artist is tokenizing his body, selling tattoo 'lots' for stablecoins"Let me be your canvas" South Carolina-based artist @shitcoinhodler, who goes by the name "Bishop," is tokenizing himself by selling different parts of his body for what he is calling people's "tattooing pleasure." Bishop marks off locations on his body and tokenizes them like real estate lots. The rules are pretty simple: customers must buy the lot they are interested in and pay for construction, which means they can decide on the tattoo design and also must pay for Bishop to get it done. Customers can make payments in DAI, USDT, sUSD or USDc, and the tattoos will be created at Blu Gorilla Tattoo in Charleston, South Carolina. Customers must pay for the tattoo in advance. So far, Bishop has sold a few lots, mostly to artists from the non-fungible tokens (NFT) art community. His most expensive sale so far? A tattoo on his chest for 2 ETH (around $768). Bishop said he plans to section off his back and front torso for minting soon, as well as his neck-to-waist. Bishop plans to go out-of-state to get some of these tattoos because it is illegal to get neck, head and face tattoos in South Carolina. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/78148/artist-tokenize-tattoos
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Bitfinex and Tether must turn over documents detailing their financial relationship and history to the New York Attorney General’s office (NYAG), a New York Supreme Court justice ruled again on Thursday. Judge Joel M. Cohen, the judge who has been overseeing the NYAG’s inquiry into Bitfinex and Tether, made the ruling after a charged, hour-long hearing on Thursday. Counsel for the crypto companies argued the document production order is too broad while the NYAG’s office argued the order is reasonable, saying Bitfinex has not submitted anywhere near the sufficient documents despite the amount of time that has elapsed since the case began. Cohen didn’t set a firm deadline for when Bitfinex and Tether would have to produce these documents, leaving that decision to a special referee, but said a deadline would need to be set. As part of his order, he extended an injunction that would have ended in the next few weeks barring Tether from loaning funds to Bitfinex by 90 days. https://www.coindesk.com/bitfinex-tether-nyag-hearing |
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Libra Association hires former HSBC veteran to head its stablecoin projectThe Libra Association has hired former HSBC European head James Emmett as the managing director of Libra Networks — the operating company subsidiary of the association. Emmett is joining Libra on October 1, the association announced on Thursday. Emmett spent more than 25 years at HSBC and recently stepped down as the CEO of HSBC Bank plc and Europe, where he led the bank's operations across Continental Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Bermuda. Stuart Levey, CEO of the Libra Association, who also joined from HSBC recently, said Emmett's leadership "will help make Libra's vision a reality." Libra has been gearing up to launch its stablecoins with the recent high-profile appointments, including Steve Bunnell as chief legal officer and Sterling Daines as chief compliance officer. The appointments follow the release of an updated white paper by the association and an application of the payment license from Switzerland's Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/78001/libra-association-hires-former-hsbc-veteran-head-stablecoin-project
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Kraken is launching a crypto bank in Wyoming, paving the way for possible stock offeringsCryptocurrency exchange Kraken is launching a bank under a new regulatory framework in Wyoming, a move that will expand its product suite, the firm said in an announcement Wednesday. Headquartered in Wyoming, Kraken Financial will be regulated by the Wyoming Division of Banking under a so-called Special Purpose Depository Institution. The new structure was purpose-built for cryptocurrency companies and will allow Kraken to offer certain banking functions to clients and effectively serve as the exchange operator's primary banking relationship. Up until this point, Kraken has relied on third-party providers for wire transfers and other services that enable it to engage with the broader financial system. Crypto firms have a history of challenging and precarious banking relationships. Most traditional banks have refused to offer services to such firms, while some offshore exchanges like Bitfinex have had trouble maintaining relationships with banking partners. To be sure, there are some small community banks aimed at the crypto market—such as Signature and Silvergate—but they have had issues with outbound wire transfers in the past. Still, big banks are moving into the market with JPMorgan recently taking on exchanges Coinbase and Gemini as banking clients. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/77804/kraken-crypto-bank-launch-wyoming
It seems that we are witnessing the beginning of a new banking era, or at least its integration with cryptocurrencies.
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Binance Visa Cards Are Now Available in Europe. Get Up to 7% Cashback.With the Binance Visa Card, you can use the crypto assets in your Binance account to spend and transact at more than 60 million locations around the world, wherever Visa is accepted. In addition, you can now link your Binance Card virtually with Google Pay and Samsung Pay. When you use your Binance Visa Card, you don’t have to worry about fees from our side. We charge zero subscription or maintenance fees, and transactions made in Euros are free of transaction charges (third-party fees may apply*). To make the deal even sweeter, for every purchase that you make with the Binance Visa Card, we are offering up to 7% cashback, the highest rate available in the market today! A virtual card will be available to you for immediate use upon approval of your application. The Binance Card, powered by Swipe, works like your traditional debit card, but instead of fiat, you’ll be holding digital assets, such as BTC, BNB, SXP, and BUSD. Your card is linked to a Card Wallet within your Binance account, and you can replenish this wallet with funds stored in your Spot Wallet. How to Get a 7% Cashback on Your Fee-Free Binance CardThe more BNB you hold (based on the average amount of BNB you held over a 30-day period), the higher your cashback rewards will be, and you’ll receive that cashback in the form of BNB. Here’s a breakdown: For example, you have 200 BNB in your Spot Wallet, 2,000 BNB in your Futures Wallet, and 20,000 BNB in your Launchpool account. We add all your BNB balances in your Binance account, regardless of where you use it, to determine your cashback rate. No need to worry about arbitrary rules or restrictions. In this case, you will have 22,200 BNB in total, which grants you the 7% cashback rate!  https://www.binance.com/en/blog/421499824684900992/Binance-Visa-Cards-Are-Now-Available-in-Europe-Get-Up-to-7-Cashback?ref=JLI1VBLA&utm_source=BinanceFacebook&utm_medium=GlobalSocial&utm_campaign=GlobalSocial
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The Central Bank of The Bahamas is said to be launching its sovereign digital currency, Sand Dollar, next month.Bloomberg reported the news on Tuesday, saying that Sand Dollar will be rolled out across the Bahamas islands in October. The central bank began piloting the digital currency last December. Once live, Sand Dollar would allow individuals and businesses to make payments via mobile, even when they are offline. "A lot of residents in those more remote islands don't have access to digital payment infrastructure or banking infrastructure," Chaozhen Chen, the assistant manager of eSolutions at the Central Bank of The Bahamas, told Bloomberg. "We really had to customize the effort and the solution to what we need as a sovereign nation." During its pilots in Exuma, a district of the Bahamas, the central bank had issued $48,000 worth of the Sand Dollar, valued 1:1 with the regular Bahamian dollar. Chen now told Bloomberg that new Sand Dollars would be "minted" as demand increases and will only be issued when physical Bahamian banknotes are halted. https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/77896/bahamas-to-launch-its-digital-currency-next-month
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