The FBI has seized together with the Ukrainian police, a total of 9 crypto currencies exchange that is being used as a front and facilitated money laundering by cyber criminals. The 9 crypto currencies are:

• 24xbtc.com
• 100btc.pro
• pridechange.com
• 101crypta.com
• uxbtc.com
• trust-exchange.org
• bitcoin24.exchange
• paybtc.pro
• owl.gold

Noncompliant virtual currency exchanges, which have a lax anti-money laundering program or collect minimal Know Your Customer information or none at all, serve as important hubs in the cybercrime ecosystem and are operating in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Sections 1960 and 1956.  Many of these services are advertised on online forums dedicated to discussing criminal activity. By providing these services, the virtual currency exchanges knowingly support the criminal activities of their clients and become co-conspirators in criminal schemes.

Much of the criminal activity occurring at the affected exchanges involved cyber actors responsible for ransomware, but also other scammers, and cybercriminals.  The service’s website offered support in both Russian and English.

The investigation is ongoing. Visitors to the sites will now find a seizure banner that notifies them that the domain name has been seized by federal authorities and operating an unlicensed money service business and facilitating money laundering is a federal crime.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmi/pr/fbi-disrupts-virtual-currency-exchanges-used-facilitate-criminal-activity


It's good that this kind of websites are being taken down, but we all know that this is just the beginning. Maybe next week this operators are going to open up a new website to cater for their customers. So it's going to be a ongoing battle between the bad actors against government agencies. Just interesting though that since the war is still ongoing on Ukraine, this criminals business are still thriving.

https://twitter.com/TomBrady/status/1391746521381617667

The GOAT Tom Brady changing his twitter profile pic to Laser Eye. For those who are not familiar, there is such movement with #LaserEyes meme in twitter which aim is to push bitcoin to $100k.

Do you guys think that he has invested on bitcoin already? Or just joining the bandwagon now?

Will this bring Brady's fan to support BTC as well?

Anyone can help me out?

I have still few old WPP tokens and that I want to swap to the new WPP. However, when I try to swap, the fees are killing me.

Anyone here has experienced their old tokens to the new one? How what is? Did you pay high fees?

Hope I can get the answer by April 5, because that is the deadline for the swap.

Thanks.

This is a first:

Multi-asset brokerage eToro has issued a warning to users looking to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies over the coming weekend.

According to an email sent to customers and as reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, the Israel-based company said customers could face “possible limitations” due to “challenges” in the platform’s ability to support buy orders.

The company said it may impose limitations on customers looking to purchase cryptocurrency assets due to complications arising from a lack of market liquidity.

https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-buyers-face-possible-limitations-on-etoro-this-weekend

It means that the demand is still there, we are still in the bullish phase, although we might see some dips along the long. And E-Toro themselves are now imposing limitations to their customers because of the high demand of BTC and other cryptos, so bitcoin is one of the most sought asset right now.

Suspension of XRP Trading and Deposits on OKCoin

We have been closely monitoring the news surrounding the December 22nd SEC lawsuit against Ripple, the company behind XRP, and two of its key executives. As the lawsuit proceedings take place, we have determined it is the best course of action to suspend XRP trading and deposits on OKCoin effective January 4, 2021. This suspension timeline will include two key dates:

7:00 PM PST, Jan 3, 2021: Users who have borrowed from the XRP / USD margin pair (incl. Borrowing XRP and USD) are required to return the borrowed value before this time. Delays will trigger a liquidation by our systems to close the loan contracts.
7:00 PM PST, Jan 4, 2021: spot trading, margin trading, and deposits will be suspended till further notice.
It is likely that this situation will take time to reach a resolution. We will proactively inform our customers when we have information that may change our position.

Please reach out to us @okcoin on Twitter or email our support team at support@okcoin.com with any questions.

https://blog.okcoin.com/2020/12/28/suspension-of-xrp-trading-and-deposits-on-okcoin/

So after Coinbase comes OKCoin, hard to be XRP holders or investors right now, everything was went after the fork and it even almost touch $1.00. But now everything is crumbling down as the future of XRP is uncertain because of the SEC lawsuit.

Cryptocurrency Founder “Bruno Block” Charged With Multimillion-Dollar Tax Evasion Scheme

Audrey Strauss, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, William F. Sweeney Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Kelly R. Jackson, Special Agent in Charge of the Washington, D.C., Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (“IRS-CI”), announced today the unsealing of an Indictment in Manhattan federal court charging AMIR BRUNO ELMAANI, a/k/a “Bruno Block,” the founder of the cryptocurrency “Oyster Pearl,” with tax evasion.  As alleged, ELMAANI made millions of dollars from the sale of a new cryptocurrency but evaded reporting that income to the IRS, including by filing a false tax return, operating his business and owning assets through pseudonyms and shell companies, obtaining income through nominees, and dealing in gold and cash.  ELMAANI was arrested this morning in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and will be presented later today before United States Magistrate Judge Robert W. Trumble in the Northern District of West Virginia.   The case is assigned to Chief United States District Judge Colleen McMahon in the Southern District of New York.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/cryptocurrency-founder-bruno-block-charged-multimillion-dollar-tax-evasion-scheme

I remember Oyster Pearl, one of the most hype as well during the 2017 hype. Unfortunately, for the founder, he mis declared everything, meaning he has every intention to not property pay the tax from the profits he made from his project.

Also worth to mentioned that he did cheat with his own project, minted his own Oyster Pearl. It really show that during 2017, there are already a lot of fraudulent practices behind, even by those who started the project.

[Audrey Strauss, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), announced that GUTEMBERG DOS SANTOS, a citizen of Brazil and the United States, was extradited from Panama on November 25. DOS SANTOS is charged by indictment with co-defendants Pablo Renato Rodriguez, Scott Hughes, Cecilia Millan, Karina Chairez, and Jackie Aguilar for their roles in an internationally coordinated fraud and money laundering ring involved in defrauding individuals through investments in AirBit Club]

Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Extradition Of Co-Founder Of Global Cryptocurrency Ponzi Scheme

Audrey Strauss, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,  and Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), announced that GUTEMBERG DOS SANTOS, a citizen of Brazil and the United States, was extradited from Panama on November 25.  DOS SANTOS is charged by indictment with co-defendants Pablo Renato Rodriguez, Scott Hughes, Cecilia Millan, Karina Chairez, and Jackie Aguilar for their roles in an internationally coordinated fraud and money laundering ring involved in defrauding individuals through investments in AirBit Club, a purported cryptocurrency mining and trading company.  DOS SANTOS was arrested on August 18, 2020, in Panama City, Panama, and will be presented later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker.  Rodriguez, Hughes, Millan, and Aguilar were arrested in the United States on August 18, 2020, and Chairez was arrested in the United States on October 20, 2020.  The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels.

Acting United States Attorney Audrey Strauss said:  “As alleged, Gutemberg Dos Santos played a key role in an international investment scam that promised extraordinary rates of return on phantom investments in cryptocurrencies, defrauding victims of tens of millions of dollars.  Thanks to HSI, Dos Santos is now in U.S. custody.”

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/acting-manhattan-us-attorney-announces-extradition-co-founder-global-cryptocurrency

So the following are charge with one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Good news for those who have been defrauded by this group, but I don't think they will get their money back, at least justice could be serve again.

[What happened:]

What happened: Fake EOS Authority Website

Website:

Code:

https://eosauthority.link/

If you try to access your wallet, then you are done.



Archived: https://archive.is/LEbYO

Registrant    REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
Registrant Org    WhoisGuard, Inc.
Registrant Country    pa
Registrar    NAMECHEAP
IANA ID: 1068
URL: https://www.namecheap.com
Whois Server: whois.namecheap.com

(p)
Registrar Status    clientTransferProhibited
Dates    39 days old
Created on 2020-10-20
Expires on 2021-10-20
Updated on 2020-10-25    
 
Name Servers    NS1.DNS-PARKING.COM (has 738,928 domains)
NS2.DNS-PARKING.COM (has 738,928 domains)
   
 
Tech Contact    REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
REDACTED FOR PRIVACY,
REDACTED FOR PRIVACY, REDACTED FOR PRIVACY, REDACTED FOR PRIVACY, REDACTED FOR PRIVACY
IP Address    45.93.101.3 - 69 other sites hosted on this server

This is very dangerous as EOS is also making a good run in this altcoin market sort of bull run.

The website is very similar and it's hard to differentiate it from the real one: https://eosauthority.com/

[What happened:]

What happened: Maker DAO fake giveaway

Website

Code:

https://makerdao-info.com/

Archived: https://archive.is/Dpnfn



They even used the image of Make Dao CEO to make it more convincing.



The site was just established 7 days ago.

Registrant    WhoisGuard Protected
Registrant Org    WhoisGuard, Inc.
Registrant Country    pa
Registrar    NAMECHEAP INC NameCheap, Inc.
IANA ID: 1068
URL: http://www.namecheap.com
Whois Server: whois.namecheap.com

(p)
Registrar Status    addPeriod, clientTransferProhibited
Dates    7 days old
Created on 2020-11-17
Expires on 2021-11-17
Updated on 0000-12-31    
 
Name Servers    DNS1.NAMECHEAPHOSTING.COM (has 969,131 domains)
DNS2.NAMECHEAPHOSTING.COM (has 969,131 domains)
   
 
Tech Contact    WhoisGuard Protected
WhoisGuard, Inc.
P.O. Box 0823-03411,
Panama, Panama, pa

(p) (f)
IP Address    68.65.123.56 - 552 other sites hosted on this server

This is something new,

Demand for bitcoin payouts has been rising, particularly after the recent price rally. One of the largest online poker websites, Winning Poker Network (WPN), has been buying millions of dollars worth of bitcoin in recent weeks from OTC desks to meet players’ cashout demand, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing WPN CEO Phil Nagy.

Nagy explained that bitcoin is in so much demand that brokers are charging up to a 1.5% premium. He clarified that WPN does not hold onto bitcoin, adding that the cryptocurrency is converted into fiat currency as soon as possible.

He revealed that his platform does more than 60% of its transaction volume in bitcoin, totaling about $100 million a month. Noting that about 60% of customers cashed out in bitcoin before the recent price rally, he said:

RIGHT NOW 90-95% OF OUR PAYOUTS ARE PEOPLE ASKING FOR BITCOIN BECAUSE IT’S GOING UP. WE ARE CONSTANTLY HAVING TO GO OUT AND BUY BITCOIN — LOTS. LOTS. MORE THAN WE’VE EVEN HAD TO BEFORE.

https://www.techtelegraph.co.uk/poker-site-buys-100-million-of-bitcoin-every-month-to-pay-players-in-btc/

But I'm not surprised that gamblers are preferring btc as payout instead of fiat because of the rising price of bitcoin. I even watch one youtube channel about a women showing her win in a traditional base casino and she blurted out that his winnings are going into bitcoin. LMAO.

[Skybridge Capital]

Another global investment firm, Skybridge Capital filed an amendment last November 13,2020 to SEC allowing their $3.6 billion fund to start investing in BTC.

Digital Assets. Investment Funds may hold long and short positions in digital assets. Digital assets (also known as “virtual currencies,” “cryptocurrencies,” “coins” or “tokens” or similar terms) are assets that are issued and/or transferred using technological innovations such as distributed ledger or blockchain technology and include, but are not limited to, Bitcoin. Digital assets have no intrinsic value other than as a method of exchange and are not based on a tangible commodity, security, contractual right or legal obligation. Digital assets have limited history and typically are not issued or backed by any government, bank or central organization. Over their short history, digital assets have experienced tremendous price volatility compared to traditional asset classes, and may experience significant illiquidity in stressed market conditions. The values of digital assets should not be expected to be connected or correlated to traditional economic or market forces, and the value of the investments of Investment Funds in digital assets could decline rapidly, including to zero. An Investment Manager may pursue a variety of investment strategies in managing digital assets of an Investment Fund, and the Company may invest in Investment Funds that provide access to a particular digital asset or assets without a discretionary investment strategy. Investment Funds may invest in digital assets without restriction as to market capitalization or technological features or attributes (including lesser-known or novel digital assets known as “altcoins”) and may invest in initial coin offerings, which have historically been subject to fraud.

Official documents: Form 424B3 Skybridge Multi-adviser Hedge Fund Portfolios Llc Prospectus [Rule 424(b)(3)]

More and more of these hedge fund companies are rushing in and join the bandwagon and definitely not the last and this could be the trend in 2021.

Again, this is another good news that might push the price to new all time high next year if this amendment is allowed by SEC.

[What happened:]

What happened: Fake Gemini Giveaway

Website:

Code:

https://geminigift.org/

Archive: https://archive.is/OyJz7

Ethereum Address:

Code:

0x91E92019251Fb184030Caa874B45926C39dd900c

Bitcoin Address:

Code:

3PBtQyabrhmnfbZ1ynNQBty153wMFJW9dM

Registrar    Registrar of Domain Names REG.RU LLC
IANA ID: 1606
URL: http://www.reg.com
Whois Server: whois.reg.com

(p)
Registrar Status    addPeriod, clientTransferProhibited, serverTransferProhibited
Dates    4 days old
Created on 2020-11-15
Expires on 2021-11-15
Updated on 2020-11-15    
  
Name Servers    NS1.REG.RU (has 1,591,716 domains)
NS2.REG.RU (has 1,591,716 domains)
   
  
Tech Contact    —
IP Address    190.115.21.253 is hosted on a dedicated server
   
  
IP Location    Belize - Belize - Belize City - Ddos-guard Corp.

And jus like the fake giveaways of supposedly exchanges, this is fake and be aware that exchanges are not giving any giveaways. Or you wanted to learn if there is a legit giveaways, better follow their official twitter account.

https://twitter.com/eoghan/status/1328177556218998784

For those who are not familiar with Eoghan McCabe, he is the co-founder and now chairman of Intercom, a company that:

Intercom is an American software company that produces a messaging platform which allows businesses to communicate with prospective and existing customers within their app, on their website, through social media, or via email. Intercom is headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in Chicago, Dublin, Sydney and London.

As of February 2017, Intercom has 100,000 monthly active users.[2][3] As of October 2018, Intercom has 30,000 paying customers.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercom_(company)

The company itself is worth more than $1 billion - https://www.businessinsider.com/messaging-startup-intercom-worth-1-275-billion-funding-kleiner-perkins-2018-3

But we don't know how much he invested, however, we can seen a lot of super rich people getting their hands dirty and investing on BTC so it has an overall good impact to crypto economics.

[What happened:]

What happened: Fake Tokenpocket wallet

Website:

Code:

https://tokenpocket-pro.web.app/

Archived: https://archive.is/6lvkf



No domain tools info as it uses web.app domain.

In any case this is the real website: https://www.tokenpocket.pro/

Again, scammers uses the trick of copying the same website UI and feel. So I do hope that no one will fall for this old scheme again.

Good news for Belarus,

Belarusbank, the largest bank in Belarus, has partnered with "White Bird" to give opportunities to Belarusian, to buy crypto currencies using Visa payment cards.

Belarusbank will launch a legal service for the exchange of cryptocurrenciesMINSK, November 12 - PrimePress. JSC "ASB Belarusbank" and the company "White Bird" from November 13, 2020 will provide an opportunity to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using Visa payment cards. The press service of the bank reports.

The bank noted that the program for the digital transformation of a financial institution was announced for several more years, while a strategic partnership in the implementation of a cryptocurrency exchange service became part of this program.

https://primepress.by/news/finansi/belarusbank_zapustit_legalnyy_servis_po_obmenu_kriptovalyut-26425/

I'm sure that there could be fees, high fees included it as banks needed to make money.

But in any case, this is a good opportunity for them as far as I know Belarus is open to crypto or we can even say they are crypto friendly nation.

Belarus among top ten crypto-friendly states in Europe.

[What happened:]

What happened: Polkadot Fake Airdrop

Website:

Code:

https://polkadot-airdrop.info/

Archived: https://archive.is/5d5U0

Whois Record for PolkaDot-Airdrop.info
Domain Profile
Registrant Org    WhoisGuard, Inc.
Registrant Country    pa
Registrar    NameCheap, Inc
IANA ID: 1068
URL: www.namecheap.com
Whois Server: whois.namecheap.com

(p)
Registrar Status    addPeriod, clientTransferProhibited, serverTransferProhibited
Dates    1 days old
Created on 2020-11-08
Expires on 2021-11-08
Updated on 2020-11-08    
  
Name Servers    DNS1.NAMECHEAPHOSTING.COM (has 958,794 domains)
DNS2.NAMECHEAPHOSTING.COM (has 958,794 domains)
   
  
Tech Contact    —
IP Address    198.54.126.119 - 303 other sites hosted on this server
   
  
IP Location    United States Of America - Georgia - Atlanta - Namecheap Inc.

So scammers shift to Polkadot now, one of the hottest trend together with LNK, so I'm not surprised by scammers trying to used it to frame noobs to deposit same DOT to their address. Do not deposit as this is clearly a scam attempt again.

[What happened:]

What happened: Fake Ledger Site

Website:

Code:

https://restore-ledgerwallet.org/unlock/mnemonic.html

Archived: https://archive.is/ak07X



Whois information:

Registrant Org    WhoisGuard, Inc.
Registrant Country    pa
Registrar    NameCheap, Inc.
IANA ID: 1068
URL: http://www.namecheap.com
Whois Server: whois.namecheap.com

(p)
Registrar Status    serverTransferProhibited
Dates    51 days old
Created on 2020-09-17
Expires on 2021-09-17
Updated on 2020-09-17    
 
Name Servers    DNS1.NAMECHEAPHOSTING.COM (has 957,823 domains)
DNS2.NAMECHEAPHOSTING.COM (has 957,823 domains)
   
 
Tech Contact    —
IP Address    192.64.118.17 - 445 other sites hosted on this server

It seems that this website has been existing for a couple of months now without us noticing it.

Not sure if someone has fallen for it, but we will always assume that this kind of website can still get someone a victim. So again, community help is needed to report this kind of malicious websites.

[What happened:]

What happened: Fake ETHEREUM staking website

Website:

Code:

https://stake-ethereum.org/

Archived: https://archive.is/iIfNw

This is obvious a fake site, do not fall for this trap, and since we heard that ETH 2.0 genesis has started, criminals are going to take advantage of this.

Registrant Org    Data Protected
Registrant Country    ca
Registrar    Tucows Inc.
IANA ID: 69
URL: http://www.tucows.com
Whois Server: whois.tucows.com

(p)
Registrar Status    addPeriod, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited, serverTransferProhibited
Dates    2 days old
Created on 2020-11-04
Expires on 2021-11-04
Updated on 2020-11-04    
  
Name Servers    ALLA.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM (has 18,757,164 domains)
AUGUSTUS.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM (has 18,757,164 domains)
   
  
Tech Contact    —
IP Address    104.24.122.58 - 589 other sites hosted on this server

[What happened:]

What happened: Fake Ripple website and giveaway

Website:

Code:

xn--riple-vo1b.com
https://riṗple.com/

Archive: https://archive.is/FzQNu

What makes this dangerous is that it's taking a the ripple.com domain and turn it into homograph attack, so very dangerous.

Whois Record for Riṗple.com
Domain Profile
Registrant    WhoisGuard Protected
Registrant Org    WhoisGuard, Inc.
Registrant Country    pa
Registrar    NAMECHEAP INC NameCheap, Inc.
IANA ID: 1068
URL: http://www.namecheap.com
Whois Server: whois.namecheap.com

(p)
Registrar Status    clientTransferProhibited
Dates    Created on 2020-11-02
Expires on 2021-11-02
Updated on 0000-12-31    
 
Name Servers    DNS1.NAMECHEAPHOSTING.COM (has 953,454 domains)
DNS2.NAMECHEAPHOSTING.COM (has 953,454 domains)

[What happened:]

What happened: Ethereum doubler

Website:

Code:

https://ethgiveaways.me/

Archived: https://archive.is/phPqN

Registrar Status    clientTransferProhibited, serverTransferProhibited
Dates    42 days old
Created on 2020-09-18
Expires on 2021-09-18
Updated on 2020-09-18

It promise to double your Ethereum in 10 hours, Lol, good marketing trick but this is just a obvious scam attempt, don't deposit and fall for this trick.