Binance's footprint is shrinking even further, as the company has canceled its registration with the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This means that the company will not be able to perform any regulated activities in the country. Binance had applied for registration after being warned by the FCA in July 2021 to seek registration before launching its business in the region. Since the beginning of June, Binance has also announced it will exit the Netherlands and Cyprus amid regulatory issues.
More on web3isgreat• 2023-06-21
The developers of #Atomic #Wallet are investigating reports of large-scale theft of #cryptocurrency from users' wallets, with over $35 million in crypto reportedly stolen. Atomic Wallet is a mobile and desktop crypto wallet allowing users to store various cryptocurrencies. The wallet is offered for multiple operating systems, including Windows, Android, iOS, macOS, and Linux. On June 3rd, Atomic Wallet tweeted that they had received reports of compromised wallets and had begun investigating the issue.
More on Bleeping Computer• 2023-06-04
#Bittrex Inc. filed for Chapter 11 #bankruptcy protection in Delaware on Monday, less than a month after the Securities and Exchange Commissions charged it with running an unregistered exchange. The company said it had assets and liabilities each estimated to be worth between $500 million and $1 billion, and more than 100,000 creditors in a court filing. Two other entities, Bittrex Malta Ltd. and Bittrex Malta Holdings Ltd., also filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The bankruptcy filing will not impact Bittrex Global, according to a Bittrex Inc. spokesperson.
More on The Block• 2023-05-13
An international coalition of law enforcement agencies announced on Wednesday that it had taken down the popular dark web crypto laundering service ChipMixer, seizing more than $46 million in crypto and terabytes of server data. The service, for example, was used last year by the attacker who stole funds from the now failed crypto exchange FTX, as well as by several ransomware groups. “The platform and the criminal content have been seized,” ChipMixer’s website now reads. “The ChipMixer software blocked the blockchain trail of the funds, making it attractive for cybercriminals looking to launder illegal proceeds from criminal activities such as drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, ransomware attacks, and payment card fraud,” Europol wrote in a press release. “Deposited funds would be turned into ‘chips’ (small tokens with equivalent value), which were then mixed together – thereby anonymizing all trails to where the initial funds originated.”
More on TechCrunch• 2023-03-15
The Block is a cryptocurrency-focus media outlet that was originally founded in 2018 by Mike Dudas. In 2020, Michael McCaffrey became CEO of the company, and in 2021 he led a buyout to make the company employee-owned. Dudas says that at the time, he believed "McCaffrey's family was wealthy and loaned him money to buy out [his stake] and the VCs so the team could assume full independent ownership."
More on web3isgreat• 2022-12-10
Over $600 million was mysteriously withdrawn from FTX and FTX US late on November 11, despite the company freezing withdrawals. An FTX account administrator wrote on the FTX support Telegram, "FTX has been hacked. FTX apps are malware. Delete them. Chat is open. Don't go on FTX site as it might download Trojans". The message was pinned by FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller. Miller later wrote on Twitter, "Investigating abnormalities with wallet movements related to consolidation of ftx balances across exchanges - unclear facts as other movements not clear. Will share more info as soon as we have it."
More on web3isgreat• 2022-11-12
Aaaand there it goes. FTX announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States. Sam Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO. SBF had spoken about trying to raise additional funds. In leaked Slack messages, he had allegedly written that "One could maybe say, if they wanted to be optimistic, that we have a lot theoretically in and/or potentially for the raise". No one was actually saying this.
More on web3isgreat• 2022-11-11
The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Ethereum’s “best-known coin mixing service,” Tornado Cash (https://tornado.cash). On August 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Tornado Cash Ethereum mixing service. According to the Treasury’s announcement, purported criminals have laundered more than $7 billion worth of cryptocurrency through the service since 2019. The Lazarus Group allegedly laundered $455 million worth of cryptocurrency through Tornado Cash. The Treasury has used money laundering by the Lazarus Group as partial justification for sanctioning other cryptocurrency exchanges, including Blender.io.
More on Darknetlive• 2022-08-10
A federal grand jury returned a 33-count superseding indictment charging two cryptocurrency exchange operators with money laundering and other financial crimes. In March 2021, a grand jury returned a 20-count indictment charging Ian Freeman, Colleen Fordham, Renee Spinella, Andrew Spinella, “Nobody” (formerly Richard Paul), and Aria DiMezzo with an assortment of financial crimes related to the operation of a “virtual currency exchange business in violation of federal anti-money laundering laws and regulations, including those requiring money transmitting businesses to meet registration and reporting requirements.”
More on Darknetlive• 2022-04-28
Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht will see his $183 million debt wiped out following the seizure of $3 billion in bitcoin connected to an unnamed Silk Road hacker, according to a court filing. In 2015, Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was also ordered to pay $183 million in restitution, a figure calculated from the total illegal sales on Silk Road using an exchange rate at the time of each transaction. Court documents in 2020 reveal that the Justice Department seized 69,370 bitcoins from a hacker who moved the trove to a private wallet in April 2013.
More on CoinDesk• 2022-04-22
A security flaw in the Rarible NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace allowed threat actors to use a relatively simple trick to steal digital assets and transfer them directly into their wallets. Rarible is a community-centric NFT marketplace that offers up to 50% in royalties, having 2.1 million registered users, hundreds of millions U.S. dollars in annual trading volumes, and support for three blockchains. The dangerous flaw in the marketplace was discovered by analysts at Check Point, who worked with Rarible to implement a fix. However, users who have already fallen victim need to check for and revoke the token approvals they granted via past fraudulent transaction requests.
More on Bleeping Computer• 2022-04-14
A darkweb vendor in Florida forfeited $34 million worth of illicitly earned cryptocurrency. According to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, a judge entered a default judgment in favor of the United States against $34 million* worth of cryptocurrency seized from a darkweb vendor. The forfeiture includes 640.26804512 BTC, 640.2716098 Bitcoin Cash, 640.2715428 Bitcoin Gold, 640.2716043 Bitcoin S.V., and 919.30711258 ETH. According to prosecutors, the forfeiture is “one of the largest cryptocurrency forfeiture actions ever filed by the United States.”
More on Darknetlive• 2022-04-07