• Aug 28, 2024

From DeFi Land to the OpenSea: SEC Threatens the Entire Crypto World

As the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) presses forward with efforts to regulate crypto, the agency’s enforcement threats have left a sprawling paper trail across the industry.  Whether it’s entities issuing coins or exchanges enabling them to trade, more market participants are waking up to a so-called Wells notice. On Wednesday, that kind of letter boiled to the surface of the NFT space, as the prominent marketplace OpenSea said it had received one too. Before the SEC takes formal...

• Aug 28, 2024

Crypto Scams Are Rapidly Evolving Beyond Pig Butchering: Report

Crypto scams are getting smarter, faster, more dynamic—and more painful for victims. That’s according to a new report by blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, which noted that  “many smaller, simultaneous campaigns” by criminal groups are helping them dodge law enforcement.  In its mid-year “2024 Crypto Crime” update, published Thursday, the firm said that both on- and off-chain data showed that scams were getting briefer—but more lucrative.  ? Part 2 of our mid-year crypto crime update is her...

• Aug 28, 2024

Crypto Scammer Caught Despite Changing Face and Wearing Wigs

Expensive plastic surgery wasn’t enough to keep an accused crypto scammer in South Korea out of jail. South Korean police have arrested the leader of a cryptocurrency scheme that stole over 16 billion won, or around $15.6 million, according to a report by the Singapore-based media outlet The Straits Times. The unnamed suspect went on the run in September 2023 after failing to appear for a pre-trial hearing, according to the report, and while missing for ten months, attempted to evade capture by...

• Aug 28, 2024

Donald Trump and Bitcoin: From 'Not a Fan' to Crypto Candidate

Former president Donald Trump is vying to be America’s leader again—and this time around, he’s Bitcoin-friendly. “We want all remaining Bitcoin to be made in the USA,” he said in June on his social media platform Truth Social.  Trump has now branded himself as a crypto-friendly candidate ahead of November’s divisive election, bringing in millions of dollars in cash and digital asset donations from Silicon Valley tech leaders.  But it wasn’t always like this. Despite the Republican presidential n...

• Aug 28, 2024

Nigerian SEC Issues First Crypto Exchange Licenses After Industry Crackdown

The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued its first licenses to local crypto exchanges to operate within the country, despite contentious relations between the government and industry at large. Per an SEC press release, both Busha Digital Limited and Quidax Technologies Limited have been granted “approval-in-principle” to operate under its Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Program (ARIP). The agency said the development is part of its “commitment to enabling innovation tha...

• Aug 28, 2024

GameStop Stock Price Jumps After Retailer Reveals Retro Game Stores

GameStop shares surged on Thursday, shortly after the video game giant announced it would lean into selling retro games via new, dedicated stores. As of publication time‌, the Texas-based retailer’s stock price is up about 10% over the past 24 hours to a current price of $21.81. The stock surge follows GameStop’s announcement late Tuesday that it would refashion some of its brick-and-mortar locations into speciality shops with a focus on vintage video games‌ and consoles, such as the old-school...

• Aug 28, 2024

Elon Musk-Themed Telegram Game 'X Empire' Will Burn Inactive Users' Coins Before Airdrop

Are you looking forward to the X Empire airdrop? If so, then you’d better log into the Telegram tap-to-earn game, as the creators are about to purge the coins of inactive users. The viral, Elon Musk-themed Telegram crypto game, formerly known as Musk Empire, has a token coming around the end of September or early October. In an announcement Thursday, the project confirmed that it will soon start burning (or eliminating) the in-game tokens of users who haven’t played in a while. “On September 1,...

• Aug 28, 2024

Solo Bitcoin Miner Hits the Jackpot With $200,000 Block Reward

Another solo miner has beaten the odds and processed a block on the biggest crypto network—pocketing 3.275 Bitcoin, or just shy of $200,000 as a reward. The lucky miner processed block number 858,978 at 12:21pm Eastern Time, according to blockchain data. A total of 2,391 transactions were contained in the block, and the miner received $199,094 worth of Bitcoin for the work.  Bitcoin mining is the business of processing blocks on the Bitcoin network. Blocks are full of data and are part of the cr...

• Aug 28, 2024

Kylian Mbappé Token Hit a $464 Million Market Cap—Then Crashed to Zero Because It Was Fake

Real Madrid and France National Team soccer star Kylian Mbappé appeared to have his Twitter account hacked late Wednesday as the account went on a rampage with a string of offensive comments about fellow athletes and rival clubs—all while promoting a meme coin that rapidly pumped and then dumped. The MBAPPE token on Solana quickly hit a market cap of $464 million before falling 99%—all in the span of a minute. That was enough to, very briefly, give it a higher market cap than Mog Coin, Raydium,...

• Aug 28, 2024

Crypto Hackers Stole Way Less in August Than They Did in July, Says Immunefi

Good news: August saw a significant decrease in cryptocurrency losses due to hacks and fraud, according to a recent report from Immunefi. Total losses amounted to $15,082,000 across five incidents, marking the lowest monthly total year-to-date and a 94.5% decrease from July. As Decrypt reported at the time, July saw cross-chain DeFi protocol Li.Fi losing about $11 million to a hack. Reports indicate that hackers stole more than twice as much cryptocurrency in the first half of 2024—based on the...