FTX Founder Faces New Charges, Including Alleged $40M Bribe
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is facing a new 13-count indictment, including an alleged $40 million bribe to a Chinese government official. The bribe was reportedly intended to unfreeze cryptocurrency accounts at FTX's affiliate firm, Alameda Research, which held over $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency.
Binance Expands AI-Powered NFT Generator Bicasso
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, expands its NFT artificial intelligence service Bicasso globally after a successful test in Europe.
Bitget Becomes the First Centralized Exchange to Offer Financial Transparency Through Space and Time
Bitget, the largest crypto copy trading platform, has announced a strategic partnership with Space and Time (SxT), a leader in decentralized data warehousing. The partnership will enable Bitget to offer users unparalleled transparency of exchange operations with a verifiably tamperproof audit trail of data and computation.
Binance Insider Allegedly Helps Users Bypass KYC Security Protocols
A report by CNBC alleges that employees and volunteers at Binance have been helping customers in China bypass the exchange's Know Your Customer Controls (KYC). The report points to Binance's Chinese-language chat rooms where users can access shared messages on techniques to bypass KYC, residency, and verification protocols allegedly coming from Binance employees or trained volunteers known as "Angels."
Bitzlato Partially Restores User Access
Bitzlato, a Russia-linked cryptocurrency exchange, has enabled its users to withdraw up to 50% of their assets stuck on the platform due to enforcement from the United States and Europol, with the help of a Telegram bot.
OKX to Halt Services in Canada Due to New Regulations
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX has notified its Canadian users that it will no longer provide services or allow new account openings in Canada, starting on March 24, 2023, due to new regulations. Existing Canadian customers must close open positions in options, margins, perpetual, and futures by June 22, 2023, and fiat or tokens must be withdrawn by the same date.
Signature Bank Under Investigation by US Government Bodies
Signature Bank is reportedly under investigation by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice over concerns that the bank did not take adequate measures to detect potential money laundering by its clients. The bank was closed on March 12 as part of a series of bank closures that also included Silvergate Capital and Silicon Valley Bank.
USDC Holders Panic Sell Amid Solvency Concerns
On March 10, concerns about the solvency of USD Coin (USDC) led several holders to panic sell their holdings and switch to other stablecoins. One user lost over 2 million USDC in a failed attempt to exchange them for Tether (USDT) using KyberSwap's decentralized exchange aggregator. Tron founder Justin Sun reportedly withdrew 82 million USDC and exchanged them for Dai (DAI) using Aave v2, while IOSG Ventures sold 118.73 million USDC for 105.67 million USDT and 2,756 Ether (ETH). The USDC price has since slowly recovered, and Circle, the company behind USDC, disclosed holding $3.3 billion at the Silicon Valley Bank.
Hedera Mainnet Exploited, Leading to Theft of Liquidity Pool Tokens
Hedera Hashgraph has confirmed a smart contract exploit on its mainnet, resulting in the theft of liquidity pool tokens from decentralized exchanges (DEXs) that use code derived from Uniswap v2 on Ethereum. The suspicious activity was detected when the attacker attempted to move the stolen tokens across the Hashport bridge, leading operators to temporarily pause the bridge. The exact amount of tokens stolen is unknown, and the Hedera team is working on a solution to remove the vulnerability.
Judge Considers Dismissing Shaquille ONeal and Naomi Osaka from FTX Lawsuit
A federal judge in Florida is considering dismissing Shaquille O’Neal and Naomi Osaka from the FTX lawsuit due to uncertainty about whether they were served. The judge reprimanded other celebrity defendants for not following proper procedure in requesting a conference extension. A consolidation request by some plaintiffs against FTX was denied, and lawyers for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried noted the possibility of pushing back the criminal trial scheduled for October 2023.