US CFTC sues Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against the crypto exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao for allegedly violating rules around trading and derivatives. Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.The CFTC has alleged that "Binance has taken a calculated, phased approach to increase its United...

17h

US prosecutors file criminal charges against Do Kwon

Only hours after Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro, federal prosecutors in New York filed eight criminal charges against him: conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation, and two counts each of commodities fraud, securities fraud, and wire fraud. Prosecutors accuse Kwon of defrauding people by selling LUNA and UST...

3d

Latest Sotheby's NFT sale is decidedly tepid

Despite Sotheby's estimates that the most popular piece in the "Oddly Satisfying" NFT collection would sell for €70,000–€100,000 ($75,500–$108,000), the "Eternity" NFT attained a highest bid of only €50,800 ($54,600). Altogether the full collection brought in $316,000, with 60% of the NFTs going for less than Sotheby's estimates. This is a marked change...

3d

Collector accidentally burns their $123,000 CryptoPunk

The new owner of a CryptoPunk, one of the most popular early NFT projects, accidentally burned the NFT they had only just purchased. After spending 77 ETH ($123,434) on the NFT, the owner tried to wrap it so they could borrow against it.However, some confusing instructions resulted in the owner sending the punk to the burn address, effectively destroying...

3d

Terra/Luna founder Do Kwon arrested

The founder of Terra/Luna, the stablecoin that crashed dramatically in May 2022 and has subsequently been alleged to be a massive fraud, has been arrested in Montenegro.After the collapse, Kwon became a fugitive. South Korea issued a warrant for his arrest in September, and Interpol issued a red notice. However, he's remained on the lam for some time,...

4d

Kraken to suspend ACH transfers after Silvergate collapse

The Kraken cryptocurrency exchange announced to its users that it will be suspending ACH transfers on March 27, as a result of the collapse of its banking partner, Silvergate. Based on their communications, it sounds like they have been unsuccessful in finding a new banking provider since Silvergate's March 8 collapse, which will impact customers' abilities...

5d

SEC sends a Wells notice to Coinbase

The SEC sent Coinbase a Wells notice, which is basically their way of saying "we're about to file a complaint against you, here's your chance to convince us not to."According to Coinbase, the Wells notice related to "aspects of the company's exchange, our staking service Coinbase Earn, and Coinbase Wallet". It's not terribly surprising that the SEC...

5d

Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and other celebrities charged for illegally touting Justin Sun's tokens

Celebrities Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Austin Mahone, Kendra Lust, Lil Yachty, Ne-Yo, and Akon were all charged by the SEC for violating anti-touting laws that would require them to disclose if and how much they were being paid to promote securities. The alleged securities in question are TRX and BTT, two tokens both closely tied to Justin...

5d

Justin Sun charged with offering unregistered securities and market manipulation

His (former?) Excellency Justin Sun has been charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for offering unregistered securities. His businesses, the Tron Foundation and two BitTorrent-related entities, were also named in the complaint. According to the SEC, Sun offered the unregistered securities TRX and BTT, and "fraudulently manipulat[ed] the...

5d

SpankPay payments service for sex workers shuts down

Despite people periodically claiming that crypto is a panacea for the many issues that make it difficult for sex workers to get paid, the SpankPay crypto-based payments processor is calling it quits after their payment processor Wyre decided they didn't want to work with them, because their payment processor Checkout.com didn't want to work with them....

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