US Exchange Approved for Cryptocurrency Futures; Wallet integrates with a Fintech company
A major US cryptocurrency exchange recently announced that it has received regulatory approval from the National Futures Association (NFA) to operate as a futures commission merchant and offer eligible US customers access to futures contracts. on cryptocurrency. According to a blog post, the company “will now be the first crypto-native leader to offer access to regulated, leveraged, cash-settled crypto futures.”
According to a recent press release, one of the world’s leading derivatives exchanges and leading provider of cryptocurrency benchmarks has announced plans to launch “two new APAC-specific benchmark rates for bitcoin and ether… the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate APAC (BRRAP) and CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate APAC (ETHUSD_AP) – which will provide a once-a-day reference rate for the US dollar price of the two digital assets . According to the release, the new reference rates “will allow market participants to more accurately hedge cryptocurrency price risk with a timetable more closely tailored to their portfolios.”
In a final notable move, Ledger, a maker of cryptocurrency cold storage hardware wallets, announced that it will integrate its Ledger Live crypto wallet app with a major US fintech company to enable “users in the United States -United… (to) be able to directly purchase BTC, ETH, BCH and LTC using their… linked account” with the fintech company. According to a Ledger blog post, the integration will allow users who purchased crypto with their account with the fintech company to purchase crypto in the Ledger Live wallet app without additional verification.
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SEC Settles Charges Against Crypto Exchange; CFTC Targets Crypto Fraud
On August 10, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that crypto asset trading platform Bittrex Inc. and its co-founder and former CEO William Shihara had agreed to settle charges filed in April that they were operating an unregistered national stock exchange. broker and clearing agency. Bittrex Inc.’s foreign subsidiary, Bittrex Global GmbH, also settled charges that it failed to register as a domestic securities exchange. As part of the settlement (which is subject to court approval), Bittrex and Bittrex Global agreed to pay $14.4 million, prejudgment interest of $4 million, and a civil penalty of $5.6 million of dollars. Defendants have neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations.
On August 11, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it had filed charges against residents of Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas and their company, Fundsz, in connection with a cryptocurrency and metals fraud precious. According to the complaint, since October 2020, defendants solicited investors by lying that Fundsz was producing outsized returns using a proprietary algorithm for trading crypto and precious metals. They also falsely claimed that Fundsz had a charitable purpose, supporting clean water, humanitarian, health, education, and disaster relief efforts. In reality, according to the complaint, Fundsz simply collected money from customers and its alleged earnings were pure fiction. The defendants’ assets are now subject to a freezing order and a hearing on the CFTC’s motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for later this month.
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DeFi hacks and crypto scams continue; The FBI warns against types of scams
According to recent reports, DeFi protocol Zunami Protocol suffered a hack of its “zStables” stablecoin pools on Curve Finance. Hackers reportedly stole approximately $2.1 million from Zunami’s Curve Pool through a price manipulation exploit affecting Zunami Ether (zETH) and Zunami USD (UZD).
Another recent hack targeted a well-known blockchain venture capital (VC) fund. The attackers allegedly took control of one of the venture capital fund’s social media accounts and posted fraudulent messages promising a symbolic gift. The fraudulent messages contained links to a “copycat” website designed to impersonate the venture capital fund and trick users into connecting their cryptocurrency wallets, which would allow attackers to steal the crypto funds. currency of the victims.
In a final notable development, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recently released two public service announcements warning of scams involving non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies. In the first announcement, the FBI warned of criminals who “either gain direct access to the social media accounts of NFT developers or create nearly identical accounts.” According to the ad, “the inks provided in these ads are phishing links directing victims to a spoofed website that…prompt(s) victims to connect their cryptocurrency wallets…resulting in the transfer of crypto -currency and NFTs to wallets operated by criminals. » The second FBI announcement warns of an increase in “cryptocurrency recovery programs” in which fraudsters claim to offer the ability to recover lost funds. According to the announcement, scammers “charge an upfront fee and either stop all communication with the victim after receiving an initial deposit or file an incomplete or inaccurate search report and request additional fees to recover the funds.”
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