Hodler’s Digest, Sept. 8 – 14 – Cointelegraph Magazine

High Tales of The Week

FBI stories Individuals misplaced $5.6B to cryptocurrency fraud in 2023

The USA Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Web Crime Grievance Heart has launched its cryptocurrency fraud report for 2023. Individuals misplaced $5.6 billion as a result of cryptocurrency fraud that 12 months, up 45% from 2022, it stated. Crypto-related complaints represented 10% of the entire acquired, however nearly 50% of the entire misplaced that 12 months, the FBI stated.

The report discovered that of the 69,000 crypto-related complaints the FBI acquired in 2023, individuals over 60 had been most frequently victimized, accounting for nearly $1.6 billion of the losses. Nearly 71% of the crypto fraud was associated to funding schemes, and about 10% concerned name middle fraud and authorities impersonation scams.

The FBI acquired complaints from over 200 international locations, however the overwhelming majority of complaints and losses had been from the USA. Lots of the losses had been the results of confidence schemes. The FBI had one essential piece of recommendation to keep away from one of these rip-off:

“There’s one factor these scammers usually won’t do — they won’t meet with you in actual life. If an funding alternative comes from somebody who you might have by no means met in particular person […] be extraordinarily cautious of the recommendation.”

Crypto turns into US election problem for the primary time — Survey

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will doubtless play a task within the coming United States presidential election, as growing numbers of U.S. crypto buyers are involved concerning the candidates’ method to regulating the business.

The overwhelming majority of crypto house owners within the U.S. plan to contemplate the crypto regulation stance of U.S. presidential candidates within the upcoming election in November, in accordance with a brand new report by Winklevoss twins-founded crypto change Gemini.

Launched on Sept. 10, Gemini’s newest “International State of Crypto” report featured a survey of 6,000 adults representing a random pattern of the buyer populations within the U.S., the UK, France, Singapore and Turkey. The survey was performed on-line from Could 23 to June 28, 2024.

In line with Gemini’s findings, as many as 73% of U.S. respondents who at present personal crypto stated {that a} candidate’s stance on crypto would have “some impression” on their vote.

Moreover, one other 37% of respondents indicated {that a} presidential candidate’s place on crypto would have a “important impression” on their vote.

Caroline Ellison asks for time served, citing cooperation with US gov’t

Attorneys representing former Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison suggest that she be sentenced to time served after pleading responsible to seven felony counts associated to cryptocurrency change FTX’s downfall.

In a Sept. 10 submitting in the USA District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York, Ellison’s authorized group submitted letters from mates, colleagues and relations recommending she serve a lightweight sentence. The attorneys advisable that the previous Alameda CEO, primarily based on the Probation Division’s Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) phrases, be sentenced to time served with three years’ supervised launch at her Sept. 24 listening to.

“The PSR grounds this suggestion in Caroline’s extraordinary cooperation with the federal government, her in any other case unblemished document, and the quite a few testimonials of Caroline’s honesty and moral habits each earlier than she began working at Alameda and since she left Alameda,” the submitting stated. 

“Caroline poses no threat of recidivism and presents no risk to public security. It could subsequently promote respect for the regulation to grant leniency in recognition of Caroline’s early disclosure of the crimes, her unmitigated acceptance of duty for them, and—most significantly—her in depth cooperation with the federal government.”

Ellison’s legal professionals added:

“With out in any method diminishing the very critical crimes right here, we respectfully submit that the coverage objectives and pursuits of justice […] don’t require sending Caroline to jail, and accordingly request a non-custodial sentence.”

Vitalik: L2s that aren’t not less than ‘stage 1’ are useless to me

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has reiterated his stance on layer-2 decentralization, stating that he solely plans to acknowledge scaling options at “stage 1” of his decentralization scale.

In a Sept. 12 publish on X, Buterin stated that he takes this “critically” and that, beginning subsequent 12 months, he solely plans to publicly point out layer-2 networks which might be “stage 1+.”

He added that there “could also be a brief grace interval for brand new genuinely fascinating initiatives,” stating:

“It doesn’t matter if I invested, or should you’re my pal; stage 1 or bust.”

Buterin stated many zero-knowledge rollup groups have advised him “they’re on monitor to be stage 1 by year-end,” and he was “excited to see that occur.”

“The period of rollups being glorified multisigs is coming to an finish. The period of cryptographic belief is upon us,” he stated.

Bitcoin ETFs are subsequent main goal for North Korean hackers — Cyvers

North Korean hackers, together with the notorious Lazarus Group, might start concentrating on bigger monetary entities, together with United States-based Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The Lazarus Group is related to a number of the most infamous hacks within the cryptocurrency area, together with the most important hack in decentralized finance — the $625 million Ronin bridge hack.

Hackers may begin shifting their consideration to the U.S. Bitcoin ETFs as a result of sizable potential payout, in accordance with Michael Pearl, vp of GTM technique at on-chain safety firm Cyvers.

Pearl advised Cointelegraph in an unique interview:

“Solely lately the FBI has issued a warning that North Korean hackers are going to attempt to infiltrate and steal cash from ETFs. So, all these ETFs […] are storing the bottom Bitcoin someplace. And you’ll make certain that any individual is already planning and pondering of how they’re going to steal it.”

Winners and Losers

On the finish of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $60,436, Ether (ETH) at $2,444 and XRP at $0.57. The whole market cap is at $2.11 trillion, in accordance with CoinMarketCap.

Among the many greatest 100 cryptocurrencies, the highest three altcoin gainers of the week are Nervos Community (CKB) at 84.94%, Popcat (SOL) (POPCAT) at 50.15% and Bittensor (TAO) at 37.63%.

The highest three altcoin losers of the week are Helium (HNT) at 2.99%, TRON (TRX) at +0.84% and Unus Sed Leo (LEO) at +1.13%. For more information on crypto costs, be certain that to learn Cointelegraph’s market evaluation.

Most Memorable Quotations

“We firmly consider that digital property aren’t merely a passing development, however a basic shift within the cloth of finance.”

Invoice Winters, CEO of Normal Chartered

“Pump.enjoyable and Solana have been the present craze to seek out new gems, however that’s additionally catering to a selected kind of degen dealer, […] which is totally totally different from leverage buying and selling a longtime meme like Pepe on main centralized exchanges.”

Ilias Salvatore, development lead at Flooz

“Insurance coverage protection of third-party custodians is a joke. It’s merely not economical to insure the total worth of those property given the dangers concerned and issue in recovering misplaced funds.”

Jameson Lopp, co-founder and chief safety officer at Casa

“For the primary time in United States historical past, crypto has grow to be a big marketing campaign problem in a presidential election.”

Gemini, cryptocurrency change

“With out in any method diminishing the very critical crimes right here, we respectfully submit that the coverage objectives and pursuits of justice […] don’t require sending Caroline to jail, and accordingly request a non-custodial sentence.”

Caroline Ellison’s authorized group

“If historical past repeats, Bitcoin could also be heading for 3 straight months of constructive upside Month-to-month returns.”

Rekt Capital, pseudonymous crypto analyst

Prediction of The Week

VanEck, StoneX analysts peg Ether value upside at $12K to $22K

Ether (ETH) spot value may probably rise to between $12,000 and $22,000 by the top of this decade in an upside state of affairs, in accordance with two estimates from analysts at cryptocurrency brokerage StoneX Digital and asset supervisor VanEck.

Matthew Sigel, VanEck’s head of digital asset analysis, expects the Ethereum community to generate as much as $66 billion in annual free money circulation by 2030, driving ETH’s spot value as excessive as $22,000 per token. 

David Kroger, an information scientist at StoneX, sees ETH costs climbing to roughly $4,600 over the subsequent 18 months.

“The upside, although, is far larger — round $12,621 — particularly contemplating a number of the upcoming technological upgrades that Ethereum is engaged on,” Kroger stated, talking alongside Sigel at a Sept. 10 StoneX panel.

The estimates are primarily based on anticipated worth accrual to ETH holders from transaction charges as Ethereum processes a rising portion of the world’s transactions.

FUD of The Week

Brazilian financial institution suspends native crypto token buying and selling following 97% value drop

Nubank, considered one of Latin America’s largest crypto banks and backed by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, introduced on Sept. 10 the quick suspension of buying and selling for Nucoin, its native cryptocurrency. The token’s value has dropped over 97% over the past 12 months.

Nubank introduced the creation of the Nucoin token on the Polygon blockchain on Oct. 19, 2022. Nearly two years after the announcement, the financial institution closed its buying and selling. The financial institution has given prospects who’ve not less than 10 reals in Nucoins the choice to transform them to Bitcoin or stablecoin USDC by Dec. 9.

As Cointelegraph Brazil reported, if a consumer doesn’t proceed with the conversion, the cryptocurrencies shall be stored for accumulation and “future profit from the rewards program.”

“To guard you and all members from potential volatility available in the market worth of Nucoins as a result of potential reactions to this replace, now we have chosen to droop your buying and selling instantly,” Nubank stated in an electronic mail to prospects, in accordance with the media report.

Kraken denies SEC claims, argues digital property aren’t securities

Kraken, a centralized cryptocurrency change, has responded to the USA Securities and Alternate Fee’s (SEC) declare that it violated federal securities legal guidelines. The SEC alleged that a number of digital property the crypto change gives qualify as unregistered securities.

Within the authorized submitting response, Kraken firmly denied the allegations, sustaining that the property in query don’t meet the authorized definition of securities below U.S. regulation.

The change’s protection rests strongly on the assertion that digital property, together with Cardano (ADA), Algorand (ALGO), Cosmos (ATOM), and others traded on Kraken, aren’t funding contracts.

eToro US to stop practically all crypto buying and selling following SEC settlement

In style inventory buying and selling platform eToro is ceasing buying and selling for practically all crypto property after reaching a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee.

EToro was charged with working an unregistered brokerage and clearing company associated to its crypto buying and selling platform.

The buying and selling platform has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle the costs associated to its unregistered brokerage and clearing company operations, the SEC introduced on Sept. 12.

As a part of the settlement, eToro has agreed to “make solely a restricted set of crypto property out there for buying and selling” within the U.S. and to stop violating relevant federal securities legal guidelines.

In step with the settlement, eToro’s U.S. prospects will solely be capable of commerce Bitcoin, Bitcoin Money and Ether tokens, permitting prospects to promote their different crypto property for as much as 180 days beginning Sept. 12.

High Journal tales of The Week

Proposed change may save Ethereum from L2 ‘roadmap to hell’

Critics say ETH is in a loss of life spiral, with plunging price income and extractive L2s. However researchers have a plan to Make Ethereum Nice Once more.

China’s ‘level working’ crypto scams, pig butchers kidnap youngsters: Asia Specific

A brand new rip-off often called “level working” rises in China, Indodax responds to hack with free cash, pig butchering scammers are kidnapping youngsters.

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Cointelegraph Journal writers and reporters contributed to this text.