- Space ID Tokens Wow Investors Weeks After Binance Launchpad Sale
Space ID’s id (ID) token has nearly doubled in the past week on the back of strength in the largest cryptocurrencies and chants of “altcoin season” among some crypto traders on Twitter – becoming one of the best performers this month.
The token now has a market capitalization of $240 million, placing it among the top 200 cryptocurrencies by that metric. The tokens, which can can be used on the Web3 domain management platform as a governance token, saw over $340 million in cumulative trading volume over the past 24 hours on exchanges such as Binance and Gate.io.
The price action in Space ID, which allows users to exchange, register and manage crypto-based domain names, reinforces Binance Launchpad’s position as a lucrative platform for traders looking to get allocations of tokens in new projects. The subscription period for ID ended in March, becoming the latest Binance Launchpad offering.
- Police in Kosovo Seize Crypto Mining Rigs From Serbs
Law enforcement in Kosovo has carried out raids against cryptocurrency mining in a northern municipality where Serbs form the majority of the population, the Turkish Anadolu Agency reported, quoting a member of the Albanian-led government in Pristina.
According to Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli, police have seized 174 devices designed to mint digital currencies. Announcing the operation in Zubin Potok on social media, she insisted that the failure to pay electricity bills encourages such illegal activities.
Consumers in the predominantly Serb northern part of Kosovo have not paid for electric power in over two decades. Serbia does not recognize the unilaterally declared independence of the territory, the rest of which is mostly inhabited by ethnic Albanians.
https://news.bitcoin.com/police-in-kosovo-seize-crypto-mining-rigs-from-serbs/
- Bittrex Faces Potential Enforcement Action From The SEC: Report
Another day, another Wells notice.
The SEC has reportedly notified Bittrex of a potential enforcement action alleging that the firm was acting as an exchange, broker-dealer, and clearinghouse without registering with the regulator.
Back in March, SEC’s enforcement division reportedly informed Bittrex about the potential enforcement action—known as a Wells notice. But, this news came after the crypto firm had already started to wind down its operations in the US, David Maria the general counsel of Bittrex told The Wall Street Journal.
https://decrypt.co/136947/bittrex-faces-potential-enforcement-action-sec-report
- Binance to Perform Wallet Maintenance for BNB Beacon Chain Ahead of the Barral Hard Fork
Crypto exchange Binance is due to perform wallet maintenance for the BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2), which will see BNB withdrawals and deposits suspended for an hour, ahead of the Chain’s scheduled Barral hard fork later this week. The wallet maintenance will start at 07:00 UTC on Tuesday, April 18 and run for an hour.
BNB Chain said in a blog post that the hard fork is expected to happen at block height 310,182,000. Based on the current block generation speed, this should happen on 21th Apr 2023 at 7:00 (UTC).
Ahead of the hard fork, BNB Chain said no action will be required from users of any exchange which supports BNB (such as Binance.com, BitMax, or Gate.io), one of the wallets, or a hardware wallet (such as Ledger, Cool Wallet), unless notified by the exchange or wallet service.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7507910
- Crypto phishing attacks up by 40% in one year: Kaspersky
When it comes to cryptocurrency-related cyberattacks, bad actors have seemingly reduced the use of traditional financial threats like desktop and mobile banking malware, shifting their focus to phishing.
Russian cybersecurity and anti-virus provider Kaspersky revealed that cryptocurrency phishing attacks witnessed a 40% year-on-year increase in 2022. The company detected 5,040,520 crypto phishing attacks in the year, compared with 3,596,437 in 2021.
A typical phishing attack involves reaching out to investors through fake websites and communication channels that mimic the official companies. Users are then prompted to share personal information such as private keys, which ultimately provides attackers unwarranted access to crypto wallets and assets.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-phishing-attacks-up-by-40-in-one-year-kaspersky
- Bitcoin Could Peak at $45K in May, Analyst Says
Bitcoin (BTC) is closely following its early 2019 surge and prices could peak at around $45,000 next month, according to Vetle Lunde, a senior analyst at K33 Research.
The largest cryptocurrency by market value has rallied 80% this year, beating traditional risk assets, including the tech-heavy Nasdaq index, by a significant margin. The rally comes after a 12-month decline that saw prices tank 76% and bottom out in November 2022.
The drop and subsequent recovery are analogous to the pattern seen in the 2018-19 bear market in terms of length and trajectory, according to Lunde.
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/04/17/bitcoin-could-peak-at-45k-in-may-analyst-says/
- Do Kwon’s Terraform Sent $7 Million to Law Firm Before Collapse, Report Unveils
South Korean prosecutors working on the fraud case against Terraform Labs co-founder and CEO Do Kwon have revealed that the company has paid a total of 9 billion won (nearly $7 million) to Kim & Chang, the country’s leading law firm, national broadcaster KBS reported.
Tracking financial flows from its Singapore headquarters, they were able to establish that the funds were sent in several transactions which started right before the collapse of Terraform’s digital currencies, stablecoin terrausd and cryptocurrency luna, in May of last year.
Investigators from Seoul are cooperating with law enforcement authorities in Singapore to confirm the source of the payments. If it turns out that the blockchain firm has cashed out digital coins, charges of embezzlement may be brought against its management.
- Ethereum Tapers Gains After 12% Rise Post-Shanghai
Ethereum’s post-Shanghai bull run has hit a lull.
Its price touched lows of $2,080 on Monday morning, while Bitcoin struggled to hold onto the $30,000 support level.
The bullish run-up may have been paused in part due to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s statements regarding one more rate hike in the upcoming May policy rate meeting.
Additionally, withdrawals from Ethereum staking contracts continue to outpace deposits, potentially adding sell pressure to the asset, per data from Nansen. On April 15, there was also a massive 85,393 ETH withdrawal executed at 10 am ET followed by another 66,030 ETH withdrawal an hour later.
https://decrypt.co/136933/ethereum-tapers-gains-rise-post-shanghai
- Man gets prison time after feds discover $3.4 billion in stolen bitcoin hidden inside a Cheetos popcorn tin and underground safe
A man who stored billions of dollars’ worth of stolen cryptocurrency in an underground safe — and a Cheetos popcorn tin — was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in prison.
According to federal prosecutors, James Zhong, 32, stole more than 50,000 bitcoins from the Silk Road marketplace, a place on the so-called dark web where people could buy illicit items such as pornography and drugs. Its founder, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison without the possibility of parole after he was convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering, and hacking, among other charges.
https://www.businessinsider.com/man-gets-prison-time-after-caught-stolen-bitcoin-2023-4
- Crypto Lender Amber Group Weighs Selling Japan Unit: Bloomberg
Crypto lender Amber Group is considering selling its Japan unit as part of a plan to focus more on institutional than retail customers, managing partner Annabelle Huang said in a Bloomberg Television interview Friday.
Although Japan is a “high quality market … regulations are strict,” Huang said.
Amber Group bought Japanese crypto exchange DeCurret last year. In recent months, major cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Kraken both ceased operations in the country citing “market conditions.”
Japan has recently shown signs it’s planning on creating a more friendly regulatory environment for crypto firms, with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party publishing a white paper to boost the industry in the country particularly around changes to tax regulation and improvements to accounting standards..
