- British Columbia Court Backs Ban on Crypto Mining in Canadian Province
British Columbia’s provincial power utility, B.C Hydro’s, moratorium on crypto mining projects was ruled as reasonable by a provincial supreme court judge, according to a ruling posted on Monday.
The moratorium was being challenged by Conifex Timber, a forestry company that had branched out into crypto mining. Conifex was planning a mining operation with Tsay Keh Dene Nation, an indigenous tribe.
In the ruling, Justice Michael Tammen said that the moratorium, first enacted in December 2022, was reasonable, not discriminatory, and within the bounds set out by the province’s Utilities Commission Act.
- HyperVerse founder shills new crypto project hours after $1.7B fraud charge
Sam Lee, the founder of the HyperVerse crypto pyramid scheme that has been accused of misappropriating $1.7 billion in investor funds, is still promoting crypto projects online just hours after the US charged him.
On January 29, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Lee and HyperVerse of fraudulently promoting lucrative returns on crypto schemes that relied on funds taken from investors.
However, just a day later, the 35-year-old Australian appeared in a Facebook video promoting his new project South African crypto venture VEND. In the 70-minute-long video, Lee, who is the project’s CEO, claims that things can only get better for himself and says that he realizes “the worst is basically people lying to regulators and regulators believing their version of the story.” He also warns potential investors to “not be in the mindset of loss.”
https://protos.com/hyperverse-founder-shills-new-crypto-project-hours-after-1-7b-fraud-charge/
- GoDaddy to charge $0 for ENS .eth name pairing
A partnership between Ethereum Name Service (ENS) and domain registrar GoDaddy will allow the Web3 community to link their .eth names (domains) to traditional Web2 domains at no extra cost.
As a decentralized domain name system (DNS), ENS .eth domains allow users to register domain names on Web3, simplifying complex wallet addresses into human-readable names, among other features. With GoDaddy onboard, Web3 users can now link their .eth domains with traditional URLs at no extra cost.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/godaddy-ens-dns-eth-free-pairing
- Shiba Inu’s Flat Trend Could Precede Major Price Movement
According to CryptoPotato, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has been experiencing a flat trend in the past two weeks, with its price moving sideways between key support and resistance levels. The support at $0.0000087 has held well, and buyers may attempt to challenge the resistance at $0.0000095 in the near future. Since the most recent high in December, Shiba Inu’s volume has been declining, and volatility has also decreased substantially, indicating that pressure may be building up for a major move later on.
- Egypt Aims to Ease Pressure on Forex Reserves via $1 Billion Treasury Bill Auction
On Feb. 5, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) was poised to auction dollar-denominated treasury bills (TB) worth $1 billion. This move is said to be part of the CBE’s ongoing efforts to stabilize Egypt’s teetering economy. The TB auction reportedly aims to alleviate the pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
Before this latest auction, the CBE had already sold more one-year TBs worth $850 million in December 2023. Despite these measures, the Egyptian pound continues to face challenges.
Just days before the TB auction, the CBE raised overnight interest rates by 200 basis points. As a result, the lending rate surged to 22.25%, while the deposit rate reached 21.25%. Interest rates were hiked to curb inflation and stabilize the economy. The decline in Egypt’s headline inflation rate to 33.7% indicates some success in the CBE’s efforts, a report in the Middle East Economy said.
- Solana’s Most-Notorious Hacker House Is Bigger Than Ever
SALT LAKE CITY — “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”
So said Barrett, the host of Solana’s largest community-run coworking meetup, after surveying his fast-filling WeWork in Salt Lake City on Monday. His cowboy boots clopped past rows of desks and laptops and crypto developers at the seasonal retreat. Some 50-odd out-of-towners had already arrived and another 150 were on their way, putting his supply of monitors in jeopardy of proving too small.
He made the tough call: “Pretty soon everyone with a Vision Pro is going to have to work from the couch.”
- Hong Kong watchdog to crypto exchanges: Get a license or shut down
Apply or shut down.
That’s the stern warning Hong Kong’s securities watchdog has levied against the city’s crypto exchanges.
The Securities and Futures Commission slammed Hong Kong’s crypto ecosystem with the caution on February 5.
The regulator said that unless exchanges have applied for a virtual asset trading platform licence by February 29, then they’ll be forced to shut down by May 31.
The warning came even as Hong Kong is endeavouring to establish itself as a crypto hub with efforts like tokenising government bonds and fighting crypto scams.
- Terraform Labs former CFO Han Chang-joon extradited to South Korea
Former Terraform Labs chief financial officer Han Chang-joon was extradited from Montenegro to South Korea on Feb. 5, according to a statement by the police on a Montenegrin government website. Han was identified only as J.C.H. in the statement, but an unnamed police spokesman confirmed his identity to Reuters.
Han was arrested with former Terraform CEO Do Kwon at the airport in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica on March 23. They had been attempting to use forged Costa Rican passports to board a private jet heading to Dubai. According to the Montenegrin police statement:
“J.C.H. was today handed over to the competent judicial and police authorities of South Korea by NCB Interpol Podgorica officers and the Special Police Unit, for the purpose of conducting criminal proceedings for several criminal offenses related to fraud.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/terraform-labs-former-cfo-han-chang-joon-extradited-south-korea
- British Columbia Supreme Court Upholds Moratorium on Crypto Mining Projects
According to CoinDesk, a provincial supreme court judge in British Columbia has ruled that B.C. Hydro’s moratorium on crypto mining projects is reasonable. The moratorium was challenged by Conifex Timber, a forestry company that had branched out into crypto mining and was planning a mining operation with Tsay Keh Dene Nation, an indigenous tribe. Justice Michael Tammen stated in the ruling that the moratorium, first enacted in December 2022, was reasonable, not discriminatory, and within the bounds set out by the province’s Utilities Commission Act.
- California School Officials Plead Guilty to Running Crypto Mining Scheme With School Resources
Two senior officials from the Patterson Joint Unified School District in California have admitted to exploiting school resources for their own gain, including orchestrating a cryptocurrency mining operation, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) disclosed. Jeffrey Menge, 43, of Copperopolis, and Eric Drabert, 44, of Modesto, entered guilty pleas to charges of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, as announced by U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert.
From 2018 through 2022, Menge, serving as the Assistant Superintendent and Chief Business Officer, alongside Drabert, the IT Director hired in 2020, engaged in fraudulent activities to siphon off funds from the school district. Their elaborate scheme involved over $1.2 million in deceitful dealings through Cencal Tech LLC, a company under Menge’s control. By creating a fictitious executive, “Frank Barnes,” they bypassed restrictions on transactions with the school, engaging in double billing and charging for undelivered items.
