Hackers have managed to infiltrate the Twitter account of a Circle executive to falsely state that the stablecoin issuer was conducting a USDC airdrop.
The fake airdrop leads to a phishing website likely designed to steal users’ tokens.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire confirmed that the Twitter account belonging to Dante Disparte, the company’s chief strategy officer and head of global policy, was hacked.
Perpetrators used Disparte’s account to announce a fake USDC airdrop to the stablecoin holders via a tweet thread on Wednesday (March 22, 2023).
According to the fake announcement, the airdrop was marketed as compensation for users affected by the USDC depeg. The tweet also included a site that had a fake claim button, which was most likely a drainer.
Anyone who clicked on the

MakerDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that issues the DAI stablecoin, has voted in favor of allocating more funds to its current US Treasury investments.
The increase in investments in government treasury bonds aims to diversify DAI’s stablecoin liquid backing through exposure to real-world assets (RWAs).
MakerDAO Votes to Increase Debt Ceiling by $750 Million
The first stage of MakerDAO’s expanded foray into investing in RWAs has concluded with the passing of the preliminary vote to increase the DAO’s real-world asset vault debt ceiling to 1.25 billion DAI ($1.25 billion).
The governance poll, which started on March 13, was active for three days and ended on Thursday, March 16, 2023. Based on the results, the majority of the votes were in favor of the proposal

Visa’s crypto head dismissed an earlier report from Reuters about the company halting crypto-related launches as inaccurate.
Instead, he said Visa will continue to partner with more cryptocurrency firms that can facilitate stablecoin payments, despite the ongoing bear market.
Visa Exec Refutes Reuters Report
In a tweet thread on Tuesday (Feb. 28, 2023), Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, responded to an earlier Reuters report concerning the company, stating that the publication was inaccurate.
Sheffield said:

“Despite the challenges and uncertainty in the crypto ecosystem, our view has not changed that fiat backed digital currencies running on public blockchains have the potential to play an important role in the payments ecosystem.”

Visa CEO Alfred Kelly made a

Major Australian gaming firm Immutable slashed 11% of the company’s headcount, stating that the job cut happened in order to ensure cash reserves last for a long time.
This is the second time Immutable is reducing its workers after the firm axed the number of its employees in July 2022.
Immutable Incurred Losses Worth $56 Million
According to the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday (Feb. 22, 2023), Immutable co-founder and CEO James Ferguson announced the layoffs in a note sent to the company’s employees, as seen by the newspaper publication. Ferguson wrote:

“This is difficult news, and I am sorry to all Immutables impacted by these changes. As CEO, I am deeply aware that these role eliminations will directly impact the lives of many, and I take full ownership for these

Major blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos Trust Company is holding discussions with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning Binance stablecoin BUSD, according to a report by Reuters.
The company earlier received a notice from New York authorities to cease minting BUSD.
According to Reuters on Tuesday (Feb. 21, 2022), Charles Cascarilla, CEO of Paxos, sent an email to the firm’s employees on Feb. 18, informing them that the company is holding “constructive discussions” with the SEC.
Earlier in February, Paxos received a Wells notice from the American regulator alleging that the firm was selling unregistered securities, indicating that the Binance-branded BUSD was a security.
Cascarilla further said Paxos was looking to continue its discussions with

Polygon Labs announced that it will reduce its team by 20% while stating that the company maintains a robust treasury.
Meanwhile, the job cut comes shortly after the firm outlined plans at the end of 2022 to hire more employees.
According to a press release on Tuesday (Feb. 21, 2023), Polygon Labs said the 20% slash affected 100 job positions. Part of the announcement read:

“Earlier this year, we consolidated multiple business units under Polygon Labs. As part of this process,  we’re sharing the difficult news that we’ve reduced our team by 20% impacting multiple teams and about 100 positions. This was a painfully hard decision, but a necessary step in our journey.”

The firm added that employees affected by the layoffs will be paid a three-month severance pay “regardless

The Japanese arm of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX announced that it would resume the withdrawal function for customers.
This comes less than a month to when the order for the platform to suspend its business takes effect.
According to a press release on Monday (Feb. 20, 2023), FTX Japan stated that customers will be able to withdraw their assets from Feb. 21, 2023. The platform said fiat and crypto asset withdrawals will be processed through the Japanese crypto exchange Liquid, adding that users who do not have a Liquid Japan account should open one before moving their funds.

“We are pleased to announce that we will resume our services for withdrawal of fiat currency and crypto assets of FTX Japan via the Liquid Japan web platform at 12:00 p.m. (noon, JST) on February 21,

Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace giant OpenSea announced some changes to its fee structure. 
This comes amid an open challenge by one of its competitors, which suggested that NFT creators boycott OpenSea.
In a tweet thread on Friday (Feb. 17, 2023), OpenSea made some structural changes in the wake of stiff competition by rival marketplace Blur.

We’re making some big changes today:1) OpenSea fee → 0% for a limited time2) Moving to optional creator earnings (0.5% min) for all collections without on-chain enforcement (old & new)3) Marketplaces with the same policies will not be blocked by the operator filter
— OpenSea (@opensea) February 17, 2023

One of the changes was the implementation of a zero percent fee, which was usually 2.5% on every secondary sale. However,

Binance.US refuted an earlier report made by Reuters, which stated that the international exchange allegedly moved $400 million from an account belonging to the American affiliate.
In an attempt to clarify the situation, Binance.US said that only executives of the platform had such access to its bank accounts.
Binance Purportedly Transferred $400 Million from Binance.US
A report released by Reuters on Thursday (Feb. 16, 2023) claimed that bank records and company messages revealed that crypto exchange giant Binance transferred over $400 million from a Binance.US bank account at Silvergate to a trading firm called Merit Peak in the first quarter of 2021. According to the publication, the trading firm listed CEO Changpeng Zhao, otherwise known as “CZ,” as its manager.

NFT marketplace SudoSwap said it debuted its native governance token called SUDO with an airdrop of coins to early supporters.
The move comes amid a recent resurgence in NFT trading volume after a lull that was part of a broader downturn in crypto activity.
SUDO Tokens to Be Airdropped to SudoSwap LPs
SudoSwap announced the launch of its SUDO token on Monday, Jan. 30. The token release, updated earlier today, included an airdrop for early supporters of the project.
The SUDO airdrop will reward liquidity providers (LPs) on the platform. SudoSwap is a different kind of NFT marketplace from the likes of OpenSea. It resembles more of an automated market-making platform like Uniswap but for NFTs.
SudoSwap enables the creation of liquidity pools for NFTs. As such, there are

Regulators in Hong Kong will soon decide which crypto tokens its citizens can invest in amid a raft of new digital asset policies coming this year.
The move is the latest crypto regulatory step taken by Hong Kong in a market that has a long association with significant digital asset trading volume.
Hong Kong to Issue Consultation Paper
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) is preparing a list of crypto assets open to retail traders, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The SFC’s new CEO, Julia Leung Fung-yee, said these whitelisted crypto tokens will be highly liquid ones deemed safe enough for non-professional investors. Leung made these comments during a panel session at the Asian Financial Forum held in Hong Kong on Jan. 11.

“Some virtual assets platforms have

Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent company of wholly-owned subsidiary, crypto brokerage firm Genesis, is reportedly looking to offload some of its venture capital portfolios to raise funds to cover part of the latter’s debt crisis.
Genesis halted withdrawals in November, becoming the latest crypto lender to face a financial crisis.
According to the Financial Times on Tuesday (January 12, 2023), anonymous sources revealed that Genesis is currently swimming in a debt worth over $3 billion.
The crypto lender earlier hired Moelis, a New-York headquartered global investment bank, to explore options, but there seems to be no interest in injecting capital into Genesis.
Meanwhile, parent company DCG is trying to raise funds to offset the debt, as revealed by people familiar

Woo Network is a DeFi liquidity provider for institutional platforms and has attracted equity investments from backers like Binance.
Revamped Tokenomics for Woo
The Woo Network tokenomics revamp involves a series of improvements to its token distribution, the team announced on Monday, (January 10, 2023). These improvements are part of efforts to address issues regarding the current token distribution.
Woo’s token revamp will begin with a planned burn of 705 million WOO tokens, currently worth $127 million. Token burning in crypto is when coins are destroyed by sending them to a burn address, forever removing them from circulation. The planned burn will see 24% of the WOO token supply destroyed.
The tokens to be burned will come from the allocations given to WOO Ventures,

Fintech company and USDC issuer Circle has terminated a business combination deal with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Concord Acquisition Corp., but it has not scrapped its plan to go public.
Circle’s announcement is the latest in the growing list of SPAC deals that have failed to materialize.
Circle and Concord Go Separate Ways
Circle announced the termination of the deal in a press release on Monday (December 5, 2022). The decision was mutual between both parties, with the termination approved by Circle’s and Concord’s boards of directors.
The business combination proposal was first announced in July 2021 when Circle was valued at $4.5 billion. The deal was later amended in February 2022 when the firm’s valuation doubled to $9 billion, with the USDC issuer

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the now-bankrupt FTX, tried to rally financial support for his beleaguered crypto exchange. This comes as the platform is facing bankruptcy amid an $8 billion black hole in its balance sheets.
FTX collapsed in spectacular fashion over the past week, triggering a contagion that has impacted the broader crypto space. Several projects have now reported having funds stuck in limbo with the exchange.
Sam Bankman-Fried tried to source funds from investors to bail out his bankrupt crypto exchange, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday (November 15, 2022).
The report stated that Bankman-Fried and a few remaining employees at the bankrupt exchange attempted to secure a financial commitment from potential investors over the weekend.
This

Major venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has written down the value of its investment in the beleaguered crypto exchange FTX, to zero.
Notably, the company was part of the investors who participated in FTX’s $900 million funding round in July 2021, which brought the exchange’s valuation to $18 billion at the time.
Sequoia Marks Down FTX Investment to $0
In a note to limited partners (LPs), which was revealed via Sequoia’s Twitter handle on Thursday (November 10, 2022), the venture capital firm stated that its investment in FTX and FTX.US – the American-based unit of the exchange – totaling $213.5 million, is marked down to $0.

Here is the note we sent to our LPs in GGFIII regarding FTX. pic.twitter.com/Cgp1Yxk1pz
— Sequoia Capital (@sequoia) November 10, 2022

Sequoia

Amid the problems plaguing cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) has frozen the firm’s assets.
The Bahamian regulator also got the court to appoint a provisional liquidator for FTX.
In a press release posted by Nassau Guardian via Twitter on Thursday (November 10, 2022), the Commission revealed it had frozen assets of FTX Digital Markets (FDM) “and related parties.”
Back in September 2021, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried announced that the company’s headquarters will be in the Bahamas.
An excerpt from the announcement reads:

“The Commission is aware of public statements suggesting that clients’ assets were mishandled, mismanaged and/or transferred to Alameda Research. Based on the Commission’s information, any such actions would have been

Solana’s Epoch 370 is set to end in a little under 24 hours, and with it will come the unlocking of over 47 million SOL tokens by validators.
This massive token unlock is coming at a time of significant market tumult, not just for Solana but for the entire crypto space following the FTX collapse.
According to data from the Solana dashboard, 47,289,526 SOL, worth nearly $1 billion, is set to be unlocked in Epoch 370. An epoch in Solana is a period where validators cannot unlock their staked tokens on the network.
Following the expiration of Epoch 370, which will end in less than 24 hours, the unstaked SOL will be withdrawn by validators.
Meanwhile, it remains uncertain if the validators will sell their withdrawn SOL considering the current price performance of the token.

The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) announced the historic seizure of over $3 billion worth of bitcoin from a fraudster who allegedly scammed the defunct online darknet marketplace Silk Road and stole more than 50,000 bitcoin.
The defendant pled guilty to a wire fraud crime committed a decade ago and could face up to 20 years in prison.
In a press release on Monday (November 7, 2022), the DoJ revealed the seizure of over 50,000 bitcoin from indicted Silk Road scammer James Zhong.
The BTC amount was initially seized almost a year ago, on November 9, 2021, and was worth about $3.4 billion at the time.
According to the DoJ, Zhong, in September 2012, allegedly defrauded Silk Road by creating nine accounts to hide his identity and trigger the release of approximately

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX, has come out to allay fears about the state of the crypto exchange’s finances.
Bankman-Fried said the platform has excess cash and clients’ funds are safe while also calling on Binance CEO to collaborate with him to improve the ecosystem.
In a recent tweet thread on Monday (November 7, 2022), Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, said the crypto exchange which he spearheads has sufficient funds to cover clients’ holdings.
The CEO also doused claims of insolvency, arguing that the exchange is capable of processing customer withdrawals. “FTX is fine. Assets are fine,” stated SBF, adding:

“It’s heavily regulated, even when that slows us down. We have GAAP audits, with > $1b excess cash. We have a long history of safeguarding client assets, and

Money transfer services giant MoneyGram will now allow customers to trade and hold some major cryptocurrencies using the company’s mobile app.
The move marks an expansion to MoneyGram’s native crypto support as it previously enabled users to buy and withdraw Bitcoin in the United States.
According to a press release on Tuesday (November 1, 2022). MoneyGram introduced a new feature that will allow customers to buy, sell, and store Bitcoin, Ether, and Litecoin. The company plans to add more crypto assets to its platform in 2023.
This latest development was possible through a partnership with the crypto exchange Coinme. The ability to trade and hold crypto is available to MoneyGram customers in almost all U.S. states and the District of Columbia (DC).
Today’s announcement

Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, has been affected by the ongoing crypto winter, with the company’s flagship cryptocurrency fund losing nearly half of its value in the first six months of 2022.
The declining performance is a massive difference from the gains experienced last year when the company’s investments grew over 1,000%.
A16z Not Immune to Crypto Winter
According to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday (October 26, 2022), a16z’s flagship crypto fund, launched in 2018, has seen a sharp drop in value at 40%, as revealed by anonymous sources. The decline is significant compared to other venture funds, which shed between 10% and 20%.
Previously, the VC’s first crypto fund saw its initial investment grow almost 11-fold as of the end of 2021.

Gaming and metaverse DAO giant Merit Circle voted to burn all remaining tokens left in the Community Incentives wallet as a way to reduce the total supply.
The project has been carrying out monthly token burns but decided in favor of bulk destruction.
A proposal to burn 200 million MC tokens saw an overwhelming number of votes supporting the motion. Out of 232 votes, only three were against the idea.
Following the creation of the Community Incentives wallet, 294 million tokens, which represent nearly 30% of the total one billion MC supply, were assigned to the wallet. The assets were supposed to be used for community rewards.
However, the tokens have been sitting dormant in the Community Incentives wallet without utility since the allocation. Meanwhile, 6,125,000 MC tokens

Legendary billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones revealed that he still holds a small portion of bitcoin while stating that the U.S. economy might be going into recession or already is in one.
Tudor Jones also said the value of assets such as ETH and BTC could increase amid inflation and excessive fiscal spending.
Jones Remains Optimistic About Bitcoin
In a CNBC interview on Monday (October 10, 2022), Jones stated that there has been a “massive experimentation with monetary policy” in the last 12 years while saying that the next United States President come 2024 would be dealing with extreme debt dynamics that could cause fiscal retrenchment.
Speaking about cryptocurrency, the hedge fund manager said Bitcoin and Ethereum could rise in value in the future amid

Mt. Gox creditors could be one step closer to reclaiming their funds after nearly a decade of waiting.
This is as the Rehabilitation Trustee has released a deadline for them to select their preferred repayment method.
Nobuaki Kobayashi, the man in charge of the Mt. Gox rehabilitation process, published a new update for creditors on Thursday (October 6, 2022).
In it, creditors were told that they had until January 10, 2023, to choose a payment option and register payee information otherwise known as selection and registration, via an online claim form.
According to the statement, those who fail to do so run the risk of not receiving an early lump sum repayment and part in cryptocurrency. Also, failure to complete the selection and registration process will exclude affected

Major stablecoin issuer Tether has further reduced its commercial paper holdings to less than $50 million, with more than half of its backing in US Treasury Bills.
The continuous reduction in Tether’s commercial debt holdings is in line with the firm’s plans revealed earlier in the year.
In an update posted on Twitter on Monday (October 3, 2022), Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino announced that the company’s total US Treasury portfolio is currently at 58.1% as of September 2022. This signals an increase from 43.5% on June 30.
Ardoino also mentioned that the firm also slashed its commercial debt holdings to less than $50 million.
The latest development comes shortly after a US District Court in New York in September ordered Tether to provide financial records to access USDT backing.

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused Bitkub, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, and four other offenders of their alleged involvement in wash trading.
The individuals will have to pay a fine of over $600,000.
Bitkub Involved in Wash Trading Case?
According to a press release on Tuesday (September 27, 2022), the Thai SEC claimed that two individuals – Mr. Anurak and Mr. Sakon Srakawee – carried out wash trading on the Bitkub platform.
Wash trading, as concerns the crypto industry, is a practice where a trader buys and sells digital assets to themselves, thereby creating a false market activity and also inflating their trading volume.
Meanwhile, the SEC noted that the agency initially decided to apply civil sanctions against the three

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused two companies, their executives, and a supposed international gold trader, of running a fraudulent scheme to boost demand for their digital token.
The false promotion of the token netted proceeds of over $36 million for the defendants, the agency said.
A Fake $10 Billion Gold Bullion Acquisition
According to a lawsuit filed on Friday (September 30, 2022), a Bermudan company called Arbitrade, a Canadian firm Cryptobontix, Troy Hogg, founder and owner of Cryptobontix, James Goldberg, Stephen Braveman, COO of Arbitrade, and Max Barber, a so-called international gold trader ran an alleged pump and dump scheme involving a cryptocurrency called Dignity (DIG) from 2017 to 2019.
As stated in the SEC’s

While institutional traders are not prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa, the region is known to have the highest number of small retail transactions globally.
Part of the driving force for cryptocurrency adoption there is fiat currency devaluation, high unemployment rate, and economic instability.
Crypto P2P Thriving in Africa Despite Regulatory Problems
According to a report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, retail users make up the bulk of crypto-related activities in Sub-Saharan. Institutional presence in the region is smaller than is the case in other countries.
Retail volume on the continent, though, is largely driven by economic factors such as the need for wealth preservation. This is because the currencies of many of these countries have suffered decades of

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is objecting to a motion by troubled cryptocurrency lender Celsius, seeking to reopen withdrawals for selected customers.
Since Celsius halted withdrawals in June, the company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, while the CEO recently resigned from his position.
A United States Trustee for the DOJ, William Harrington, on Friday (September 30, 2022), filed an objection, asking the bankruptcy court to deny Celsius’ motions to reopen withdrawals for certain creditors and sell its stablecoin holdings.
As previously reported by CryptoPotato, the firm filed for the resumption of withdrawals for customers whose assets are held in its Custody Program and Withhold Account.
The US trustee described Celsius’ motions as “premature,” stating that the