A security outfit led by ethical hackers who specialize in security audits claimed to be offered a $500 bounty by DxSale Network, a decentralized token launchpad, after informing the platform of a breach that could cost it over $5 million.
The reward is one of the lowest ever offered to a white hat hacker.
$500 Reward for Saving $5 million
Decurity, in a recent blog post, revealed that one of its researchers on June 28, 2023, discovered a bug in an unverified smart contract on the Binance smart chain (BSC) belonging to DxSale and was offered a reward of $500 for their efforts.
According to the firm, investigations exposed a contract logic that was not secure enough to prevent hackers from draining funds locked in the contract during an initial decentralized offering

Major venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has seen the departure of five key partners, including two investors who were involved in the company’s failed investment in Sam Bankman-Fried’s bankrupt crypto exchange, FTX.
While Sequoia claimed that the collapse of FTX had no significant impact on the firm, the VC was accused of promoting FTX.
Sequoia Reports Departure of Five Investors
Sequoia Capital, which recently revealed its decision to split into three independent partnerships — with its businesses in China and India/Southeast Asia adopting new names by March 2024, while the US/Europe branch will retail the Sequoia Capital name — announced five investor departures, according to a note to limited partners on Wednesday (July 19, 2023) as seen by Bloomberg.
One of the

Gauntlet, a decentralized finance (DeFi) risk management entity, seems to be facing some backlash on its latest proposal on the Aave governance forum after it was accused of fixing in elements of a previous one that was voted down by the community.
The proposal in question seeks to mitigate the risks regarding a loan tagged to Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov.
Egorov’s $64 Million Loan Draws Attention Again
A member of the Aave community, Marc Zeller, opposed one proposal from Gauntlet’s list of recommendations, which seeks to adjust CRV’s loan-to-value (LTV) on Aave version two (v2) to zero percent, claiming that the recommendation will cause more harm than good.

“Hello, we agree on all proposed changes but one: setting CRV LTV to zero. This will hurt more than help

South Africa’s financial regulator has asked exchanges operating in the country to obtain a license before the end of 2023.
Crypto firms who fail to adhere to the directive before the deadline could be fined or have their businesses closed down by authorities.
New Licensing Regime in South Africa
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has required crypto exchanges in South Africa to secure a license before the November 30 deadline.
According to FSCA Commissioner Unathi Kamlana, about 20 firms have applied since the watchdog first opened the licensing process a few weeks ago, while expecting more companies to file an application before the deadline.
In October 2022, the FSCA declared crypto a financial product after a declaration proposal in November 2022 and a

Huobi founder Li Lin has accused the crypto exchange of using the Huobi trademark, an action that supposedly goes against the agreement in the original acquisition contract.
According to Chinese crypto reporter Colin Wu, X-Spot Co. Limited, controlled by Li Lin, has filed a lawsuit in the High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region against crypto exchange Huobi Global for trademark Infringement.

Huobi founder Li Lin formally sued Huobi Global in Hong Kong for using its Chinese trademark 火币 that was not allowed to continue to be used in the original acquisition contract. Huobi was acquired by Justin Sun for over $1 billion last year. Sun froze Li Lin’s brother’s account…
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 21, 2023

The lawsuit claimed that the crypto firm

After being sued for operating illegally in February 2023, CoinEx, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange, has reached an agreement with the office of the New York Attorney General, which includes a payment of over $1.7 million and a ban from offering its services in New York.
The recovered funds will go into penalties and refunds to New York investors.
CoinEx to Refund Over $1 Million
In a press release from the New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) office CoinEx agreed to pay back more than $1.1 million to over 4,600 New York investors and further pay penalties worth $600,000 to the state of New York. The refund will happen over the next 90 days when users can be paid back in crypto directly from the exchange.
The agreement between CoinEx and the NYAG’s office will also

Delio, a major South Korean cryptocurrency lending platform, has suspended withdrawals temporarily on its platform, claiming that the measure was taken in connection with another local crypto company, Haru Invest, which recently did the same.
The crypto lender stated that the decision to suspend withdrawals was unavoidable.
Delio’s Exposure to Haru Invest
In a notice to customers, Delio announced that it will temporarily suspend withdrawals starting from June 14. According to the firm, the inevitable suspension happened following increased market volatility and investor confusion after Haru Invest stopped deposits and withdrawals.
Delio further said it had to take action to safeguard customer assets in its custody. While the company claimed the measure was unavoidable, it

Indonesian province Bali has stated that tourists are not allowed to make payments with cryptocurrency, warning that violators “will be dealt with firmly.”
The government is looking to curb the influx of foreign tourists as a way to tackle problematic foreigners who violate local laws.
Offending Foreign Tourists to Face Tough Sanctions
Bali will take action against foreign tourists who use cryptocurrency for payment, according to the province’s Governor Wayan Koster, who spoke at a tourism development press conference on Sunday, May 28. Koster said offenders could face deportation, criminal penalties, and other tough sanctions.

“Foreign tourists who behave inappropriately, do activities that are not allowed in their visa permit, use crypto as a means of payment, and

The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has sued five individuals for falsely promoting bitcoin and crypto trading services, thereby swindling unsuspecting investors.
The defendants in the case, according to the CFTC, mainly targeted Spanish-speaking users.
Majority of Victims Were From Spanish-speaking Communities
The CFTC alleged that five people — David Carmona, Juan Arellano Para, Moses Valdez, David Brend, and Marco A. Ruiz Ochoa — solicited funds from customers to help them trade bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but ended up misappropriating users’ funds.
The defendants jointly ran a business called Icomtech, which was supposedly a crypto trading venture. According to the CFTC, between 2018 and 2019, Icomtech stated that customers would receive 0.9% and

Users of the cross-chain router protocol Multichain have been reportedly experiencing delays in receiving their funds following an upgrade.
There have also been rumors about the arrest of the Multichain team, which is yet to be confirmed.
MULTI Sinks 24% in 24 Hours
Several Multichain users have complained about their funds being stuck in the protocol for as long as 72 hours. Part of the problem seems to stem from a backend upgrade, which the team said is taking longer than usual.
According to an operation update provided on May 23, Multichain said:

The upgrade of the back-end node is taking longer than expected. Most of the routes are working as usual, as some routes (Kava, zkSync, Polygon zkEVM) are suspended temporarily for now. All the affected transactions will

Brooklyn-based crypto firm Coin Cafe has been ordered by the office of the Attorney General to refund over $4 million to cryptocurrency investors.
The restitution comes after investigations revealed that the company charged users exorbitant fees without their consent.
“Free” but not Free
In a press release on May 18, the New York Attorney General’s office claimed that Coin Cafe charged investors high fees to store bitcoin with the company’s wallet, despite advertising the service as “free” on their website.
Coin Cafe, which recently received approval for a virtual currency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) in January 2023, also known as BitLicense, claimed to offer free storage services for investors but started charging fees for crypto

Popular peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace Paxful is back online after shutting down services in April 2023.
While the platform was suspended, the Paxful Wallet remained active.
Paxful, in a blog post on May 8, announced the resumption of the marketplace a month after the platform closed down. An excerpt from the announcement reads:

“We know it has been a difficult time for many of our users, who were understandably surprised by the sudden suspension, however, we are delighted to be back so that we can continue to serve millions of people without financial access.”

As previously reported by CryptoPotato, the Bitcoin P2P marketplace shut down in April 2023 while the wallet remained operational. Before the platform’s troubles came to light, Paxful was one of the most prominent

Technology entrepreneur, philanthropist, and co-founder of multinational technology giant Apple, Steve Wozniak, has criticized Elon Musk, billionaire CEO of Tesla and also owner and CEO of Twitter, for failing to fulfill the promise to launch self-driving cars.
Wozniak also said Tesla could kill, referring to the car model as an example of artificial intelligence (AI) “gone wrong.”
Wozniak Slams Musk on Failed Promise
In a recent interview with CNN, Steve Wozniak was asked about his relationship with Elon Musk, with the former responding that he has neither met nor spoken to the Tesla and Twitter boss. The Apple co-founder also praised Musk’s efforts to encourage the use of electric vehicles but criticized the CEO’s failure to deliver self-driving cars.
Wozniak noted that

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX missed the potential to own billions of dollars worth of SUI tokens after it sold its warrant rights to the native token of the nearly launched layer-1 blockchain too early.
Following the much-anticipated launch of the Sui mainnet, the price of the SUI token rose to over $3 before dropping in value. At SUI’s current price, FTX’s SUI tokens would have been worth around $1 billion.
FTX Loses out on Gains on SUI After Selling its Token Warrants
FTX’s management lost the opportunity for a potential $1 billion payday by selling 890 million SUI token warrants. A token warrant gives an investor the right to have assets that would be released in the future. In FTX’s case, the crypto exchange’s token warrants allowed the company to get 890,000,000 SUI

The United States Department of Treasury sanctioned three individuals who helped the notorious hackers Lazarus Group to process the conversion of stolen cryptocurrency to fiat, allegedly for the funding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) illicit weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs.
An earlier report by Chainalysis claimed that Lazarus Group was responsible for crypto theft worth about $1.7 billion in 2022.
3 China-based OTC Traders Face OFAC Sanctions
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the Department of Treasury designated sanctions to two over-the-counter (OTC) traders Wu Hiuhui, based in the People’s Republic of China, and Cheng Hung Man, based in Hong Kong.
The OFAC also sanctioned Sim Hyon Sop, who recently

A South Korean District Court has declared that LUNA, the native token of the Terra ecosystem, is not a security.
The court also dismissed prosecutors’ requests to confiscate properties belonging to Singapore-based Terraform Labs co-founder Shin Hyun-Seong, and also arrest him along with other executives of the Singapore-based project.
LUNA Is Not a Security Token
The Seoul Southern District Court categorically stated that LUNA is not considered a security, according to a report by a local media outlet, ilyo on April 24. The court, in its ruling, said, “It is difficult to view LUNA Coin as a financial investment product regulated by the Capital Markets Act.”
Meanwhile, the latest ruling is notable in that other courts have not been clear on whether Luna is a securities

KuCoin’s Twitter account was briefly compromised, causing the platform’s users to lose over 22,000 USDT to hackers through fake activity.
The crypto exchange was able to recover its account and promised to reimburse affected users.
KuCoin revealed that hackers took over its Twitter account for 45 minutes to promote a fake activity on Monday, April 24. While the incident was brief, the company said that it identified 22 transactions in connection with the fraudulent activity, including ETH and BTC, with the value of the losses totaling 22,628 USDT.
The crypto exchange has since recovered its Twitter account but stressed that it was the only channel that was affected, implying that the website and other social media accounts were safe.
Following the incident, KuCoin promised

Zipmex’s rescue plan could face some challenges as the crypto exchange’s investor is now asking to pay a fraction of its debt, as against the pledge to make a 100% payment.
The distressed company is, meanwhile, planning to further extend its creditor protection to seek out new investors.
Buyout Proposal for Zipmex Takes a New Turn
Zipmex’s investor is proposing to pay the Thai crypto exchange’s creditors about 10 to 20 percent of the amount owed to them, as stated in a letter the firm wrote to the court in charge of its restructuring. The investor’s new proposal is significantly different from the original buyout proposal, which promised to make a full payment to creditors.
The letter, as seen by Bloomberg, said the investor was looking to slash the payment to creditors

Vishal Gupta, head of exchange and markets at crypto exchange giant Coinbase, has left the company.
The executive’s departure comes shortly after Coinbase was issued a Wells notice by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Another Crypto Exec Leaves Company
In a tweet thread on Monday (April 10, 2023), Vishal Gupta announced that he was leaving Coinbase after serving as the firm’s head of exchange and markets for nearly three years, a position he took up in September 2020.
The executive detailed some of the accomplishments by Coinbase during his time there, which included the expansion of assets to 236 from 27 and the acquisition of the derivatives platform FairX which was later rebranded to Coinbase Derivatives Exchange.
Before joining the exchange, Gupta was

Open exchange, or “OPNX,” the crypto exchange created by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, the founders of the bankrupt cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, launched on Tuesday, April 4.
The platform’s launch will include a distribution of its native token called FLEX.
OPNX CEO said users can trade spot and futures in a statement on Twitter. “We are here building OPNX because we want to help the industry,” xyz stated, adding, “Right now, there are over 20 million claimants worldwide for FTX, Celsius, and other platforms that are stuck waiting years just to access their funds and we think they deserve better.”
Xyz stated that OPNX will look to launch claims trading for these bankrupt crypto businesses. These claims are essentially tokens representing user assets stuck on

Tron Founder Justin Sun’s tenure as Grenada’s Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO, came to an end on March 31. 
The end of Sun’s diplomatic status comes shortly after the SEC accused the Tron boss of fraud and market manipulation.
Justin Sun, in a tweet thread, announced the end of his term as Grenada’s representative to the WTO, which took effect on Friday, March 31, 2023.
Sun stated he gained valuable experience during his time as ambassador, adding that he was able to gain insights and perspectives on various trade issues through his interactions with representatives around the world. 
With his diplomatic status already coming to an end, the Tron founder said he is preparing to hand over to his successor, with plans to focus on crypto regulation and the

Founder and former CEO of bankrupt FTX exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, will again plead not guilty to recent charges brought against him by US prosecutors, which include unlawful political donations and alleged bribery of Chinese officials.
He is scheduled to stand trial for various criminal charges in October.
Bankman-Fried to Plead Not Guilty to 13-Count Charges
According to Reuters on Thursday (March 30, 2023), an anonymous source said that Sam Bankman-Fried is planning to enter a not-guilty plea to 13 new criminal charges, including bribing Chinese government officials and violating campaign finance laws.
In February 2023, a superseding indictment alleged that Bankman-Fried conspired with two FTX executives to make more than 300 political donations worth tens of millions

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,