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Saturday, 17 December 2022
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Founder and former CEO of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas this week, to the delight of crypto users and enthusiasts who lost hard-earned money to the once second-largest exchange in the crypto industry.
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Different reactions, remarks, and opinions have trailed the indictment and now, a Reuters report is suggesting that the trial of the 30-year-old might take longer than a year. Prior to his arrest on Monday, Bankman-Fried spoke with the BBC from his residential complex in the Bahamas. Saying his primary concern was finding a way to reimburse the users of his failed crypto exchange. Unknowingly to him, an arrest was coming just some hours later.
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Here is our weekly newsletter roundup. Now get a bucket of popcorn and follow through. First, a brief summary….
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Summary of the news
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- Audit group suspends service for crypto companies
- Donald Trump NFT sold out
- Metamask users can now purchase crypto with PayPal
- Gemini exchange attacked by phishing campaigns
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Audit group suspends service for crypto companies
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Crypto exchange Binance on Friday announced that its auditor, Mazars Group has suspended proof of reserve services for cryptocurrency firms including crypto exchanges, a Bloomberg report says.
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According to a Binance spokesperson, France-based Mazars will not provide services for crypto clients that include Binance, KuCoin, Crypto.com, and others. The firm believes the crypto industry hasn't been reassured by the proof-of-reserves reports.
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"Mazars has indicated that they will temporarily pause their work with all of their crypto clients globally, which include Crypto.com, KuCoin, and Binance. Unfortunately, this means that we will not be able to work with Mazars for the moment."
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Recall that Binance’s CZ earlier mentioned that audit firms are reluctant to work with crypto firms. Binance CEO tweeted that "Blockchains are public, permanent records. It's the most auditable ledger."
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Donald Trump NFT sold out
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The former President of the United States on Thursday announced the launch of his official digital trading card collection on Truth Social. The collection counts 45,000 NFTs, all of which feature Trump himself in a different attire—superman, spaceman, sheriff, stock market broker, golfer, etc.
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The immediate past President stated in his post that he intended for his fans and followers to view each of his cards “very much like a baseball card, but hopefully much more exciting.” The Trump Digital Trading Cards sold out within hours. Raising approximately 648 ETH, roughly $785,000. The collection at the time of writing has seen over 1,106 ETH in trading volume on OpenSea alone. Currently, the floor price is 0.149 ETH.
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Metamask users can now purchase crypto with PayPal
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On Wednesday, Web3 ecosystem developer and blockchain engineering firm ConsenSys announced that they have joined hands with PayPal in a new way for users to purchase crypto in MetaMask.
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This PayPal integration into MetaMask will provide a simple and convenient way for users to purchase crypto. For now, this facility is available only to select MetaMask users in the United States and shall roll out to all customers in the coming weeks. Speaking on the development, Lorenzo Santos, Product Manager for MetaMask, said:
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“This integration with PayPal will allow our U.S. users to not just buy crypto seamlessly through MetaMask, but also to easily explore the Web3 ecosystem.”
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Gemini Exchange attacked by phishing campaigns
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On Wednesday, the Gemini crypto exchange announced that some of its customers had been the target of phishing campaigns. It added that it believes they are the “result of an incident at a third-party vendor.”
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Phishing is a type of social engineering attack where the attacker sends a fraudulent message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information. This will enable them to deploy malicious software or ransomware.
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According to Chinese media outlet Wu Blockchain, as many as 5.7 million users were affected. The incident led to the leaking of customer email addresses and phone numbers, it added. However, the hackers did not get access to the full phone numbers as some were obfuscated. However, Gemini confirmed that account information and systems were not compromised:
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“No Gemini account information or systems were impacted as a result of this third-party incident, and all funds and customer accounts remain secure.”
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Other stories we are following
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