CoinDesk Crypto

Crypto exchange FTX is following Binance’s lead in offering tokenized stocks. The stocks will run on the Solana blockchain. 

• The tokenized stocks are available for trading now on FTX. Switzerland-based Digital Assets (DAAG) is providing the stock infrastructure.
• Earlier this year, Binance started trading tokenized versions of stocks of Tesla, Apple and Coinbase. 
• FTX said buyers and sellers in permitted jurisdictions will be able to trade about 55 free-floating stocks. 
• Stocks of Facebook, Google, Netflix, Nvidia, PayPal, Square and Tesla are among those available.
• “FTX is always looking to provide cutting-edge products to its users. DAAG’s tokenized stock infrastructure will help facilitate a paradigm shift in the underlying market structure and we’re excited to continue working with Solana and DAAG to set the standard in this industry,” FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said.

• FTX Strikes Sponsorship Deal With MLB, Umpires to Wear Crypto Exchange’s Logo
• South Korean Banks to ‘Review’ Partnerships With Crypto Exchanges
• Portugal Grants First Crypto Exchanges Operating Licenses
• How the Bitcoin Industry Is Responding to Wall Street’s ESG Concerns

Roll, an Ethereum-based protocol that lets content creators mint their own personal crypto tokens, is trying to bounce back after a March security breach in which a hacker stole $5.7 million from its hot wallet and which sent the social tokens plunging.

As part of revamping of its private key infrastructure in response to the incident, Roll is integrating with crypto custody firm Fireblocks to secure the platform.

Roll co-founder Sid Kalla said in an email that Fireblocks’ multiparty computation (MPC) wallet infrastructure will let Roll securely sign transactions without storing the private keys in a single place. 

Related: Wirex Eyes Mainstream DeFi With Fireblocks Integration

“This greatly improves our operational security as we move forward,” he said, adding:

“It also helps prevent private key theft and compromised credentials. We will also have cybersecurity insurance of up to $30 million for Roll creators and users via Fireblocks. This appears to be a first in crypto-creator insurance, especially in a creator’s own token.”

MPC allows for large pools of data to stay encrypted while permitting information to be extracted from those data pools using encrypted computations. Fireblocks emphasizes its ability to handle a high level of transactions on Ethereum with low fees.

Fireblocks’s wallet infrastructure already supports large retail-facing platforms, such as Celsius, Revolut, BlockFi and Salt Lending. The company closed a $133 million funding round in March, four days after Roll’s security incident, and has handled over half a trillion dollars in assets.  

Related: Fireblocks Being Sued for Allegedly Losing Over $70M of Ether: Report

Roll CEO and co-founder Bradley Miles said Roll is working hard to revamp its security infrastructure. He also said Roll is releasing a new version of Roll smart contracts that are currently under audit from two separate firms. 

“The vision of these new contracts is to blend DeFi [decentralized finance] and the creator economy through social money,” he said. “We feel what we call the ‘DeFi Creator Economy’ can eventually eclipse the traditional creator economy in market size.”

• Crypto.com Expands Institutional Reach With Fireblocks Integration
• Crypto Custody Firm Fireblocks Has Handled More Than $500B in Assets

Crypto bank Anchorage Digital said it is adding custody for the Celo Euro (cEUR) stablecoin.

• cEUR, which tracks the price of the euro, is one of two stablecoins available on the Celo network, the other being cUSD which tracks the U.S. dollar.
• Anchorage has offered support for Celo’s native token, CELO, since the mainnet’s launch in May 2020.
• Celo is a payments platform using a proof-of-stake blockchain built on Ethereum. It is designed to support stablecoins and tokenized assets, using cellphone numbers to secure users’ public keys.
• “Bringing institutional access to cEUR unlocks a critical capability for the Celo ecosystem,” said Albert Wang, product partner at cLabs, a team working on Celo.
• Celo has raised more than $65 million to date from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase and Jack Dorsey.

• Anchorage Adds Custody and Staking for Dapper Labs’ FLOW Token
• A16z Joins Forces With Deutsche Telekom in Staking CELO Tokens
• Anchorage to Offer Ethereum-Backed Loans Through BankProv
• Securitize to Issue Digital Asset Securities for Yield Funds

Huobi is readying launch of its new U.S. affiliate, which will offer custodian services for Huobi’s own U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, HUSD.

Nevada-based Huobi Trust Co., a subsidiary of Huobi Tech, will go live by the end of July. Huobi Tech is a Hong Kong-based public company acquired by Huobi founder Leon Lin through a reverse takeover in 2018. 

The latest move comes six months after Huobi Trust won a trust license from the Nevada Financial Institutions Division, according to a filing by Huobi Tech with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December. 

Related: Bitmain Stops Sales of Mining Machines in Bid to Buoy Prices Facing China’s Crackdown

The new trust company will provide custodial and compliance services for crypto firms that have businesses in the U.S. market. 

Stable Universe, a U.S.-based stablecoin issuer, teamed up with Paxos to launch HUSD on the Huobi Global trading platform in July 2019. 

Read more: Huobi’s Tighter Derivatives Rules Leave Chinese Traders Scrambling for Alternatives

“We are going to be live in the second week of July and doing a phased transition from Paxos” to Huobi Tech,” Rebecca Hirst, chief financial officer at the trust company, told CoinDesk.

Related: Ant Group Says NFTs Are Not Cryptocurrencies After Digital Artwork Sells Out

Eide Bailly, an independent U.S audit firm, will conduct monthly attestations of the HUSD token, Hirst said. 

The company claimed HUSD surpassed $1 billion in market value on May 20 and has increased by 560% since January. The stablecoin is supported by decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms such as Uniswap, Curve.fi, Cream protocol and the Heco blockchain.

Huobi Trust is part of the exchange’s efforts to expand in the U.S. after HBUS, another legal entity affiliated with Huobi Group, ceased operations in December 2019 because of regulatory concerns. 

The exchange, which is based in the African island nation of Seychelles, has since been evaluating different ways to reenter the U.S. market, including working with a licensed U.S.-based brokerage firm. The parent group said at the time that upon returning it would make its businesses in the country more compliant with regulations.

The launch of the U.S. trust company also comes at a time when Chinese financial regulators are cracking down on crypto exchanges for trading and mining. 

Read more: Huobi Investment Arm Backs Beyond Finance With Strategic Investment

Huobi has suspended some of its trading services for new investors and adjusted its over-the-counter (OTC) trading businesses in the interest of compliance and growth, the exchange said. 

• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Nudges Up as Regulatory Risks Linger
• Huobi’s Tighter Derivatives Rules Leave Chinese Traders Scrambling for Alternatives

Crypto bank Anchorage Digital said it is adding custody for the Celo Euro (cEUR) stablecoin.

• cEUR, which tracks the price of the euro, is one of two stablecoins available on the Celo network, the other being cUSD which tracks the U.S. dollar.
• Anchorage has offered support for Celo’s native token, CELO, since the mainnet’s launch in May 2020.
• Celo is a payments platform using a proof-of-stake blockchain built on Ethereum. It is designed to support stablecoins and tokenized assets, using cellphone numbers to secure users’ public keys.
• “Bringing institutional access to cEUR unlocks a critical capability for the Celo ecosystem,” said Albert Wang, product partner at cLabs, a team working on Celo.
• Celo has raised more than $65 million to date from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase and Jack Dorsey.

• Anchorage Adds Custody and Staking for Dapper Labs’ FLOW Token
• A16z Joins Forces With Deutsche Telekom in Staking CELO Tokens
• Anchorage to Offer Ethereum-Backed Loans Through BankProv
• Securitize to Issue Digital Asset Securities for Yield Funds

Mode Global Holdings has won approval from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to join the regulator’s crypto-asset business register.

• The financial-services regulator granted anti-money laundering approval to Mode’s Fibermode subsidiary and awarded an electronic money license to its Greyfoxx unit, an announcement Thursday said.
• With the registration, Mode plans to decommission its “Bitcoin Jar” investment product to focus on building a payment system with a bitcoin cashback offering.
• Mode shares trade on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of over £44 million ($61 million).
• The FCA became the U.K.’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervisor of crypto asset firms in January, requiring businesses to register under its auspices to continue to operate.
• Mode joins two Gemini entities, Archax, Ziglu and Digivault, the custody arm of Diginex, on the register.
• The deadline for registration was recently extended from July 9 to March 31.
• The regulator warned yesterday that there are 111 unregistered crypto-asset firms in the U.K., which poses a risk to the broader financial system.

• UK Financial Markets Regulator Warns About Unregistered Crypto-Asset Firms: Report
• Bank of England: Any UK CBDC Will Be ‘Tens of Thousands’ Times More Efficient Than Bitcoin
• UK Crypto Startup Ramp Raises $10M
• Bank of England Releases Discussion Paper on Stablecoins, CBDC

Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced Thursday a whopping $2.2 billion for its much anticipated Crypto Fund III.

The fund was initially rumored to be $1 billion. Later reports put it at $2 billion. The announced amount would suggest now’s a good time to be raising money for crypto investments.

“This fund allows us to find the next generation of visionary crypto founders, and invest in the most exciting areas of crypto,” a16z’s Chris Dixon and Katie Haun wrote in a blog post. “We invest in all stages, from early seed-stage projects to fully developed later-stage networks.”

Related: DeFi Insurance Upstart Risk Harbor Goes Live With $3.25M in Seed Funding

The firm’s last fund, announced in April 2020, started with $515 million in dry powder.

A16z has been among the most active investors in the crypto industry in recent years. As an early investor in Coinbase, it reaped enormous profits for its limited partners when the crypto exchange went public in April.

The a16z announcement also included some hiring news for the Silicon Valley firm, led most notably by the addition of former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official Bill Hinman as an advisory partner. Hinman is best known in crypto circles as the first SEC honcho to classify ether, the native currency of the Ethereum blockchain, as a commodity, not a security.

“As with any new computing movement, crypto has endured a variety of challenges and misconceptions,” a16z wrote. “That’s why we are also bringing together heavy-hitters across several functions to help translate crypto to the mainstream.”

• Daniel Loeb’s Third Point Leads $27M Investment in Crypto Compliance Startup CipherTrace
• Visa, PayPal Join Crypto VC Blockchain Capital’s New $300M Fund
• A16z Joins Forces With Deutsche Telekom in Staking CELO Tokens

Cryptology Asset Group, a European investment company backed by Galaxy Digital founder Mike Novogratz, made an additional $49 million investment in Block.one.

• Publicly traded Cryptology was already one of Block.one’s largest institutional backers, and now owns about 4.9% of the firm, an announcement Thursday said.
• Currently listed in Germany, Cryptology is exploring an international listing to increase liquidity and open up to new shareholder groups, the announcement added. It plans to split its stock, currently trading about €145 (US$170) a share, by issuing 20 new shares for each existing one, it said in a statement.
• Last month, Block.one launched Bullish, a venture focused on unveiling a new crypto exchange later this year capitalized with over $10 billion in cash and digital assets, including 164,000 BTC.
• Bullish is already in talks to go public by merging with fintech-focused SPAC Far Peak Acquisition, after Bullish was announced a little over a month ago.
• Cryptology announced earlier this month it was looking to pour $100 million into crypto venture funds over the next two years. Billionaire founder Christian Angermayer said it would focus on taking equity stakes in blockchain and crypto-related business on a global scale.

• Peter Thiel-Backed Exchange Bullish Is in Talks to Go Public in SPAC Merger: Report
• Block.one Pays $27.5M to Settle Class-Action Lawsuit
• Thiel, Novogratz Back $10B Funding for Block.one’s New Crypto Exchange Subsidiary
• Plutocracy Is Still Bad, Proposed EOS Overhaul Confirms

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price gave up some of its gains after rising nearly 20% after the shakeout low of close to $29,000 on Tuesday. The cryptocurrency is holding support above $32,000, although initial resistance is seen around $36,000.

Bitcoin is down about 12% over the past seven days and was trading around $33,000 at press time.

• The relative strength index (RSI) on the hourly chart registered an overbought signal on Wednesday, which preceded some profit taking around $34,700.
• Bitcoin is attempting to reverse a short-term downtrend as price settles above the 50-period volume weighted moving average on the hourly chart.
• Buyers should remain active given the bullish divergence on the daily RSI, although upside appears limited with resistance between $36,000 and $40,000.

• Bitcoin News Roundup for June 24, 2021
• Article 7 and Bitcoin’s Latin American Coup
• Grayscale ‘Unlockings’ Poses Downside Risk to Bitcoin Price, JPMorgan Says
• Suze Orman Says She Bought $5K of Bitcoin Using PayPal – And She’s a HODLer

Six of the world’s biggest banks endorsed a new platform for international payments set for launch in November 2022 by SWIFT, the global interbank messaging network.

• Citi, Bank of China, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, BNY Mellon and Standard Chartered plan to use the new platform, an announcement Thursday said.
• SWIFT is a global messaging network connecting banks and other financial institutions for cross-border payments. It links more than 11,000 institutions, and in June alone has transmitted more than 350 million messages containing financial information.
• The new platform is set to include features such as upfront validation of beneficiary details, extension of SWIFT’s high-speed system to lower-value payments and incorporation of the universal messaging standard for international payments, ISO 20022.
• There have been suggestions that SWIFT could be made redundant by growth in use of digital currency – be it crypto, stablecoins or central bank digital currencies.

• Ex-PayPal Execs Launch Cross-Border Payments Network on Algorand
• DBS, JPMorgan and Temasek to Create Blockchain-Based Payments Joint Venture
• BOJ Wants to Set ‘Common Rules’ on CBDCs With Major Central Banks: Report
• Citi Completes Cross-Border Payments Pilot Using LACChain

While some observers say the bitcoin price has bottomed out, analysts at JPMorgan remain bearish, identifying the impending unlocking of shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) purchased in January as a source of downside risk to the cryptocurrency.

“Despite some improvement, our signals remain overall bearish,” JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note Wednesday. “Selling of GBTC shares exiting the six-month lockup period during June and July has emerged as an additional headwind for bitcoin.”

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the world’s largest digital-assets fund manager, allows institutional investors to gain exposure to bitcoin through shares in the trust, which currently holds 654,600 BTC. That’s more than 3% of the cryptocurrency’s supply. Grayscale is a unit of Digital Currency Group, which also owns CoinDesk.

Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for June 24, 2021

Accredited investors can buy GBTC shares directly at the net asset value (NAV) in daily private placements by depositing bitcoin or U.S. dollars. The shares can be sold in the secondary market only after a six-month lock-in period.

The trust’s popularity exploded at the end of the last year when the premium on GBTC shares rose to a record-high 40% on Dec. 17. As such, investors rushed to carry trade or buy shares at NAV in a bid to sell them at a premium six months later. According to JPMorgan, the trust saw record inflows of $2 billion in December, followed by $1.7 billion in January.

The January tranche is scheduled for unlocking next month and is likely to release 140,000 bitcoin worth of shares, CoinShares’ chief strategy officer, Meltem Demirors, pointed out on Twitter. 

After unlocking, investors have the option of liquidating their shareholdings in the secondary market. Analysts at JPMorgan foresee investors selling at least some of their shares, leading to “downward pressure on GBTC prices and on bitcoin markets more generally.”

Related: Article 7 and Bitcoin’s Latin American Coup

What’s not clear is whether investors will reinvest proceeds back into Grayscale by rebuying bitcoin and transferring it over to the trust. If that happens, bitcoin will likely pick up a strong bid. 

Until February, the shares consistently traded at a premium. That kept overall demand strong, with investors rotating money back into the trust after unlockings. “Most of the capital was likely from investors doing a “rinse-in repeat,” Ben Lilly, a crypto economist at Jarvis Labs, noted in a SubStack post dated April 22. 

Now, however, the incentive to reinvest is relatively low. The so-called Grayscale carry trade has lost its shine ever since GBTC began trading at a discount in February. As of Wednesday, the shares traded at a discount of 12.17% to the net asset value, according to data source Skew. 

Nevertheless, some analysts say the discount offers retail investors an opportunity to buy bitcoin on the cheap. “Investors looking for long-term passive bitcoin exposure are probably better off buying GBTC over spot bitcoin since you get paid to wait more via the discount than you pay in excess fees,” David Grider, a strategist at investment research firm FundStrat, wrote in an email in May. 

Also read: Record ‘Grayscale Discount’ Might Mean Bargain Bitcoin for Retail Traders

Bitcoin is currently trading near $33,200, representing a 1.2% drop on the day. Prices dipped below $29,000 earlier this week only to make a quick recovery back to the multi-week trading range of $30,000 to $40,000.

• Bitcoin Relief Rally Fades; Support Holds at $32K
• Suze Orman Says She Bought $5K of Bitcoin Using PayPal – And She’s a HODLer

The head of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has thrown down the gauntlent to the cryptocurrency’s $1.3 trillion market during a virtual technology summit.

According to a report by the Australian Financial Review on Thursday, Dominic Stevens said his exchange’s distributed ledger technology-based (DLT) settlement system was set to handle more value than all public blockchains housing crypto.

“We are moving two to three trillion dollars of securities onto this system, and that is larger than the whole global crypto world is sitting on the blockchain,” said Stevens in relation to his exchange’s intended private and permission chain.

Related: Examine Blockchain for Ways to Stop Forced-Labor Goods, Australian Committee Says

The total market value of all cryptos peaked at around $2.6 trillion on May 14 this year and was hovering just above $1.35 trillion at press time.

Stevens, who was speaking on the third day at the Macquarie Technology Summit, said the ASX’s strategy around handling data was less to do with customer-facing tasks and more about how the “ecosystem interacts with itself.”

“We want to make that a more collaborative ecosystem of data,” said Stevens, according to the report.

The outdated Clearing House Electronic Subregister System, or CHESS will be replaced by the exchange’s DLT iteration in a bid to speed up clearing and settlement to reduce counterparty risk. In 2019, ASX signed a three-party memorandum of understanding with VMWare and Digital Asset to develop the platform that would eventually replace CHESS.

Related: Crypto Adoption in Australia Grows Along With Concern Over Volatility

The new system, which is expected in the coming years, has faced multiple delays to its rollout including in September 2018 and last year, where it cited the COVID-19 crisis for a second time as a major reason.

See also: Australian Securities Exchange May Launch First Crypto ETF This Year: Report

• Australian Tax Office Warns Investors to Report Crypto Gains and Losses
• Australian Minister Says Government Has ‘No Issue’ With Crypto Investment

Suze Orman, the personal finance guru and television host of CNBC’s “The Suze Orman Show,” said she has invested $5,000 in bitcoin.

In an interview with NextAdvisor, Orman said she used PayPal to purchase the crypto. This is the first time Orman has acknowledged owning bitcoin directly.

Orman’s positive outlook on crypto separates her from many other celebrity financial advisers, such as Dave Ramsey, who has maintained a negative opinion of cryptocurrencies for years.

Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for June 24, 2021

Prior to discussing her purchase of bitcoin, Orman had spoken several times about her interest in crypto and her investment in MicroStrategy stock last June, which she used as a proxy for bitcoin. Orman told NextAdvisor she bought MicroStrategy stock because she found it to be simpler than buying crypto directly.

“Truthfully, I didn’t really know how to buy a large amount of bitcoin,” Orman said. “Coinbase was aggravating me. I bought a little of it and then I sold some. It was just too complicated for me – even though it’s not complicated at all.”

Orman also expressed her frustration with the technical aspects of buying and holding crypto, including how to create a crypto wallet. PayPal, Orman said, made purchasing bitcoin easy because it allows users to purchase crypto without creating an external crypto wallet. 

But Orman’s interview with NextAdvisor wasn’t all looking through rose-colored glasses: The financial guru also said she is concerned about bitcoin due to the regulatory crackdowns happening in China and the looming specter of U.S. regulation, which Orman thinks will be driven by the recent uptick in ransomware attacks.

Related: Article 7 and Bitcoin’s Latin American Coup

Orman also said volatility is to be expected, and that bitcoin could drop as low as $12,000-$15,000. She is also concerned about the power of unofficial figureheads like Tesla CEO Elon Musk to move the crypto markets with “comments.”

“Even with all that said, I still am a fan of bitcoin,” Orman said. “I don’t plan to sell even my little amount, no matter what.”

• Bitcoin Relief Rally Fades; Support Holds at $32K
• Grayscale ‘Unlockings’ Poses Downside Risk to Bitcoin Price, JPMorgan Says

Suze Orman, the personal finance guru and television host of CNBC’s The Suze Orman Show, said she’s invested $5,000 in bitcoin.

In an interview with NextAdvisor, Orman said she used Paypal to purchase the crypto. This is the first time that Orman has acknowledged owning bitcoin directly.

Orman’s positive outlook on crypto separates her from many other celebrity financial advisers, such as Dave Ramsey, who has maintained a negative opinion of cryptocurrencies for years.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Nudges Up as Regulatory Risks Linger

Prior to discussing her purchase of bitcoin, Orman had spoken several times about her interest in crypto and her investment in Microstrategy stock last June, which she used as a proxy for bitcoin. Orman told NextAdvisor she bought Microstrategy stock because she found it to be simpler than buying crypto directly.

“Truthfully, I didn’t really know how to buy a large amount of bitcoin,” Orman said. “Coinbase was aggravating me. I bought a little of it, and then I sold some. It was just too complicated for me — even though it’s not complicated at all.”

Orman also expressed her frustration with the technical aspects of buying and holding crypto, including how to create a crypto wallet. Paypal, Orman said, made purchasing bitcoin easy because it allows users to purchase crypto without creating an external crypto wallet. 

But Orman’s interview with NextAdvisor wasn’t all looking through rose colored glasses: The financial guru also admitted being concerned about bitcoin due to the regulatory crackdowns happening in China and the looming specter of U.S. regulation, which Orman said she is concerned will be driven by the recent uptick in ransomware attacks.

Related: Crash de bitcoin versus corrección: ¿cuál es la diferencia?

Orman also said volatility is to be expected, and that bitcoin could drop as low as $12,000-$15,000. She also expressed concerns about the power of unofficial figureheads like Elon Musk to move the crypto markets with “comments.”

“Even with all that said, I still am a fan of bitcoin,” Orman said. “I don’t plan to sell even my little amount no matter what.”

• Huobi’s Tighter Derivatives Rules Leave Chinese Traders Scrambling for Alternatives
• Bukele’s Bitcoin Blunder for El Salvador

Not with a bang but with a whimper, U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is quietly entering the Japanese Market.

As originally reported by CoinDesk Japan last week, the Nasdaq-listed exchange’s subsidiary registered with the Financial Services Agency (FSA), the country’s financial watchdog, on June 18.

The move paves the way for Coinbase to begin offering five major cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, ether, stellar, litecoin, and bitcoin cash. More currencies are expected to be added once Coinbase’s registration has been finalized.

Related: Polkadot on Coinbase Went Up More Than 70% in the Midst of Crypto Market Sell-Off

Japan’s strict crypto regulatory regime is not without its payoffs as it is one of the largest regions for trading in the world and a potentially lucrative venture for those keen enough to jump through the hoops.

Coinbase has been touting an entry into Japan for years and finally began making moves by engaging in a hiring spree across the country’s capital of Tokyo last year.

In March 2020, Coinbase joined as a member of the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association, a self-regulatory organization approved by the FSA.

See also: Coinbase COIN Stock Hit With ‘Underperform’ Rating by Investment Bank Raymond James

• Shiba Inu, Chiliz, Keep Network Soar After Being Added to Coinbase Pro
• Coinbase Hires Former SEC Alum to Lead Exchange’s Capital Markets Legal Work
• Coinbase Adds Polkadot Trading to Pro Platform

The founders of South Africa-based crypto investment firm AfriCrypt have disappeared along with 69,000 bitcoins – worth an estimated $3.6 billion – according to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday.

In mid-April, AfriCrypt’s investors were sent an email claiming the platform was shutting down and freezing all accounts following a hack that compromised client accounts, wallets and nodes. Investors were reportedly asked not to report the hack to law enforcement, which the founders claimed would slow the recovery process.

However, shortly after the so-called hack, AfriCrypt’s founders – 20-year-old Ameer Cajee and 17-year-old Raees Cajee – allegedly transferred the pooled investor funds from an account at Johannesburg-based First National Bank (FNB) and disappeared to the U.K.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Nudges Up as Regulatory Risks Linger

Since freezing the accounts, the Cajee brothers apparently shuttered AfriCrypt’s website and have not returned investors’ calls. 

The incident follows closely after the South African Mirror Trading International (MTI) crypto scam, which defrauded investors of over $589 million, according to Chainalysis’ “2021 Crypto Crime Report.” Crypto scams are nothing new, but AfriCrypt could rank as one of the largest crypto cons in history.

Hanekom Attorneys, the Cape Town-based law firm hired by some of AfriCrypt’s investors, told Bloomberg the funds were put through a variety of tumblers and mixers, making them virtually untraceable. The lawyers also said various global exchanges have been alerted about the alleged theft so they can keep an eye out for any attempts to convert the bitcoins. 

A separate group of investors have started liquidation proceedings against AfriCrypt.

Related: South African Banks Block Crypto Trading on International Exchanges: Report

The alleged crime has been reported to the Hawks, a speciality division of the South African police force that deals with organized and economic crime. 

However, the government’s ability to investigate the matter is constrained by the lack of regulatory framework on digital assets in South Africa, which does not consider cryptocurrencies a financial product.

• Bybit Becomes Latest Crypto Platform to Be Targeted by Canadian Securities Regulator
• UK Bank TSB Set to Ban Crypto Buying Due to E-Wallet Scam Concerns: Report

The founders of South Africa-based crypto investment firm AfriCrypt have disappeared along with 69,000 bitcoins — worth an estimated $3.6 billion — according to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday.

In mid-April, AfriCrypt’s investors were sent an email claiming that the platform was shutting down and freezing all accounts following a hack that compromised client accounts, wallets, and nodes. Investors were reportedly asked not to report the hack to law enforcement, which the founders claimed would slow down the recovery process.

However, shortly after the so-called hack, AfriCrypt’s founders — 20-year-old Ameer Cajee and 17-year-old Raees Cajee — allegedly transferred the pooled investor funds from an account at Johannesburg-based First National Bank (FNB) and disappeared to the UK.

Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Nudges Up as Regulatory Risks Linger

Since freezing the accounts, the Cajee brothers have apparently shuttered AfriCrypt’s website and have not returned investors’ calls. 

The incident follows closely after the South African Mirror Trading International (MTI) crypto scam, which defrauded investors of over $589 million according to Chainalysis’ 2021 Crypto Crime Report. Crypto scams are nothing new, but AfriCrypt could rank as one of the largest crypto cons in history.

Hanekom Attorneys, the Cape Town-based law firm hired by some of AfriCrypt’s investors, told Bloomberg that the funds were put through a variety of tumblers and mixers, making them virtually untraceable. The lawyers also said they have alerted various global exchanges about the alleged theft so they can keep an eye out for any efforts to convert the bitcoins. 

A separate group of investors have started liquidation proceedings against AfriCrypt.

Related: South African Banks Block Crypto Trading on International Exchanges: Report

The alleged crime has been reported to the Hawks, a speciality division of the South African police force that deals with organized and economic crime. 

However, the government’s ability to investigate the matter is constrained by the lack of regulatory framework on digital assets in South Africa, which does not consider cryptocurrencies a financial product.

• Bybit Becomes Latest Crypto Platform to Be Targeted by Canadian Securities Regulator
• UK Bank TSB Set to Ban Crypto Buying Due to E-Wallet Scam Concerns: Report

Bitmain has decided to hit the brakes on sales of its crypto mining rigs in a bid to shore up prices adversely affected by the outcome of China’s actions against local miners.

According to a report by Bloomberg on Wednesday, the Beijing mining giant’s decision comes as top-tier rigs have shed their value by about 75% since April.

Delaying further sales could be seen as a way for Bitmain to shield both itself and mining clients from falling prices.

Related: Ant Group Says NFTs Are Not Cryptocurrencies After Digital Artwork Sells Out

The decreases in value can be closely tied to an oversaturation of used machines being dumped on local markets across China following the country’s swift and decisive anti-crypto crackdown.

Indeed, China’s attempts to stamp out cryptocurrency mining in hydro-rich provinces throughout the country has forced many to seek shelter in neighbouring countries, including Kazakhstan.

On Tuesday, the China’s central bank ordered the country’s major financial institutions to stop facilitating crypto transactions, which saw bitcoin and other cryptocurrency fall, ending a four-week-long consolidation period.

See also: Bitmain Accused of Illegally Hiring Engineering Talent in Taiwan

• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Nudges Up as Regulatory Risks Linger
• Huobi’s Tighter Derivatives Rules Leave Chinese Traders Scrambling for Alternatives
• Bitcoin News Roundup for June 23, 2021

On the eve of New York City’s mayoral race on Tuesday, Democratic front runner Eric Adams has given a brief endorsement of the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

“I’m going to promise you in one year … you’re going to see a different city,” said Adams. “We’re going to become the center of life science, the center of cybersecurity, the center of self driving cars, drones, the center of bitcoins.”

Adams, who leads his party rivals in every borough across the city with the exception of Manhattan, has campaigned on promises to fight the city’s crime and promote its economic prosperity. He has managed to unite vast swathes of Black and Latino voters.

Related: Examine Blockchain for Ways to Stop Forced-Labor Goods, Australian Committee Says

Adams currently holds a lead of 75,000 votes ahead of his closest rival Maya Wiley, according to a New York Times report on Wednesday.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, a longtime bitcoin proponent and cryptocurrency advocate, dropped out of the race in its earlier stages, acruing only 11.7% of total votes.

See also: Republican House Campaign Arm to Accept Donations in Crypto

• Republican House Campaign Arm to Accept Donations in Crypto
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16,000 copies of NFT-backed app images sold out on Ant Group’s payment platform Alipay within hours on Wednesday. 

The sale, however, prompted the Jack Ma-controlled Ant Group to clarify that non-fungible tokens are not cryptocurrencies, Reuters reported. Ant’s swift response appears to be related to China’s intensifying crackdowns on crypto trading and mining. 

Alipay and Dunhuang Research Academy jointly released two images based on AntChain, which is Ant’s enterprise blockchain, for the app’s payment page. Each image has 8,000 copies. 

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The two digital artworks appear to be inspired by murals in the Mogao caves in Gansu province of Northwestern China, which has been listed as a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 

The buyers do not own the copyrights of these two images. But the image will appear on their payment page whenever they use Alipay. People were able to purchase the digital artworks by a combination of 9.9 yuan (or $1.52) and ten Alipay reward points, which can be earned by its users from making purchases with the mobile app. 

NFT art can be auctioned on Alipay and Ant Group’s enterprise blockchain AntChain said it supports NFT products with its technology, according to the report. 

Alipay’s adoption of NFTs could be significant because it provides Chinese buyers with a channel to pay for NFT artwork with local fiat currency renminbi. The artwork on decentralized public chains such as Ethereum would have to be paid with native tokens. That could be difficult for Chinese investors since the country started cracking down on fiat-to-crypto trading in 2017. 

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