TronWeekly

Crypto World News

You are here: Home / Search for "hong kong"

Search Results for: hong kong

Shiba Inu’s BONE Rises By 22% Along With New Listing

by

Due to the anticipated release of Layer 2 Shibarium, Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) is recording its second big exchange listing in less than two days.

This time, the listing of BONE was announced by XT.com, a Hong Kong-based exchange with a Seychelles registration. Along with four other alternative currencies, Bone ShibaSwap was listed. While trading and deposits were made possible on February 3, BONE withdrawals won’t be possible until February 4 at 7 a.m. UTC.

With support for over 500 cryptocurrencies and 800 trading pairings, XT.com bills itself as the first socially integrated cryptocurrency exchange in the world. BONE made its debut on a significant futures exchange this week. BONE’s listing was announced on February 2 by Bitget, a significant cryptocurrency derivatives market situated in Singapore.

The crypto derivatives trading platform announced a promotion that will run from February 2 through February 12 and give users who deposit BONE a 5% cashback bonus up to $2,000 in BONE as a reward. Additionally, it promised awards for referrals and for individuals who reach a $100 trading volume of BONE/USDT.

The Shiba Inu community has started a change.org petition asking Binance, a leading cryptocurrency market, to include BONE.

Shiba Inu fares Better Than BTC

According to David Gokhshtein, once SHIB starts to move, the other top meme coins will soon follow suit. Floki Inu (FLOKI) and Baby Doge Coin are two additional popular meme coins that are comparable in popularity to SHIB (BabyDoge). Thus, he has declared his support for the second-largest canine cryptocurrency in a string of recent tweets.

David Gokhshtein, the creator of Gokhshtein and a former congressional candidate who later grew interested in cryptocurrencies, recently tweeted his support for Shiba Inu. He stated that the expansion of SHIB, which began earlier today, is responsible for the price increases of all other significant canine coins.

Additionally, he reminded his army of supporters that Shiba Inu has had greater growth than Bitcoin since the beginning of the month. The cost of a Shiba Inu has jumped by almost 35% in February. The rise of Bitcoin was 5.43%. Stop making fun of SHIB, he added.

FTX Bankruptcy: 115-Page Creditor List Revealed, Shows A Ripple Effect Across Industries

by

The fall of FTX, once a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has left a long list of creditors in its wake. A 115-page document released by the company’s lawyers on January 25th revealed a diverse group of companies and government entities that were owed money by the bankrupt exchange.

The list of creditors includes government agencies at the local, national, and international levels, banks, media outlets, charitable foundations, and marketing agencies. Notably, the names of nearly 9.7 million FTX customers with funds trapped on the platform were redacted from the document.

The Creditor List Reveals The Full Extent Of FTX Collapse

FTX has outstanding debts to a number of prominent companies within the crypto and Web3 industry, including Coinbase, Galaxy Digital, Yuga Labs, Circle, Bittrex, Sky Mavis, Messari, Chainalysis, and Binance-related entities.

The exchange also owes money to several big tech companies like Apple, Netflix, Meta, Google, Amazon, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Twitter. Furthermore, several news media outlets, such as The New York Times, CoinDesk, and The Wall Street Journal, are also included on the list of FTX’s creditors.

Moreover, various Departments of Revenue across the United States are on the list, ranging from Minnesota in the north to Texas in the south and from Connecticut in the east to California in the west. Additionally, the U.S. Secretary of State for several states, including California, Colorado, Delaware, Arkansas, Alabama, and others, are listed as creditors for the exchange.

The tax offices of multiple U.S. state agencies and the federal IRS were also listed as creditors, as well as government entities in Japan, and Hong Kong, among others. The release of the creditor matrix provides a glimpse into the far-reaching impact of FTX’s collapse on a wide range of companies and organizations.

Furthermore, FTX’s collapse has impacted the luxury and travel industry, with the exchange owing debts to luxury hotel brands such as AC Hotels by Marriott, Grand Hyatt, and Airbnb as a result of its lavish hotel stays. Additionally, FTX also owes money to airlines such as Alaska Air, American Airlines, private jet company Apollo Jets, and British Air.

The company also has debts to food delivery services like Uber Eats and DoorDash. The bankruptcy of FTX has created a ripple effect that has impacted a wide range of industries and organizations.

Related Reading | Whale Alert: Investors Move Hundreds Of Million XRP in 3 Days Amid Market Surge

XRP, ADA, DOT See A Surge In Inflows: Report

by

XRP along with Cardano [ADA], Polkadot [DOT], and Avalanche [AVAX] witnessed an increase in activity during the last week as total inflows hit $37 million.

A recent report published by CoinShares revealed that altcoins such as XRP, DOT, ADA, and AVAX experienced inflows totaling $0.6 million, $1.0 million, $0.6 million, and $0.5 million, respectively.

Furthermore, a startling 68% of investors’ money was allocated to short investment products. All of them, according to the research, were indications of bearish market sentiment.

World’s dominant crypto asset, Bitcoin’s inflows hit $5.7 million last week, while short-bitcoin investment products saw inflows totaling $25.5 million, the largest weekly inflow since July 2022 $51 million.

Geographically, Inflows were found to be concentrated mostly in Europe, i.e Germany and Switzerland accounting for $14 million and $10 million respectively.

On the other hand, Hong Kong saw outflows from long investment products, while 95% of the inflows into the US were into short-Bitcoin products.

In terms of the coin, XRP’s price rallied by nearly 6%, ending the day at $0.42. The 6th ranked token tapped $0.43 for the first time since November 8.

The price surge was crucial as the beginning of the week went without much noise i.e no updates from the SEC and Ripple lawsuit for investors to consider.

The case now rests in the hands of Judge Torres, with market participants and Ripple CEO Brand Garlinghouse expecting a ruling by the summer.

On the other hand, Amicus Curiae attorneys John Deaton and Garlinghouse recently spoke optimistically about the case, supporting the current XRP move toward $0.50.

XRP Community Stands To Gain From This

If the SEC’s request to redact information from papers linked to the William Hinman speech is denied, it could be the end of the SEC. For the defendants and the XRP community, this is great news.

Garlinghouse’s statements regarding the nature of the records and the SEC’s attempts to keep the speech-related materials secret from the public signal that the agency might settle before a jury trial.

Speaking from Davos, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated this about the Hinman speech-related documents,

“When those come to light, I think you will see more kind of like, how is it possible for the SEC to decide to bring a case against Ripple given what they were saying within their own walls.”

Bitcoin’s Crowd Sentiment Have Turn Euphoric, Data Shows

by

Bitcoin’s recovery to the $21k range has reignited hopes of optimism among the crypto community. According to data provided by Santiment, the trading crowd is having their second-highest bullish sentiment week in the last 14 months.

The last time investors’ euphoria peaked was when BTC skyrocketed above $68k for the first time in Oct-Nov. 2021.

Traders are treating Bitcoin’s signs of life as a signal that a bigger breakout may be looming soon. The rebound back over $21k in January has resulted in the crowd showing the most optimism they’ve had in markets since July.

image 73
Bitcoin's Crowd Sentiment Have Turn Euphoric, Data Shows 2

A similar sentiment was echoed around six months ago when speculation was rife of FED easing inflation that sparked “buy the dip” of BTC at $19k.

Zooming out, Bitcoin kickstarted the year on solid ground, clearly shaking off the time when it was reeling from the effects of the previous year and was about to embark on its longest winning streak in almost ten years.

The dominant cryptocurrency was on the course of creating history by breaking a 10-year-old record but fell short of achieving the milestone due to a price drop over the past day.

After forming its first red candle on January 18, the two-week winning streak for Bitcoin has finally ended, TronWeekly reported.

The longest such stretch in history, 15 days of positive price movement in November 2013, was about to be matched or even surpassed by BTC the day before.

Twitterati Laud Bitcoin For Creating A New Milestone

The record has not been broken, but the king coin did record the longest winning streak since 2013 during a “ridiculous” buildup, according to some Twitter commenters.

An alarming statement made by the US Department of Justice [DOJ] earlier on January 18 that it will “launch an international cryptocurrency enforcement action” appears to be the main reason for the downward price movement.

Some community members speculated that it would be against a well-known exchange or cryptocurrency firm, but it turned out to be against a little-known Hong Kong-based exchange called Bitzlato with connections to Russia. Anatoly Legkodymov, the exchange’s creator, was also detained.

Bitcoin ATM Growth Stagnates, Net Addition Shows Just 94 In Second Half 2022

by

The number of Bitcoin ATMs installed globally, tracked by CoinATMRadar, has been in stark decline since July 2022 – just 94 machines were added over the last six months compared to a total of 4,169 during the first half of 2022. 

The installation rate had plummeted significantly when it was once averaging thousands of new ATMs every month. The number of Bitcoin ATM machines has decreased as a result of recent declines in the cryptocurrency market. 

image 35
Source: CoinATMRadar

The Crypto Winter of 2022 had a significant impact on the cryptocurrency industry, resulting in a decline. Bitcoin’s value fell by 64%, and companies such as crypto exchanges Celsius Network, FTX, and Bitcoin Miners companies struggled to stay afloat.

The downturn was also reflected in the number of cryptocurrency ATMs in the United States. According to CoinATMRadar, ATMs peaked at over 34,000 in August but decreased slightly. 

In September, the industry experienced a historic first, with more ATMs being removed from service than being installed, although there was a slight recovery in October.

Bitcoin ATM Network’s Current Statistics

Currently, there are 36445 crypto ATMs in operation, 94% of which are situated in North America. The United States accounts for around 86% of the market share for crypto ATMs, with 33555 ATMs, Canada for 6.6% with 2561, and Europe for 3.9% with 1507.

Furthermore, statistics on the decline in crypto ATM installations for the month of September reveal that 447 machines were taken out of the worldwide network, with the majority of those machines coming from solely the United States.

Despite this loss, there have been more additional installations put in place. In December 2022, the data shows that there was an increase of 114 ATM installations. However, in January of the following year, there was again a decrease of about 93 ATMs.

According to the speed chart from CoinATMRadar, 4.7 new crypto ATMs are installed on average each day. Additionally, Bitaccess dominates the market for the production of cryptocurrency ATMs since it has a 30% share of this industry, based on recent figures from the worldwide crypto-ATM market.

Related Reading | Hong Kong To Regulate Crypto Industry And Issue Tokenized Green Bonds

Former FTX Legal Head Reportedly Assists U.S. Prosecutors In Investigation: Report

by

Daniel Friedberg, the former head of FTX’s legal department, has reportedly provided assistance to U.S. prosecutors in their investigation into the failure of the cryptocurrency firm, as reported by Reuters, citing a source familiar with the situation told.

According to a source, Daniel Friedberg met with U.S. prosecutors on November 22nd to provide information about the cryptocurrency firm. Officials from the Justice Department, the FBI, and the SEC attended the meeting, which was conducted at the Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s office.

Friedberg received a call from two FBI agents on November 14th, following FTX’s bankruptcy filing on November 11th. He told the agents he was willing to share information with them but needed FTX to waive his attorney-client privilege. 

He requested the waiver in a letter to FTX the following day, but FTX did not grant the request. However, the company did agree on the points that he could disclose to investigators, according to a source and emails viewed by Reuters.

He then informed the FBI agents of his willingness to cooperate in all respects. The U.S. Attorney’s Office arranged a meeting where Friedberg signed proffer letters, which typically outline a potential agreement between authorities and individuals involved in an investigation.

Friedberg discussed Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged use of customer funds to finance his business empire and provided information on how Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, operated. 

His involvement in the matter has not been previously disclosed. When contacted for comment on his cooperation, Friedberg, the FBI, and FTX did not respond to Reuters.

FTX Ex-CEO Pleads Not Guilty

Last month, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who is in charge of the criminal case against the now-bankrupt FTX, told SBF that if he had been involved in any misconduct at the exchange or Alameda, it would be in his best interest to confess before it is too late.

But, As TronWeekly reported on January 4th, In Manhattan federal court in New York, SBF denied the accusations, and “the judge in the case set a trial date of October 2nd.”

Whereas Gary Wang, the former chief technology officer of FTX, and Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda, two of his closest allies, both admitted to fraud and agreed to collaborate.

Nevertheless, Friedberg is expected to be called as a witness in Bankman-Fried’s October trial, during which SBF will face accusations of diverting billions of dollars in FTX of client funds to Alameda for personal use.

Related Reading |  A Stablecoin Version of the Hong Kong Dollar May Soon Be Available On DeFi Platforms

Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson labelled Black Swan Author “Garbage”

by

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson came down heavily at controversial crypto fan-turned-foe Nassim Nicholas Taleb who authored the book, Black Swan.

Hoskinson has gathered a reputation for coming down hard on crypto critics irrespective of their stature even calling the economist, a “piece of human garbage”.

This was in response to the latter’s tweet detailing his reasons for refusing to appear at MIT scientist Lex Fridman’s podcast multiple times.

In a series of tweets, Taleb earlier explained how he declined 10 requests to be on Fridman’s podcast between 2019 and 2022.

Taleb claimed that Fridman was exploiting his role as a “Research Scientist” at MIT as according to him “Research Scientist could be an unpaid external status that allows library access”.

The NYC professor also blamed Fridman for trying to use the name of an institution to build an image and called the whole affair “shoddy as hell”.

And sending mail with the heading “Quick Note From MIT” when a podcast has nothing to do with MIT is shoddy as hell.

Taled further labeled the MIT scientist a fraud “for pretending that programmatically reading, discussing, and digesting these books once/a week.”

Perhaps this served as the last straw for Hoskinson, who defended Fridman, calling him one of the sharpest, most intellectually curious, and humble individuals he had ever met. Hoskinson also criticized Taleb for “pretending” to read at gatherings.

The majority of influencers and bitcoin fans backed Hoskinson and claimed that there was no justification for attacking Fridman over simple podcast invitations.

Taleb’s thread also caught the attention of Fridman himself, who apologized, wished the former trader a good new year, and praised his efforts.

Cardano Founder Doubles Down On Lace Wallet

After Fridman’s tweets, neither Nassim Taleb nor the co-founder of Cardano has added any further comments about Hoskinson’s vocal message. The underlying cryptocurrency of Cardano, ADA, has kickstarted 2023 on a positive note by trading at $0.25, rising over 3% in the last 24 hours.

Recently the Cardano co-founder expressed his intention of being willing to bet on an upcoming security feature for the new Lace wallet.

The lightweight multi-chain crypto wallet Lace, created by Cardano creator Input Output Hong Kong [IOHK], aims to effortlessly link everything in Web2 and Web3 to a single interface.

JFSA Will Allow Overseas Stablecoins Domestic Distribution In 2023

by

The Japanese Financial Services Agency (JFSA) will allow the domestic distribution of stablecoins minted overseas beginning in 2023, as reported by local media on December 26th.

Japan was one of the first advanced countries to establish stablecoin legal regulations and investor protections. Japan passed a law in June requiring tokens to be backed by the yen or another fiat currency and ensuring that owners may redeem them for their face value.

However, the report claims that JFSA plans to apply the updated “Revised Payment Services Act” set to take effect next year after amending Cabinet Office regulations and developing guidelines.

The report stated:

The guidelines will show detailed rules based on the revised Payment Services Act. For domestically issued stablecoins, the issuer will be required to prepare collateral assets as collateral.

Regarding stablecoins issued overseas, which are scheduled to be lifted, the distributors who handle the tokens in Japan will be required to protect the assets. Issuers can only be banks, trust organizations, and fund transfer service providers.

Its distributors are expected to be required to keep track of transaction details, including identities, as a countermeasure against money laundering.

The upper remittance limit will be 1 million yen ($7500) per transaction. The target markets for stablecoins are currently unknown, although it’s possible that it will be US Circle and Coinbase-produced USD Coin (USDC).

“Algorithmic Stablecoins” May Subject To Tight Regulation

On the other hand, according to the report, the FSA may in the future tighten laws on “algorithmic stablecoins” based on presentation materials made by Amaya, FSA’s international deputy director-general.

The report pointed out that because algorithmic stablecoins are also uncollateralized, they could spread to the financial market in the case of a failure, similar to the collapse of UST (TerraUSD). “It cannot be denied that it lacks reliability in comparison.”

Besides this, the report also highlights that:

Stablecoins were also mentioned at the Digital Agency’s Web 3.0 Study Group in October. The perspective was that stablecoins could also be useful for local community DAOs.

When towns undertake small-scale Web3 projects aimed at regional rejuvenation, one of the research group members indicated that stable coins with stable pricing would be helpful.

Related Reading |  The AAX Scandal: The Arrest Of Top Executives On Fraud Charges In Hong Kong 

Ethereum & BNB Among High Percentage of Crypto Projects With Fraudulent Activity: Report

by

According to an analysis from Solidus Labs, 8% of Ethereum (ETH) projects have been Rug Pulled, while 12% of BNB Chain projects have been accused of fraud.

Capture2
Source: Solidus Labs

A research report from Solidus Labs, a crypto tracking company, revealed that in the first eleven months of this year, fraudsters deployed more than 117,629 scam tokens on-chain, up 41% from all of 2021.

Rug pulls are one of the most prevalent frauds in the cryptocurrency space. It occurs when a con artist creates a crypto token, launches it on a blockchain, convinces consumers to purchase it, and then abruptly sells out all of their holdings, leaving investors in the dark.

The report founds that from September 2020 to December 1st, 2022, scammers used approximately 200,000 fraudulent tokens. These fraudsters deposited and withdrew a total of $11 billion in Ethereum to/from 153 different CeFi exchanges.

image 51
Source: Solidus Labs

They take advantage of the fact that more than 99% of their malicious tokens have escaped detection under conventional scam identification methods.

Additionally, a shocking number of rug pull victims were noted in the research. Due to rug pull tokens, about two million investors have lost money. 

Capture3
Source: Solidus Labs

It is equivalent to the number of investors who have suffered unsecured losses in some of the most significant crypto crashes (FTX and BlockFi have not yet disclosed the precise number of creditors).

The research identified 98,442 as the largest number of scams that were found in honeypots. The report stated that:

A honeypot prevents the buyers of a token from reselling it. This inability to sell causes the token’s price to only increase for as long as the scammer would like, creating the appearance of a “mooning” token and thereby tricking even more users into buying it.

Whereas hidden mints record 60,985 scams, fake ownership renunciation records 48,974, hidden balance modifiers of 8,340, hidden transfers of 2,026, and some others.

C1
Source: Solidus Labs

Ethereum (ETH) “The Merge Scams”

According to a research report by Chainalysis, the Ethereum Merge was used by scammers to make millions. On the day of the Merge in September, there were huge increases in scam revenue.

image 52
Source: Chainalysis

On the day of the Merge, the scams dominated almost all other Ethereum scamming activity, bringing in more than $905,000 in ether compared to just under $74,000 for all other ether frauds.

However, it’s difficult to overstate how prevalent Merge scams were on and around the event day. For instance, all of the top five and eight of the top 10 Ether scams on September 15 were merge scams.

Related Reading | The AAX Scandal: The Arrest Of Top Executives On Fraud Charges In Hong Kong

BitMEX Sued by its Former CEO for Breach of Contract

by

According to a court document, Alexander Hoeptner, the former CEO of BitMEX, is suing the cryptocurrency derivatives marketplace for $3.4 million for breach of contract and wrongful termination.

In January 2021, Hoeptner started working for the Seychelles-registered exchange as top executives at HDR Global Trading Limited, BitMEX’s owner and operator, were being sued for allegedly facilitating illegal trading.

Hoeptner left BitMEX in October 2022

Hoeptner’s departure from the company was previously mentioned but without further information. Hoeptner now asserts that he received a letter of termination citing, among other things, the misappropriation of funds and failure to perform duties.

“Such termination is wholly wrongful and without basis,” the court filing said.

Hoeptner claims that BitMEX owes him a total of $3.4 million, which includes $2.4 million for his second-year bonus and smaller sums for the rest of his wages, relocation costs, and housing, as evidenced by the court document.

“At the direction of the founders and the board, I put my personal and family lives on hold in order to be on the ground managing operations in Singapore and Hong Kong.” “I’m disappointed that it has gotten to the point that legal proceedings are necessary, but I’ve been left with no choice.”

Hoeptner told CoinDesk

According to documents, Hoeptner moved around a lot while serving as CEO of BitMEX, dividing his time between Singapore, Germany, and Hong Kong.

However, sometime between July and August 2022, the company informed him that there was a chance he might not get his second-year bonus or any compensation for his relocation, citing “extensive cost-cutting and restructuring program which involved numerous layoffs.”

According to the filing, his relocation costs stood at $230,000 at the time. He received a letter of termination a few weeks later.

The cryptocurrency exchange recently reduced its workforce by 30% in an effort to return to its original focus on trading derivatives.

Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of BitMEX, pleaded guilty to charges of purposely failing to establish an anti-money laundering (AML) program at the exchange and was given a two-year probationary period earlier this year.