Hi all 🤓
There has been tons of news in the industry, so as usual, we have picked out some of the most newsworthy pieces for you. You can find this newsletter on Medium or repost it on our LinkedIn!
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index is currently sitting at 23 Extreme Fear 😱 with Bitcoin hovering at just under US$20k and Ethereum at just under US$1,600. The range has been much smaller recently with buyers ready to act when Bitcoin dips noticeably below $20K.
In the last week, the world wonders what has happened to the 3AC founders, Crypto.com tries to recover millions sent to a customer by mistake and Bill Murray’s wallet was hacked for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, the central bank is mulling over MiCA in order to regulate ICOs and the government’s YouTube channel was hacked to play a crypto scam video. We’ve also added some tidbits for further reading alongside the meme of the week.
This newsletter is a summary of a number of largely unrelated news pieces from the crypto-verse that might be crypto/DeFi/NFTs/VCs/Macro but touch upon DeFi. It is aimed at people who want to stay abreast of some of the news but are not following along too closely. It is put together by Bisonai — a DeFi company in Seoul that bridges together AI + Blockchain.
If you’d like to get in touch, ping us at business@bisonai.com. ✉️ Previous newsletters can be found here.
[tl;dr]
- Where have the 3AC founders gone?
- Crypto.com Transfers $7 Million Inadvertently to Woman Owed $70 Refund
- Hack of the Week: Bill Murray A hacker recently stole $185,000 in cryptocurrency from actor Bill Murray, which was intended for charity.
Korea Corner
- South Korea’s central bank is looking at MiCA and says future regulations may allow ICOs again
- The South Korean government’s YouTube channel was hacked in order to play a cryptocurrency video with Elon Musk.
Where have the 3AC founders gone?
According to a lawyer with 30 years of expertise, they are either on their way to or already in Dubai. But can they stay there indefinitely?
Three Arrows Capital’s creators are missing. When court-appointed liquidators visited the firm’s Singapore headquarters recently, all they found was a locked door and a mound of obsolete mail, according to Coin Telegraph.
3AC, situated in Singapore, is one of the flagship cryptocurrency enterprises that has crumbled in recent weeks due to bear pressure and liquidity concerns caused by the market sell-off.
A court in the British Virgin Islands, where 3AC had relocated its registration, appointed consultancy firm Teneo to liquidate 3AC’s assets in June.
On July 8, Teneo senior managing directors Russell Crumpler and Christopher Farmer notified the court that Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, the co-founders of 3AC, were still missing.
“These founders continued to legally live and operate in more friendly jurisdictions during this negotiation period. Their competitors, who fell into the hands of the U.S. authorities during this period, saw their businesses collapse and were subsequently bought up for pennies on the dollar by my clients.”
According to Lesperance, Dubai has recently become fairly popular among crypto businesses. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao is one example. “Obtaining visas for commercial or private planes that allow you to enter Dubai is relatively simple,” he continued.
If the reports are accurate and the 3AC founders have fled to Dubai, they may be in for a nasty awakening if criminal charges are ever brought against them, according to Lesperance.
What else could they do besides move to Dubai?
According to Lesperance, both Zhu and Davies are eligible to apply for citizenship by investment (CBI) in a number of nations, including Dominica, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Vanuatu, however, the jury is out as to their whereabouts.
Crypto.com Transfers $7 Million Inadvertently to Woman Owed $70 Refund
Crypto.com, the digital currency service endorsed by Matt Damon in a Super Bowl TV commercial, is suing for the recovery of around A$10.5 million ($7.2 million) that it accidentally sent to a lady in Melbourne, according to Bloomberg.
However, part of it has already been spent, including A$1.35 million for a five-bedroom home in Melbourne’s suburbs.
According to court documents obtained by Channel 7, the firm realized during an audit in December that it had made an error in processing a A$100 refund seven months earlier. According to the court, an account number was unintentionally placed into the payment amount area.
The Supreme Court of Victoria has ruled that the woman’s sister’s home be sold and the money returned to the firm. The matter is scheduled to be heard again in October.
Hack of the Week: Bill Murray A hacker recently stole $185,000 in cryptocurrency from actor Bill Murray, which was intended for charity.
According to on-chain statistics from Etherscan and details from Murray’s team, the hacker began draining Murray’s personal wallet at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, reported Fortune. In addition, the mysterious person attempted to steal non-fungible tokens from the actor’s personal collection.
The high-profile attack demonstrates how even well-known celebrities may become victims of cryptocurrency hackers and thieves. Bill Murray, on the other hand, had the benefit of a personal security team that shielded him from the worst of the situation.
Murray’s wallet security team from NFT consultancy Project Venkman stepped in to protect the actor’s NFTs by shifting his high-priced JPEGs to a pair of safehouse wallets, including a Damien Hirst NFT, two CryptoPunks, a Pudgy Penguin, a Cool Cat, and several Flower Girls.
The hacker also attempted to take 800 NFTs from the Bill Murray collection that was in the wallet, but Project Venkman said the attempt was prevented by relocating those NFTs to a safehouse as well. They claimed to have used a script to relocate the NFTs to safety.
They were less successful in safeguarding the monies. A spokesperson verified that the hacker stole the 119.2 ETH Murray had raised for a charity auction just one day prior. According to Murray’s team, the attacker transmitted the stolen assets to a wallet address linked to the cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Unionchain.ai. The perpetrator is still unknown.
Though the original ETH is no longer available, a runner-up in the auction, Coinbase user Mishap72, has given 120 ETH (about $187,500) to Chive Charities to replace what was lost, according to a CoinDesk spokesman. Murray’s team says it has filed a police report and is collaborating with crypto analytics firm Chainalysis to apprehend the attacker.
Korea Corner
South Korea’s central bank is looking at MiCA and says future regulations may allow ICOs again.
A Korean translation of the EU regulatory framework provided food for thought for the Bank of Korea, which expressed its thoughts on ICOs, stablecoins, and protecting innovation, according to Coin Telegraph.
According to a local news report, the South Korean central bank has stated that initial coin offerings (ICOs) will be permitted under the Digital Assets Framework Act. This comprehensive legislation will be introduced in 2023 and implemented the following year.
The Bank of Korea (BOK) commented on ICOs in a Korean translation of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which was released on Monday. According to the BOK, the MiCA regulatory package safeguarded users and investors while not impeding innovation.
“A balanced approach is needed to foster a sound market through the introduction of a crypto asset regulatory system to promote blockchain and crypto asset innovation while not hindering the development of related industries due to excessive regulation,” the Korean central bank wrote. “When the on Digital Assets Framework Act is enacted in the future, it is necessary to institutionally allow domestic crypto-asset ICOs.”
South Korea outlawed domestic ICOs in 2017, at the height of the ICO “mania” that resulted in global prohibitions. That decision was fraught with controversy from the start. South Korean crypto businesses have issued new crypto assets abroad and sold them in South Korea through domestic exchanges since the ban was imposed. The BOK also commented on the MiCA approach to stablecoin regulation,
“When enacting the Framework Act on Digital Assets, it is necessary to ensure that the role and responsibilities of the Bank of Korea, the monetary authority, for stablecoins, etc. are specified.”
South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol, a member of the conservative People Power Party, made crypto industry deregulation a campaign issue leading up to his election in March.
The South Korean government’s YouTube channel was hacked in order to play a cryptocurrency video with Elon Musk.
On Saturday, the South Korean government’s official YouTube channel was hacked, and those responsible aired a cryptocurrency-related video. According to local media citing Seoul sources, the film also included billionaire and crypto enthusiast Elon Musk, according to Bitcoin.com.
On September 3, 2022, the South Korean government’s official YouTube channel was the target of a hacker attack. The offenders were able to broadcast a crypto-themed film, according to a report by the Korean Yonhap news agency based on remarks from Seoul government officials and Google.
The name of the channel on the video-sharing site appears to have been changed to “Spacex Invest” in the early morning hours of Saturday. It also aired a live cryptocurrency broadcast, which featured an interview with Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX.
According to a spokesman of the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, which is in charge of managing the YouTube account, employees of the department became aware of the situation at 6 a.m. They promptly implemented security measures and regained control of the channel around 7:20 a.m.
The main theory is that the account’s ID and password were taken. Google, YouTube’s parent company, confirmed that the channel had been hacked, Yonhap claimed, citing a Google Korea representative who stated that the business was investigating the hacking issue.
Tidbits
- Ticketmaster taps the Flow blockchain to let event organizers issue NFTs tied to tickets
- Luxury brand Hermès ventures into metaverse with crypto and NFT trademark filing
- Helium Proposes Shifting its Entire Network to Solana Blockchain Months After $200M Raise
- Vitalik Buterin is about to release his new book, Proof of Stake. The Making of Ethereum and the Philosophy of Blockchains
Meme of the week
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Until next time, have a great week ahead 🙌
