$8.9 million stolen from SafeMoon
If the pump-and-dump didn't get you, the liquidity pool compromise might have! Holders of the SafeMoon token were informed that the SafeMoon liquidity pool had been compromised, and $8.9 million had been stolen, after a code upgrade introduced a bug. The attacker was able to take advantage of the bug to artificially inflate the price of the SafeMoon token, then sell it to steal the erroneous "profit".
US CFTC sues Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against the crypto exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao for allegedly violating rules around trading and derivatives. Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world.
The CFTC has alleged that "Binance has taken a calculated, phased approach to increase its United States presence despite publicly stating its purported intent to 'block' or 'restrict' customers located in the United States from accessing its platform... All the while, Binance, Zhao, and Lim, the platform's Chief Compliance Officer ('CCO'), have each known that Binance's solicitation of customers located in the United States subjected Binance to registration and regulatory requirements under U.S. law. But Binance, Zhao, and Lim have all chosen to ignore those requirements and undermined Binance's ineffective compliance program by taking steps to help customers evade Binance's access controls."
The CFTC is only one of several US groups looking into Binance, with the SEC also reportedly scrutinizing the exchange and the Department of Justice considering charges.
Kokomo Finance rug pulls
The Kokomo Finance project on the Optimism Ethereum layer-2 network rug pulled for $4.5 million in assets. The project positioned itself as a non-custodial lending platform.
After raising user funds, the project's creators drained its liquidity pools. They also convinced users to send funds to them with a technique known as "ice phishing". They then deleted their social media accounts and disappeared.
- "Kokomo Finance", CertiK
Latest Sotheby's NFT sale is decidedly tepid
Despite Sotheby's estimates that the most popular piece in the "Oddly Satisfying" NFT collection would sell for €70,000–€100,000 ($75,500–$108,000), the "Eternity" NFT attained a highest bid of only €50,800 ($54,600). Altogether the full collection brought in $316,000, with 60% of the NFTs going for less than Sotheby's estimates. This is a marked change from the barn burner NFT sales at Sotheby's in 2021, including one in which a CryptoPunks NFT sold for $11.8 million.
It seems perhaps even Sotheby's prestige is not sufficient to overcome the NFT downturn.
Collector accidentally burns their $123,000 CryptoPunk
The new owner of a CryptoPunk, one of the most popular early NFT projects, accidentally burned the NFT they had only just purchased. After spending 77 ETH ($123,434) on the NFT, the owner tried to wrap it so they could borrow against it.
However, some confusing instructions resulted in the owner sending the punk to the burn address, effectively destroying the NFT. "I was trying to wrap it and don't know what I was doing... Thought I was following the directions exactly..." they later wrote. They also later shared that they had borrowed money in order to purchase the CryptoPunk.
US prosecutors file criminal charges against Do Kwon
Only hours after Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro, federal prosecutors in New York filed eight criminal charges against him: conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to defraud and engage in market manipulation, and two counts each of commodities fraud, securities fraud, and wire fraud. Prosecutors accuse Kwon of defrauding people by selling LUNA and UST (Terra) based on false claims about the technology, degree of adoption, and effectiveness of the algorithm intended to maintain Terra's stability.
The criminal charges out of the US add to civil charges he's facing from the SEC, as well as an investigation out of South Korea.
Terra/Luna founder Do Kwon arrested
The founder of Terra/Luna, the stablecoin that crashed dramatically in May 2022 and has subsequently been alleged to be a massive fraud, has been arrested in Montenegro.
After the collapse, Kwon became a fugitive. South Korea issued a warrant for his arrest in September, and Interpol issued a red notice. However, he's remained on the lam for some time, reportedly hiding in Serbia for a time — a country with no extradition agreement with South Korea.
Now, officials in Montenegro have announced they arrested Do Kwon, who was attempting to travel through the country using falsified documents. Montenegro is a Balkan country bordering Serbia.
Kraken to suspend ACH transfers after Silvergate collapse
The Kraken cryptocurrency exchange announced to its users that it will be suspending ACH transfers on March 27, as a result of the collapse of its banking partner, Silvergate. Based on their communications, it sounds like they have been unsuccessful in finding a new banking provider since Silvergate's March 8 collapse, which will impact customers' abilities to perform bank transfers to and from the exchange.
SEC sends a Wells notice to Coinbase
The SEC sent Coinbase a Wells notice, which is basically their way of saying "we're about to file a complaint against you, here's your chance to convince us not to."
According to Coinbase, the Wells notice related to "aspects of the company's exchange, our staking service Coinbase Earn, and Coinbase Wallet". It's not terribly surprising that the SEC might have Coinbase Earn in its crosshairs, as it has recently taken action against similar products, such as Kraken's staking service. In the wake of the action against Kraken, Coinbase seemed to try to pre-empt SEC arguments by sending an email to customers emphasizing things like "You earn rewards from the protocol, not Coinbase". It doesn't look like this has shifted the SEC's thoughts much, though.
This should be an interesting saga to watch, partly because Coinbase has expressed willingness in the past to go head to head with the SEC.
Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, and other celebrities charged for illegally touting Justin Sun's tokens
Celebrities Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Soulja Boy, Austin Mahone, Kendra Lust, Lil Yachty, Ne-Yo, and Akon were all charged by the SEC for violating anti-touting laws that would require them to disclose if and how much they were being paid to promote securities. The alleged securities in question are TRX and BTT, two tokens both closely tied to Justin Sun, who was also charged in relation to the scheme.
With the exception of Soulja Boy and Mahone, the celebrities paid a total of more than $400,000 in disgorgement, interest, and penalties to settle the charges without admitting or denying them.