"On-chain Microstrategy" clone Ether Strategy loses over $500,000 of ETH
A Ethereum-based project promising to duplicate the bitcoin leveraged investment strategy used by MicroStrategy has announced that, prior to even launching, 165 ETH (~$535,850) was lost when a misconfiguration in the project interface resulted in tokens being sent to the wrong address. The project appears to have determined that those tokens are irrecoverably lost, because they announced that they had contributed 165 ETH of their own to reimburse users for their costly mistake.
KuCoin pleads guilty, pays nearly $300 million fine in criminal case
The KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange has pleaded guilty to a charge filed against them in March that they were operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Since at least 2019, the company willingly ignored US laws requiring them to implement anti-money laundering and know-your-customer programs. Since its founding in 2017, the business permitted around 1.5 million users based in the US to use the platform, despite its lack of registration or compliance with US laws.
According to US prosecutors, "KuCoin was used to transmit billions in suspicious transactions and potentially criminal proceeds, including proceeds from darknet markets and malware, ransomware, and fraud schemes."
KuCoin has agreed to pay $297 million in penalties, and will leave the US market for at least two years. Furthermore, two company founders who were also charged will no longer work for the company. Prosecutors reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the two founders, who will also forfeit around $2.7 million each.
- "Kucoin Pleads Guilty To Unlicensed Money Transmission Charge And Agrees To Pay Penalties Totaling Nearly $300 Million", U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York [archive]
ThorChain is insolvent
The ThorChain project is in crisis amid news that the project is insolvent. In order to prevent what would effectively be a bank run and likely death spiral, the project has paused portions of the protocol while determining how best to handle the problem. According to Twitter user TCB, the project has almost $200 million in liabilities, with only $107 million in assets — assets which can be quickly withdrawn or depleted in the case of a panic.
The team has announced that the pause will last for 90 days as they explore options to save the project.
- Tweet thread by TCB [archive]
Phemex exchange hacked for at least $70 million
The Singapore-based Phemex cryptocurrency exchange has acknowledged the compromise of some of the exchange's hot wallets, which saw outflows of at least $37 million across multiple blockchains. Phemex wrote on Twitter that they were "look[ing] into" reports that their hot wallets had been compromised.
Trump crossposting Twitter account advertises fake memecoins that make $1.25 million
A Twitter account called @TrumpDailyPosts has more than 1.3 million followers on Twitter. While the account does automatically crosspost to Twitter any posts Donald Trump makes on his Truth Social account, it also posts Trump-related news and other tweets.
After the Trump family actually did launch the $TRUMP and $MELANIA memecoins, several more tweets by the @TrumpDailyPosts account appeared to crosspost additional announcements by Donald Trump on Truth Social of memecoins with names like $POTUS, $WIN, $POWER, and $MAGA. The tweets contained the date and timestamps that normally establish that a post on the account is a repost of Trump's genuine Truth Social posts.
It's not clear if the @TrumpDailyPosts Twitter account was hacked or if those running it decided to scam their followers. However, by sharing the now-deleted posts to their large following, they made around $1.25 million from people who were hoping to hop on the trend and buy in early to new Trump-backed memecoins.
Trump inauguration pastor launches memecoin that tanks by over 90%
Reverand Lorenzo Sewell, a pastor and vocal Trump supporter who delivered the benediction at Donald Trump's inauguration, followed in his hero's footsteps by trying to shill a memecoin to his followers. In a video posted to Twitter hours after his speech, in which he seemed to still be wearing the same outfit, Sewell urged: "I need you to do me a favor right now. I need you to go buy the official Lorenzo Sewell coin."
The reaction to his post was not exactly warm, with lawyer Ari Cohn tweeting: "🎶Look at this grift, isn't it neat? Wouldn't you say God's debasement's complete? 🎶"
After a very brief spike in token price, the memecoin collapsed.
Students for Trump co-founder Ryan Fournier admits to rugpulling memecoin while trying to deny rugpulling memecoin
Ryan Fournier, a co-founder of the Students for Trump organization, worked with a memecoin creator to create a $TIKTOK memecoin, which he said was intended to celebrate TikTok lifting its brief restriction on US users amid an impending ban. The token quickly increased in price amid early attention. However, when the price began to drop, Fournier dumped 505 million TIKTOK for around $700,000 in SOL.
Fournier posted on Twitter, claiming he was scammed by his collaborator. When accused of rugging the token, Fournier replied "I'm very new to crypto and I promise you I didn’t rug it." "Buddy, we see your wallet. It’s all on-chain," replied another person. Fournier, apparently not knowing he was describing a rug pull, wrote: "I literally sold because it was going down increasingly. I don’t know who wouldn’t do that."
Melania Trump launches a memecoin of her own, tanking her husband's in the process
Before people had a chance to process the fact that the incoming president of the United States had just launched his own transparent crypto cash-grab, the soon-to-be First Lady did the same. Whoever is calling the Trump family's crypto shots seemed to think they could just follow the same playbook a second time and enjoy the same results, but the launch of the new token brought a sudden crash in the $TRUMP token value.
This is not Melania Trump's first foray into the crypto world. In December 2021, she launched her own line of NFTs — only to apparently wash trade them after a tepid response.
Meanwhile, some in the crypto world are reacting with horror at Trump's decisionmaking. While they hoped that Trump's administration would be crypto-friendly, they did not seem to anticipate that the Trump family would openly embrace some of the ecosystem's worst parts to enrich themselves at everyone else's expense.
Trump launches a shitcoin
In what is likely a preview of the levels of grift about to come — levels previously not thought possible — Trump has launched a Solana memecoin two days before his inauguration. The move was so unexpected that many believed the president-elect's Twitter account had been compromised to promote a fake scam token, but half a day later, it appears this scam token is of the genuinely Trump-backed variety.
Digital Currency Group settles with the SEC for $38 million over misleading statements surrounding Genesis collapse
The Digital Currency Group has agreed to settle with the SEC for $38 million over charges that its Genesis subsidiary misled investors. When the hedge fund Three Arrows Capital blew up and defaulted on a margin call in June 2022, DCG publicly downplayed the fact that their entire business was at risk, and overstated its ability to bail out the Genesis subsidiary by taking on its liabilities and doing some weird accounting maneuvering involving a $1.1 billion promissory note. In November, with further crypto market turmoil, Genesis could no longer meet withdrawal requests and collapsed. The company filed for bankruptcy the following January.
- Order from the SEC