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
MakersPlace NFT marketplace shuts down
Citing "ongoing market challenges and funding difficulties", the MakersPlace NFT platform announced it will be shutting down after six years of operations. The company had raised $30 million in funding in August 2021 from investors including Eminem, Sony Music, and Coinbase Ventures.
They wrote in their announcement that, although they had some money left, the "prolonged downturn" in the NFT market was causing them to "anticipate significant challenges in securing further investment which would make it difficult". They said they would be returning unused funding to investors and shutting down most of the site's functionality immediately.
- "MakersPlace Announces Market Exit", MakersPlace
BitMEX fined additional $100 million for regulatory violations
Although BitMEX had previously tried to argue that they should not face additional penalties after being fined $110 million in 2024 for Bank Secrecy Act violations, a judge has disagreed. BitMEX pleaded guilty to failing to implement an adequate anti-money laundering program, as required by US regulations. During the five-year period of "willful" non-compliance, the firm allegedly drew $1.3 billion in revenues.
BitMEX was not supposed to serve US customers, yet Americans made up around 11.5% of their customers. "BITMEX policies nominally in place to prevent such trading were toothless or easily overridden to serve BITMEX's bottom line goal of obtaining revenue through the U.S. market without regard to U.S. criminal laws," alleged a press release by the US Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York. They added: "Corporate executives took affirmative steps purportedly designed to exempt BITMEX from the application of U.S. laws like AML and KYC requirements, despite knowing of BITMEX's obligation to implement such programs by operating in the U.S. As part of BITMEX's willful evasion of U.S. AML laws, the company lied to a bank about the purpose and nature of a subsidiary to allow BITMEX to pump millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system."
- "Global Cryptocurrency Exchange BitMEX Fined $100 Million For Violating Bank Secrecy Act", press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York [archive]
- "BitMEX hit with additional $100 million fine over Bank Secrecy Act violations: report", The Block [archive]
The Idols NFT loses $324,000 to exploit
An attacker noticed a vulnerability in a smart contract for The Idols, an NFT project that also incorporates ETH staking functionality. They discovered that a function used to distribute rewards had a bug when the sender and recipient addresses were the same, allowing a holder to repeatedly claim rewards. By taking advantage of this bug, they were able to siphon 97 stETH (~$324,000) from the project.
Although The Idols boasts of two audits from several years ago, the contract containing the vulnerability may not have been audited.
- "The Idols NFT", Rekt [archive]