2024-08-19 15:55

The hustles amounted to about 9% of the total fraudulent platforms taken down in the first year of an investment scam disruption program. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said it closed down 615 cryptocurrency investment scams in the first year of a program to tackle fake investment websites. The closures comprise about 9% of the total 7,300 phishing and other investment scam websites the regulator said it identified in a Monday statement. Australians lost A$1.3 billion ($870 million) to investment scams last year, ASIC said. Crypto scams can take a number of formats, including those that take customers' money on the pretense of investing in cryptocurrencies without doing so. Also included in the ASIC sweep were phishing websites, which harvest personal data, and those claiming to use artificial intelligence (AI) to generate outsize returns. "Innovative technology developments may improve how we live and work, however they also provide new opportunities for scammers to exploit," said Sarah Court, the organization's deputy chair. "Every day an average of 20 investment scam websites are taken down. The quick removal of malicious websites is an important step to stop criminal scammers from causing further harm to Australians." Among the companies taken down, ASIC named Dexa Trade Markets, which "falsely claimed it was internationally regulated, had billions in trading volume and millions of investors." Read More: 6 Kinds of Crypto Scams and How to Avoid Them https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/19/australian-securities-regulator-nabbed-more-than-600-crypto-investment-scams-in-a-year/

2024-08-19 14:15

Perpetuals trading hub Drift protocol is adding a Polymarket-style prediction market – with some DeFi twists. Solana-based crypto trading platform Drift is adding prediction markets to its product lineup, placing a bet on Polymarket-style election betting, but with a few twists. The BET service will allow traders to bet on binary outcomes (Will Trump win the election? Will Harris win the popular vote?) using cryptocurrencies, much like Polymarket has done atop Ethereum and Polygon. Drift's rendition, though, will be more ingrained in decentralized finance (DeFi). Users will be able to make their picks using dozens of cryptos as collateral, instead of just USDC, and earn yield on that collateral ahead of the event's outcome, Drift co-founder Cindy Leow said. Users can also hedge their event-based forecasts with structured trades on the price action of various cryptos. Prediction markets are proving to be a breakout crypto use case this election cycle, with pundits in the mainstream media often citing Polymarket-derived statistics in their reporting. Traders who pour hundreds of millions of dollars into whatever outcome they think most likely are powering these markets. Drift is primarily a perpetuals trading hub: it allows people to bet on future price action of cryptocurrencies without actually owning them. But it has branched into many different DeFi product lines including borrow-lend facilities, yield-generating strategies and even a trading page for election-flavored memecoin enthusiasts. "We're targeting the group of solana traders that have been trying to trade on prediction markets but have been refusing to use polymarket because it's on Polygon, both from an ideological and functionality perspective," Leow said in an interview. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/19/cryptos-bet-on-election-betting-expands-to-solana/

2024-08-19 13:09

The crypto think tank argued that a 2021 amendment to 6050I, a law that requires certain transactions to be reported to the government, is unconstitutional. Crypto think tank Coin Center got the go-ahead from a U.S. court of appeals to re-try its lawsuit against the Treasury Department and the IRS. Coin Center sued them in 2022 over a controversial amendment to the U.S. tax code that would require people to disclose certain crypto transactions – and personal details of the participants in those transactions – to the IRS. The think tank has argued that the amendment is unconstitutional and is evidence of "overbearing surveillance" of crypto users. Crypto think tank Coin Center will get another shot at suing the U.S. Treasury Department over what it says is an “unconstitutional” amendment to the tax code that would require Americans to disclose the details of certain crypto transactions to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). On Aug. 9, Circuit Judge Karen Nelson Moore of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned an earlier decision by a U.S. District Court Judge – Judge Karen Caldwell of the Eastern District of Kentucky – to dismiss Coin Center’s lawsuit. Caldwell agreed to dismiss the case on issues of subject matter jurisdiction last July, ruling that her court did not have the authority to decide on the issues brought forth by Coin Center’s case because they were not yet “ripe” – a legal term meaning that a plaintiff has not satisfactorily argued that real harm has occurred, only that it could hypothetically happen in the future. The amendment to section 6050I of the U.S. code, which was enshrined in the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act passed in 2021, would legally require crypto users exchanging digital assets worth more than $10,000 to collect and share personal information – including their real names, Social Security numbers and home addresses – with both each other and the authorities. The amendment sparked a public outcry from many in the crypto industry, who saw the requirement as being antithetical to the ethos of crypto, where many users are pseudonymous, as well as a violation of their privacy and a potential government overreach. Coin Center filed suit against the Treasury Department and the IRS in June 2022, arguing that the amendment represented “overbearing surveillance” that would infringe on numerous constitutional rights, including the First Amendment right to expression and associational privacy. The Circuit Court's Moore ruled that some of Coin Center’s privacy concerns were not yet ripe, writing “We cannot invalidate 6050I based on scenarios that may never come to pass. Nor do we have authority to opine generally on its constitutionality.” But she found that Coin Center did, in fact, have three claims – on Fourth Amendment, First Amendment, and enumerated powers (essentially, a question about the government’s authority as granted by Congress) – that were “ripe” enough to try in court. “Plaintiffs’ enumerated-powers claim is clearly ripe,” Moore wrote in her judgment. “The enumerated-powers claim presents an exceedingly simple, pure legal issue: either Congress exceeded the powers given to it by the Constitution or it did not … [I]t was ripe the moment Congress passed the law.” Moore’s partial reversal of Caldwell’s ruling means that the suit has been remanded back down to a lower court for fresh proceedings “consistent with [her] opinion.” Peter Van Valkenburgh, Coin Center’s director of research, celebrated the legal victory in a Monday blog post, writing: “The privacy of those associations, the names and personal information of Americans who support our mission through donations is our constitutional right, and we’re excited to move forward defending that right on the merits.” Neither the Treasury nor the IRS responded to CoinDesk's request for comment. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/19/coin-center-wins-right-to-sue-us-treasury-irs-again-over-controversial-tax-reporting-rule/

2024-08-19 08:59

A similar yen outperformance early this month triggered carry unwind and rocked risk assets, including cryptocurrencies. The FX market shows a renewed bias for anti-risk Japanese yen. A similar yen outperformance early this month, triggered carry unwind and rocked risk assets, including cryptocurrencies. Some observers fear another round of carry unwind in the near future. The Japanese yen (JPY) is rallying against the U.S. dollar (USD), outperforming other fiat currencies in a redux of early August market action that was characterized by sharp losses in global stock markets and bitcoin (BTC). Since late Thursday, the yen has strengthened 2.4% to 145 per dollar, aborting a weakening bounce from the Aug. 5 low of 141.68 in a sign of renewed bias for the "anti-risk" currency. Against the Australian dollar, a barometer of risk appetite, the yen has strengthened over 1%. It's showing even greater vitality against the euro and British pound. The activity in the foreign exchange market is reminiscent of the yen's outperformance at the end of July and early this month that catalyzed the unwinding of carry trades, or bullish risk-on bets, financed by relatively cheap yen-denominated loans as it became more expensive to borrow the Japanese currency. The resulting lowering of risk exposure in traditional markets also weighed on bitcoin and the wider crypto market. BTC fell from roughly $70,000 to $50,000 in the eight days to Aug. 5 before recovering to $60,000 alongside a bounce in the USD/JPY. "Yen strength is causing a negative feedback loop as stops get triggered and overstretched carry positions get unwound. This is rattling positioning in global risk assets," famous trader Simon Ree said on X at the time. In his latest commentary, Andrei Kazantsev, the head of Goldman Sachs' crypto-linked trading desk, echoed Ree's comments, explaining how bitcoin and ether were caught in the yen carry trade unwind and the global VAR shock of Aug. 5. VAR, or value at risk, is the maximum amount of loss a market can sustain over a period of time. A sudden jump forces traders to scale back exposure to relatively risky assets. Thus, the renewed yen strength warrants attention from crypto traders. According to ING, the yen's rally to 141.68 per dollar from 161 in the three weeks to Aug. 5 has set the tone for yen buying on dips. "A 20-big figure drop in USD/JPY we believe will have a meaningful impact on expectations for future direction and therefore potentially on behavior,' ING said in a note to clients on Aug. 16. "Behavioral changes likely mean a greater willingness to buy yen at weaker levels, skewing the risk to a strengthening bias." Some observers, however, say that the carry trade unwind could resume in the coming weeks spurred by the U.S. economy and the next interest-rate decision meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), scheduled for mid-September. "The FFFs [Fed funds futures] currently predict a 50% chance of a 50-bps hike in September; however, we expect these odds to decrease as we approach the FOMC meeting due to generally acceptable economic data. Should the Fed cut by 50 bps, however, we think the market’s reaction will be positive initially, but a sell-off could ensue as concerns about the economy and strength in the Yen will revive the carry trade unwinds," Arnim Holzer, global macro strategist at Easterly EAB Risk Solutions, said in an email. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/08/19/attention-bitcoin-traders-the-japanese-yen-is-strengthening-again/

2024-08-19 07:49

GameFi heavy TON outperformed the CoinDesk 20 during the Monday trading day in Asia. TON led gains in the crypto market on Monday as HashKey announced a partnership with popular GameFi project Catizen. DYDX is also up as traders continue to be optimistic about weekly gains in its volume. Bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and most other crypto majors were flat in Asia as the region's business week began, with the CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a measure of the largest digital assets, down 0.43%. One of the highlights of the Monday session was TON, the digital asset associated with Telegram. The token was up 5.6% as HashKey announced a partnership with the project. HashKey will offer regulatory guidance, technical support for Catizen's blockchain infrastructure operations, and collaborate on initiatives within the Ton ecosystem to enhance Catizen's gaming experiences, a press release reads. Catizen is a Telegram-based, gaming platform with multiple cat themed mini games. "[We'll] focus on the TON ecosystem to offer unique Web3 gaming experiences, fostering the prosperity and development of the TON ecosystem," Ben El-Baz, Managing Director of HashKey Global said in an e-mail. "Leveraging Telegram’s advantage to attract more developers represents a significant opportunity for TON." Tim Wong, Chairman of the Catizen Foundation, also added in an emailed statement that Catizen seeks to transcend the short lifecycles of typical games by leveraging Web3's untapped potential, aiming to create a lasting impact through a strong community and the fusion of experienced game developers with skilled Web3 designers. "In many projects with incomplete product models, crypto accelerates their decline. However, in a project with a comprehensive business model, crypto can be the core support that sustains upward development," Wong wrote. "This is because the user base and the Catizen ecosystem are continually reinforced by robust token incentives." Elsewhere, DYDX is up 5.6% as the decentralized exchange continues to post gains in its weekly trading volume. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/08/19/ton-leads-crypto-majors-as-btc-eth-remain-flat/

2024-08-19 07:34

The court did not dismiss the allegation that Astrals sold tokens which were unregistered "securities." Shaquille O'Neal will have to defend himself against some of the allegations in a class action lawsuit against him concerning the promotions he did for the Astrals NFT project. The court did dismiss the allegation that O'Neal was a "control person," meaning someone who exercised actual power. A U.S. court has granted one part and dismissed another part of a class action lawsuit against legendary basketball player Shaquille O'Neal for his role in the NFT project Astrals, according to court documents filed on Friday. Astrals was a project involving a collection of 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) 3D avatars and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) for "incubating innovative projects." Astral NFTs could be used as virtual avatars and the Galaxy token was the governance token of the DAO. The case alleged that O'Neal acted as the face of Astrals urging investors to "[h]op on the wave before its too late." Even when cryptocurrency exchange FTX collapsed in November 2022, O'Neal sent out a graphics interchange format (GIF) on the community message board Discord, from The Wolf of Wall Street that read, "I'm not F***ing Leaving," the court document said. The lawsuit alleged that O'Neal fled the project after that and "the value of Astrals financial products plummeted." The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division, dismissed the allegation that O'Neal was a "control person," meaning someone who exercised actual power or control. However, the court found that O'Neal's involvement in the project falls under the definition of a "seller" because he successfully solicited the purchase of the products, despite O'Neals argument that he was not an officer or director of the company. The court did not dismiss the allegation that Astrals sold tokens which were unregistered "securities." The attorney for the investors in the lawsuit, Adam Moskowitz, who also represents investors in the FTX, Voyager and Binance lawsuits, suggested that this ruling could bring clarity in other pending crypto class action litigations. “We are extremely fortunate that District Judge Moreno authored the first extensive ruling on cryptocurrency and celebrity promotions ... bringing clarity and understanding in all of the other crypto class actions litigation, many are pending in this District. O'Neal and the Astral project are supposed to reply to the allegations by September 12, 2024. CoinDesk has been unable to reach O’Neal for comment. Read More: How Social Media Influencers Fed Bankman-Fried's Cult of Personality https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/08/19/shaquille-oneal-will-have-to-defend-some-of-the-allegations-against-him-in-the-astrals-nft-lawsuit/