Crypto catfishers ditch fake exchanges for approval phishing scams

December 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

‘Clear runway’ opens for all Bitcoin ETF approvals in Jan: Analysts

November 29, 2023 Coin Telegraph

approvals

The SEC’s delays on two spot Bitcoin ETFs could mean it’s lining up to approve all pending applications in one swoop, say analysts.

Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States now have a “clear runway” to potential simultaneous approvals after an advanced decision to delay the bids of Franklin Templeton and Hashdex ETFs, according to ETF analysts.

In a Nov. 28 X (Twitter) post, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said the Securities and Exchange Commission delayed its decision on the applications 34 days earlier than the Jan. 1, 2024, decision deadline.

The SEC requested comments on forms by Templeton and Hashdex that are necessary for the ETFs to eventually be listed and start trading. The comment and rebuttal period will last 35 days.

Seyffart and his colleague Eric Balchunas had placed 90% odds on spot Bitcoin ETF approvals by Jan. 10 next year, and the twin delays “all but confirms for me that this was likely a move to line every applicant up for potential approval by the Jan 10, 2024 deadline,” Seyffart said.

Balchunas agreed, posting to X that the SEC was “prob looking to get them out of the way, clear runway.”

Prob looking to get them out of the way, clear runway
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 28, 2023

Commercial litigator Joe Carlasare thinks, however, the delays increase the probability of a March 2024 approval as the comment period for Franklin’s ETF bid was extended until Jan. 3, 2024, and the SEC typically takes a maximum of three weeks to review comments.

The Franklin BItcoin spot ETF comment period now extends until January 3rd.

The SEC typically reviews comments for at least 2-3 weeks. Therefore, although it’s not guaranteed, this increases the probability of a March approval.

January is still likely the favorite though.
— Joe Carlasare (@JoeCarlasare) November 28, 2023

“January is still likely the favorite though,” he added.

On Nov. 28, Franklin also submitted an updated Form S-1 for its ETF — a document registering securities with the SEC — after Seyffart earlier highlighted it was the only bidder yet to submit an updated prospectus.

Reacting to the filing, Balchunas said while he’s in favor of letting all ETFs launch simultaneously, it “seems kinda unfair” that Franklin might be allowed to launch its ETF the same day as other providers despite submitting the form months later.

While I'm generally in favor in letting them launch at same time, Franklin jumped in sooo late vs others, like 5mo after ARK filed and yet they may be able to launch the same day.. seems kinda unfair... but i suppose SEC can't really draw any lines here
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 28, 2023

There are currently 12 spot Bitcoin ETFs before the SEC, including bids from Grayscale and BlackRock. Most have final decision dates in March, besides ARK Invest’s bid, which the SEC must approve or deny by Jan. 10, 2024.

Magazine: Beyond crypto — Zero-knowledge proofs show potential from voting to finance

Revoke adds new feature after users complain of fake approvals scam

July 10, 2023 Coin Telegraph

approvals

Scammers have found a new way to make crypto by luring users into revoking fake approval transactions.

Approval management platform Revoke has issued a fix aimed at mitigating a new crypto scam, which involves baiting crypto users into revoking “fake approvals” and then stinging them with excessively high transaction fees.

On July 9, Revoke.cash stated that it had received reports of people seeing unknown approval transactions in their transaction history.

Yesterday, we received reports of people seeing unknown approval transactions in their transaction history.

It turns out that this is a new scam where scammers use so-called gas tokens to steal money when victims revoke these "fake approvals". pic.twitter.com/vpY2sGIv0T
— Revoke.cash (@RevokeCash) July 9, 2023

In reality, scammers have been using what are known as “gas tokens” to trick victims into believing they have suspicious transaction approvals.

“It turns out that this is a new scam where scammers use so-called gas tokens to steal money when victims revoke these "fake approvals".”

Gas tokens were developed when Ethereum network fees started climbing. Users could effectively store cheap gas during periods of low network demand.

“This allowed users to mint gas tokens when fees were low, and burn them when fees were high, effectively "locking in" the lower fee,” explained Revoke.

However, Revoke said that scammers have been creating fake gas tokens that they airdrop with fake approvals that users think they need to revoke.

The spurious tokens have been programmed to generate a lot of gas during the revoked transaction with the newly minted gas tokens being sent back to the scammers leaving the victim with a high transaction fee.

Revoke said it has now addressed the issue by adding a check that disables revoking approvals if there's an excessive gas fee. It advised users to ignore the fake approvals:

“Best thing to do with these fake approvals / fake tokens is to ignore them. As long as you don't interact with them, they can't steal your funds.”

Revoke is a preventative tool that helps users practice safer crypto wallet behavior by managing or revoking active approvals such as those no longer required by DeFi protocols.

*Revoke's new fix to combat the gas token approval scam. Source: Twitter*

Platforms such as Revoke have been urging users to revoke approvals for Multichain following the multi-million dollar network exploit on July 7. This has given scammers a new avenue to lure victims to approve their fake transaction revokes.

Magazine: Crypto Twitter Hall of Flame, Gabriel Haines: Shirtless shitposting and hunting SBF on the meme streets

approvals