Ex-Pimco, Millennium execs set up crypto advisory business

November 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Advisory

After leaving crypto liquidity firm GSR in 2023, former Millennium and Pimco executives are coming back to crypto by launching a dedicated advisory firm.

Two former executives at major American investment management firms, Millennium Management and Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco), are reentering the cryptocurrency space amid a major market rally.

Millennium’s ex-portfolio manager Benoit Bosc and Pimco’s former executive vice president Michael Bressler left their posts to set up a new crypto consultancy firm, x2B, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 11.

Expected to launch in November 2024, x2B will advise crypto projects on sectors like fundraising, tokenomics and market-maker strategy, exchange listing and treasury management.

New York Regulator Hiring Blockchain Analyst to Tackle Crypto Crimes

October 7, 2024 Bitcoin.com

AML

New York’s financial regulator has a job opening for a Virtual Currency Senior Blockchain Analytics Analyst. The permanent position focuses on preventing financial crimes such as money laundering and fraud by ensuring compliance in the growing virtual currency sector. The role involves using blockchain analytics to monitor risks. Applications are due by Oct. 14. New […]

Crypto Ponzi Leader Receives 121-Month Prison Sentence

October 6, 2024 Bitcoin.com

bitcoin.com

David Carmona, founder of the Icomtech cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, has been sentenced to over 10 years in prison for defrauding investors with false promises of profits. His scheme targeted working-class people with the lure of financial freedom through cryptocurrency trading and mining, none of which actually took place. Lavish expos were held to entice more […]

Bitcoin miner wallets awaken after over 15 years — Is this Satoshi?

September 20, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Analytics

Five miner wallets that received block rewards weeks after Bitcoin launched have started moving their coins.

Wallets belonging to early Bitcoin miners who received coins as rewards shortly after the blockchain’s launch by its pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, have recently been observed moving their BTC.

On Sept. 20, five miner wallets that received 50 Bitcoin (BTC) each as block rewards in 2009 started to move their funds. Blockchain data shows that one wallet received the mining reward on Jan. 29, 2009, while three received block rewards on Jan. 31, 2009. The last wallet received a block reward on Feb. 2, 2009.

One of the Bitcoin wallets seen moving mined BTC. Source: Blockchain.com

SEC Regrets Confusion Over ‘Crypto Asset Securities’ — Ripple and Coinbase Weigh In

September 16, 2024 Bitcoin.com

Binance

Coinbase and Ripple legal chiefs, Paul Grewal and Stuart Alderoty, have criticized the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its inconsistent approach to classifying tokens as securities. Grewal referenced Footnote 6 in the SEC’s amended complaint against Binance, where the agency admitted creating confusion by labeling tokens as securities. He also pointed out the […]

Movement Labs targets 1-second L2 finality by end of 2024: Co-founder

September 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Apps will be able to settle directly on Movement’s L2 with fast finality ‘postconfirmations’ secured by stakers, the co-founder said.

Movement Labs aims to launch a new mechanism for quickly settling transactions directly on layer 2 (L2) scaling networks by the end of 2024, Rushi Manche, Movement’s co-founder, told Cointelegraph in an interview.

Fast finality ‘postconfirmations’ are an alternative to existing methods for settling Ethereum (ETH) L2 transactions — such as zero-knowledge (ZK) and fraud proofs — with the potential to cut confirmation times to less than 1 second, Movement said in a Sept. 2 blog post.

Total value locked (TVL) on L2s has more than tripled in 2024 to almost $35 billion, according to L2Beat, as Ethereum’s surging popularity strains the network’s limited bandwidth.

Celebrities boost crypto projects but don’t guarantee legitimacy

September 6, 2024 Coin Telegraph

In some cases, celebrity backing for a crypto project is a red flag because it’s a scam ad made by criminals.

Celebrity backing can make a big difference in the success of a crypto project, but that doesn’t mean the endorsement of a famous person makes it trustworthy.

According to a 2023 research paper by two former United States Securities and Exchange Commission economists, Joshua White and Sean Wilkoff, there is a link between a celebrity endorsement of a crypto project and the likelihood of its dubiousness.

During their research, White and Wilkoff found that in 2019, 26% of the initial coin offerings (ICO) they examined were likely scams. That number increased to nearly 40% by 2023.

Coinbase Reports Its First AI-to-AI Crypto Transaction

September 2, 2024 Bitcoin.com

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced the platform’s first AI-to-AI cryptocurrency transaction, highlighting a new application of digital currency by artificial intelligence agents. Armstrong believes this advancement will enhance AI’s capacity to independently obtain resources and engage with humans and other AI systems. He encourages developers to add crypto wallets to support the growth of AI-to-AI […]

Ripple, Kraken Legal Chiefs Weigh in on Court Decision in SEC’s Crypto Securities Lawsuit

August 25, 2024 Bitcoin.com

bitcoin.com

The chief legal officers at Kraken and Ripple have weighed in on the Federal Court for the Northern District of California’s recent decision in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Kraken. “Another court, this time in the Kraken case, confirms there’s no such thing as a ‘crypto asset security.’ Bad news for the […]

YieldNest launches new liquid restaking token

August 21, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Stakers with Lido, Frax, Origin and Mantle can “restake” with the DeFi protocol.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol YieldNest is launching a new liquid staking derivative (LSD) called ynLSDe designed to capture restaking yield from EigenLayer, according to an Aug. 21 announcement.

The token “will allow the holders of Ether staked with Lido, FRAX, Origin Protocol, or Mantle to earn additional yield… through restaking,” YieldNest said. Lido, FRAX, Origin, and Mantle are decentralized Ethereum staking platforms, each of which issues its own LSD.

Restaking involves taking Ether (ETH) that has already been staked — posted as collateral with a validator in exchange for rewards — on the Ethereum network and using it to secure other protocols simultaneously. The premise is that in exchange for taking on additional risk, restaking can considerably enhance rewards.

Tokens