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Due to UAE's National Day, Phoenix Group’s public trading launch on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange has been moved to Dec. 5, 2023. Cryptocurrency mining firm Phoenix Group is preparing for its public trading launch after seeing a significant oversubscription during the pre-market sale on Nov. 21. Phoenix’s public trading launch will be delayed as the firm has revised the date for its forthcoming initial public offering (IPO) on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). According to an announcement on Nov. 28, the crypto mining firm expects to list its shares on Dec. 5 instead of Dec. 4, 2023, due to public holidays declared for the United Arab Emirates National Day. Celebrated on Dec. 2, the UAE National Day commemorates the formation of the UAE. The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratization marks Dec. 2, 3, and 4 as public holidays for the private sector. “To honor this occasion and ensure comprehensive participation in the IPO, Phoenix Group has rescheduled its listing ...

The Estonia-based firm noted that only one plaintiff in the class action lawsuit is actually based in Colorado where the suit was filed. The company behind Atomic Wallet has asked a United States court to dismiss a class action suit seeking damages from a $100 million hack arguing the claims should’ve been filed in Estonia where it's based. In a Nov. 16 dismissal motion in a Colorado District Court the Estonian firm argued it has “no U.S. ties” and its end-user license agreement required all litigation against it be filed in its home country of Estonia. Atomic also argued that only one user in Colorado was allegedly affected — which wasn The firm also claimed the 5,500 allegedly affected Atomic users agreed to its terms of service which expressly disclaims liability for losses due to theft and limits damages to $50 per user Atomic’s motion to dismiss the class action laid against them. Source: PACER Atomic said the plaintiff’s negligence claims also lack legal merit because a lega...

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart thinks Grayscale’s Ether futures ETF application is just a ploy to corner the SEC to approve its spot Ether ETF. Grayscale Investments is using its Ether (ETH) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) application as a “trojan horse” to corner the United States Securities and Exchange Commission into approving its spot Ether ETF, says Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart. Seyffart said in a Nov. 15 X (Twitter) post following the SEC delaying Grayscale’s ETH futures ETF bid that he believes if the SEC approves Grayscale’s application, then it would enable Grayscale to argue for the approval of its spot Ether ETF application. If the SEC denies Grayscale’s bid, the asset manager could argue the SEC is treating Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether futures ETFs differently by allowing one under the Securities Act of 1933 but not the other. “Watch [the SEC] try to either approve and argue why this is different from spot. Or Deny and argue why 1933 act products are meaning...

Bakkt is expanding its custody services shortly after its quarterly earnings report showed assets under custody declined 28%. Crypto firm Bakkt appears to be returning to digital asset custody as its primary business, adding support for six new coins, according to an announcement on Nov. 15.  Aside from Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), Bakkt will expand its custodial support to include Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin (LTC), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and USD Coin (USDC). The company expects to add more coins to its custodial services early next year. The custody of digital assets focus es on the safeguarding of cryptographic keys, which are crucial for accessing and transferring assets. Various security measures are employed by custodians, such as Bakkt, to protect assets, including cold storage of coins and multi-signature technology that demands multiple approvals for access. The announcement follows Bakkt's release of its quarterly earnings repo...

With $158 million of total capital raised since 2019, Fnality plans to launch the Sterling Fnality Payment System in 2023, subject to approval by the Bank of England. Global investment bank Goldman Sachs and French universal bank BNP Paribas have reportedly led a new funding round for Fnality, a blockchain -based wholesale payment s firm backed by Nomura Group. Fnality has raised 77.7 million British pounds ($95.09 million) in a second round of funding , Reuters reported on Nov. 13. In addition to Goldman and BNP Paribas, the fund raise involved participation by settlement houses like Euroclear and Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. Other investors included the global exchange-traded fund firm WisdomTree and Fnality’s existing investor Nomura. There was also additional investment from initial round backers Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, Nasdaq Ventures, State Street, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and UBS. As previo...

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) quickly surged to $34,000 amid recent developments in the Bitcoin ETF space. Uptober may have finally arrived, with the price of Bitcoin (BTC) breaking through the $34,000 mark for the first time since May last year, marking a staggering 14% gain in the past 24 hours.  The price of Bitcoin sudden ly spiked upwards on Oct. 23, with BTC gaining more than 10% from $31,000 to briefly touch $34,000 before settling down to a current price of $33,349 according to data from TradingView.  The price of Bitcoin over the past two weeks. Source: TradingView The sudden uptick in price for Bitcoin comes amid a fresh wave of interest in upcoming spot ETF approvals and a significant increase in overall trading volumes across spot markets.  Analyst Scott Johnson pointed out that investment giant Blackrock may soon begin the process of "seeding" their spot ETF product as early as this month.  Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wrote that seeding an ETF is when ini...

Xiao Yi was accused of abuse of power and corruption in operating a $329 million Bitcoin mining enterprise. A Chinese government official has been sentenced to life in prison for both illegitimate business operations of running a 2.4 billion Chinese Yuan ($329 million) Bitcoin mining enterprise and unrelated charges of corruption .  According to local media reports, on Aug. 22, the Intermediate People's Court of Hangzhou City sentenced Xiao Yi, a former member of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference Party Group and Vice Chairman, to life in prison for corruption and abuse of power. The corruption charges stem from non-crypto-related activities of bribery from 2008 to 2021. The abuse of power charges, dating from 2017 to 2021, stem from providing financial and electricity subsidies to Jiumu Group Genesis Technology, a firm based in the City of Fuzhou that at one point operated more than 160,000 Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines. Prosecutors say that Yi "c...

BNB Chain noted that the rise in verified smart contracts highlights the demand for security, reliability and scalability. Although some consider the second quarter of 2023 a lost quarter, others find that the smart contracts industry remains resilient. Even though the crypto space suffered from lower investments from venture capital firms, developers continue to deploy smart contracts , signaling a growing demand for blockchain-based solutions.  In its Q2 report for 2023, blockchain platform BNB Chain noted an increase in verified smart contracts. According to the report, platforms like BNB Chain, Ethereum, Polygon, Fantom, Avalanche, Arbitrum and Optimism all recorded a percentage increase in verified smart contracts in Q2. Number of smart contracts verified weekly from September 2022 to the end of June 2023. Source: BNB Chain BNB Chain said that the rise in verified smart contracts across multiple blockchains highlights the “increasing importance placed on security, reliability,...

Some DAO members joked about the situation while others believed there may be an ulterior motive at play. BarnBridge DAO members have been told to pause “all work” related to the project after a reported probe by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In a July 6 post to the platform’s Discord channel, Douglas Park, a lawyer for the decentralized autonomous organization revealed the news to members. “I am letting you know that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating BarnBridge DAO and individuals associated with the DAO,” Park said. pic.twitter.com/ChsjBuGEzM — BarnBridge (@Barn_Bridge) July 7, 2023 In order to “reduce potential further legal liability,” Park suggested “all work” on BarnBridge-related products should stop — including the closure of liquidity pools — and that individuals should not receive compensation for work flowing from the investment efforts of the DAO. Co-founder Tyler Ward, presumably dubbed “Lord Tyler” on Discord, c...

"Decentralized financial ecosystem continues to develop in complexity, and it is important to address emerging risks," said FSA official Mamoru Yanase. On June 26, Japan's financial regulator , the Financial Services Authority (FSA), announced a partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for the joint regulation and pilot testing of crypto currency project s in accordance with the latter's "Project Guardian" initiative. The participation will be limited to observer capacity for the FSA in its current phase. Regulators wrote:  "The project aims to test the feasibility of applications of digital technologies such as asset tokenization through pilot experimentations, while managing risks to financial stability and integrity. Current industry pilots include fixed income, foreign exchange, and asset & wealth management." Established in May 2022 by the MAS, Project Guardian seeks to test the "feasibility of applications in ass...

This week’s Crypto Biz explores Hotbit’s closure, Hong Kong’s licensing of crypto firms, Bitstamp’s acquisition by Ripple and Ledger’s branding crisis. Another centralized exchange (CEX) bites the dust, with Hotbit announcing it will close operations due to adverse business conditions. As is common among CEX collapses in recent months, the crypto firm mentioned FTX, the ongoing banking system crisis, and even a probe, as reasons for its cash flow problems. Also facing a tough time is wallet provider Ledger. The company decided to postpone its controversial recovery service amid community backlash. Security reputation is critical for a crypto wallet provider, but Ledger’s dilemma may be beyond a public relations crisis. The recovery service was also a path toward subscription service s, which could generate recurring revenue for the wallet provider. The feature is now postponed until most of its code is open-sourced, said Ledger. In challenging times, there are also opportunities f...

The accelerator will invest between $50,000 and $250,000 per project that builds on TON and has an MVP. On May 22, The Open Network (TON), a layer-1 blockchain previously created by Telegram, announced the launch of a $25 million fund for projects building on its ecosystem.  The venture, dubbed “TON Accelerator Program,” will invest between $50,000 and $250,000 per project and be accompanied by partnerships and mentorships from TON’s staff. Justin Hyun, head of incubation and growth at TON Foundation, commented: “Funding forms part of our local hubs rollout strategy and our ecosystem will work to attract new developers as well as successful repeat founders, based across a variety of key global locations.” The initial pool of recipients for the funding will be geared toward projects that participated in a recent TON hackathon, with investment particularly focused on incubating decentralized finance, or DeFi, projects. In addition to having the prerequisite of building on TON, project...

The single biggest claim involves unpaid partnership and income taxes of $20.4 billion assessed against Alameda Research. The United States Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have filed 45 claim s worth $44 billion against bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its subsidiaries. In what appears to be a tax bill for FTX's sister company Alameda Research LLC that circulated online on May 10, the IRS assessed the firm $20.4 billion due in partnership taxes and payroll taxes. The assessment appears to match the IRS  claim found on the website of Kroll Restructuring Administration, FTX's claim s agent. A further $7.9 billion claim is made by the IRS against Alameda Research LLC, while two claim s, $7.5 billion and $2.0 billion, are made against Alameda Research Holdings. The IRS filed the claim s under Admin Priority, enabling its claim s to supersede that of lower-level creditors during bankrupt cy proceedings. While Alameda Research was headquartered ...

A federal judge has temporarily halted a proposed deal between Voyager and Binance.US in order to give the government more time to pursue appeals that challenge the deal. Voyager Digital’s $1 billion sale to Binance.US has been temporarily halted by a federal judge after a request by the United States government for an emergency stay. The request for an emergency stay was granted by Judge Jennifer Rearden of the U.S. District Court in New York on March 27, meaning the potential deal between Voyager and Binance.US will now need to wait until at least a decision is made on the Department of Justice’s appeal against the bankruptcy plan. District Court Judge Jennifer Rearden granted approval of the U.S. DOJ’s emergency motion. Source: Court Listener The DOJ filed the emergency application for a stay on March 17. This motion was promptly challenged by Voyager Digital and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors on March 20 and responded to again by the DOJ in a final “reply” motion on...

Cointelegraph’s Turner Wright and Rudy Takala discussed the recent events at ETHDenver on the podcast. In this episode of Decentralize with Cointelegraph, United States policy reporter Turner Wright and opinion editor Rudy Takala speak to listeners about their experiences at the ETHDenver conference from Feb. 24 to March 5. Wright arrived in time to interview industry experts, check out a “hacker house ” and watch developers go through the BUIDLWeek. Takala talks about the highlights of ETHDenver and how it compared, in his opinion, to better-organized conferences. The topics discussed by Wright and Takala include the logistics of traveling between different venues at ETHDenver and other events held the same week, general vibes among participants in various panels, and how the weather and altitude affected the experience of the two writers traveling from Texas and Florida. Takala also attended Cointelegraph’s afterparty on March 3. “I will say it was a packed house ,” said Takala. ...

Ethical hacking is the practice of identifying and testing vulnerabilities in a system to improve its security and prevent unauthorized access. Ethical hacking, also known as “white hat” hacking, is the process of identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in a computer system or network in order to assess its security and provide recommendations for improving it. Ethical hacking is done with the permission and knowledge of the organization or individual that owns the system being tested. Ethical hacking aims to find flaws in a system before malevolent hackers may take advantage of them. The same tools and methods used by malevolent hackers are also used by ethical hackers, but their objective is to enhance security rather than cause harm. Here’s how ethical hacking typically works. Planning and reconnaissance The target system or network is investigated by the ethical hacker in order to acquire data that could be utilized to find weaknesses. This could consist of information such as ...

The company says users' losses will be 100% reimbursed by mid-March. According to an official Telegram statement on March 1, Singaporean cross-chain crypto Wallet developer BitKeep says it has reimbursed 50% of user assets lost during a security breach stemming from Dec. 26, 2022. On the date of the incident, an estimated $8 million was stolen by hackers after BitKeep's APK 7.2.9 (Android Package Kit) installation package was hijacked and swapped. Users who downloaded the malware subsequently saw their private keys compromised, leading to the theft of assets.  As told by BitKeep, a total of 6,731 verified addresses were breached during the incident. The firm has since completed reimbursing 50% of stolen assets in the affected addresses, with "expedited processing" for the remaining 50% of funds. BitKeep says it will complete its compensation plan ahead of schedule and release the remaining funds within two weeks. In a statement to Cointelegraph, a spokesperson for B...

The full launch and removal of the 1 million waitlisted users come six months after Robinhood launched its beta version in September. Trading platform Robinhood has launched its Web3 wallet on Apple’s App Store, becoming available to iOS users in over 130 countries. Robinhood shared the news in a Mar. 1 post, stating that users would no longer need to sit on a waitlist to access the new multi-chain, self-custody wallet. It added that it will be supported on Android “later this year.” #Robinhood Wallet is now available to everyone with iOS: https://t.co/yUdL8jCgJN pic.twitter.com/q7RIWBJUIT — Johann Kerbrat (@JohannKerbrat) March 1, 2023 Since the beta launch of the Robinhood Wallet in September, the trading platform integrated Ethereum — in addition to already supporting Polygon — and added 50+ ERC tokens to be bought, sold and held on the self-custody wallet. Among the tokens now supported include USDC, UNI, MATIC and SHIB. These tokens can be traded without paying transaction...

DekaBank’s partnership with Metaco is not about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin but the tokenization of bonds and stocks. 105-year-old German bank DekaBank is planning to launch a blockchain-based tokenization platform in collaboration with the digital asset firm Metaco. DekaBank targets the release of its blockchain platform sometime in 2024, while the infrastructure is expected to be ready in 2023, DekaBank’s digital asset custody executive Andreas Sack told Cointelegraph. “The tokenization platform infrastructure will be ready in the foreseeable future, and that will launch the first minimum viable product in our crypto custody solution,” Sack stated. He added that the first test transactions of the tokenization platform are likely to take place this year. DekaBank’s upcoming Blockchain platform is developed in collaboration with the digital asset management system Metaco Harmonize. The bank officially announced a partnership with Metaco on Jan. 31, planning to deploy Harmonize as t...

The LIFI executive proposed that a team of four researchers be appointed to study the idea of a multi-bridge approach. As Uniswap DAO’s vote to deploy to BNB chain continues, LIFI CEO Phillip Zentner argued in a February 6 forum post that the current proposal is flawed. According to him, the plan to use Wormhole as the sole governance bridge for Uniswap should be abandoned. Instead, he claimed that Uniswap researchers should work on a standardized system for using multiple bridges to handle governance decisions. The ongoing discussion on @Uniswap's forum is critical for the multi-chain ecosystem in 2023. TL;DR: Uniswap's model for x-chain governance will likely become industry standard. As an unbiased member of the community, @lifiprotocol is rooting for a multi-bridge implementation — Philipp Zentner | LI.FI (@PhilippZentner) February 6, 2023 In the post, Zentner stated that LIFI strongly recommends “that Uniswap not select one bridge provider for its BNB Chain Deployme...