Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

According to the New York Post, on Thursday, Judge Lewis Kaplan denounced Sam Bankman-Fried as a ruthless con artist obsessed with political power. He sentenced the ousted cryptocurrency mogul to 25 years in prison for stealing over 8 billion US dollars from clients of his cryptocurrency company five months ago. His cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, has since gone bankrupt.　　Bankman-Fried has also been ordered to repay over 11 billion US dollars to FTX users, investors, and creditors, although it remains unclear how much of this he will be able to repay.　　Lewis Kaplan stated that the 32-year-old former billionaire, who once ran the popular FTX trading platform, “painted himself as a good guy,” supporting “appropriate regulation of the crypto industry,” but his friendly image was merely “an act.”　　“He did it because he wanted to be a figure of enormous political influence in this country,” Kaplan said in a crowded federal courtroom in Manhattan. The judge then criticized the fallen tycoon for “evidently lacking any genuine remorse.”Sam Bankman-Fried speaks　　Bankman-Fried stated that he cares more about FTX customers waiting for refunds than the “emotional life” or “hypothetical future children” mentioned by lawyers defending him.　　“My lifespan may have ended. Its been over for a while now,”

2024-03-29Deep Dive

Fidelity takes another step toward spot ether ETF, but hurdles likely remain

Fidelity Investments is moving forward with its spot ether ETF proposal despite uncertainty around the near-term approval of such funds.　　It became clear the financial services giant was looking to launch an ETH ETF in November, when Cboe — the exchange on which the product would trade — filed a 19b-4 form on behalf of Fidelity.　　Now, the company filed a registration statement — known as a Form S-1 — Wednesday, marking another step in its bid to get the Fidelity Ethereum Fund approved.　　The Securities and Exchange Commission would have to approve the 19b-4 as well as deem effective the S-1 form before the fund would be allowed to start trading.　　Fidelity did not reveal a ticker or fee for the proposed product in the latest filing.　　Similar to other proposals, however, the fund‘s registration statement includes details about its intent to stake a portion of the trust’s assets via one or more staking infrastructure providers.　　“As a result of any staking activity in which the trust may engage, the trust expects to receive certain staking rewards of ether, which may be treated for federal income tax purposes as income to the trust,” it states.　　The fund custodian — to be Fidelity Digital Asset Services —

2024-03-28Deep Dive

Inscriptions push blobs to reach set utilization limit on Ethereum

The rate of blob transactions on Ethereum has surged, exceeding the networks set capacity. This escalation follows the introduction of inscriptions on blobs, which has increased demand for blob space.　　Ethereum core developers implemented the Dencun upgrade earlier this month, adding blob transactions to make Layer 2 transactions cheaper. They have been successful by allowing Layer 2s to use blobs instead of the “calldata” method for posting transactions — offering a direct path to fee reduction and passing these savings to end users.　　However, the introduction of inscriptions on blobs has begun to stress test the feature. Inspired by Bitcoin Ordinals, these inscriptions generate unique fungible and non-fungible artifacts embedded within blob transactions. Blob-related inscriptions emerged despite blobs being ephemeral and removed from the network after 18 days — though full archival nodes can still maintain their data.　　Analysis from a Dune Analytics dashboard maintained by Hildobby shows a significant trend: 40% of blob transactions are now related to inscriptions. This is the highest usage of blobs posted among other Ethereum Layer 2s such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and Linea.Blobs at 100% utilization rate　　The increased interest and utilization have led blobs to operate at full capacity, with a 100% utilization rate observed.　　The data

2024-03-28Deep Dive

Following Binance, KuCoin is sued by the U.S. Department of Justice

On March 26, the U.S. Department of Justice once again took action against a cryptocurrency exchange, charging KuCoin and its two founders, Chun Gan and Ke Tang, with “conspiracy to violate the Bank Secrecy Act and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.” Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. This comes as another indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice against founders of cryptocurrency exchanges, following the case of Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao.　　The U.S. Department of Justice stated that GAN and TANG are still at large.What Laws Did Kucoin Violate？　　According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, KuCoin and its founders are being charged with conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act. The charges involve intentionally failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering (AML) procedures aimed at preventing KuCoin from being used for money laundering and financing terrorist activities, failing to maintain reasonable procedures to verify customer identities, and not submitting any suspicious activity reports. KuCoin is also accused of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and materially violating the Bank Secrecy Act.　　It is noteworthy that the indictment does not include

2024-03-28Deep Dive

Vitalik Buterin highlights account abstraction in security and convenience, talks metaverse

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said account abstraction is the way towards providing security and convenience for blockchain developers and users during his Wednesday speech at BUIDL Asia, a crypto-focused conference in Seoul, South Korea.　　A modern account abstraction includes other features that improve security and convenience that Ethereum currently does not support, according to Buterin. Security goals include allowing users to change and revoke private keys and better means of account recovery, while convenience goals include users being able to pay gas fees in ERC-20s and automation of payments.　　The concept of account abstraction refers to the concealment of more technical details of on-chain interactions in favor of accessibility and user-friendliness. Ethereums account abstraction aims to enable user wallets to work as smart contracts without having to manage externally owned accounts and its private keys.　　Ethereum users currently interact with the network by using externally owned accounts (EOAs), which requires them to maintain a private key and extra accounts with extra funds, which pose a major drawback for users and developers.　　“The next 10 years are going to be about really upgrading the ecosystem at the user level,” Buterin said at the event. “Lets make something people in the worlds lower-income countries can actually

2024-03-27Deep Dive

KuCoin sees nearly $800 million in net outflow following DOJ indictment

KuCoin saw a net outflow of over $780 million across multiple chains over the past 24 hours after the U.S. Department of Justice lodged charges against it on Tuesday, according to on-chain data.　　Data from crypto analytics firm Nansen showed that KuCoin experienced a total outflow of $882 million in the last 24 hours as of Wednesday noon in Asia on several networks and inflow of $99 million, with a net outflow of $783 million. The data set covers flows on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Fantom, and Polygon chains.　　The notable exodus from KuCoin comes after the DOJ unveiled the indictment on Tuesday against KuCoin and two of its founders, alleging that they violated anti-money laundering laws. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission also reiterated in the KuCoin complaint that ether and several other cryptocurrencies are commodities.　　“Given past incidents, its expected that any large regulatory crackdown would result in a surge in outflows, but as long as the exchange has held customer deposits and funds 1:1, it should remain solvent even under such stress,” Martin Lee, Content and Communications Lead of Nansen, told The Block.　　The exchange has crypto holdings of $5.1 billion, according to Nansen.　　

2024-03-27Deep Dive

Blast On-Chain Protocol Munchables Stolen $62.5 Million

Event Details　　Blast ecosystem project Munchables has announced on the X platform that it has been attacked. The project is currently tracing the flow of funds, attempting to halt transactions, and will update relevant information as soon as possible.　　According to data from Defillama, Munchables had a Total Value Locked (TVL) of $96.16 million before the theft. In this hacking incident, all the ETH in the protocol was stolen, resulting in a loss of over 17.4K ETH, which is approximately $62.5 million at the current price.　　Slowmist founder Cos commented on the Munchables attack on Blast, stating, “The Munchables protocol on Blast was stolen $62.5 million, a significant loss. According to the investigation by on-chain detective ZachXBT, it was because one of their developers is a North Korean hacker... This is at least the second DeFi project we have encountered with such a situation. The core developer disguised themselves and lurked for a long time, gaining the trust of the entire team. Once the time was right, they struck without mercy. There are likely many victims, and we will closely follow up.”　　On-chain analyst @SomaXBT posted that the Blast ecosystem project Munchables, which was hacked, had previously hired an unknown security team @EntersoftTeam to

2024-03-27Deep Dive

El Salvador Doubles Down on Bitcoin

In a series of strategic moves that underline its commitment to cryptocurrency, El Salvador continues to deepen its engagement with the digital currency market, particularly bitcoin (BTC). President Nayib Bukele recently announced El Salvadors plan to buy one bitcoin every day, aiming to continue this practice until it becomes unaffordable with fiat currencies. This initiative has pushed the nations bitcoin holdings to a substantial total of 5,690 BTC, valued at approximately $400 million.　　In tandem with its cryptocurrency endeavors, El Salvador has made a bold statement in the global investment landscape by eliminating income tax for international investments and money transfers. This tax cut, from 30%-0%, is designed to attract foreign investors and boost economic growth.　　The countrys commitment to bitcoin was further highlighted this week as it transferred more than 5,000 BTC into a cold wallet. President Bukele disclosed that a significant portion of these assets, amounting to $400 million worth of bitcoin, has been moved to an offline device stored in a physical vault within the nations territory. This move to secure the digital assets in a “Bitcoin piggy bank” marks a significant step in El Salvadors financial strategy, offering a higher level of security and signaling strong faith in

2024-03-26Deep Dive

SEC plans to ask judge for $2 billion in fines and penalties from Ripple Labs

The Securities and Exchange Commission has requested a New York judge impose $2 billion in fines and penalties on Ripple Labs Inc., according to the companys chief legal officer.　　The filings, which Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty said will be made public on Tuesday, are part of the continuing saga of its years-long case with the SEC.　　“Our response will be filed next month, but as we all have seen time and again, this is a regulator that trades in statements that are false, mischaracterized and designed to mislead,” Alderoty posted on X on Monday. “They stayed true to form here. Rather than faithfully apply the law, the SEC remains bent on wanting to punish and intimidate Ripple - and the industry at large.”　　Ripples CEO also took to X to chastise the regulator, citing recent court decisions that ruled against the SEC in favor of crypto companies it sued.　　“Gensler‘s SEC has repeatedly acted outside the law – not going unnoticed by Judges admonishing the agency for a gross abuse of the power entrusted to it by Congress (DEBT Box case) and for acting without faithful allegiance to the law (Ripple case). Let’s not also forget Genslers lack of attention to SBFraud,”

2024-03-26Deep Dive

A Quick Overview of the 10 Winning Projects at the ETHGlobal Farcaster Frames Hackathon

The three-day Farcaster Frames hackathon “Frameworks” hosted by ETHGlobal has come to a close, with the announcement of the 10 winning projects.　　Farcaster is a decentralized social protocol. Ethereums founder, Vitalik, left Twitter and moved to Farcaster, maintaining a high level of activity. He stated at the ETHTaipei event, “I think one interesting aspect of the social field is that it has network effects, but at the same time, it also has anti-network effects. Twitter is a platform that gathers various groups of people, but it is also a gathering place for those who are genuinely annoying. I find that Farcaster has already accumulated a sufficient number of users and is interesting. On this platform, I can get higher-quality interactions, although it still needs improvement.”　　Frames on Farcaster is a special feature with properties similar to social media embeds, equipped with Open Graph tags. It can display images and text as previews and can promote interactive elements through buttons, achieving dynamic user responses. In short, Frames gives posts richer interactive features, including various functions like NFT minting, voting, trading, subscribing, and more. Since the official launch of the Frames feature, it has ignited great enthusiasm and creativity among developers, and the development

2024-03-26Deep Dive

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