Binance US stops supporting direct USD withdrawals
Under pressure caused by a series of regulatory actions by the SEC, Binance.US has halted all US dollar (USD) withdrawals. The suspension of USD withdrawal service took effect last week.
In an email sent to users, Binance required customers to convert their dollars to stablecoins or other digital assets before withdrawing. The updated terms also note that US dollar deposits are no longer protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
TUSD users data gets leaked
TrueUSD, the issuer of the TUSD stablecoin, on Oct 16, announced that it experienced a security attack from a third party. As a result, TrueCoin suspects the compromise of some of TUSD’s existing customer data.
However, TrueCoin’s internal systems were not impacted or accessed, as the company confirmed that the attack was an isolated incident on a third-party vendor. Leaked data included full name, email address, phone number, customer address, date of birth, bank name, transaction history, and even on-chain wallet address of customers, especially those who registered between 2018 and 2019.
According to an email announcement, the potential reason for this incident is related to a security vulnerability of TrueCoin – TrueFi’s former management company (TRU). TrueCoin provides banking services, customer registration and product management related to TrueUSD until July 13, 2023.
Chinese tech giant plans to sell $100M in Bitcoin and Ethereum
Due to financial losses incurred by crypto investments, Chinese tech giant Meitu has decided to divest its entire crypto portfolio. The decision comes after the company suffered significant losses due to the continuous decline of the crypto market. Meitu will redirect its capital towards the rapidly growing field of artificial intelligence (AI).
In March 2021, Meitu invested $100 million to buy 31,000 ETH and 940.89 BTC. However, due to crypto market fluctuations and the macroeconomic situation, the company faced a loss of approximately $24.76 million.
Vitalik Buterin denies selling Ethereum for personal gain
On Warpcast, Farcaster’s centralized social network, Vitalik Buterin clarified that large ETH transfers from his Ethereum wallet to centralized exchanges are not for sale but to donate to “charity or nonprofit or other project.” He confirmed that he has not sold ETH for personal gain since 2018.
“If you see an article saying ‘Vitalik sends XXX ETH to [exchange]’, it’s not actually me selling, it’s almost always me donating to some charity or nonprofit or other project, and the recipient selling because, well, they have to cover expenses”, he said.
Scroll officially launched its mainnet
Scroll has officially launched its mainnet, according to an announcement on Oct 17. In the early stages, it focuses on onboarding infrastructure providers to the network. In the official blog post, Scroll said that its zkEVM technology offers a nearly identical experience to Ethereum, but with lower costs, faster speeds, and infinite scalability.
On-chain data platform Dune Analytics has recently launched a dashboard to track the new Scroll zkEVM platform. As of October 12, about 372 ETH (equivalent to $565,000) were connected to this network.
SUI drops sharply following South Korean investigation
Lee Bok-hyun, the Director of the South Korean Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), has responded to concerns raised by Member of Parliament Min Byung-deok regarding the potential manipulation of the circulation of the SUI cryptocurrency.
During a parliamentary investigation, a member of the South Korean Democratic Party criticized Director Lee Bok-hyun for permitting the listing of various “Burger Coins,” with SUI being a prominent example, on cryptocurrency exchanges. Min Byung-deok argued that the circulation of SUI had negatively affected its market performance, preventing its price from gaining momentum.
Min Byung-deok further accused the Sui Foundation of engaging in staking and subsequently releasing tokens into the market, thus increasing circulation and causing price depreciation.
The FSS Director then admitted that if what Min Byung-deok pointed out is true, this is an important issue. Lee Bok-hyun has pledged to investigate the matter further, in coordination with the Financial Supervisory Authority and the Cryptocurrency Exchange Association (DAXA).
SUI price experienced a sharp decline following this news.
Twitter X may charge all users subscription fees
Twitter X has confirmed its plans to charge new users. The new package called “Not a Bot” is currently being tested in New Zealand and the Philippines.
New users will have to verify their phone number and pay a $1 fee if they want to use key features like tweeting, retweeting, bookmarking and liking. Non-payers can only use X in “read-only” mode.
Aptos hit 5-hour outage
On-chain data on AptosScan showed that on-chain transactions stopped for about five hours on October 18. The blockchain explorer also shows a spike in Aptos’s transaction fee from around 0.2 APT worth around $1 to 1.72 APT worth $8.58 when the shutdown happened.
Grayscale continues to urge SEC to approve Bitcoin ETF Spot
Crypto asset manager Grayscale, on Oct 19, submitted an S-3 form registration statement to the SEC. Their goal is to list the shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca, with the proposed ticker symbol GBTC.
The S-3 form is a condensed version of the typical S-1 form used for initial public offerings of equity securities. GBTC qualifies for this shorter form because its shares have been registered since January 2020 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Tesla keeps Bitcoin for 5 consecutive quarters
Tesla, one of the leading automotive and clean energy companies owned by Elon Musk, announced that it did not sell any Bitcoin (BTC) in Q3 2023. It marked the fifth consecutive quarter Tesla keeps its Bitcoin.
Tesla has not bought or sold any Bitcoin since Q2 of last year. According to the company’s latest earnings report, Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings remain at 9,720 BTC, valued at approximately $275.4 million based on the current market price of $28,300 per Bitcoin.
Ethereum DeFi protocol Hope Lend drained after exploit
Ethereum DeFi protocol Hope Lend recently experienced a serious hack in which the hacker took over all deposits on the platform. The stolen amount was 526 ETH, approximately $825,357 at the time of writing.
However, the culprit was then attacked by another hacker and took half of the money. Thereby, the amount of money that hacker Hope Lend stole was only 264 ETH.