Top stories this week
Tornado Cash co-founder charged with money laundering and sanctions violations
US officials filed charges against the co-founders of crypto mixer Tornado Cash on Aug. 23. Roman Storm and Roman Semenov were both charged with conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business. Storm was arrested and released on bail a few days later, while Semenov was added to the US list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons. In its entirety, the maximum penalty is 45 years in prison. Tornado Cash’s third co-founder, Alexey Pertsev, was arrested in the Netherlands in August 2022 on money laundering charges. The prosecutions are a continuation of the US government’s crackdown on Tornado Cash, which began last year for its alleged role in laundering funds from the Lazarus Group, a hacking collective linked to North Korea. Tornado Cash has also been involved in several other hacks. In total, the mixer laundered over $1 billion in ill-gotten gains, according to the US Department of Justice.
Sam Bankman-Fried is off medication and living in prison on $3 peanut butter
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried appears to be having a hard time behind bars as his vegan diet means he only eats peanut butter bread while also depleting his stash of prescription drugs. At the same hearing in which Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to seven fraud charges, his attorneys pleaded that the former FTX CEO be given better treatment at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center. Also this week, Bankman-Fried was given 48 hours’ notice to meet with his legal team outside of prison. He has about seven hours each day to prepare for his upcoming trial, which is expected to begin in October.
Mystery solved: Bitcoin wallet that raised $3 billion in three months identified
The mysterious bitcoin wallet that rose to become the third largest bitcoin holder in the world in just over three months has been identified. Blockchain intelligence platform Arkham Intelligence dubbed the wallet Robinhood: Jump Trading Custody. According to data from crypto statistics platform BitInfoCharts, the wallet address first received bitcoin on March 8. Over the next three months and two weeks, the wallet had accumulated a staggering 118,000 BTC — worth $3.08 billion at current prices. According to BitInfoCharts, the current largest bitcoin wallets in the world are reportedly owned by Binance and Bitfinex – as bitcoin cold wallets.
Prime Trust’s parent company lost $8 million investing in TerraUSD
The parent company of crypto custodian Prime Trust — currently embroiled in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings — has reported losing about $8 million in client and treasury funds to TerraUSD investments, believed to have been the algorithmic stablecoin in May collapsed in 2022. The company also described the investment as increasing spending in October and November 2022 – in the midst of FTX’s collapse – as a contribution to the bankruptcy filing. Court documents show that Prime Trust owed its clients more than $85 million in fiat currencies and $69.5 million in cryptocurrencies. The collapse of the Terra ecosystem triggered a major market crash in 2022 that affected several companies including FTX, BlockFi, Celsius Network and Voyager Digital.
The PEPE whale takes the opportunity for a decline and buys $529,000 worth of tokens
A Pepe holder bought 640 billion Pepe tokens for 320 ether worth $529,000 after the frog-themed memecoin’s price fell about 15% due to recent changes to a multisig wallet and concerns about potential developer tampering. According to on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain, the whale bought PEPE at an average price of $0.000001163. The once-popular memecoin’s value plummeted after changes related to the number of signatures required to sign transactions sparked fears of a possible “rug pull,” later confirmed by one of the project’s co-founders.
Winner and Loser
Bitcoin at the end of the week (BTC) is at $26,040ether (ETH) at $1,653 And XRP at $0.52. The total market capitalization is at $1.05 Trillions, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, Bone ShibaSwap are the top three altcoin gainers of the week (BONE) at 18.58%, Sui (SUI) at 12.86% and Toncoin (TON) at 11.97%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week are Pepe (PEPE) at -21.07%, XDC Network (XDC) at -9.62% and ApeCoin (APE) at -8.35%.
For more information on crypto prices, see Cointelegraph’s Market Analysis.
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Most Memorable Quotes
“If history were to repeat itself, Bitcoin would surge to $35,000 pre-halving and $148,000 post-halving at the next halving.”
Pantera capital
“A new computing era has begun. Companies around the world are moving from general purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI.”
Jensen HuangFounder and CEO of NVIDIA
“Some of the people who currently think there shouldn’t be effective on-chain law enforcement would think differently if they were hacked, scammed, or lost their private keys.”
Mike KanovitzCEO of Jurat
“Never underestimate the damage the SEC lawsuit has done – not just against Ripple, but against #XRP as well. Three years of adoption – that’s the cause.”
John DeatonPro XRP Advocate
“AI will never replace human creativity because it always lacks that crucial spark that drives the most talented artists to do their best, and that is the intent.”
Neal MohanCEO of YouTube
“Blockchain and AI can certainly coexist – they are both pillars of Web3.”
Aydin KilicCEO of Hive Digital Technologies
forecast of the week
Bitcoin is ‘overconfident’ but bulls need to reclaim $27.8K – traders
Bitcoin needs to recapture a key moving average to “regain its bullish status,” argues popular pseudonymous analyst CryptoCon, warning that bulls remained overly bullish on BTC price support at $26,000.
CryptoCon needs to reclaim the 20-week exponential moving average (EMA) currently at $27,750 as support for the uptrend to be safe. “I’ve covered this moving average a lot lately, but I believe it’s vital for Bitcoin to regain its bullish status,” he wrote.
The analysis compared the current BTC price action to the rebound from the 2018 cycle lows. “It is very important that Bitcoin both rise above the 20-week EMA as support and retest it,” noted CryptoCon with a chart, showing the similarities between 2019 and 2023, with the retest and subsequent successful EMA recovery circled.
FUD of the week
Chinese official sentenced to life imprisonment for bitcoin mining and corruption
A Chinese government official has been sentenced to life imprisonment for conducting illegal business related to running a 2.4 billion Chinese yuan ($329 million) bitcoin mining company and allegations of corruption, which had nothing to do with it. Prosecutors allege that Xiao Yi — a former Party Group member of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference — “covered up” the mining operation by ordering relevant departments to prepare statistical reports and adjust the classification of electricity consumption. From 2017 to 2020, the electricity consumption of his facility accounted for 10% of the total electricity consumption of Fuzhou city.
FBI finds six bitcoin wallets linked to North Korea and warns crypto firms to be vigilant
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reported six bitcoin wallets linked to the state-backed North Korean hacking group Lazarus. The six wallets contain 1,580 BTC worth $40 million, which is believed to have been hoarded in various cryptocurrency hacks over the past year. The FBI’s investigation found that the Lazarus Group moved approximately 1,580 BTC in connection with multiple crypto exploits. The hacking group has been actively involved in several cryptocurrency-related exploits over the years and is believed to have stolen nearly $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency since 2018.
OpenSea executive sentenced to three months in prison and $50,000 fine for insider trading
A federal judge has sentenced former OpenSea product manager Nathaniel Chastain to three months in prison for wire fraud and money laundering related to insider trading on the platform. He was accused of using insider information in his position at OpenSea to profit from trading NFTs. In his position as Product Manager he had the authority to decide which NFTs are featured on the OpenSea website. He bought 45 NFTs before they were introduced and then resold them.
Recursive inscriptions: Bitcoin supercomputers and BTC DeFi coming soon
Some believe that ordinal numbers and recursive inscriptions could make the Bitcoin network a real competitor for smart contract platforms. However, it won’t be easy.
AI Eye: Get better results by being nice to ChatGPT, the AI fake child porn debate and Amazon’s AI reviews
Being nice to ChatGPT leads to better results, Wired’s weird child porn debate and the end of CATPCHAs.
NFT Collector: The gothic VR dreamscapes of Giant Swan…a royal nightmare on OpenSea
From crying in his car to attaching the first 3D object to the chain – the story of Giant Swan. Also, the decline in license fees is accelerating due to OpenSea.
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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.
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