In today’s crypto news, we dive into some stories that may have flown under your radar. Let’s get started!
Exchange News
Months before the collapse of FTX, some of the exchange’s US-based employees discovered a backdoor allegedly used by the parent company Alameda Research to withdraw billions of dollars of customer funds. These employees, who previously worked for LedgerX, the crypto derivatives exchange acquired by FTX, made the discovery while analyzing the code for FTX’s main exchange. They reported the issue to the director of engineering, but it was not resolved.
Regulation News
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has established a working group in collaboration with the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) to enhance monitoring and investigation of illegal activities related to Virtual Asset Trading Platforms (VATPs). The group aims to share information on suspicious activities and breaches, assess the risks of VATPs, and improve coordination in related investigations. This initiative comes after a high-level meeting and includes representatives from HKPF’s Commercial Crime Bureau, Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau, Financial Intelligence and Investigations Bureau, and SFC’s Enforcement Division and Intermediaries Division.
Investment News
Bitfinex Securities Ltd, a platform offering listing and trading services for security tokens, has announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Luxembourg-based impact finance and microfinance group Mikro Kapital. The MOU seeks to explore projects involving the tokenization, listing, and trading of debt securities, as well as the use of USD-backed Tether tokens (USDT) and Euro-backed Tether tokens (EURT) for capital raising and microfinancing. Mikro Kapital has a lending portfolio of 300,000 borrowers across 14 countries, worth approximately $1.42 billion.
Decentralized application (dapp) Zeitgeist has partnered with CoinDesk Indices (CDI) to bring fresh signals to prediction markets for tradeable crypto sectors. They will run prediction markets on CoinDesk’s DeFi Select Index and Smart Contract Platform Select Index, providing a platform for traders and data analysts to forecast the monthly levels of these indices.
Blockchain News
The IOTA Foundation has announced IOTA 2.0, marking the beginning of the removal of the coordinator and welcoming true decentralization. IOTA has rebuilt its entire architecture from scratch, resulting in a public, decentralized, parallelized, democratic, and sustainable system. IOTA will be releasing resources weekly as it continues to evolve.
Career News
Gracy Chen, Managing Director of crypto derivatives and copy trading platform Bitget, has been appointed to the Forbes Business Council. The Forbes Business Council is an invitation-only council for top industry leaders to share ideas, resources, and experiences. Chen’s expertise in decentralized finance, blockchain innovation, and diversity in technology will be a valuable asset to the council’s discussions.
That’s all for today’s bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news. Stay tuned for more updates!