Analysis Crypto by Thebittimes.Com

A recent investigation by The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) has found that just 65% of drugs purchased online using crypto contained the substances as advertised. This is despite a widely-held perception that illicit drugs bought in this way are likely to be of higher quality and therefore ‘safer.’ RMIT University, working in conjunction with the Australian National University, The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), and Canadian testing facility Get Your Drugs Tested, collected 103 samples of drugs from a darknet forum called Test4Pay and analyzed them for purity and substituted substances. The research — reportedly carried out using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy with immunoassay strip tests — discovered that just 65% of the drugs purchased were as listed while 21% contained a completely different substance, and 14% contained the advertised drug mixed with other chemicals. Drugs such as cocaine, ketamine, 2C-B, and alprazo...

Australia’s minister to interrogate the country’s financial regulatory body, questioning why it did not caution consumers about a $1.3 billion crypto scam linked to Australia. In an interview with The Guardian, Australia’s minister for financial services and assistant treasurer Stephen Jones said he is planning to query the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) about its failure to issue a consumer warning about HyperVerse (also advertised as HyperFund), a crypto scam which was so big that it reached the U.K., New Zealand, Canada, Germany and Hungary, among others, as early as 2021. Jones emphasized that HyperVerse was peddling “worthless investment products,” resulting in entanglements for numerous Australians. He also openly questioned why a warning wasn’t issued, stating that the operation warranted raised concerns. “I simply don’t know why a warning wasn’t issued. It seemed pretty clear that there should h...