Analysis Crypto by Thebittimes.Com

Legal notices apparently from self-proclaimed investment firm “Salomon Brothers” were sent to over 39,000 bitcoin (BTC) addresses earlier this year in an attempt to repossess 2.3 million in dormant coins worth over $279 billion.  That’s according to a report from Galaxy Research, which analyzed the campaign that involved an unknown Salomon client “dusting” notices en masse between July and August.  The tactic involves sending tiny amounts of BTC to thousands of addresses with the notice in an “OP_RETURN output.” It threatened the address owners with “constructive possession” of its BTC via legal remedies if they didn’t respond to its notice or prove the address wasn’t abandoned. Oddly, one of the OP_RETURN messages linked to a test transaction read, “ Thank you for giving birth to me. Now you get real money back .” Salomon claims it’s protecting BTC Salomon is reportedly representing its client “altruistically,” and doesn’t want to “adversely i...

Former SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony has been found guilty on all criminal counts against him: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. SafeMoon was a briefly popular project, reaching a maximum market capitalization of approximately $1 billion before collapsing, according to CoinGecko. Karony’s misrepresentations to investors around the project included claims about key token mechanics, such as apparently locked liquidity pools. Karony and the other SafeMoon leaders withdrew tens of millions of dollars of value from these pools, despite representing them as locked. SafeMoon CEO defense claims there was no conspiracy among execs Read more: SafeMoon CEO defense claims there was no conspiracy among execs The former CEO’s defense was unsuccessful in arguing that there was no conspiracy among the leaders of the scheme. Thomas Smith, one of the co-conspirators who has alre...

Hacks in the cryptocurrency industry are nothing new. In September alone, the market witnessed hacks worth $120 million. Over half of the $120 million in cryptocurrency attacks that occurred in the month were on centralized exchanges BingX and Indodax. Amidst this, malicious activity was suspected in the US government’s wallet. Also Read: SEC Can’t Stop It: Ripple CEO Predicts Inevitable XRP ETF Approval US Government Loses Big Bucks Through Cryptocurrency Hack Data from Arkham Intelligence revealed that a cryptocurrency wallet that was probably under the authority of the US government was hacked on October 24. $20 million was taken out of the wallet. This further included money taken from the Bitfinex hack in 2016. The hacker sent the money to a wallet that started with “0x348.” The report revealed that $5.5 million in USDC and $1.25 million in the stablecoin Tether were taken from Aave. These assets were then transferred to the wallet along with $13.7 million in USDC...

Taiwanese authorities have arrested an individual suspected of launder ing a record $320 million through digital assets, marking the largest case of crypto -related money launder ing in the country’s history. Taiwan has witnessed its largest crypto-related money laundering case to date, with the arrest of an individual suspected of laundering 10.4 billion Taiwanese dollars, approximately $320 million USD, through digital assets. The individual, identified solely by the surname Qiu, was arrested in June following a return from Southeast Asia, a collaborative effort by Taichung’s Criminal Investigation Bureau and local media. A scheme to launder USDT 320,000,000 was uncovered in Taiwan Several criminal groups from Hong Kong, the Philippines and Malaysia engaged in murder, as well as fraud and theft of funds through the Taishin Securities brokerage app. A man surnamed Qiu helped the criminals… — Sjuul | AltCryptoGems (@AltCryptoGems) November 1, 2023 The case has its o...

Join Our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage Blockchain data reveals that cryptocurrency firm Binance has handled $8 billion worth of Iranian transactions since 2018 despite U.S. sanctions aimed at cutting off Iran from the world banking system. According to an Analysis of data from renowned U.S. blockchain researcher Chainalysis, almost all the money—roughly $7.8 billion—flowed between Binance and Iran’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Nobitex. On its website, Nobitex provides instructions on how to avoid punishment. Three-quarters of the Iranian assets that went through Binance were invested in Tron, a relatively obscure cryptocurrency that allows users to hide their identities. A mid-tier coin called Tron can be used to trade anonymously without “endangering assets owing to penalties,” according to a blog post published by Nobitex last year. The fresh discoveries coincide with the U.S. Justice Department’s inve...