The United States is one of the leading hotspots for cryptocurrencies; the nation also has the highest number of headquarters of crypto-based companies. According to a regional media outlet, the FBI alleges ICHCoin is a scam luring innocent investors to invest further, resulting in financial damages to 1000+ U.S investors. 

Amanda Culver, the Assistant Special in Charge of the FBI, termed ICHCoin both a “scheme” and a “scam.” She argues that the scam began after a bad actor connected victims through social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, seeking their approval over learning more about investing in cryptocurrencies. 

Once the identified victims agreed to the crash course of learning to invest in crypto, Amanda added that they were redirected to a Whatsapp chat where an individual talking to them claimed themselves as a guide or mentor for the course. 

The suspicious application/ software by ICHCoin offers the feature to track returns on their investments, but there was a return on victims’ investments over time. The special agent said, “The average person could certainly be fooled by this scam.”

Concluding, she noted, “ I think it’s important for people to know that any time you receive unsolicited messages from people asking you to invest, promising high rates of return on your investment, telling you that they’re going to give you free money for you to invest, anything along those lines, those are red flags,” adding “We want to make sure the word is out there that these fake platforms exist.”

Other Market News Updates 

According to data from Rootdata, crypto-based has gained massive traction in September 2024 compared to August 2024; it’s worth it that venture capital firms have poured a total of $659 million into crypto startups in September, marking a 3% increase compared to August. 

In September, Celestia (TIA) raised the highest fund in an OTC round, gathering $100 million from the leading investors. Infinex raised $65.3 million, and Huma Finance raised $38 million. 

Data available on CryptoSlam states that RunWay V2 Finance (DeFi) NFT #1026 became the most pricey NFT traded for $99,601 in the past 24 hours, followed by CryptoPunk #9103 for $70,553.64. 

Etherscan(dot)io data states that the highest number on the Ether chain recorded was 1,961,144 transactions on  January 14, 2024. As of October 03, 2024, the total number of active addresses on the ETH chain was 440,936; it is crucial to note that on the first day of this month, the active addresses were 508,879. 

Crypto Market Price Updates 

When writing, the cryptocurrency market capitalization was $2.13 trillion after surging 1.30% in the past 24 hours. The cap is slowly moving out of the red territory, but the fear and greed index was at 36 at the time of writing.   

Bitcoin has fallen below the mark of $62 after the recent event in which Iran fired dozens of missiles toward Israel. It was trading at $61,352 until publishing, adding 1.51% in the past 24 hours.