Bloomberg reported that a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Florida last Friday alleges that Deltec Bank & Trust Ltd, a Bahamian bank, provided "secret" loans to SBF to purchase Tether (USDT). The filing is part of a case brought by lawyers for SBF fraud victims seeking to recover losses from participants including Deltec.
The documents show that hedge fund Alameda Research partially utilized Deltec's secret short-term credit line worth billions of dollars to increase its holdings of USDT, and Tether was not sued in this case. In addition, it claims that Deltec helped SBF embezzle customer funds by transferring funds between FTX and Alameda accounts. The lawsuit alleges that Deltec had sufficient reason to suspect these transfers.
Desiree Moore, Deltec's lawyer at Venable LLP in Chicago, said that Deltec and its chairman, Jean Chalopin, were unaware of FTX's misconduct before it was made public: "The new allegations rely heavily on unverified statements by individuals, and as far as we know, these people are settling with the plaintiffs in exchange for providing information."
Lawyers in the filing said that Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research, worked with them in settlement negotiations and handed over 7,000 pages of Telegram chat records.
#BTC!

X2Y2 Pro, a multi-chain NFT aggregator, has partnered with Oasys, a leading platform for blockchain gaming. The partnership will integrate X2Y2 Pro with Oasys' EVM-compatible blockchain, with a focus on their Geso, DM2, and HOME Verses. This will benefit both gamers and developers, providing new ways to trade and lend NFTs and creating smoother experiences and more immersive ecosystems. The Geso, DM2, and HOME Verses are already home to multiple web3 titles, including SEGA's upcoming TCG "Sangokushi Taisen: Battle of Three Kingdoms".
#BTC!

Christine Kim, Vice President of Research at Galaxy, summarized the 181st Ethereum Core Developer Execution (ACDE) conference call. The developers shared the latest updates on their preparations for activating the main network upgrade for Dencun, and discussed various Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs).
Most of the proposed changes are included in the Pectra upgrade, while other proposals are proposed as "retrospective" EIPs, which means that changes to protocol rules will be applied retrospectively to all Ethereum transactions since its inception.
Barnabas Busa, a development and operations engineer at the Ethereum Foundation, said his team is synchronizing nodes to the Ethereum main network in preparation for a shadow fork. Developers plan to execute the Ethereum main network shadow fork to upgrade Dencun after all final client versions for Dencun are released.
The client team plans to release the final version of Dencun later next week. Busa said his team will upgrade their nodes to these versions shortly thereafter, and plan to complete the main network shadow fork by February 23 (Friday). Once the results of the shadow fork are out and positive, he will continue to publish official EF blog posts announcing the main network activation date for the Dencun upgrade as March 13.
#BTC!

The Hong Kong government announced that the legislative proposal for establishing a licensing system for virtual asset over-the-counter trading service providers will begin a two-month public consultation, with a deadline of April 12th, 2024. This legislative proposal aims to improve the regulatory framework for virtual asset activities and promote the sustainable development of virtual assets and Web3 based on the principle of "same business, same risk, same rules". The proposal includes requiring businesses that provide any virtual asset and cash trading services in Hong Kong to apply for a license from the Commissioner of Customs and Excise, covering all over-the-counter trading services, whether provided through physical stores or other platforms. In addition, the Commissioner of Customs and Excise will be empowered to supervise compliance by licensed persons and enforce the statutory and regulatory requirements of the new system. The government stated that this is to address the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing and protect investors. The public and stakeholders can submit their opinions to the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau by mail or email.
#BTC!

According to CoinGecko data, the total cryptocurrency market value has reached 2.04 trillion US dollars, with a 24-hour increase of 0.9%. In addition, BTC's market share has risen to 49.6%.
#BTC!

Bithumb issued an announcement stating that it plans to suspend virtual asset deposit and withdrawal services (involving PC/mobile web, APP, API, etc.) during the internal system upgrade from 00:30 to 07:00 on Thursday, February 8, 2024 (total of 6 hours and 30 minutes).
#BTC!

CertiK posted on X platform stating that an old hacker (frontrun-bot) has launched another attack. The vulnerability occurred because the parameters of the proxy contract were not controlled, leading to the possibility of any DELEGATECALL. Currently, the victim has suffered a loss of approximately 11,400 USDC.
#BTC!

On September 28th, financial technology company NAKA launched a payment solution and a self-hosted payment card that are both based entirely on smart contracts and comply with the EMV (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa) standard.
NAKA's new payment solution and self-hosted payment card will undergo initial testing in Switzerland and El Salvador, both of which have developed POS terminal infrastructure and accept Bitcoin payments, making them ideal for evaluating NAKA's new products.
#BTC!

The dYdX community has voted to appoint three new trustees for DOT. Due to the proposal and Chaos Labs resigning from their trustee positions, the new trustees for DOT are as follows:
Shaun Musuka - newly added;2. Areta (formerly of web3 studio) - newly added;3. Valentin Prossliner - newly added;4. Joanna Pope;5. Christoph Sonn; #BTC!

New York Attorney General Letitia James has expanded the state's lawsuit against Digital Currency Group and tripled the estimated size of alleged fraud to more than $3 billion.
After a continued investigation, James said the office became aware that more investors were defrauded, leading to an additional $2 billion in assets that were lost, according to a statement released on Friday. The lawsuit hinges on a crypto lending program called Gemini Earn.
"While the initial suit focused largely on the losses of retail investors participating in the Gemini Earn investment program, as more complaints have been made, it became clear that the complicated nature of the fraud also swindled other investors who contributed their money directly to DCG’s affiliate Genesis," the NYAG said.
The NYAG sued Gemini, Genesis and its parent company DCG in October over the Gemini crypto lending program. At the time, James said the three entities defrauded more than 29,000 New Yorkers of more than $1 billion. James also said DCG and Genesis "disguised $1.1 billion in losses through a months-long campaign of misstatements, omissions, and concealment."
The NYAG has now found that the companies defrauded more than 230,000 investors out of more than $3 billion, according to the new amended complaint.
“After months of false promises, we pulled the curtain back and revealed that DCG was lying to investors and defrauding them out of billions,” Attorney General James said in a statement. “The fraud and deceit were so expansive that many additional people have come forward to report similar harm.
DCG did not respond to a request for comment.
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Settlements
This comes after Genesis Global Holdco, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2022, said it reached a settlement with the NYAG in a court filing on Thursday. DCG is the parent company of that firm.
"After months of hard-fought negotiation, the Debtors and NYAG have reached a resolution of the NY Action," Genesis said in a document filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. A judge would still have to approve that settlement.
Last week, Genesis Global Holdco settled a lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission and agreed to pay $21 million.
The SEC said the Gemini Earn program was an unregistered securities offering where they were able to raise "billions of dollars'" worth of crypto from thousands of investors. The SEC said Genesis lacked enough liquid assets to meet withdrawal costs a year into the program leaving investors dry, among other allegations. New York's James said Genesis hid $1.1 billion in losses.
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#BTC!

According to the official announcement, the ETC hard fork has now been completed, and Upbit will resume support for ETC deposits and withdrawals. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
#BTC!

Many believe that complete decentralization of finance is inevitable, but there are three major obstacles that must be overcome for DeFi to surpass traditional payments. Firstly, gaining consumer trust and buy-in is difficult as people may prefer to use third-party financial services. Secondly, financial institutions are hesitant to adopt DeFi due to increased fraud risk and potential revenue loss. Lastly, the lack of government oversight is a challenge as it may be difficult to enact legislation and consumer protection agencies without a centralized system. While DeFi presents challenges for regulators, some level of centralization may be necessary to prevent tax evasion and criminal activity. A balance between decentralization and centralization is needed to create a fully realized payment solution.
#BTC!