1. FBI Arrests Bitcoin Robbers Aiming For Millions Of Dollars In Bitcoin
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, two individuals have been detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for their involvement in a “violent” scheme to break into a family’s home in the middle of the night and steal bitcoin valued tens of millions of dollars. They risk a 20-year sentence in prison.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams detailed “The defendants participated in a violent plan to break into a family’s home in the middle of the night and force its residents to provide the code to what the defendants believed was tens of millions of dollars in bitcoin currency.”
2. Harmony Hackers Have Started to Launder Stolen Ethereum
According to PeckShield, the hackers who stole $100 million in alternative currencies from the Horizon bridge of the Harmony Protocol have started to launder the money. According to blockchain research by the blockchain security business, the hackers transmitted three transactions from the address used in the June 23rd attack totaling about 30K ETH (about $36 million) to the mixing service Tornado Cash, with $64 million still in the criminals’ Ethereum wallets.
On Saturday, Harmony Protocol announced on Twitter that it would not support the filing of criminal proceedings if the bridge money were returned and offered a $1 million reward for their recovery. With today’s transactions, it looks that the offer was turned down.
3. SEC Chair Gary Gensler Again Claimed Bitcoin To Be A Commodity, But Only Bitcoin
In an interview with CNBC today, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler reiterated the SEC’s position that Bitcoin is a commodity but refrained from applying the classification to any other cryptocurrencies. As he has in the past, Gensler singled out Bitcoin as a crypto asset that should be governed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), but he would not comment on other coins or tokens.
“Some, like Bitcoin, and that’s the only one, Jim, I’m going to say because I’m not going to talk about any one of these tokens, my predecessors and others have said, they’re a commodity,” Gensler responded to a question from CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
4. Crypto Exchange FTX Might Be Buying Robinhood
According to reports, FTX is considering acquiring Robinhood Markets, the well-known trading application that helped millions of traders learn about Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE).
Bloomberg stated on Monday that FTX is holding internal discussions about whether to acquire Robinhood, citing people with knowledge of the situation. Although no choice has been made regarding a takeover, FTX is thought to be seriously considering it. According to Bloomberg’s informant, FTX has not yet approached Robinhood with a buyout bid and may still decide not to proceed with a purchase.
In a follow-up comment to Bloomberg, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried explained that while there were no active merger discussions, his company was enthusiastic about potentially working with Robinhood.
5. Crypto.com Cuts Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, And More Out Of Earn Program
Crypto.com said on Monday that it is eliminating 15 coins from its Crypto Earn incentive program while the bear market persists. Among those being dropped are Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Tezos (XTZ), and FLOW, although Zilliqa (ZIL), Fantom (FTM), and NEAR were also added by Crypto.com to the list.
The reward rates for five distinct stablecoins, including TGBP, TAUD, TCAD, TUSD, and USDP (Paxos USD), which are virtual currencies linked to the British Pound, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, and US Dollar, are also changing on Crypto.com. Other cryptocurrencies’ reward rates, such as those for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Solana, are unaltered.
The business did not explain in its announcement why it eliminated those specific tokens.
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