Author: Adam James

France’s privacy watchdog looking into Worldcoin’s ‘questionable’ legality: Reuters

https://www.theblock.co/post/241933/france-worldcoin-cnil-legality

France’s privacy watchdog, Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés, stated that it is aware of Worldcoin and said that its biometric data collection “seems questionable.”

“Worldcoin collected data in France, and the CNIL initiated investigations,” the CNIL told Reuters in an email.

Worldcoin is a crypto project from ChatGPT founder Sam Altman that scans users’ eyeballs for what it calls privacy-preserving digital identities.

Earlier this week, UK data protection regulator The Information Commissioner’s Office said it would inquire into Worldcoin — which claims it complies with all laws and regulations.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Alchemy Pay expands payment support with Checkout.com partnership

https://www.theblock.co/post/241872/alchemy-pay-checkout

Fiat-crypto payment gateway Alchemy Pay today announced a partnership with parent processor Checkout.com.

The partnership sees Alchemy Pay’s on and off-ramp integrate with Checkout.com’s Visa and Mastercard channels — with its NFT Checkout also slated to see integration “in the near future” — according to a press release.

Alchemy Pay claims the new integration helps it achieve “one of the highest payment acceptance rates in the industry” while allowing users to buy and sell crypto through the aforementioned card providers.

“The smooth conversion process facilitated by Checkout.com plays a crucial role in eliminating obstacles to widespread crypto and NFT service adoption, perfectly aligning with Alchemy Pay’s mission of bridging the gap between the fiat and crypto global economies,” the Singapore-based crypto-fiat payment gateway states.

The new partnership continues a trend of Alchemy Pay partnering with a slew of companies in an effort to expand its reach. It has also aggressively obtained operational licenses in multiple countries, including the United States.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Potential SEC appeal in Ripple case ‘not even close to a setback’: lawyer

https://www.theblock.co/post/241061/sec-appeal-ripple-setback

In response to the claim that an appeal from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Ripple Labs case could be a setback for XRP, crypto lawyer John E. Deaton stated that “an appeal is not even close to a setback.”

Elaborating, the Crypto Law founder explained his belief that “it will be two years from now before a decision is issued by the 2nd Circuit, if it’s appealed,” adding: “The Torres Decision is the law until then — at least in the 2nd Circuit.”

If or when an appeal comes in the Ripple case, it would go to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Deaton: Torres ‘could likely still rule the same exact way’

Deaton’s take comes after SEC lawyers used a separate ongoing enforcement case — against Terraform Labs and its former CEO, Do Kwon — to preview its expected appeal of last week’s split decision in the agency’s case against Ripple Labs.

“Respectfully, those portions of Ripple were wrongly decided, and this Court should not follow them,” SEC lawyers argued in a Friday filing to Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The portion of the Ripple decision likely to be appealed is that which determined that “blind bid” or “programmatic” sales of XRP to third parties did not fit all the criteria of a securities offering.

To this point, Deaton tweeted that “even if the 2nd Circuit said Torres was wrong regarding her application of the 3rd Howey factor […] that doesn’t mean the SEC wins on Programmatic sales (sales on exchanges).”

“All that happens is that Torres then applies the other two factors and could likely still rule the same exact way, concluding the SEC didn’t satisfy the common enterprise factor,” he said, before opining: “Don’t let anyone underestimate how significant this win is for XRP, XRP holders and Ripple.”

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Adventure Gold price action indicates ‘bad actors in the market’: trader

https://www.theblock.co/post/241055/adventure-gold-price-action-indicates-bad-actors-in-the-market-trader

Adventure Gold’s token has experienced volatile price action after trading above $1.40 on July 20 before subsequently falling to $0.76 on the following day — sparking conversation about potential market manipulation.

One prominent Bybit trader, who goes by DeFi^2, noted today that “all three top-ranked accounts on the Bybit 24-hour leaderboard right now joined in the last five days, only traded AGLD and made seven figures profit” — statements seemingly bolstered by an examination of Bybit’s leaderboards.

“Clearly some bad actors in the market right now — be careful if trading low market cap perps,” they added.

Adventure Gold is the in-game currency for the Loot NFT project. It is currently the 396th-ranked cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.

tradingview chart showing adventure gold agld pump and dump
The price of Adventure Gold’s token fell off a cliff after a significant surge. Source: TradingView

Low-cap altcoins experiencing violent price swings

Adventure Gold’s token is not the only low-cap cryptocurrency experiencing suspect price action.

Crypto cash-back project StormX’s token has seemingly experienced market manipulation amid what a Binance customer service rep calls an “emergency incident of the STMX contract.”

Over the past 24 hours, the 268th-ranked cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko, surged from $0.0063 to nearly $0.015 before retracing fully.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

StormX token price fluctuates wildly amid ’emergency’ contract incident

https://www.theblock.co/post/241051/stormx-stmx-manipulation-binance?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Crypto cash-back project StormX’s token has seemingly experienced market manipulation amid what a Binance customer service rep calls an “emergency incident of the STMX contract.”

“Regarding the emergency incident of the STMX contract, the relevant team is dealing with it urgently,” a Twitter-translated tweet from @sisibinance reads.

The tweet, in translation, continues: “Further information will be synchronized with you later. Please enter the online customer service to fill out the appeal form.”

Neither Sisi nor StormX immediately responded to a request for comment.

StormX’s token is the 268th-ranked cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko. Over the past 24 hours, the STMX price surged from $0.0063 to nearly $0.015.

tradingview chart showing a stormx stmt pump and dump
The price of StormX’s token surged before immediately collapsing today. Source: TradingView

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Alphapo hot wallets drained for $23 million, HypeDrop disables withdrawals

https://www.theblock.co/post/241048/alphapo-hot-wallets-drained-for-23-million-hypedrop-disables-withdrawals?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Crypto payments processor Alphapo — which processes payments for HypeDrop, Bovada, Ignition and other gambling services — has had its hot wallets drained for at least $23 million on Ethereum, Tron and Bitcoin, according to ZachXBT.

The funds stolen on Ethereum were swapped for ether before being bridged to Avalanche and Bitcoin, the on-chain sleuth noted.

The amount of bitcoin stolen from Alphapo is currently undetermined.

HypeDrop disables withdrawals

Alphapo customer HypeDrop has disabled withdrawals.

“Our provider is currently working to solve some recent issues from their side; they are facing problems specifically related to withdrawals of BTC, ETH, and TRX, as well as deposits for ETH and TRX,” the project’s verified Twitter account stated in multiple replies.

“We are actively monitoring the situation with them and will provide you with an update when more information is available,” it added, before noting that “if your payment has been affected, your funds are secure.”

HypeDrop did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Ripple CEO throws more shade at SEC for ‘creating this mess’

https://www.theblock.co/post/241045/ripple-ceo-blames-sec-mess?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse responded to the ongoing battle between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission via a pair of tweets on Saturday.

“An important topic has come up about protecting retail,” Garlinghouse tweeted.

“The SEC created this mess by proclaiming it was the cop on the crypto beat when it had no legal jurisdiction,” he said, adding: “Where’s that gotten us? Consumers left holding the bag in bankruptcy court while the SEC holds press conferences.”

SEC lawyers: ‘Those portions of Ripple were wrongly decided’

Garlinghouse’s comments come a day after lawyers for the SEC used a separate ongoing enforcement case — against Terraform Labs and its former CEO, Do Kwon — to preview an expected appeal of last week’s split decision against Ripple Labs.

“Respectfully, those portions of Ripple were wrongly decided, and this Court should not follow them,” SEC lawyers argued in filing to Judge Jed Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

“SEC staff is considering the various available avenues for further review and intends to recommend that the SEC seek such review,” they added.

Garlinghouse: legislation is the only way forward

In response, Garlinghouse shared his opinion that “it’s absurd to blame a Judge for faithfully applying the law.”

“We all know legislation — not more regulation by enforcement — is the only way forward to provide clear rules and protect retail,” he said, adding: “Glad to see more members of Congress like Rep. Ritchie Torres and Patrick McHenry champion this.”

An appeal in the Ripple case — should it come — would go to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Haru Invest suspends deposit and withdrawal requests

https://www.theblock.co/post/234366/haru-invest-deposit-withdrawal-suspension?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Haru Invest has suspended deposit and withdrawal requests until further notice as of 12:40 a.m. UTC today.

“Recently, we have come across a certain issue with one of the service partners we have worked with,” the South Korea-founded and Singapore-based crypto investment platform explained, adding: “We are now further investigating the issue with them and seeking the contingency plan to rectify the situation.” It has not shared further information on the service partners in question.

“For the purpose of protecting our users’ assets under our custody, we have come to make a tough decision that any deposit and withdrawal requests will be suspended until further notice,” it declared.

The platform’s co-founder and former CTO, Eunkwang Joo, tweeted that there may be a situation developing internally at the company but suspects it is not malicious.

CEO Hyung-soo Lee issued a statement that claims the company’s Seoul office is empty for employee-safety reasons.

Haru Invest did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Updated to provide additional information. This story is developing and may be updated further.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Binance criminal indictment may already be filed under seal, former SEC chief says

https://www.theblock.co/post/234349/binance-criminal-indictment-john-reed-stark?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

John Reed Stark argues that the United States Department of Justice will file — or has already filed under seal — a Binance-related criminal indictment.

“There exist a litany of indicators that U.S. DOJ will file, or has already filed under seal, a Binance-related criminal indictment,” the 19-year Securities and Exchange Commission veteran and former SEC Office of Internet Enforcement chief tweeted.

“To me, the CFTC and SEC complaints read more like criminal indictments, replete with allegations of fraud, deception, obstruction of justice and money laundering,” Reed added.

Binance under siege from regulators

The SEC sued Binance, the largest crypto exchange by volume, over several violations of the country’s securities laws on June 5. The regulator also filed a motion to freeze crypto assets held by Binance.US and owner Changpeng Zhao.

A 76-page Commodities and Futures Trading Commission complaint, meanwhile, claims certain parties at the exchange were aware that some were using the exchange for criminal activities — drawing parallels to collapsed rival FTX — but leaves the door open for the DOJ to charge the exchange on money laundering.

“Neither the CFTC or SEC case intensely focus on money laundering,” Reed noted. In his opinion, “that is the prosecutorial space that has been carved out and reserved for a U.S. DOJ criminal prosecution relating to Binance.”

“My take is that U.S. DOJ is working with the SEC, CFTC and multiple informants/whistleblowers, and the next axe to fall is the filing, or unsealing of, Binance-related criminal charges,” Reed concluded, adding: “Fail not at your peril.”

In preparation for its legal defense against regulators in the U.S., Binance.US added four lawyers from Milbank LLP to its legal team — including former co-director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, George Canellos.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.