FTX users have until Sept. 29 to file their bankruptcy claims.
Several users of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX are being targeted by a potential phishing attack after being sent a “reset password” request from the exchange’s official customer support email.
The email, which has been reviewed and verified by CoinDesk, was sent by support@ftx.com – the official email address before the exchange collapsed in November.
The password reset link routes to the FTX claims portal that allows users to submit bankruptcy claims for assets they held on the platform before its demise.
Mossab Hussein, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Spidersilk, said the surprising emails can be attributed to one of two options: “It’s either FTX itself sending those emails [to notify them of the claims portal] and giving people a scare. Or, someone has “a list” of emails and is bruteforce resetting their credentials via the portal.”
If a hacker gained access to user’s personal email addresses, they could feasibly gain access to a claimant’s account and divert funds to their personal wallet.
FTX spokespersons didn’t respond to request for comment immediately.
On Monday, many FTX users received an email from Kroll, the restructuring administrators of FTX, explaining that the deadline for claims is set for September 29, 2023.
FTX owes roughly $8.1 billion to customers after it imploded in a pool of leverage and illiquid tokens last November in an event that ravaged the wider crypto market.
The Financial Conduct Authority will consult on rules once the government gives it the necessary powers, the regulator said in its annual report.
The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is designing prudential requirements for firms carrying out crypto activities.
The regulator, which is in charge of maintaining a registry of crypto firms approved for operations under the country’s anti-money laundering requirements, will also consult on prudential rules for companies engaged in crypto activities once the “Treasury and Parliament bring those activities under our regulation,” the regulator said in its annual report published Thursday.
The FCA did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment on the timeline for receiving regulatory powers.
The regulator already has a prudential regime for investment firms like fund managers, asset managers and trading firms that are based in the U.K. The regime requires firms to assess capital adequacy and risk to identify potential harm to investors and provide appropriate resources to mitigate harm.
Last year, the FCA put out a notice for firms with exposure to crypto companies, urging them to “have appropriate systems and controls to counter the risk of being misused for financial crime,” and review if the firms they work with are registered crypto companies.
The FCA, which was approved for a host of new powers under a recently passed financial markets bill, stands to be the U.K.’s key crypto watchdog as the country explores its ambition to be a global hub for the sector.
CoinDesk has reached out to the FCA for further comment.
The embattled Harbour Trade credit pool minted $1.5 million of DAI stablecoin secured with loans to a consumer electronics firm, which defaulted on $2.1 million of debt.
DAI stablecoin issuer MakerDAO’s community has decided to halt lending to a tokenized credit pool on the Centrifuge protocol after accruing $2.1 million of loan defaults.
In a governance vote that concluded Thursday at 12 p.m. (ET), voters unanimously favored stopping additional lending to the embattled credit pool, managed by fintech firm Harbor Trade. Maker is led by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), where those who hold MKR tokens can participate in governance decisions.
“While Harbor Trade has verbally committed to cease additional draws and voluntarily wind down the vault, community members have expressed concern about the existing 7 million Debt Ceiling and the risk of potentially increasing exposure to this vault,” a MakerDAO governance post said.
Maker’s $4.5 billion stablecoin DAI is backed by debt positions overcollateralized by cryptocurrencies, and increasingly, tokenized versions of loans and bonds, to earn a yield.
The Harbor Trade credit pool minted some $1.5 million of DAI stablecoins from MakerDAO and secured them with loans made to a consumer electronics firm. The borrower firm failed to pay down $2.1 million of debt matured in April.
Harbor Trade is “actively engaged in the workout process” and forecasts “a meaningful or full recovery,” according to MakerDAO, but the procedure could take six months or more.
Bitcoin investors have been unmoved by recent macroeconomic data. Muted reactions suggest that they’ve already priced in much of what has occurred
Initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending July 15, declined to 228,000, 9,000 lower than the prior week, and below expectations for 242,000. The second, consecutive weekly decline reflects a persistently strong labor market and
It also marks the mild reaction to significant macroeconomic events over the past 10 days.
BTC prices moved less than 2% after last week’s Consumer Price Index, Non-Farm Payrolls and Quarterly GDP growth.
The knee-jerk narrative for cryptocurrencies for today’s release is that tight labor markets prolong any chance that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will halt interest rate increases. This would likely limit crypto prices.
The real-time crypto market reaction suggests that crypto investors have already included this into their investment calculus. So while a lid appears to be on bitcoin prices, its appears to be a light one, applying minimal downward pressure
BTC prices fell 0.22% during the 8 AM ET hour, following the data release. Ether by comparison sank 0.25%. Both declines occurred on lower than average volume, illustrating the muted impact of what has become a recurring theme for U.S. labor markets.
The 4-week average of jobless claims declined for the third consecutive week. If the FOMC is looking for weaker job growth before pivoting to a lower interest rate environment, this news would not support such a move.
Further exacerbating tight labor markets is higher median earnings for wage and salaried workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, second quarter median earnings for full- time wage and salary workers was 5.7% higher than a year prior, compared to a current 4% increase in Consumer Prices.
While inflation has been steadily declining, labor markets and overall earnings’ strength would likely cause prices to rise, were the FOMC to forego a rate hike. Market expectations for a 25 basis point (bps) increase on July 26 are now 99.8%, up from 98% a day prior.
Crypto investors seem unfazed with bitcoin levels almost identical to where they stood 30 days ago. The same holds true for Ether, as both assets have been trading near their respective 20-day moving averages.
Momentum for both is neutral as well. Their respective Relative Strength Index (RSI) figures sit near 50, signaling neither bullish nor bearish sentiment.
Tech stocks such as Tesla and Netflix, which crypto prices tend to correlate with, sold off during the day as investors shied away from risk assets.
Cryptocurrencies slid lower Thursday with bitcoin (BTC) revisiting the bottom threshold of its month-long trading range, while Chainlink’s LINK rallied solo among the largest crypto assets.
BTC’s price dipped to as low as $29,593 during the afternoon hours, near its lowest point in a month. The largest cryptocurrency by market value has been see-sawing in a tight channel since June 21, bouncing from the $29,500 level multiple times to trade as high as $31,809.
Ether (ETH) buckled below $1,900 to change hands 1% lower than 24 hours ago.
Ripple’s XRP pared some of its impressive gains from previous days, dropping some 6% in the last 24 hours. The token’s price almost doubled to 93 cents a week ago, following a partial court victory against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). After the decline, it was still trading at around 79 cents.
LINK, the native token of the Chainlink ecosystem, defied the market slump and was the only crypto asset with sizable gains among the 40 largest tokens by market capitalization.
The token surged 15% through the day above $8 for the first time in nearly three months as some large investors – whales in crypto jargon – acquired $6 million of tokens. The price action came after Chainlink released this week an interoperability protocol that facilitates communication between blockchains and banks, tested by interbank communication system Swift.
The CoinDesk Market Index, which tracks the performance of a basket of digital assets, gained early in the day then retreated and was down 1.26% over the last 24 hours.
Crypto investors might have been concerned by a sell-off in tech stocks. The NASDAQ 100 index (NDQ) declined 2% during the day, as investors dumped shares of tech giants Tesla (TSLA) and Netflix (NFLX) after their underwhelming quarterly earnings reports, dropping some 9%.
Cryptocurrency prices have a history of correlating with risk assets such as the tech-heavy NDQ, although the relationship has wobbled this year.
“Seems like we are just having a risk-off day in general after a massive run for weeks, with investors taking profits and rebalancing,” Brett Sifling, director at investment firm Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, told CoinDesk in a call.
The exchange is requiring Coinbase Borrow customers with outstanding loan balances to pay them back by November 20.
Coinbase Borrow, a program that allowed customers to receive fiat loans of up to $1 million against as much as 30% of their bitcoin (BTC) holdings, will be shutting down over the coming months as the company focuses its resources on products that “customers care about most,” a spokesperson told CoinDesk Thursday.
Customers who hold loans through the program will have until November 20, 2023 to pay back any outstanding loan balances.
“We have notified impacted loan holders and are taking extra measures to ensure a smooth transition for them, including providing a four-month loan repayment period and access to prioritized customer support through Coinbase One,” according to a statement sent to CoinDesk. Coinbase One is a monthly subscription product with multiple benefits for traders.
Coinbase announced in May that it was no longer allowing Coinbase Borrow customers to take out new loans as part of a regular process of re-evaluating its products.
The California-based exchange has been under increased scrutiny by U.S. regulators, specifically the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for its operations in the U.S., and has been doubling down on its businesses elsewhere.
A spokesperson told CoinDesk back in May that the shutdown of Coinbase Borrow was simply due to reduced demand.
The bill aims to set out clear rules for the digital assets ecosystem.
U.S. House Republicans introduced a new digital assets oversight bill on Thursday that aims to establish a regulatory framework to protect investors in the crypto sector.
“Today’s introduction of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act marks a significant milestone in the House Committees on Agriculture and Financial Services efforts to establish a much-needed regulatory framework that protects consumers and investors and fosters American leadership in the digital asset space,” said Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Pa.) in a statement.
The bill, first drafted in early June, aims to lay down a regulatory path for crypto exchanges to register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and would enable them to trade digital securities, commodities and stablecoins all in one place.
“The crypto industry wants clarity and our collaborative bill gives both the CFTC and SEC a seat at the table. Our bill establishes clear principles to ensure financial security and certainty as digital asset developers continue to innovate,” said Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) in the statement.
The U.S. DOJ also wants to ban the disgraced FTX founder and all parties involved in the case from making any out of court statements in the future.
ABD Adalet Bakanlığı (DOJ), eski FTX CEO’su Sam Bankman-Fried’i Caroline Ellison’ın özel günlüğünü New York Times’a sızdırmakla suçladı.
Suçlama, NYT’nin Ellison’ın özel düşüncelerini içeren bir makale yayınlamasının ardından DOJ’un davadaki tanıklar ve diğer taraflar tarafından yapılan tüm mahkeme dışı ifadelerin yasaklanmasını istemesine yol açtı.
ABD Avukatları, “Sanığın eylemleri -Caroline Ellison’ın kişisel yazılarını bir New York Times muhabiriyle paylaşması-” müstakbel tanıkların ifadesi veya güvenilirliği” ile ilgili materyali yaymanın, varsayımsal olarak adil bir yargılama ve adaletin usulüne uygun idaresi için önemli bir olasılık veya önyargı içerdiğine dair Kural 23.1’in temel endişesini ima ediyor” diye yazdı.
Rule 23.1(a) forbids lawyers and their agents from releasing non-public information about a case if it is likely to interfere with a fair trial.
The attorneys argue that an order restricting extrajudicial statements is necessary due to the intense media attention this case has received and the defendant’s attempt to manipulate media coverage to his advantage.
They also say that the defendant’s actions may taint the jury pool and constitute harassment of Ellison. They are also concerned that this would deter other potential trial witnesses from testifying due to fear of public humiliation and personal discrediting.
This request comes as FTX’s interim leadership has filed a separate civil case against Bankman-Fried, Ellison, and other executives seeking to recover cash and reverse transactions that are collectively worth over $1 billion.
Davadaki iddialar arasında Bankman-Fried’in 10 milyon dolarlık FTX.US fonunu kişisel hesabına yönlendirdiği, kardeşi Gabriel’in ada ülkesi Nauru’yu vakıf fonlarıyla satın almayı planladığı ve karma şirket-müşteri fonları kullanılarak siyasi olarak 100 milyon doların üzerinde bağış yapıldığı yer alıyor.
Davaya göre Ellison, büyük bir FTX nakit krizi sırasında kendisine 22,5 milyon dolarlık bir ikramiye verdi.
A bunch of actual hamsters are racing on a new platform, and returns-starved traders are placing BUSD-based bets on who wins.
Bitcoin (BTC) yatay seyrederken ve merkezi olmayan finans (DeFi) sektörü, ayı piyasası durgunluğundan tamamen kurtulamadığı için, kripto tüccarları getiri elde etmenin yeni bir yolunu buldu.
Blockchain tabanlı platform Hamsters.gg, kullanıcıların gerçek hamster yarışlarına bahis oynamasına izin verir. “Hamsterler gerçek ve bahisler gerçek. Hamsterler bir parkurda koşuyor ve bitiş çizgisini geçen ilk hamster kazanıyor,” diye açıklıyor site.
“Rocky” ve “Buster” gibi yıldız hamster yarışçıları şimdiden yarış başına 500$’a varan bahisler çekiyor. “CK” gibi diğerleri o kadar şanslı değil – 326 yarış kaybediyor; sadece 8 kazanıyor. Görünüşe göre bu yarışlar birkaç saatte bir gerçekleşiyor, bu sırada bir sohbet kutusu aydınlanıyor, en az 1.000 izleyici çekiyor ve sanal bira ve sosisli sandviç emojileriyle tamamlanıyor.
“Sipping wine, betting on hamster racing…does it get any better than this?,” a recent message on the Hamsters chatbox reads. Some others are trying to mathematically win: “Whos got some stats on these hamsters? do we have weight classes?”
Crypto traders has a knack for jumping on gambling platforms and memecoins, mainly after the rise of tokens such as dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB) – which jumped to tens of billions in market capitalization in the previous bull market.
Anyone can call a smart contract and issue tokens on Ethereum (or other blockchains) for a few cents, and the presence of decentralized exchanges means tokens can instantly be issued, supplied with liquidity and traded soon after.
Most of these do not last beyond a few weeks. Last year saw hopefuls bet on articles from the English language to McDonald’s branded Grimacecoins, both of which fell to nearly zero after a few weeks of trading. But some, like Pepecoin (PEPE), jump to billions in market capitalization and seem to become big-name projects.
Data shows HamstersGG went live earlier in July and live-streamed a series of races through Twitch on Thursday. Bets could be placed via U.S. dollar-pegged binance USD (BUSD) by depositing tokens from either Ethereum or BNB Chain.
Racer “Teddy” won a race in Asian morning hours – raking in thousands of dollars for those who bet on its victory. (Hamsters.gg)
And – to little surprise – there’s a HAMS token as well. A whitepaper on the Hamsters.gg site explains the platform takes a 5% cut of all bets, of which 4% is distributed to HAMS token holders.
The Ethereum-based HAMS has zooted to over $6 million capitalization nearly overnight. On-chain data shows each HAMS exchanges hands for 60 cents at writing time in Asian morning hours, a nearly 1,000% increase compared to Thursday. A Uniswap pool holds $450,000 in liquidity and has garnered $9 million in trading volumes over the past 24 hours.
Bu arada, Hamsters.gg geliştiricileri bunun yeni hamster bahis platformunun sadece başlangıcı olduğunu söylüyor. Geçen hafta bir tweet’te “Vizyonumuz uzun vadeli geliştirme ve ölçeklenebilirlik. Bu proje üzerinde üç aydan fazla bir süredir çalışıyoruz ve kendimizi sürdürülebilir ve gelişen bir ekosistem oluşturmaya adadık” dediler.
Gülünç ya da değil. Eğlenceli. Tıpkı kriptonun vahşi batısının olması gerektiği gibi.
Interest on the ETF’s cash balances helps offset the cost of rolling from one set of futures to the next, ensuring a low performance discrepancy, the firm said.
İlk ABD bitcoin vadeli işlem bağlantılı borsa yatırım fonunun (ETF) düzenleyicisi olan ProShares, türevlerin ticaretiyle ilgili maliyetlerin izleme hatalarına yol açacağına dair endişelerin asılsız olduğunu ve ürünün ilk günden beri bitcoin’in spot fiyat performansını yakından taklit ettiğini söyledi.
ProShares Bitcoin Strateji Fonu, Ekim 2021’de New York Menkul Kıymetler Borsasında BITO kodu altında işlem görmeye başladı ve yatırımcıların kripto para birimine sahip olmak zorunda kalmadan bitcoin’e (BTC) maruz kalmalarını sağladı. Dünyanın en büyük kripto fonu olan ETF, Chicago Mercantile Exchange’de (CME) listelenen düzenlenmiş ve nakit ödemeli bitcoin vadeli işlemlerine yatırım yapıyor.
From the very beginning, observers speculated BITO and other futures-based ETFs would significantly underperform bitcoin due to costs associated with rolling over, or selling expiring futures contracts and buying the next set. Usually, longer-dated futures contracts trade at a premium to those closer to expiry, a condition known as contango. The contango tends to steepen during bull runs, and the steeper the contango, the higher the costs, and the so-called contango bleed.
“Concerns about the roll costs are misguided; BITO has closely tracked bitcoin’s price since inception,” Simeon Hyman, global investment strategist at ProShares, told CoinDesk in an email interview. “Since its inception (through 7/18), BITO has returned -54.5% compared to -51.5% for bitcoin. And over half of that modest difference is BITO’s fee of 95bps per annum.”
Bitcoin’s recent rally and the resulting widening of contango at the end of June have revived concerns about the roll costs and strengthened calls for spot-based ETFs, which invest directly in bitcoin and eliminate the need to roll over positions. Since June 15, a number of traditional finance giants like BlackRock, Invesco and others have filed applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for spot-based bitcoin ETFs.
According to Hyman, BITO continues to closely track the spot price as the fund’s interest income from cash holdings compensates for the roll costs, which are closely tied to the level of interest rates in the U.S. economy.
“For a financial future with no storage costs, as is the case with the CME bitcoin futures, the futures contract premium should be in the ballpark of the term-equivalent interest rate. The Fed’s raising of the benchmark interest rate by 500 basis points since March 2022 has been a key driver of those premiums, and consequently the roll costs of a bitcoin futures strategy,” Hyman said.
“Here’s the key piece of the puzzle. BITO earns interest on its cash balances which are driven by those same term-equivalent interest rates, which offset the roll costs. The result is close tracking to the price movements of spot bitcoin,” Hyman added.
As Hyman says, one component of futures prices is interest rates, and the U.S. Federal Reserve has lifted its target range to 5%-5.25% to control inflation. Other variables include the price of the underlying asset, storage costs and convenience yield. The CME bitcoin futures are cash-settled, so there also no storage costs.
BITO earns interest from its cash holdings. The interest income is paid out in monthly dividends and covers the roll decay in the fund. BITO has paid dividends six times this year.
20 Temmuz itibarıyla ProShares, diğer varlıklar ve 28 Temmuz ve 25 Ağustos’ta sona eren CME vadeli işlem sözleşmeleriyle birlikte Hazine bonolarını elinde tutuyordu. (ProShares) (ProShares)
Potansiyel spot ETF’lerin yatırımcıları vadeli işlemlere dayalı ürünlerden uzaklaştırıp uzaklaştırmayacağı sorulduğunda Hyman, var olmayan ürünler hakkında spekülasyon yapmanın zor olduğunu söyledi.
Hyman, “BITO’nun performans ve akış geçmişi, bir ETF ve yatırımcı ilgisi dahilinde bir bitcoin vadeli işlem stratejisinin etkinliğinin bir kanıtıdır” dedi.
18 Temmuz itibariyle, ProShares ETF’nin yönetimi altında 1,1 milyar dolarlık varlığa sahipti. Yılbaşından bugüne 336,2 milyon dolarlık giriş gördü. Fon, başlangıcından bu yana 2,2 milyar dolarlık yatırımcı parası biriktirdi.
Piyasa, kurumsal para için taşkın kapaklarının kilidini açmak için spot tabanlı ETF’lerin potansiyel bir lansmanını bekliyor.
