United States crypto exchange Binance US has created a new “investigations unit” and tapped a former FBI special agent as its new head, with the aim of seeking out and stopping illegal activity on its platform. The “investigations unit” is a brand new unit within the U.S. crypto exchange, the firm's head of legal Krishna Juvvadi confirmed to Cointelegraph and sees former FBI agent BJ Kang become the company’s first “head of investigations.” The role will see him partnering with law enforcement, regulators, and even other exchanges to seek out and stop illegal activity on its platform, Kang will also …

Sources say that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe into Yuga Labs is actually part of a wider investigation into the nonfungible token (NFT) market, which already came to light in March. On Oct. 11, a report from Bloomberg citing a source “familiar with the matter” said the SEC is investigating Yuga Labs over whether certain NFTs are “more akin to stocks” and whether the sales of certain digital assets violate federal laws. However, Cointelegraph understands that the investigation is part of the ongoing SEC probe into the wider NFT market, which is looking at whether certain NFTs …

The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has made an unprecedented claim that Ethereum transactions take place in the United States as ETH nodes are “clustered more densely” in the United States than any other country. The SEC argument is found within a Sept. 19 lawsuit against crypto researcher and YouTuber Ian Balina, which alleged, among many other complaints, that Balina conducted an unregistered offering of Sparkster (SPRK) tokens when he formed an investing pool on Telegram in 2018. The SEC claims that at the time that U.S.-based investors participated in Balina’s investing pool, the ETH contributions were validated by a network …

Helping investigate a $265,000 hack on decentralized crypto exchange KyberSwap, crypto exchange Binance narrowed down two suspects that seem responsible for the attack. On Sept. 1, Kyber Network succumbed to a frontend exploit, allowing the attacker to make away with $265,000 worth of user funds from KyberSwap. While investigations were underway, KyberSwap offered a 10% bounty — of roughly $40,000 — to the hacker as means to remediate the situation. Parallelly, based on an independent investigation, Binance’s security team identified two suspects that may be responsible for orchestrating the virtual heist. Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao confirmed that the intel …

The domino effect of the 2022 bear market, which saw the downfall of numerous crypto ecosystems and tokens over several months, caught up to GARI token as it tanked over 83% in value in a matter of hours on Monday. While GARI Network brushed off the development as a “market event,” investors suspect a rug pull event. GARI token was launched by Salman Khan, an A-list celebrity from Bollywood, with an aim to help Indian creators monetize their content over a short video application Chingari and its nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Trading View show …

XCarnival, a liquidity provider for the Ethereum ecosystem, recovered 1,467 Ether (ETH) just a day after suffering an exploit that drained 3,087 ETH, worth roughly $3.8 million, from the protocol. Blockchain investigator Peckshield noticed the XCarnival hack as it came across a stream of transactions that eventually bled 3,087 ETH from the protocol. Explaining the nature of the exploit, Peckshield stated: “The hack is made possible by allowing a withdrawn pledged NFT to be still used as the collateral, which is then exploited by the hacker to drain assets from the pool.” Soon after the revelation, XCarnival proactively informed the …

Hacktivist group Anonymous has pledged to “make sure” Terra co-founder Do Kwon is “brought to justice as soon as possible” in regard to the collapse of the Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST) ecosystems in May. On Sunday, a video purportedly coming from the Anonymous hacker group rehashed a laundry list of Kwon’s alleged wrongdoings, including cashing out $80 million each month from LUNA and UST prior to its collapse, as well as his role in the fall of stable coin Basis Cash, for which Do Kwon allegedly co-created under the pseudonym “Rick Sanchez” in late 2020: “Do Kwon, if you …

A video released by investigative YouTuber Philip Rusnack, known as Philion, has revived the debate over whether Yuga Labs’ flagship Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) nonfungible token (NFT) collection employs racist imagery and white supremacist esotericism. In the hour-long video released Monday on YouTube, Rusnack laid out his case, claiming that BAYC is “one massive alt-right inside joke” using language, symbols and memes from the anonymous image board website 4chan. He alleged the NFT images featured racist caricatures of Black and Asian people and drew comparisons between the symbology and language used by Yuga Labs and the BAYC with that …

Terraform Labs employees are reportedly unable to leave South Korea due to the country’s prosecutors imposing a departure ban on key developers of the project. On Monday, Korean media outlet JTBC reported that an investigation team from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutor’s Office imposed a travel ban on key team members of Terraform Labs. The ban was put into place to eliminate the possibility of key officials within the company fleeing abroad to avoid further investigation. The report also highlighted that Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon, who is a key figure in the investigation, is currently residing in Singapore, which …

Securities regulators from five U.S. states have reportedly opened an investigation into crypto lending platform Celsius Network over its decision to suspend user withdrawals. According to a Thursday report from Reuters, Texas State Securities Board director of enforcement division Joseph Rotunda said regulators in Alabama, Kentucky, New Jersey, Texas and Washington began investigating Celsius after the platform announced it would be “pausing all withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts.” Rotunda reportedly called the investigation a “priority” for the Texas regulator and confirmed to Cointelegraph the enforcement division was "looking at the issue involving the frozen accounts." "I am very concerned …

Terra (LUNA2) reversed a portion of the losses this June 9 as its price per token rose by as much as 67.5% on the day, catching many traders off-guard with their perpetual swap positions. LUNA2 traders are shorting it In detail, LUNA2's price soared from $2 to as high as $3.58. The volatile intraday move coincided with the liquidation of nearly $4 million worth of LUNA2 trades on Binance and Bybit, including $2.46 million worth of short positions, data from Coinglass shows. Interestingly, LUNA2's funding rates across Binance and Bybit remained negative, suggesting that traders are still short despite the …

On Friday, South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) began an investigation into payment gateway services that work with digital assets. The FSS is South Korea’s financial regulator that operates under the Financial Services Commission (FSC), both of which are government institutions. As reported by local news outlet Money Today Co., the FSS had recently demanded reports from 157 payment gateways about any service related to crypto, its plans for the future and disclosure of digital assets. But, an FSS report stated that only six held any digital assets. Related: How Terra’s collapse will impact future stablecoin regulations Although the FSS …