Category: Cryptocurrency News

Crypto exchange OKX has temporarily paused its decentralized exchange aggregator to prevent “further misuse” by North Korean hacking collective Lazarus Group.“Recently, we detected a coordinated effort by Lazarus group to misuse our defi services,” said OKX on March 17.“After consulting with regulators, we made the proactive decision to temporarily suspend our DEX aggregator services. This move allows us to implement additional upgrades to prevent further misuse.” The OKX helpdesk confirmed that the DEX aggregator was temporarily suspended for an “internal review and upgrade” but did not provide a timeline. It added that crypto wallet services will remain available to all customers, but it will “pause new wallet creation in select markets during this time.”Source: OKXOn March 11, Bloomberg reported that European Union financial watchdogs were investigating the firm’s DEX aggregator, called OKX Web3, and its wallet services for their alleged role in laundering funds from the Bybit hack.“Over the past few days, we’ve faced targeted media attacks questioning our integrity and operations,” the firm stated in a blog post. It added that it “can’t ignore the fact that these attacks are happening at a time when we are actively fighting against financial crime.”According to Bybit CEO Ben Zhou, nearly $100 million from the $1.5 billion Bybit hack had been laundered through OKX’s Web3 proxy, with a portion of the funds now untraceable.OKX responded on March 11, stating that the “Bloomberg article is misleading,” saying that when Bybit was hacked, OKX reacted in two ways: by freezing associated funds from moving into its CEX, and developing the new hack detection features.Related: Lazarus Group sends 400 ETH to Tornado Cash, deploys new malwareOKX stated that the goal is to ensure that explorers properly highlight the actual DEX processing trades “rather than mistakenly identifying our aggregator as the point of trade.”The exchange has already deployed a “hacker address detection system” for its DEX aggregator in addition to a system to track the hacker’s latest addresses and block them on its centralized exchange in real time.“We already rolled out a lot of controls for OKX Web3 to fight with the misuse, including prohibited markets’ IP blocking and real-time black address detection and blocking system,” said OKX CEO Star Xu on March 17.The firm also clarified that the OKX Web3 DEX aggregator is not a custodian of customer assets, adding that its function is to provide access to liquidity across multiple protocols. However, “some have deliberately misrepresented our platform,” it said. Magazine: ETH may bottom at $1.6K, SEC delays multiple crypto ETFs, and more: Hodler’s Digest

Crypto exchange OKX has temporarily paused its decentralized exchange aggregator to prevent “further misuse” by North Korean hacking collective Lazarus Group.“Recently, we detected a coordinated effort by Lazarus group to misuse our defi services,” said OKX on March 17.“After consulting with regulators, we made the proactive decision to temporarily suspend our DEX aggregator services. This move allows us to implement additional upgrades to prevent further misuse.” The OKX helpdesk confirmed that the DEX aggregator was temporarily suspended for an “internal review and upgrade” but did not provide a timeline. It added that crypto wallet services will remain available to all customers, but it will “pause new wallet creation in select markets during this time.”Source: OKXOn March 11, Bloomberg reported that European Union financial watchdogs were investigating the firm’s DEX aggregator, called OKX Web3, and its wallet services for their alleged role in laundering funds from the Bybit hack.“Over the past few days, we’ve faced targeted media attacks questioning our integrity and operations,” the firm stated in a blog post. It added that it “can’t ignore the fact that these attacks are happening at a time when we are actively fighting against financial crime.”According to Bybit CEO Ben Zhou, nearly $100 million from the $1.5 billion Bybit hack had been laundered through OKX’s Web3 proxy, with a portion of the funds now untraceable.OKX responded on March 11, stating that the “Bloomberg article is misleading,” saying that when Bybit was hacked, OKX reacted in two ways: by freezing associated funds from moving into its CEX, and developing the new hack detection features.Related: Lazarus Group sends 400 ETH to Tornado Cash, deploys new malwareOKX stated that the goal is to ensure that explorers properly highlight the actual DEX processing trades “rather than mistakenly identifying our aggregator as the point of trade.”The exchange has already deployed a “hacker address detection system” for its DEX aggregator in addition to a system to track the hacker’s latest addresses and block them on its centralized exchange in real time.“We already rolled out a lot of controls for OKX Web3 to fight with the misuse, including prohibited markets’ IP blocking and real-time black address detection and blocking system,” said OKX CEO Star Xu on March 17.The firm also clarified that the OKX Web3 DEX aggregator is not a custodian of customer assets, adding that its function is to provide access to liquidity across multiple protocols. However, “some have deliberately misrepresented our platform,” it said. Magazine: ETH may bottom at $1.6K, SEC delays multiple crypto ETFs, and more: Hodler’s Digest

The Bank of Korea says it is taking a “cautious approach” to potentially including Bitcoin as a foreign exchange reserve.Officials from the Korean central bank said in a March 16 response to a written inquiry that they have not looked into a potential Bitcoin (BTC) reserve, citing high volatility. Responding to a question from Representative Cha Gyu-geun of the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee, central bankers said that they have “neither discussed nor reviewed the possible inclusion of Bitcoin in foreign exchange reserves, adding that “a cautious approach is needed,” according to the Korea Herald.“Bitcoin’s price volatility is very high,” the central bank noted, before adding that “in the case of cryptocurrency market instability, transaction costs to cash out Bitcoins could rise drastically.”Over the past 30 days, Bitcoin prices have swung wildly between $98,000 and $76,000 before settling at current levels of around $83,000 in a 15% decline since Feb. 16, according to CoinGecko. The decision comes amid increasing global discussions on the role of crypto assets in national financial strategies, sparked by US President Donald Trump’s executive order earlier this month establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile.  At a seminar on March 6, crypto industry lobbyists and some members of Korea’s Democratic Party urged the country to integrate Bitcoin into its national reserves and develop a won-backed stablecoin. However, the Bank of Korea emphasized that its foreign exchange reserves must have liquidity and be immediately usable when needed, as well as a credit rating of investment grade or higher, criteria that Bitcoin does not meet, in its opinion. Professor Yang Jun-seok of the Catholic University of Korea concurred, stating, “It is appropriate for foreign exchange to be held in proportion to the currencies of countries with which we trade.”Professor Kang Tae-soo from the KAIST Graduate School of Finance commented on the US being likely to leverage stablecoins rather than BTC to maintain dollar hegemony before adding, “Whether the IMF will recognize stablecoins as foreign exchange reserves in the future is important.”Related: Democrat lawmaker urges Treasury to cease Trump’s Bitcoin reserve plansEarlier this month, South Korea’s financial regulator examined the Japanese Financial Services Agency’s legislative trend toward crypto assets as it mulls lifting a ban on crypto exchange-traded funds in the country.Magazine: ETH may bottom at $1.6K, SEC delays multiple crypto ETFs, and more: Hodler’s Digest

The Bank of Korea says it is taking a “cautious approach” to potentially including Bitcoin as a foreign exchange reserve.Officials from the Korean central bank said in a March 16 response to a written inquiry that they have not looked into a potential Bitcoin (BTC) reserve, citing high volatility. Responding to a question from Representative Cha Gyu-geun of the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee, central bankers said that they have “neither discussed nor reviewed the possible inclusion of Bitcoin in foreign exchange reserves, adding that “a cautious approach is needed,” according to the Korea Herald.“Bitcoin’s price volatility is very high,” the central bank noted, before adding that “in the case of cryptocurrency market instability, transaction costs to cash out Bitcoins could rise drastically.”Over the past 30 days, Bitcoin prices have swung wildly between $98,000 and $76,000 before settling at current levels of around $83,000 in a 15% decline since Feb. 16, according to CoinGecko. The decision comes amid increasing global discussions on the role of crypto assets in national financial strategies, sparked by US President Donald Trump’s executive order earlier this month establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile.  At a seminar on March 6, crypto industry lobbyists and some members of Korea’s Democratic Party urged the country to integrate Bitcoin into its national reserves and develop a won-backed stablecoin. However, the Bank of Korea emphasized that its foreign exchange reserves must have liquidity and be immediately usable when needed, as well as a credit rating of investment grade or higher, criteria that Bitcoin does not meet, in its opinion. Professor Yang Jun-seok of the Catholic University of Korea concurred, stating, “It is appropriate for foreign exchange to be held in proportion to the currencies of countries with which we trade.”Professor Kang Tae-soo from the KAIST Graduate School of Finance commented on the US being likely to leverage stablecoins rather than BTC to maintain dollar hegemony before adding, “Whether the IMF will recognize stablecoins as foreign exchange reserves in the future is important.”Related: Democrat lawmaker urges Treasury to cease Trump’s Bitcoin reserve plansEarlier this month, South Korea’s financial regulator examined the Japanese Financial Services Agency’s legislative trend toward crypto assets as it mulls lifting a ban on crypto exchange-traded funds in the country.Magazine: ETH may bottom at $1.6K, SEC delays multiple crypto ETFs, and more: Hodler’s Digest

The Bank of Korea says it is taking a “cautious approach” to potentially including Bitcoin as a foreign exchange reserve.Officials from the Korean central bank said in a March 16 response to a written inquiry that they have not looked into a potential Bitcoin (BTC) reserve, citing high volatility. Responding to a question from Representative Cha Gyu-geun of the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee, central bankers said that they have “neither discussed nor reviewed the possible inclusion of Bitcoin in foreign exchange reserves, adding that “a cautious approach is needed,” according to the Korea Herald.“Bitcoin’s price volatility is very high,” the central bank noted, before adding that “in the case of cryptocurrency market instability, transaction costs to cash out Bitcoins could rise drastically.”Over the past 30 days, Bitcoin prices have swung wildly between $98,000 and $76,000 before settling at current levels of around $83,000 in a 15% decline since Feb. 16, according to CoinGecko. The decision comes amid increasing global discussions on the role of crypto assets in national financial strategies, sparked by US President Donald Trump’s executive order earlier this month establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile.  At a seminar on March 6, crypto industry lobbyists and some members of Korea’s Democratic Party urged the country to integrate Bitcoin into its national reserves and develop a won-backed stablecoin. However, the Bank of Korea emphasized that its foreign exchange reserves must have liquidity and be immediately usable when needed, as well as a credit rating of investment grade or higher, criteria that Bitcoin does not meet, in its opinion. Professor Yang Jun-seok of the Catholic University of Korea concurred, stating, “It is appropriate for foreign exchange to be held in proportion to the currencies of countries with which we trade.”Professor Kang Tae-soo from the KAIST Graduate School of Finance commented on the US being likely to leverage stablecoins rather than BTC to maintain dollar hegemony before adding, “Whether the IMF will recognize stablecoins as foreign exchange reserves in the future is important.”Related: Democrat lawmaker urges Treasury to cease Trump’s Bitcoin reserve plansEarlier this month, South Korea’s financial regulator examined the Japanese Financial Services Agency’s legislative trend toward crypto assets as it mulls lifting a ban on crypto exchange-traded funds in the country.Magazine: ETH may bottom at $1.6K, SEC delays multiple crypto ETFs, and more: Hodler’s Digest

The Bank of Korea says it is taking a “cautious approach” to potentially including Bitcoin as a foreign exchange reserve.Officials from the Korean central bank said in a March 16 response to a written inquiry that they have not looked into a potential Bitcoin (BTC) reserve, citing high volatility. Responding to a question from Representative Cha Gyu-geun of the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee, central bankers said that they have “neither discussed nor reviewed the possible inclusion of Bitcoin in foreign exchange reserves, adding that “a cautious approach is needed,” according to the Korea Herald.“Bitcoin’s price volatility is very high,” the central bank noted, before adding that “in the case of cryptocurrency market instability, transaction costs to cash out Bitcoins could rise drastically.”Over the past 30 days, Bitcoin prices have swung wildly between $98,000 and $76,000 before settling at current levels of around $83,000 in a 15% decline since Feb. 16, according to CoinGecko. The decision comes amid increasing global discussions on the role of crypto assets in national financial strategies, sparked by US President Donald Trump’s executive order earlier this month establishing a strategic Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile.  At a seminar on March 6, crypto industry lobbyists, and some members of Korea’s Democratic Party urged the country to integrate Bitcoin into its national reserves and develop a won-backed stablecoin. However, the Bank of Korea emphasized that its foreign exchange reserves must have liquidity and be immediately usable when needed, as well as a credit rating of investment grade or higher, criteria that Bitcoin does not meet, in its opinion. Professor Yang Jun-seok of Catholic University of Korea concurred, stating “it is appropriate for foreign exchange to be held in proportion to the currencies of countries with which we trade,”Professor Kang Tae-soo from the KAIST Graduate School of Finance commented on the US being likely to leverage stablecoins rather than BTC to maintain dollar hegemony before adding, “Whether the IMF will recognize stablecoins as foreign exchange reserves in the future is important.”Related: Democrat lawmaker urges Treasury to cease Trump’s Bitcoin reserve plansEarlier this month, South Korea’s financial regulator examined the Japanese Financial Services Agency’s legislative trend toward crypto assets as it mulls lifting a ban on crypto exchange-traded funds in the country.Magazine: ETH may bottom at $1.6K, SEC delays multiple crypto ETFs, and more: Hodler’s Digest

Coinbase is deepening ties with 145 U.S. government entities as the nation accelerates bitcoin adoption, signaling unprecedented institutional demand and a seismic shift in crypto policy. Coinbase Strengthens Ties With Governments as US Embraces Bitcoin Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong highlighted the company’s expanding partnerships with government entities in a social media post last week. He […]

Crypto platform Debiex has been ordered to pay around $2.5 million after it failed to respond to a US Commodity Futures Trading Commission suit accusing it of being a romance scam ring.Arizona federal court Judge Douglas Rayes on March 13 granted the CFTC’s earlier motion for summary judgment in its case and ordered Debiex to pay back around $2.26 million it stole from its customers, along with a civil penalty of nearly $221,500.Judge Rayes said there was no evidence that Debiex’s failure to respond to the CFTC was the result of “excusable neglect.”The CFTC sued Debiex in January 2024, saying its staff ran a so-called “pig butchering” scam, where they initiated romantic relationships with customers over social media to gain trust to convince them to invest in the platform.The scheme hooked five victims who deposited around $2.3 million in total onto Debiex, which the purported trading platform stole, the CFTC said.A highlighted excerpt of Judge Rayes’ order summarizing the CFTC’s case against Debiex, Source: CourtListenerThe CFTC also accused Zhāng Chéng Yáng of being a “money mule” for Debiex, whose crypto wallets were used to accept and steal victims’ funds.Judge Rayes granted a CFTC motion for default judgment against Zhāng on March 12, finding it adequately alleged he controls a crypto wallet with OKX “that received digital assets to which he had no legitimate claim.”He said OKX was “voluntarily preserving” the crypto in Zhāng’s account and ordered its contents, consisting of $5.70 worth of Tether (USDT) and nearly 63 Ether (ETH) worth around $119,500, to be transferred to an unnamed victim.The CFTC said in its January 2024 complaint that Debiex’s scheme saw its unknown managers target potential victims through social media to lure them to websites it had created marketing itself as a “Blockchain Network Decentralized perpetual contract trading platform” where users can conduct futures trading and “Mining transactions.”Related: Four suspects charged in home invasion of streamer Amouranth Debiex’s staff would present as females and built a rapport with victims through “continuous and repeated messaging and sharing purported pictures of themselves” while claiming to be “highly successful digital asset commodities traders,” the CFTC said.Once an account was created and the customers sent over their crypto, the CFTC said Debiex would share “fictitious information” about customer balances, trading positions and profits.“All of this information was most likely false,” the CFTC said. “The evidence shows that the Customers’ digital assets were simply sent to numerous digital asset wallets in an attempt to obfuscate their destination.”Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered