Ishan Wahi, a former product manager at Coinbase Global Inc., has admitted to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a case that U.S. prosecutors have labeled as the first insider trading case involving cryptocurrency. Ex-Coinbase manager pleads guilty in insider trading case https://t.co/i6fG3c3wHc pic.twitter.com/zKfjqnNpzT — Reuters (@Reuters) February 7, 2023 According to a report by Reuters, the prosecutors claimed that Wahi disclosed private information to his brother Nikhil and friend Sameer Ramani, regarding imminent announcements of new digital assets that Coinbase would enable users to trade. The announcement later caused assets to rise in value, allowing Nikhil …

The devastating earthquake that hit Turkey on Feb 6 has left a trail of destruction in its wake, affecting numerous communities and individuals. In response to the tragedy, cryptocurrency exchangeBinance has announced that it will airdrop $100 USD worth of BNB tokens to all Binance users residing in regions hardest hit by the earthquake. The process of identifying eligible users will involve checking Proof of Address (POA) submissions made before February 6th in ten cities affected by the earthquake, including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Malatya, Şanlıurfa, and Osmaniye. Time to take care of our users. ❤️#Binance to …

Are phygital NFTs the future? The world could be tokenized, and NFTs could be the means through which we perform commerce. Could that be the future? Phygital nonfungible tokens have a strong value add and can be a part of any brand’s community initiatives. Considering the fact they are new, there is a buzz around them that brands can benefit from. With many Web2 incumbents and digital native companies jumping on the bandwagon, phygital NFTs are poised to be a major part of the community and marketing initiatives of companies. However, the widespread adoption of phygital NFTs will likely depend …

Data from Etherscan shows that some crypto scammers are targeting users with a new trick that allows them to confirm a transaction from the victim’s wallet, but without having the victim’s private key. The attack can only be performed for transactions of 0 value. However, it may cause some users to accidentally send tokens to the attacker as a result of cutting and pasting from a hijacked transaction history. Blockchain security firm SlowMist discovered the new technique in December and revealed it in a blog post. Since then, both SafePal and Etherscan have adopted mitigation techniques to limit its effect …

Liquid staking protocol Lido is set to roll out staking reward withdrawals and improved staking architecture with the announcement of the upcoming Lido V2 upgrade. Two major focal points of the planned upgrade include Lido’s introduction of its new Staking Router and the enabling of withdrawals for Ethereum (ETH) stakers. The Staking Router introduces a modular architectural design allowing the development of on-ramps for new node operators, including solo stakers, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and distributed validator technology clusters. The latter is a protocol that allows validator duties to be shared across multiple nodes. The Staking Router is envisaged to …

The financial technology (fintech) industry has its roots in the late 20th century, with the advent of electronic banking and online stock trading. Since then, fintech has expanded and changed over time as a result of technological and internet advances. As a result, new financial services and products have been created with the intention of enhancing accessibility, simplicity and effectiveness in the financial services industry. The 2008 global financial crisis aided the growth of fintech by increasing customer demand for non-traditional banking and financial services. By enabling customers to access financial services from any location at any time, the rise …

Metamask Snaps aims to facilitate a ‘multichain future,’ allowing the Ethereum-based wallet service to support non-native blockchains and tokens for the Web3 economy. Details of the latest in-development addition to Metamask’s growing ecosystem were unpacked at the StarkWare Sessions event in Tel Aviv, Israel, in Feb. 2023. Speaking to Cointelegraph Magazine editor Andrew Fenton, Alex Jupiter, the senior product manager at Metamask Snaps, revealed details about potential blockchain synergies. The last 18 months have seen the development of Snaps speed up after the success of Metamask Swaps, which brought token swap functionality to the service’s native browser extension. As Jupiter …

A confidential United Nations report has revealed North Korean hackers stole more crypto assets in 2022 than in any other year so far. The UN report, seen by Reuters, was reportedly submitted to a 15-member North Korea sanctions committee last week. It found North Korean-linked hackers were responsible for between $630 million and more than $1 billion in stolen crypto assets last year and targeted networks of foreign aerospace and defense companies. The UN report also noted that cyber attacks were more sophisticated than in previous years, making tracing stolen funds more difficult than ever. "[North Korea] used increasingly sophisticated …

Newly proposed advertising rules in the United Kingdom could potentially see executives of crypto firms face up to two years of prison for failing to meet certain requirements around promotion, according to the U.K. financial watchdog. In a Feb. 6 statement, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) revealed that if the proposed "Financial promotions regime" is approved by Parliament, all crypto firms in the country and overseas would have to follow certain requirements when advertising their crypto services to U.K. customers. “Cryptoasset businesses marketing to UK consumers, including firms based overseas, must get ready for this regime,” said the FCA. …

United Kingdom-based neo-banking platform Revolut, which boasts 25 million customers globally, has introduced crypto staking to its U.K. and European Economic Area (EEA) customers. According to a report by London-based news agency altfi, the staking feature is expected to go live this week, allowing users to generate income on their crypto assets during its "soft testing" phase. At present, the staking feature is available for Polkadot (DOT), Tezos (XTZ), Cardano (ADA), and Ether (ETH) crypto assets, with yields ranging from 2.99% to 11.65%. However, these yields are not guaranteed. In cryptocurrency, staking is a process where an individual holds or …

On Feb. 6, European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares published its “Digital Asset Fund Flows Report,” which revealed that investors are showing a strong interest in digital asset investment products, with inflows totaling $76 million last week, marking the fourth consecutive week of inflows. The report indicates a change in investor sentiment for the start of 2023, with year-to-date inflows now at $230 million. This growth has led to an increase in total assets under management (AUM), which now stands at $30.3 billion — the highest since mid-August 2022. Investors are primarily focusing on Bitcoin (BTC), with weekly inflows of $69 …

The future of decentralized social media Traditional Web2 social media platforms are plagued by fundamental problems such as censorship, lack of users’ privacy and demonetization. Decentralization is a potential solution. Many of Web2’s major social media are already looking for a way out by making steps forward to Web3 and decentralization. For instance, Reddit touted community points, which are ERC-20 tokens that users can earn by posting quality content and contributing to online communities. To do so, Reddit is working with Arbitrum, a layer 2 protocol designed to scale Ether (ETH) transactions. Twitter rolled out support for NFTs, allowing users …