Damian Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has petitioned the court to delay civil proceedings against former FTX chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried “until the conclusion of the parallel criminal case”. In Feb. 7 filings, Williams requested that the court issue an order staying civil proceedings as well as discovery from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission against Bankman-Fried until after his criminal case, scheduled to go to trial in October. According to Williams, the criminal case against Bankman-Fried was “likely to have a significant impact” on the SEC and …

ConsenSys issued a statement Feb. 7 in support of the appeal of the of Jarrett v. United States case concerning the taxation of staking rewards. The case originated in a dispute over a refund of about $4,000 that Joshua and Jessica Jarrett claimed on XTZ tokens they validated in 2019. The Jarretts claimed their staking rewards should be treated as property and taxable only on upon their sale. After the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ignored their refund claim, the Jarretts filed suit. They issued the refund in 2022, but the Jarretts refused it, preferring to pursue their legal case. …

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 …

Avalanche (AVAX) witnessed a meteoric start to 2023, gaining 98% in 30 days, and traders are now curious about whether the rally will extend throughout February. AVAX’s year-to-date gains for 2023 have outpaced those of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Recent reasons for AVAX’s rally can be attributed to an Amazon partnership announcement on Jan. 11. The partnership is meant to easily deploy nodes on the Avalanche blockchain with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Ava Labs, which supports the Avalanche ecosystem, hopes the partnership increases blockchain usage for enterprises and governments. While AVAX price has benefited from the news, some analysts …

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 …

A federal judge has denied a joint agreement between Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal team and prosecutors which would have allowed the former FTX CEO to use certain messaging apps. In a Feb. 7 filing for United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Lewis Kaplan denied a motion proposing Bankman-Fried be allowed to use messaging services including FaceTime, Zoom, and Facebook Messenger. The judge did not provide a reason for denying the motion "without prejudice", but added the matter would be subject to oral arguments in a Feb. 9 hearing. Prosecutors filed a motion in January suggesting …

A massive earthquake hit southeastern Turkey along the border with Syria on Feb. 6, which has so far caused the death of more than 5,000 people. The quake had a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, which is internationally categorized as a “major” earthquake, and occurred along 100km (62 miles) of the fault line. Infrastructure in the area suffered major damages, resulting in a deadly cross-border humanitarian disaster. However, the world was quick to respond. Across the internet and various social media platforms, people have been gathering funds for local and international aid organizations to provide relief to those …

Canada-based cryptocurrency mining company Hut 8 Mining has announced plans to merge with U.S. Bitcoin to form Hut 8 Corp, or "New Hut". In a Feb. 7 announcement, Hut 8 said the boards of directors of the two firms had unanimously approved a definitive business combination agreement aimed at combining the mining firms in what will become a United States-based business. Once the deal is finalized, Hut 8 Mining and U.S. Bitcoin, or USBTC, will become subsidiaries of New Hut, with shareholders collectively owning 50% of the new merged firm. "Bringing together Hut 8's operational track record and diversified revenue …

It’s no secret venture capitalists react to prevailing market conditions when making decisions, and amid global economic uncertainty, entrepreneurs from across industries are finding that VC funds are more difficult to come by these days. This is especially true for crypto and blockchain companies, which have to overcome not only a knowledge barrier but also the lingering fear aroused by recent bad behavior from certain high-profile crypto founders and firms. Crypto pioneers who became accustomed to a free-flowing tap of VC cash during the industry’s early heyday may need to adjust their mindset and approach to be successful when seeking …

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 …

In January, the brother of a former Coinbase product manager was sentenced to 10 months in prison for wire fraud conspiracy in what prosecutors called the first case of insider trading involving cryptocurrencies. In September 2022, Nikhil Wahi entered a guilty plea for executing trades based on private data obtained from his brother, Ishan Wahi, a former product manager for Coinbase. Most countries have laws against insider trading, which carry stiff penalties like jail time and heavy fines. The recent insider trading investigation against crypto exchanges by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission indicates that regulatory bodies are prepared …

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 …