‘Crypto Mugger’ Gets 10-year Jail Term + More News
Crypto Briefs is your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
Crime news
- An attacker who assaulted Kyu-hoon “Spunky” Hwang, the famous South Korean crypto YouTuber, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail, reports E Daily. A court in Seoul heard that the attacker, a 50-year-old man, beat the YouTuber around the head with an iron bar, and then handcuffed his victim to a railing in an elevator in the latter’s apartment building. A second attacker, who had fled to Australia, is also set to stand trial. The men wanted to get their hands on a USB stick that the YouTuber was carrying and conducted a “brutal and premeditated attack.”
- The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control today said that it sanctioned two Chinese nationals involved in laundering stolen cryptocurrency from a 2018 cyber intrusion against a cryptocurrency exchange. This cyber intrusion is linked to Lazarus Group, a U.S.-designated North Korean state-sponsored malicious cyber group.
Adoption news
- This past weekend, Huobi Group launched testnet of Huobi Chain, an open-source public blockchain designed for providing a global, blockchain-based, digital asset financial infrastructure. Created in partnership with technical development partner Nervos, Huobi Chain provides a “regulator-friendly” blockchain framework for financial organizations to deploy DeFi (decentralized finance) services and applications, including their own blockchains, tokenized assets, payments and identity verification, lending services, decentralized exchanges, and more, the company said.
- Seoul is set to launch a blockchain-powered democracy platform that will let citizens have their say on city government proposals, reports Fn News. The city authorities say that the new platform will boost transparency and help eliminate fraud and forgery attempts on civic proposal votes – and could also lower the threshold for votes. Currently, Seoul only offers votes on cases involving 500+ people – but the new platform could allow as few as 100 people to cast vote on proposals.
- Lloyd’s has launched a new insurance policy to protect cryptocurrency held in online wallets against theft or other malicious hacks, reported Institutional Asset Manager. The first of its kind liability policy, with flexible limits from as little as GBP 1,000 (USD 1,278), was created by Lloyd’s syndicate Atrium in conjunction with Coincover to protect against losses arising from the theft of cryptocurrency held in online, hot wallets, according to the report.
Exchanges news
- Rakuten’s cryptocurrency exchange has begun margin trading services for five cryptoassets. Per an official announcement, the Rakuten Wallet app will allow leveraged trades for Rakuten Bank account holders who want to trade bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ethereum (ETH), XRP, and litecoin (LTC). Rakuten is one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in Japan. Interestingly, the post states that margin trading will be set at a x2 maximum, in line with the regulatory Financial Services Agency’s proposed x2 leverage cap.
- South Korean exchange Coinone is set to hire new blockchain staff, and wants to expand its blockchain business, reports CCTV News. The exchange, which is one of the country’s “big four” platforms, wants to commercialize a range of blockchain services, and is looking to fill a number of developer, engineer and project management roles.
- Liquid Value VC, the investment arm of Beijing-headquartered Sino Global Capital, announced an unspecified Series B investment in FTX Exchange, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange.
- Binance said that starting today, their users will be able to “instantly” deposit and withdraw Turkish Lira (TRY) on Binance via desktop and the iOS App, as the exchange partnered with Akbank, a major Turkish bank.
Career news
- Fressets, a Japanese cryptocurrency wallet management solution provider has appointed Yosuke Yuzuki, a member of the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA), a group that comprises the country’s licensed crypto exchanges, as its Chief Operating Officer. Yuzuki, an initial public offerings (IPO) and tax accountant specialist, has been charged with developing cryptocurrency wallets for corporations, per a press release. Fressets has previously received financial backing from the likes of Ceres and the University of Tokyo’s venture capital arm.
