This week saw regulation top billing as usual, with US law enforcement achieving some notable successes in retrieving stolen crypto funds.
Crypto.com, the popular industry exchange, agreed to pay an eye-watering $700m to acquire the naming rights for Staples Center, home of numerous popular sports franchises, including the Los Angeles Lakers.
However, there were a few unpleasant incidents this week. For one, Robinhood user data was found leaked on the dark web. According to a blog post by Robinhood confirming the accident, its servers were hacked on November 3, and the data was up for grabs for a week or two after.
An estimated 330 users had their email, full legal names, date of births and full addresses leaked. The occasional blip in security hasn’t chilled enthusiasm among the crypto community. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Blockchain.com’s founder predicted that crypto is going to get more competitive over the coming years.
Peter Smith predicts that we will see more tokens, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, claw for market share without necessarily been pegged to one another in terms of net value. Of course, the week would not be quite the same without some crypto contrariance.
India has floated the idea of being a little more firm handed on crypto ads as a state. Apparently, many crypto advertisements in the country pivoted around the idea of “immediate riches”, something that the government found dangerous for young investors.
India is not the only state to consider tougher action on crypto, it seems. China, which banned all crypto transactions and operations in September, is now issuing another warning to state companies that may be somehow involved in crypto mining.
In the private sector, Twitter vigilantes have been fighting the good fight and uncovering some dubious practices. In one such instance, an anonymous Twitter user called out the potential link between an airdrop for a project and the fact that the recipients of the airdrops were insiders.
Meanwhile, the gambling world was shocked to find out that Evolution, a respected gaming giant, might have offered its products in illegal markets, leading to the company losing $3bn in stock value.
Shots were exchanged between Robinhood and Coinbase as the companies are still trying to figure out crypto regulation. Where Coinbase offered a framework as to how this may happen, Robinhood had only criticism to offer, dubbing the idea put forward by Coinbase “plain silly”.
The week finished with two important announcements by law enforcement. Apparently, the US Internal Revenue Service has seized $3.5bn in illegal crypto in the fiscal 2021. In a similar case, the Department of Justice managed to retrieve $56m from BitConnect, a now busted crypto scam.
