Spain has imposed a three-month ban on Worldcoin, prompting a strong response from Sam Altman’s company due to concerns about privacy risks associated with the project’s use of iris scanning for a digital ID and free cryptocurrency. Spain’s data protection authority AEPD announced on Wednesday that it has demanded Worldcoin immediately stop collecting personal data and stop using the data it has already collected. Worldcoin said in response to the ban that AEPD is “circumventing EU law” and “spreading inaccurate and misleading claims about our technology”. AEPD said its action…

A recent study suggests that pig-butchering scammers have potentially swindled over $75 billion from victims globally, a significantly higher amount than previously thought. John Griffin, an economics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and graduate student Kevin Mei collected crypto addresses from more than 4,000 scam victims. The popularity of fraud has exploded since the pandemic. Using blockchain tracking tools, they tracked the flow of funds from victims to fraudsters, who are mainly in Southeast Asia. Over four years, from January 2020 to February 2024, criminal networks transferred…

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a division of the Finance Ministry in India, has sent show cause notices to nine offshore cryptocurrency and virtual digital assets platforms, such as Binance and Kucoin. These notifications were issued due to their failure to comply with anti-money laundering regulations, potentially dealing a significant blow to the cryptocurrency sector in India. Apart from just the notifications, the FIU has even taken the next step of writing to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) to block the URLs of these nine parties who…

A year after experiencing a $1.5 trillion loss, the prevailing feeling of despair in the cryptocurrency markets has now transformed into a strong desire for wealth. Bitcoin stormed back by more than 160% this year, adding about $530 billion to its market cap. Since then, countless smaller tokens, from the Sam Bankman-Fried-backed Solana to dog- and frog-themed memecoins, popped up as investors again took the risk. An investor who bought $100,000 of Solana at the start of 2023 would now have a profit of over $800,000. Much of the bonanza…

Improved security measures and increased law enforcement actions have resulted in a significant decrease in the amount of funds lost to hackers by crypto projects this year, dropping by approximately 50% to approximately $1.7 billion. According to TRM Labs, which helps clients detect financial crimes, this year will likely “finish with a significantly lower total than 2022” despite all the additional hacks in December. Last year’s $4 billion total in crypto hacks included several major thefts, such as the $600 million-plus attack on the blockchain network connected to the Axie…

After the impressive surge of Bitcoin in recent weeks, smaller and less popular digital currencies are now surpassing it in performance. Cardano was up as much as 30% on Friday, Solana was up around 8% and Avalanche was up 12%. Meanwhile, Bitcoin rose by about 2% and Ether fell by about 1%. Together, the two largest tokens account for about 70% of crypto’s $1.6 trillion market cap. “After the huge rallies Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen, it’s no surprise they’re breathing a little sideways,” said Matt Maley, market strategist at…

According to US prosecutors, Binance Holdings Ltd. had insufficient regulations in place for cryptocurrency transactions on its exchange, allowing terrorists, hackers, and individuals violating sanctions to utilize it as a means to transfer billions of dollars for an extended period of time. Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to criminal charges on Tuesday, admitting they failed to implement basic anti-money laundering measures that are the basis of the government’s efforts to control the flow of dirty money worldwide. Binance will pay $4.3 billion, while Zhao will step down as…

Few individuals will ever face the following dilemma: would you prefer to reside in the United Arab Emirates, where there is no extradition treaty with the US, with a staggering $23 billion, or would you be willing to relinquish a portion of your wealth and potentially endure a prison sentence of 18 months to resolve all legal matters with the US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission? Binance Holdings Ltd CEO Changpeng Zhao seems to have opted for the latter. We don’t know all the details of the…

In a remarkably turbulent two-year period, Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, has emerged as the most influential figure in the cryptocurrency world to face significant challenges. This occurrence is particularly noteworthy given the already unpredictable nature of the industry. Zhao stepped down as CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, after he and the company pleaded guilty on Tuesday to broad US money laundering violations and agreed to pay more than $4 billion in fines. Here are three of the highest-profile crypto leaders who have run afoul of…

Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange globally in terms of trade volume, faced regulatory investigation earlier this year due to its failure to implement proper regulatory and legal measures to prevent illicit activities such as funding terrorism and drug deals, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). On Tuesday, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, admitted guilt and reached a settlement of 4.3 billion dollars. But if you’re new to the world of crypto and want to know what Binance is, why it’s…

Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao, in a groundbreaking move, has decided to resign as CEO of the company and has admitted guilt in relation to US anti-money laundering charges filed by the US Department of Justice. The resolution of this case involves an extraordinary payment of $4.3 billion, aiming to settle a lengthy investigation into the largest cryptocurrency in terms of trade volume. However, it is important to examine the background of Zhao, the mastermind behind this colossal empire that has now faced a downfall, and his agreement to personally pay…

The events of a year ago are permanently ingrained in the minds of those who make a living trading cryptocurrencies. Travis Kling, the head of Ikigai Asset Management, described the day FTX halted withdrawals as the most dreadful day of his career and one of the worst days of his life in a series of tweets on November 7. Just four days later, Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange declared bankruptcy, marking what could be considered the bleakest period in the history of cryptocurrency. “The first few weeks were incredibly brutal. I didn’t…