Crypto in bold: Binance woes, difficult Bitcoin, legal Tornado, USDC game, friend.tech drama, and more

As bitcoin (BTC) struggled to recover this week, the crypto market was abuzz with its new hyped project, and law enforcement made several announcements as well. Additionally, there were several negative reports impacting the market’s largest exchange Binance. Below, we’ve highlighted these stories and others for you, allowing you to catch up on the entire week in just a few minutes.

Source: defillama.com

Legal Matters and Crimes

The US has sent yet another unsettling signal to the crypto market and privacy advocates, a move that could impact legal enforcement in other countries as well. Developers of the privacy-focused crypto mixer Tornado Cash are facing charges of money laundering, sanctions violations, and illegal money transmission business. Meanwhile, crypto market lobbyists Coin Center point out that the charges brought, such as illegal money transmission business, contradict the stance of other regulators that developers of software like Tornado aren’t considered money transmitters.

I'm struggling to think of something, anything useful to say about the tragic mistake that is the DOJ's decision to treat privacy and speech as crimes.I'm blank.

— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) August 23, 2023 The former product lead of one of the largest centralized NFT platforms, OpenSea, Nate Chastain, has been sentenced to 3 months in jail in the US for NFT insider trading. He has also been fined $50,000.The FBI has warned that the notorious North Korean hacking group Lazarus, linked to the country, might attempt to sell BTC worth $40 million.It is reported that a group of 50 Russian and CIS crypto enthusiasts are preparing a class-action lawsuit against the Estonia-registered Atomic Wallet, from which more than $100 million was stolen in June.Meanwhile, the Israeli police have accused a prominent crypto investor, Moshe Hogeg, and his business partners, of being involved in a $290 million crypto fraud scheme.

NFTs

Yet another NFT platform, RECUR, known for its partnerships with prominent figures, is shutting down. Additionally, Nifty’s has also declared its withdrawal from the market earlier in August.At the time of writing, in the past month, among the top 10 NFT collections (based on market capitalization), only four collections saw an increase in their floor price, which is the lowest price for an item from the collection at that time. Meanwhile, Donald Trump‘s NFTs appreciated in value following his interview with Tucker Carlson on Wednesday.

Source: nftpricefloor.com, August 25

Have something to add? Let us know at [email protected]