| Take a look at the hits from today's Inside Cryptocurrency newsletter: - Vast Bank's decision to shut down its mobile crypto banking app,
- Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's prediction on Bitcoin's future price,
- The five-hour outage on the Solana network, and more.
Enjoy your reading! Doğa
p/dogayurduneri | |
| 1 | | The U.S.-based banking institution Vast Bank has recently announced that it shut down its mobile crypto banking app, Vast Crypto Mobile Banking, as part of its plans to exit the crypto industry. The platform was removed from Apple and Google's app stores on Jan. 31. More: - As part of the decision, the firm also closed user accounts on the app and refunded the user assets held in custody through liquidation.
- Vast Bank entered the crypto industry in 2019, becoming the first U.S. banking institution to allow its customers to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies alongside a traditional checking account.
- In 2021, the bank partnered with Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, and SAP, a German software company, for its crypto banking app.
- However, the firm received a consent order from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in late 2023, which accused the bank of engaging in unsafe or unsound practices affecting risk management and control.
- Following the order, Vast Bank announced that it would exit the crypto industry and refocus its efforts on traditional banking, citing an unclear regulatory environment in the digital banking space and macroeconomic headwinds.
Zoom Out: - U.S. regulators have increased their crackdown on the crypto industry over the past years, which confronted many crypto firms, such as Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, Bittrex, Kraken, and Gemini, with enforcement actions.
- The country has yet to establish a regulatory framework for the crypto market, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), claiming jurisdiction in the industry, argued that crypto firms should simply follow existing securities laws.
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| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: Singapore-based mobile crypto payment app Oobit's native token, OBT, has recently experienced a significant price increase. The token's value jumped to as much as $0.1309 on Monday, surging by 63% from the $0.079 level a few hours earlier. Then, the cryptocurrency saw a slight price decline and started hovering above $0.10, though it did not retreat to the levels seen in the previous day. Relevance: The sudden jump in OBT's price came shortly after Oobit raised $25M in funding in its latest financing round. The investment round was led by stablecoin issuer Tether's investment arm, Hong Kong-based venture capital (VC) firm CMCC Global's Titan Fund, technology investment firm 468 Capital, and the Solana blockchain network's co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko. Following the round, Oobit announced its plans to expand its services into new regions, including Asia Pacific, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Canada, and Australia, beyond its primary markets of the European Union (EU) and the U.K. The firm also said it plans to use the new funding to extend its app's capabilities and integrate third-party wallets to transform its platform into a non-custodial crypto payments app. A company spokesperson said it would announce several partnerships in the coming months. Oobit's app allows users to pay with crypto at more than 100 million retailers where Visa and Mastercard are accepted worldwide while enabling merchants to receive payments in fiat currencies. Brands that should care: Within the past several months, several other crypto-related firms, such as Sygnum, Blockchain.com, Line Next, Wormhole, GFO-X, Fnality, and HashKey Group, have conducted successful fundraising rounds, securing millions of dollars of new investments. | | | |
| 3 | | The Solana blockchain has experienced the year's first major outage on its main network, which caused a halt in the block progression. Following a five-hour outage, the network is back online, returning to its normal operations. More: - The incident was first flagged when some social media users reported that the Solana blockchain had not produced a block in over 25 minutes, while its usual block production takes around 400 milliseconds.
- The breakdown also impacted crypto exchanges like Upbit, forcing them to suspend deposits and withdrawals for Solana-based tokens.
- Shortly after the reports, the team behind Solana confirmed the outage, stating that core engineers and validators were actively investigating the incident.
- Then, the network developers released a new validator software containing a patch to address the issue.
- The issue was fixed after an upgrade and restart on the network, bringing Solana online again.
Zoom Out: - The previous outage on Solana emerged in February 2023.
- However, the network, launched in 2020, went offline for almost 18 hours in 2021 and suffered a series of outages in 2022.
- The latest incident was the 11th outage on the network in the past two years.
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| 4 | | South Korean prosecutors have announced that three executives of the troubled crypto investment platform Haru Invest, including the CEO, were arrested and detained over embezzlement allegations. The officials accused the executives of stealing nearly $830M in crypto from 16,000 Haru Invest customers. More: - The prosecution pointed out that the executives misappropriated most customer deposits from March 2020 to June 2023 while falsely advertising Haru Invest as a platform using risk-free investment techniques.
- The arrest came nearly eight months after Haru Invest and one of its partners, Delio, consecutively suspended user withdrawals.
- Haru Invest also laid off more than 100 employees shortly after halting withdrawals and deposits.
- At the time, the firm showed the alleged fraudulent activity at its partner B&S Holdings as the main cause of the service suspensions while Delio cited increased market volatility and the troubles at Haru Invest.
- Haru Invest also filed a criminal complaint against B&S Holdings, accusing the firm of deceiving by providing false management reports.
- Similarly, Delio and Haru Invest customers have simultaneously filed class-action lawsuits against the firms' executives as the local prosecutors blocked key members of Delio, Haru Invest, and B&S Holdings from leaving the country.
Zoom Out: - In January, South Korean prosecutors also issued an arrest warrant for a key person of interest, who owns the majority of B&S Holdings shares, on fraud and breach of trust charges as part of their investigation into ongoing withdrawal suspensions on Delio and Haru Invest.
- Haru Invest, launched in 2019, promised to offer annual interest rates of up to 12% on crypto deposits to investors.
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| 5 | | A new website dubbed OnlyFake has managed to pass many crypto exchanges' Know Your Customer (KYC) identity verification checks by creating fake driver licenses and passports through AI. Generating a fake ID on the site costs only $15 apiece and takes less than a minute. More: - The platform can generate realistic driver licenses and passports from 26 countries, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, and multiple European Union (EU) countries.
- In the photos, the fake IDs appear to be opened on kitchen countertops, bedsheets, carpets, and desktops, just as they would look when someone takes a photo of an ID requested for online verification.
- The site receives payments through crypto exchange Coinbase's commercial payments service.
- OnlyFake's pseudonymous owner, John Wick, said the fake IDs generated through the site can bypass the checks on many crypto-related platforms, including Binance, Kraken, Bybit, HTX, Coinbase, Revolut, Bitget, PayPal, and OKX.
- The platform can create 100 fake IDs simultaneously using Excel spreadsheet data.
- The service further offers image metadata spoofing in which users can forge the location, date, time, and device data that is checked by some identity verification services to determine authenticity.
- However, OnlyFake claims that its templates are only designed to be used in movies, TV shows, and web illustrations, underlining that it does not generate images for document forgery as it is illegal.
Zoom Out: - In recent months, many industry experts have expressed their concerns about the widespread and easy access to AI tools since they can be used by scammers and hackers to open accounts on crypto exchanges using fake documents, protecting their real identities.
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| 6 | | Speaking in a recent podcast, the U.S.-based tech giant Apple's co-founder, Steve Wozniak, stated that Bitcoin (BTC) is a safer asset class compared to other digital assets like NFTs. During the interview, Wozniak also said he is confident that Bitcoin would surpass the $100,000 level. More: - Apple co-founder pointed out that cryptocurrencies will probably never replace fiat currencies entirely, highlighting the enduring nature of traditional financial systems rooted in human history.
- The co-founder also expressed concerns about the increasing scams and fraudulent schemes targeting investors in the crypto and NFT space.
- However, Wozniak did not keep himself from praising Bitcoin, defining it as the big elephant on the block and a beacon of stability.
- He said Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is more resilient than other digital assets thanks to its established presence and conservative appeal.
- In the podcast, Wozniak further admitted that he dabbled in Bitcoin in its nascent stages to explore the mechanics of digital transactions, underlining that he never used the popular cryptocurrency purely to generate profit.
Zoom Out: - Steve Wozniak, who is also an electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor, co-founded Apple Computer in 1976 with his early business partner, Steve Jobs.
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- A former developer of Terraform Labs, the firm behind the collapsed Terra ecosystem, has testified against the co-founders, Do Kwon and Daniel Shin, accusing the two of marketing the firm's stablecoin as a potential payment option while knowing that regulations did not allow it.
- A U.S. judge has ordered the blockchain-based payment protocol firm Ripple Labs to hand over its historical financial statements, fulfilling the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's request.
- The U.K.-headquartered crypto mining firm Argo Blockchain has revealed that its daily Bitcoin production declined by 20% in January compared to the previous month.
- During a recent interview, former U.S. President Donald Trump labeled central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and AI as dangerous and scary.
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 | Staff Writer | | Doga is a tech and science editor who has been writing news for nearly 10 years. She worked for leading tech platforms and mainstrem media channels as an editor and presenter throughout his career. Then, she carried her know-how to more than one platform. She is a part-time cat lover and binge-watcher, and also fond of science, space, and emerging tech. She always has a story to tell. She is a bit addict to the laughter and -unfortunately- the '90s culture. | | This newsletter was edited by Aaron Crutchfield | |
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