Die Kursentwicklung sollte nicht über die schnellen Fortschritte im Hinblick auf Institutionen und Nutzer hinwegtäuschen, so Coinbase und Glassnode in einem Bericht zum vierten Quartal.
US prosecutors urge judge to hand Bitfinex hack mastermind five-year sentence
- The Bitfinex crypto hack resulted in the theft of 120,000 Bitcoin
- Ilya Lichtenstein used a series of sophisticated methods to hide the stolen funds between 2016 and 2022
- He told his wife and co-conspirator about the hack in 2020 who then helped him to hide the stolen assets
US prosecutors have told a judge that the mastermind behind the Bitfinex exchange hack should receive five years in prison.
Ilya Lichtenstein, who pleaded guilty last year after stealing 120,000 Bitcoin, was arrested in 2022. His wife and co-conspirator Heather Morgan was also taken into custody, in connection to the 2016 Bitfinex crypto hack. During their arrest, police seized Bitcoin worth around $71 million at the time of the hack.
According to Bloomberg, a court filing was submitted to the US District Court of Columbia, US prosecutors say Lichtenstein should receive a longer sentence than Morgan, also known as rapper Razzlekhan.
Last week, federal prosecutors recommended that Morgan receive an 18-month prison sentence given her “substantial assistance” in the case and the fact that she didn’t know her husband had hacked into Bitfinex.
Prosecutors argued that a stronger sentence for Lichtenstein would help deter young cybercriminals from attempting the same thing. According to them, this online activity is “normalized in a way that trivializes the impact on the victims.”
By giving a tougher sentence, prosecutors believe it will “help to break this cycle.”
Sole responsibility for the hack
While it was initially believed that both of them were involved in the exchange’s hack, Lichtenstein was identified as the primary person responsible.
It was only in 2020 that Morgan found out about what her husband had done and admitted to helping him hide the stolen crypto. Following the hack, Lichtenstein transferred around 120,000 Bitcoin into a self-custody wallet under his control.
Over the next few years, he withdrew 25,000 Bitcoin, laundering the stolen funds through darknet markets, non-compliant virtual currency exchanges, and mixers and tumblers, including Bitcoin Fog, Helix, and ChipMixer.
With Morgan’s help, the pair used the stolen funds to buy nonfungible tokens (NFTs), gold, and Walmart gift cards.
Prosecutors have not pushed the judge to give Lichtenstein the maximum sentence due to his assistance in other criminal cases. For instance, in February, Lichtenstein testified as a government witness in a money-laundering trial against Bitcoin Fog.
The pair are scheduled to be sentenced in November.
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Cosmos co-founder warns of North Korean influence in Cosmos Hub’s LSM
- Cosmos co-founder Jae Kwon alleges North Korean agents helped develop Cosmos Hub’s LSM code.
- Kwon accuses Iqlusion’s Zaki Manian of hiding unresolved security risks.
- Kwon urges an immediate audit and stricter oversight for future implementations.
Cosmos co-founder Jae Kwon has raised serious concerns regarding the integrity of the Cosmos Hub’s liquid staking module (LSM), alleging that significant portions of its development involved individuals linked to North Korea.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Kwon accused Cosmos validator hosting firm Iqlusion and its leader, Zaki Manian, of “gross negligence” in allowing the module’s integration without adequate security vetting.
Cosmos Hub’s LSM developers North Korea agents
According to Kwon, development of the LSM began in August 2021 under the direction of Iqlusion and Manian, with contributions from developers Jun Kai and Sarawut Sanit.
Kwon alleges that these developers were later identified as North Korean agents and had provided a substantial portion of the module’s code.
Despite awareness of their connections since March 2023, Kwon claimed Manian withheld this information and failed to disclose several unresolved security risks associated with the LSM.
The controversy gained traction following Manian’s social media acknowledgement that he had known about the North Korean-linked developers for months. However, instead of taking preventive actions, such as conducting an additional audit or informing the Cosmos community, Kwon stated that Manian continued to assert the module was “ready to be deployed.”
Kwon accused Manian of a “profound breach of trust” for prioritizing deployment over community safety.
Critical vulnerabilities in the LSM
Security issues had already surfaced during a 2022 audit that revealed critical vulnerabilities in the LSM. These vulnerabilities were reportedly addressed by the same North Korean-linked developers.
Kwon suggested that despite Manian’s claim of rewriting the LSM code before deployment, significant risks persisted, especially since the module was not a standalone feature but a set of modifications built atop existing Cosmos staking modules.
This could potentially expose all staked ATOM tokens to security threats.
Kwon has called on the Cosmos governance community to initiate a comprehensive audit of the LSM immediately. Additionally, he urged the Interchain Foundation to impose stricter auditing standards and create an oversight framework to ensure the security of future Cosmos implementations.
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Dogecoin Investors eye Rexas Finance (RXS) as strong alternative for 2025 bull run as DOGE underperforms
Dogecoin (DOGE), a fan-favorite cryptocurrency with a history of community-driven growth, is now a disappointment to many investors. This is because, unlike their counterparts, DOGE has failed to take advantage of the widespread effects of the market movements, which worries a certain section of the community.
While the excitement surrounding Dogecoin may have faded, investors are now seeking, among other things, new promising substitutes. The surge of demand for Rexas Finance (RXS) is worth mentioning in this regard, with the blockchain platform focusing on the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA). That is why many insiders are expecting more upside for Rexas Finance than Dogecoin during the coming bull run.
Backlash against Dogecoin: Price drops and investor disappointment
Over the past several months, Dogecoin has been unable to generate any real upward movement, notwithstanding the expanded uptrend of the overall cryptocurrency market. Now traded at $0.105, CoinMarketCap data showed that there was a 6.06% drop in the value of the DOGE token over a week. The long-gone effect of this strategy has brought concerns to most investors in regard to the return on the token, as it is mildly positive at the position towards future developments.
Recent analysis suggests that if DOGE breaks past the current support level of $0.096 now retained, the cryptocurrency may face more slumps to levels as low as $0.080. Compounding the bearish narrative is an important transaction executed by a Dogecoin whale, who in one recent transaction moved 118 million DOGE, worth $13.3 million, to the Binance exchange. This has raised concerns that the price of the coin will eventually plummet again, thereby causing even more price drops.Still, some groups of analysts have not given up hope for a short-term spike, and the tools that could facilitate that, such as the Relative Strength Index (RSI), are waving for a move up to $0.15, but generally, sentiments towards the cryptocurrency DOGE, more so to the masses, are still pessimistic. Nowadays for a lot of investors, this state of things is causing a great deal of frustration and many have started looking for other currencies that would be able to move up more actively and thoroughly.
Rexas Finance (RXS): A promising alternative
Bucking the downward trend seen with Dogecoin, Rexas Finance (RXS) as on a growth trajectory and some analysts believe it could be well placed for high returns during the next bull run.
Rexas Finance could also offer more sustainable growth due to its inherent utility, allowing and facilitating the tokenization of real estate on its blockchain infrastructure itself. What captivates the users of Rexas Finance is the possibility of using the platform without any special design skills to bring the tokenization of the assets to a broader audience. With proper development and advancement in technology, Rexas Finance has established itself as one of the few players in this new space of tokenization of real-world assets, which is likely to boom in the near future.
Rexas Finance’s impressive presale progress
One of the key factors that has been responsible for the interest generated in Rexas Finance is the success of its presale stages. The platform’s fourth presale stage has shown tremendous success, raising $2,831,856 and selling 66,364,255 RXS tokens at 0.060 USD per RXS token. Even as the next stage is set to take the token price to $0.070, early investors are already making returns, raising even more interest in the project.
Rexas Finance has also initiated the Rexas Millionaire Giveaway, a promotional campaign that will see twenty beneficiaries walk away with 50,000 USDT each. This has resulted in great activity in the community and increased interest in the presale. The continuous inflow of investors in a bid to buy RXS tokens at a cheaper price is indicative of the fact that the platform will be doing quite well even as it heads to 2025.
Could Rexas Finance (RXS) outperform DOGE in 2025?
Due to the current challenges that are surrounding Dogecoin as well as the uncertainty of its future, some investors have continued to ask themselves if DOGE is a coin worth buying for the long term. With the price moving sideways for a long time and the technical indicators suggesting more price declines, DOGE does not seem to have much potential in any of the price spikes expected during the next bull run.
By contrast, Rexas Finance is looking increasingly more attractive to prospective investors, especially those who want to ride on the tokenization of real-life assets, which continues to surge.
With its unique business model, successful presale, and growing support of the community, Rexas Finance is a project that could have plenty of room for growth. As the technology of blockchain develops and becomes more mainstream, projects like Rexas Finance that seek to create useful applications in the real world will probably experience tremendous growth.
Rexas Finance could therefore represent an ideal candidate for Dogecoin investors looking for alternatives to ride the next wave of the cryptocurrency market. Rexas Finance seeks to eradicate most of the barriers associated with asset tokenization all while promising constant improvement.
For more information about Rexas Finance (RXS) visit the links below:
Website: https://rexas.com
Win $1 Million Giveaway: https://bit.ly/Rexas1M
Whitepaper: https://rexas.com/rexas-whitepaper.pdf
Twitter/X: https://x.com/rexasfinance
Telegram: https://t.me/rexasfinance
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MiCA-Verordnung wird globale Stablecoin-Regelungen beeinflussen: Binance begrüßt EU-Regulierung
Die MiCA-Verordnung wird zwar als positiv für die Stablecoin-Regulierung angesehen. Es gibt aber auch Herausforderungen, insbesondere bei kleinen Kryptounternehmen.