Orbit Bridge Lost About $81.5 Million in New Year’s Eve Exploit
Unauthorized Ethereum-vault withdrawals exposed the concentrated operational risk behind cross-chain assets, while the cause remained unknown at the UTC year-end.
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2023.
365 source-dated archive files document the cryptocurrency record for 2023. Each article displays its historical event date and separate actual publication time.
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Bitcoin Led December NFT Sales With $853 Million in Month-to-Date Volume
CryptoSlam data showed Ordinals-related trading ahead of Ethereum and Solana, although the month was incomplete and later datasets produced different totals.
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Spot Bitcoin ETF hopefuls named the firms behind share creation
BlackRock, Fidelity, Valkyrie and Invesco disclosed key trading intermediaries as their proposed funds moved closer to operational readiness without yet receiving SEC approval.
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India put nine offshore crypto exchanges on notice and sought URL blocks
FIU-IND targeted Binance, KuCoin, Kraken and six other platforms, asserting that India’s anti-money-laundering obligations followed their activities rather than their physical location.
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MicroStrategy discloses $615.7 million bitcoin purchase after selling shares
The company added approximately 14,620 BTC as its at-the-market equity program generated $610.1 million in net proceeds.
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Grayscale disclosed Silbert and Murphy would leave its board
The December 26 filing installed a new chairman at the GBTC sponsor as Grayscale separately revised its proposed spot bitcoin product around cash creations and redemptions.
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Mt. Gox Creditors Reported First Yen Repayments Through PayPal
The Christmas-night reports suggested that the failed exchange’s rehabilitation process had begun returning cash to some creditors, although the trustee did not publicly confirm the batch or disclose its size.
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Solana ended December 24 above $112 with a widened lead over BNB
An end-of-day market snapshot put SOL fourth among crypto assets after a 58.43% seven-day advance, while the ranking’s methodology and limits counseled against treating market capitalization as a complete protocol scorecard.
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Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Jumped 6.98% to a Record 72 Trillion
The final retarget of 2023 reflected faster block production and intensified competition among miners approaching the next subsidy halving.
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Nigeria’s Central Bank Reopened Bank Accounts to Regulated Crypto Firms
The new framework permitted designated accounts and settlement services for qualifying virtual-asset providers while preserving a ban on banks trading or holding cryptocurrency for themselves.
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SEC held parallel talks with spot bitcoin fund applicants as filing race tightened
Dated memoranda show agency staff meeting separately with BlackRock, ARK 21Shares and VanEck as proposed spot bitcoin products moved into detailed regulatory discussions.
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Solana Overtook XRP as SOL’s Market Cap Reached $35.2 Billion
An end-of-day market snapshot ranked SOL fifth among crypto assets after a 12.61% 24-hour rise, but the milestone measured circulating value rather than network adoption or investable wealth.
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Montenegro appeals court sent Do Kwon’s extradition case back for rehearing
The court identified procedural defects in the handling of competing South Korean and U.S. requests without deciding Kwon’s liability or eventual destination.
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CFTC disclosed final Binance order requiring $2.7 billion in payments
The court-approved resolution imposed disgorgement, a civil penalty and compliance obligations while requiring Changpeng Zhao to pay another $150 million.
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Bitcoin’s Average Transaction Fee Climbed Above $37 as Inscriptions Crowded Blocks
Users competed for scarce block space while fees supplied more than one-third of miners’ measured gross block rewards during the UTC day.
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Solana Mobile Says Saga Sold Out as BONK Reshapes the Phone’s Economics
A 30 million-token BONK allocation temporarily worth more than the $599 handset turned Solana’s struggling smartphone into a test of crypto-subsidized hardware demand.
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SEC denied Coinbase’s petition for new crypto securities rules
The Commission declined to develop Coinbase’s requested framework, prompting two commissioners to dissent and the exchange to seek appellate review on December 15, 2023.
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Ledger package compromise spread a wallet drainer across dapp front ends
Attackers replaced three versions of a shared wallet-connection library with malicious code, exposing how conventional software dependencies could undermine decentralized-finance interfaces.
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FASB replaced one-way crypto impairment accounting with fair value
The final U.S. accounting standard required qualifying crypto assets to be remeasured each reporting period, bringing both gains and losses into net income.
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KuCoin agreed to pay $5.3 million and leave New York
The consent order also required the offshore exchange to return approximately $16.77 million in assets to 177,800 New York customers and restrict their accounts to withdrawals.
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Warren’s Crypto AML Bill Adds Five Senate Cosponsors
Five senators, including three members of the Senate Banking Committee, joined legislation that proposed extending Bank Secrecy Act duties to wallet providers, miners, validators and other digital-asset participants. The December 11 expansion increased the bill’s institutional weight but did not make its provisions law.
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Avalanche Jumped 16.52% as Bitcoin Finished Nearly Flat
CoinMarketCap’s end-of-UTC-day snapshot placed AVAX first for 24-hour performance among the top 20 crypto assets, recording a sharp divergence from bitcoin and ether.
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Tether extended OFAC wallet freezes to secondary-market USDT
The issuer adopted a voluntary policy covering wallets associated with entries on the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions list, expanding controls beyond its direct platform relationships.
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Grayscale Put Bitcoin ETP Workflows Before SEC Staff on December 8
Grayscale presented cash and in-kind creation models for converting GBTC as spot-bitcoin fund applicants moved from broad arguments toward operational details.
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Basel Committee held its line on permissionless crypto risk
Global bank supervisors said permissionless blockchains still posed risks banks could not sufficiently mitigate, while opening a review of preferential stablecoin treatment.
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Société Générale’s EURCV listing put a bank-issued euro stablecoin on Bitstamp
The December 6, 2023 listing moved EUR CoinVertible beyond private institutional experiments, although whitelisting, untested liquidity and Europe’s pending MiCA rules limited what the milestone established.
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Bitcoin crossed $44,000 for the first time since April 2022
A timestamped Reuters snapshot showed bitcoin gaining 5% as the market repriced pending spot-ETF applications, although fragmented prices and incomplete flow data limited causal conclusions.
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BlackRock and Bitwise Revised Their Spot Bitcoin Fund Plans
The filings exposed different creation and redemption designs while showing that SEC review had advanced into custody, valuation and compliance mechanics.
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Bitcoin crossed $40,000 for the first time since April 2022
A Reuters snapshot placed bitcoin at $40,085 at 22:34 GMT as ETF expectations and changing interest-rate assumptions supported its recovery from the 2022 collapse.
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Bitcoin crossed $39,000 for the first time since April 2022
The December 2, 2023 breakout extended bitcoin’s recovery while U.S. spot-product filings remained proposals rather than approved market access.
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Judge Put SEC’s DEBT Box Freeze Request Under Sanctions Scrutiny
A Utah federal court demanded answers about representations used to freeze a crypto company’s assets while cautioning that it had not decided the SEC’s underlying fraud claims.
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MicroStrategy Added 16,130 Bitcoin After Raising $590.9 Million From Shares
The software company expanded its reported holdings by approximately 10.2% while renewing the equity-market machinery available to finance its bitcoin strategy.
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U.S. sanctioned Sinbad as investigators seized the Bitcoin mixer
Treasury linked the mixing service to North Korea’s Lazarus Group while Dutch and Finnish authorities disrupted its server infrastructure.
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Philippine SEC Said Binance Lacked Authority to Offer Securities
The regulator warned that Binance was not registered locally and extended potential liability to promoters, influencers and other people soliciting Philippine users.
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Federal judge temporarily barred Binance founder Zhao from leaving the United States
The November 27 order kept Changpeng Zhao in the United States while the court reviewed whether his appearance bond adequately addressed the government’s flight-risk concerns.
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Cosmos Hub Entered November 26 With ATOM Inflation Capped at 10%
A narrowly approved governance proposal lowered the network’s maximum inflation parameter from 20% to 10%, sharpening debate over validator economics and the Cosmos Hub security budget.
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Bitcoin Difficulty Rose 5.07% to a Record 67.96 Trillion
The adjustment at block 818,496 marked Bitcoin’s sixth consecutive difficulty increase, raising the work required of miners for the next 2,016-block epoch.
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UK fund blueprint opened a regulated route to tokenisation
An industry-government working group set out a limited blockchain model for authorised funds after an FCA review found no significant regulatory barriers to its baseline design.
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Singapore Finalizes Retail Crypto Restrictions for Regulated Providers
On November 23, 2023, Singapore’s central bank finalized restrictions on crypto-trading incentives, credit, leverage and locally issued card payments while setting broader conduct and technology standards.
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Heco Bridge Drained as HTX Froze Deposits After Linked Attacks
A 10,145 ETH bridge withdrawal and separate hot-wallet losses exposed the privileged controls connecting cross-chain infrastructure with a centralized exchange.
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Binance and Changpeng Zhao Plead Guilty in $4.3 Billion U.S. Resolution
The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange admitted anti-money-laundering, registration and sanctions violations, while its founder resigned and pleaded guilty to a Bank Secrecy Act offense.
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SEC Sued Kraken Over Its Unregistered Trading Business
The regulator alleged that Kraken combined exchange, brokerage, dealing, custody and settlement functions without registering, while the company disputed the SEC’s legal theory and kept operating.
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Milei’s Election Put Bitcoin in Argentina’s Currency Debate
Argentina elected Javier Milei on November 19 after he advocated closing the central bank and letting people choose currencies including bitcoin—but the vote enacted no crypto policy.
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dYdX taps $9 million insurance fund after YFI liquidation shock
A rapid YFI reversal left leveraged accounts underwater on dYdX v3, forcing the derivatives venue’s backstop to cover approximately $9 million in liquidation deficits.
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Cboe Filed to List Fidelity’s Spot Ether Fund
The proposed Fidelity Ethereum Fund would hold ether directly, extending the institutional contest over whether U.S. securities exchanges could list spot cryptocurrency products.
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BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust enters the SEC registration record
A preliminary registration statement detailed BlackRock’s proposed ether-holding trust, but November 16, 2023 brought neither SEC approval nor permission to begin trading.
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BlackRock’s Ether Trust Registration Reached the SEC on November 15
An after-hours EDGAR acceptance placed BlackRock’s proposed spot-ether vehicle into the federal registration record on November 15, 2023, without approving it for sale or trading.
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ARK and 21Shares launched active bitcoin and ether futures ETFs on Cboe
ARKA and ARKZ extended regulated U.S. fund access to crypto futures without directly holding bitcoin or ether.
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Cboe Digital Sets January Launch for Margined Bitcoin and Ether Futures
The planned contracts would bring leveraged bitcoin and ether futures into Cboe Digital’s federally regulated derivatives and clearing structure, while leaving its spot market outside CFTC oversight.
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Bitcoin Difficulty Hit a Record 64.68 Trillion as Mining Revenue Improved
The 3.55% retarget intensified competition for block rewards while stronger prices and inscription fees temporarily improved miners’ gross dollar economics.
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Solana Touched $63.98, Then Gave Back Its November 11 Surge
SOL reached its highest Coinbase price of 2023 during a volatile UTC session, extending a seven-day rally despite uncertainty surrounding the FTX bankruptcy estate’s holdings.
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CME Overtook Binance in Bitcoin Futures Open Interest, Trackers Said
The regulated derivatives exchange moved to the top of a closely watched ranking as traders positioned around possible spot-ETF approval, but open interest alone revealed neither market direction nor investor identity.
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BlackRock Forms iShares Ethereum Trust as Spot Ether Push Emerges
A Delaware certificate and a Nasdaq proposal exposed BlackRock’s plan for an ether-holding exchange-traded product, sending ETH sharply higher while leaving SEC approval unresolved.
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HSBC Planned Tokenized-Securities Custody With Metaco
The global bank said its planned 2024 service would use Metaco’s Harmonize platform, extending HSBC’s institutional blockchain infrastructure beyond issuance.
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Digital assets accounted for nearly half of the CFTC’s fiscal 2023 enforcement actions
The regulator counted 47 digital-asset-related actions in a 96-action docket, revealing how deeply crypto had moved into federal commodities enforcement.
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Crypto fund inflows reached $767 million over six weeks
CoinShares’ November 6 report showed sustained demand for covered investment products through the November 3 close, with bitcoin vehicles capturing most of the weekly inflow.
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Aave Governance Opened Emergency Vote to Disable Stable-Rate Borrowing
The proposal moved Aave’s response to a critical reported vulnerability on-chain while affected lending operations remained restricted and the exploit details stayed confidential.
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Aave Pauses Markets After Critical Stable-Rate Vulnerability Report
The lending protocol halted its Ethereum V2 market and restricted assets across several V3 deployments after a white-hat report identified an attack vector involving stable-rate borrowing.
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SEC Lending Rule Opens Reporting Path for Some Crypto Securities
Rule 10c-1a reached the Federal Register with a conditional route for qualifying crypto assets—but no evidence that the rule covered the broader token-lending market.
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Jury Convicted Sam Bankman-Fried on All Seven FTX Counts
The verdict converted FTX’s collapse from allegations of mismanagement and misuse into seven criminal convictions for fraud and conspiracy.
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SEC and DOJ Bring Parallel SafeMoon Fraud Cases
A civil complaint and an unsealed criminal indictment alleged that SafeMoon insiders retained access to liquidity promoted as locked and diverted investor assets.
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GAO Says SEC Crypto Custody Bulletin Must Face Congressional Review
The congressional watchdog found that the SEC’s crypto-safeguarding accounting guidance qualified as a rule under the Congressional Review Act, though the finding did not immediately rescind it.
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UK Treasury Set Final Blueprint for Regulating Crypto Services
The government proposed bringing exchanges, custodians, intermediaries and lending platforms within the UK financial-services perimeter, including firms serving British customers from abroad.
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Bitcoin held near $34,500 after a 15% weekly advance
The October 29 snapshot showed bitcoin retaining a sharp ETF-expectations rally, although no U.S. spot bitcoin product had been approved.
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Crypto spot trading revived as bitcoin held above $34,000
A tracked seven-day average of centralized-exchange spot volume exceeded $24 billion as bitcoin retained most of its ETF-expectation rally, although activity and liquidity told different stories.
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SEC Opens Public Review of Grayscale’s Spot Ether Trust Conversion
Federal Register publication placed NYSE Arca’s proposal to convert the Grayscale Ethereum Trust into a spot ether exchange-traded product on the SEC’s review calendar.
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Bankman-Fried took the stand outside the jury’s presence in FTX trial
The FTX founder testified during an evidentiary hearing as the judge considered which parts of his proposed defense the jury could hear.
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Polygon Deploys POL Contracts on Ethereum Mainnet
The mainnet deployment initiated Polygon’s proposed transition from MATIC to a multi-chain coordination and staking token, while leaving its active networks unchanged.
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Bitcoin cleared $35,000 as ETF speculation met a DTCC warning
Bitcoin reached $35,157 on Coinbase as traders focused on BlackRock’s proposed spot fund, but DTCC said its eligibility entry carried no regulatory implication.
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D.C. Circuit Issued Its Mandate in Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETP Case
The procedural order finalized Grayscale’s appellate victory and left the SEC to reconsider NYSE Arca’s proposed GBTC listing without guaranteeing approval.
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Bitcoin held $30,000 through a volatile ETF-rumor week
Coinbase’s BTC-USD market ended October 22 at $30,004.15 after a false approval report briefly jolted prices and attention remained fixed on pending spot-fund applications.
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Bitcoin Sits Near $30,000 as ETF Expectations Reprice the Market
Bitcoin’s 11.38% seven-day advance put the asset back near a closely watched threshold, but the regulatory record still showed an unfinished exchange-traded-product process.
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SEC refiled dismissal of claims against two Ripple executives
A corrected stipulation sought to end with prejudice the agency’s aiding-and-abetting claims against Bradley Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen while leaving the case against Ripple Labs unresolved.
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New York Sued Gemini, Genesis and DCG Over Earn
The state alleged that undisclosed lending risks and a long-dated $1.1 billion promissory note left more than 230,000 Gemini Earn investors exposed to losses.
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OFAC Sanctioned Gaza Crypto Exchange in Hamas Financing Action
The Treasury Department listed Buy Cash, its operator and a Bitcoin address as part of a wider action against alleged Hamas financial facilitators.
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Uniswap Labs’ 0.15% Interface Fee Took Effect
The charge applied to qualifying swaps routed through the company’s web application and wallet, separating Uniswap Labs’ commercial products from the governance-controlled protocol.
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False BlackRock Bitcoin ETP Report Sent BTC/USDT to $30,000
An unsupported approval claim survived for roughly 39 minutes, exposing Bitcoin’s sensitivity to spot-product expectations while the SEC record still showed a pending proposal.
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Ethereum’s staking return fell to a post-Merge low near 3.5%
The network-wide annualized rate reached 3.502% as Ethereum’s validator-entry queue cleared and rewards were divided across a larger staking base.
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Ferrari Begins U.S. Crypto Payments Through BitPay
Customers could pay with bitcoin, ether or USDC, but BitPay would convert the assets so Ferrari and its dealers avoided direct cryptocurrency exposure.
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California enacted a licensing framework for crypto businesses
Assembly Bill 39 placed exchanges, custodians and other covered digital-asset businesses under a licensing and supervision regime scheduled to begin in 2025.
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FTC and CFTC filed parallel Voyager cases over customer safety claims
The agencies pursued former CEO Stephen Ehrlich under separate consumer-protection and commodities theories while the FTC announced a proposed settlement with Voyager’s bankrupt corporate entities.
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JPMorgan put tokenized BlackRock fund shares to work as Barclays collateral
The bank’s first live-client Tokenized Collateral Network settlement moved a digital representation of money-market fund shares into an institutional derivatives transaction.
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Ellison Told FTX Jury Bankman-Fried Directed the Fraud
The former Alameda Research chief testified that the trading firm ultimately took approximately $14 billion from FTX customers, placing Bankman-Fried’s direction and knowledge at the center of his criminal trial.
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FCA issued 146 alerts as UK crypto-promotion rules took effect
The first-day count showed that Britain’s new financial-promotions perimeter would immediately affect overseas exchanges, online advertising and the customer journey into cryptoassets.
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UK Crypto Promotion Regime Takes Effect, Extending FCA Reach
New rules brought promotions for qualifying cryptoassets within the UK financial-promotion perimeter, including communications from overseas firms targeting UK consumers.
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Stars Arena Contract Drained of 266,103 AVAX in Reentrancy Exploit
A single Avalanche transaction emptied the social-finance application’s contract, exposing the risks created when rapid adoption outran verified code and security review.
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Gary Wang Tells FTX Jury Alameda Had a $65 Billion Credit Line
FTX’s former technology chief testified that code gave Alameda exceptional access to customer assets, while the defense argued that some privileges served its market-making role.
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Canada Sets Interim Terms for Platforms Offering Stablecoins
CSA guidance conditioned continued access to certain fiat-backed tokens on reserve custody, redemption rights, disclosure and issuer undertakings.
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FTX’s collapse reached a jury as Bankman-Fried’s trial opened
Prosecutors alleged a deliberate misuse of customer assets while the defense framed FTX’s failure as the result of rapid growth and mistaken business judgments.
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Judge denied SEC’s bid for an immediate Ripple appeal
The October 3 order left Ripple’s transaction-specific summary-judgment victory intact while allowing the enforcement case to proceed toward trial and remedies.