FTX’s $1B Grayscale ETF Sale Linked to Major Outflows
The now-bankrupt exchange FTX has reportedly offloaded nearly $1 billion of shares in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). This massive sell-off revealed through confidential data and anonymous sources, is part of FTX’s ongoing bankruptcy process.
The exchange aimed to liquidate its holdings to aid in reimbursing its creditors, having disposed of all 22 million shares it held in the GBTC fund.
Grayscale’s shift to a spot bitcoin ETF has placed it at the forefront of the market. With $2.8 billion in outflows since its conversion, Grayscale has dominated trading volumes in the crypto-based ETFs sector.
Source: Coingape
Crypto Crime Amounted to Over $24B in 2023
Over $24 billion worth of cryptocurrency was received by illicit addresses in 2023 accounting for 0.34% of all transaction volume, blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis has estimated in its annual crypto crime trends report.
The figure is nearly 40% less than that of 2022, however it is only provisional. The $24.2 billion total is likely to increase as more addresses are identified as illicit over time. The total for 2022 now stands at $39.6 billion, however only $20.6 billion worth had been identified at the time of Chainalysis’ report last year.
Another caveat to the research is the prevalence of transactions with sanctioned entities, which accounted for a combined $14.9 billion (61.5%) of volume in 2023. Some of this $14.9 billion includes transactions from normal crypto users who happen to live in sanctioned jurisdictions. After all, not all of the Russia-based crypto exchange Garantex, which was sanctioned by the relevant bodies in both the U.S. and U.K. are using crypto for money laundering and ransomware.
Source: CoinDesk
SEC Admits MFA Deactivation Led to X Account Hack
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has confirmed a breach of its official X account, attributing the incident to a SIM swap attack.
This security lapse occurred on January 9 when an unauthorized entity gained control of the @SECGov handle, erroneously announcing the SEC’s approval of the first-ever spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
Following the false tweet, the cryptocurrency market witnessed immediate fluctuations. Bitcoin’s value soared to approximately $48,000 before plummeting below $46,000 once the SEC refuted the approval of the Bitcoin ETF.
Source: Coingape