• Aug 13, 2024

Binance to Pay $1.7 Million to Brazil’s SEC Over Crypto Derivatives

Binance has agreed to pay security regulators in Brazil a fine equivalent to $1.75 million for acting as a “securities intermediary” by offering derivatives trading in the country without a proper license.  The settlement of 9.6 million Brazilian reais was revealed Tuesday by Brazil’s Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM), which says it decided to accept the payment amount and finally put its years-long feud with Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, to bed. A spokesperson for the exc...

• Aug 13, 2024

Judge Allows Copyright Case Against AI Image Generators to Move Forward

A federal judge has ordered the copyright infringement case against AI image developers Stability AI, Midjourney, and the online art community DeviantART to move forward, according to court documents released Monday. The lawsuit—brought by attorneys for artists including Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz—alleges the developers used their work without permission to train their respective AI models. According to court documents shared by the Hollywood Reporter, U.S. District Judge Wi...

• Aug 13, 2024

MetaMask and Mastercard Launch Debit Card That Lets You Spend From Your Ethereum Wallet

MetaMask, the popular Ethereum-centric crypto wallet, announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Mastercard to pilot a new debit card that will connect directly to users’ self-custody wallets and allow them to pay with crypto anywhere in the world where Mastercard is accepted.  The MetaMask Card, as the product has been dubbed, will initially be available via a limited pilot program for a few thousand users in the European Union and the United Kingdom. By later this year, the MetaMask Car...

• Aug 13, 2024

Solana Meme Coin Gigachad Up 21% After Endorsement From Meme Model

Solana meme coin Gigachad (GIGA) is up 21.2% on the day after the model behind the meme endorsed the project on his Instagram. Shortly after, famous bodybuilder Mike ‘Titan’ O’Hearn also pushed the project. Ernest Khalimov (known as Berlin 1969 on Instagram) is the model behind the famous gigachad meme. He is one of many models photographed by Russian artist Krista Sudmalis for her “Sleek n Tears” project. When Khalimov had his hyper-muscular figure and chiseled face photographed, the internet w...

• Aug 13, 2024

Toncoin Up 10% After Landing on Binance Launchpool

The Open Network's native currency Toncoin (TON) is up by 10.6% to $7.05 in the past 24 hours, following Binance's announcement that it will add TON to its Binance Launchpool platform. The token will be available on Launchpool from August 15, 2024, enabling users to stake BNB and FDUSD to earn TON tokens. TON peaked at $7.22 before retracing slightly to its current price, and is up 24.4% over the last week at the time of writing, per data from CoinGecko. The token also rose last week after Binan...

• Aug 13, 2024

Bitcoin, Ethereum Hold Steady as Inflation Slows to 2.9%

The price of Bitcoin was little changed Wednesday after a widely watched inflation gauge came in cooler than expected. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.9% in the 12 months through July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. Economists expected the index, which tracks price changes across a broad range of goods and services, to rise 3% year over year. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.2% compared to June. The increase comes after consumer prices fell month-to-month for...

• Aug 13, 2024

TON Ventures Launches With $40 Million to Fund Telegram’s Crypto Ecosystem

A group of senior builders of The Open Network (TON), Telegram’s blockchain of choice, announced on Wednesday that they have spun off to create TON Ventures, a for-profit fund equipped with $40 million to support the next generation of on-chain Telegram mini apps.  The fund will be led by Ian Wittkopp, the former head of TON’s accelerator program, and Inal Kardan, the TON Foundation’s former head of gaming. It will focus initially on early-stage projects with investments of $500,000 or less, Wit...

• Aug 13, 2024

Trump Running Mate J.D. Vance Has Held Bitcoin Since 2021

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who last month became former president Donald Trump's running mate, has disclosed that he still holds between $101,000 to $250,000 worth of Bitcoin in his 2023 annual financial disclosure. The Bitcoin disclosure, which Vance notes is held in a Coinbase account, isn't new. The Republican senator also reported holding between $101,000 to $250,000 in BTC on his 2022 annual report and his 2021 candidate disclosure when he was running for his Senate seat. There's a wide discre...

• Aug 13, 2024

South Korean Civil Servant Charged With Embezzling $400,000 to Buy Crypto

A South Korean civil servant has been charged with allegedly embezzling over $400,000 from government funds and using some of it to invest in cryptocurrencies. According to a Yonhap News Agency report, the Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office announced that they had arrested and charged an unnamed grade six civil servant working at Cheongju City Hall. The accused, in their forties, is accused of misappropriating approximately 600 million won (around $438,000) over a seven-year period beginning...

• Aug 13, 2024

Australia Securities Regulator Sues ASX for 'Misleading Statements' on Failed Blockchain Project

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has sued the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the country’s largest exchange, alleging misleading statements regarding its blockchain-based Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) replacement project. ASIC claims that ASX's announcements on February 10, 2022, stating that the project was "on-track for go-live" in April 2023 and "progressing well," were misleading and deceptive. The regulator argues that these statement...