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The DOJ has announced that theyâre seizing $700M in assets from a crypto exchange no one has ever heard of â âBitzlato.â And now, no one will ever forget it, because the memes have been so good đ
And Davos 2023, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), has begun. Its theme this year is âCooperation in a fragmented world.â Weâve already seen some amazing discussions between Web3 thought leaders, and the eventâs still going!
But thereâs no way we could get started before stopping off in a lilâ place called Trivia Town.
What does the term âwhale watchingâ mean in crypto?
Tap your answer below to see if youâre right!
Today's Agenda:
- What the Hellâs a Bitzlato? đ§
- Davos 2023 Is in Full Swing đ¤
- Logan Paul has NFT Recovery Plan? đ¤ˇ
- Raydium Hacker Moves $2.7M in ETH đ
- Ripple CEO: Lawsuit Almost Over đ§ââď¸
Man, they really kind of set themselves up here. After successfully not doing anything proactive to prevent the fall of FTX, Celsius, or 3AC, the DOJ is making amends by⌠seizing assets from a crypto exchange no one has ever heard of.
đ¤Ś
For context, Bitzlato is a noncustodial peer-to-peer crypto exchange founded in 2016 by Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national. Theyâve been labeled as a âprimary money laundering concernâ connected with illicit Russian finance.
Legkodymov was arrested in Miami on January 17th, and heâs set to be arraigned in the US District Court in Florida.
Bitzlato hasnât been completely unknown â Chainalysis stated in a report last year that the exchange had âreceived $206 million from darknet markets, $224.5 million from scams, and $9 million from ransomware attackers.â Yikes.
But the point that Crypto Twitter is making isnât that âBitzlato did nothing wrong.â Far from it.
People are calling out the DOJ because they feel that the US government did nothing to prevent the billions of dollars in losses that were caused by company collapses last year that the DOJ apparently didnât see coming â or willfully ignored.
If governments are going to be involved in crypto, I want to see them actually take proactive steps to protect the people from organizations on their own soil first, and then outside their respective countries.
For now though, letâs just keep enjoying the roast of the DOJ đ
Cryptoâs presence at Davos is looking a little thinner this year, but equally as determined â and maybe more so than in years past.
Davos 2023 is the WEFâs annual conference, attended by top leaders from every financial sector in the world.
Speaking on the difference between this year and last yearâs event, Rippleâs Senior Vice President Brooks Entwistle said that âYou couldnât walk more than five or 10 feet without seeing a crypto house [in 2022].â No more crypto advertisements everywhere you look, apparently.
But Rippleâs CEO is undeterred by the difference â in fact, heâs encouraged by the sobriety he feels at the event.
Many big players have also weighed in on the FTX collapse and what it means for the industry moving forward.
Scaramucci, CEO of Skybridge, denounced SBF as the âMadoff of Crypto.â But he also turned around and said he is ânot going to stop the risk takingâ â heâs doubling down on crypto entrepreneurship.
New York Stock Exchange President Lynn Martin had this to say about the crypto industry: âWe need the regulators to tell us what the guideposts are. What the regulated framework is to bring them into more traditional structures, and ways of execution.â
Honestly, it feels tough for me to take all of these people seriously when we know SBF wouldâve been up there with them this week if FTX took a bit longer to go bankrupt. But I think thatâs the lesson of this year â take everything you see in crypto with a grain of salt and DYOR.
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Other Top Stories Today đ˘
The YouTube influencer Logan Paul has announced that heâs committing 1,000 ETH to investors through a program that will let them burn their CryptoZoo NFTs to get their money back. This is the culmination of a long back-and-forth between YouTuber and Coffeezilla, the guy who exposed the corruption in Paulâs NFT business. The YouTube star has also dropped the threat of legal action against Coffeezilla.
The hacker who took control of Raydiumâs ownerâs account in December has reportedly moved a ton of crypto to Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer. The reason they moved the funds to Tornado Cash is that the mixer uses zero-knowledge proofs to completely conceal transactions that take place within its platform â meaning that the hacker will be able to send the $2.7M to anonymous wallets. Raydium has announced a plan to compensate victims of the hack.
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, shared at Davos 2023 that he believes the long-running XRP lawsuit will be over by June of this year. He also roasted the SEC for its conduct, stating that âThe SECâs behavior in some of it has been embarrassing as a U.S. citizen. Just some of the things that have been happening, like youâve got to be kidding.â The lawsuit started all the way back in December of 2020 when the SEC claimed that ripple illegally sold XRP as a security. The outcome of this case will have huge implications for the rest of the crypto industry, i.e. âAre all of these coins securities or not?â
Web3 Resource of the Day
What Are Crypto Whale Trackers and How Do They Work? - Article from Cointelegraph
Itâs important to know who youâre playing with when you start investing â and in crypto, remember that youâre always playing with the whales. But what the heck is a crypto whale? Why do they matter, and how do they affect the market? And most importantly, how can you track whaleâs transactions and use them for your own trading decisions? Cointelegraph covers everything you need to know on crypto whales in this awesome resource, including definitions and some great tools you can use to track whales for yourself.
Itâs Thursday â Youâre Almost There!
WOOP WOOP! Letâs go. I know you can already taste the weekend.
You know what? Here, take another DOJ meme, on the house.
Thatâs all for today, frens!
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DISCLAIMER: This is not financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Do your own research.