Blockchain Bites: Main Acquisitions, Bitcoin Futures Liquidations and the SEC’s New Guidelines

FTX acquired Blockfolio, ConsenSys acquired Quorum and police have seized the third-largest trade in South Korea. And information broke the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) has formalized new “accredited investor” guidelines.

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The U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) has formally adopted new accredited investor guidelines, increasing the group of Individuals who can put money into personal securities.

The brand new definition, which lets people holding sure licenses meet the definition of “accredited investor,” was launched for public remark in December 2019.

Accredited buyers within the U.S. – which at the moment embrace people who’ve a internet value of greater than $1 million, annual revenue larger than $200,000 or entities that meet sure authorized necessities – have entry to non-public monetary markets the broader public doesn’t.

Nonetheless, the transfer isn’t broadly increasing the checklist of people who can participate within the personal markets. Zachary Kelman, a associate at Kelman Regulation, advised CoinDesk shortly after the proposal was unveiled in December that “Wall Road insiders” and related people could profit most.

Drew Hinkes, basic counsel at Athena Blockchain, equally advised CoinDesk on the time that extra readability was wanted on what kind of credentials would possibly qualify people to change into accredited buyers.

“The proposed modernization would seem to incorporate individuals who’re licensed to promote securities however who in any other case didn’t beforehand qualify to purchase personal placements as accredited,” he advised CoinDesk through Telegram.

Although this will not develop the investor pool by that a lot, he famous. 

Retail acquisitions 
Derivatives trade FTX has acquired Blockfolio in a $150 million money, crypto and fairness deal. Discussions started 9 months in the past, and play into FTX’s imaginative and prescient of changing into a retail and mobile-friendly trade. Antigua and Barbuda-based FTX is ranked first by order-book liquidity and seventh by 24-hour quantity, having been based final yr, CoinDesk’s Zack Voell stories. Blockfolio, based in 2014, has six million cumulative downloads and sees 150 million impressions on its information and portfolio instruments.

Alternate hosed
In the meantime, Coinbit, South Korea’s third-largest cryptocurrency trade, seems to have been seized by police over allegations it faked most of its buying and selling quantity, CoinDesk EU Information Editor Daniel Palmer stories. Alternate insiders and police stated as much as 99% of the platform’s buying and selling quantity was “manipulated,” or washed, utilizing “ghost” accounts – totalling over 100 billion received ($84 million) in faked revenue. Seoul Newspaper, which broke the information, stated it had seen the books and that 99% of recorded trades couldn’t be related to deposits or withdrawals.

Purchase, make investments, interoperate?
ConsenSys will purchase Quorum, the enterprise blockchain platform developed by JPMorgan Chase, with the mega-bank changing into a buyer of ConsenSys. All enterprise work being completed at ConsenSys will now fall underneath the brand new “ConsenSys Quorum” model, and ConsenSys plans to merge its current protocol engineering roadmap with Quorum, together with locking down interoperability between the opposite enterprise Ethereum consumer Hyperledger Besu. Additionally introduced, JPMorgan has made an undisclosed strategic funding in ConsenSys, which is within the technique of elevating funds, CoinDesk’s Ian Allison stories. 

$1B Ethereum exploit
Over $1 billion value of tokens on the Ethereum blockchain are lacking a software program commonplace launched in 2017, setting them as much as be hijacked and drained from buying and selling exchanges, in response to new analysis. The vulnerability, referred to as a faux deposit exploit, was pinpointed in 7,772 issuers of ERC-20 tokens, in response to a number of college researchers. A hacker can fraudulently siphon exorbitant quantities of funds at almost no value by manipulating code within the good contracts of ERC-20 tokens listed on cryptocurrency exchanges with poor transaction verification strategies.

Darknet down
Prime darknet website Empire Market has been offline for greater than three days, prompting fears of an exit rip-off. In keeping with a Tuesday report by Darknetstats, the location, essentially the most trafficked darknet market, was taken offline on August 22. John Marsh, a Darknetstats consultant, raised issues Empire’s directors may have absconded with an estimated 2,638 bitcoin ($30.2 million). Empire Market admin Se7en dispelled the rumors. There’s loads of hypothesis, however nothing “concrete” about what has occurred to the location, CoinDesk’s Sebastian Sinclair stories.