- Hack hits Bybit, draining $1.4 billion in ETH: Bybit’s CEO, Ben Zhou, says hackers stole the funds from the exchange’s multisig cold wallet. Zhou said in an X post that, while Bybit was transferring funds to its warm wallet, “signers saw [a] musked UI which showed the correct address appeared that the transaction was from Safe.” But “the signing message was to change the smart contract logic of our ETH cold wallet,” letting the hacker take control of the wallet. Zhou said that only one wallet was affected and that all withdrawals are normal.
- Blockaid raises $50 million Series B: Ribbit Capital, with participation from others including GV, Variant and Cyberstarts, led the investment round for the blockchain security firm. Blockaid says it blocked more than 71 million attacks while scanning more than 2.4 billion transactions last year. As volume and demand for digital assets grow — and, thus, institutional interest in the space — so does the need for security solutions. The takeaway: Compliance and threat-avoidance are as relevant and valuable as ever. The Bybit hack is just one stark example of this.
- Robinhood planning to launch in Singapore this year: Robinhood will leverage its recent acquisition of Bitstamp, which has licenses to operate in Singapore, to push further into the region. Robinhood says Singapore will serve as its APAC hub, from which it plans to begin servicing customers by late 2025.
- Binance.US?restores dollar deposits and withdrawals: The U.S.-based exchange stopped all fiat-based transactions more than 18 months ago. It operated as a crypto-only exchange until this week, when it began allowing dollar-based withdrawals and deposits.?
- SEC swaps crypto-enforcement unit for a “Cyber and Emerging Technologies” unit: The new group will investigate “cyber-related misconduct … in the emerging technologies space.” That mandate will include — but won’t be limited to — crypto-related fraud. Also on the list of priorities are schemes related to A.I., machine learning, social media, and retail-account takeovers. This move seems to reflect one of the themes from Commissioner Hester Peirce’s recent?statement?on the Crypto Task Force’s focus areas —?i.e., while misconduct can sprout from emerging tech like crypto, not every crypto-related project is?ipso facto?a source of fraud.
- Judge assigned to investigate fraud allegations against Javier Milei: In the wake of the LIBRA token’s spectacular crash, an Argentinian judge received a mandate to launch an investigation of several fraud charges against President Javier Milei, who posted about the project on his X account before it collapsed. The affair has already been dubbed “Cryptogate”. Latest estimates?peg?traders’ losses at $251 million on peak trading of $4.5 billion.
- Coinbase says the SEC is dropping its lawsuit against it: Earlier this week, the SEC asked the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to stay an appeal in its long-running suit against the exchange because the SEC’s Crypto Task Force “may affect and could facilitate the potential resolution of” the matter. And, now, Coinbase says it expects the Commission to recommend dismissal of suit altogether, pending a full board vote, which Coinbase expects next week. Just last week, the SEC also asked to stay its pending litigation against Binance, again citing the outcome of the Task Force’s work. While that action involved different claims, the Commission’s willingness to drop the Coinbase case so quickly after it asked the court to stay it is a sign that we’re likely to see resolution of the Binance action in short order.
- In more SEC litigation news, the Commission drops appeal of Dealer Rule decision: In November, a Texas court ruled that the SEC overstepped its authority with the “Dealer Rule”, which expanded the definitions of “broker” and “securities dealer” so as to subject DeFi protocols and crypto networks to AML/CFT monitoring and KYC requirements. The SEC initially appealed, but — and stop me if you’ve heard this one before — the Commission voluntarily dismissed the appeal due to the formation of the Crypto Task Force, which by all indications will soon be releasing a new paradigm for its oversight of the industry.
