Weekly Recap: Binance Gets Investigated While Ripple Bags Small Win
US Authorities Investigate Binance Over its BNB Token
A report last Monday revealed that the US Securities and Exchange Commission had launched an investigation into major exchange Binance Holdings. The investigation is centered on the exchange's sales of digital tokens prior to its rise to prominence.
According to Bloomberg, authorities are investigating whether Binance Coin's (BNB) initial coin offering amounted to its sale. If so, SEC claims the alleged security's sale should have been reported to the commission. In addition to BNB, the SEC is looking into possible trading manipulations by Binance insiders. Likewise, the agency is investigating whether Binance.US is properly separated from its global entity.
Thus far, Binance has stated that it will not comment on ongoing regulatory discussions because it would be inappropriate. The cryptocurrency exchange also assured that it collaborates with authorities and will continue to meet necessary requirements.
PayPal Supports Cryptocurrency Transfer to External Wallets
On Tuesday, PayPal announced a new feature on its platform that allows users to transfer cryptocurrencies to other platforms. The new upgrade has long been touted by PayPal’s team. The payment app's new functionality allows the transfer of supported cryptos between PayPal and external crypto addresses, including exchanges and hard wallets. In addition, users will be able to send cryptocurrencies to any other PayPal user with no fees or network charges.
The financial giant also stated that the services are currently available in the United States. The new development, according to PayPal's VP for Digital Currencies Jose Fernandez is another step toward building a better financial system. He further expressed enthusiasm about connecting customers to other exchanges and applications and hinted at future crypto features.
Court Denies the SEC's Motion to Seal Objection in Ripple Case
Ripple Labs scored another victory last Monday when presiding Judge Analisa Torres dismissed the SEC's plea to “seal”. The SEC had previously requested that the court keep its objection to attorney John Deaton's request private. The request was to represent 67,300 XRP holders in Mr. Patrick Doody's expert challenge.
The judge stated that she denied the request because it only applied to a portion of the opposition and not the entire case. After Ripple’s counsel had initially objected to SEC’s request to seal the entire opposition, calling it “overboard”, Judge Torres’s decision significantly favors Deaton and Ripple.
Five Major South Korean Crypto Exchanges Delist Litecoin
Five major South Korean exchanges decided to delist Litecoin following the project’s plan to upgrade privacy. In South Korea, exchanges are required to implement strict Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering policies. Anonymous transactions are prohibited as well. Accordingly, the privacy-focused upgrade by Litecoin caused concern for the exchanges.
One of the exchanges, UPbit, delisted LTC on Wednesday, citing existing Korean laws that prohibit anonymous transactions. Subsequently, exchange users were given 30 days to withdraw their LTC tokens. Other exchanges that have delisted LTC include Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Gopax. Several other privacy coins, such as Zcash, Monero, DASH, and Super Bitcoin, have previously been delisted from some exchanges in the East Asian nation.
Ripple Collaborates with Stellar and Novatti to Launch its AUDC Stablecoin
Software company Novatti Group announced its collaboration with blockchain firms Stellar and Ripple to build a stablecoin. The Australian-based stablecoin, AUDC, will be issued on Ripple’s blockchain, called XRP Ledger.
Moreso, the AUDC will be pegged to the Australian dollar (AUD) in the ratio of 1:1. The coin can be purchased with AUD and further sent on the blockchain without any cross-border fees. Novatti’s managing director, Peter Cook, also expressed optimism about the launch of AUDC. He noted that the Aussie-based stablecoin will help the company become a huge part of the global digital payments sector.
Hacker Returns 17 Million Optimism Tokens
A hacker on Friday returned 17 million Optimism (OP) tokens that were stolen earlier. The exploiter initially stole 20 million OP last week due to an address error prior to the Optimism airdrop. Data from Etherscan shows that the tokens were returned in 17 transactions, with 1 million tokens per transaction.
Additionally, the user sent 1 million OP to Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin and personally exchanged another 1 million for ETH. Following the developments, the Optimism Foundation termed the unreturned 2 million OP (including the one exchanged for ETH) a bounty. The team also revealed that they are in the process of recovering the 1 million OP from Vitalik.
The Optimism airdrop has been filled with controversies. For one, an Optimism community member submitted a governance proposal to ban OP airdrop sellers from future rewards. Several members also expressed worry that some users claimed their tokens before the official airdrop began.
