🏓 New staff layoffs in the exchanges

Hello crypto-enthusiasts! Today, we will talk about the new details and schemes of manipulating crypto-assets and NFTs in particular. And also, about the new wave of layoffs at a certain famous crypto exchange

Your Favorite Crypto Digest From TradeCrypto.com #105

The statistics:

The market today is green. BTC is now trading above $24,100, ETH is trading around $1,900.

💪 Bitcoin dominance: 40.76%

📉 Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap: $ 1.131 tr

😲 Fear and greed index: 41 (Fear)

🚀 Gainers (Top-100)

  • EOS (EOS)+27.82%

  • Tezos (XTZ)+10.71%

  • Quant (QNT)+8.40%

😭 Losers (Top-100)

  • Celsius (CEL)-10.88%

  • Convex Finance (CVX)-1.47%

  • XDC Network (XDC)-1.45%

SEC Sues Dragonchain for $16.5 Million Dragon Token ICO

Wow, couldn't find an older event to investigate? The agency alleges 🔈 Dragonchain's founder raised millions in unregistered crypto asset securities offerings in 2017.

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According to the SEC, in 2017, Roets, Dragonchain, and the Foundation conducted an unregistered offering 💰 of Dragon tokens ("DRGN") through a discounted "presale" to members of a crypto investment club and through an initial coin offering (ICO) in October and November.

Second Layoff Round at Crypto.com Worse than June Cuts

In June, Singapore-based crypto exchange Crypto.com laid off ❌ 260 employees, or 5% of its workforce. Remaining employees were reportedly told at the time that those cuts were the end of the bloodletting. “They lied,” a source inside Crypto.com. On a quarterly "all hands" call last Friday, the company informed employees of additional layoffs.Interesting what kind of numbers they are talking about

DOJ, IRS Target Tax-Evading Clients of Crypto Broker SFOX

Will they succeed? A California court ⚖️ has given the U.S. Internal Revenue Service permission to issue a “John Doe” summons to prime brokerage SFOX.

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If issued, the summons would seek both user identification and transaction records for anyone who completed at least $20,000 💸 worth of transactions from 2016 through the end of 2021. In a memo about the SFOX summons, Hubbert wrote that IRS Agent Seng Lee has identified 10 different taxpayers believed to be SFOX customers who are suspected of skirting tax laws.

Alleged Tornado Cash Dev Suspected of ‘Facilitating Money Laundering’

Found the culprit? The Dutch financial crimes agency that last week arrested a 29-year-old developer in connection with cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash said that “he is suspected of involvement in concealing criminal financial flows and facilitating money laundering.” The Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) declined to confirm the identity of the suspect, who's believed to be Alexey Pertsev.

Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton among 19 celebs called out for shilling NFTs

Consumer watchdog group Truth in Advertising (TINA.org) has called out 19 celebrities 😎 for allegedly promoting nonfungible tokens (NFTs) without disclosing their connection to the projects. In a blog post on their website, TINA.org wrote that celebrities could be violating the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules regarding the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising and the requirements for influencers.

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The advocacy group links to the FTC website which outlines that influencers must disclose 💬 any material connections to brands they are endorsing, and make the disclosures clear, unambiguous, conspicuous and within the endorsement. Do they care?

Bank of China unveils new e-CNY smart contract test program for school education

Strange choice to begin with. In a combined partnership, 🤝 the state-owned Bank of China with local education and financial authorities announced a new program to bridge primary school education with smart contracts. Parents residing in the city of Chengdu, located in China's Sichuan province, will be able to enroll their children in after-school or extracurricular lessons using the digital yuan 💸 central bank digital currency, or e-CNY.

Celsius CEO personally directed crypto trades months before bankruptcy

Oops, secrets came out. Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky reportedly “took control” of trading strategy at the crypto lending 💱 firm amid January rumors the United States Federal Reserve planned to hike interest rates.

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According to a Tuesday report from the Financial Times, Mashinsky personally directed individual trades and overruled financial experts in an effort to protect Celsius from anticipated declines in the crypto market. The Celsius CEO reportedly ordered the sale 💸 of “hundreds of millions of dollars” worth of Bitcoin (BTC) in one instance, rebuying the coins less than 24 hours later at a loss.

Conclusion: The crypto market continues to hold at certain levels. We weren't met with the most favorable news in the market. We might be in for a move soon.

See you tomorrow, folks! Thanks for being with us :) Brought to you by Maksym, Srđan, and Aleksandar :)

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What is Crypto Ping Pong digest?

TC lads here are working quite hard and from time to time we gotta chill. Recently, we got ourselves a ping pong table to complete our lazy-bag-stuffed chill zone. As you all know our main hobby is Crypto, so even while we play we don’t really shut up about it. Ever.

So memes, leaks, gossips naturally come about – we collect them and share them with you in this interstellar space on our site we like to call Crypto Ping Pong digest.