Topping our news is another crypto scam that was reported this week. Similar to the Silk Road story, a huge amount of money is involved. Due to rising numbers of crypto scams, Cayman has now introduced crypto regulations to put a reign on cryptocurrencies and to protect investors from being victimized by these scammers. But we have one good news here. Coinbase has launched a massive job hiring in Japan. Let’s take a look at the details of our crypto weekly news.
US Help Brazil Seize $24M in Crypto
Brazil authorities recently requested help from the United States government over a crypto fraud scheme popularly known as “Operation Egypto.”
As per the request, the Department of Justice (DOJ) seized $24 million in cryptocurrencies in relation to the Operation Egypto scam. According to reports by Brazil, more than 10000 Brazilians lost an estimate of $200 million to the scam. In their collaboration, the DOJ used information provided by authorities in Brazil to seize the funds which were held in a US-based crypto exchange. The seized funds were tied to Brazilian Marcos Antonio Fagundes’ alleged involvement in the scheme.
According to the information, Fagundes is charged with several criminal violations. These include the operation of a financial institution without legal authorization, fraudulent management of a financial institution, misappropriation, and money laundering, as well as securities law violations.
Fagundes and his conspirators allegedly operated an unregistered financial institution to hold crypto assets with false promises of investments. Similar to other scams, victims fall for the promises for huge returns which were never fulfilled.
The Cayman Islands introduce crypto regulations
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Financial Services of the Cayman Islands Government announced its plan to regulate cryptocurrencies. According to the announcement, the ministry has started working on a regulatory framework for virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The move to regulation aims to strengthen the country’s “ability to regulate and attract persons and entities that deal with virtual assets as a business.”
The framework will be done in stages. The first stage is already underway and will focus on Countering the Financing of Terrorism rules and enforcement of Ant-Money Laundering rules.
The second phase of the framework implementation will include “licensing requirements and prudential supervision.” This phase is expected to come into force in mid-2021.
Existing VASPs and newcomers will be expected to register with Cayman Islands Monetary Authority to demonstrate compliance. The VASP framework will be submitted for consideration before the CFATF re-rating, due in November. The findings of the FATF review are expected by the end of Q1 2021.
Cayman’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) or Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) regime is currently under review by both the FATF and the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force.
Uniswap trader spends $9500 in fee on $120 transaction
A trader on Uniswap accidentally spends more than 23 Ether to execute a $120 trade on the exchange. According to reports by Reddit, a user by the name “ProudBitcoiner’ posted that he had accidentally paid 23. 5172 ETH in fees for a single transaction. In the post, the trader explained that he got the “Gas Limit” and “Gas Price” input boxes confused in the MetaMask wallet that ended up costing him huge fees in transactions. The post read in part:
“Metamask didn’t populate the ‘Gas Limit’ field with the correct amount in my previous transaction and that transaction failed, so I decided to change it manually in the next transaction […] but instead of typing 200,000 in ‘Gas Limit’ input field, I wrote it on the ‘Gas Price’ input field, so I paid 200,000 GWEI for this transaction and destroyed my life.”
Coinbase’s hiring spree in Japan
Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong recently tweeted that the exchange has several open roles in Japan and was asking others to put forward candidates. As per the exchanges’ website, various roles are up for grabs in the capital, Tokyo. The positions are across IT, data, finance and accounting, marketing and communications, legal, international expansion, and customer experience.
The website reads in part:
“Coinbase will also consider employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in a manner consistent with San Francisco’s Fair Chance Ordinance and similar local laws.”
The exchange has been eyeing the Japanese market since 2016.
