ICODROPS WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST

Last week's Hot Altcoin events

⚡️Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested by Bahamian Authorities.

⚡️SEC charges Sam Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a scheme to defraud FTX investors. According to the SEC’s complaint, since at least May 2019, FTX, based in The Bahamas, raised more than $1.8 billion from equity investors, including approximately $1.1 billion from approximately 90 U.S.-based investors.

⚡️FTX previously stored private keys to crypto wallets without encryption during Sam Bankman Fried's reign, leaving "hundreds of millions of dollars" vulnerable to theft or other malicious activity, the exchange’s new chief John Ray III said.

⚡️Crypto exchange FTX petitioned a federal court for permission to sell several subsidiaries, including U.S.-based derivatives wing LedgerX.

⚡️ConsenSys has announced that U.S. MetaMask users will be able to purchase crypto (ETH) from within the app using PayPal.

⚡️Apple plans to allow the installation of iOS apps from external sources due to impending EU regulations. The move could make it easier for developers to build apps around NFTs and broaden the ability to make crypto payments through iPhones and iPads.

⚡️Trust Wallet has announced that it now supports in-app cross-chain swaps with its new THORChain integration.

⚡️Canada bans crypto leverage and margin trading after FTX collapse.

⚡️U.S prosecutors are considering charging crypto exchange Binance and its executives for possible money laundering and sanctions violations. Binance refuted the article in a statement.

⚡️Binance launches a payments service for US customers.

⚡️Mithril says it deposited 200,000 BNB tokens, worth around $53 million, to Binance to list its MITH token in 2018. The project now wants a refund after Binance delisted the token. CZ answered Mithril that according to the contract between two parties, the Mithril community has not been active for 2 years, and even the website has been offline, and Binance does not have to repay the deposit.

⚡️Mazars, the auditing firm working with Binance and other crypto exchanges on proof-of-reserves statements, has temporarily paused all work for crypto clients.

⚡️Microsoft has banned cryptocurrency mining from its online services, and says it did so to protect all customers of its clouds.

⚡️Cathie Wood's ARK continues to buy Coinbase's dip, adding $3.2 Million of COIN to portfolio. The latest purchase means ARK's Innovation ETF holds 5.8 million COIN shares.

⚡️Coinbase has launched a new asset-recovery tool for unsupported ERC-20 tokens. The feature will allow Coinbase users to recover some 4,000 mistakenly sent tokens. If a user has mistakenly sent unsupported tokens to their Coinbase address, the company will help recover those tokens by charging a fee.

⚡️Crypto derivatives platform Paradigm cuts salaries by 15 percent. The OTC firm blamed the pay reduction on contagion stemming from the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX.

⚡️Tether to reduce secured loans to zero in 2023 amid battle against FUD.

⚡️Hong Kong debuts first crypto futures ETFs.

⚡️Australia plans to establish a framework for licensing and regulating crypto service providers in 2023.

⚡️Germany's top regulator this week called for global regulation of the cryptocurrency industry to protect consumers, prevent money laundering and preserve financial stability.

⚡️New York financial regulator issues cryptocurrency guidance for banks.

⚡️Japan set to ease 30% crypto tax on paper profits for token issuers.

⚡️Dutch central bank says KuCoin is not licensed and 'illegally offering services'.

⚡️Bermuda-based Jewel Bank said it is issuing a fully backed stablecoin called Jewel USD (JUSD) that can be accessed through the Polygon network.

⚡️Brazil to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2024.

⚡️Amber Group has acquired the Singaporean crypto exchange Sparrow.

⚡️Donald Trump released his first NFT collection. The floor price is ~3.7x from the mint price ($99).

⚡️Crypto exchange Gemini said that a phishing campaign led to the collection of some customer email addresses and partial phone numbers. No account information or systems were impacted.

⚡️Raydium, a decentralized exchange built on the Solana blockchain, suffered an exploit that appears to have taken more than $2 million.

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🚀ICOs/IEOs news

📈Gearbox trading has started. GEAR is now trading at 1.8x (max 2.8x) from the DAO Round price ($0.015).

FDV: $270 million

Market Cap: $21.6 million

💰Crypto trading firm Amber Group raises $300M Series C. The round was led by Fenbushi Capital U.S., and other crypto investors and family offices.

💰The private layer-2 chain Aztec Network has announced $100 million in Series B financing led by a16z crypto, with participation from A Capital, King River, Variant, SV Angel, Hash Key, Fenbushi, and AVG.

💰Blockchain infrastructure company Blocknative has raised $15 million in Series A-1 financing, bringing the total amount raised by the Ethereum block processor to $34 million. Joining in the Series A-1 raise are Blockchain Capital, Foundry Group, Rho, IOSG Ventures, Robot Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, HackVC, Industry Ventures, and others.

💰Crypto Insurance Firm Evertas has raised a $14 million Series A round. The Series A round was led by Polychain Capital and also included SinoGlobal Capital, Morgan Creek and Balaji Srinivasan.

💰DOGAMÍ, the first Web3 game for NFT pet companions, completes its $14M seed round with a $7M seed extension led by European tech-investor XAnge.

💰Decentralized sports prediction market built on Injective Frontrunner raised $4.75 million in a seed round led by Susquehanna Private Equity Investments. Other investors in the round include SOMA Capital, Toy Ventures, Ledger Prime and WAGMI Ventures.

💰Decent, an NFT infrastructure protocol that helps artists monetize their work, raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round. Crypto-focused venture capital firm Archetype led the round, with Y Combinator, Circle Ventures, Palm Tree Crew Crypto and its co-founder Kyrre Gorvell-Dahll (aka Kygo, a Norwegian DJ and music producer) also participating. Angel investors, including Ilya Fushman of Kleiner Perkins and Ian Lapham of Uniswap Labs, also joined the round.

🤝Warner Music Group and the digital fashion startup DressX have announced the partnership. Through the partnership, Warner Music artists will be able to create and license digital wearables and merchandise for fans.

📌CoinList has introduced Wallet Link.

Wallet Link is a mechanism that allows users to connect their on-chain identities to their CoinList verified identity. When opting into Wallet Link, users verify ownership of their non-custodial wallet and in return can receive access to new opportunities based on their wallet’s activity. In the future, by combining Karma and Wallet Link, CoinList will be able to help protocols curate an engaged community using on-platform and on-chain identities from day one.

📌My Neighbor Alice has launched Alpha Season 2.

My Neighbor Alice is a multiplayer builder game, where anyone can buy and own virtual islands, collect and build items and meet new friends.

The season will be live for two months, ending on February 14th.

📌Ava Labs has released Core mobile, a free, multichain mobile wallet jam-packed with features for both experts and those new to crypto, while keeping crypto assets and digital collectibles safe under self-custody.

📌Atomic Wallet has announced the addition of EGLD staking, on both their mobile and desktop platforms. Atomic Wallet is a decentralized Cryptocurrency wallet that supports more than 500 coins and tokens.

📌Coinbase has added Axelar (AXL) to its roadmap.

📌Magic Eden has added Polygon NFT minting and trading support.

📌Wormhole has integrated with Injective, allowing connections to networks such as Solana, Aptos and Avalanche.

📈Binance has listed Magic (MAGIC) in the Innovation Zone.

📈Binance has delisted MITH, TRIBE, REP and BTCST.

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