Our weekly news roundup from East Asia selects the most important developments in the industry.
HTX exchange hacked… also…
In the fourth hack to affect the HTX (formerly Huobi Global) ecosystem in just two months, the exchange suffered a loss of $13.6 million due to a hot wallet hack that occurred on November 22.
In an announcement made on November 23, the exchange promised to “compensate in full for losses caused by this attack, guarantee 100% safety of user funds,” and restore services within 24 hours after the attack. The previous day, the HTX Eco Chain (HECO) bridge was used for $86.6 million. The investigation is ongoing.
In September, the HTX exchange was hacked for $7.9 million. Later, in November, a $100 million hack occurred against the Poloniex exchange, a related entity. Justin Sun, Chinese blockchain figure and de facto owner of HTX (not to mention owner of Poloniex, founder of Tron and CEO of BitTorrent, etc.); decided “HTX will fully compensate HTX’s hot wallet losses. Deposits and withdrawals will be temporarily suspended. All HTX funds are safe.” Sun previously assured that “all user assets are #SAFU” in the aftermath of the September hack of HTX.
Huobi rebranded as HTX at the Token 2049 event held in September this year. Although management has repeatedly reassured the exchange that it is running well, the exchange has suffered several serious incidents this year, including an alleged employee mutiny.
Binance pleaded guilty and settled criminal charges for $4.3 billion.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has agreed to plead guilty to violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, willfully failing to register as a money transmitter, and willfully violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The exchange plans to pay $4.3 billion in fines and forfeitures to the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to a November 21 announcement, Binance co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao also pleaded guilty to one count of willfully violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act. Zhao later filed a personal plea in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
At the time, Zhao was granted $175 million bail to remain in Dubai until his sentencing hearing on February 24. But the U.S. Department of Justice appealed that decision and asked that his residence be restricted to the United States until a decision is made. A sentencing hearing is underway for Zhao, who poses an unacceptable flight risk.
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In the indictment, the Justice Department noted that despite several high-profile incidents and assurances, Binance facilitated more than $1 billion in illegal transactions targeting Iranian users, Russian marketplace Hyrdra, and cryptocurrency mixer Bestmixer. US users were recruited without prior registration. Binance has also been accused of intentionally concealing its actions, including stating that “compliance with U.S. law would hinder Binance’s efforts to increase its profits, market share, and trading volume.”
On the same day, Zhao stepped down As CEO of Binance. “I made a mistake and I have to take responsibility. “This is what’s best for our community, Binance, and myself,” he said.
“Binance is no longer a baby. Now is the time to let him walk and run. I know Binance will continue to grow and outperform with the deep bench it has.”
Zhao still owns a majority of the exchange, but is prohibited from getting involved in the exchange’s day-to-day operations. Richard Teng, Binance’s Global Head of Regional Markets, has been appointed as the exchange’s new CEO. In his inauguration speech, Teng decided The exchange’s fundamentals are “very strong,” and Binance remains “the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume.”
Blockchain analytics firm Nansen noted that despite the guilty plea, it had not seen “a large outflow of funds” following the incident. Almost $965 million worth of withdrawals occurred on the exchange, while total holdings rose to $65 billion. On November 23, CZ’s temporarily suspended After removing “Binance” from his profile name.
Korea invites 100,000 people to CBDC test
The Bank of Korea, South Korea’s central bank, plans to invite 100,000 citizens to purchase products with deposit tokens issued by commercial banks as part of a pilot test of central bank digital currency (CBDC). The first such trials began in October.
“Participants will be restricted to using their currency only for specified payment purposes,” according to a local news report on November 23. Other uses, including personal transfers, are not permitted at this time.” The Bank of Korea has not yet decided whether to introduce CBDC, but additional attempts are expected, such as introducing an integrated simulation system for carbon emissions trading at the Korea Exchange. It said:
“The rapid digitalization of the economy in recent years has led to increased demand for public currency in digital form. This demand is evident in the private sector, where new payment methods such as stablecoins have been developed and are already widely used in certain sectors.”
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Jiyuan Line
Zhiyuan Sun is a journalist at Cointelegraph specializing in technology news. He has years of experience writing for major financial outlets such as The Motley Fool, Nasdaq.com, and Seeking Alpha.