It’s Friday! In today’s Daily, we have IT outages on Microsoft devices worldwide, Binance.US gets approval to invest certain customer assets in US Treasury bonds, South Korea’s cryptocurrency law goes into effect, and more.
Let’s begin.
Global IT outage impacts Microsoft devices
- Airports, banks, healthcare and media organizations have faced the “blue screen of death,” or BSOD, which causes systems to reboot or stop functioning properly.
- The issue stemmed from an update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon Sensor security product, and the company is currently working to roll back that update.
- CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz tried to reassure the public that this was not a security breach or cyberattack.
- CrowdStrike is “actively working with customers impacted by the flaw discovered in a single content update on Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not affected,” Kurtz said.
- “The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been released,” he added.
- Mudit Gupta, CISO at Polygon Labs, said X uses CrowdStrike technology, but is not affected because “we don’t roll out non-critical updates to our employees before testing.”
- The incident has sparked discussion about the vulnerabilities of a highly interconnected and digitalized global economy.
Binance.US Receives Court Approval to Invest Certain Customer Assets in U.S. Treasury Bonds
- Binance.US also requires you to transfer your cryptocurrencies to a third-party custodian that is not affiliated with the exchange.
- The order is part of an ongoing case overseen by Judge Jackson, in which the SEC has accused Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao of several violations, including lying to customers, failing to restrict U.S. investors from accessing its global site, misdirecting capital, and operating as an unregistered exchange.
- Last month, Jackson largely rejected Binance’s move to dismiss the case, but dismissed some of the SEC’s arguments, including that the secondary sale of BNB was a security.
South Korea’s first cryptocurrency law goes into full effect.
- Following the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and FTX in 2022, new rules focused on ensuring a safety net for cryptocurrency investors were quickly passed.
- Domestic cryptocurrency exchanges are now required to keep at least 80% of user deposits in cold storage, separate from their own funds, entrust cash deposits to licensed banks, and maintain cryptocurrency reserves equal in amount and type to customer deposits.
- Moreover, cryptocurrency services in the country must now take out appropriate insurance or make reserves to protect against hacks or liquidity crises.
QCP Capital says options traders are betting on a Bitcoin rally ahead of the U.S. election.
- They point out that open interest in Bitcoin options is concentrated in the $67,000 strike expiring in late July and the $100,000 call expiring in late December.
- Analysts have predicted a Bitcoin rally around the US presidential election in November, which is expected to see a victory for Republican candidate Donald Trump.
- Standard Chartered analysts also suggested that a Trump victory would be more positive for Bitcoin, noting that his administration would likely have a more favorable regulatory and mining environment.
Telegram launches store for mini apps as games like Hamster Kombat gain popularity
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced plans to bolster its blockchain initiative by launching a mini app store and an in-app browser with Web 3.0 support.
- The messaging app has become a popular portal to play tap-to-earn games like Hamster Kombat, Notcoin, and Yescoin, and there is also the possibility of earning cryptocurrencies using the TON blockchain.
- “2024 will go down in history as the year when hundreds of millions of people became familiar with blockchain. Telegram is proud to be at the center of this social change,” Durov posted on his Telegram channel.
Looking forward to next week
On Thursday, we get US GDP and jobless claims numbers, followed by US PCE data on Friday.
EDCON 2024 starts in Tokyo. Bitcoin 2024 starts in Nashville.
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