Another week, another set of events. As usual, the crypto market didn't fail to deliver on the usual dose of "wild west" happenings.
While we didn't see as many hacks this week as the previous ones, we did have a new Solana-phone competitor, an upcoming $1.5 billion metaverse venture, updates on the Binance/CZ case, as well as a police officer who stands accused of stealing 81 Bitcoin from a drug dealer's wallet during a raid.
Without wasting further time, here are some of the key updates from the previous week.
Crypto has been one of the most heavily hounded forms of money since its inception.
Regulatory agencies and officers have bashed crypto severally, tagging money laundering, terrorism financing and other forms of crime against it.
However, last week, crypto got exonerated from the "terrorism financing" label, when a US Treasury official testified that crypto had little part to play in financing the Hamas attacks from 2023.
According to the US Treasury's Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, terrorist groups still prefer to use "traditional products and services", and the amounts of crypto these groups got were far less than previously reported.
Nelson testified before the House Financial Services Committee on 14 February and stated that the figures mentioned in a certain Wall Street Journal report from October 2023 were false.
According to the report in question, between August 2021 and June 2023, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas received crypto donations totalling $93 million and $41 million, respectively.
Nelson clarified that rather than the actual donations these groups received, the report was based on the total amounts kept in the crypto wallets associated with them.
After questioning Nelson during the hearing, Representative Tom Emmer stated that "Hamas is using crypto in relatively small amounts compared to what's been widely reported."
Similar to Solana's foray into the crypto-phone landscape with the Saga and the Chapter 2 phones, Aptos has just launched one of its own.
According to a recent announcement tweet, Aptos just partnered with Jambo Technology, an African tech company to launch what they call the JamboPhone.
Why is the JamboPhone special?
The JamboPhone was made to be a budget-friendly smartphone with a $99 price tag.
Moreover, it also comes out of the box with crypto integration and Web3 access, and will mostly be available in developing areas with limited access to Web3, like Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.
Recall that Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of Binance, pleaded guilty to allegations of allowing Binance to be used for money laundering.
Zhao pleaded guilty to the charges in November 2023, agreed to pay a $50 million fine, forfeit $4.3 billion, and step down from his role as CEO at Binance.
Zhao also agreed to cooperate with the U.S. authorities in their ongoing investigation of Binance, in exchange for a lighter sentencing.
The original criminal sentencing was set for February 23, 2024. However, this week, reports and a court document filed on February 12, 2024, have circulated that the hearing has been postponed to April 30, 2024.
Overall, Zhao still faces between 12 – 18 months in jail according to former U.S. SEC official John Reed Stark, but prosecutors are reportedly pushing for a harsher sentence.
Disney and Epic Games (Developers of the Fortnite game) have joined forces to take a big step into the metaverse.
As part of the partnership, Disney will buy a $1.5 billion share in Epic Games.
By combining Disney's massive library of intellectual properties (IPs) with the well-established Fortnite user base—which has 400 million registered users—this cooperation seeks to build a metaverse that offers a special kind of interaction and coexistence between metaverse technology and gaming.
This new partnership will allow users to play, watch, create, and shop seamlessly and engagingly.
The partnership will also leverage the power of Unreal Engine, to create an immersive metaverse that integrates Disney's franchises like Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and more, into Fortnite and other Epic Games products.
The partnership will also give users access to gaming, education, and e-commerce, which are built on the Aptos blockchain network.
This week, an Australian Federal Police officer got hit with charges of theft, after allegedly stealing 81.616 Bitcoin from a Trezor hardware wallet found during a raid on a drug dealer's home in 2019.
The officer, William Wheatley, was reportedly a specialist in the Australian Police's cybercrime division and was called in on a joint operation with the Victorian Police to bust a steroid trafficking ring.
According to reports, the wallet Wheatley found contained 81.62 Bitcoin, valued at $309,000 at the time of the raid in 2019. However, at the time of writing, it is worth approximately $4.2 million in US Dollars.
In the meanwhile, Wheatley is maintaining his innocence in the face of charges that he stole, participated in money laundering, and used his position as a public officer for personal gain.
According to reports, he is ready to defend himself against the accusations related to the Bitcoins that were stolen from the Trezor wallet.
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