Last week, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov's arrest shook the crypto community, especially given the prices of Notcoin and Toncoin tokens.
The SEC filed a Wells notice against OpenSea, indicating a possible crackdown on NFTs as securities.
Despite a slight decrease in August, crypto hackers have stolen over $1.2 billion in 2024.
Elon Musk successfully defended against a $258 billion lawsuit alleging that he manipulated DOgecoin between 2021 and 2023.
Vitalik Buterin's sale of a massive amount of his ETH holdings has raised questions in the crypto space.
Last week was one of the most eventful ones in August. It began with the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov over multiple charges, including drug trafficking, terrorism, child pornography and other illegal activities.
Other events followed throughout the week, like the SEC's issuance of a Wells notice against OpenSea, which appears to have expanded the "securities witch hunt" from crypto to NFTs.
A report from Immunefi also stated that crypto hackers had stolen more than $1.2 billion this year—and October had only just begun.
Here are some of the biggest stories in crypto from the previous week.
Last week began with the arrest on 24 August of Pavel Durov, the CEO and founder of Telegram in France.
The prices of Toncoin, Notcoin, and several other Telegram-affiliated cryptocurrencies began to tank immediately as social media erupted into debates over privacy, free speech, and government overreach.
Durov was seized just as his plane landed at the Le Bourget airport from Azerbaijan, just north of Paris.
French prosecutors stated that the investigation into Durov and Telegram started as early as July 2024, with a series of charges, including child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, organized fraud, money laundering and much, much more.
Despite accusations of Durov’s arrest being politically motivated, French President Emmanuel Macron has denied accusations amid calls from prominent tech leaders like Elon Musk, Edward Snowden and Vitalik Buterin to move the #FreePavel hashtag.
The SEC's scrutiny of crypto is terrible enough, but according to the SEC, things might be poised to get even worse, with NFTs being fit for classification as securities.
Last week, on 28 August, OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, received a Wells Notice from the US SEC.
To the unfamiliar, Wells Notices are simply formal alerts from the agency, informing the recipient that it intends to sue them soon.
This would mean that the SEC has concluded an investigation and found some (if not all) NFTs to be securities, and OpenSea had broken the law by facilitating their sales.
OpenSea's CEO, Devin Finzer, took to Twitter to express his shock at the SEC’s action, emphasizing that the platform has remained committed to supporting creators and artists.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time the SEC has moved to classify NFTs as securities.
They have previously sued other creators, like the team behind the Stoner Cats and Impact Theory NFTs.
Overall, if the SEC wins whatever lawsuit it plans, the crypto and NFTs space could face much more painful times ahead.
2024 has been brutal so far when it comes to cybercrimes.
According to a recent report from blockchain security firm Immunefi, hackers have recently stolen over $1.2 billion worth of digital assets.
According to Immunefi, the total amount stolen has increased by a staggering 15.5% compared to the same period in 2023.
Crypto losses in 2024
Overall, this year has seen around 154 separate incidents, the most notable of which are the massive $230 million theft from WazirX and the $305 million stolen from DMM Bitcoin.
Immunefi says that in August alone, hackers stole over $15 million in crypto, which is much less than the $274 million stolen in July.
The Ronin Network, in particular, lost $9.8 million, and Nexera lost $1.5 million.
Overall, hackers are now targetting Cefi platforms more, with more than half of the losses in 2024 being from centralized entities.
Last week, Elon Musk and Tesla successfully defended against a ridiculously huge $258 billion class-action lawsuit.
This lawsuit, filed by several Dogecoin investors in 2022, alleged that Musk used his influence on Social Media to manipulate the price of Dogecoin, causing it to surge by over 36,000% before the 2021 crash.
The plaintiffs accused Musk of running a "pump and dump" scheme and causing a Dogecoin frenzy by claiming to be the "CEO of Dogecoin" and promising to put a "literal Dogecoin on the moon" via a SpaceX mission.
They argued that these statements were misleading and caused Dogecoin pumps that Musk and his team capitalized on.
However, on 29 August, Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the lawsuit.
According to the Judge, Musk's tweets were "aspirational and puffery" and no sensible investor would rely on them for sound investment advice.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin made headlines once again for selling his ETH holdings.
According to recent data from LookOnChain, Buterin transferred 800 ETh (worth more than $2 million) into a multi-sig wallet before later converting 190 ETH into 477,000 USDC.
This came after a similar transfer of around 3,000 ETH to the same wallet on 9 August, amid complaints from Ethereum investors about Buterin's "ETH Dumping."
According to insights from Chinese crypto reporter Colin Wu, Buterin mentioned three years ago on Reddit that he held around 700,000 ETH, which he received from the cryptocurrency's pre-mine phase.
Soon after this, however, Arkham Intelligence data shows that the Ethereum co-founder now holds about 240,000 ETH.
Which means that he has sold more than 420,000 of his original holdings in three years.
Interestingly, Buterin continues to claim that he holds 90% of his net worth in ETh despite the selling.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information but will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.