The US Federal Trade Commission says crypto scams have price US shoppers greater than a billion {dollars}. A former supervisor of the most important NFT market is charged with insider NFT buying and selling. Technologists signal an open letter to lawmakers on crypto dangers. Chipotle now accepts cryptocurrency funds in any respect US areas. Here’s what occurred in crypto over the week.
Consumers have misplaced over $1 billion to cryptocurrency scams since 2021 started, FTC says
Since the beginning of 2021, greater than 46,000 Americans have collectively misplaced over $1 billion to crypto scams, according to an analysis released Friday by the US Federal Trade Commission. Out of all the cash reported misplaced throughout this era, roughly one in 4 {dollars} have been misplaced to crypto scams.
The evaluation cited funding scams as the most important purpose why so many individuals misplaced cash. Romance scams involving cryptocurrency impacted the second-highest variety of individuals however accounted for a a lot smaller proportion of misplaced cash in contrast with funding scams.
The median quantity misplaced to cryptocurrency scams since January 2021 was $2,600. The high three cryptocurrencies that scammers lifted have been bitcoin (70%), tether (10%), and ether (9%).
Read CNET’s full story on the FTC’s crypto rip-off evaluation right here.
Former Manager for NFT Marketplace Charged With Insider NFT Trading
Charges of insider NFT buying and selling have been introduced towards a former supervisor of the favored OpenSea NFT market by the US Attorney’s Office for Manhattan, according to a Wednesday announcement. This is the primary time the Justice Department has pursued an insider buying and selling case over NFTs.
The suspect was a product supervisor at OpenSea final yr. In his position, the suspect reportedly was conscious of which NFTs can be featured available on the market’s homepage. NFTs usually acquire worth by means of phrase of mouth, so if an NFT will get posted on the homepage of a giant NFT market, the enhance in visibility may improve its worth, at the very least briefly.
The indictment alleges that the suspect “launched an age-old scheme to commit insider buying and selling by utilizing his data of confidential info to buy dozens of NFTs upfront of them being featured on OpenSea’s homepage.”
On Friday, an organization spokesperson responded to CNET’s request for remark. “When we realized of Nate’s conduct, we initiated an investigation and finally requested him to go away the corporate,” the spokesperson mentioned in an electronic mail assertion. “His conduct was in violation of our worker insurance policies and in direct battle with our core values and rules.”
Read CNET’s full story on a former OpenSea supervisor charged with insider NFT buying and selling.
Technologists signal open letter to lawmakers asking for brand spanking new cryptocurrency legal guidelines
A bunch of 26 lecturers and technologists signed an open letter to lawmakers on Wednesday calling for brand spanking new guidelines to govern blockchain expertise and the cryptocurrency business. Blockchain refers to the record-keeping expertise that underpins cryptocurrency and different crypto-related belongings.
“Blockchain applied sciences facilitate few, if any, real-economy makes use of,” the letter reads. “On the opposite hand, the underlying crypto-assets have been the car for unsound and extremely risky speculative funding schemes which are being actively promoted to retail traders who could also be unable to perceive their nature and danger.”
The letter additionally cites ransomware, scams, cash laundering, monetary instability, susceptibility to financial institution runs and large local weather emissions from proof-of-work expertise as ongoing points with blockchain expertise and cryptocurrency.
Read CNET’s full story on the open letter to lawmakers right here.
Chipotle begins accepting cryptocurrencies at US areas
You can now purchase a burrito at Chipotle with bitcoin. The burrito chain has partnered with cost platform Flexa and now accepts quite a few cryptocurrencies, together with bitcoin, ether and dogecoin, as funds by means of Flexa through app and QR code.
“We are consistently exploring innovation that may improve our visitor expertise, and that features now accepting digital foreign money funds with Flexa in Chipotle’s US eating places,” Chipotle CTO Curt Garner mentioned in a press release to CNET.
You can use choose cryptocurrencies to purchase objects at any Chipotle location within the US, according to Flexa’s announcement.
Read CNET’s full story on Chipotle accepting cryptocurrency right here.
Thanks for studying. If you are on the lookout for extra, try this story by Daniel Van Boom on the unusual story of the Goblintown NFT assortment.
