Crypto.com criticised for running internal market maker, Binance orders Nigerian copycat to cease-and-desist

Crypto.com criticised for running internal market maker

Exchange Crypto.com has come under fire for running internal market making and trading teams, which could highlight potential conflicts of interest.

The Singapore-based group operates proprietary trading and market making teams, according to sources speaking with the Financial Times.

Market making and proprietary trading are not uncommon among financial services businesses, but are usually run in separate entities.

“This is not a controversial practice,” Crypto.com told the FT, saying that the internal teams are “treated exactly the same as third-party market makers that identically facilitate tight spreads and efficient markets on our platform.”

Crypto.com is one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges and has been endorsed by the likes of Matt Damon. The Jason Bourne superstar has even appeared in ads issued by the firm.

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Binance issues cease-and-desist letter for copycat Binance Nigeria Limited

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao tweeted Sunday that the company issued a cease and desist letter to a copycat entity based in Nigeria, days after the Nigerian government courted confusion when it publicly banned the entity.

Nigeria’s financial regulator ordered the company — called Binance Nigeria Limited — to stop soliciting investments in the country, at a time when Binance’s US subsidiary faces a lawsuit from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Research by DL News shows that Binance Nigeria Limited is one of several copycat companies created by Ahassan Ifzal Mughal, Esq., who stated that the companies were created so the names could be sold to the parent entities if they expanded into Nigeria.

It is still unclear whether the Nigerian government intended to ban the actual Binance, or Binance Nigeria Limited.

Nigerians can access Binance despite a crypto banking ban in the nation, and 10% of Nigerians currently hold digital assets.

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Crypto Twitter sleuth ZachXBT raises over $1m to fight defamation lawsuit

ZachXBT, a prominent cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, has raised over $1 million in donations just days after being named in a defamation lawsuit by tech entrepreneur Jeffrey Huang, aka. Machi Big Brother.

Huang’s lawsuit targeted an article written by ZachXBT in 2022, which alleged Huang embezzled cryptocurrency worth millions from defunct crypto platform Formosa Financial, of which Huang was a co-founder.

Since ZachXBT tweeted the details of the lawsuit on June 16, donations have poured in from wallets across several blockchains, and include funds from high-profile donors such as Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Tron founder Justin Sun.

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Hacker stole $73m with NFT drainers in last nine months

Cybercriminals have stolen over $73 million from more than 32,000 wallets over the last nine months by using NFT drainers like Inferno and Venom.

That is according to data from PeckShield and multiple dashboards on Dune Analytics, analysed by The Block.

The figures highlight the black market of NFT Drainers, which simply put are malicious code that used to drain the value of a specific NFTs by flooding the market with large quantities of that token.

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