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Get
your
daily,
bite-sized
digest
of
cryptoasset
and
blockchain-related
news
–
investigating
the
stories
flying
under
the
radar
of
today’s
crypto
news.__________
Mining
news
The
difficulty
of
mining
a
Bitcoin
(BTC)
block
increased
by
4.68%
on
Sunday,
following
a
rise
of
10.26%
seen
two
weeks
ago,
hitting
a
new
all-time
high
(ATH)
of
39.35
T.
It
had
hit
its
previous
ATH
of
37.59
T
following
the
previous
difficulty
adjustment
on
January
15.
Legal
news
The
US,
New
York
Department
of
Financial
Services
(NYDFS)
is
investigating
crypto
exchange
Gemini
over
its
claims
related
to
the
safety
of
customer
funds,
Axios
reported.
Gemini
reportedly
claimed
last
year
that
the
assets
of
its
Earn
product
customers
were
safe
due
to
it
being
backed
by
the
Federal
Deposit
Insurance
Corporation
(FDIC).
Current
and
former
FDIC
officials
told
Axios
that
while
the
FDIC
language
Gemini
used
is
misleading,
it’s
unclear
whether
it
actually
violates
the
law.
Crypto
exchange
FTX
seeks
to
remove
Turkish
units
from
its
bankruptcy
case,
arguing
that
Turkish
authorities
are
unlikely
to
follow
instructions
from
US
courts.
A
court
filing
stated
that:
“The
Debtors
include
two
Turkish
subsidiaries
that
are
not
strategic
to
global
operations:
FTX
Turkey
and
SNG
Investments.
[…]
The
orders
entered
by
this
Court
do
not
have
legal
or
practical
effect
in
Türkiye
and
the
Debtors
have
no
reason
to
believe
that
the
Turkish
government
will
comply
with
this
Court’s
orders.
As
a
result,
the
Debtors
are
unable
to
exercise
sufficient
control
over
the
affairs
of
the
Turkish
Debtors
in
order
to
comply
with
their
duties
under
the
Bankruptcy
Code.“
Regulation
news
The
South
Korean
Ministry
of
Justice
said
it
plans
to
create
a
crypto
tracking
system
in
the
first
half
of
the
year,
in
order
to
“strengthen
the
tracking
of
money
laundering
using
virtual
currency
and
the
recovery
of
criminal
proceeds,”
khgames
reported.
The
“Virtual
Currency
Tracking
System”
will
be
used
to
monitor
transaction
history,
extract
information
related
to
transactions,
and
check
the
source
of
funds
before
and
after
the
remittance.
Huang
Yiping,
a
former
adviser
to
the
central
People’s
Bank
of
China
(PBOC),
said
Beijing
should
consider
the
long-term
effects
of
its
cryptocurrency
ban,
the
South
China
Morning
Post
reported.
A
permanent
“no”
to
crypto-related
products
could
result
in
missed
opportunities
in
technologies
such
as
blockchain,
which
are
“very
valuable”
to
regulated
financial
systems,
said
Huang,
now
an
economics
professor
at
Peking
University’s
National
School
of
Development.
DeFi
news
Holepunch,
an
encrypted
platform
for
building
peer-to-peer
applications
–
backed
by
USDT
issuer
Tether,
crypto
exchange
Bitfinex,
and
developer
of
peer-to-peer,
scalable
distributed
systems
Hypercore
–
announced
the
launch
of
Keet
Mobile.
Per
an
announcement,
this
is
a
free
peer-to-peer
instant
messaging
decentralized
application
(dapp)
that
works
without
the
need
for
centralized
entities
on
any
device.
The
Keet
Mobile
alpha
initial
release
will
be
limited
to
texting,
while
the
ability
to
make
audio
or
video
calls
is
planned
for
release
within
few
months.
Security
news
Crypto
exchange
KuCoin
launched
a
set
of
anti-fraud
measures
to
provide
more
security
tools
to
prevent
business
scams,
said
the
press
release.
Besides
the
official
contact
verification,
the
newly
added
measures
include
advanced
anti-phishing
verification
and
business
wallet
address
verification,
“which
significantly
reduce
the
potential
for
fraud,”
it
added.
OpenZeppelin,
a
provider
of
smart-contract
security
solutions,
released
the
results
of
the
latest
security
audits
conducted
on
zkSync,
an
Ethereum
Virtual
Machine-compatible
zero-knowledge-proof-based
scaling
solution
developed
by
Matter
Labs.
In
total,
out
of
45
issues
discovered
across
OpenZeppelin’s
previous
two
audits
conducted
last
November
and
December,
respectively,
40
have
been
fully
resolved
by
the
Matter
Labs
team.
This
includes
two
critical
severity
and
two
medium
severity
issues,
said
a
press
release.
Investment
news
Web3
entertainment
company
Hume
announced
that
it
acquired
Blocktones,
a
Web3
music
startup
founded
by
Grammy-winning
producer
Gino
Borri,
“Gino
The
Ghost,”
and
show
designer
and
director
Michael
Mauro.
Mauro
has
collaborated
with
some
of
the
biggest
names
in
the
music
industry
including
Diplo,
Lil
Uzi
Vert,
and
Megan
Thee
Stallion,
said
the
press
release.
It
added
that:
“The
acquisition
will
bring
Blocktones’
open-sourced
generative
audio
collections
to
the
Hume
platform,
enabling
new
pathways
for
its
virtual
artists
and
novel
ways
for
creators
to
create
open-sourced
music
beats.”