Today in Crypto: ‘If Government Bans Drugs, It Should Ban Crypto’, SVB Financial Group Files for Bankruptcy, BlockSec Stops Hacker from Stealing ETH 2,900

Source:
AdobeStock
/
Alexey
Novikov

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investigating
the
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flying
under
the
radar
of
today’s
crypto
news.__________

Regulation
news

Johan
Van
Overtveldt,
a
member
of
the

European
Parliament
and
former

Belgian
finance
minister,
called
for
a
crypto

ban
amid
the
issues
faced
by
the

banking
sector.
“Another
lesson
to
be
learned
from
the
current
banking
commotion,”
Van
Overtveldt

wrote.
“Enforce
a
strict
ban
on
cryptocurrencies.
Speculative
poison
and
no
economic
or
social
value
added.
If
a
government
bans
drugs,
it
should
also
ban
cryptos.”

The
US

Federal
Deposit
Insurance
Corporation
(FDIC)
has
denied
reports
that
prospective
purchasers
of

Signature
Bank
would
have
to
stop
doing
business
with
crypto
as
part
of
any
sale,
Reuters

reported.
An
FDIC
spokesperson
pointed
to
prior
comments
from
FDIC
Chairman
Martin
Gruenberg
that
the
agency
is
not
looking
to
prohibit
any
particular
activity
by
banks.

Legal
news

Silicon
Valley
Bank’s
parent
company

SVB
Financial
Group
(SIVB)

has
filed
for
Chapter
11

bankruptcy
protection,
adding
that
it
is
no
longer
affiliated
with
Silicon
Valley
Bank.
It
said
it
filed
a
voluntary
petition
for
a
court-supervised
reorganization
in
the

US
Bankruptcy
Court
for
the
Southern
District
of
New
York
to
preserve
value.
“SVB
Securities
and

SVB
Capital’s
funds
and
general
partner
entities
are
not
included
in
the
Chapter
11
filing
and
continue
to
operate
in
the
ordinary
course
as
SVB
Financial
Group
proceeds
with
its
previously
announced
exploration
of
strategic
alternatives
for
these
valuable
businesses,”
it
said.

Security
news

BlockSec,
a
smart
contract
audit
firm,
prevented
a

hacker
from
stealing

ETH
2,900
from
the

NFT
lending
project

Paraspace,
they

said
on
Twitter.
“There
is
a
flawed
logic
in
borrow()
of
the
ParaProxy
contract
(0x638a)”
of
Paraspace,
said
the
firm,
explaining
the
vulnerability
that
was
nearly
exploited
by
the
hacker
before
BlockSec
took
control
of
the
funds.

Banking
news

Cryptocurrency
firms
in

Hong
Kong
are
finding
it
even
harder
to
open
local
accounts
given
that
banks
in
the
city
are
not
keen
to
serve
them
after
the
closure
of
the
crypto-friendly

Silvergate
Bank
and

Signature
Bank,
the
South
China
Morning
Post

reported,
citing
industry
insiders.
Firms
are
looking
elsewhere
for
solutions,
including

Switzerland,

the
UK,
and

the
UAE,
where
some
remaining
crypto-friendly
banks
are
based,
the
report
added.

Investment
news

Investment
firm

Paradigm
announced
a
$6
million
token
purchase
from
security
decentralized
autonomous
organization
(DAO)

Code4rena’s
treasury,
“teaming
up
with
the
DAO
to
create
incentives
for
independent
auditors
to
hunt
for
bugs
and
keep
vulnerabilities
out
of
production,”
it
said.
Code4rena

added
that
it
submitted
a
DAO

proposal
to
team
up
with
Paradigm,
specifying
that
its
terms
approve
“a
sale
of
15%
of
the
total
supply
of
ARENA
tokens,
or
150,000,000
ARENA,
to
Paradigm
for
$6,000,000

USDC.
These
funds
are
intended
as
working
capital
for
the
DAO
in
growing
Code4rena.”

Composable
Corp,
a
development
shop
focused
on
building
decentralized
finance
(DeFi)
lending
markets,
raised
$1.2
million
to
support
the
development
of

Blueberry
Protocol.

Per
the
blog
post,
the
proceeds
will
be
used
to
grow
the
team
and
infrastructure.
Blueberry
Protocol
is
a
peer-to-peer
lending
market
allowing
users
to
borrow
up
to
50x
their
collateral
value
to
deploy
on-chain,
it
added.
The
protocol
will
partner
with
DeFi
projects
such
as

Alchemix
and

Olympus
DAO
for
custom
lending
market
and
yield
strategy
integrations,
among
other
DeFi
strategies
at
launch.

Gaming
news

South
Korean
mobile-first
game
developer

4:33
Creative
Lab

announced
the
launch
of

Delabs,
a
new
Web3-focused
venture
that
will
focus
on
developing
and
publishing
blockchain-native
games
in
the

Polygon
ecosystem.
It
is
led
by
Joonmo
Kwon
(aka
JMK),
a
businessman
and
former
CEO
of
gaming
giant

Nexon,
said
the
announcement,
adding
that
“Delabs
will
concentrate
on
innovation,
superb
user
experience,
and
blockchain-native
features
to
reimagine
the
future
of
decentralized
gaming.”

NFT
news

Orange
Comet,
a

Web3
game
and
entertainment
company,
announced
its
partnership
with
13-year-old
artist
Joe
Whale,
aka
The
Doodle
Boy.
The
press
release

said
that
the
first
phase
of
the
digital
collectibles
project
is
set
to
mint
exclusively
on
the

OpenSea
marketplace
on
April
25.
“To
kick
off
the
upcoming
collection,
Doodle
Boy
has
created
an
original,
intricate
piece
of
art
celebrating
its
launch
and
the
proceeds
will
benefit
a
charity
of
his
choice,”
it
added.