Today in Crypto: Kenyan Police Reportedly Raided Worldcoin Warehouse, US FBI Issues Warnings About NFT Scammers, Curve Finance Offers a $1.85 Million Bounty to Identify & Convict the Hacker

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Police news

• Kenyan police allegedly raided the Nairobi warehouse of identity and cryptocurrency protocol Worldcoin on Saturday, confiscating documents and machines, local news outlet KahawaTungu reported on Monday. Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait said that Tools for Humanity, Worldcoin’s parent company, failed to disclose its true intentions during registration. The investigators took the data to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters for analysis, the report claimed. 

Crime news

• The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a warning about criminal actors posing as legitimate non-fungible token (NFT) developers in financial fraud schemes targeting active users within the NFT community. Per the press release, criminals either gain direct access to NFT developer social media accounts or create almost identical accounts to promote new NFT releases. They often aim to create a sense of urgency, using phrases like “limited supply” and referring to the promotion as a “surprise” or previously unannounced mint.
• Three US Democratic senators are pressing President Joe Biden’s administration to disclose more information about its efforts to counteract North Korea’s dependence on stolen cryptocurrency to fund its nuclear program, The Wall Street Journal reported. Elizabeth Warren, Tim Kaine, and Chris Van Hollen called Pyongyang’s growing reliance on digital assets to evade sanctions a severe national security threat. In a letter sent to the White House and Treasury Department, the trio asked for details on any steps being taken by the administration to address the problem and for updated estimates on the scale and scope of revenue being generated by the North Korean regime through stolen crypto.

Hack news

• DeFi protocol Curve Finance is offering a $1.85 million bounty to anyone who can provide information about the exploiter’s identity that would result in legal repercussions, after the deadline set by the team for the attacker to voluntarily return the rest of the funds officially passed on Sunday. “We now extend the bounty to the public, and offer a reward valued at 10% of remaining exploited funds (currently $1.85M USD) to the person who is able to identify the exploiter in a way that leads to a conviction in the courts,” the team wrote in an Ethereum transaction’s input data. 

Career news

• The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is hiring people in senior roles to carry out crypto-related investigations. It opened a position of Digital Assets Disclosure Officer in multiple locations. The role falls within the newly formed Digital Assets Team (DAT), which will investigate blockchain-enabled crimes. The NCA also opened two positions for a Digital Assets Cryptocurrency Financial Investigations Manager and one for a Digital Assets Cryptocurrency Financial Investigations Manager.

Regulation news

• The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) said that it “observed some unlicensed virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) engaging in improper practices,” warning that conducting unlicensed activities in Hong Kong is a criminal offense. It said that some unlicensed VATPs are misleading the public by falsely claiming to have submitted license applications to the SFC, while others publicly announced an intention to apply for a license from the SFC, but haven’t done so yet or may not do so at all. “It is an offence for any person to make a fraudulent or reckless misrepresentation for the purpose of inducing another person to trade in virtual assets,” the regulator said. 

Adoption news

• Humanitarian aid and community services charity Red Cross Singapore started accepting donations in cryptocurrency, including bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC). To do so, it partnered with Triple-A, a crypto payment gateway licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said the press release. All crypto donations will be converted into fiat currency and settled via bank transfer within one business day, it added.