🔨 China's largest money-laundering gang busted

🔨 China's largest money-laundering gang busted 💷 The pound falls to a new low - what does it mean for crypto? 🔐 A decline in Total Value Locked (TVL) in DeFi: what's behind it?

GM, vEmpions! Aristotle famously said: "You are what you repeatedly do." This means that if you want to become good at something, you have to keep doing it. However, even Aristotle didn't become good at everything just by thinking about it. He had to put some effort into it as well.

The same can be said about crypto - if we want the new technology to succeed, we have to keep using it. So, even if you're not a big fan of the volatile prices, or you can't stand ups and downs anymore, remember that crypto is still in its early days and it needs our help to grow.

Here's what recently happened in the space:

🔨 China's largest money-laundering gang busted 💷 The pound falls to a new low - what does it mean for crypto? 🔐 A decline in Total Value Locked (TVL) in DeFi: what's behind it?

China's largest money-laundering gang busted

Chinese police caught a large money laundering gang that had used cryptocurrency to launder over $5 billion. The criminal organization was led by Hong Mou and had been engaged in tele-trafficking for years.

The entire money-laundering operation was disrupted in just 100 days, thanks to the hard work of the police force. All of the suspects have been apprehended and are currently in custody.

Hengyang Police held a press conference on Friday to discuss the details of the case and how they were able to bring the criminals to justice, where they also announced that this is just one of many cases that they have successfully solved in recent months.

According to them, the suspects had used multiple cryptocurrency exchanges to cash out their ill-gotten gains. They would first convert the funds into Bitcoin or Ethereum, and then move them to an overseas exchange.

Once the money was successfully laundered, they would convert it back into US dollars and withdraw the cash. In total, the gang had laundered over $5 billion using this method.

The police also discovered that the group had used other methods to launder money, such as purchasing luxury cars and real estate.

Interestingly enough, despite an extensive crackdown and ban on crypto-related services by the Chinese government, experts in the field report that China still ranks in the top ten among the countries leading in adopting digital assets, with a large number of businesses now using them for cross-border payments.

In any case, this is a a major blow to criminal organizations that use cryptocurrency to launder money. Hopefully, this will deter other gangs from engaging in similar activities in the future and our space can be a little bit safer as a result.

The pound falls to a new low - what does it mean for crypto?

Dogecoin became the second largest Proof-of-Work (PoW) coin after The Merge, but that doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever. In fact, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin believes that Dogecoin will eventually move to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

Vitalik said this while speaking at the Messari Mainnet Summit on September 23. He also believes that Zcash will make the switch to PoS as well: “I hope Zcash moves over, and I am hopeful Dogecoin moves to PoS soon,” he said.

With a market cap of $8 billiom, Dogecoin towers over some notable PoW assets such as Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). After Ethereum's switch to PoS many miners left the network in search of more profitable coins to mine, which caused Dogecoin's hashrate - and consequently its market cap - to rise.

It's unclear when or if Dogecoin will make the switch to PoS, but it's certainly something that the community is considering. Many experts believe that PoS is a more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly way to run a blockchain, so it could be in Dogecoin's best interest to make the switch at some point.

A decline in Total Value Locked (TVL) in DeFi: what's behind it?

Thanks to the massive influx of capital into the cryptocurrency sector in 2021, the total value locked (TVL) across all decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms reached an all-time high. However, it seems that the tables are turning in 2022, as the TVL has dropped significantly since then.

TVL, or total value locked, is a metric used to monitor the overall worth of funds instilled by users into DeFi projects. In 2021, TVL shot up over 1,200%, with Ethereum comprising the majority of staking value in the entire DeFi industry at 62%.

The TVL in crypto recorded in December 2021 stood at a whopping $303.8 billion, only to drop to $96.3 billion in September 2022 – a loss of 68.3%, according to CryproRank, a crypto market data aggregation and analytics platform.

So, what caused this massive decline in value locked in DeFi?

There are a few possible explanations.

First, the price of Ethereum (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain and the most popular asset used in DeFi applications, has dropped significantly since its all-time high in January 2022. This has likely led to a decrease in the value locked in DeFi, as investors have likely taken their profits and moved them into other assets.

Second, the rise in interest rates in the traditional financial system has led to a decrease in the demand for yield-generating DeFi products, as investors can now get higher returns elsewhere.

Third, recent hacks and scams in the DeFi space have led to a loss of confidence in many projects, causing investors to move their funds out of them.

Whatever the reason, the decline TVL is a cause for concern, as it could signal a reversal of the growth seen in this industry over the past year. We'll have to wait and see how the situation develops in the coming months.