🤷‍♂️ DOJ charges founder of never-heard-of crypto CEX with money laundering

🤷‍♂️ DOJ charges founder of never-heard-of crypto CEX with money laundering ♺ 25 million patents will be converted to NFTs - IPwe Inc. & Casper Labs at Davos 👨‍💻 Crypto developer activity rises significantly despite the market

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🤷‍♂️ DOJ charges founder of never-heard-of crypto CEX with money laundering 

♺ 25 million patents will be converted to NFTs - IPwe Inc. & Casper Labs at Davos

👨‍💻 Crypto developer activity rises significantly despite the market

DOJ charges founder of never-heard-of crypto CEX with money laundering

In a recent development, the United States Department of Justice has brought charges against Anatoly Legkodymov – a senior executive at Bitzlato, an obscure Hong Kong-based CEX. Bitzlato is alleged to have been knowingly facilitating the laundering of approximately $700 million worth of digital assets. The Department believes that Bitzlato worked in conjunction with Hydra network, which was taken down by both U.S. and German authorities in 2022.

Bitzlato is believed to have advertised itself as a no-questions-asked cryptocurrency exchange and was reportedly able to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits as a result. US Attorney Breon Peace said in an official statement that the company “sold itself to criminals” and will now face the consequences of its actions.

There's one problem though - no one ever heard of Bitzlato before. The exchange is not listed anywhere, and its known on-chain history is extremely limited. This suggests that the platform was either a well-hidden criminal enterprise that was unknown to most of the crypto industry until now or simply an amateurish attempt at money laundering. Naturally, the news spawned a plethora of memes and humorous comments from crypto Twitter, with many questioning why such an ostensible "$1Bn exchange" had gone undetected for so long.

A few hours before that, crypto prices dipped when the DOJ announced that they were about to hold a significant press conference. Many of the investors feared that the news would be related to a total crackdown on crypto or a blanket ban on certain cryptocurrencies. Fortunately for the industry, the news turned out to be a nothing-burger.

Either way, the Department of Justice has made it clear that it will not tolerate such activity and will take appropriate action to prosecute and punish those who engage in what it deems to be criminal conduct.

25 million patents will be converted to NFTs - IPwe Inc. & Casper Labs at Davos

IPwe Inc. and Casper Labs have announced a groundbreaking move to tokenize 25 million patents on the blockchain. This partnership is a major milestone in the adoption of blockchain technology and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) by enterprise organizations, marking one of the first uses of this new technology on a large scale.

This collaboration is seeded by IPwe’s commitment to leveraging technology and artificial intelligence in order to make IP services more efficient, while Casper Labs provides a sound business-focused proof-of-stake blockchain framework. This partnership marks the union of two industry powerhouses, signaling a major shift in the way intellectual property is managed.

The tokenization of patents on the blockchain will transform the way patent holders and third-party organizations interact with intellectual property. The tokens will offer a new level of transparency and trust in IP transactions, while also providing an immutable system of record that is trackable on the blockchain.

The implications of this way of managing IP are far-reaching, opening the door for new business opportunities and unlocking access to previously inaccessible patents. The way we interact with intellectual property is undergoing a dramatic transformation, and the ones who will benefit from it are the creators and innovators who now have an easier way of protecting and monetizing their ideas. Who knows, maybe the next great invention is just an NFT away.

Crypto developer activity rises significantly despite the market

Metrics for active crypto devs grew 5% YoY despite the market, according to a study from venture firm Electric Capital. The study revealed an increase of 3x in the number of Bitcoin active developers, as well as 5x more Ethereum active developers. Additionally, there was a 471,000 monthly code commits to open-source crypto.

In addition to the larger numbers of active developers for Bitcoin and Ethereum, the study showed significant growth in other networks like Solana (1,444), Polkadot (977), Cosmos (873), Tezos (365) and NEAR (359). This indicates that developers are still actively interested in blockchain networks, despite the bearish market.

It's also worth noting that this growth in active crypto-developers is likely fueled by non-speculative projects such as DeFi, stablecoins and NFTs. These types of projects provide real value to users and are, thus, more attractive to active developers than pure speculative projects.

Overall, the report from Electric Capital provides further evidence that development in the crypto space is alive and well despite bearish market conditions. This indicates that the sector is maturing and will be able to sustain itself for the long term. With continued growth of both active developers and code commits, the crypto space is well-positioned to continue advancing over the years.

This also speaks to the overall potential of blockchain technology as a whole and its ability to revolutionize industries and upend traditional models. As more projects come online, we can expect greater development in existing networks as well as new projects that could eventually drive the industry forward.