The Breakdown First Five - Wednesday August 23 2023

Welcome back to The Breakdown First Five — the 5 most interesting and/or important stories in bitcoin, crypto, and markets to start your day.

5. It Was All a Meme

Burgeoning Memecoin PEPE has collapsed by 18% after a developer wallet spooked investors with a massive transfer. The multisig which holds much of the token’s supply was modified to require just two signatures, down from five. Almost $15M worth of the frogcoin were sent to centralized exchanges, presumably for dumping. There’s also an SBF angle because of course there is. The Pepe Twitter account hasn’t posted since Sam was locked up.

4. Liquidity Protection Team

Binance have sent out a request to crypto projects with low liquidity to ask them to disclose their market making activity and whether they would like some assistance from the Binance “savings pool”. The exchange said the measure was part of an “ongoing risk management initiative”. Some thought the move was perfectly reasonable to ensure that markets remain liquid and that teams have market makers engaged.

3. DEA Falls for Crypto Scam

The DEA has been swindled by a garden variety crypto scam. The drug enforcement agency handed over $55,000 in confiscated crypto after falling for the “airdrop scam”, which can confuse crypto users who don’t check the entire address before sending transactions. The money was part of a pool of $500,000 worth of seized tether which was stored using a hardware wallet. Maybe the scammer will send 2 Bitcoin back?

2. FTX Compromised

FTX have disclosed that their liquidation platform, Kroll, was compromised in a cybersecurity incident. Although no user passwords to the exchange were disclosed, hackers appear to have got a hold of name, address, email address, and accounts balances. This is the latest event that could infuriate creditors, who are already irate at the cost of the bankruptcy which is currently paying out $1.5M per day in legal and professional fees.

1. Hong Kong Open for Trading

Hashkey will begin offering crypto trading to retail customers in Hong Kong on Monday. The firm was the first to receive their license to operate under the city’s new regulatory framework. Customers will be able to trade Bitcoin and Ether to begin with. Hashkey said they will “strictly prohibit” customers from the Chinese Mainland.

Thanks for reading -NLW