The CoinGeek Pulse Episode 90: ‘Crypto’ scams net $1B, Binance probed and global industry updates

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A whopping US$1 billion was lost to digital currency scams in early 2021. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report detailing about 46,000 people with over $2,600 individual losses. According to the FTC, this is about 60x higher than in 2018, with social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook as the main platforms being used as the promotional sources of these scam.

Nearly $600 million were reported to have been lost to bogus investment opportunities, followed by romance scams with about $185 million, business imposters with $93 million, and government imposters with $40 million. The most common digital currencies used to pay the scammers are BTC, Tether, and ETH.

Meanwhile, Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) proposed a bill called the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which aims to safeguard the market and its consumers while promoting financial innovation. The bill gives primary oversight to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

In related news, the SEC is now investigating Binance over allegedly selling security tokens in 2017. The digital currency exchange is in hot water after it allegedly broke securities law in the U.S. by selling BNB tokens. 

According to its white paper, BNB—which is now the world’s fifth-largest token, would be circulated to a limited 200 million, with half of it sold via an initial coin offering (ICO). The U.S. regulator is also probing Binance’s possible insider trading abuses and its American affiliate Binance.US formed in 2019. 

“It would not be appropriate for us to comment on our ongoing conversations with regulators, which include education, assistance, and voluntary responses to information requests,” Binance said in a statement to Bloomberg. The company added it would continue to meet all requirements set by regulators. As of this writing, the SEC has no comment. 

Here is a rundown of the latest industry updates from around the world.

South Korea is set to launch Digital Assets Committee—following stablecoin Terra’s collapse last month. The committee will oversee all policy creation and supervision of digital assets. 

In the United Arab Emirates, all women will receive free ‘crypto’ domains. The move aims to provide learning opportunities to women and participate in Web 3 development in the country. 

In Poland, Warsaw played host to the successful interactive CoinGeek Bitcade event this week. Bitcade gives anyone the chance to immerse themselves in all things the blockchain can offer in real-time, right now. 

👀👀🔥🔥 #BSV4G #Bitcade #BitcoinSV pic.twitter.com/HIJywwal0p

— CoinGeek (@RealCoinGeek) June 7, 2022

Check out the latest episode of The Blockchain Beat with Becky Liggero Fontana at the largest iGaming event in the world—ICE 2022 in London. Plus, watch Patrick Thompson with Paul Kupiec of American Enterprise Institute discuss stablecoins, public ledgers, and Federal Reserve digital currency on the recent episode of More Than Money. 

Watch these videos on the CoinGeek YouTube Channel. 

Watch: ICE London 2022 opens its doors at the ExCeL | The Blockchain Beat Ep. 3

Also check out, More Than Money Episode 10 with Paul Kupiec: A standard blockchain will solve problem of interoperability