Genesis Creditors Sue DCG and Barry Silbert, Binance Kept Some Collateral in Same Wallet as Customer Funds, Binance Processed $346M for Bitzlato

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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Legal news

• A group of Genesis creditors filed a class action (SCA) lawsuit against its parent, the troubled cryptocurrency company Digital Currency Group (DCG). US-based law firm Silver Golub & Teitell filed the suit against DCG and its founder Barry Silbert, alleging violations of the federal securities laws, said the press release.

Exchange news

• Binance mistakenly kept collateral for some of the crypto assets it issues in the same wallet as funds belonging to its customers, Bloomberg reported, citing a Binance spokesperson. “Collateral assets have previously been moved into this wallet in error and referenced accordingly on the B-Token Proof of Collateral page,” the person was quoted as saying. “Binance is aware of this mistake and is in the process of transferring these assets to dedicated collateral wallets.” Assets held with the exchange “have been and continue to be backed 1:1.”
• Binance processed almost $346 million in bitcoin (BTC) for the Bitzlato exchange, whose founder was arrested by US authorities last week for allegedly running a “money laundering engine,” Reuters reported, citing data by blockchain research firm Chainalysis. A Binance spokesperson said it had “provided substantial assistance” to international law enforcement to support their investigation of Bitzlato.
• Deribit selected the Validus platform by Eventus, a provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance and market risk solutions, to provide market abuse monitoring on the exchange. According to the press release, Deribit will begin using Validus this quarter.

Investment news

• QuickNode, an end-to-end development platform for Web3 builders, announced the closing of a $60 million Series B funding round led by 10T Holdings with participation from Tiger Global, Seven Seven Six, Protocol Labs, and QE, among others. This latest round values QuickNode at $800M and will be used to “accelerate the company’s global expansion and further empower the builders laying the groundwork for a decentralized, globally-connected future,” an announcement said.    

DeFi news

• Ethereum scaling solution zkSync integrated Unstoppable Web3 domains into their Wallet and Checkout apps. Per the announcement, this allows their community to send and receive crypto with other zkSync Wallets using human-readable names instead of random addresses. Also, zkSync Checkout users can create payment links with their Unstoppable Web3 domains to share and collect crypto payments.
• Crypto wallet Lemon Cash integrated the Aave Protocol into its application, making the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform available through Lemon Earn. An announcement said that, with over 1.7 million users in Argentina and Brazil, the integration would allow users to invest in a variety of tokens, and it would be the first of its kind in the LATAM region.
• Router Protocol, an infrastructure layer enabling communication between blockchains, announced a partnership with FXDX, a decentralized on-chain derivative exchange, to power its cross-chain launch on Optimism, a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum. Per a press release, “going live on Optimism marks a significant step in FXDX’s multi-chain expansion – a growth strategy that will propel trading volumes and bring new users to the dApp.”

Payments news

• Financial services company ZEBEDEE and podcasting platform Fountain, where listeners and podcasters get rewarded for the value they provide, today announced they have entered into a partnership and integrated bi-directional bitcoin streaming into the Fountain app. According to the announcement, “with this new integration, the Fountain app doesn’t just stream audio, it streams money seamlessly alongside it, in both directions. This means listeners can support creators by paying for content per-minute as they listen to it. When you stop listening, the money stream stops and you only pay for what you’ve actually listened to. Perhaps more excitingly, the integration works the other way around as well, as Fountain users will earn money [BTC] for their first hour of daily podcast listening,” it said. 

Career news

• Crypto exchange Kraken said it named CJ Rinaldi as its new chief compliance officer, hiring him from rival Blockchain.com, The Wall Street Journal reported. Before joining London-based Blockchain.com in October 2021, Rinaldi was the head of markets compliance in the Americas for broker-dealer Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.