Here’s what happened in crypto today
Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting the Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
Judge Philip Jeyaretnam of the High Court of Singapore ruled on July 25 that cryptocurrency is property capable of being held in trust, stressing that he sees no difference between crypto or fiat money. Meanwhile KuCoin denied a report claiming it's gearing up to cut 30% of its staff, saying any cuts would follow a "normal" employee performance review and crypto sleuths found data showing over $60 million was siphoned from the Alphapo exploit.
Cryptocurrency is property capable of being held in trust, Judge Philip Jeyaretnam ofthe High Court of Singapore ruled on July 25. The judge said he didn’t see any difference between crypto, fiat money or shells as long as all those objects, physical or not, share value created by mutual faith in them.
Jeyaretnam handed down his ruling in a case brought by Bybit against its former employee, Ho Kai Xin. Bybit claimed the staff member transferred around 4.2 million of Tether from the crypto exchange to her private accounts. The court has now ordered Ho, who has accused a non-present cousin of controlling the relevant accounts, to return the money to Bybit.
While the decision may seem obvious, it contains some formulations important for the juridical status of digital assets. Jeyaretnam calls the stolen USDT, as well as cryptocurrencies in general, property.
Even though they don’t have any physical presence, the judge said:
He rebuts the common suspicion of crypto not having any “real” value, reminding that value is “a judgment made by an aggregate of human minds.” Jeyaretnam also classifies crypto in the category of “things in action.” In British common law, that means a type of property over which personal rights could be claimed or enforced by legal action, not by taking physical possession.
Crypto exchange KuCoin that it was gearing up to cut 30% — around 300 — of its staff in the coming weeks, with a spokesperson telling Cointelegraph it "has not initiated any alleged layoff plans.”
The spokesperson added any potential cuts would be part of its semi-annual employee performance review where "there might be some personnel adjustments as needed, which is a normal process in organizational development.”
In a July 25 tweet, KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu claimed it's still operating smoothly and potential staff cuts would come from its performance evaluation that's part of its plan to stay "competitive and dynamic."
The rumours started with a July 25 report from independent crypto journalist Colin Wu claiming KuCoin's staff cut was due to strict know your customer policy in the United States leading to a decline in the exchange's profits. Wu later backtracked on the claims.
The alleged hack of crypto payment provider Alphapo has , far exceeding the previously reported $31 million, according to on-chain sleith ZachXBT.
In a Twitter thread, ZachXBT identify dan additional $37 million that was drained from old addresses on the Tron and Bitcoin networks. Alphapo told Cointelegraph that deposits and withdrawals were being reinstated on newly created addresses.
The on-chain sleuth blamed Lazarus Group, a hacking organization with ties to the North Korean government, for the attack.
first surfaced on July 22. As Cointelegraph reported, attackers stole the funds on the Ethereum network, swapped them for Ether () and then bridged the assets to the Avalanche and Bitcoin networks.
Cointelegraph reported another security breach on July 25 after lending app Era Lend was worth of crypto. The attacker drained the funds using a “read-only reentrancy attack.
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