29.03.2024

Whale Alert Teams Up With BitcoinAbuse to Fight Crypto Crime

On Sept. 3, Whale Alert, a service dedicated to tracking large cryptocurrency transactions, announced that it will start collaborating with BitcoinAbuse to better fight cryptocurrency-related crimes.

Whale Alert and BitcoinAbuse are teaming up to fight crypto crimes together.

Earlier today, Whale Alert spotted a move of 500 million XRP – worth about $130 million at the time – from Ripple’s escrow to another wallet also owned by the company. The transfer may fuel discontent with the company’s practices, which some say are interfering with XRP price gains.

Fighting scammers

BitcoinAbuse is a public database of Bitcoin addresses used by hackers and criminals. Whale Alert went on to say:

“We will now report transactions made to scammers and keep track of their assets. You can help make crypto safer by reporting scams, black markets and hacks on the website BitcoinAbuse.com.”

Whale Alert announces Version 2.0

On Aug. 20, Cointelegraph reported that Whale Alert was working on the second version of its platform, which will include additional services such as better fraud and hacks tracking. The announcement read:

“We are excited to announce Whale Alert v2: the world’s largest independent blockchain tracker, which will go live Q4 2019. More blockchains, better analytics and more features!”

US SEC Chairman Says the Rules Won’t Change for Cryptocurrencies

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Jay Clayton says he won’t make exceptions in securities law for cryptocurrencies, but he won’t stand in their way either.

SEC rule changes ‘ain’t happening’

Bloomberg published an interview with Jay Clayton on Aug. 27. According to Clayton, he has no desire to change securities laws, either to include or exclude digital assets for regulation. In his own words:

“I think a lot of people got excited that somehow we would change the rules to accommodate the technology and they invested their time and effort thinking that would happen … I have been pretty clear from the start, that ain’t happening.’’

However, Clayton does not view himself as being anti-innovation or against good digital payments options, per se. He further said:

“If we have a way to reduce the cost of payments internationally, through technology, I am all for it … But you can’t sacrifice basic principles of securities law, and other law, to allow it to happen.’’

Views on Bitcoin and ICOs

Clayton remarked that he does not view all cryptocurrencies as being identical. He does not consider Bitcoin, for instance, to be a security. However, he remarked that the SEC has determined many initial coin offerings (ICOs) to be fit for securities regulation. Additionally, he reportedly has found multiple ICO white papers disturbing, saying that they use copied language and phrases like “time is running out’’ or “get in early and you get four times as much value”, which raised red flags for regulators.

Recent legal action

The SEC has taken numerous companies to court over misdoings in the course of ICOs. Such proceedings have picked up in recent months. Last week, Cointelegraph reported on a settlement with ICO Rating, a Russian analytics firm that the SEC accused of violating anti-touting provisions.

Also earlier in August, the SEC successfully requested a freeze on assets belonging to Reginald Middleton and his Veritaseum Inc. amid a case alleging that Veritaseum’s $15 million ICO was fraudulent.

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