This Week in Crypto – Shakeouts, OneCoin, and Mixers
By Mark Hunter
2 days agoSun Aug 11 2024 08:56:08
Reading Time: 2 minutes
This week in the crypto world, we saw a $300 billion shakeout, freezing orders for OneCoin execs, and the Fed herald the Tornado Cash sanctions.
Yeah, well they would.
$300 Billion Lost in Crypto Shakeout
A brutal shakeout of the crypto market at the start of this week saw $300 billion wiped off the total cap and $1 billion lost in liquidations. Bitcoin dropped under $50,000 before bouncing back up to $63,000 by the weekend, all prompted by fears of a US recession and largely incomprehensible stuff about Japan.
Many believe that this was a final flush before the second phase of the bull run begins, which would come as a relief to those who have watched their earnings from the first half of the year dwindle away to nothing in the past four months.
OneCoin Execs Get Freezing Orders
A bunch of OneCoin execs received worldwide asset-freezing orders this week, including the might-be-dead founder Dr Ruja Ignatova. A collection of some 400 victims petitioned the High Court to have the orders placed on the fugitive co-founder as well as andother co-founder Sebastian Greenwood and others executives who helped shield and move the money.
The freezing orders take OneCoin victims one step closer to reclaiming funds lost to the $4 billion scam, although how effective the freeze will be on Ignatova is unknown as she isn’t thought to eh be using traditional financing methods to keep herself hidden. This has allowed her to stay off-grid, although her silence might be attributed to the suggestion that she is actually dead.
Federal Reserve Hails Tornado Cash Sanctions
The New York Federal Reserve this week praised the 2022 sanctioning of mixing service Tornado Cash, claiming that traffic was generally reduced as a result of the measure, although it noted that some “pools” have returned to pre-sanction levels.
The praise couldn’t have been worse timed, however, as three days later the exploiter of the Nomad Bridge moved 14,500 ETH, worth approximately $35.2 million, through the service in order to obfuscate its destination.
Whoops.
