The Week in Crypto – Blackrock, Binance.US, and MtGox

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This week Blackrock filed for a Bitcoin ETF, Binance.US avoided catastrophe, and the MtGox hackers were revealed.

It can’t be…more good news? How will we cope?!

Blackrock Files for Bitcoin ETF

The big news of the week was investment giant Blackrock filing for a Bitcoin ETF. The initiative, known as the iShares Bitcoin Trust, was filed with the crypto-hating SEC on Thursday and will utilize Coinbase Custody as its custodian. Talk of such a deal stretches back to 2018, with a custody deal signed 10 months ago seemingly forming its bedrock.

Given the disdain in which the SEC holds all things crypto, Blackrock had better have one hell of a plan up its sleeve for how it is going to sneak this one through when all others have failed to date.

Binance.US Avoids Asset Freeze Catastrophe

Binance.US avoided catastrophe this week when a US judge refused the SEC’s request to freeze its assets. Binance.US argued that such a move would all but kill the exchange before it had a chance to defend itself, and the judge agreed, telling the SEC there was “absolutely no need” to impose the “death penalty” that would have arisen. Instead, the judge told the pair to come to a compromise where the assets could be stored with a US-based custodian to allow the exchange to operate but mitigate the perceived risks of Changpeng Zhao running off with the funds.

The SEC has sued Binance over the unregistered sale of securities, misappropriation of funds and avoiding KYC/AML requirements.

MtGox Hackers Identified After Nine Years

The MtGox hackers were unmasked this week (well, Friday before last, but deadlines, you know) as the Department of Justice unsealed the indictment naming them two and a half years after it was filed. It was always suspected that a Russian hacking gang was responsible for stealing 650,000 bitcoins between September 2011 and the time of the exchange’s collapse in February 2014. This was confirmed when Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner were revealed to have been part of the gang that hacked the exchange and laundered the money.

The pair were part of a gang which stole the exchange’s hot wallet in 2011 alongside 100,000 private keys to addresses of that wallet, allowing them to siphon off all deposits made to those addresses. The exchange’s funds were drained when the cold wallets perpetually topped up these missing coins in the hot wallet, apparently with no one noticing.

Sure, Mark, sure.