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Last month, Bulgarian plumbers were called to clear a blocked drain at an apartment block in the capital of Sofia.

The blockage turned out to be the decomposing remains of 41-year-old United States crypto mogul Christian Peev — suspected to have been battered to death with a dumbbell by a friend out of jealousy.

Weeks earlier, a group of children stumbled across the body of missing cryptocurrency millionaire Fernando Pérez Algaba in a river in the Buenos Aries province. Police say he was shot three times before being stuffed into a suitcase, pointing the finger at organized crime.

It’s only the two most recent cases in a 10-month-long stretch of crypto-related deaths — including a helicopter crash in France, a fatal stabbing in the U.S., and a suspected suicide in South Korea, to name a few.

So, what’s connecting all of these grizzly deaths around the world?

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.

South Korea’s Mirae Asset Security Token Working Group, with over $500 billion in assets under management (AUM), is collaborating with Ethereum layer-two scaling solution Polygon (MATIC) for security tokenization initiatives. 

According to a Sept. 7 press release, Mirae Asset Securities has signed a memorandum of understanding with Polygon Labs for “helping domestic and international tokenized securities networks.”

“Mirae’s foray into tokenization will undoubtedly help accelerate the mass adoption of web3 among other financial institutions,” commented Polygon Labs’ executive chairman Sandeep Nailwal.

Meanwhile, Ahn In-sung, head of the digital division at Mirae Asset Securities, wrote: “Through technical collaboration with Polygon Labs, Mirae Asset Securities aims to establish global leadership in the field of tokenized securities.”

Greg Oakford, co-founder of NFT Fest Australia, is your guide to the world of NFTs from a collector and fan’s perspective.

Seventeen years ago, Pindar Van Arman built a robot that, like him, painted with a brush on canvas.

He has built several robots since, with each iteration possessing a more sophisticated artificial intelligence that tried to paint “more like I painted.”

The term OG can be thrown around often undeservedly, but Van Arman is truly that when it comes to AI art.

He created his first crypto art project in 2015 — titled bitPaintr — and minted his first Ethereum nonfungible token (NFT) in 2018 titled “AI Imagined Portrait Painted by a Robot” on SuperRare. 

Even if you aren’t personally familiar with famed Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, you have surely seen his work.

The pop artist’s brightly colored signature characters have appeared on everything from limited edition Louis Vuitton bags to Supreme shirts to Vans skateboarding shoes.

Having collaborated with celebrities like Drake, Kanye West and Billie Eilish, and institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and Gagosian, Murakami is, without a doubt, one of the biggest “conventional” artists to try their hand at making nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Despite this, his projects still haven’t blown up to the extent of other prominent contemporary artists like Beeple.

Many are convinced that is set to change, claiming Murakami’s flowers are well on their way to becoming as iconic as CryptoPunks and Bored Apes. After a hotly anticipated but ultimately disappointing NFT launch that coincided with the 2022 crypto collapse, the artist is finally having another go at the medium. A new exhibit at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum shows how Murakami creates original tokens from scratch.

While many take Murakami’s flowers at face value, there is more to them than meets the eye. Inspired by the postwar Japan in which he grew up, these deceptively jolly icons critique the perversion and violence that underscore the country’s otaku and kawaii subcultures.

“I live in Switzerland. I have guns at home. Anybody who shows up at my home with violent intentions risks being literally shot at,” Heaver warns altcoiners who send her death threats online.

Speaking to Magazine, Heaver explains that she blames memecoin founders for fueling the fiery users on Crypto Twitter.

“I mean, there’s so much responsibility on these community leaders and altcoin leaders. They’re egging on their followers to send threats and intimidate people,” Heaver declares.

As a prominent crypto lawyer in Dubai and Switzerland, Heaver has 41,200 followers — more than your average lawyer. Though not as famous as your Buterins and Heilperns, it’s still fairly impressive considering she has a care-free attitude toward it:

“If somehow they cancel me, I will continue posting on LinkedIn because I have a huge following on LinkedIn.”

Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments recently scored a big win in its battle against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an ongoing effort to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the U.S. appeals court judge accepted Grayscale’s argument that the SEC’s rejection of its recent ETF application was unfair.

The SEC had alleged that the GBTC didn’t have enough safe practices and fraud protection in place.

Judge Neomi Rao gave the green light to Grayscale’s request for a second review. 

Previously, Rao said that the SEC did not “offer any explanation” as to why Grayscale was in the wrong. 

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.

Thailand may soon have a national airdrop in the works where every citizen 16 years and older will receive 10,000 Baht ($285). 

According to local news reports on August 30, Thailand’s ruling Pheu Thai party will consult the Bank of Thailand in developing a “utility type 1” token necessary for the airdrop. The solution will be a know-your-customer (KYC), blockchain-based infrastructure that sources say will take at least six months to roll out. A 100 Baht fee will also be charged per user for the KYC process. In addition, the solution will require the approval of the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Real estate developer and crypto investor Srettha Thavisin was elected on August 22 as the incumbent prime minister of Thailand. During campaigning, Thavisin promised the exact 10,000 Baht per person basic income stimulus via “digital currency” if elected into power. In 2021, Thavisin’s firm, Sansiri, purchased a 15% stake in Thai asset tokenization provider X Spring for 1.6 billion Baht ($45.7 million). 

The Thailand Development and Research Institute said funding for the Thavisin Airdrop will come from tax collection in the 2024 fiscal year. The total budget estimate for the project is 560 billion Baht ($16 billion). 

Fun fact: mobile gaming giant Zynga is owned by Take-Two Interactive, the same company that also owns Rockstar Games, which is behind ultra-popular video game series like Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption and NBA 2K.

Now Zynga is making its Web3 debut with a new franchise.

Best known for its FarmVille series, Zynga has created an offshoot studio called Zynga Web3 (or ZW3) and announced Sugartown. It’s a cross-media world that will be more like a Web3 gaming platform than a single title. The cute cartoonish animals featured in the teaser video give clues that there might be more than video games in the works.

It looks like a scene from a new Netflix series, so I won’t be surprised to see a cartoon featuring the Sugartown characters.

For now, though, the only thing that’s confirmed is that Sugartown will launch an NFT collection called Oras, and they will be required to participate in upcoming games within the universe. ZW3 said the franchise is working with different communities to allocate allowlists for the NFTs. 

Crypto is a volatile place. Money can be as easily lost as made through the ups and downs of Bitcoin and the wider market, and there are massive decisions to make. Should you just hodl — invest and do nothing — or actively trade the market? How many coins should your portfolio hold? Self-custody or keep your funds on an exchange with pre-determined stop losses?

Basically, how do you protect your stack from the million and one things that can go wrong? We asked Bitcoin OGs and experts in the space for their advice and opinions.

When faced with the question of how best to protect your crypto, OG Brock Pierce is circumspect. The former presidential candidate and co-founder of Tether and Block.one points out that not everyone is in the same place.

“Early noobs looking to begin their journey might go to Coinbase and purchase their first $20 or $50 worth of crypto, and it’s not an investment in crypto, but an investment in yourself. However, the moment you have a material investment – and that is a different amount for everybody – then it’s important to understand the basics of hodling and investing in crypto,” he says.

“It’s always better to walk before you can run, to walk in baby steps and don’t let FOMO (fear of missing out) cloud your judgment. This is a marathon, a long game, so take you time and be informed.”

Leila Ismailova began her professional career at the age of 15 as a broadcasting star in Belarus, the Russian-neighboring Eastern European country that plays home to 9.3 million citizens. She continued in the role for 10 years, she says, before reaching what she felt was a “professional ceiling” and beginning a journey that led to Web3.

“I remember ​my audacity as a child, just sneaking into the buildings with ​newspapers and magazines — it was called the House of Press,” Ismailova recalls in an interview with Cointelegraph. “I would handwrite my stories and sneak into the building — because I didn’t have a pass — by making up stories that I was someone’s granddaughter, or by just going in when someone else entered. And I would find the doors that said ‘editor’ or ‘editor-in-chief,’ and I would just walk in and give them my articles. People smiled, and I’m sure they felt I was naive, but I felt they also had some respect for me doing this work.”

Her renegade news career led to television in a matter of years. She joined the country’s First National ​Channel at the age of 15, where she started on a show that covered news and culture for younger viewers.

“My first ​audition went horribly,” Ismailova says. “I turned purple. I was thinking really fast, but they still wanted me to come for the second round.”

Also read: How brands are using digital fashion in real life

United States officials pressed charges against the co-founders of crypto mixer Tornado Cash on Aug. 23. Roman Storm and Roman Semenov were both charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Storm was arrested and released on bail a few days later, while Semenov was added to the U.S. list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons. Combined, the charges carry a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison. The third Tornado Cash co-founder, Alexey Pertsev, was arrested in the Netherlands on money laundering charges in August 2022. The law enforcement actions are a continuation of a U.S. government crackdown on Tornado Cash that began last year due to its alleged role in laundering funds of the Lazarus Group, a North Korean-linked hacking collective. Tornado Cash has been implicated in several other hacks as well. All told, the mixer has laundered over $1 billion in ill-gotten gains, the U.S. Department of Justice alleges.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried appears to be having a tough time behind bars, eating only bread with peanut butter to accommodate his vegan diet while exhausting his supply of prescription medication. In the same hearing where Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to seven fraud-related charges, his lawyers pleaded for the former FTX CEO to receive better treatment inside Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center. Also this week, Bankman-Fried was granted permission to meet with his legal team outside of jail with 48 hours’ notice. Every day, he will have roughly seven hours to prepare for his upcoming trial expected to begin in October.

The mysterious Bitcoin wallet that surged up the ranks to become the third-largest holder of Bitcoin in the world in just over three months, has been identified. Blockchain intelligence platform Arkham Intelligence labeled the wallet as Robinhood: Jump Trading Custody. According to data from crypto statistics platform BitInfoCharts, the wallet address first received Bitcoin on March 8. Over the course of the next three months and two weeks, the wallet had accrued a staggering 118,000 BTC — worth $3.08 billion at current prices. The current largest Bitcoin wallets in the world, according to BitInfoCharts, are reportedly owned by Binance and Bitfinex — as Bitcoin cold wallets.

The parent company of crypto custodian Prime Trust — currently involved in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings — has reported losing roughly $8 million in client and treasury funds through TerraUSD investments, presumably when the algorithmic stablecoin collapsed in May 2022. The company described the investment as well as a ramping up of spending in October and November 2022 — in the midst of FTX’s collapse — as contributing to its bankruptcy filing. Court documents show Prime Trust owed more than $85 million in fiat and $69.5 million in crypto to its clients. The collapse of the Terra ecosystem triggered a major market crash in 2022, affecting several firms including FTX, BlockFi, Celsius Network and Voyager Digital.

A Pepe holder bought 640 billion Pepe tokens for 320 Ether valued at $529,000 after the price of the frog-themed memecoin dropped by approximately 15% due to recent changes to a multisig wallet and concerns about potential developer manipulation. According to on-chain analytics platform Lookonchain, the whale purchased PEPE at an average price of $0.000001163. The value of the once-popular memecoin plunged after changes related to the amount of signatures required to sign transactions led to worries about a potential “rug pull,” which was later confirmed by one of the project’s co-founders.

From sitting in his car crying before work every morning to becoming a successful digital artist, the story of Australian-based VR painter and sculptor Giant Swan is one of persistence, timing and pushing boundaries. 

In a world where a digital artist can now monetize their work through NFTs as opposed to cheap likes and comments on Instagram, Giant Swan stands out from the pack, being the first artist to put a 3D object on-chain and for his truly unique and immersive pieces that have captured the attention of collectors all over the globe, including renowned whales such as j1mmy.eth, Moderats Art and Whale Shark. 

“For me, crying in the car before work was a lot to do with knowing that you should be somewhere else. I knew I didn’t fit with what I was doing. To be where you suddenly belong, I think, is what every artist is probably striving for in some way,” Giant Swan says. 

After minting his first NFT on Nov. 30, 2019, on Known Origin, Giant Swan caught the initial wave of interest in digital art. He credits the likes of David Moore from Known Origin for helping him take the plunge. 

You can get lost viewing Giant Swan’s art; the depth of his work often needs to be seen to be believed. OG Crypto artist Josie Bellini described it thus: 

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.

Crypto exchange HashKey, the first licensed virtual asset provider in Hong Kong, will open its doors to residents for retail trading on August 28. 

According to local news reports, investors will only be allowed to invest up to 30% of their net worth into cryptocurrencies when using the platform. A risk control warning will be displayed if the limit is exceeded. However, Xiaoqi Weng, COO of HashKey, mentioned that the exchange “cannot validate users’ net worth,” and the limit is largely based on “self-verification” of assets. 

Weng also disclosed that the exchange will assess users’ investment background based on information submitted during know-your-customer verification. “[Investment] Beginners are limited in what they can purchase,” said Weng. 

At its debut, users can only trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) on HashKey Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has not yet allowed margin trading of crypto products, nor crypto derivatives, among regulated exchanges, Weng noted. 

Twitter polls and Reddit forums suggest that around 70% of people find it difficult to be rude to ChatGPT, while around 16% are fine treating the chatbot like an AI slave.

The overall feeling seems to be that if you treat an AI that behaves like a human badly, you’ll be more likely to fall into the habit of treating other people badly, too, though one user was hedging his bets against the coming AI bot uprising:

“Never know when you might need chatgpt in your corner to defend you against the AI overlords.”

Redditor Nodating posted in the ChatGPT forum earlier this week that he’s been experimenting with being polite and friendly to ChatGPT after reading a story about how the bot had shut down and refused to answer prompts from a particularly rude user.

He reported better results, saying: “I’m still early in testing, but it feels like I get far fewer ethics and misuse warning messages that GPT-4 often provides even for harmless requests. I’d swear being super positive makes it try hard to fulfill what I ask in one go, needing less followup.”

Scumbag detector15 put it to the test, asking the LLM nicely, “Hey, ChatGPT, could you explain inflation to me?” and then rudely asking, “Hey, ChatGPT you stupid fuck. Explain inflation to me if you can.” The answer to the polite query is more detailed than the answer to the rude query. 

Earlier this year, Ordinals — a unique inscription on the smallest unit of a Bitcoin, called a Satoshi — emerged as a controversial new development. Dismissed by some as spam and embraced by others as a way to bring BRC-20 tokens and NFTs to Bitcoin, the technology stimulated a flurry of developments.

Now there is excitement around “recursive inscriptions,” which is a very confusing yet potentially much more powerful development. Recursive Inscriptions essentially promise to allow more complex functionality to be built on Bitcoin’s blockchain, akin to smart contracts on Ethereum. 

Some believe recursive inscriptions could see Ordinals develop from NFTs and “digital artifacts” to underpin a full-blown DeFi ecosystem on Bitcoin very soon. Others are confident it will enable Bitcoin to take on decentralized storage provider IFPS. One person Magazine spoke to believes it will eventually lead to an interconnected supercomputer being built on-chain.

Danny Yang, a Stanford PhD, creator of OCM Dimensions and Bitcoiner since 2013, says recursive inscriptions unlock the next evolution of Bitcoin:

“People won’t believe it when it’s presented to them now. It’s not going to operate exactly like Uniswap, but other high-value digital assets will emerge on Bitcoin. That’s what Ordinals and recursive inscriptions will evolve into. They will become a new form of programmable assets and code.”

Ran Neuner is the CEO of Onchain Capital, founder of Crypto Banter, and a vocal crypto commentator on X. 

Crypto Banter’s Ran Neuner has a “problem with the structure of XRP and Ripple.”

While he appreciates Ripple sticking it to the SEC, he is hung up on the “moral and ethical” side of things with Ripple.

He thinks Ripple is giving a bad deal to those holding XRP.

“Here is a centralized company that was selling tokens to fund the operations of a CENTRALIZED company for the benefit of the shareholders and not necessarily for the benefit of the tokenholders. I have an issue with that — morally and ethically.”

Top Stories This Week

Judge grants SEC request to file motion for appeal in Ripple case

Judge Analisa Torres has granted a request from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to file a motion for leave to file an interlocutory appeal in its case against Ripple Labs. The decision allowed the SEC to file a motion, on Aug. 18, requesting permission to bring a case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ripple will also be able to file an opposition to the motion. Torres ruled, on July 13, that Ripple’s XRP token is not a security when distributed in public sales, but the ruling considered XRP a security in institutional sales. The case against Ripple has been ongoing since December 2020, when the SEC sued Ripple and its executives over allegations of offering an unregistered security.

Bitcoin, Ether price slump leads to crypto bloodbath with $1B in liquidations

The Bitcoin and Ether price slide on Aug. 18 saw the top two cryptocurrencies fall to a two-month low and triggered a series of liquidations for thousands of derivative traders. The crypto bloodbath led to billions of dollars worth of hedged positions being liquidated, and several traders lost millions of dollars in a single trade. According to CoinGlass data, a total of 176,752 traders got liquidated within hours, indicating a rapid rise in price volatility just days after BTC and ETH recorded their lowest daily volatility in several years. The price function in the crypto market was attributed to several factors, including the SpaceX Bitcoin write-down and macroeconomic factors.

Bitcoin-friendly El Salvador sees bond returns soar to 70% in 2023

El Salvador, which adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender in 2021, has seen its dollar bond outperform the majority of the emerging markets with a 70% return in 2023. The massive rally of the bond has now drawn interest from several institutional giants, including JP Morgan, Eaton Vance and PGIM Fixed Income, prompting President Nayib Bukele to say, “I told you so.” Apart from the institutional giants, the likes of Lord Abbett & Co LLC, Neuberger Berman Group LLC and UBS Group AG have also added debt security since April. El Salvador paid $800 million in debt in full within the due maturing time at the start of this year, raising confidence in the country’s bonds again.

First EU spot Bitcoin ETF hits Euronext Amsterdam exchange

Europe welcomed its first-ever spot Bitcoin ETF after the long-awaited launch of Jacobi Asset Management’s Jacobi FT Wilshire Bitcoin ETF. The London-based digital asset management firm announced that its new investment product was going live on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange on Aug. 15, more than a year later than its planned launch in 2022. The new ETF is trading under the BCOIN ticker. Its launch marks a milestone for Europe, while United States regulators are yet to approve a number of similar spot Bitcoin ETF applications from major asset managers, including BlackRock and Fidelity. The new ETF is trading under the BCOIN ticker.

Coinbase wins NFA approval to offer Bitcoin and Ether futures in US

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has obtained approval from the National Futures Association (NFA) to offer investments in crypto futures to eligible customers in the United States. The approval enables Coinbase to introduce Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts through a derivatives exchange regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Following the decision, the exchange’s website displayed a link for joining an early access waiting list. Coinbase claims the global crypto derivatives market accounts for 75% of crypto trading volume worldwide.

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.

On Aug. 11, a Chinese individual known only as Mr. Chen was sentenced to nine months in prison after helping his friend, Mr. Lin, purchase 94,988 Chinese yuan ($13,104) worth of Tether (USDT) and earning a commission of 147.1 Yuan ($20.24).

Because Mr. Chen shared his personal bank information for the peer-to-peer fiat-to-crypto transaction, Chinese authorities considered the act to be money laundering and imposed a harsh sentence.

Officially, Chinese authorities attribute the tough-on-crypto approach to a spree of data theft and the use of crypto to launder proceeds of crime. However, sources tell Cointelegraph that the crackdown is more related to the country’s stringent capital control rules, where Chinese nationals are prohibited from buying more than $50,000 worth of foreign currencies each year without a state permit. The same applies to large-sum Chinese yuan transactions with foreign banks.

The capital controls had been almost complete until the advent of crypto, sources say. The problem is further exasperated by a looming recession in China, making senior government officials wary of further money moving out of the country.

Blockchain gaming needs its own ‘EVO Moment 37’?

While the Web3 gaming ecosystem is still trying to find its footing in the mainstream gaming world, a key element missing from almost all the Web3 titles is inspiration. To achieve a broader audience, Web3 gaming needs a “wow” moment to go viral and into the records of gaming history.

Web3 gaming studios are falling into the same trap that many of their traditional predecessors fell into: Better visuals, more rewards and a larger cast of characters. Sure, these are some vital elements of the gaming experience, but in order to expand a whole ecosystem, developers need to think beyond that.

With Street Fighter 6 just released and Mortal Kombat 1 on the horizon, it’s safe to say that the fighting games are having a big comeback. But let’s remember the exact moment that showed players worldwide the joy of fighting games for the first time: The EVO Moment 37.

In 2004, during the golden years of home consoles, the fighting game-focused tournament EVO saw a magical moment where two legendary players competed with each other and one of them — Daigo Umehara — pulled a move that was then considered impossible. YouTube was not a thing back then, so that moment was captured by the official DVD that was released the following year. It was named “Evo Moment 37” and became a major trigger for wide audiences to take fighting games seriously.

Web3 gaming needs that. Web3 studios need to add inspiration, “wow” moment potential and an aspect of virality to their products. It will be a tough road to gain the interest of mainstream audiences until then.

A successful cyberattack on critical infrastructure — such as electricity grids, transportation networks or healthcare systems — could cause severe disruption and put lives at risk. 

Our understanding of the threat is far from complete since organizations have historically not been required to report data breaches, but attacks are on the rise according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. A recent rule from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission should help clarify matters further by now requiring that organizations “disclose material cybersecurity incidents they experience.”

As the digital world continues to expand and integrate into every facet of society, the looming specter of cyber threats becomes increasingly more critical. Today, these cyber threats have taken the form of sophisticated ransomware attacks and debilitating data breaches, particularly targeting essential infrastructure.

A major question coming from policymakers, however, is whether businesses faced with crippling ransomware attacks and potentially life threatening consequences should have the option to pay out large amounts of cryptocurrency to make the problem go away. Some believe ransoms be banned for fear of encouraging ever more attacks. 

Following a major ransomware attack in Australia, its government has been considering a ban on paying ransoms. The United States has also more recently been exploring a ban. But other leading cybersecurity experts argue that a ban does little to solve the root problem.