Red Crypto Flags by FATF, Tether Ditches Tron For Ethereum + More News

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

Regulation news

• In an attempt to help national authorities detect cryptoasset-related money laundering and terrorist financing, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a multi-government body, published a new report, which provides “the most important red-flag indicators that could suggest criminal behavior.” According to the FATF, key indicators in this report focus on:
  – Technological features that increase anonymity – such as the use of peer-to-peer exchanges websites, mixing or tumbling services or anonymity-enhanced cryptocurrencies.
  – Geographical risks – criminals can exploit countries with weak, or absent, national measures for virtual assets.
  – Transaction patterns – that are irregular, unusual or uncommon which can suggest criminal activity.
  – Transaction size – if the amount and frequency has no logical business explanation.
  – Sender or recipient profiles – unusual behavior can suggest criminal activity.
  – Source of funds or wealth – which can relate to criminal activity.

• A Mexican financial watchdog has told the public to be wary of crypto scams and has given advice on how to spot them. Per Heraldo, the Aguascalientes-based branch of the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Users of Financial Services (CONDUSEF) told citizens that “no government institution endorses [crypto] transactions,” and suggested that users conduct online searches to see if a crypto outfit has been associated with fraud in the past before investing their money in it.

Stablecoins news

• The operators of the tether (USDT) token say they will move 1 billion coins from the Tron (TRX) blockchain network to the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, adding that “the tether total supply will not change during this process.” The move, announced in an official tweet, will see some 7% of the token’s total supply move onto the Ethereum network, and will involve “a third party” crypto exchange. The chain swap will be carried out in two separate transactions.

Blockchain news

• Braydon Fuller and Javed Khan, two Bitcoin (BTC) developers, said they and their associates have patched a potentially fatal vulnerability in a number of blockchain networks thought to have been fixed back in 2018. In a paper, the developers stated that they found vulnerabilities “that could have been easily exploited in a denial-of-service (DoS/DDoS) attack against many Bitcoin, Litecoin (LTC), Namecoin (NMC) and Decred (DCR) nodes by any other network participant.” The vulnerability, which thankfully was never exploited, would allow a malicious network node operator to flood other nodes with non-existent transaction requests – resulting in “endless” memory growth that could have crippled entire networks.
• Fujian Province, China, has launched a number of blockchain-powered projects, per Kuaixun. The region launched its node for the nationwide Blockchain Service Network project on Sunday. It has begun work on an application services platform, a blockchain-powered bidding network for public engineering projects, a copyright system and a digital financial billing project.
• The operators of the Filecoin blockchain network said they will launch a second phase of the Space Race contest, as it tests its mainnet for launch. In an official blog post, the operators said they were launching “Space Race 2” after the success of the inaugural Space Race event earlier this year. They claimed that over 356 miners from 32 nations took part in the first event, and added that the new contest would run from today until October 5.

DeFi news

• Police in Jinan, China, are allegedly looking into a complaint from investors about Gate.io’s KIMCHI DeFi yield-farming token. Per the China Times, investors have stated their stakes have evaporated after a collapse in value. The firm, which operates offices in the Jinan High-tech Zone, told the same media outlet that it was operating as usual and called the reports of a police investigation a “rumor.” KIMCHI was launched earlier this month and raised some USD 500 million in a matter of hours, reaching prices of up to USD 5 – before later plummeting to the USD 0.03 mark.