Today in Crypto: Bitget to Direct ₺1M to Help Turkey Earthquake Victims, UK Sets Prison Punishment for Breach of New Crypto Ad Regime, Interpol Wants to Police Metaverse

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

• Bitget announced that it would direct 1 million Turkish Liras ($53,100) to the funds helping the earthquake victims in Turkey. The exchange is asking for assistance with local logistics.
• Binance introduced a tool to help users in France and Canada calculate the tax obligations on their crypto. “Our brand new Binance Tax helps users understand their crypto tax liabilities on up to 100,000 Binance transactions — at no extra cost,” said the announcement. The company is working to implement support for more regions and to add support for more networks and wallets outside of Binance, it added.

Regulation news

• All crypto firms marketing to UK consumers, including firms based overseas, will soon need to comply with the new UK financial promotions regime, said the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Breaches can result in up to 2 years imprisonment. “Firms must start preparing now for this regime. We will take robust action against firms breaching these requirements,” the regulator stated.
• The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO), or Interpol, is looking into ways to police crimes in the metaverse, BBC reported. “Criminals are sophisticated and professional in very quickly adapting to any new technological tool that is available to commit crime,” said Interpol Secretary General Jurgen Stock. “We have seen if we are doing it too late, it already impacts trust in the tools we are using, and therefore the metaverse. In similar platforms that already exist, criminals are using it.”

Investment news

• Several potential buyers are inquiring about purchasing the struggling crypto lender Hodlnaut and its claims against bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, Bloomberg reported, citing a password-protected affidavit. The possible bidders are now reportedly in the process of signing non-disclosure agreements.

NFT news

• Roofstock, a digital real estate platform specializing in single-family rental (SFR) properties, announced the sale of an Alabama, USA, rental property via a non-fungible token (NFT) enabled by Roofstock onChain (ROC), its Web3 subsidiary. ROC uses the technology to settle real estate transactions via an NFT marketplace on the Ethereum blockchain built by Origin Protocol. The press release added that the “Teller Protocol provides flexible, asset-based Decentralized Finance (DeFi) lending options, with real estate lending accessible through USDC.Homes, a real estate financing marketplace.”

DeFi news

• BNB Chain is launching Connected 2023, a Web3 social hackathon in partnership with the decentralized social graph protocol CyberConnect. With over $50,000 in prizes, seed funding, and mentorship, Connected 2023 will run from Feb 7 – March 13 and is open to hackers around the globe, said the press release. The event co-sponsors include Notifi, Lit, Livepeer, and XMTP, while mentors and judges come from Animoca Brands, Multicoin Capital, StepN, Binance, IOSG, Sky9, Protocol Labs, and more.
• Starknet Prover will be open-sourced, available under Apache 2.0, blockchain startup StarkWare announced. The STARK Prover is “the engine that generates cryptographic proofs which compress hundreds of thousands of transactions for submission to Ethereum in fewer kilobytes than a smartphone photo,” said an announcement. It powers Starknet and StarkEx, “which together have scaled more transactions on Ethereum than all other “Layer 2” (L2) scaling solutions combined,” it added.
• Syscoin, the Layer 1 blockchain bringing Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) capabilities to the Bitcoin Network, announced a strategic partnership with SupraOracles, to offer a platform for building “the fastest, most trustworthy and secure Web3 apps,” said the press release. Syscoin will benefit from SupraOracles’ rapid finality oracle services, while SupraOracles will assist in the implementation of ZKPs (Zero-Knowledge Proofs) for scalability, particularly for Syscoin’s zkEVM, it added.

Mining news

• Cathedra Bitcoin Inc., a Bitcoin company that develops and operates Bitcoin mining infrastructure, said that it entered into a hosting agreement under which it will deploy the last of its new machines, consisting of 490 Bitmain Antminer S19J Pro and 50 Bitmain Antminer S19 XP machines, at a third-party data center in Kentucky, USA. According to the press release, under the terms of the hosting agreement, which lasts for an initial term of 12 months, the company will pay a fixed rate of $0.07 per kilowatt hour, plus 10% of gross bitcoin revenue produced by the hosted machines. Cathedra Bitcoin expects the machines to be deployed by mid-February 2023.