Today in Crypto: Israel to Seize All Crypto in 150 Wallets, Nigeria to Recognize Crypto Usage, OneCoin Co-founder Pleads Guilty

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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Regulation news

• A Tel Aviv court issued a ruling last week allowing Israel‘s government to seize all the crypto in over 150 digital wallets that it had blacklisted for allegedly funding terrorist groups, a local Israeli media reported. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that, since the ruling, the authorities seized $33,500 from digital wallets linked to the militant group Hamas.
• US Senator Sherrod Brown said on Sunday that US federal agencies must address the cryptocurrency market and “maybe” ban it after the FTX exchange collapse, per NBC. “Maybe banning it, although banning it is very difficult because it will go offshore and who knows how that will work. So this is a complicated, unregulated pot of money in so many ways,” Brown said.

Adoption news

• The Nigerian government will soon pass a law that will recognize the usage of bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptoassets to keep up to date with “global economic innovations” and “global practices”, according to Punch. “The proposed law will also define the regulatory roles of the Central Bank of Nigeria and SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] regarding digital currency,” it said, citing Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Institutions, Babangida Ibrahim.

Legal news

• OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges “in connection with his participation in the massive OneCoin fraud scheme”. According to the US Department of Justice (DoJ) press release, Greenwood pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering – each of which carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison.
• Nicole Tatz, an attorney for Ripple Labs’ Chief Executive Officer Bradley Garlinghouse, has applied to withdraw as the co-defendant’s counsel in the ongoing lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Per the motion, the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP will “continue to be counsel of record for Bradley Garlinghouse in this action.”

Investment news

• Grayscale Investments may return a portion of the capital of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) if the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refuses to approve its spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an investor letter. These options could include a tender offer for up to 20% of the outstanding shares of the $10.7 billion trust, Grayscale Chief Executive Michael Sonnenshein said. A tender offer would make a direct appeal to shareholders to sell—or tender—their shares at a specific price during a certain time, it said.

Blockchain news

• Ren Protocol “is likely to imminently shut down, and any remaining assets are at risk of being lost,” said the team on Twitter. They added that “Ren assets need to be bridged back to the respective native chains ASAP,” providing a link to updates on the transition to Ren 2.0. The project was acquired in 2021 by the now-collapsed trading firm Alameda Research.