News Updates January 20, 2023

1. Crypto Users in Brazil, India Set for Boost from Latest Samsung Wallet Rollout. 

Samsung has announced the rollout of its crypto wallet-linkable mobile payments solution – Samsung Wallet – in Brazil, India, Malaysia, and five other countries.

Per an official Samsung release and a report from Brazil’s Livecoins, the firm will also unveil the service to users in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.

In the United States, Samsung Galaxy smartphone owners can already link their Samsung Wallets to their Coinbase accounts. Using this function, they can view their primary balances, although they still need to open the Coinbase app to access their coins and fiat.

A similar service is also available for users of the Gemini crypto exchange.

Coinbase has previously stated that it is “working on making buying and selling cryptocurrency from Coinbase within the Samsung Wallet app available.” The exchange said that it will “let customers know when these features are available.”

The South Korea-based Samsung has previously rolled out a “blockchain” wallet that can store several popular cryptoassets. Livecoins remarked that the development “allows users with cryptocurrencies stored in the Samsung Blockchain Wallet to access their assets.”

Samsung added that it was “looking forward to sharing exciting new [wallet-related] developments this year.” The mobile maker said it was currently working with new potential partners on developments.

It explained that it was “working hard” to “rapidly expand the availability of Samsung Wallet” and “bring the platform to more potential users.”

The move will take the number of nations in which the wallet is available in to 21.

Earlier this year, another South Korean tech titan – the security provider AhnLab – announced that it had launched a crypto wallet. Samsung’s closest domestic rival, LG, meanwhile, released its own crypto wallet. Named Wallypto, the LG wallet debuted late last year.

2. Token Unlocks estimates $102B worth of unlocks in 2023

XRP, FIL and OP have the largest estimated locked value with $17.9 billion, $4.9 billion, and $3.7 billion, respectively.

Token Unlocks’ 2022 Annual Report estimates that $102 billion worth of tokens will be unlocked in 2023.

The data points out that December 2022 ended with $102.1 billion worth of tokens remaining locked, with a $570.8 billion Fully Diluted Value (FDV)and $468.7 billion market cap. Dividing the market cap by FDV, the report concludes that 82.1% of all tokens with fixed supply are already in free circulation in the market.

15 projects with most considerable estimated locked value
The report states that 15 projects account for more than 75% of the total illiquid tokens. Out of the top 15 largest estimated unlocks, six of them remain below $1 billion in value. In comparison, two are expected to be roughly equal to $1 billion, and the remaining seven will be worth more than a billion.

The list reveals that Ripple (XRP) ranks first with $17.9 billion worth of total locked tokens. Filecoin (FIL) and Optimism (OP) follow XRP as the second and the third, with $4.9 billion and $3.7 billion locked value, respectively.

Chainlink (LINK), BitDAO (BIT), ApeCoin (APE), and STEPN (GMT) are also ranked above the $1 billion mark. Hedera (HBAR) and Axie Infinity (AXS) are estimated to have around $1 billion worth of tokens locked up.

Tokens unlocked so far

So far, four unlocks have already released a total of $126 million worth of tokens into the market. BIT and APE are included in the top 15 list of these four. BIT and APE released tokens worth $67 million, and $28 million, on Jan. 15 and 17, respectively.

While not included in the above ranking, Moonbeam (GLMR) was the first unlock of the year. It took place on Jan. 11 and unlocked $15 million worth of GLMR tokens. On Jan. 12, Aptos (APT) also unlocked tokens worth $16 million.

Upcoming unlocks

The next unlock included in the above list will be taking place on Jan. 23 from AXS, and the project will release 4.8 million tokens worth $31 million.

Following AXS, GMT, and dYdX (DYDX) from the list will also release their tokens during February. GMT will start its linear unlock on Feb. 1 by releasing $588,608 worth of tokens per day. On Feb. 3, DYDX will release 150 million tokens which correspond to 15% of its total supply and equate to around $195 million.

The next unlock included in the list will occur on May 31 and come from OP, the project with the third-largest estimated locked value. The project will release 3.6% of its total supply of 154,618,822.65 OP tokens. The total unlocked value is expected to be around $253 million.

The last scheduled unlock amongst the top 15 is from Curve DAO (CRV). On Aug. 14, the project will start its linear unlock period by releasing $411,902 worth of tokens per day.

3. How To Do Due Diligence When Choosing a Crypto Exchange in 2023.

Choosing the right platform to run your exchange activities is very crucial when it comes to cryptocurrencies. It is essential to consider various factors, including supported assets, fees, payment alternatives, and security. We thought of all these factors when producing our list of features which is necessary to consider when choosing the best place to buy bitcoin. According to the leading cryptocurrency comparison service CryptoRunner, several things need to be noted when selecting a crypto exchange.

Consumer satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction should always come first in decision-making of what exchange to use. Following Cryptorunner’s advice, the ideal approach to selecting a Bitcoin exchange is to test and contrast several platforms on how they handle their customer demands. Listening to consumers is the fastest and most straightforward action to ensure customer satisfaction on different exchanges.

Exchange volume

Another crucial issue worth mentioning is exchange volume. With large trading volumes on exchanges, lowering the spread is vital (the difference between buying- and selling price). This becomes a hidden cost if the business needs more trading volume. However, the analysis shows this is fine if one selects a significant Bitcoin exchange.

Security

Security always needs to be the priority when selecting what exchange to use. The cryptocurrency market is less tightly controlled than the stock market. As a result, security is now more of a personal duty. The data shows that cryptocurrency exchanges are utilized for trading, not storing bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Fees and cost

Another aspect that must be taken into account is fees and costs. The charge is an essential consideration when buying and selling bitcoin. All exchanges, nonetheless, employ various expenses and fees. This includes transaction costs, order fees (market orders are more expensive than limit orders), buying- and selling fees (either a percentage or set price), and more. One should scrutinize their costs and expenses, whether "Low," "Medium," "High," or "Varies."

Customer support

When making this decision, customer support should also be taken into account. Not every bitcoin exchange provides responsive and trustworthy customer support. Always ask whether there is customer service available around-the-clock, whether by phone, chat, or both. Before this, many consumers have had issues with bitcoin exchange support response times. Managing customer assistance is challenging when the number of new users increases quickly. Because of this, cryptocurrency traders advise against utilizing smaller exchanges.

KYC Guidelines

Standards for "knowing your customer," or KYC, were created to reduce fraud and money laundering incidences on financial networks. Users must prove their identities on cryptocurrency exchanges that adhere to KYC regulations. A copy of a government-issued picture ID, such as a passport or driver's license, or the sale of certain personal information is usually required. Exchanges that adhered to KYC norms should always come first during one’s examination, while backing away from those that don’t.

FDIC Protection

Although cryptocurrencies are not FDIC-insured, several crypto exchanges provide FDIC protection for funds kept on their systems in US dollars. Affiliated banks typically offer this insurance. Cryptocurrency exchanges that provided FDIC insurance through affiliated banks should always be given prior consideration while picking an exchange of choice. This feature play’s a significant role on security terms in an exchange.

Order types

Different order types could be available on various cryptocurrency exchanges. For instance, some brokers could provide limit orders, which let you select the highest price at which you'll buy an item or the lowest price at which you'll sell it. Others might not supply this order variety. Exchanges with more order types are likely to offer better services than those that do not.

OTC Trading

When a cryptocurrency exchange supports OTC trading, two parties can perform trades without using the business directly. People who wish to acquire or sell a lot of cryptocurrencies frequently use OTC trading. Certain exchanges provide this option for institutional traders or high-net-worth individuals wishing to execute sizable deals.

Financial aspects

Some exchanges provide valuable goods and services, such as co-branded credit cards that let you earn cryptocurrency incentives for regular purchases, the chance to make interest on cryptocurrency, and the capacity to borrow money against your crypto holdings.

Other Benefits

A high balance of a particular asset or introducing a friend are two behaviors that are rewarded on several exchanges. Rewards may take the shape of reduced costs or extra earnings. One should look to utilize exchanges that offer random rewards for random tasks as they rather beneficial than typical exchanges.

Choosing the right crypto exchange might prove harder than it seems. Many aspects pose exchanges as red flags hence bringing the necessity of proper evaluation before making any decision given the recent collapse of exchanges that led to many investors loosing funds due to the fraud deeds that were witnessed at the troubled FTX exchange. However with all these aspects that need evaluation while making the decision, choosing the right exchange narrows back to one’s own preferences and taste.

4. IMF Gives 5-Point Plan For Crypto Regulation.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has made recommendations to regulate the cryptosphere and provide a framework for exchanges and investors to work to.

Firstly it wants crypto asset service providers to be licensed, registered, and authorized. That includes those providing storage, transfer, exchange, settlement, and custody services, with rules like those governing providers of services in the traditional financial sector. It wants customer assets to be held separately from the company's own assets and the responsible authority to be clearly defined.

Secondly, entities that carry out many different functions in the cryptosphere should be subject top additional oversight. If there is any coniflict of interest it should be assessed by the responsible authority and prohibited, if necessary, and such entities should be subject to stringent regulations on transparency so that all dependencies and operations can be clearly identified.

Thirdly, stablecoin issuers should be subject to strict prudential requirements as they are becoming a store of value for greater numbers of investors. Without proper oversight and regulation such holdings could destabilise monetary and financial stability. In cases of major stablecoins, a regulation on the scale of that employed in the banking sector could be required.

Fourthly, established financial institutions that deal in cryptocurrencies should be subject to clear requirements regarding the risks that arise from transacting in crypto, and fifthly, there needs to be a robust, global crypto regulation and supervision framework. Crypto's borderless nature has highlighted the ineffectiveness of national authorities to adequately deal with the digital coins, and only a unified approach that can adapt quickly will be suitable.

Of course the IMF's recommendations are just that, recommendations. The cryptocurrency world remains a relativly unregulated domain, and as yet there has been no consensus as to how a global regulatory framework could look or be implemented.

5. Scammers Airdropping Fake FTX 2 Token to Make it Look Like official FTX airdrop.

The token’s smart contract has a backdoor function that could potentially allow scammers to manipulate a user’s wallet balance.

Hackers are once again targeting the cryptocurrency scene, as a strange token tagged FTX 2.0 was recently created and is being airdropped to wallet addresses belonging to Justin Sun, Binance, and KuCoin. The token’s smart contract contains a backdoor function that could allow the hackers to burn the balance of any address that interacts with the token.

Following the creation of the token, the scammers sent its total supply, amounting to 1,000,000,000 (1 billion), to an FTX Exchange wallet address on January 19, 19:04 (UTC), as first detected by blockchain security platform Peck Shield through its Twitter handle today. 

PeckShieldAlert

@PeckShieldAlert

#PeckShieldAlert Scammers are sending FTX 2.0 to FTX exchange, pretending to be the FTX exchange to add liquidity, and then airdropping to @justinsuntron, Kucoin, and Binance. They are tricking people into thinking it is the official FTX airdrop. Be alert!

https://etherscan.io/token/0x0a835974ca6e9e6364393f1832777efa55abb682

The tokens were then routed through the FTX Exchange wallet to several wallet addresses, including four Binance addresses, an address belonging to Justin Sun, and one KuCoin address. The scammers used the FTX Exchange wallet to create an illusion of official affiliation with the exchange. The trick is to make people believe the token is an official FTX airdrop.

The hackers found a way to include a backdoor function to the token’s smart contract which would allow them to burn the balance of any wallet that interacts with the token, Peck Shield disclosed. Investors are advised to not interact with it. As of press time, the token has 83 holders with zero liquidity.

FTX.com Revival Plans

It is not coincidental that this development comes shortly after John J. Ray III, FTX’s current CEO, disclosed that he has the intention to restart FTX.com, the primary exchange of the FTX ecosystem. Hackers could be looking to leverage the reports in an attempt to trick people into believing there is an official FTT airdrop with regard to the rejuvenation plans.

Recall that Ray had revealed that he and his team are considering plans to restart FTX.com as a way to take advantage of the platform’s robust offerings in gathering funds for creditor settlement. He noted that he has established a task force to look into the possibility of doing this.

In response, FTT, FTX’s native token, surged by 34% within 2 hours, as previously reported. SBF also responded to the reports, alleging that Ray had been working against previous plans to resurrect the exchange.