Crypto Crime Task Force, Fake Regulatory Claims, ETFs & Mini-FBI: This Week in Crypto

• Crypto.com came under scrutiny for deploying internal teams to trade tokens for profit,
• Kyle Roche fell “victim to an elaborate international setup” that caused him to expose himself as corruptly beholden to Ava Labs, and
• Binance news included a cease and desist notice against a ‘scam entity’, enabled the Bitcoin Lightning Network, announced a zero-maker fee promotion for TUSD stablecoin, and launched a regulated crypto exchange in Kazakhstan.

Prison Time

Do Kwon and Han Chong-joon were found guilty of using fake passports in Montenegro and will serve four months in prison.

Scam Entity

Binance issued a cease and desist notice against Binance Nigeria Limited – a “scam entity”.

ETF Attempts

Valkyrie Funds filed with the US SEC for approval for a Bitcoin ETF , and Invesco and WisdomTree filed submissions with the SEC for their own Bitcoin ETFs joining BlackRock.

Mini FBI

The US established a new task force, aka ‘mini-FBI’, for targeting crypto crime with five investigators from different agencies.

20 Crypto Jokes

Deutsche Bank AG sought regulatory permission to operate a custodial platform to offer crypto, Japan’s crypto exchanges sought regulations that would allow retail investors higher leverage on margin trading, Bit2Me successfully raised €14 million in funding , Ripple received in-principle regulatory approval in Singapore to offer digital asset services, Gemini announced plans to expand into the APAC region , Nike hinted at the possibility of an NFT collection within Fortnite , Coinbase condemned the US SEC’s ‘evasive response’ to a court mandate, JPMorgan argued that the release of the Hinman documents in the Ripple-SEC battle could benefit Ethereum , Berenberg argued the SEC was likely