frozen

ZachXBT stated on platform X that Circle has unfrozen ckUSDC (Dfinity bridge) and two hot wallets, including one starting with the address 0x00e. Currently, 5 out of the 16 wallets that were previously frozen have been unfrozen.It stated that after the confidentiality restrictions related to the civil case in New York are lifted, information about the plaintiffs, expert witnesses, and other relevant parties will be disclosed.

On-chain detective ZachXBT stated on platform X that Circle has unfrozen two previously frozen hot wallets, marked as "500 Casino" and "Whale." Previously, due to the address being frozen, users were unable to withdraw from a certain centralized exchange to the affected business hot wallets.ZachXBT pointed out that, currently, the basic details of the case, such as the plaintiff, expert witnesses, and why Circle did not raise any objections, have not been disclosed. Earlier reports indicated that ZachXBT stated Circle, under public pressure, had unfrozen one of the 16 USDC wallets that were blacklisted.

The Hong Kong police announced the progress of the investigation into the JPEX virtual asset trading platform fraud case, revealing that since the investigation began, a total of 80 people have been arrested, and assets totaling approximately HKD 228 million have been frozen. Another round of prosecution actions has been taken, charging 10 individuals with "money laundering" and "conspiracy to commit money laundering."Chief Inspector Han Chenghao of the Hong Kong Police Commercial Crime Bureau stated that the JPEX case is the largest in terms of the number of victims and the amount of money defrauded in recent years in Hong Kong, with over 2,700 victims reporting losses exceeding HKD 1.6 billion. Since the incident, no company or individual has admitted to being the actual operator, and the police need to conduct extensive investigations to clarify who the masterminds, core members, or accomplices behind JPEX are.

According to official disclosure, of the approximately 80 million illegally issued USR in the attack incident, about 46 million (approximately 57%) have been removed from circulation through destruction and blacklisting, and currently, there are no further transferable or redeemable assets in the related addresses.Among them, approximately 9 million USR have been destroyed through two transactions, and another approximately 36 million assets stored in the attack-related addresses in the form of wstUSR have completed blacklisting through contract upgrades.

According to information forwarded by ZachXBT and released by the on-chain analysis firm AMLBot, one of the addresses mistakenly frozen by Circle in a civil case, 0xb25ea1d493b49a1ded42ac5b1208cc618f9a9b80, is related to the DFINITY ecosystem.The accompanying operational guidelines indicate that this address is involved in the cross-chain exchange process between ETH and ckETH. After users deposit ETH, the ICP side contract mints ckETH and, when needed, exchanges ckETH back to ETH on Ethereum, which is typical of operational/bridging service wallets. Last night, it was reported that ZachXBT expressed doubts about Circle freezing 16 business hot wallets of USDC.

According to market news, a wallet address (0x6926408f55c4f322ebe1a3cc7e4fff380c5543df) under the Iranian cryptocurrency exchange Wallex (wallex.ir) has been simultaneously frozen by Circle and Tether.Several hours before the aforementioned address was frozen, Wallex began consolidating cryptocurrency assets scattered across multiple hot wallets on the Tron and Ethereum networks to the BNB Chain through several cross-chain bridges. Currently, approximately 2.49 million dollars in assets are stranded at the relevant address, remaining inactive.

According to Solid Intel, the FBI, in conjunction with the Thai police, seized approximately 8,000 mobile phones and froze about $580 million in cryptocurrency assets in an operation targeting scams against Americans.

According to Whale Alert monitoring, a Tron chain address holding 11,539,340 USDT has just been frozen.

According to Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Research, the U.S. Treasury submitted a report to Congress under the GENIUS Act, recommending that DeFi should explicitly bear anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) obligations, and consider establishing a "hold law" safe harbor mechanism for digital assets, allowing institutions to temporarily freeze assets during investigations of suspicious transactions without a court order.The report also revealed that the scale of crypto crime continues to grow, with losses from crypto scams recorded by the FBI reaching $9 billion in 2024.

According to Reuters, Tether stated that it has frozen approximately $4.2 billion USDT due to "association with illegal activities," with about $3.5 billion occurring since 2023; this week it assisted the U.S. Department of Justice in freezing nearly $61 million USDT related to "pig-butchering" scams. Tether claimed it can remotely freeze USDT in user wallets at the request of law enforcement agencies.

According to Whale Alert monitoring, about 30 minutes ago, an address on the Tron chain holding over 83.77 million USDT was frozen.

According to the Financial Times, Telegram's $500 million bonds in Russia have been frozen by the national settlement depository due to Western sanctions against Russia, despite founder Pavel Durov's efforts to distance himself from Moscow.This move poses obstacles to its debt buyback and raises concerns among investors. Telegram still plans to repay the related debt on schedule, and its recent half-year revenue has increased by 65% year-on-year to $870 million, but it has incurred a net loss of $222 million due to the depreciation of Toncoin. Telegram is pushing for the integration of the Ton ecosystem and preparing for an IPO.

According to Reuters, the Swiss Federal Council stated on Monday that following the capture of Venezuelan President Maduro by the U.S. military and his transfer to the United States, Switzerland has frozen all assets held by Maduro and his associates in Switzerland. This measure takes immediate effect and is valid for four years, aimed at preventing potential illegal asset outflows. It also serves as a complement to the existing sanctions Switzerland has imposed on Venezuela since 2018.The Swiss authorities stated that the asset freeze does not affect members of the current Venezuelan government and noted that if any illegally obtained funds are discovered, Switzerland will seek to return them for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.

Beth Hammack, president of the Cleveland Fed, stated that after the Federal Reserve's consecutive interest rate cuts in the past three meetings, she sees no need for any adjustments in the coming months.Hammack opposes the recent rate cuts due to her concerns about persistently high inflation, which outweigh her worries about potential vulnerabilities in the labor market—concerns that have led officials to cut rates by a cumulative 0.75 percentage points over the past few months. Hammack is not a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this year but will gain voting rights next year.Hammack hinted that the Fed does not need to adjust its current benchmark rate, which is in the range of 3.5% to 3.75%, at least until next spring. She stated that by then, the Fed will be better able to assess whether recent inflation in commodity prices is subsiding as the impact of tariffs is more fully digested in the supply chain. (Jin Shi)

According to a report by Sina Finance, recently, seven financial industry associations jointly issued a risk warning, clearly prohibiting domestic participation in virtual currency and real-world asset (RWA) token issuance and trading activities. After the regulatory clarification, mainland companies' RWA business in Hong Kong has encountered a comprehensive downturn, with industry insiders revealing that the consultation volume has plummeted by more than 90%, and many projects have been asked to pause their progress. Related concept stocks have responded by falling back, with companies like Longxin Group and Xiexin Energy Technology seeing their high points cut in half. Some enterprises have begun to explore RDA (Real Data Assets) as an alternative direction.

According to FN News, Dunamu, the operating company of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, has stated that it has frozen damaged assets worth 2.6 billion won (approximately 1.77 million USD). Upbit is advancing follow-up processes to safely recover the frozen assets.Currently, Upbit is utilizing its self-developed on-chain tracking service (OTS) to trace the paths of virtual assets transferred to external sources. At the same time, it is actively collaborating with global cryptocurrency exchanges to prevent further transfer of assets. A related person from Upbit stated, "Although all customer damaged assets have been compensated by Upbit's own assets, we remain relentless in tracking and freezing to prevent assets from falling into the hands of attackers. To create a secure cryptocurrency asset ecosystem, we sincerely request global cryptocurrency exchanges and the blockchain community to cooperate actively."On the other hand, after replacing all virtual asset wallets and strengthening security measures, Upbit has resumed all virtual asset deposit and withdrawal services on the 6th. Previously, Upbit confirmed that it suffered a loss of over 44.5 billion won due to the theft of its hot wallet, and the CEO issued an apology letter.

According to GoPlus monitoring, the hackers attacking Balancer successfully transferred 195 stS tokens from the frozen address 0xf19...fae2, which was frozen by Sonic Labs, to the new address 0x0e9c...44D5 through the permit() authorization mechanism, and exchanged them for WBTC and ETH, bypassing the asset freeze measures on the original address.

According to Whale Alert monitoring, 31,765,779 USDT held by a certain address has been frozen by Tether.

According to Hong Kong media Ming Pao, the Hong Kong police have prosecuted 16 individuals in the JPEX case, including internet celebrity Lam Chok, and the case will be heard tomorrow at the Eastern Magistrates' Court.It is reported that among the 16 individuals charged, 6 are core members of JPEX, involved in crimes such as conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice; 7 are members of a virtual currency over-the-counter trading platform; and 3 are puppet account holders. This is the first time the police have used the offense of "fraudulently or recklessly inducing others to invest in virtual assets" under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance for prosecution.So far, the police have arrested a total of 80 people, have identified two masterminds and one key member who are still at large, and have issued a red notice through Interpol. The case involves over 2,700 victims, with losses exceeding HKD 1.6 billion, and the police have frozen assets valued at approximately HKD 228 million. The police do not rule out the possibility of a second round of prosecutions.

According to Hong Kong media Ming Pao, the Hong Kong police have prosecuted 16 individuals in the JPEX case, including internet celebrity Lin Zuo. The case will be heard tomorrow at the Eastern Magistrates' Court.It is reported that among the 16 individuals charged, 6 are core members of JPEX, involved in conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering, and obstructing justice; 7 are members of virtual currency over-the-counter exchanges; and 3 are puppet account holders. This is the first time the police have used the crime of "fraudulently or recklessly inducing others to invest in virtual assets" under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance for prosecution. The police have arrested a total of 80 individuals so far, have identified two masterminds and one key member who are still at large, and have issued a red notice through Interpol. The case involves over 2,700 victims, with losses exceeding HKD 1.6 billion, and the police have frozen assets worth approximately HKD 228 million. The police do not rule out the possibility of a second round of prosecution actions.