Crypto News: FTX EU opens withdrawal, Binance and CZ sued, and other news


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A week in review: March 26–April 1

Your weekly highlights to stay up to date with the latest crypto news

#1. FTX EU launches withdrawal website to pay back European users

The European arm of FTX has launched a website to allow customers in Europe to submit withdrawal requests. It comes nearly five months after the global trading platform collapsed and went bankrupt in early November. Meanwhile, in the United States, lawyers for former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried have entered a not-guilty plea for five additional charges, including accusations of bribery in China. On bail since being turned over to U.S. custody from the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried is now prohibited from using any smartphone with internet access as part of a new court agreement.

#2. Binance and CZ sued by CFTC over US regulatory violations

A lawsuit has been filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao. Claims against the crypto exchange include failing to register with regulators, noncompliant trading, obscuring the location of its executive offices, and performing transactions for persons in the United States since 2019, despite a policy of blocking or restricting customers in the country. Binance's CEO has rejected the allegations, arguing that the crypto exchange "does not trade for profit or 'manipulate' the market under any circumstances," but primarily to cover expenses in fiat or other cryptocurrencies using its crypto revenue.

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#3. 'Withdrawals are coming!' — Ethereum devs confirm epoch for Shapella fork

Ethereum core developers shared more details on the highly anticipated Shapella hard fork, which will allow validators to withdraw staked Ether from Beacon Chain. Shapella will take effect at epoch 194,048, which is scheduled for 10:27 pm UTC on April 12. Withdrawals will be enabled by Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895 by "pushing" staked Ether from the Beacon Chain to the execution layer. There are 17.81 million Ether staked on the Beacon Chain, with several mechanisms set to ensure a flood of Ether doesn't disrupt the market.

#4. Prediction of the week. Bitcoin price hits $28.5K on PCE data as macro 'accumulation zone' ends

Bitcoin recovered recent losses following encouraging macroeconomic data from the United States, with the February Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index modestly beating expectations in some areas — a sign of progress against inflation.

Moving to higher timeframes, optimism was no less in evidence among traders. Caleb Franzen, senior market analyst at Cubic Analytics, wrote on Twitter:

"Bitcoin's 24-month Williams%R Oscillator is set to close above the 'oversold' threshold for March, which has marked an end to prior bear markets. Bullish long-term probabilities are improving, so long as we stay above the lower-bound."

#5. FUD of the week. Mysterious entity may be collecting BTC users' IP addresses — Bitcoin developer

An unknown person or group may be collecting IP addresses of Bitcoin users and linking them to their BTC addresses, compromising their privacy, according to pseudonymous Bitcoin app developer 0xB10C. The entity has been active since March 2018, and its IP addresses have shown up on several public posts from Bitcoin node operators over the past several years. In an interview with Cointelegraph, 0xB10C stated that the vulnerability doesn't just affect users who run their own nodes. Even users who rely on a third-party server through a wallet like Electrum or Mycelium can still be victims.

#6. FUD of the week. Jake Paul-endorsed SafeMoon gets hacked after introducing a bug in upgrade

SafeMoon, a project previously endorsed by celebrities and social influencers, such as Jake Paul and Soulja Boy, announced its liquidity pool (LP) had been compromised. Blockchain investigator PeckShield narrowed the problem to a recent public burn function introduced in the latest upgrade that allegedly allows users to burn tokens from other addresses. The attacker used the vulnerability to remove SafeMoon tokens, causing an artificial spike in the token's price.