Here are some of the major developments from the world of crypto over the past few days
Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), has started a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to attract cyber and Blockchain talent for the agency. The BND has put up nearly 1,000 NFTs with a dog motif and an on-chain treasure hunt on the Ethereum Blockchain for the recruitment drive.
The collection, unveiled in June 2023, includes 999 dog NFTs that were based on BND’s guard and security dogs as well as “different intelligence roles”.
The NFTs can only be collected, according to the BND’s website, by locating a character string that it posted on Instagram and that refers to an Ethereum address. In order to locate the collection and qualify to mint an NFT, the cyber talent would need to use that knowledge.
Binance Alleges SEC Made ‘Misleading’ Statements On Exchange Assets
The legal teams for Binance, Binance.US, and Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao have alleged that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have made misleading statements on exchange assets.
In a June 21, 2023 filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, they said that SEC made “misleading” comments in a news release on June 17, and they have now requested that the financial regulator adhere to “applicable rules of conduct”.
The legal motion came in response to the SEC’s claims that CZ and Binance could “commingle customer assets or divert customer assets,” despite a court transcript suggesting otherwise. The motion has been filed by the attorneys for Binance.US, a cryptocurrency exchange operating in the United States, Binance Holdings Limited, and Zhao.
The filing made reference to Gurbir Grewal, the director of SEC enforcement, who said that CZ and Binance could “commingle customer assets or divert customer assets as they please” and that an order seeking the return of all parties to the dispute was in place.
“The SEC has no evidence that BAM [Binance.US] customer assets have been dissipated, commingled or misused in any way,” said the June 21 filing.
“The SEC’s press release also appears to be designed to introduce unwarranted confusion into the marketplace, which could have the effect of harming BAM customers rather than protecting them. It also risks tainting the jury pool with misleading descriptions of the evidence concerning the Defendants,” the filing said.
BitKeep Announces Support For BRC-20 Tokens
BitKeep, a supplier of self-custody wallets, on June 21, 2023, announced support for BRC-20 tokens released on the Bitcoin network. There are currently more than 34,000 types of BRC-20 tokens in circulation.
Users can examine, rank, and transfer BRC-20 tokens as well as NFTs with this tool. BRC-20 in-wallet swaps will be available “in the future,” according to the developers.
Incidentally, cryptocurrency exchange OKX had last month announced support for BRC-20 assets via the OKX Wallet app. A large number of centralised and decentralised exchanges have also launched support for BRC-20.
However, Trust Wallet does not yet support BRC-20 tokens. They can’t currently be kept on MetaMask either.