263 Days Later: Some Celsius Customers Can Withdraw Their Funds

 Whitelisted accounts will be able withdraw 94% of their original funds.

The bankrupt cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius announced the reopening of Distributable Assets in certain Custody Accounts.

Following the update, some customers took to social media to reveal being able to withdraw funds for the first time since the lender halted its services last June.

The development comes a month after the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York authorized Celsius to reopen withdrawals for certain customers with assets held in Custody Accounts.

The Sandbox Suffers Security Breach: Users Targetted via Phishing Email

No further impacts have been identified so far.

Blockchain-based metaverse company – The Sandbox – has warned its users about a security breach through a malware application.

According to the official blog post, an unauthorized third party managed to gain access to the computer of one of its employees and used the information it found to send an email falsely claiming to be from The Sandbox. Its statement read:

“We have blocked the employee’s accounts and access to The Sandbox, reformatted the employee’s laptop, and reset all related passwords including requiring two-factor authentication. We have not identified any further impacts.”

Investigator claims Bitbns said $7.5m hack was system maintenance

 Twitter crypto sleuth ZachXBT has alleged that Indian crypto exchange Bitbns suffered a $7.5 million hack last month but covered it up by performing “system maintenance.”

According to the investigator, the hack occurred on Feb. 1, and the attacker made off with customer assets worth $7.5 million.

Bitbns CEO admits hacking occurred

Binance Denies Improper Use of $1.8B of Users’ Funds

Binance was accused of moving almost $2Bn without permission. The exchange denied the rumors. Is it just FUD or damage control?

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, denied a report published by Forbes titled “Binance’s Asset Shuffling Eerily Similar To Maneuvers By FTX,” which argues that the crypto giant transferred $1.8 billion associated with its users’ funds.

According to Forbes, between August 17 and early December 2022, Binance moved “silently” $1.8 billion deposited “as collateral intended to support its customers’ stablecoins,” leaving many of its users with unbacked funds.

Spotify Runs Pilot for Token-Enabled Playlists with NFT Partners

 The Swedish music streaming giant confirmed the development in tweet reply.

Spotify is testing a new service – “token-enabled playlists” – with one of its partners to enable non-fungible token (NFT) holders to connect their wallets and access curated music. It is currently in the pilot phase.

The new service was designed in partnership with the Web3 gaming ecosystem, Overlord, and involves a token-enabled community-curated playlist that can be accessed via Web3 wallets of those who hold the Creepz NFTS on Spotify.

According to the official announcement, the service will be available to only Android users from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.

Apart from Overlord, the product is available to token holders within the Fluf, Moonbirds, and Kingship communities.

Universal Music Group’s NFT band Kingship revealed creating a token-gated playlist for NFT holders that will feature Queen, Missy Eliott, Snoop Dogg, and Led Zeppelin. Its tweet read,

Beware of Bing AI chat and ChatGPT pump-and-dump tokens — Watch The Market Report live

 On this week’s episode of The Market Report, Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss ChatGPT pump-and-dump tokens and why you should be cautious.

This week on The Market Report, the resident experts at Cointelegraph discuss dozens of pump-and-dump tokens purporting to be related to ChatGPT and Bing AI chat.

We will be doing things a little differently this week since our handsome and charming host, Joe Hall, will be somewhere over the Atlantic during the livestream and will not be able to join us. Not to worry, though, as our resident experts Marcel Pechman and Sam Bourgi are here, as always, to break down the latest news in the markets.

Weekly Crypto Investment Product Outflows Hit $32M: CoinShares

 Rising crypto prices have pushed AuM to the highest level since August 2022. 

According to the latest edition of CoinShares’ weekly report, outflows in digital asset investment products reached $32 million last week, a level not seen since late December 2022.

The sentiment could be attributed to exchange-traded product (ETP) investors being less optimistic about recent regulatory pressures in the US relative to the wider market.

Bitcoin Bears the Brunt

Outflow figures surged to $62 million the mid-way through last week, even as the sentiment improved significantly by Friday. Bitcoin was the most affected crypto asset during the turmoil in the market, experiencing an outflow of $24.8 million over the past week.