The Chinese government is reportedly launching a state-controlled platform for trading non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other digital assets. The "China Digital Asset Trading Platform" is being developed in partnership with Huaban Digital Copyright Service Center Co. Limited., the China Technology Exchange, and the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center.
The exchange is set to launch on January 1, 2023. It will be operated under the license of the China Digital Exchange, which is responsible for facilitating the purchase and sale of intellectual, scientific, and technological property rights in the country. In addition, the new marketplace will offer trading services for digital collectibles and copyrights and comply with relevant regulations.
However, there are uncertainties and more significant compliance risks associated with the market, and laws and regulatory policies will need to be gradually improved, according to Yu Jianing, co-chair of the Blockchain Committee of the China Communications Industry Association. The announcement of the new platform comes after Tencent closed its NFT platform, Huanhe, due to the Chinese government banning the resale of NFTs to limit market speculation.
Suspicious Alameda Wallet Funds Transfer Has Crypto Community Crying Foul Play
Looks like the crypto community has a new mystery to solve: 30 Alameda Research wallets, linked to the bankrupt sister company of crypto exchange FTX, suddenly became active on Dec. 28 after four weeks of inactivity. And they weren't just moving any old funds - oh no, these wallets swapped and mixed over $1.7 million worth of crypto assets through various crypto-mixing services.
For those not in the know, crypto mixers are often used by market exploiters and criminals to obscure the transaction path so that the funds can't be traced back to the original source. So it's no surprise that the sudden movement of funds from Alameda wallets just days after Sam Bankman Fried was released on bail raised suspicions across the crypto community. Nearly 24 hours later, it seems the culprit behind these fund transfers used extensive planning to hide transaction routes.
According to data from crypto forensic group Arkham, the first transfer of funds began with multiple Alameda addresses swapping tokens for Ether/Tether, sending them to crypto mixers. A majority of these transfers were tracked to two main wallets starting with 0xe5D and 0x971. Tokens from the Alameda wallet were then sent to an address starting with 0x738, and then on to an address 0x64e. This 0x64e wallet then splits up the ETH and sends it to smaller wallets in sizes of generally $200,000 and $50,000 before sending it to services like Fixedfloat and ChangeNOW.
ChangeNOW has even issued a statement on its company blog condemning "fraudulent actions" like those connected to the Alameda wallets case. The company says it's putting "serious effort into preventing such incidents," and that its compliance team is working closely with investigators to detect the flow of illegal funds while also keeping an eye out for alerts from the community on suspicious funds.
Another wallet was used to swap for stablecoins, where wallet assets were first swapped into USDT and then sent to Fixedfloat. A total of 800,000 USDT was swapped out using mixers, while another 400,000 USDT was funneled via other methods. And if that wasn't enough, an additional 200,000 USDT worth of stablecoins were sent to the Bitcoin network using renBTC.