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PEPE Token Makes Waves: Bitfinex Listing & PancakeSwap Staking Opportunities

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Bitfinex, a well-known digital asset trading platform, has made a significant announcement that is bound to catch the attention of crypto enthusiasts and meme aficionados.

On May 22nd, the platform revealed its plans to list the Pepe token, paying homage to the famous internet meme character Pepe the Frog.

The announcement, made earlier today, showcased Bitfinex’s commitment to embracing the evolving crypto landscape by offering its users access to the token.

This ERC-20 token, built on the Ethereum blockchain, has been rapidly gaining popularity since its creation in April 2023. Designed as a tribute to Pepe the Frog, a meme that gained internet fame in the early 2000s, the token brings unique features to the cryptocurrency trading ecosystem.

One of the standout features of the token is its no-tax policy, which aims to make the token accessible to a wider audience. Bitfinex hopes to encourage increased adoption and participation in the token ecosystem by avoiding additional taxes. 

Henry Child, Head of Tokens at Bitfinex, expressed his excitement about introducing PEPE tokens to the platform’s ecosystem. 

He acknowledged the surging popularity of meme-coins, making it a timely addition to Bitfinex’s portfolio. With the listing announcement, Bitfinex aims to cater to the growing demand for unique and meme-inspired digital assets.

Deposits for the token on Bitfinex opened on May 22nd, 2023, at approximately 10 a.m. UTC. Trading of the token, available in trading pairs against the US Dollar (USD) and Tether tokens (USDt), will commence on May 24th, 2023, also at approximately 10 a.m. UTC.

PancakeSwap Launches Pepe v3 Farm: Staking Token To Earn CAKE

Meanwhile, PancakeSwap, a decentralized exchange operating on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), along with Multichain on BNB Chain, ETH & Aptos, made an announcement via Twitter about the launch of the Pepe v3 Farm. 

The Pepe v3 Farm is now live on BSC PancakeSwap, providing an additional avenue for the token holders to stake their tokens and earn rewards in the form of CAKE, PancakeSwap’s native cryptocurrency. 

Interested users can find more details on how to stake their PEPE tokens and earn CAKE on the PancakeSwap website, according to the tweet.

Nevertheless, Bitfinex’s decision to list the token and PancakeSwap’s introduction of the Pepe v3 Farm highlights the increasing integration of meme-coins into the crypto space. 

As these digital assets continue to gain popularity, it will be interesting to see how the market responds to the launch of PEPE on Bitfinex and the subsequent staking opportunities on PancakeSwap’s platform.

Related Reading | Crypto Exchange Hotbit’s Farewell: Unexpected Suspension Amidst Turbulent Times 

Floki Inu Lands On Bitfinex: New Opportunities & Credibility For The Meme Coin’s Ecosystem

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In an exciting development for the meme coin community, Floki Inu, the utility and governance token of the FlokiInu ecosystem, has announced that deposits are now open on Bitfinex, one of the oldest and most respected cryptocurrency exchanges. 

It follows a recent tweet by FLOKI on May 3rd, revealing the listing on Bitfinex, which has further solidified the token’s legitimacy and accessibility.

Bitfinex, known for its institutional prowess, has become a hub for industry movers and shakers. Adding the FLOKI token to its trading pairs is expected to attract significant attention from investors and enthusiasts.

Starting May 5th, 2023, at approximately 10 AM UTC, trading of the FLOKI token will commence on Bitfinex. The trading pairs available for FLOKI will be against the US Dollar (USD) and Tether tokens (USDt), providing users with multiple options to engage with this popular meme coin.

With the listing on Bitfinex, FLOKI aims to expand its reach and create new opportunities for its growing community. However, listing FLOKI on a reputable exchange like Bitfinex is a testament to the project’s credibility and potential.

The news has already generated considerable excitement within the crypto community, with investors eagerly awaiting the launch of FLOKI trading on Bitfinex. The increased accessibility and exposure provided by Bitfinex’s platform are expected to drive further interest and participation in the Floki Inu ecosystem.

Floki Inu Price Analysis

Floki Inu (Floki) has taken a significant hit. Over the past week, the coin has experienced a notable 13.55% decline in value. As per the latest data from coinmarketcap, the current trading price of Floki stands at $0.00003221, indicating a dip of approximately 6.29% in the last 24 hours alone. 

FLOKI 1D graph coinmarketcap

Furthermore, the trading volume for the coin over the last 24 hours has plummeted by a staggering 44.64%, while the market cap has also suffered a decline of 6.20%.

Despite these setbacks, the crypto community eagerly awaits the impact of the FLOKI listing on Bitfinex. It remains to be seen how this listing will affect the coin’s value, but it will certainly be noteworthy for investors to watch.

Related Reading | FLOKI Takes An 11% Dip, But BTCEX Launchpad Signals Potential Comeback 

Binance Joins Other Crypto Firms In Aid For Turkish Earthquake Victims: Report

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A catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria early on Monday, leaving behind a trail of destruction and debris. However, among others, the crypto sector has stepped up to offer them support, including Binance, the world’s leading crypto exchange.

The quake, one of the strongest to hit the region in a century, claimed over 4,300 lives and injured thousands more. As the affected communities and governments struggled to cope with the aftermath, the cryptocurrency community also offered support.

Multiple exchanges, including leading crypto exchange, Bitfinex, Bybit, and BitMEX, have pledged to offer aid packages to help those affected by the earthquake. Gate.io has stated that it has started preparing aid packages and will deliver them in coordination with the authorities.

Binance, Bitfinex & Others Supporting Victims

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao took to Twitter to express his sadness and support for the victims, saying that the Binance team is working on a solution to help. 

In a tweet from Binance Turkey, the company expressed sympathy for the families of the deceased and hoped for a quick recovery for those who were injured.

According to Binance Turkey’s tweet translation:

May God have mercy on our citizens who lost their lives in the earthquake that took place in Kahramanmaraş and the surrounding provinces; Our condolences to their families and our nation, and we wish a speedy recovery to the injured.

Bitfinex has committed to developing an aid package for earthquake victims, and Bybit has announced that aid is being sent to the impacted area. 

Meanwhile, BitMEX has pledged to give the proceeds from its current trading competition to the Red Crescent and urged others who are able to make a donation to do so.

Turkey led the MENA region as the largest cryptocurrency market and recorded the highest year-over-year growth in crypto transactions among all regions in 2022. 

It was ranked 12th globally in terms of crypto adoption, with a 10.5% YoY growth in crypto transaction volume, according to Chainanalysis’s 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index.

Related Reading | Ethereum-Focused Scaling Firm Teams Up With Chainlink

Ethereum Reigns Supreme: 55% Of ETH Holdings On Top 2 Platforms

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The world of cryptocurrency is constantly evolving, with new players entering the market and established ones consolidating their position. One such player is Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Ethereum continues to dominate the exchange landscape, with its 24.9 million holdings concentrated on just five platforms, according to Nansen, a blockchain analytics platform.

This concentration of Ethereum holdings is significant, as it gives these top exchanges a significant amount of power over the cryptocurrency’s future. 

In the top five exchanges, Coinbase (35%) and Binance (20%) hold 8.72 million and 4.94 million ETH, respectively, which is more than a third of all Ethereum exchange holdings.

Additionally, the Nansen data shows that Kraken, Bitfinex, and OKX round out the top 5 with 1.97 million, 1.82 million, and 1.25 million ETH holdings, respectively.

Ethereum’s Growing Influence In The Crypto Sphere

These staggering numbers are a testament to Ethereum’s growing influence in the cryptocurrency sphere. Its popularity among traders and investors alike has led to the platform is a top choice for holding and trading ETH.

As the crypto market continues to mature and evolve, it will be interesting to see if ETH’s dominance on exchanges will continue or if other platforms and cryptocurrencies will rise to challenge its position.

Regardless, its substantial presence on the top 5 exchange platforms is a sign of its lasting impact on the crypto market and a promising indicator of its future growth potential.

Furthermore, according to the latest report from CoinGecko, despite a 67.5% decline in Ethereum (ETH) prices in 2022, the number of addresses holding at least 1 ETH (≥1 ETH) rose by 28.1%. The number of ≥1 ETH addresses increased from 1.41 million on January 1 to 1.73 million on December 31.

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Source: CoinGecko

Q4 2022 saw the highest growth in crypto adoption, with the number of ≥1 ETH addresses growing by 10.4% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ). This growth can be attributed to positive sentiments surrounding Ethereum’s successful Merge in September and anticipation for its upcoming Shanghai upgrade.

However, the steady rise in ETH addresses suggests growing confidence in the cryptocurrency’s future and increased adoption.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index Hits One-Year High At 61: The Market’s Wild Ride Continues 

Cardano’s Vasil Now Supported In This Exchange

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Bitfinex, a state-of-the-art digital token trading platform has announced integrating Cardano’s Vasil hard fork, as per the post. The trading platform informed that the new features will begin on 27 Sept. without specifying a timeline.

However, it assured users that trading, deposits, or withdrawals will not be affected. Cardano’s most ambitious upgrade went online on September 22 following multiple delays.

Input Output Hong Kong [IOHK], the developer behind Cardano, posted a recent update on Twitter stating that 13 cryptocurrency exchanges, representing more than 87% of Cardano’s [ADA] liquidity, had offered support for the hard fork.

The largest digital asset exchange in the world, Binance, has too declared its support for the Vasil Hard Fork.

In a separate post, IOHK said that Coinbase is the only among the top exchanges for ADA liquidity that has its integration status labeled as “in process.”

However, Coinbase later tweeted that it would support the fork, stating that ADA transactions would be suspended “during the Cardano Vasil hard fork.”

The Vasil upgrade’s launch date was originally set for June, but it was twice postponed, most recently because of a flaw in Cardano’s previous node version that caused interoperability problems.

Meanwhile, data from the cryptocurrency monitoring website LunarCrush showed that social activity around ADA has increased significantly as a result of the Vasil hard fork’s successful completion.

Cardano’s Social Activity Reached Record High

Over 52,000 daily mentions of the token were found on social media, a record for the previous three months. The indicator’s overall value as determined by the 90-day results was greater than 2.3 million.

Analysts have highlighted that this might indicate the crypto community’s peak interest in Cardano, which is unusual given the current state of the crypto industry. However, it appears from the ADA price trend that even if investors are interested, they would rather remain cautious.

At the time of publication of this post, ADA is exchanging hands at $0.46 with a 24-hour trading volume of $676 million. The 8th biggest cryptocurrency is up 4.21% in the last 24 hours and its market cap stood at 15.7 billion.


Tether: Will Roche Freedman be terminated from class-action lawsuit?

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Following a demand from Kyle Roche to be removed as counsel in the case, Tether (USDT)-issuing company Tether wants law firm Roche Freedman “terminated” as counsel from the Bitfinex and Tether class-action lawsuit.

Tether and Bitfinex’s legal team asked for Roche’s legal team to be completely removed from the case and certified that they had returned or destroyed all defendant-issued documents and had not shared them with any third party, including Ava Labs, in a court order request submitted by Elliot Greenfield of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP on Wednesday.

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The request was made soon after Roche filed a notice of motion to withdraw from the Tether class action lawsuit due to continued fallout from a recent CryptoLeaks exposé that claimed the American attorney had a covert agreement to “damage” Ava Labs rivals in exchange for AVAX tokens and Ava Labs ownership.

Greenfield expressed “great worry” that Kyle Roche “may be abusing the discovery process” and “misusing material” he obtains through litigation after Roche’s words appeared on the CryptoLeaks website:

“He states that he is Ava Lab’s ‘crypto expert’ because he ‘sue[s] half the companies in the space’ and ’know[s] where this market is going’ because he has ‘seen the insides of every single crypto company.’”

Tether’s legal representative’s high claims

Greenfield emphasized that Roche Freedman LLP has issued a number of document requests seeking information that has no obvious link to the claims and defenses in this complaint and said that the issues are very pertinent to the case.

The attorney also emphasised the need for the documents to be suppressed, saying that they contain information that, if made public, would endanger the privacy and security of the defendants and their clients as well as confidential and competitively sensitive information about the defendants’ businesses.

The removal of Kyle Roche does little if anything to resolve the serious issues about the possible misuse of discovery, according to Greenfield, despite the fact that Roche has filed motions to withdraw himself from the case and others.

He further added,

“Even if he is no longer counsel of record, he would still have access to discovery materials, would retain the ability to direct the conduct of other lawyers at his firm, and would profit from any potential recovery in this lawsuit.”

Greenfield continued, saying the “removal would not prejudice Plaintiffs” because they would still be represented by “two other large and experienced firms,” including Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP and Selendy Gay Elsberg PLLC.

Tether and Bitfinex were accused of manipulating the cryptocurrency market by releasing unbacked USDT “in an effort to communicate to the market that there was enormous, organic demand for crypto commodities,” according to the class-action lawsuit filed in 2019.

Roche has also recently dropped out of the litigation against Binance, Solana, Tron, BitMEX, Nexo, and Dfinity.

Tether Teams Up With Bitfinex To Unveil ‘Keet’, A P2P Video App

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Leading stablecoin issuer Tether and crypto exchange Bifinex in collaboration with Hypercore, a peer-to-peer data network has announced the launch of a fully encrypted video-calling application dubbed Keet [https://keet.io]. 

Per the announcement blog, the free video calling app employs peer-to-peer connections to facilitate real-time audio/video calls, text chat, and file sharing.

The new feature is powered by an innovative technology called Distributed Holepunching that allows users to find and connect to each other using only cryptographic key pairs upon authorization. 

This, according to the blog, empowers users with the ability to be in control of their own data and communication channels, without the prying eyes of any third party.

Compared to traditional video chat apps that typically use cloud-based software or outside servers as intermediaries to connect two or more people, Keet users would directly initiate a call to another individual’s computer, without the need of a central server or firms operating the network.

Speaking on the launch, Paolo Ardoino CTO of Tether and Bitfinex & CSO of Holepunch stated,

Web1 was the original form of the internet. It was designed to distribute information and knowledge on a global scale but it didn’t come without issues. Web2 improved upon many of the user experience roadblocks of Web1 but not without one major flaw- it requires users to give up control of their data, which has led to the rise of monopolies and growing privacy concerns.

Tether CTO- ” Freedom Is Lifeblood Of The Future”

Hence, the firms decided to work on the development of Holepunch and Keet without depending on any server. “It believes that freedom of choice, communication, and finances are the lifeblood of the future, and anything that will enhance those freedoms is worth amplifying,” Ardoino added.

Besides that, the project is being funded by both Tether and Bitfinex, and CTO Paolo Ardoino has been appointed as Chief Strategy Officer. 

As stated in the post, the Holepunch protocol will be closed-source until it completes alpha testing. It will then move to open source code in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Further, Keet’s built-in payments API will run, operate, and be powered by the Lightning Network with Tether tokens being the default micropayments system

Netflix is making a documentary on Bitfinex hack involving 120,000 bitcoin

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In the most significant criminal crypto crime case in history, Netflix plans to release a documentary series about a married couple’s alleged attempt to launder billions of dollars in stolen bitcoin.

On Tuesday, February 8, Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan were detained in their New York City residence on allegations of conspiring to launder about 120,000 Bitcoin linked to a 2016 breach of a crypto exchange bitfinex. The pair was accused of attempting to liquidate their digital assets by creating false identities and online accounts and purchasing real gold, NFTs, and other assets. The value of the stolen Bitcoin at the time of the hack was $71 million. The current value of the loot is worth nearly $5 billion. At the same time, investigators raced to track the money’s movement on the blockchain.

Chris Smith (FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, Tiger King) will direct and executive produce alongside Nick Bilton (Fake Famous, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road).

Netflix’s history with crypto

The latest announcement is the firm’s newest move into the crypto-crime world. Last year, Netflix announced the release of “Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King,” a film about the QuadrigaCX exchange, whose founder Gerald Cotten died unexpectedly while possessing the keys to customers’ accounts, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

On Tuesday, Lichtenstein and Morgan were detained in New York and charged with fraud and money laundering for allegedly attempting to launder 120,000 bitcoins from bitfinex. On the day of their arrest, the two appeared in federal court and face a new bail hearing on Monday.

The husband-and-wife team is currently awaiting trial, but they have been denied bail because the prosecutor believes they will abscond. According to Bloomberg, Lichtenstein kept a “personas” folder and a “Passport ideas” file on his computer containing links to counterfeit passports. According to the prosecutor, a plastic bag marked “burner phones” was discovered beneath their bed.

There is no point in question that this documentary series will break the bars.

Cryptocurrency theft: US couple arrested over laundering $4.5B in Bitcoin

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In what is being called the biggest-ever cryptocurrency theft, the U.S. Justice Department on 8th February 2022 said that it has seized a whopping $4.5 billion in bitcoin from a couple who has allegedly washed the illegal proceeds linked to the 2016 hack of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex resulting in the arrest of the duo on money laundering charges.

Prosecutors said New Yorkers Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, splurge the stolen money on items ranging from gold and non-fungible tokens to even a $500 Walmart gift card, prosecutors said.

Calling it as the Justice Department’s “biggest financial seizure”, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said, it shows cryptocurrency is “not a safe haven for criminals.”

Lichtenstein and Morgan face charges of conspiring to commit money laundering as well as to defraud the United States. The case was filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C.

How did the US D.O.J unearth the biggest cryptocurrency heist?

As per sources, the pair is accused of conspiring to launder 119,754 bitcoin stolen after a hacker gained illegal access into Bitfinex and initiated more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions. Justice Department officials said the value of the transactions at the time of the incident stood at $71 million in bitcoin, but with the rise in the currency’s value, the value now is at a staggering $4.5 billion.

That being said, a crucial clue that led to the case might have come from the 2017 bust of an underground digital market that used to launder a portion of the funds. U.S. officials said some of the money was transferred to AlphaBay, a version of eBay hosted on the dark web.

When the site was taken down, it likely led authorities to access AlphaBay’s internal transaction logs and linked them to a cryptocurrency account in Lichtenstein’s name, according to digital assets tracking firm Elliptic.

Bitfinex released a statement stating it was working with the Department of Justice to “establish our rights to a return of the stolen bitcoin.”

As for the two accused, they would both be kept on house arrest, with electronic monitoring, and will be barred from engaging in cryptocurrency transactions pending trial.

94,643.29 Stolen BTC from 2016 Bitfinex hack moved

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According to the reports by Whale alert, large amounts of BTC, which were stolen during the 2016 Bitfinex hack, started moving to an unknown wallet. The hackers carried out the first transaction on (Tue, 01 Feb 2022 04:14:24 UTC). Initially, they moved 1 BTC to the anonymous wallet. As of now, 26 transactions have been carried out on the anonymous wallet. The wallet holds 94643.29 BTC at the time of writing.

Whale alerts is a transparent platform for tracking and analyzing millions of transactions every day. They reported the incident on Twitter, providing the details of the move.

History of the 2016 Bitfinex BTC hack

In August 2016, almost 120,000 bitcoins – now worth roughly $4.6 billion – were stolen from the famous crypto exchange Bitfinex. The hackers may have felt that the challenging portion of their crime was over. However, barely 21 percent of the stolen bitcoins have been transferred after five years, and just 4 percent have been laundered or swapped.

The 119,756 bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex were first transmitted to a single wallet, and 79 percent of them remain there to this day. After a rush of transactions in early 2017, there were very few outflows from the wallet until 2020, when there was a significant rise in activity. In April 2021, 12,241 BTC of the stolen assets were relocated, having a value at the time of $774 million. This rise was presumably spurred by the surging Bitcoin price, which rose more than 700 percent during the prior year.

Elliptic said the hackers laundered the money through darknet markets like Hydra and privacy-focused Wasabi wallet. These marketplaces provide cash-out services with drugs, hacking equipment, and bogus IDs. These allow Bitcoin to be exchanged into gift cards, prepaid debit cards, or actual cash. Software wallets like Wasabi assist in avoiding blockchain tracing, employing a kind of transaction known as a “coinjoin”. It is estimated that over 13 percent of the profits of crime in bitcoin are laundered using private wallets.

The inability of the hackers to move the fund tells a story about the crypto industry’s maturation and how law enforcement capabilities, regulation, and blockchain analytics have combined to make crypto crimes extremely difficult. But to date, they were unable to trace back to the hackers who committed this monstrous loot.