FTX EU opens withdrawals, Elon Musk calls for stop of artificial intelligence, Binance…

Top stories this week

FTX EU Launches Withdrawal Site 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 almost five months after the global trading platform collapsed and went bankrupt in early November. Meanwhile, in the US, lawyers for former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried have pleaded not guilty to five additional charges, including allegations of bribery in China. Out on bail since being transferred to US custody from the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried is now banned from using smartphones with internet access as part of a new plea deal.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple founder Steve Wozniak were signatories to an open letter signed by more than 2,600 technology industry leaders and researchers calling for a temporary halt to any further development of artificial intelligence (AI). The petition shared concerns that AI with human-competitive intelligence could pose serious dangers to society and humanity. It called on all AI firms to “immediately cease” developing AI systems more potent than GPT-4 for at least six months. Although supported by many, the petition has divided the larger technology community over the halt in development.

Binance and CZ sued by CFTC for violating US regulations

A lawsuit has been filed by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. Claims against the crypto exchange include failure to register with regulators, non-compliant trading, concealing the location of its administrative offices and conducting transactions for persons in the United States since 2019, despite a policy of blocking or restricting clients in the country. Binance’s CEO has denied the allegations, claiming 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 the crypto earnings.

The US and South Korea requested the extradition of Terra co-founder Do Kwon

Authorities from both the US and South Korea have attempted to extradite Terra co-founder Do Kwon following his arrest in Montenegro. According to Montenegro’s Justice Minister Marko Kovač, decisions regarding Kwon’s detention will go to Montenegro’s Supreme Court and will rely on a number of factors, including the severity, place and time of his alleged criminal acts. During his detention in Montenegro, Kwon may face harsh conditions in the country’s penal system since prison conditions have not changed from those described in a 2020 US State Department human rights report.

‘Withdrawal coming!’ — Ethereum developers confirm epoch for Shapella fork

Ethereum’s core developers shared more details about the long-awaited Shapella hard fork, which will allow validators to withdraw Ether from the Beacon Chain. Shapella will go into effect at epoch 194048, which is scheduled for 22:27 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. 17.81 million Ether has been staked on the Beacon Chain, with several mechanisms put in place to ensure that a flood of Ether does not disrupt the market.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $28,358Ether (ETH) on $1821 and XRP on $0.53. The total market value is at $1.18 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, this week’s top three altcoin winners are XRP (XRP) at 25.40%, Stellar (XLM) at 25.12%, and Conflux (CFX) of 22.77%.

This week’s top three altcoin losers are SingularityNET (AGIX) at -12.85%, stacks (STX) of -10.19%, and Mina (MINE) of -7.20%.

For more info on crypto prices, be sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most memorable quotes

“When I think about AI, it shocks me that we talk so much about crypto regulation and nothing about AI regulation. I mean, I think the government has got it completely on its head.”

Mike NovogratzCEO of Galaxy Digital

“I believe that NFTs can help preserve Indonesia’s cultural heritage while improving virtual tourism.”

Muhammad Neil El Himamdeputy head of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy in Indonesia

“Advanced artificial intelligence could represent a profound change in the history of life on Earth and should be planned for and managed with appropriate care and resources.”

Future of Life Institute

“As recent global financial events continue to unfold, many may also be re-evaluating their reliance on traditional financial institutions […] and move to alternative assets like Bitcoin.”

Lasanka Pereramanaging director of Independent Reserve Singapore

“[DeFi] KYC is about transparency and accountability. I don’t think it’s a problem for most people. I’m sure 99% of people have nothing to hide.”

Dyma BudorinCEO of Hacken

“Never let fear stop progress, and be wary of anyone who tries to seize control in a central authority.”

Brian ArmstrongCEO of Coinbase

Prediction of the week

Bitcoin price reaches $28.5K on PCE data as macro accumulation zone ends

Bitcoin recovered recent losses following encouraging US macroeconomic data, with February’s personal consumption expenditure (PCE) index modestly beating expectations in some areas – a sign of progress against inflation.

Moving to higher timeframes, optimism was no less evident 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 previous bear markets. Bullish long-term probabilities are improving, as long as we stay above the lower limit.”

FUD of the week

Italy Blocks ChatGPT, Investigates Suspected Violations

Italy’s data protection watchdog has announced it is temporarily blocking artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT and opening an investigation into suspected privacy violations, including a recent data breach the AI ​​platform suffered on March 20. The Italian agency highlighted several issues for the decision, such as the lack of information for users about OpenAI data collection and the absence of an age verification function in the application to avoid minors. The agency further noted that the information provided by the AI ​​chatbot is not always accurate and that inaccurate handling of personal data may occur.

Mysterious Device Can Collect BTC Users’ IP Addresses – Bitcoin Developer

An unknown person or group could collect IP addresses of Bitcoin users and link them to their BTC addresses, compromising their privacy, according to pseudonymous Bitcoin app developer 0xB10C. The device has been active since March 2018, and its IP addresses have appeared on several public posts by Bitcoin node operators in recent years. In an interview with Cointelegraph, 0xB10C stated that the vulnerability does not only affect users running their own nodes. Even users who rely on a third-party server through a wallet like Electrum or Mycelium can still fall victim.

Jake Paul-endorsed SafeMoon gets hacked after introducing a flaw in its upgrade

SafeMoon, a project previously backed by celebrities and social influencers such as Jake Paul and Soulja Boy, announced that its liquidity pool (LP) was compromised. Blockchain investigator PeckShield narrowed down the problem to a recent public burning feature 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 increase in the token’s price.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.