Samsung’s “Private Blockchain” Security System, Five Charged Over $2.5M NFT Theft

Get your daily, bite-sized summary of cryptoassets and blockchain-related news – examine the stories that fly under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Blockchain News

• South Korean electronics and software giant Samsung announced on October 13 the implementation of a new security system for its smart devices, called Samsung Knox Matrix. “Samsung Knox Matrix will act as a user’s own private blockchain system, where your connected devices enhance security through multi-layered mutual monitoring,” the announcement said.
• Diversified holding company BitNile Holdings, Inc. said that the subsidiary BitNile, Inc. has begun development of a Bitcoin (BTC)-based marketplace platform, which expects to leverage blockchain and other emerging technologies. The announcement said the marketplace is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2023, and that it will be “a multi-vendor e-commerce platform supporting a wide range of business sectors, including retail, real estate, commodities and other consumer-driven offerings.”

Legal news

• Five people were charged in France on Wednesday, suspected of obtaining $2.5 million of valuable non-fungible tokens (NFTs), including several Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) pieces, Barron’s reported, citing Paris prosecutors. The charges against the young adult suspects in the theft include fraud committed as part of a criminal gang, concealment of fraud and criminal association.

NFT news

• Binance NFTThe NFT marketplace for major crypto exchanges Binanceannounced the NFT collection launch by Kharkiv Art Museum, which is one of the oldest and most valuable museum art collections in Ukraine. As part of the launch of the “Art without Borders” NFT collection, the Kharkiv Art Museum will auction 15 works from its own collection. The auction starts on October 13 and lasts for one week.

Regulatory news

• US Senator Elizabeth Warren and six other Democrats sent a letter to the Texas grid operator on Wednesday Electric Reliability Council of Texas, seeks information on the amount of electricity cryptomining has consumed and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions they have emitted over the past six years. “We are writing to seek information about cryptomining operations in Texas and the impact these operations may have on climate change, the stability of the energy grid, and subsidies—ultimately paid for by retail users—that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) provides to cryptomining companies to limit their business in times of high demand, it said.

Banking news

• BVNK, London-based crypto-powered payment and banking platform for businesses, has secured registration in Spain as a Virtual Asset Services Provider. Maximilian von Both, Chief Legal, Risk and Compliance Officer said in the announcement that “the registration in Spain will be the first of many similar landmarks.”

Payment news

• Global payment orchestration platform BlueSnap announced a new partnership with crypto payment service provider BitPay, which will give businesses the ability to accept and get paid in up to 15 different cryptoassets and seven fiat currencies globally, the announcement said. Businesses that accept crypto payments benefit from lower processing costs, access to a new customer base and no chargebacks, it added.
• Bitcoin reward app Lollipop announced the launch of its new mobile app for iOS and Android with new Lolli Card Boosts, which allow shoppers to earn up to 10% in bitcoin rewards on in-store purchases. With Card Boosts, customers can turn their credit or debit card into a bitcoin rewards card by connecting it to the Lolli app, they said.

DeFi news

• Decentralized finance (DeFi) lending and borrowing protocol Paxo Finance has integrated Chainlink price feeds on Polygon (MATIC) mains. The blog post said that integrating this decentralized oracle network enables the protocol to access “tamper-proof price data streams necessary to support accurate liquidations, helping to secure the protocol and lender solvency.”
• DeFi protocol CACHE Gold has integrated Chain link Reserve certificate on Polygon the main network. The announcement said that “CACHE Gold users can now verify on-chain that cross-chained CACHE Gold tokens (CGT) on Polygon are fully backed 1:1 by CGT tokens on Ethereum.”

Investment news

• Uniswap Labsthe team behind the large decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap (UNI), has raised $165 million in Series B funding, led by Polychain Capital and with the participation of long-standing investors a16z crypto, Paradigm, SV Angeland Variantfounder Hayden Adams said in a blog post.
• One of the development teams behind Ethereum Merge, Prysmatic Labshas been acquired by Offchain Labsthe developer of the Ethereum layer-2 network Arbitration. The financial terms were not disclosed. According to the announcement, the Prysmatic Labs team is officially joining Offchain Labs and will continue to develop Prysm as “a fully open source and neutral consensus client.”
• Web3 platform nxyz announced a $40 million Series A led by Paradigmwith participation from Coinbase Ventures, Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital, and angel investors such as Balaji Srinivasan, Jaynti (JD) Kanani, Jing Wang, Packy McCormick, Surojit Chatterjee, Ryan Selkis and others. According to the announcement, co-founder Sridhar Ramaswamy will become CEO, while continuing in his role as CEO of the private search engine Neva. The funds will be used to grow nxyz’s team, build support across new use cases and expand across different chains, it said.

Career news

• Digital asset manager Standard Custody & Trust Co.a subsidiary of PolySign, announced the appointment of Matthew Homer to the board. The press release said Homer was the first executive deputy director of the research and innovation department at New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), where his responsibilities included cryptocurrency and digital assets.