Weekly Crypto Roundup: titans clash, hacks continue, and sanctions hit home

The week came to a close with Bitcoin (BTC) just under $24,000, as was the case last week. And Ether (ETH) jumped over 24% this week to rest at under $1,900. However, major crypto events in the past few days had more to do with crypto exchanges and their owners

India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze ₹ 64.67 crore worth bank deposits belonging to crypto exchange WazirX. The ED was also investigating money laundering allegations and “mystery” crypto transactions between WazirX and Binance which were not accessible on the blockchain.

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WazirX clarified that such transfers were users sending crypto funds between their personal WazirX and Binance accounts.

During this time, however, there was a public clash as WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty claimed that WazirX was owned by Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. Binance’s CEO, billionaire Changpeng Zhao, denied these ownership claims in the strongest terms and urged WazirX users to move their funds to Binance. Following a heated exchange of tweets between the two CEOs, WazirX and Binance announced an end to the “off-chain” transfers between the two exchanges. WazirX further warned Indian users that moving their funds to Binance could put them at risk of violating India’s crypto tax regulation, where 1% or 5% must be deducted at source for certain amounts.

As the ED continues its probe, an Indian government source warned that the WazirX episode revealed the “dark side” of cryptocurrency and urged users to be cautious with such transactions.

The ED’s future discoveries regarding WazirX and its financial activities could harden the Indian government’s stance on crypto innovation for years to come.

Three days into August, thousands of wallets linked to the Solana blockchain were being drained of crypto assets, as members of the ecosystem tried to stem the leak and identify what vulnerability the hacker exploited. Days later, evidence seemed to point at the Slope wallet which provides services for Solana users.