Today Bitcoin Falls to $57,000 and crypt related stocks stumble To kick off September trading a group of Crypto executives are planning to host a DC fundraiser for kamla Harris next week And the Cyber crimes research lead at Chainalysis discusses the firm's latest Midyear crime update which shows that a Certain type of crypto romance scam is Proving to be highly Lucrative welcome to cnbc's crypto world I'm Mackenzie sigalos crypto prices are In the red post Labor Day with Bitcoin Falling to the $57,000 level as of newon Eastern ether Also fell dropping nearly 3% to 2443 and cardano's ada8 token was in the Red as well even after the blockchain's Upgrade went live on Sunday cardano's Chang hard Fork marked the ecosystem's Long plan shift toward decentralized Governance now taking a look at crypto Focused stocks on the first trading day Of the month as of midday all are down With Bitcoin minor clean spark falling The most more than 13 1.5% to be exact The move lower came just hours after Clean spark released its mining update For August which revealed that the Company mined 478 Bitcoin last month Marking a drop from 494 the month before And 659 last August okay let's talk about the top Stories as digital assets take on more
Of a role in this election cycle a group Of crypto executives and web 3 Builders Are holding a DC fundraiser for Democratic Presidential nominee kamla Harris now according to one of the Organizers of the event scheduled for Next Friday the group aims to raise at Least $100,000 for her campaign CLE Mesidor the founder of the national Network of women of color in blockchain Who's co-organizing the fundraiser Confirmed to us that the event would Also be used as a platform to call on Harris to be softer on crypto regulation With the goal of advancing a policy and Framework for Defi and web 3 that Fosters innovation in the US meanwhile Republican candidate Donald Trump has Been positioning himself as a pro crypto Candidate sharing last week on X that he Wants to ensure that the US will be the Quote crypto capital of the planet now Trump was the keynote speaker at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville in July and his Campaign started collecting crypto Donations in May attracting the backing Of big names in the industry including The Winkle boss twins next the the SEC Could be poised to throw a curveball Into ftxs bankruptcy repayment plan a Friday filing from the SEC mentions that The exchanges estate is considering Distributing stable coins to its Creditors the regulator points to a
Filing from last month that defines cash To include us-backed stable coins the Agency didn't give guidance on the Legality of this plan but said that it Reserves the right to challenge Transactions involving crypto assets Meaning the agency could object to the Plan later on if it saw fit the industry Has made countless calls for Clarity on Which tokens fall under the sec's Jurisdiction though no official Classification has been made for Us-backed stable coins in April Republican senator Cynthia lumus of Wyoming and Democratic senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York put forward a Bill that aimed to create a regulatory Framework for stable coins last coinbase Reported its first AI crypto transaction As the integration of the two much hyped Techn IES heats up in an article shared On X on Friday coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced that the platform's First AI to AI crypto transaction took Place last week calling the development An important step to ai's getting useful Work done Armstrong noted that while AI Agents cannot get bank accounts they can Get crypto wallets and can now use usdc On the ethereum L2 blockchain Network Developed by coinbase called base to Transact with humans merchants and and Other AI agents he pointed out that Currently AI agents face limitations in
Completing tasks independently because Of the lack of access to traditional Financial tools like credit cards or Payment methods for services like AWS or GitHub however Armstrong suggests that This new capability could allow AI to Overcome these Limitations all right for our main story Chain alysis recently released the Second part of its mid-year crime update Showing that pig butchering scams remain Lucrative In fact the blockchain analysis firm Says that it is the largest revenue Generating scam type so far this year I Caught up with Eric Jardine the firm's Cyber crimes research lead to discuss The key findings of the report and what Actions are being taken to prevent the Trend from escalating Further okay so first things first let's Talk about the Topline numbers here Elicit activity is down 20% year to date Talk about this trend and how it fits Into the comeback in crypto from the Lows of 2023 Absolutely I think the important piece Of context is that legitimate activity Is near to record highs being beaten out Only by the peak of the last bull market Cycle and so that puts into context this Year-over-year draw down that we're Seeing with elicit activity as you said About 20% down year-over-year year to
Date and I think it's important to note In that broad context of things that This is the second year in a row that We've seen a a year-over-year decline of This sort and that this year just like Last year there are sub Trends listed Activity categories that are bucking the Overall macro pattern and are up here to Date in quite a worrisome Fashion now of the areas that are seeing A listed activity this report says that It's ransomware and stolen funds Pig Butchering specifically is the largest Revenue generating scam what makes this Type of scam so effective and is there Something about crypto that makes it Appealing for pig butchering scams in Particular so I think of the the Trend Toward Pig butchering in terms of risk Adjusted return for on the part of the Scammers that the Ponzi schemes of old That we used to see in crypto quite Frequently those could be very large Revenue generators but they were also Very easy to identify and track onchain And offchain and what we're seeing now With scammers is an adaptation of Tactics towards Pig butchering which Targets individuals as individuals often Leveraging relationships struck up on Social media or via text message so you You might get a smaller perp person Payout through this method but it's a Lot harder to track because you're able
To adapt your onchain and offchain Infrastructure a lot quicker so in Risk Adjusted terms scammers have moved in This direction because they're able to Get away with off- ramping funds and Seizing funds from uh unsuspecting Victims so one thing you point out in The report is that many of the Year-to-date scam inflows are going to New wallets now does this suggest that These are new scammers to the space or Just that more and more of the scammers That are out there are turning to crypto Rather than other payment methods and And what do you make of that so I think About it in terms of adaptation of Onchain infrastructure that they're Basically able to generate new wallet Infrastructure probably uh almost every Time we see a fairly sizable decline in The average duration of scammer Infrastructure on chain um down to about 44 days so far in 24 uh 2024 and all This says to me that scammers are Basically recognizing that persistent Onchain infrastructure is a Vulnerability to their operations you Can pinpoint it you can trace it and Therefore you could do things like fund Restitution if you're following funds Flowing out of these wallets or you can Try to trace it back to actually Identify the uh real world identity of The scammers themselves and so these
Scam operations have basically moved Towards greater adaptation more frequent Infrastructure turnover and this is Something we see onchain as well as Offchain in terms of purchasing new Social media infrastructure for example In order to bait Victims now do you expect this trend of Pig butchering scams to increase through The rest of 2024 and do you feel like The public and law enforcement are Properly prepared to combat this I think In terms of the trend my uh my guess at This point would be yes that the the Trend we've observed so far is likely to Continue um everything that we've seen Over the last few years points in that Direction when you see for example the Augmentation of um conversations and Social profiles through AI you're Probably going to see that worsening the Situation even and all that I think gets Into your second question which is like Is the public and is law enforcement Prepared I think we have a number of Very encouraging uh takedowns of scammer Operations and fund restitution that's Always nice to see but generally and by And large I think there is as evidenced By the Numbers uh pretty worrisome Trend And trajectory here suggesting that uh People are still being scammed Daily and ultimately where is the Responsibility for shutting down those
Scams or the platforms or exchanges the Focus on fighting back or does it really Fall on the Individual I think the individual uh the Best that they can do is just be Skeptical and aim for a bit of a degree Of prevention but recognize that they Are the victims in this relationship uh I think otherwise it's a all Hands-On Deck kind of scenario everyone would Have a role to play from law enforcement Through exchanges through um token Issuers and everyone else in Between last question for you any other Big trends that surprised you in this Most recent report that just came out I Think the big macro Trend as you pointed To in the beginning is that you know all The forms of predatory cyber crime the Ransomware the stealing of funds and the Scamming of victims those are the areas Where we're seeing worrisome growth Year-over-year and that's I think a big Uh point of concern for government Around the World okay that's all for crypto world Today but we'll be back again tomorrow And we'll see you then
