Binance to Begin Japan Operations, Millennials are Dominant Crypto Enthusiast Group, Canadian Police Issue Warnings After a $7.5M Scam, Hamas Stops Crypto Donations

Get your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.
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Exchange news

• Binance is set to begin operations in the Japanese market, according to a notice published on Friday. The major exchange acquired regulated Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC) last year. Therefore, per the notice, the existing services on SEBC will be terminated on May 31, while a new service under the tentative name “Binance Japan” will launch after June 2023.
• Bitget released an extensive study on the relationship between demographic changes and cryptocurrency adoption rates among different generations, finding that: 
  o   millennials are the dominant group of crypto enthusiasts, comprising 46% of respondents;
  o   the representation of different groups by government regulators can determine the likelihood of crypto-favorable social changes; 
  o  by the beginning of the next decade, demographic processes may lead to a dramatic shift towards increased acceptance of crypto, despite the slowdown in population growth;
  o   the statistics indicate uneven use of digital assets among different age groups, especially in countries with long life expectancies and a highly educated population, such as Japan;
  o   each successive generation is more eager for their representatives in power to have a similar interest in regulating blockchain assets, with a significant spike in the percentage at 6% to 27% among Gen Xers and Millennials, respectively;
  o   the chances of the growth in acceptance of crypto in the coming years are very high.

Security news

• A Canadian senior was scammed out of more than $7.5 million dollars in a cryptocurrency ruse, prompting the latest warning from police about cryptocurrency-based fraud schemes, the National Post reported. Police said that the elaborate con lasted several months and included the victim being scammed out of money both in the original fraud and then by someone claiming they could help get her money back. The case is still under investigation.
• The military arm of the Palestinian militant group Hamas will stop accepting donations in bitcoin (BTC), Shehab reported, citing a message posted to a Telegram group. The post said that the group would halt donations via BTC for “the safety of the donors […] especially in light of the intensification of the prosecution and the doubling of the hostile effort against anyone who tries to support the resistance through this currency.”

Stablecoin news

• Etherisc, the open-source, decentralized insurance protocol and ecosystem, launched a USDC depeg protection cover to the public, said a press release. In the event of a depeg, the solution protects USDC deposits in non-custodial wallets with automated pre-specified payouts, verified through Chainlink Data Feed. As soon as the USDC-to-USD Price Feed reports a USDC price below 0.995, the product enters a triggered state, it said. If USDC does not recover to its peg within 24 hours, the product enters depegged state, and as soon as that happens, customers can claim a USDT payout from their protected wallet. After a depeg event, users have up to 7 days to claim.

Market news

• Investment banking giant JPMorgan unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to analyze the US Federal Reserve (Fed) statements and speeches to detect potential trading signals, Bloomberg reported. “Based off of Fed statements and central-banker speeches going back 25 years, the firm’s economists including Joseph Lupton employed a ChatGPT-based language model to detect the tenor of policy signals, effectively rating them on a scale from easy to restrictive in what JPMorgan is calling the Hawk-Dove Score,” the report said.

Legal news

• The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) searched the home of former FTX executive Ryan Salame, as part of the sweeping investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse and its attempts to exert political influence in Washington, Bloomberg reported. FBI agents went to Salame’s Maryland home on Thursday morning, according to people familiar with the matter. It wasn’t immediately clear what the agents were looking for, said the report.

Mining news

• Troubled US Bitcoin miner Greenidge announced it entered into an agreement with the publicly listed mining company Core Scientific, per which Core will host and operate Greenidge-owned Bitcoin miners at two of its facilities. Greenidge also announced the installation of an additional 1,500 company-owned miners at the existing facilities across the US. “Together, this successfully completes the deployment of 9,150 Greenidge miners,” the company said.