Web3 chatting app Beoble acquires $2 million in pre-seed funding round

As Solana (SOL) gains institutional momentum through new investment products and major platform integrations, the blockchain is also becoming a target for sophisticated phishing scams in South Korea.Photo by GuerrillaBuzz on UnsplashFake websites and impersonatorsAccording to a recent Etoday report, attackers have been impersonating the Solana Foundation and Superteam Korea, a developer community within the Solana ecosystem. Using fake group chats on messaging platforms like KakaoTalk and Telegram, the scammers deploy official branding and fabricated partnership announcements to appear legitimate. Victims are lured with promises of five SOL tokens for creating wallets on fraudulent websites mimicking Solflare, a widely used Solana wallet. Users are then instructed to stake their tokens in exchange for daily yield, enabling the scammers to access their funds. The schemes have become more advanced, with perpetrators using names and photos of Superteam Korea members and generating fake wallet interfaces that display fabricated token balances. When victims attempt to withdraw funds, they are removed from chats, blocked from further communication and left with inactive websites as evidence is wiped. The Solana Foundation and Superteam Korea have issued public warnings, stating they do not solicit investments through messaging platforms or request payments to specific accounts. They have noted an increase in phishing sophistication and advised users to be cautious of unsolicited offers, particularly those that promise guaranteed returns. Solana adoption gains momentumThese scams stand in contrast to Solana’s recent growth. The Rex-Osprey Solana + Staking ETF, launched in the U.S., recorded $12 million in inflows and $33.6 million in trading volume on its first day. It is the first U.S.-listed ETF to offer SOL exposure with staking rewards available directly through brokerage accounts. Additionally, PancakeSwap’s V3 liquidity pool went live on Solana, offering up to 84% of trading fees to liquidity providers and enabling swaps starting at 0.01%.Amid these developments, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan and Head of Research Ryan Rasmussen expressed cautious optimism about Solana, predicting it could set new all-time highs this year, though likely with more difficulty than Bitcoin. They pointed to rising interest in stablecoins, ETF approvals and the emergence of treasury firms focused on SOL and Ethereum (ETH) as key factors that could support long-term value. The pair also reaffirmed Bitwise’s $200,000 price target for Bitcoin, citing sustained institutional demand.

Singapore Pledges $112M to Boost Fintech Solutions Including Web3Acknowledging the growing significance of collaboration with industry stakeholders in propelling advancements in emergent technologies such as Web3, Singapore’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has unveiled plans to allocate up to 150 million Singapore dollars (approximately $112 million) towards supporting a spectrum of financial technology solutions, with a special focus on Web3.Photo by Jason Leung on UnsplashDistributed over three yearsThis financial commitment, outlined in a press release published to the MAS website on Monday, will be distributed over a three-year period as part of the revamped Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Scheme (FSTI 3.0), designed to invigorate and fortify innovation by backing projects that leverage cutting-edge technologies.The renewed innovation scheme encompasses multiple avenues, including the Enhanced Centre of Excellence track, the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) fintech track, and the Innovation Acceleration track — the last incorporating the realm of Web3.Emphasizing industry partnershipsMAS underlined the importance of forging partnerships with industry participants to bolster inventive fintech solutions originating from emerging technologies such as Web3.“MAS will conduct open calls for the use of innovative technologies in industry use cases. Grant funding will be provided to support actual trial and commercialization,” the central bank stated.In addition to these efforts, the initiative will maintain its commitment to encouraging adoption across domains like artificial intelligence, data analytics, and regulatory technology (RegTech). Furthermore, there will be an emphasis on fostering adoption within companies that are still digitally maturing and seeking to integrate RegTech solutions.Applicants across the various program tracks will be required to allocate resources toward nurturing talent. This strategy aims to augment Singapore’s fintech talent pool, ultimately contributing to the nation’s expertise in the sector.Ravi Menon, the Managing Director of MAS, underscored the substantial investment that the Financial Sector Development Fund (FSDF) has funneled into the FSTI program since its inception in 2015.Menon highlighted that this initiative’s overarching objective is to spur innovation and facilitate the seamless integration of novel technologies within the financial landscape. Over the years, the program has exemplified its commitment to driving transformation and pioneering the adoption of new technology across the financial sector.Nurturing Web3 innovationPotential Web3 and crypto hubs have come and gone, but Singapore has been vying to take its place as a center for Web3 innovation over a sustained period after it suffered some setbacks in 2022 related to a string of crypto business failures.While Binance had not been permitted to serve customers in the city-state, that meant that a disproportionate number of Singaporeans got caught up in the failure of the FTX crypto exchange. Alongside that regulatory failure, state investment giant Temasek had to write off a substantial investment in the company, while suffering reputational damage for not having detected the FTX fraud.The city-state has also been home to the failure of crypto lender Hodlnaut and crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). Despite these setbacks, Singaporean authorities are continuing to work towards setting the proper stage to further develop Web3 innovation. In June, MAS proposed a comprehensive framework for the design of open networks relative to tokenized digital assets. This latest initiative will further Singapore’s ambition to grow its Web3 sector.

US Treasury Sanctions Gaza-Based Crypto OperatorThe Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on a crypto operator allegedly linked to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.The move by OFAC comes as a result of greater scrutiny of terrorist financing following an attack by Hamas on Israel in early October, in which a number of Israelis lost their lives.Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels“Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company”The entity targeted by these sanctions is a Gaza-based virtual currency exchange known as the “Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company.” It is operated by Khan Yunis, a resident of Gaza. According to the Treasury Department, both the exchange and Khan Yunis are alleged to have ties to Hamas. Ahmed M.M. Alaqad, the owner of the business, has also been named in the sanctions.The primary objective of these sanctions, as stated by the Treasury Department, is to disrupt the sources of revenue for Hamas. The attack on Israel served as a trigger for these actions. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen emphasized the determination to prevent Hamas from raising funds for further acts of terror and violence against the people of Israel.This includes imposing sanctions and cooperating with international allies and partners to identify, freeze, and seize any assets related to Hamas in their respective jurisdictions. Yellen stated:“The United States is taking swift and decisive action to target Hamas’s financiers and facilitators following its brutal and unconscionable massacre of Israeli civilians, including children.”Crypto sector riskIt’s not the first time that crypto platforms have been implicated where terrorist financing is concerned. Earlier this year it emerged that Bitfinex Turkiye, the Turkish local exchange business of global crypto platform Bitfinex, was alleged to have been used for the purposes of money laundering by Hamas. Additionally, leading crypto platform Binance has found itself facing similar allegations.In the immediate aftermath of the recent attack, Israeli authorities moved to close down accounts they claimed were linked with Hamas on crypto platforms like Binance and elsewhere. The Israelis have continued where they left off in this respect, with a report emerging earlier this week that over one hundred accounts on Binance have been ordered to be shut down, with a further two hundred accounts facing scrutiny.While crypto may not account for a sizable proportion of terrorist financing means, these events open up a point of attack for those who oppose the further roll-out of decentralized money and systems.Fighting illicit finance through sanctionsNotably, the US Treasury has been employing sanctions as a tool to cut off financial support to entities suspected of being involved in terrorism or other illicit activities. In a similar vein, earlier in October, the Treasury announced sanctions against crypto wallets associated with Chinese chemical manufacturers, concurrently with an indictment from the Department of Justice related to the production of the drug fentanyl.Earlier this year, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic indicated that most Chinese suppliers of fentanyl precursors were accepting payments for the illicit material in cryptocurrency.It’s worth mentioning that this move by OFAC not only targets Hamas but also includes other entities allegedly connected to the Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company, including an al-Qaeda affiliate and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).