ChainCatcher news, the Chongqing Fifth Intermediate People's Court recently concluded an appeal case involving drug trafficking using a new method of "Internet + virtual currency + logistics mailing."From August 2021 to July 2023, the defendant Zhang contacted drug buyers through WeChat and other means, primarily selling marijuana and "stamps" and other types of drugs. Zhang entrusted the packaged drugs to a dedicated person for safekeeping, and after reaching a transaction intention with the drug buyer, provided the buyer with a virtual currency website. After confirming the receipt of drug funds via virtual currency, Zhang would place an order with a certain express delivery platform, and the drug custodian would deliver the drugs to the buyer through the express platform, while Zhang paid the drug custodian a fee.According to statistics, Zhang placed orders through the express platform and had the drug custodian deliver drugs a total of over 1,600 times; received funds through virtual currency accounts a total of over 1,200 times; and withdrew the received virtual currency to his Alipay, WeChat, and bank cards after multiple transfers, accumulating over 400,000 yuan.The Chongqing Fifth Intermediate Court, after legal review, found that the first-instance sentence of eight years imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 yuan for the defendant Zhang for the crimes of drug trafficking and money laundering was appropriate, and upheld the original judgment.

ChainCatcher news, according to the official announcement, the decentralized workforce benefits platform Craftt has completed a $2 million seed round of financing, led by Superscrypt, with participation from DCG and several well-known angel investors. Craftt aims to provide universal benefits for the modern workforce, helping independent workers gain financial confidence and achieve work freedom and flexibility.Craftt Pass is now in open testing. Recently, Craftt completed integration with World’s digital human identity verification system World ID, allowing its over 7 million users to log in to Craftt Pass using World ID.Craftt plans to continue developing Layer-2 infrastructure, expand ecosystem collaborations, and further enhance users' benefits and income opportunities.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, the crypto gaming investment firm Bitkraft Ventures announced a lead investment of $9 million in the seed round financing of the Web3 mobile gaming platform Party Icons. IDG Capital and The Sandbox co-founder Sebastien Borget are among the institutions participating in this round of investment.Party Icons plans to use the funds to develop games and social experiences, as well as to strengthen its Web3 infrastructure. The platform currently offers three unique modes designed to combine the social elements of party games with the excitement of shooting games.Quinn Campbell, Vice President of Growth at Party Icons, stated that the platform focuses on users' favorite "fragmented" entertainment, with most game durations not exceeding 12 minutes to accommodate modern players' habits.

ChainCatcher news, the Web3 game project Gala Games announced a partnership with LF Decentralized Trust to release a new GalaChain decentralized white paper. Key contents include transitioning from the Raft consensus mechanism to a more decentralized Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) algorithm, reducing single points of failure, integrating Gala Founder Nodes, and GalaChain Improvement Proposals (GIP), among others.

ChainCatcher news, to better protect cryptocurrency users, Argentina is innovating its cryptocurrency framework. The Argentine securities regulator (CNV) recently announced a public consultation on a draft to regulate the operations of virtual asset service providers (VASP) in the country, imposing new compliance requirements on these entities. If Resolution 1025 is approved, it will force cryptocurrency companies to disclose agreements with third parties and clients. Additionally, it aims to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing by establishing policies and cybersecurity standards. This framework is a follow-up to the VASP registration launched earlier this year. (Bitcoin.com)

ChainCatcher news, according to a report by Decrypt, based on the indictment filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), former professional skier Ryan James Wedding and 15 other defendants operated a drug trafficking organization that transported cocaine from Colombia through Mexico to the United States and Canada. The criminal gang committed multiple murders during their operations and attempted to evade police capture using cryptocurrency.The indictment states, "Defendant Bonilla will pay defendants Wedding and Clark for two kilograms of cocaine through Tether cryptocurrency payment services." They sent QR codes to the drug dealers to receive payment in the form of USDT. During the investigation, over $3.2 million in cryptocurrency, more than a ton of cocaine, three firearms, dozens of rounds of ammunition, and $255,400 were seized.Authorities say Wedding is now on the run. The FBI is now offering a reward of $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and extradition of Wedding. Wedding, 47, represented Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics and has recently been living in Mexico.

ChainCatcher news, Memecoin launchpad GraFun today launched its GraFun Labs division, a multi-party initiative aimed at supporting and developing the meme ecosystem on the BNB Chain.The lab's partners include trading firm DWF Labs and Floki. The project will assist small memecoins in community development, branding, marketing, engagement, and influencer marketing.

ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, before the European Union introduces a new round of laws and regulations to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, Irish Finance Minister Jack Chambers will draft "emergency" legislation to update the country's cryptocurrency regulations. However, the minister did not explicitly indicate what these rules would include, nor did he specify when they would take effect. Chambers was appointed to the position in June 2024, having had little experience as a cryptocurrency regulator.It is reported that the EU's Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act will take effect on December 30, 2024, granting EU member states' Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) greater investigative powers and the ability to suspend transactions.

ChainCatcher News: A darknet drug trafficking group in Texas, USA, has been sentenced for money laundering involving cryptocurrency, with six members receiving probationary sentences ranging from 24 to 84 months. The gang operated under the name "Loverbois," selling nearly 12 kilograms of methamphetamine and laundering up to $50,000 per month through cryptocurrency from July 2019 to December 2020.This ruling stems from a joint investigation by multiple agencies, including the FBI, DEA, and the United States Postal Inspection Service, as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the EU is collaborating with top global experts to develop the first "code of practice" for general artificial intelligence models, which aims to establish new standards for transparency and risk management through its AI Act.According to an announcement from the European AI Office, nearly a thousand experts from academia, industry, and social sectors are involved in this work, with the final draft expected to be completed by April 2025.This code will apply to widely used artificial intelligence models, such as large language models (LLMs), and will cover key issues such as transparency, copyright, risk assessment, and internal governance. It aims to set new standards for global AI governance, balancing safety and innovation needs.

ChainCatcher news, DWF Labs co-founder Andrei Grachev tweeted his support for the Grafun project. According to Grachev, Grafun has brought approximately $250 million in trading volume to the BNB chain and around 5,800 new meme tokens, generating $100,000 in fees in just one day.

ChainCatcher news, according to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, the investment firm ParaFi Capital transferred 5,134 ETH (13.84 million USD) to Coinbase Prime 5 hours ago, suspected to be for sale. This ETH was redeemed by ParaFi Capital from EigenLayer yesterday. They deposited this ETH into EigenLayer mining last December when the ETH price was 2,175 USD.

ChainCatcher news, Floki stated on social media that it will acquire 40% ownership of the Meme coin issuance and trading platform GraFun on the BNB chain, and will receive 40% of the revenue generated by its issuance platform. This will bring benefits to FLOKI and TOKEN holders.

ChainCatcher news, according to market news, Terra blockchain developer Terraform Labs is in talks with a third party to take over part of its operations.

ChainCatcher news, the official Terra X account announced that Terraform Labs continues to discuss with third parties the takeover of the operation of some of our products and services. However, if the negotiations are unsuccessful, these products will be shut down on October 30, 2024. The products and services include:Products: 1. Enterprise Protocol; 2. Warp Protocol; 3. Statio; 4. Alliance Hub.Services: 1. Finder block explorer; 2. Foundation; 3. IBC relayer; 4. Mantlemint, FCD, and API services.

ChainCatcher news, decentralized exchange Jupiter co-founder Meow has released a proposal draft to handle 215 million 15,461,850.21 unallocated JUP tokens. These tokens originate from the unclaimed or unreallocated portion of the Jupuary airdrop earlier this year. The proposal presents three options:Use the tokens for the active staking rewards (ASR) program for the next year;Burn the tokens;Return the tokens to the community multi-signature wallet.According to the draft, the Jupiter team "strongly" recommends the first option, believing that the ASR program has been effective in promoting community participation and DAO voting. In the past two quarters, 361M JUP has been staked, with over 585,000 addresses participating, and an average voting participation of 280M JUP per vote. If option one is adopted, 50M JUP will be distributed to voters each quarter for four consecutive quarters.