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Crypto Briefs is your daily, bite-sized digest of cryptocurrency and blockchain-related news – investigating the stories flying under the radar of today’s crypto news.

Legal news

In an amended complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, XRP investors accused Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse of touting the product, as well as suggesting that he was holding his XRP for the long-term while unloading XRP 67 million and liquidating the coins within days of getting them. They stated that Ripple, an American blockchain company focusing on payments technologies, overstated and misrepresented XRP’s utility as a “bridge currency” that facilitates international payments, so that it wouldn’t be classified as a security.

Adoption news

One of South Korea’s biggest banks, Kookmin , is preparing to launch crypto custody services in earnest. Per Digital Today, the bank has registered a new company name and trademark for a “Digital Asset Custody” subsidiary. The company first announced its intentions to move into crypto custody in summer last year.

, is preparing to launch crypto custody services in earnest. Per Digital Today, the bank has registered a new company name and trademark for a “Digital Asset Custody” subsidiary. The company first announced its intentions to move into crypto custody in summer last year. In a letter to shareholders filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission , Dante Federighi, the co-founder of investment management firm Fortezza Forza RMC Fund LLC , as well as a candidate for the CME Group’s Board of Directors, has proposed that Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group), a major financial derivatives marketplace, start mining Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies to create new revenue streams for shareholders. The mined crypto would be immediately turned to fiat. Federighi has also proposed that the B-shares be tokenized – digitize and fractionalize them into hundredths of a membership, and let them trade freely on a blockchain where all transactions and ownership are recorded.

, Dante Federighi, the co-founder of investment management firm , as well as a candidate for the Board of Directors, has proposed that (CME Group), a major financial derivatives marketplace, start mining Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies to create new revenue streams for shareholders. The mined crypto would be immediately turned to fiat. Federighi has also proposed that the B-shares be tokenized – digitize and fractionalize them into hundredths of a membership, and let them trade freely on a blockchain where all transactions and ownership are recorded. Binance Academy, an educational arm of crypto exchange Binance, reached what CEO Changpeng Zhao described as a milestone agreement with the local government, adding that they will set up an office in Shanghai.

Investment News

At least 10 of Telegram ’s Telegram Open Network (TON)’s investors are on the verge of quitting the project and receiving partial refunds on their investments, per a report from news agency Tass. The agency quotes Yakov Barinsky, the head of the Hash CIB crypto investment group, as stating that “at least 10 investors” he has spoken to would be prepared to receive 72% refunds on their stakes after a court in the United States recently upheld a complaint against Telegram, launched by the regulatory Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), ordering the chat app operator to halt its token offering. Telegram has decided to appeal the decision.

’s Telegram Open Network (TON)’s investors are on the verge of quitting the project and receiving partial refunds on their investments, per a report from news agency Tass. The agency quotes Yakov Barinsky, the head of the crypto investment group, as stating that “at least 10 investors” he has spoken to would be prepared to receive 72% refunds on their stakes after a court in the United States recently upheld a complaint against Telegram, launched by the regulatory (SEC), ordering the chat app operator to halt its token offering. Telegram has decided to appeal the decision. Decentralized social media platform Voice has announced USD 150 million of capital from its incubator Block.one, the publisher of EOSIO software, in order to kickstart its independent operation. The announcement states that, under the leadership of CEO Salah Zalatimo, Voice is to operate as a separate business and will deploy the capital they got from Block.one to expand its operations and build out the company’s workforce.

Exchanges news

Crypto exchange Huobi Japan is the latest in the country to announce that it will begin leveraged trading, per Crypto Watch. The exchange will begin offering the service as of mid-April in BTC, with a cap of x2 – meeting the financial regulator’s soon-to-be-imposed margin trading cap. The move comes shortly after similar announcements from rival exchanges, including Rakuten’s Rakuten Wallet.

Crime news

Further details have emerged about the ongoing police search into the Telegram Nth room sexual exploitation video case in South Korea. Per Newsis, police now believe they may have been mistakenly investigating the wrong wallet address in their efforts to hunting up to 260,000 people who are alleged to have paid cryptocurrencies to access a private video room featuring explicit rape and sexual violence. Officers say that they now understand that a wallet holding over USD 2.6 million may not have been connected to chief suspect Cho Joo-bin after all. The investigation continues.

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