The Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze 150.22 Bitcoins, equivalent to $24,86,693.73 or Rs 22.82 crore, as part of a probe into the wallets of the Binance crypto exchange, the agency said on Friday.
Here are some major news updates in the crypto space over the last few days
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze 150.22 Bitcoins, equivalent to $24,86,693.73 or Rs 22.82 crore, as part of a probe into the wallets of the Binance crypto exchange, the agency said on Friday.
The action was carried out under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA ), 2002. The agency is probing its mobile gaming application, E-nuggets.
"The case was registered on the basis of an FIR dated 15.02.2021 filed under sections of IPC (Indian penal code) by Park Street Police Station, Kolkata, against Aamir Khan & others based on a complaint filed by the federal bank in the chief metropolitan magistrate court," it said in a press statement.
The agency said a total of Rs 68.42 crore has been seized so far, and the probe is in progress.
BlockFi Blocks Withdrawals
Cryptocurrency lender BlockFi said it has restricted its operations, including blocking withdrawals, in the wake of the FTX collapse.
In a tweet , the company stated that FTX's "lack of clarity" around its current situation meant it would pause client withdrawals. It also advised them not to deposit interest accounts in their wallets.
"We will share more specifics as soon as possible. We intend to communicate as frequently as possible but anticipate it will be less frequent than what our clients and shareholders are used to," it said.
In July last year, BlockFi and FTX US announced a deal under which FTX would give BlockFi a $400 million credit line and grant the cryptocurrency exchange the chance to acquire BlockFi.
Binance Wallets Hold $69 Billion Worth of Crypto Reserves
Binance published a list of its cold wallets and reserves a day after announcing its plan to acquire FTX.
Binance has about 475,000 bitcoin ($7.8 billion), 4.8 million Ether ($5.57 billion), 17.6 billion USDT ($17.4 billion), 601 million USDC ($607 million), nearly 21.7 billion worth of its stablecoin BUSD ($21.9 billion) and 58 million BNB tokens ($16 billion).