Market Watch | Bitcoin | $11,305 | 7 day: -5% | | Ethereum | $380 | 7 day: -8.8% | | All crypto | $350b | 7 day: -6.6% | | Bitcoin dominance | 59.4% | 7 day: +1% | Prices as of 5 p.m. ET
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The Dept. of Justice will seek the forfeiture of 280 cryptocurrency accounts tied to hacks by North Korean actors. The DoJ complaint follows related criminal and civil actions from March 2020 pertaining to the theft of $250m in cryptocurrency through other exchange hacks by North Korean actors. More: - The complaint alleges that North Korean actors laundered cryptocurrencies through Chinese OTC desks, as well as at least one U.S. entity.
- The two exchanges highlighted in today's complaint are not named. The complaint details 13 affected cryptocurrency exchanges through the investigation since 2018, numbered anonymously as Exchange 1 through 13 in the complaint.
- Don Fort, Chief of IRS' Criminal Investigation, said North Korean used "highly sophisticated laundering techniques," but the IRS' Cybercrimes Unit was able to trace stolen funds "directly back to North Korean actors."
U.S. Dept. of Justice 
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 Fed Chair Jerome Powell says the Fed will soon aim for USD inflation above 2%. - Powell's speech today provided an overview of USD challenges in the next decade.
- Powell says that the Federal Reserve will make up for some lost time. As has been the case during the last decade, when preceding years' inflation rates register below the 2% target, Powell says the Fed's "monetary policy will likely aim to achieve inflation moderately above 2% for some time."
- Inflation in the U.S. is very low this year due to COVID-19 demand reduction, which made listeners afraid that the Fed might target unusually high inflation for 2021.
- Powell also said, "we are not tying ourselves to a particular mathematical formula," and that the Governors will use a "flexible form of average inflation targeting."
- When Powell spoke about revising its USD inflation target above 2%, Bitcoin briefly spiked mid-speech from $11,300 to $11,600.
- Bitcoin subsequently retraced those gains as Powell offered more muted commentary.
- Gold spot is trading 1% lower today, as of the time of publication.
- The Fed decision continues to avoid following negative rate policies implemented by the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank, which have bred uncertainty and complexity in the financial markets.
U.S. Federal Reserve
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Barry Silbert announces Digital Currency Group's fourth subsidiary, Foundry, which will invest $100m on cryptocurrency mining in North America. - Silbert acknowledges that cryptocurrency mining is "littered with the carcasses of failed mining efforts."
- Silbert claims that his broad network of contacts and deep experience in the crypto industry will differentiate Foundry from other failed mining companies.
- Silbert has the broadest equity portfolio of any cryptocurrency investor.
- Foundry's $100m investment is coming from DCG's own balance sheet.
Fortune
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Representatives Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) ask for more details regarding the seizure of cryptocurrency from terrorists. We posted the news of the original seizure on August 13. - Cleaver and Gottheimer requested a classified briefing with data from the Dept. of Justice and the Treasury.
- They will use the briefing to identify effective tools that "disrupt terrorist organizations' financial networks."
The Hill
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Fidelity Investments is launching its first Bitcoin fund. Fidelity's new subdivision, Fidelity Digital Funds, has created a passively-managed, Bitcoin-only fund called Wise Origin Bitcoin Index Fund I. - Minimum investments start at $100,000.
- Fidelity is one of the world's largest asset managers, with $3.3 trillion in assets under management.
- For comparison, Grayscale Investments LLC manages $4b.
- Fidelity filed the Fund's Form D with the SEC yesterday.
- Fidelity is a trusted custodian for institutional investors who are mandated to provide insurance and guarantees on their investments.
Bloomberg
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A bug left 13% of Ethereum (ETH) nodes useless. Ethereum clients Parity-Ethereum and OpenEthereum versions 2.7 encountered a bug that prevented nodes from syncing with the network's latest block. - The Parity-Ethereum client's shortcoming was an "open secret" among ETH developers whose maintenance ended in December 2019.
- OpenEthereum urged node operators to rewind back to version 2.5 (from 2019) as a temporary fix to bring more Ethereum nodes online.
- Ethereum 2.0, which promises to fix many of these issues, is still in its testnet called Medalla and might not be released until 2021.
Coindesk
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Empire Market, a popular darknet and drug marketplace, has been offline for three days. - CEO Mark Arena of cybersecurity firm Intel 471 Inc. calls Empire Market a criminal forum.
- He speculates that Empire Market's operators might be stealing customer deposits in an "exit scam."
- He claims that Empire Market's operators have access to "high, single-digit millions" worth of cryptocurrencies.
- Se7en, a head moderator at Empire Market, said this weekend that "maybe the admins will bring it back."
- The FBI did not return Bloomberg's request for comment.
- Other dark web marketplaces remain operational, including "White House" and "DarkMarket."
Bloomberg
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 North Korea The North Korean-based Lazarus group attacked a cryptocurrency organization by launching fake job offers through LinkedIn. The document with the bogus LinkedIn job offer contained malware that when clicked on, downloaded backdoor malware, according to F-Secure researchers. More: - The group was able to use the backdoor to steal information from the infected organization.
- Lazarus was engaged in a broader campaign to target the cryptocurrency vertical in the U.S., U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, Japan, and other countries.
- Lazarus disabled anti-virus software on the compromised hosts and removed evidence of their malicious implants to avoid detection.
This article first appeared in Inside Security, available ad-free with any Inside Premium membership. Give us a 14-day try free ($0!) for unlimited ad-free newsletters plus premium content. Coindesk
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BitMEX's Arthur Hayes blogs about the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry. - The CEO of the world's second-largest cryptocurrency derivatives exchange which claims to process $2.3b in daily transactions, writes, "I'm farming the latest and greatest s***coin DeFi projects."
- He reiterates, "I, like many other punters, am enjoying yield farming meme tokens."
- Finally, "There are no nightclubs. I am replacing bubbly water spend, with s***coins. At least I’m learning something."
Arthur Hayes
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Quick Hits: - DeFi dashboard provider Zapper raises $1.5m seed.
- DeFi technology provider Framework Labs raises $8m.
- Circle announces upgrades to USD Coin (USDC).
- Binance's U.K. subsidiary joins a "self-regulatory" trade association called CryptoUK whose members include Coinbase and Ripple.
- U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security issues a warning about North Korean hacker group BeagleBoyz."
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 |  | Written and curated by wide-eyed bitcoin watcher since $1, Aaron Wise. Streaming headline junkie, Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, 2017 founder of Cryptocurrency Newsfeed. Temporarily based in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. |  | | Editor | Edited by Eduardo Garcia in New York. Eduardo is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School M.A. Science program and writes regularly for the New York Times Climate Fwd: newsletter. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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