Weekend Wrap: Circle blacklists Lazarus, Ethereum researcher exits and more

Circle blacklist addresses tied to Lazarus Group

Circle has become the latest stablecoin issuer to blacklist addresses tied to North Korea’s notorious Lazarus Group, blockchain data shows.

More than $1.5 million worth of Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) were blacklisted on Sept. 14 from the wallet addresses “0x36f…22A70” and “0x12E…44DB6.”

However, blockchain sleuth ZachXBT criticized Circle in a Sept. 14 X post, noting it came more than four months after competitor firms Tether, Paxos, and Techteryx took similar action in late April.

Nearly $5 million worth of United States dollar-backed stablecoins have been blacklisted across the two addresses, including $1.5 million in Tether’s USDT, $1.8 million from the Paxos-issued Binance USD (BUSD) and $580,000 from Techteryx’s TrueUSD (TUSD).

ZachXBT’s initial investigation on April 29 revealed that Lazarus Group laundered over $200 million from 25 separate cryptocurrency hacks between 2020 and 2023.

The $5 million blacklisted comprises a tiny portion of the entire stablecoin market, which currently sits at $172.4 billion, CoinGecko data shows.

Ethereum Foundation researcher leaves after 7 years

One of the Ethereum Foundation’s longstanding researchers, Danny Ryan, is stepping away from the organization, citing personal reasons and a desire to explore new opportunities.

“I’m taking an indefinite break from Ethereum L1 R&D. I dedicated more than 7 years to this effort, achieved for more than I ever expected, and had an incredible time doing it,” Ryan explained in a Sept. 13 GitHub post.

Ryan worked with Ethereum client teams and others close to the “core development” side of things and played a role in Ethereum transitioning to proof-of-stake in September 2022.

Ryan stressed his decision had nothing to do with Ethereum and that his relationship with Ethereum “likely” isn’t over yet.

“But at least through the end of the year, my priorities will be toward my family and a few small personal projects I’ve been putting off,” Ryan added.

The former Ethereum researcher said he’s not looking for any new full-time opportunities but is interested in picking up some “fun part-time engagements” as 2025 approaches. 

Trump DeFi platform adds Scroll co-founder as adviser

World Liberty Finance, a DeFi platform linked to presidential candidate Donald Trump, has hired Sandy Peng, one of the founders of Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Scroll, as its latest adviser.

Peng has spent more than a decade in the blockchain industry as an investor and operator and is familiar with scaling open-source projects for social and economic impact, WLF’s X account explained in a recent post, last updated on Sept. 15.

The Scroll co-founder previously served as a partner at Hong Kong blockchain investment firm Fission Capital between 2016 and 2021 and was a management associate at Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission before that, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Peng also holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics.

Web3 Antivirus founder Alexei Dulub, crypto lawyer Rafael Yakobi, and Polychain Capital’s cryptography researcher Luke Pearson are among the other advisers that WLF has announced on X.

WFL will primarily be operated by Donald Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

Trump’s decentralized finance platform is expected to launch on Sept. 16, and the Republican presidential candidate will host a livestream on that day.

“We’re embracing the future with crypto and leaving the slow and outdated big banks behind,” Trump said in a short clip on Sept. 12, explaining the motivations behind the platform.

Related: Flappy Bird creator disavows revived game that hints crypto ties

A recently leaked white paper suggested that the project would allow users to store money in a digital wallet, offer a credit account system, borrow or lend cash to others, and use tokens to invest in assets like crypto. 

A nontransferable governance token has also been mentioned as part of the platform.  

Statements from World Liberty Financial have also suggested it wants to spread the use of US dollar-pegged stablecoins in DeFi.

Telegram’s Catizen players express anger after airdrop announcement

Investors looking to receive Telegram’s Catizen token airdrop on Sept. 20 are complaining about recent changes to CATI’s recent tokenomics announcement.

Only 15% of CATI tokens will be airdropped to Catizen players in “Season 1” — far lower than what many had hoped. Another 19% will be used in a “quarterly season airdrop campaign,” with the airdrops accounting for 34% of the fixed supply of 1 billion CATI tokens across all seasons over a three-year period. 

Citizen said in a Sept. 14 X post that the team, investors and advisers will claim 20%, 10% and 7%.

The remaining CATI tokens will be allocated toward Treasury (15%), Launchpool (9%) and Liquidity (5%).

Catizen’s X account and Pluto Studio, the developers behind Catizen, previously disclosed that 43% of the token supply would be handed out to the community.

Some Catizen players said they were hustling hard in the Telegram puzzle game to amass a larger share of CATI tokens — but were left disappointed.

“Rank 6,054 out of 36 million players but got only 39 CATI,” one player claimed. 

“How can someone call this fair distribution? We need transparency about the token allocation.”

Others started to post the hashtag “#catizenscam” which gained some traction on X.

In response, Caitzen said it had to change its tokenomics model after discovering that numerous bots accountancy were attempting to obtain a disproportionate share of CATI tokens.

That included reducing the CATI tokens airdropped to the community.

“We understand that this decision may cause some controversy and dissatisfaction, but we believe it is crucial for upholding the fairness of the game and the interests of real players.”

Other news

Former President Trump is “safe” following reports of gunshots “in his vicinity,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a Sept. 15 statement. Trump was reportedly playing golf at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when the gunshots were heard, which was immediately locked down after the incident.

Chinese lawmakers are considering revising an earlier anti-money laundering law to enhance capabilities to “monitor” and analyze money laundering risks through emerging financial technologies — including cryptocurrencies — according to Legislative Affairs Commission spokesperson Wang Xiang who reportedly cited the need to implement improved detection methods.

Magazine: Proposed change could save Ethereum from  L2 ‘roadmap to hell’