The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against five people being accused of promoting the now-defunct cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme BitConnect.

Switzerland-based investment product provider 21Shares is listing three cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) on the Euronext Paris stock exchange on June 1. Two of the ETPs will give investors exposure to bitcoin and ether, while a third product is a “short bitcoin” ETP.

Belt finance, a decentralized finance platform providing automated market making on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), was hacked over the weekend in a flash loan attack that resulted in a $50 million loss for the platform, and a $6.23 million profit for the attacker.

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Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• SEC Sues Alleged Promoters of $2 Billion BitConnect Ponzi Scheme
• Three Crypto ETPs Are Being Listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange
• DeFi Protocol Belt Finance Loses $50 Million in Flash Loan Attack
• Daily Movers – XRP, SOL, KSM
• Sponsored: Use this Bonus Code and Get $5 on Your StormGain Account

SEC Sues Alleged Promoters of $2 Billion BitConnect Ponzi Scheme

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against five people being accused of promoting the now-defunct cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme BitConnect.

BitConnect allegedly organized a global network of promoters through referral commissions and used its network to sell securities without registering them as required by federal laws. The regulator alleged Trevon Brown, Craig Grant, Ryan Maasen, and Michael Noble were among the promoters. It also accused Joshua Jeppesen, who represented the company at conferences.

The alleged Ponzi scheme first debuted in 2016 and shuttered its primary lending platform in early 2018 amid allegations of fraud and warnings from regulators. The FBI publicly sought out potential victims of the scheme in 2019.

BitConnect posed as a lending platform that told investors it would use their funds to trade and make a profit from the volatility of Bitcoin. Earnings could be as high as 40% per month, the SEC said. It ultimately collapsed after shutting down its primary lending platform.

Three Crypto ETPs Are Being Listed on the Euronext Paris Exchange

Switzerland-based investment product provider 21Shares is listing three cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) on the Euronext Paris stock exchange on June 1. Two of the ETPs will give investors exposure to bitcoin and ether, while a third product is a “short bitcoin” ETP.

On the same day, New York-based investment management firm VanEck will list two bitcoin and ether ETPs on the Euronext exchanges in Amsterdam and Paris. 21Shares has so far listed crypto ETPs in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and is now expanding due to investor demand.

Laurent Kssis, managing director of 21Shares’ ETP business, said:

"These conventional trackers will allow investors to diversify their portfolios by adding assets that we believed in before many others and that we continue to believe are essential in successful portfolio allocation.”

Cryptocurrency exchange-traded products allow investors to gain exposure to the underlying asset without managing its public and private keys.

DeFi Protocol Belt Finance Loses $50 Million in Flash Loan Attack

Belt finance, a decentralized finance platform providing automated market making on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), was hacked over the weekend in a flash loan attack that resulted in a $50 million loss for the platform, and a $6.23 million profit for the attacker.

In a blog post, Belt Finance said the attacker created a smart contract that used leading decentralized exchange PancakeSwap for flash loans and exploited its beltBUSD pool and strategy protocols. The attacker then executed the contract eight times for a total profit of $6.23 million in BUSD.

Those using the beltBUSD vault suffered a 21.36% loss of funds, while 4Belt pool users lost 5.51% of their holdings. No other pool or vault was affected. The protocol paused deposits and withdrawals after the attack. It added the vulnerability that allowed the attack has been patched.

Belt Finance said deposits and withdrawals will resume sometime in the next 24 to 48 hours as it works on a “compensation plan.”

Daily Movers – XRP, SOL, KSM

Several tokens are leading the charge in the last 24-hour period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with more liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos that may have higher percentage changes.

XRP (XRP) - XRP positions itself as one of the most liquid currencies which is fast (settles in 3-5 seconds), scalable (can handle 1,500 transactions per second), decentralized (140+ validators), stable (7-year track record) and with negligible energy consumption (due to the consensus protocol vs proof-of-work).

Solana (SOL) - Solana is a single-chain, delegated-Proof-of-Stake protocol, founded by former Qualcomm, Intel, and Dropbox engineers in late-2017, focus on delivering scalability without sacrificing decentralization or security.

Kusama (KSM) – Kusama is an experimental blockchain platform designed to provide an interoperable and scalable framework for developers. It has almost the same codebase as Polkadot, and is often described as an unrefined release of DOT.

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