Today in crypto, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is rolling out Nasdaq’s market surveillance tool to crack down on market abuse. Cronos (CRO) spiked 40% after Trump Media & Technology Group announced a $6.4B Cronos treasury, and…
Today in crypto, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is rolling out Nasdaq’s market surveillance tool to crack down on market abuse. Cronos (CRO) spiked 40% after Trump Media & Technology Group announced a $6.4B Cronos treasury, and the US has appealed the sentencing of HashFlare’s co-founders.
US regulator integrates Nasdaq surveillance tool to combat market manipulation
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a US financial regulator, is integrating a financial surveillance tool developed by stock exchange company Nasdaq in a bid to overhaul its 1990s infrastructure.
Nasdaq’s software is focused on detecting market abuse, including insider trading activity and market manipulation in equities and crypto markets, Tony Sio, head of regulatory strategy and innovation at Nasdaq, told Cointelegraph. He said:
“Tailored algorithms detect suspicious patterns unique to digital asset markets. It offers real-time analysis of order book data across crypto trading venues and cross-market analytics that can correlate activities between traditional and digital asset markets.”
The data fed into the monitoring system will be “sourced by the CFTC through their regulatory powers,” Sio said.
Crypto.com’s Cronos jumps 40% on Trump Media Group CRO Strategy news
Cronos, the native cryptocurrency of the Crypto.com-backed Cronos Chain, surged to multi-year highs following news of the Trump Media Group CRO Strategy launch.
On Tuesday, Trump Media and Technology Group announced the launch of a joint $6.4 billion Cronos treasury with Crypto.com and Yorkville Acquisition.
Cronos (CRO) surged 25% to $0.20 within hours after the announcement, following which Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek took to X on Wednesday to report that the crypto asset had surged 40% following the Trump Media Group CRO Strategy announcement.
US appeals time served sentences for HashFlare co-founders
On Tuesday, US prosecutors appealed the sentences given to the co-founders of HashFlare, telling a Seattle federal court that the government was appealing the sentences handed down earlier this month to Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin to the Ninth Circuit.
Earlier this month, a federal court gave the pair time served after spending 16 months in custody in their native Estonia after their arrest in October 2022, before they were extradited to the US in May 2024, where they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The government had argued that the pair should get 10 years in prison, saying that the HashFlare scheme caused serious harm to victims and was the most significant fraud the court had ever tried. Potapenko and Turõgin argued for time served.
Prosecutors said that HashFlare’s sales totaled over $577 million, and the co-founders posted fake dashboards that falsely reported the firm’s mining capacity and the returns investors were making, which in reality paid existing members with funds from newer members.
Potapenko and Turõgin argued the company’s customers ultimately received crypto worth far more than their initial investments, primarily from the increase in crypto market prices since the scheme closed.
