Telegram launches digital payment system Telegram Stars.

CEO of the Telegram messenger Pavel Durov announced the launch of a new system for paying for digital goods and services with Telegram Stars tokens. In the official announcement dedicated to the launch of the Telegram Stars mini-application, Durov said that Telegram users will be able to pay for digital goods and services in the social messenger ecosystem with the new Stars token. He explained that the Stars token complies with the sales policy of Apple and Google digital products and can be purchased through the in-app purchase system in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or using the PremiumBot bot.

He noted that Telegram will subsidize advertising and economically incentivize developers to create digital products on Telegram. At the same time, application developers will be able to exchange their Stars tokens for TON, The Open Network's native token, through the Fragment exchange. Earlier, the creator of the Telegram messenger announced that the platform would reward content creators with Toncoin tokens and allow the purchase of goods with cryptocurrency.
 

Robinhood plans to buy Bitstamp exchange for $200 million

Trading platform Robinhood announced the acquisition of the global cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. The parties expect the $200 million transaction to be completed in the first half of 2025.

According to the press release, the purchase of Bitstamp will allow Robinhood to expand its market reach by promoting its products outside the United States. In addition, the organization noted that this deal will attract large investors.

The release states that the estimated transaction amount is $200 million. Barclays Capital and Galaxy Digital acted as consultants.

Notably, in a comment to WSJ, Kerbrat noted that the reason for the purchase was the increased interest of Robinhood clients in crypto products.

 

VGX Foundation partnership with Honeyland.

The VGX Foundation has announced a partnership with the popular web game Honeyland, offering rewards using the VGX token to their players.

VGX is a multi-chain token that focuses on creating utility connections between GameFi and gaming ecosystems.

Honeyland is a popular casual strategy blockchain game available on iOS and Android, and one of the best games on Solana. As a result of the new partnership, owners of Genesis Eggs, Bees or Queens based on the owner data snapshot taken at 17:00 UTC on June 6, 2024 will receive rewards in the form of the VGX token. Thanks to a previously announced partnership with Gala Games, players who receive VGX will be able to use them at Gala Games, where they will be able to purchase the Voyager: Ascension season pass and unlock the ability to earn GVGX rewards.

 

Roaring Kitty streamed and announced a loss of $236 million. GameStop shares and themed memecoins fell in price.

Financial analyst Keith Gill, known under the nickname Roaring Kitty, conducted the first stream in three years dedicated to the situation around GameStop and his investments.

After the announcement of the broadcast, the company's securities jumped in price from $32 to $46.55. However, following the expert’s speech, there was a sharp collapse in both GameStop shares and thematic memcoins.

On the NYSE stock exchange, the company's securities fell in price by 39%, according to TradingView.
 

The Arbitrum Foundation has allocated 225 million ARB for the development of the gaming industry.

The Arbitrum Foundation has committed 225 million ARB (about $214 million at the time of writing) to support online gaming projects over the next three years through the Gaming Catalyst Program (GCP).

Let us remember that the proposal was first presented in March 2024, then they planned to allocate 200 million ARB, but later the number of coins was increased to 225 million. Already on June 7, this initiative was approved by more than 75% of the participants in the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Arbitrum.

The message states that GCP's goal is to provide support and resources to developers interested in developing the Arbitrum network.

 

The US Department of Justice accuses the head of Epoch Times of laundering $67 million.

Happycoin.club - According to the US Department of Justice, from 2020 to May 2024, Epoch Times CFO Bill Guan participated in a large-scale international scheme to launder $67 million in illegally obtained money.

Around the time the money laundering scheme began, the Epoch Times media company's annual revenue rose nearly 410% from $15 million to $62 million. When banks asked Guan why the number of transactions had increased sharply, he stated that the funds were received in as a result of donations.

Guan, 61, faces 20 years in prison on the money laundering conspiracy charge and an additional 30 years in prison on two other counts of bank fraud.

 

Orbit Chain hacker sent $48 million to Tornado Cash after months of “silence”.

The hacker behind the $82 million Orbit Chain hack on New Year's Eve transferred $47.7 million to cryptocurrency privacy mixer Tornado Cash after five months of "silence."

According to data analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, a total of 12,932 ETH, worth $47.7 million, was transferred in seven transactions on June 8 to a new address that sent the funds to the Tornado Cash (TORN) crypto mixer.

Transfers made by the Orbit Chain hacker on June 8th. Source: Arkham Intelligence

The exploit was widely reported to have caused losses of $82 million, but recent Arkham reports suggest they were closer to $100 million.
 

Loopring (LRC) was hacked for $5 million due to the compromise of the Guardian two-factor authentication service.

Loopring wallets were attacked as a result of a security breach. The attack affected wallets that have only one Guardian, namely the official Loopring Guardian. The hacker initiated the recovery process by posing as the owner of the wallet to reset ownership and withdraw assets.

The attack was successful due to the compromise of Loopring's two-factor authentication (2FA) service, which allowed the hacker to impersonate the owner of the wallet and obtain approval for recovery from the Official Trustee. The attacker then transferred assets from the affected wallets.

 

Businessman Elon Musk said he would ban all Apple devices from his companies "if Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level".

Elon Musk said he would ban Apple devices from his companies if the iPhone maker integrates OpenAI products at the operating system level. The billionaire wrote about this in a series of posts on X.

 

“If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned from my companies. This is an unacceptable security breach."

“And visitors will be required to check their Apple devices at the entrance, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage.”

"It's just absurd that Apple isn't smart enough to build its own AI but is somehow able to ensure that OpenAI will protect your security and privacy!"

“Apple has no idea what's actually happening when they feed your data to OpenAI. They sell you for next to nothing."