Author: Anmol Khatiwada

South Korea Busts $230M Crypto Scam: 215 Arrested, 15,000 Victims

South Korea busted a huge $230M crypto scam, with over 15,000 victims suffered by their scam, most of the them were old people. This scheme was apparently run by a Youtuber with over 620K subs. Cops arrested him including 215 helpers, and tracked over 1400 accounts and seized $1.9M in Bitcoin. The mastermind for this was caught in Australia and the hunt for fund is still on.

South Koreans have just cracked down a massive organization that had managed to defraud over 15K investors including vulnerable older citizens , out of 325 billion won. According to a report by Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency’s Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Investigation Unit, they have arrested 215 people associated with the scam. Among them 12 were considered higher level organizers of the plan. Every one of the suspects now face charges under South Korea’s Aggravated Punishment Act for Specific Economic Crimes.

The scam was mostly successful because of the influence of a youtuber who goes by the name “Mr. A”, he is the alleged ring-leader of this scam. He used his influence to lure in  investors with claims of quick riches, encouraging some to even sell their homes and take out loans to buy crypto assets that would supposedly yield “20 times the principal.” 

The scam was active from December 2021 to March 2023, and offered 28 different types of cryptocurrency tokens, six of which were self-created and listed on overseas exchanges to attract buyers. The scam was cruel on so many levels, victim’s personal info were also misused, many of them lost their life’s savings in this scheme. The alleged leader Mr.A ran away from South Korea and was eventually arrested in Australia.

Police reported that they found across 1444 bank accounts and seized 22 bitcoins which is worth $1.9 million, and requested court approval to confiscate approximately $34 million linked to the scam. They are now working on to get victims money returned to them and prevent further financial crimes.

PAAL Token Plummets 70% Amid ASI Alliance Merger Announcement

PAAL token crashed 70% in just one day after the merger news with ASI alliance and FET. Investors have panicked all over a deal, which is 6.24 PAAL = 1 FET. Plus, a 6-month vesting period which has led to them dumping their holdings quickly. The merger isn’t even final and yet the market is already this bad.

PAAL is an AI-powered token that is especially designed for integrating artificial intelligence with blockchain technology. It supports major applications required such as automation, data analysis, and decentralized AI solutions, with their aim solely focused on enhancing efficiency across various industries. This token however, dropped by 24.53% in just 24 hours, now trading at a mere $0.1064.

PAAL price Bitmala
Source: CoinMarketCap

This massive decline has set a panic mode for investors. This panic didn’t come just recently though, it has been brewing up by several factors, beginning with an initial 55% drop in just two minutes after ASI Alliance announced the potential merger on November 12. This immediate loss left everyone anxious about the merger with ASI alliance and integration into the FET ecosystem. Their concerns even stemmed from the complicated process of converting PAAL tokens to the new token and the requirement to wait full 180 days before gaining full access to their converted tokens.

You might also like: Thailand Busts Illegal Bitcoin Mining Rigs; Charges Two for $280k Electricity Theft

However, this merger is not fully in function right now, its voting period is set for November 18 to 23. Despite ASI’s numerous attempts to clarify market sentiment remains negative. If the merger proceeds, PAAL token holders would exchange 6.24 PAAL tokens for 1 FET token, which is a very unfavorable conversation ratio and that intertwined with lengthy vesting period heightened concern all over.

Crypto influencer Alex Becker called out PAAL and ASI for more transparency but hasn’t sold his tokens yet, meanwhile ASI’s Director, Humayun Sheikh, said the merger’s all about boosting AI utility and announced a live chat on Nov 14 to clear the air. Its interesting to see where this token heads to next.

Peanut the Squirrel Coin (PNUT) Soars 235% in a Single Day

Peanut the Squirrel Coin (PNUT) skyrocketed 235% which led it to be $1.41. Its based on a tragic story about a peanut and a beloved pet squirrel which went viral a while back. NYC officials have euthanized Peanut which sparked massive outrage from Elon Musk and Trump. This hype pushed PNUT’s market cap to $1.39B, with $2.5B trading volume, right before the U.S. elections.

PNUT is the token name for Peanut the Squirrel Coin, which is a memecoin built on Solana blockchain. It gets most of this attention because this token is based on a tragic story surrounding Mark Longo’s pet squirrel named Peanut. It was tragically euthanized by New York Cops officials over rabies fears. Even big names like Elon and Trump chimed in on this story, which made it a hot topic right before the U.S. elections for president. This drama set a nice stage for PNUT which ultimately led it to skyrocket, making it one of the first memecoins to hit $1 dollar.

Read more: Kaiko Acquires Crypto Index Provider Vinter to Boost European Market

PNUT Price Forecast

As of November 13,, the price of  Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) is $1.31 holding a 24 hour trading volume of $2,827,765,169. It has increased by over 200% in the last 24 hours and a mind blowing 1,114.21% increase since the past seven days. It has a circulating supply of 1 Billion PNUT and holds a market capitalization of about $1.3 billion. This extraordinary performance sets it as the top meme coin of the year and it can be a major asset if this continues on for another week.

Amazon Accelerates AI Chip Development to Reduce Nvidia Reliance

Amazon is cooking up its own AI chips to cut costs and break free from Nvidia’s grip. Their brand new chip Trainium 2 drops in next month with big names such as Anthropic and Databricks already hopping on to test it. Amazon claims its Inferentia chips will save 40% on AI model costs, which makes it ready for big-time massive budgets. They’re pouring billions into tech, but with Nvidia’s still being the top dog, with its rank staying as much as Amazon’s entire AWS division.

Amazon is busy on developing its new artificial intelligence chips which is supposed to boost returns on its semiconductor investments and result in overall reduce in dependency on Nvidia. Its development is being led by Annapurna Labs, it acquired this lab in 2025 for $350 million.

Amazon says, this chip development aims to improve data centers efficiency and offers customers with tailored options in the cloud AI market. It will do so by optimizing chips for specific tasks, unlike Nvidia’s which focuses more on general purpose tools. Amazon claims their “Inferentia AI chips” to be 40% cheaper to run for general AI models response generation. This may actually not sound like it matters for small stuffs but is actually huge for budgets in the millions. They are also spending a lot, $75B on tech in 2024. Additionally, this is still lot more considering their 2023 budget, and it is probably going to have gone up even further the next year. According to an Annapurna official, maintaining smooth operations requires developing entire systems from the ground up rather than merely designing chips.

You might also like: AI Firm Genius Group Chooses Bitcoin as Primary Treasury Asset

Amazon has made numerous tries, but it has yet to match Nvidia’s dominance in AI chips. According to reports, Nvidia made $26.3 billion in sales from AI data center chips in just its second fiscal quarter of 2024, which is equal to the whole revenue for Amazon’s AWS division during the same time frame.

Pepe Unchained Presale Nears $27M Breakthrough

Pepe Unchained is absolutely popping off with $26.5M+ raised in its recent presale and its all thanks to its 91% staking APY and smart tokenomics. Users can now snag $PEPU with ETH, BNB, USDT, or even cards. Its Layer-2 Pepe Chain promises users with fast and cheap transactions, damn perfect for meme coin traders. With over 150M tokens staked pre-launch and top spots on CoinSniper, it’s really gearing up for DEX listings.

Pepe Unchained is one of the meme based cryptocurrency project that inspired by the internet-famous Pepe the Frog. It aims to blend the fun and community driven spirit of meme coins with exciting crypto features like staking and Layer-2 solutions. Its L2 solutions even tackles Ethereum’s scalability issues by enabling faster and cheaper transactions. The project has already seen over 150 million tokens staked before its official launch and has secured a high ranking on CoinSniper.net.

As of recent, its gaining major traction from all sides because it recently passed $26.5 million in presale funding of $PEPU token. This fast progress has set all major investor’s eye all over it, particularly due to attractive staking options and structured tokenomics. Plus, it also made an impressive $2 million jump in the last four days alone.

Pepe Unchained also offers a high Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of 91% for users who stake their $PEPU tokens. This makes it attractive for those looking to earn significant passive income. However there’s a catch, as more people stake their tokens, the rewards might decrease because the staking pool would be distributed among a larger number of participants.

The way these $PEPU tokens are handled is designed to support project’s overall growth as 30% of the total tokens are reserved specifically to reward stakers and other portions are used for the presale, marketing efforts, maintaining liquidity and funding the project’s development.

Read more on : PEPU – An Ethereum Layer-2 raises $15 Million

With Pepe approaching close to its  $27 million goal, its going for DEX listings after the presale. For investors that are into meme coins, this could be your next big play!

Crypto Market Surges to $3.12T, Surpassing Tech Giants in Valuation

The crypto market hit a massive hit of $3.12 trillion and majority of thanks goes to the impressive surge of Bitcoin, reaching as far as $89,500. This makes crypto more big than tech giants like Microsoft and is nearly on par with leading tech companies like Nvidia and Apple. If Bitcoin manages to cross $100K by end of the year, it could hit $2 trillion in market cap. In order to push the market to $4 trillion, experts are eyeing on altcoins for next rally. In short, crypto’s on fire and there’s no signs of if backing off anytime soon.

The cryptocurrency market is has reached a new milestone. Its going up like crazy, especially after the U.S. presidential election, as of just recent the total market capitalization by crypto has reached a staggering  $3.12 trillion. This has led it to surpass many massive tech giants including Microsoft and is right behind world’s top companies like Nvidia and Apple. This surge also largely benefitted Bitcoin and once again proved itself to be a must have digital asset right now.

As of November 12, the price of BTC is $88,656.67 after riding on 8% rise since past 24 hour. This coin alone holds market cap of over  $1.77 trillion which is larger than the GDP of Spain. Bitcoin’s today rally has also driven its market cap above that of silver yet again. Experts predict, this token has potential to cross $100K mark by the end of December, if that happens BTC will alone hold $2 trillion in market cap. This will surely boost overall crypto market scene and push its overall market capitalization to $4 trillion.

Read more about Bitcoin: Bitcoin Boom: Election Day Surge and Six-Figure Speculation

However  Rachael Lucas from BTC Markets believes the push towards $4 trillion will not solely be because of BTC. She says it requires help from up and coming altcoins’ upward thrust. While this will reduce Bitcoin’s dominance, no other platform is even close to BTC so it shouldn’t affect much.

Nevertheless, as Bitcoin continues to dominate, other virtual currencies such as Ethereum and Solana are also expected to comply with the upward trend.

HyperCycle’s Strategic Fork Paves the Way for AI Expansion

So basically, HyperCycle which is a peer to peer (P2P) AI network infrastructure. It has just recently announced a major expansion to accommodate rapidly increasing demand. They are splitting into two paths: H.M (open-source for decentralized AI devs) and H.H (hybrid for enterprise AI with zero fees). Both of them will work together in bridging decentralized and traditional systems while scaling their network.Token holders will even get airdrops of METC which is a new token for H.M. This move absolutely solidifies HyperCycle as a key player in secure, scalable AI networking for devs and big tech alike.

HyperCycle is basically a peer to peer AI network infrastructure designed to enable a secure, scalable and a decentralized connectivity for every artificial intelligence systems. It uses blockchain and advanced cryptographic technologies which allows AI agents to interact, transact and even share resources in a decentralized manner. The infrastructure has announced their expansion by working with a strategic leadership and non-contentious fork aimed at maximizing the platform’s scalability and broadening its reach across AI sectors.

They are going for a dual path approach, referred to as HyperCycle.MetaCycle (H.M) and HyperCycle.HyperCycle (H.H). They will allow HyperCycle to better serve both traditional and decentralized AI markets which will ultimately ensure secure and networked growth for the AI ecosystem.

Read similar article: HIVE Digital Expands with 6,500 New ASICs and Paraguay Mining Facility

In short, HyperCycle is forking twox paths: H.M (open-source for decentralized devs) and H.H (hybrid for enterprise AI) to stay connected and let AI agents work seamlessly. The main focus of H.H is on B2B licensing and zero fees while H.M. is more focused on transparency and decentralized AI. H.M. is even backed by big names like SingularityNET, which is one of the top AI crypto platform.

This dual model is similar to Android vs iOS but for AI, as its bridging centralized and decentralized worlds in order to create the “internet of AI” which is secure and scalable for future.

Dogecoin Nears Breakout as ETFSwap (ETFS) Forecasts Unprecedented 65,000% Surge by 2025

In short, Dogecoin is looking for a breakout as its potential to push ETFSwap (ETFS) is ready to skyrocket by 65,000% by 2025. ETFSwap is next gen DeFi platform which offers tokenized EFTs in areas like real estate and healthcare, with crazy staking rewards and AI tools for smart investments. DOGE’s buzz and the recent rise of market activity is fueling up this hype especially after ETFSwap presales already booming at $0.05769 per token. This means Doge is ready to disrupt the crypto game pretty soon !

Considering the changing nature of cryptocurrency market, analysts are closely monitoring the movements of a particular memecoin named Dogecoin. The reason for this is that many believe DOGE token is on the verge of a probable massive breakout which could lead to an impressive 65K% rally in the price of ETFSwap (ETFS) by 2025.

About ETFSwap

ETFSwap is a DeFi platform that lets users to invest in tokenized ETFs such as real estate and health care which comes with their crazy features like 10X and even 50x returns, not only that, 87% APY is also given for staking. As Dogecoin (DOGE) gears up for its breakout, ETFSwap is also getting ready for huge benefit, with a wuld 65,000% rally predicted by experts till 2025.

You might also like: Deutsche Telekom Partners with Meta Pool to Advance Decentralized AI on NEAR Protocol

Dogecoin Price Forecast

On November 12, 2024 the price of Dogecoin’s token DOGE is $0.4039 and it holds a 24 hour trading volume of about $30 billion. This impressive report suggests a 44.37% increase of its price over the last 24 hours and a staggering 144.44% increase over the past seven days. It currently holds a total 150 billion DOGE coins circulating worldwide and is valued at a market capitalization of massive $59 billion.

Deutsche Telekom Partners with Meta Pool to Advance Decentralized AI on NEAR Protocol

The team up of Deutsche Telekom with Meta Pool is creating huge buzz over decentralized tech. These two giants have teamed up in order to run a validator node on NEAR. This collab is ready to boost NEAR’s security and scalability by blending blockchain technology, AI, and privacy. This initiative really pushes boundaries for decentralized apps and eco-friendly blockchain. With Deutsche Telekom’s tech power, they’re surely leveling up NEAR and setting the vibe for a user-first, privacy-driven, decentralized future.

Decentralized technology has just taken a huge leap by the collaboration of Deutsche Telekom MMS and Meta Pool. They have collaborated as a part of  Enterprise Node Operator (ENO) program, which is a program by Meta Pool that is specially designed to connect major industry players with decentralized blockchain ecosystems. This collab leads to the program becoming first ever telecommunications giant to operate a validator node on the NEAR blockchain. Furthermore, it also gives signs of a new era of enterprise-driven blockchain adoption, powered by Meta Pool.

You might also like : MicroStrategy Increases Bitcoin Holdings to $22 Billion

This ENO program by Meta links big names with decentralized tech. By joining, Deutsche Telekom powers up NEAR’s network with top-tier infrastructure, making it more stronger and faster. This partnership is a big win for Meta Pool as it succeeds in fulfilling its very main goal of taking NEAR’s blockchain to the next level, especially focused on enhancing both scalability and security of the system. Deutsche Telekom joins in on this to push innovation in scalability, privacy, and their multi chain systems even further all of this in order to create a user-first, decentralized future focused on data privacy and transparency. With their expertise, NEAR is sure to level up its decentralization game and reshape the landscape of blockchain.

Near Protocol Aims to Create the World’s Largest Open-Source AI Model with 1.4 Trillion Parameters

Near Protocol just dropped in major updates! They’re currently working on the largest open-source AI model with 1.4 trillion parameters, revealed at the Redacted conference in Bangkok. Not only that, NEAR’s mainnet now also works with MetaMask and all Ethereum wallets, so ETH users can jump in without switching wallets. This led to NEAR’s price to surge by 9% to $5.17, boosted by a huge 139% increase in trading volume after the conference.

On a Redacted conference recently held on Bangkok, Thailand, Near Protocol made an announcement of their ambitious plans for the new AI model they are building. This one is supposed to be the largest open source Artificial Intelligence model in the world. It will contain 1.4 trillion parameters which in perspective is 3.5 times larger than the current open source Llama model by meta.

The project also involves support of collaborations s from the new hub Near AI Research and will be created through crowdsourced research and development. As of November 10 some participants in Bangkok are already able to start training a small model with almost 500 million parameters. Furthermore, the plan is looking to proceed by collaborating with the ones who would make the leap to work on progressively more complex models. Which means the project is bound to grow in size and sophistication through several models, seven to be exact.

You might also like: Goatseus Maximus Nears $1B Milestone with 20% Surge in GOAT Price

Price Outlook of NEAR

As the time of writing, Near Protocol’s token NEAR is priced at $5.33 with a 24 hour trading volume of almost $1.5 billion. This gives off a very positive vibe as it has managed to increase by 9.78% in just 24 hours and a whopping 44.39% increase in the past seven days. This momentum could break this coin way above its resistance level if it continues on till next week. With a circulating supply of bout 1.2 billion NEAR tokens, the platform is valued at a market capitalization of $6.4 billion.

Exit mobile version