WuBlockchain’s daily crypto news roundup covered fresh US economic data, the Federal Reserve’s latest rate decision, comments from CZ, and two crypto-related fraud cases reported in South Korea and China.
US initial jobless claims came in at 197,000
US initial jobless claims for the week ending July 25 totaled 197,000, versus an expected 200,000. The previous reading was revised to 188,000 from 187,000.
US core PCE for June rose 3.3% year over year. The figure matched the 3.30% forecast and was lower than the prior 3.40% reading.
Fed held rates at 3.50% to 3.75%
The Federal Reserve voted 9-3 to keep the federal funds target range unchanged at 3.50% to 3.75% and said it would continue to maintain ample reserves in the banking system.
In its statement, the Fed said the US economy was still expanding at a solid pace despite elevated uncertainty tied to factors including the Middle East conflict. It said productivity and capital investment remained strong, job growth was broadly in line with labor force growth, and the unemployment rate had changed little. The statement also said inflation remained above the 2% target, partly because of supply shocks in areas including energy.
Beth Hammack, Neel Kashkari and Lorie Logan dissented and supported a 25-basis-point rate increase at this meeting.
CZ addressed the Giggle Academy token sale discussion
CZ said in response to recent market discussion around Giggle Academy’s sale of donated tokens that he had not communicated with the Giggle team about the recent disposal of those tokens. He added that Giggle Academy does have a practice of converting most donated tokens into BNB at the end of each month.
He said that unless there was a prior agreement or contract, donors should not expect recipients to act according to the donor’s wishes, such as burning the tokens. In his words, a donation means the recipient is free to use the tokens, and the proceeds are used to provide free education to children around the world. He said the effort had helped more than 1 million children in less than two years.
CZ also said he supports all meme coins and may even buy or sell one or two of them in the coming weeks to test new features.
Seoul police said fake Flare Network staking site stole $8.5 million
Police in Seoul said a fake Flare Network staking phishing website that operated for eight days in October last year defrauded 71 investors of 3.4 million XRP, worth KRW 12.3 billion, or about $8.5 million.
According to the police, the group posed as Flare Network and its FXRP token by fabricating Wikipedia entries, blog posts and YouTube videos.
Investigators tracked KRW 27.3 billion, or about $18.8 million, through wallets linked to the group and froze KRW 17.3 billion of that amount.
Two 29-year-old men have been referred to prosecutors on aggravated fraud charges. A 34-year-old body double actor was charged with fraud, and another 29-year-old suspect has been placed on an Interpol Red Notice.
China Business Journal warned of bitcoin extortion using its name
China Business Journal said in a statement that criminals had recently impersonated the publication and sent companies so-called “undercover investigation manuscripts” through unofficial email addresses. The senders claimed to possess major negative information and threatened to publish reports unless they were paid in bitcoin.
The newspaper said the email accounts and the materials were unauthorized. It added that evidence had been collected, that it reserved the right to pursue criminal liability, and that companies should not make any payment and should report the matter to police promptly.