Bitcoin Daily: Chinese Police Seize $15M, Luxury Cars In Crypto Scam Probe; CENTRE Blacklists Address, Freezes $100K Of Stablecoin At Request Of Law Enforcement

Authorities in China have confiscated bitcoin, ether and tether worth more than $15 million and luxury cars from those who allegedly ran a purported cryptocurrency scheme, CoinDesk reported. Police in a Chinese city had reportedly taken 10 suspects into custody.

The case’s purported victim had become a part of a Telegram group that had marketed a blockchain smart contract that could allegedly make a digital currency called Huobi Tokens, the digital currency of the Huobi exchange.

The victim reportedly told authorities, “Simply put, you send one unit of ETH to a designated address, you will receive 60 HT. And then you can sell it to gain the difference.”

But the victim reportedly was sent bogus tokens after providing 10 ETH to an address the group’s administrator reportedly gave. CoinDesk reported that an indication is not present that the Huobi exchange had to do with the scheme.

In other news, the CENTRE Consortium froze cryptocurrency valued at $100,000 by blocking a USDC stablecoin address in response to an ask from the authorities, CoinDesk reported.

CENTRE maintains the ability to block addresses if a possible security incident or other potential harm to the network exists, per a document cited by CoinDesk.

It will also contemplate a block “to comply with a law, regulation or legal order from a duly recognized U.S. authorized authority, U.S. court of competent jurisdiction or other governmental authority with jurisdiction over CENTRE,” per a document cited by CoinDesk.

The bulk of the Board of Managers for the consortium have to vote to give the green light for blocking. They can be opposed to the move in some instances. Additionally, they can undo the decisions.

The company in a statement said, per the report, “Centre can confirm it blacklisted an address in response to a request from law enforcement. While we cannot comment on the specifics of law enforcement requests, Centre complies with binding court orders that have appropriate jurisdiction over the organization.”