Today in Crypto: FTX Eyes Capital Raise Linked to a Retail Deal, Report Says; Dutch Police Arrest Man in Electrum Bitcoin Wallet Scam

A man was arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of laundering stolen money using malicious software allegedly linked to Electrum, a crypto wallet service, Coindesk wrote Wednesday (Sept 14).

The man’s identity wasn’t revealed, though the report says he’s 39 years old. He is a suspect and his crypto has been seized.

“Cryptocurrency, like ordinary money, is vulnerable to all kinds of crime,” the police said. “The anonymous and cross-border nature of cryptocurrency affords opportunities for criminals.”

In other news, FTX is raising capital and there’s talk of a possible acquisition, a report from Coindesk said Wednesday, citing a source familiar with the matter.

There’s several possible takeover candidates — some of them companies operating retail-trading platforms, though the negotiations are still in early stages.

Meanwhile, a foundation for William Paley, the founder of CBS, will auction off numerous masterpieces from the New York Museum of Modern Art as it tries to expand the museum’s digital footprint, The Wall Street Journal wrote Wednesday.

The paintings and sculptures being sold include works by Picasso, Renoir, Rodin and more. They’ve been in MoMA’s care since Paley died in 1990.

Most of the proceeds will go toward MoMA’s goals including potentially launching a streaming channel and buying more art, possibly digital content and art attached to non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Elsewhere, Bybit, a Singaporean crypto exchange, won’t be offering crypto futures and options in Brazil due to a ban from Brazil’s Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM), Coindesk wrote Wednesday.

Bybit said it was talking with CVM to resolve the issue. The controversy according to CVM was that Bybit was allegedly “seeking to raise funds from investors residing in Brazil for investments in securities,” but hadn’t gotten authorization to be a securities intermediary.

Finally, the biggest Ethereum mining services provider, Ethermine in Austria, is shutting down its servers for miners due to “the Merge,” Bloomberg wrote Wednesday.

The Merge will shift the most-used blockchain from a proof of work mechanism to proof of stake, so it won’t be possible to mine Ether on the Ethereum network anymore. This will hopefully help with cutting down on energy use.

“As a consequence of this transition, the Ethermine Ethereum mining pool will switch to withdraw only mode once the Proof-of-Work mining phase has ended,” Ethermine tweeted on Wednesday.