The Daily: Crowdstrike's big IT outage, options traders betting on election upswing and more

The Block2024/07/19 18:25

By: James Hunt

Microsoft IT outages hit worldwide after faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.Binance US entities get the judge’s sign-off to invest customer assets in US Treasury bills.South Korea’s inaugural crypto law goes into full effect.The following is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

It's Friday! In today's Daily, an IT outage hits Microsoft devices worldwide, Binance.US gets approval to invest certain customer assets in U.S. Treasury bills, South Korea's crypto law comes into effect and more.

Let's get started.

Global IT outage hits Microsoft devices

A faulty update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike led to outages worldwide on Friday , causing thousands of Microsoft Windows-based systems and endpoints that downloaded the update to crash.

Airports, banks, health and media organizations were among those to face the "Blue Screen of Death," BSOD, rendering systems unable to reboot or function properly.
The issue originated from an update to CrowdStrike's Falcon Sensor security product, which the company is working to roll back.
CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz sought to assure the public that this was not a security incident or cyberattack.
CrowdStrike is "actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted," Kurtz said.
"The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed," he added.
Polygon Labs CISO Mudit Gupta stated on X that while it uses CrowdStrike technology, it wasn't impacted because "we don't roll out non-critical updates to our staff before testing them."
The incident sparked discussions about the vulnerabilities in the highly interconnected and digitalized nature of the global economy.

Binance.US gets court approval to invest certain customer assets in US Treasury Bills

The entities behind Binance.US received approval from Judge Amy Berman Jackson to invest certain customer fiat assets custodied at BitGo in U.S. Treasury bills as part of an order setting conditions for the crypto exchange.

Binance.US must also transfer crypto to a third-party custodian not affiliated with the exchange.
The order is part of an ongoing case overseen by Judge Jackson, where the SEC accused Binance and its former CEO Changpeng Zhao of multiple violations, including lying to customers, not restricting U.S. investors from accessing its global site, misdirecting capital and operating as an unregistered exchange.
Last month, Jackson mostly rejected Binance's push to dismiss the case but did dismiss some of the SEC's points, including that secondary sales of BNB were securities.

South Korea's inaugural crypto law goes into full effect

After a one-year grace period, South Korea's first crypto regulatory framework, the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, came into full effect on Friday .

It was put on a fast track following the disastrous collapse of the Terra ecosystem and FTX in 2022, with the new set of rules focusing on ensuring safety nets for cryptocurrency investors.
Local crypto exchanges must now safeguard at least 80% of user deposits in cold storage, separate from their own funds, delegate cash deposits to licensed banks and maintain cryptocurrency reserves equal in amount and type to customer deposits.
Furthermore, crypto services in the country must now enroll for adequate insurance or establish a reserve fund in preparation for hacks or liquidity crises.

QCP Capital says options traders are betting on bitcoin upswing ahead of US elections

QCP Capital analysts said traders are betting on a potential bitcoin upswing surrounding the U.S. elections, with significant long positions in bitcoin options.

Bitcoin options open interest shows a concentration of calls with a strike price of $67,000 expiring at the end of July and $100,000 expiring at the end of December, they noted.
The analysts' prediction of a bitcoin rally before and after the U.S. presidential elections in November is based on the expectation of a victory for Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Standard Chartered analysts also suggested a win for Trump would more positively impact bitcoin, citing a likely more favorable regulatory and mining environment under his administration.

Telegram introduces store for mini apps as games like Hamster Kombat take off

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announced plans to bolster its blockchain initiatives by introducing a mini app store and an in-app browser with web3 support .

The messaging app has become a popular portal to play tap-to-earn games like Hamster Kombat, Notcoin and Yescoin, potentially earning crypto using the TON blockchain.
"2024 will go down in history as the year when hundreds of millions of people became familiar with blockchain. We're proud that Telegram is at the epicenter of this societal transformation," Durov posted on his Telegram channel.

Looking ahead to next week

U.S. GDP and jobless claims figures are out on Thursday. U.S. PCE data follow on Friday.

EDCON 2024 gets underway in Tokyo. Bitcoin 2024 kicks off in Nashville.

Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.

Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.

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