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After navigating significant challenges in the United States regarding money laundering allegations that led to the resignation of its former CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), cryptocurrency exchange Binance finds itself under scrutiny once again, this time in Australia. 

Binance’s AML And CTF Controls Under Fire

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), the nation’s financial intelligence agency, has mandated that Binance’s local arm appoint an external auditor due to “serious concerns” about its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) controls.

AUSTRAC’s concerns emerged following a recent independent review of Binance Australia’s operations, which the agency described as “limited in scope relative to its size, business offerings, and risks.”

The agency highlighted alleged issues from the exchange such as high staff turnover, inadequate local resources, and insufficient oversight from senior management. 

In a statement, AUSTRAC emphasized the need for robust systems that align with local regulatory requirements, particularly given the global nature of the exchange’s operations. 

Brendan Thomas, AUSTRAC’s chief executive, stressed the importance of effective customer identification, due diligence, and transaction monitoring in a high-risk environment. Thomas stated:

This is a global company operating across borders in a high-risk environment. We expect robust customer identification, due diligence and effective transaction monitoring.

Global Regulatory Challenges

Binance has been given a 28-day window to nominate external auditors to address these concerns. In response to the situation, Matt Poblocki, the general manager of Binance Australia and New Zealand, stated that the exchange has been engaging openly and transparently with AUSTRAC throughout recent months. 

The exchange’s executives reassured stakeholders and users in the country about the company’s commitment to maintaining high compliance standards and improving its capabilities.

Founded in 2017, Binance has rapidly ascended to become the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. However, its journey has not been without difficulties. 

After initially operating in China, Zhao moved the company’s operations internationally due to a crackdown on the crypto sector by Chinese authorities. Despite its growth, Binance has faced accusations in multiple countries of facilitating the laundering of funds for criminal organizations.

Zhao pleaded guilty to violating US anti-money laundering laws in late 2023, resulting in a four-month prison sentence in 2024. However, Bitcoinist has reported that despite being banned from taking charge of the exchange, Zhao might be seeking a pardon from pro-crypto President Donald Trump.

These legal challenges have compounded the scrutiny on Binance with the exchange taking a new direction with its new CEO Richard Teng as regulators worldwide increasingly focus on ensuring compliance.

Despite recent scrutiny from Australia’s Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, Binance’s native token, BNB, reached an all-time high of $882 on Friday. The cryptocurrency has consistently surged over the past month, even as the broader market struggled.

Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com 

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BTC Payouts Disabled for Bitcoin Gold (BTG) Mining

We previously offered the ability to receive Bitcoin (BTC) payouts for mining Bitcoin Gold (BTG), facilitated via Gate.io. However, as Gate.io is closing BTG deposits, we have disabled BTC payouts for BTG mining.

Going forward, all payouts for BTG mining will be made exclusively in BTG.

Important: All pending BTC payouts were successfully processed.

Kaspa (KAS) Block Reward Reduction

As part of the ongoing KASPA Tokenomics and Emission Schedule, a new block reward reduction has taken place twice in March:

• Previous Block Reward: 69.29 KAS
• New Block Reward: 61.74 KAS

This change directly affects your mining rewards. Be sure to use 2CryptoCalc to re-evaluate your mining profitability.

Start or continue mining on:

Zephyr Protocol Audit Hardfork

Attention Zephyr (ZEPH) miners!

The Zephyr Protocol development team has announced the activation of the Audit Hardfork at block 481500. In preparation for this event, Zephyr Pool and Zephyr SOLO Pool were shut down prior to the hardfork. Now mining is operational again. We’ve completed the audit from our side.

Audit period runs from until May 7th. During this time, all transactions on the Zephyr Protocol network will be suspended until the audit process is completed.

For more details, please refer to the official Zephyr Telegram and Zephyr GitHub.

Relevant Pools:

Node Updates

Nexa v2.0.0.0

Nexa has released version 2.0.0.0, a mandatory upgrade for all full node users. The network upgrade is scheduled for March 31, 2025, at 12:00 UTC. Failure to upgrade in time will result in node disconnection from the Nexa network.

Highlights:

• New opcodes including OP_MERKLEROOT, OP_JUMP, OP_STORE, and OP_LOAD.
• Extended introspection with OP_INPUTTYPE, OP_OUTPUTTYPE, and OP_INPUTVALUE.
• Support for negative indexes with OP_ROLL and OP_PICK.
• Read-only inputs for advanced validation scenarios.
• Performance improvements for memory and CPU efficiency.
• Expanded platform support, including RISC-V and Alpine Linux.
• Improved documentation and RPC guidance.

This release unlocks powerful new scripting capabilities for developers while optimizing resource usage across full nodes.

Nervos CKB v0.200.0

Nervos has launched version 0.200.0, initiating the process to activate CKB Edition Meepo (2024) on the Mainnet. This is a breaking consensus change once activated, so node operators must prepare accordingly.

Key Changes:

• Activation of Edition Meepo 2024 via consensus-breaking update.
• New P2P service types with node filtering support.
• Connection time tracking for DNS-based peers.
• Improved RPC behavior (e.g., removal of duplicate addresses).
• Upgrade to OpenSSL 0.10.70 (addresses RUSTSEC-2025-0004 vulnerability).
• Enhanced syscall performance (spawn, exec).

All Nervos CKB node operators are advised to update to ensure continued network compatibility and security.

That wraps up the key updates for March 2025. Stay connected through our X (Twitter) and Telegram for the latest mining news and updates. Happy mining!

April 9th, 2025 – Miami, FL

class=”ql-align-justify”>Everstake, a leading global non-custodial staking provider for retail and institutional clients, announces that its 0.1+ ETH Staking Solution, which enables users to stake with as little as 0.1 ETH, has undergone an independent audit by Trail of Bits.

Trail of Bits conducted a comprehensive review of several smart contracts within Everstake’s Ethereum staking protocol. The audit evaluated authentication, access controls, documentation, and transaction security. While Trail of Bits identified areas for improvement, Everstake has successfully addressed the majority of the findings, including updating its documentation.

Since staking traditionally requires 32 ETH, Everstake was among the first to lower the barrier to entry, allowing users to participate with just 0.1 ETH. For the company, client security remains a top priority, particularly as this protocol is also integrated into Wallet SDK—an open-source toolkit that enables easy staking integration for wallets. Industry leaders such as Trezor rely on this technology to provide secure and user-friendly staking experiences.

“Ensuring a seamless and secure staking experience is a top priority for Trezor. By partnering with Everstake, we provide our users with a way to receive rewards while maintaining top-tier security standards. The recent audit by Trail of Bits confirmed that Everstake’s staking infrastructure meets high-security standards, reinforcing our commitment to making staking both secure and accessible within Trezor Suite,” said Mat?j Žák, CEO at Trezor. 

“Security and accessibility go hand in hand when it comes to staking. At Everstake, we take both seriously, which is why we welcomed an independent audit by Trail of Bits. This milestone reflects our ongoing commitment to maintaining a secure platform for our users. We believe that industry-wide collaboration is key to creating a safer Web3, and we’re proud to contribute to setting higher standards in the staking ecosystem”, said Bohdan Opryshko, co-founder and COO at Everstake.

The full report of the audit is available at Trail of Bits’ GitHub.

About Trail of Bits:

Founded in 2012 by 3 expert hackers with no investment capital, Trail of Bits is the premier place for security experts to boldly advance security and address technology’s newest and most challenging risks. It has helped secure some of the world’s most targeted organizations and devices. Our combination of novel research with practical solutions reduces the security risks that our clients face from emerging technologies. Our work helps drive the security industry and the public understanding of the technology underlying our world.

About Everstake:

Everstake, founded in 2018 by blockchain engineers, is a leading global non-custodial staking provider for both institutional and retail clients, on a mission to make staking accessible to everyone. Operating across 85+ networks with 735,000+ delegators, it delivers institutional-grade infrastructure with 99.9% uptime. Everstake ensures top-tier security and compliance with SOC 2 and has completed a 3-week Trail of Bits audit of its Ethereum staking protocol (3a3fee5). Through strategic partnerships with industry leaders, Everstake strengthens the staking ecosystem and provides whitelabel staking solutions, enabling businesses to easily integrate staking into their platforms. 

Everstake is a software platform that provides infrastructure tools and resources for users but does not offer investment advice or investment opportunities, manage funds, facilitate collective investment schemes, provide financial services or take custody of, or otherwise hold or manage, customer assets. Everstake does not conduct any independent diligence on or substantive review of any blockchain asset, digital currency, cryptocurrency or associated funds. Everstake’s provision of technology services allowing a user to stake digital assets is not an endorsement or a recommendation of any digital assets by it. Users are fully and solely responsible for evaluating whether to stake digital assets.

Contact

PR Manager
Annabella Lapshyna
Everstake
marketing@everstake.one

The stablecoin issuer Tether has hired a new chief financial officer (CFO) and committed to completing a full audit.

The veteran finance executive Simon McWilliams will now serve as CFO for Tether, which issues the dollar-pegged USDT, the top stablecoin by market cap.

McWilliams will lead the stablecoin issuer toward a full audit and “spearhead Tether’s further commitment to transparency and regulatory readiness,” according to a press release from the firm.

Tether didn’t provide a timeline for the audit. The firm already releases quarterly attestation reports with the accounting giant BDO, but it says a full audit will “ensure greater financial integrity and verification of reserves.”

The stablecoin issuer has dealt with regulatory issues recently, including failing to gain compliance with the European Union’s new Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulations, which has led to crypto exchanges delisting USDT in Europe.

MiCA establishes rules covering the supervision, consumer protection and environmental safeguards of crypto assets.

The regulatory framework includes measures that aim to reduce financial crimes, including market manipulation, money laundering and terrorist financing. It also places stablecoin issuers under the European Banking Authority and requires them to hold sufficient liquid reserves.

McWilliams replaces former CFO Giancarlo Devasini, who will now serve as Tether’s “Chairman of the Group.”

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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