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U.Today - Changpeng Zhao, better known within the crypto community as CZ, the former CEO of Binance who remains its largest shareholder, has published a comment about the news of North Korean hackers’ Bitcoin holdings.
The hacker community, known as Lazarus Group, now holds more than a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin, which makes it the third largest state Bitcoin holder in the world.
CZ jokes about North Korean "crypto reserve"
X user @Berit1p, a Binance product advisory council member, shared a screenshot of an Arkham Intelligence page, showing the total Bitcoin holdings of a North Korean group of hackers called the Lazarus Group.According to the Arkham data, these hackers backed by North Korea’s government hold a mind-blowing $1.16 billion, which is 13,518 BTC. @Berit1p stated that thanks to a Bitcoin stash that large, North Korea is now the third largest Bitcoin holder among governments – after the U.S. and U.K.
According to the same data source, the U.K. government holds 61,245 BTC worth $4,055,461,003. Arkham revealed that in 2018, the U.K. metropolitan police confiscated 61,000 BTC from Jian Wen and Zhimin Qian. Those men allegedly bought the BTC from an investment pyramid organized in China between 2014 and 2017, hiding it from Chinese authorities. The U.K. police gained access to the Bitcoin in July 2021.
As for the U.S. government, it currently holds $16,928,463,649.57 worth of crypto, including not only Bitcoin but also ETH, BNB, WBTC, TRX and SAND. The amount of Bitcoin held by the U.S. government totals 198,109 BTC, valued at $16.52 billion.
CZ jestingly commented on the aforesaid tweet, saying: “Different ways to build a strategic crypto reserve,” adding a “face with tears of joy” emoji.
CZ warns against minting new crypto
In a tweet published earlier today, Binance visionary CZ issued a warning to developers against minting new coins unless they have “scale.” His post constituted an “unpopular opinion” about AI agents and the crypto utility they may employ.CZ tweeted that “while crypto is the currency for AI, not every agent needs its own token.” He said that existing cryptocurrencies are good enough for AI agents to take fees in them when they provide any service to users: “Not every agent needs its own token.”
“Launch a coin only if you have scale. Focus on utility, not tokens,” CZ stated.