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U.S. Sanctions Funnull for Role in Pig Butchering Scam, Huione-Linked Crypto Wallets

The U.S. Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Funnull Technology, a provider of technology for websites allegedly involved in so-called pig butchering scams, and two cryptocurrency wallets said to be linked to Huione Group.

Philippines-based Funnull also directly facilitated a scam involving virtual currencies resulting in over $200 million in victim losses, OFAC said in a Thursday press release. In addition, the company is alleged to have acquired several IP addresses from mainstream cloud service providers to sell to cybercriminals. The sanctions also cover a Funnull administrator, Liu Lizhi.

The majority of cryptocurrency investment scam websites reported to the FBI are linked to Funnull,” Blockchain security firm Elliptic said in a blog post, which also identified the sanctioned wallets as being linked to Huione.

The wallets on Ethereum and Tron received funds directly from Huione Pay, part of Huione Group, Elliptic said. Huione was labeled as a “primary money laundering concern” by FinCEN earlier this month.

The two addresses received more than $4 million in total, according to Elliptic.

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Philippines’ Largest Digital Wallet GCash Adds USDC Support

GCash, the largest digital wallet in the Philippines, has announced support for stablecoins via USDC.

Publicly available data shows that GCash, which is similar to China’s Alipay or WeChat Pay, does over $65 billion (3.8 trillion Philippine Pesos) in annual transaction volume.

Filipino remittances reached a record $38.3 billion in 2024, and account for approximately 8%-10% of the country’s GDP.

Alipay owner-Ant Group, Ayala Corporation and Manilla-based Globe Telecom’s 917Ventures own GCash operator Mynt. GCash offers crypto services via its GCrypto subsidiary, which has partnered with locally licensed crypto exchange PDAX.

In total GCrypto offers 39 different assets to trade on its platform, including Paypal’s PYUSD stablecoin. Stablecoin-based transfers are growing as a share of the market but remain relatively small, with less than 5% of all inbound remittances using crypto rails.

Recently, Bloomberg reported that GCash could seek an IPO valuation of at least $8 billion by the end of 2025.

The company, reportedly, is in no rush to go public as it recently completed a funding round that raised its valuation to $5 billion, giving it enough capital and flexibility to wait for favorable market conditions.

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Coinbase Introduces New Features For Global Remittances

Coinbase, an American-based cryptocurrency exchange, has revealed its latest wallet features for transferring money internationally without going through the traditional hurdles.

Significance Of Coinbase New Transfer Features

On Tuesday, Coinbase announced its latest feature for its wallet to simplify and hasten global money transfers. The new feature is presented as a user-friendly procedure.

According to the crypto firm, the new initiative is described as “Send money with a link.” Within the Coinbase Wallet, users can generate a link to distribute via their favorite social media platforms.

However, the exchange noted that the wallet must be owned by both the receiver and the sender of the money. Furthermore, users who do not have the wallet, when emailed a link, will be prompted to download it from Apple or Android app stores.

The crypto company further asserted the safety of the new initiative. Coinbase noted that failure to retrieve sent funds within weeks will automatically send the money back to the sender. The company stated:

When your recipient clicks the shared link, it’ll take them into the Coinbase Wallet app to claim or direct them to download the Coinbase Wallet app on iOS or Android and create a new wallet in just 1-click. It’s that simple. And if the funds are not claimed within 2 weeks, they will automatically be returned to the sender.

Coinbase has highlighted several situations where this new feature is “very efficient and helpful.” These include paying off debts with friends, giving last-minute gifts, and tipping tour guides and other service providers. 

In addition, the feature sparks a swift money-sending procedure. This eliminates downloading different apps or sorting through many usernames and profiles. Furthermore, the crypto firm asserted that the new feature is vital for people in high-inflation economies.

Latest Feature To Eliminate Payment Irregularities

The procedure eliminates the expenses and complications of using traditional methods to send money globally. Traditionally, sending money globally has required sifting through a complex web of bank account and routing details. 

In addition, these transactions take longer to process, mostly up to five working days. However, the Coinbase wallet boasts instantaneous settlement and zero-fee transactions.

Coinbase wallet is supported by over 170 countries worldwide and is available in 20 languages. This guarantees the ability to send and receive money virtually anywhere.

Furthermore, it currently supports local fiat onramps from more than 130 countries. These include top payment processors like Pix in Brazil, Instant P2P Bank in Nigeria, and GCash in the Philippines.

Coinbase