Operation Kraken has nothing to do with the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, the company said.

Australia’s police has confiscated $6.4 million in cryptocurrency as part of a global crackdown on Ghost, an encrypted communications network, authorities allege was “built solely for the criminal underworld,” a statement said.

The seizure of the cryptocurrency comes two weeks after the AFP arrested a Sydney resident Jay Je Yoon Jung, 32, the alleged mastermind behind Ghost. He appeared in a Sydney court on Wednesday to face the charges. Another man who allegedly distributed the app has also been arrested.

The seized crypto has been transferred into secure AFP cryptocurrency storage and the authorities will seek its permanent forfeiture.

The effort is titled Operation Kraken but Kraken the cryptocurrency exchange “has not been the subject of any Operation Kraken investigations,” an AFP spokesperson wrote in an email to CoinDesk. “Operation Kraken was an investigation into a dedicated encrypted communications platform.”

A Kraken spokesperson said, “We’re disappointed by this operation’s codename, which has absolutely nothing to do with our brand.”

The crackdown last month saw 700 AFP members execute 93 search warrants, arresting 46 people, intervening in 50 threats to life, and seizing 30 illicit weapons and 200 kg of illicit drugs, the AFP said.

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Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the aim is to keep up with developments and protect consumers.

Australia’s new government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese since May 23, will begin a review of how cryptocurrency assets are managed, with a view toward keeping practices up to date and protecting consumers, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in a statement released on Monday.

“Australians are experiencing a digital revolution across all sectors of the economy, but regulation is struggling to keep pace and adapt with the crypto asset sector,” Chalmers said in the statement.

“As the first step in a reform agenda, Treasury will prioritise ‘token mapping’ work in 2022, which will help identify how crypto assets and related services should be regulated. This hasn’t been done anywhere else in the world, so it will make Australia leaders in this work.”

Token mapping involves uncovering the characteristics of all digital asset tokens in Australia including charting the type of crypto asset, its underlying code, and any other defining technological feature, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

“As it stands, the crypto sector is largely unregulated, and we need to do some work to get the balance right so we can embrace new and innovative technologies while safeguarding consumers,” Chalmers said.

“With the increasingly widespread proliferation of crypto assets – to the extent that crypto advertisements can be seen plastered all over big sporting events – we need to make sure customers engaging with crypto are adequately informed and protected,” the statement said.

Chalmers said that before “token mapping” is completed, the government will release a consultation paper with the sector about a regulatory framework.

“The great Web3 companies of tomorrow need the flexibility to be able to innovate today,” Holger Arians, CEO of Banxa, an Australia-based fiat to crypto exchange, told CoinDesk in a text message, reflecting concerns that since the space is evolving quickly, regulation will need to adjust.

“While we believe the token mapping exercise is a step in the right direction, we hope to see ongoing close collaboration with our industry so that the appropriate regulatory frameworks can be put in place,” he wrote.

The move appears to have become a political issue since it comes three months after Albanese’s government defeated the previous labor administration under Scott Morrison. Chalmer said the “previous government dabbled in crypto asset regulation but prematurely jumped straight to options without first understanding what was being regulated.”

“The Albanese government is taking a more serious approach to work out what is in the ecosystem and what risks need to be looked at first,” Chalmers said.

Chalmers specified that “the aim will be to identify notable gaps in the regulatory framework, progress work on a licensing framework, review innovative organisational structures, look at custody obligations for third-party custodians of crypto assets and provide additional consumer safeguards,” according to the statement.

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The funding program will support research at two of Asia’s most highly ranked technology schools.

SEOUL, South Korea — Blockchain protocol Klaytn has committed $20 million over four years to support blockchain development and funding at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Seoul and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

NUS ranked top worldwide in Coindesk’s 2021 University Rankings for Blockchain and KAIST placed 26th. Both are in the top 50 technology schools globally, according to QS World University Rankings, and are known in Asia for their strong science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs.

Klaytn, introduced by messaging app Kakao’s blockchain arm Ground X, went live in 2019 and now has “millions of users in Korea,” it said. Its KLAY token has over $880 million market cap, CoinGecko data show, making it the 66th largest cryptocurrency. Its governing body at launch included electronics giant LG, with crypto exchange Binance and South Korea’s Shinhan Bank joining later.

The blockchain is the second to announce an academic funding program this month. Earlier in August, the Algorand Foundation named the winners of its $50M blockchain research and education program, including Yale, University of Cape Town and Monash University in Australia.

Klaytn Foundation director Sangmin Seo announced the funding, called the Blockchain Research Center (BRC) Program, at Korea Blockchain Week in Seoul on Monday. Seo said the commitment is one of the largest blockchain research programs in terms of funding grants.

Day-to-day operations will be run by a global team headed by KAIST and NUS researchers. BRC will operate in an open-source manner, where research conducted will be publicly disclosed as research papers or open-source software.

External researchers will also be able to participate in existing research projects or submit their own proposals.
Seo said KAIST and NUS were selected from a pool of participating research institutes who submitted a proposal. Seven proposals were received from 62 research institutes in 11 countries, Seo said. The KAIST and NUS research group was selected by the Klaytn Governance Council.

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