Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, Paraguay’s president denied claims that Bitcoin will become legal tender, hinting at a possible hack on official accounts. In Australia, authorities uncovered a suspected $123M crypto laundering scheme tied to a security company. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said unfreezing user accounts is now a top priority.Paraguay warns of ‘irregular activity’ after post claiming BTC is legal tenderThe office of Paraguayan President Santiago Peña appeared to deny a post on the social media platform X that announced the country would begin recognizing Bitcoin as legal tender.In a Monday post on X, the official account of the office of Paraguay’s president asked followers to “dismiss any recently published content” without official confirmation from his office.The post was made minutes after Peña’s personal account on X announced (in English) that Paraguay had made Bitcoin (BTC) legal tender, and established a BTC reserve worth $5 million, also providing a wallet address for investors to “secure [their] stake.”At the time of publication, Peña’s personal post had been removed, while the government post was still live on the platform. The president’s office said it was working with the social media platform to “clarify the situation” and for the public to only consider information issued through official channels. The X post came as some countries in Central and South America were reportedly considering following El Salvador’s example by adopting Bitcoin as a reserve asset. Australia unmasks $123 million crypto laundering ring behind security firmAustralian authorities have charged four individuals following an 18-month investigation into a $190 million Australian dollar ($123 million) crypto laundering operation allegedly run through a cash-in-transit security company.The Australian Federal Police said they had frozen about $13.6 million worth of suspected criminal assets across the states of Queensland and New South Wales.The Queensland Joint Organized Crime Taskforce (QJOCT), comprising 70 officers from federal and state agencies, began the investigation in December 2023. It reportedly uncovered an operation that used an armored vehicle unit of a security business as a front to launder criminal proceeds into cryptocurrency.Transaction trails from one suspect, who allegedly laundered $9.5 million over 15 months, led investigators to uncover a complex laundering scheme masked as legitimate business activity.The security company is accused of blending clean business earnings with illicit cash deposited by suspected criminals, then funneling the funds through a sales promotion company, a classic car dealership and cryptocurrency exchanges.The laundered funds were then allegedly distributed to beneficiaries either in cryptocurrency or via those front businesses.Coinbase says it’s tackling frozen accounts in “major issue”Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the crypto exchange has reduced unnecessary user account freezing by 82%, after identifying it as a “major issue.”In a June 6 X post, Armstrong acknowledged that account freezing has been a problem “for longer than is acceptable,” and that it has become a top priority for his firm to improve.“The issue has been reduced by 82% so far, with more improvements coming. We’ll keep you updated as further improvements roll out,” Armstrong said, asking all customers with frozen accounts to contact Coinbase Support.Coinbase users have expressed frustration over account restrictions for years, reporting sudden freezes lasting several months or longer, prompting some to abandon the platform. Customer confidence in Coinbase was also recently shaken by a mass data breach that exposed the details of more than 70,000 customer accounts.