Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, exchange MEXC reports a 200% spike in fraud attempts during Q1 2025. NFT marketplace OpenSea rolls out a new platform and the US Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped its lawsuit against Binance.

MEXC exchange detects 200% surge in fraudulent activity in Q1

The MEXC crypto exchange observed a 200% quarter-over-quarter surge in fraudulent trading activity between January and March 2025, it said in its quarterly report.

According to the exchange, 80,057 organized fraud attempts from over 3,000 fraud syndicates were identified in Q1. The fraudulent activity included market manipulation, wash trading, and automated trading bots exploiting users through “unfair” trading execution.

MEXC said that the rise in fraud was most pronounced in India, with the exchange flagging nearly 27,000 accounts for suspicious activity, followed by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region and Indonesia, which had 6,404 and 5,603 accounts flagged, respectively.

Fraud distribution, with the most impacted regions highlighted. Source: MEXC

Tracy Jin, chief operating officer at MEXC, said the fraudulent activity was fueled by a steady stream of unsuspecting victims funneled through social engineering scams. 

OpenSea expands beyond NFTs with OS2 public rollout

Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea has launched its new platform, OS2, concluding its beta phase.

The company said the updated platform allows full token trading across 14 blockchains, including support for fungible tokens on Solana. It also introduces tools that aim to enhance crosschain functionality. These changes signal a shift for OpenSea, positioning it as a more comprehensive platform beyond NFTs. 

OpenSea chief marketing officer Adam Hollander told Cointelegraph that the platform always believed in a broader idea that everything onchain should be liquid and discoverable in one place. 

“OS2 lets a collector mint an NFT on Solana, swap a gaming token on Ronin and buy a memecoin that was just created, all from a single wallet flow,” Hollander said. “Users were already juggling half a dozen DApps and bridges; we streamlined that experience.”

Source: OpenSea

Despite a broader market cooling, OpenSea sees promising signs of user retention and growth. Hollander told Cointelegraph that while volumes may be down from its 2021 to 2022 peak, weekly unique collectors on OpenSea are up by 40% since January. He added: 

“That tells us the tourists left, but the true users stayed, and they’re participating in more chains than ever.”

SEC drops Binance lawsuit

The US Securities and Exchange Commission asked a Washington, DC, federal court on May 29 to allow it to drop its long-running lawsuit against crypto exchange Binance and its founder, Changpeng Zhao.

The SEC said in a joint motion with Binance and Zhao that it believed dropping the suit was appropriate “in the exercise of its discretion and as a policy matter.” The agency had paused the action in February, saying that the work of its Crypto Task Force could see it put an end to the case.

The SEC sued Binance, Zhao and the exchange’s US-based arm, BAM Trading, in June 2023, alleging they violated securities law, mishandled customer funds and misled customers.

Binance called the SEC’s move a “huge win for crypto” on X. Source: Binance

Binance and Zhao settled a separate case with the Justice Department in November 2023, agreeing to pay a $4.3 billion fine and admitting that the company violated sanctions, was an unlicensed money transmitter and failed to implement appropriate Anti-Money Laundering measures.

Zhao spent four months in jail after admitting to violating money laundering laws as part of the deal. He was also forced to step down as CEO.

It’s the SEC’s latest backdown from the crypto industry under the Trump administration, with the regulator abandoning or settling its actions against crypto companies including Coinbase, Consensus and Kraken.