Author: George Spencer

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Bitcoin Blockchain News

Donald Trump Calls Crypto a Disaster Waiting To Happen

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Donald Trump Calls Crypto A Disaster Waiting To Happen

Former US president Donald Trump has said in an interview with Fox that all other currencies apart from the US currency are a disaster waiting to happen. 

This came after he was questioned about his views on the health of the Wall Street market, the current administration and the potential of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market.

“They may be fake. Who knows what they are? They’re certainly something that people don’t know much about,” the ex president expressed himself.

He added that it is more important to protect the sovereignty of the US currency and make it a first priority instead of just advancing the sluggish financial system and placing a firm hold on the “overwhelming” benefits that comes with crypto and the Blockchain technology.

On the other hand, the crypto market doesn’t seem to be affected by these comments, BTC has recorded a decline of 1.17%. ETH has risen 6.30% and ADA is down 1.1%.

However, reigning president of the United States, Joe Biden, appears to have a more favorable impression about the virtual currencies albeit staying diligently cautious. Earlier this year, he appointed former Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commision, Gary Gensler, as the new leader of the  Securities and Exchange Commision.

So far, Gensler has been enforcing a strict regulatory approach that focuses on having balance between helping innovations and protecting the interests of bulls all over the country.

The man has expressed his beliefs earlier this month that the market needs additional authorities to prevent transactions, products, and platforms for tripping between regulatory cracks as well as more resources to protect investors in this growing and volatile crypto market.

In the United States, trading of Bitcoin and other digital assets is regulated by many different agencies at both the federal and state levels. To the extent a crypto-exchange permits certain regulated commodities transactions or swaps in crypto-assets, it will be subject to regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

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Bitcoin Blockchain News Regulation

Countries That Have Banned/Restricted Crypto

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Countries That Have Banned/restricted Crypto

Ever since its creation in 2009, Bitcoin has been controversial; so have have the subsequent cryptocurrencies that followed in its wake. Bitcoin is widely criticized for its fickleness, its use in foul transactions and for the outrageous use of electricity to mine it. Whilst the digital asset is seen by some, particularly in the developing world, as a safe harbor during economic storms, some countries have chosen to stay as far away from the leading virtual currency as possible.

Even though the majority of these countries don’t make using Bitcoin itself illegal, its status as a means of payment or as a commodity varies with differing regulatory implications. Some countries have placed restrictions on the way Bitcoin can be used, with banks banning its customers from making crypto transactions.

Other countries have banned the use of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies outright with heavy penalties in place for anyone found to be making crypto transactions. Listed below are the countries that have a particularly strained relationship with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies:

China

China have repeatedly issued warnings to its people to stay clear of the cryptocurrency market and have clamped down hard on mining as well as exchanges both in the country and overseas. These efforts to regulate cryptocurrencies are seen as an attempt by the Chinese government to float their own virtual currency.

Indonesia

Bank Indonesia, the country’s central bank, issued new regulations banning the use of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, as a means of payment from 1 January 2018.

Nepal

The Nepal Rastra Bank declared Bitcoin illegal as of August 2017.

Turkey

On 16 April 2021, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey issued a regulation banning the use of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, directly or indirectly, to pay for goods and services. The following day, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan went further and issued a decree that crypto exchanges to a list of firms subject to anti-money laundering and terrorism financing rules.

Russia

Russia passed its first laws to regulate cryptos in July 2020, which for the first time designated cryptocurrency as property liable to taxation. The law, which came into force in January this year, also bans Russian civil servants from owning any crypto assets.

Vietnam

The State Bank of Vietnam declared that the issuance, supply, or use of Bitcoin and other cryptos are illegal as a means of payment. Failure to adhere will result in punishment of fines ranging from 150 million VND (€5,600) to 200 million VND (€7,445). The government, however, hasn’t ban Bitcoin trading or holding them as assets.

North Macedonia

North Macedonia is the first and only European country to put an official ban on cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the rest.

Colombia

Financial institutions are not allowed to facilitate Bitcoin transactions anywhere in Colombia. In 2014, the Superintendencia Financiera warned that they may not protect, invest, broker, or manage virtual money operations.

Egypt

Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, the country’s primary Islamic advisory body, issued a religious decree in 2018, classifying Bitcoin transactions as haram, meaning it’s prohibited under Islamic law. While not binding, Egypt’s banking laws were tightened in September 2020 to prevent trading or promoting cryptos without a license from the Central Bank.

Algeria

Currently, Algeria prohibits the use of any cryptocurrency following the passing of the financial law in 2018 that made it illegal to buy, sell, use or hold digital assets.

Bolivia

There has been an official ban in place on the usage of Bitcoin in Bolivia since 2014. The Bolivian Central Bank issued a resolution banning it and any other currency not regulated by the country or economic zone.

Iran

While the Central Bank of Iran has prohibited the trading of cryptocurrencies mined overseas, it has encouraged Bitcoin mining in the country with incentives. In order to evade the worst impact of crippling economic sanctions, the government has turned to the lucrative practice of Bitcoin mining in order to finance imports.

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Blockchain

Jack Dorsey’s TBD For Decentralized Exchanges For Bitcoin

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Jack Dorsey’s Tbd For Decentralized Exchanges For Bitcoin

Square CEO Jack Dorsey just announced that TBD, Square’s new initiative, will be helping to create a decentralized exchange for Bitcoin.

First time Dorsey talked about TBD was when he tweeted: “Square is creating a new business (joining Seller, Cash App, & Tidal) focused on building an open developer platform with the sole goal of making it easy to create non-custodial, permissionless, and decentralized financial services. Our primary focus is #Bitcoin. Its name is TBD.”

Mike Brock, the TBD lead at Square, was reported to have said they believe Bitcoin will be the native currency of the internet, and while there are many projects to help make the internet more decentralized, their focus is solely on a sound global monetary system for all. However, including all requires a few pieces we think are missing.

He added that to get Bitcoin, individuals have to exchange their fiat currency at a centralized service such as Coinbase or CashApp. However, these face significant issues. He stated that this is the problem they will focus the most on solving. Make it easy to fund a non-custodial wallet anywhere in the world through a platform to build on-and off-ramps into Bitcoin. This can serve as a decentralized exchange for fiat.

About TBD, the speculation around it and the direction that the company would be taking, Brock shared some details. Including that TBD will be developed as an open-source protocol, and all crypto wallets will be able to use the platform. He added that as the company is taking this direction, there were still several gaps regarding scalability and cost and the ability to create the exchange infrastructure needed between cryptocurrencies.

Jack Dorsey, who is also the CEO of Twitter, is a vocal supporter and has stated that Bitcoin has become a huge part of Twitter and its future; having labeled the world’s largest cryptocurrency as one of the major trends relevant to it. He also confirmed that Square is going ahead with its plans of building a hardware wallet for Bitcoin. He has been dropping subtle hints about the platform since. The hardware wallet, like TBD, would be developed in the public domain and would act as an inclusive product that brings a non-custodial solution to the global market.

 

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Blockchain News

Turkey Crypto Investors Scammed Out Of €100 Million

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Turkey Crypto Investors Scammed Out Of €100 Million

A scammer has managed to steal €100 million ($119 million) from investors in Turkey by promising massive returns from Dogecoin mining. The online pseudonym “Turgut V” was identified by the police, who believe he is behind the scheme, according to local news channel TV100.

It is reported that Turgut V and his 11 associates managed to gather almost 350 million Dogecoin valued at $119 million from 1,500 people before disappearing in thin air without a warning. NTV, a Turkish broadcaster, said Turgut V convinced investors through Zoom calls and at in-person networking meetings at privileged locations, to buy Dogecoin and hand them over to invest in mining technology, promising them huge returns. Reports said investors were told they would see a 100% return in 40 days.

One victim said the system was working well for three months and early investors said they received the returns as promised. But after the scheme peaked at 350 million Dogecoin after four months, the funds were said to have disappeared out of thin air. The victims were told that the Dogecoin they sent would buy new equipment to mine DOGE.

An investigation to find Turgut and the 11 associates is underway by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the Istanbul suburb of Küçükçekmece. Turkish authorities have also issued an order to bar Turgut and his partner Gizem N. from leaving the country.

A Little About Dogecoin

Dogecoin was inspired by the popular ‘doge’ meme. It was developed by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, two software engineers who worked for IBM and Adobe respectively in 2013. Dogecoin is currently the seventh largest cryptocurrency. Although it is now one of the most valuable cryptos, it was originally created as a parody of Bitcoin.

Dogecoins are made through a system called Proof of Work mining, the same system used by Bitcoin. Proof of Work means miners are compensated with coins in exchange for validating transactions and by solving equations to build the next block.

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Blockchain News Regulation

Cuba Becomes The Latest Country to Regulate Crypto for Payments

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Cuba Becomes The Latest Country To Regulate Crypto For Payments

Starting today, Cuba has regulated cryptocurrencies for payments on the country in a move that could help to circumvent American sanctions. In a resolution published in the Official Gazette on Thursday, it is said that the Central Bank will set rules for using cryptocurrencies and determine how to license providers of related services within the island country.

The Central American nation of El Salvador has also officially recognized the use of Bitcoin as a way to encourage payments from its citizens living abroad when its crypto law comes into effect on September 7th.

The announcement follows the growing popularity of cryptocurrency in Cuba among technologically savvy groups. It is becoming difficult to send and use US dollars in the country, partly because of the rules imposed under former United States President Donald Trump. In order to bypass the restrictions, Cuba is recognizing and regulating crypto as a means of payments, because they can be used for long-distance transactions that are supposedly anonymous.

While it is expected that President Joe Biden will normalize the two countries’ relations, as former President Barack Obama did, he has so far instead taken a harder line and imposed further sanctions against Cuban officials following crackdowns on rare protests in the country.

The resolution says the Central Bank can authorize use of cryptocurrencies for reasons of socioeconomic interest but with the state assuring that their operations are controlled. It also explicitly notes that operations could not involve illegal activities. It comes into effect on September 15th and it regulates the use of certain virtual assets in commercial transactions, as well as the licensing of providers of these services in operations related to financial, exchange and collection or payment activities in or from Cuban territory.

According to unofficial It is estimated that 10,000 Cubans use Bitcoin, making it one of the most widely used cryptocurrencies in the country.

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Bitcoin News

Fidelity Predicts Bitcoin to reach $100 Million by 2035

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Fidelity Predicts Bitcoin To Reach $100 Million By 2035

The Boston-based investment giant, in its latest special webinar, took a dive into the crypto world–Bitcoin specifically, saying its possible effects on the market.

Fidelity isn’t new to the space as it first started mining Bitcoin (BTC) in 2014 and then Ether as well. Fidelity Digital Assets which is Fidelity’s own crypto arm is a company that builds enterprise-grade Bitcoin custody services for big-time firms. The giant now puts out bullish reports on Bitcoin and sees the leading cryptocurrency hitting a million dollars before the end of the decade and a whooping hundred million in 14 years.

The webinar event was hosted by Jurrien Timmer, the Director of Global Macro Fidelity and he shared several charts that’ll help the entire crowd of audience understand Bitcoin. The prediction was not accepted nicely by most people and it was quick to spark debates and controversies, with some flat-out calling Fidelity out on the most senseless prediction.

One of the charts portrayed Bitcoin’s adoption curve based on active addresses count and compares it with internet users, broadband subscriptions, and mobile phone subscribers. The event also discussed the purchasing power of various assets, apart from Bitcoin, where stocks are the clear winner at $3.9 billion, followed by bonds at $19.9 billion, and cash at $326k compared to the inflation index. The purchasing power of $1 has the least in fiat at a mere $0.02. Even the safe haven, gold, isn’t doing much better at $94 when the inflation index has a reading of $65.

In any case, Bitcoin getting to $100 million in 2035 is highly unlikely logical-wise because that would give it a market cap of $2,100 trillion, and the total wealth of the entire world is only but $418 trillion.

A more likely prediction will be for Bitcoin to hit $300,000 by the end of the decade and $3 million by 2035. It’s what’s believed by most bulls, but I guess we’ll see. For now, Bitcoin is doing good and we can all have some high hopes for the leading digital coin. Just don’t overdo it.

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Blockchain News

AriseCoin CEO Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Fraud

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Arisecoin Ceo Sentenced To 5 Years In Prison For Fraud

Jared Rice, Sr., the inventor of AriseCoin, Jared Rice Dr. has been was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a heist that defrauded investors out of $4.25 million worth of cryptocurrency.

Mr. Rice also settled a civil action involving AriseCoin filed by the SEC’s Fort Worth regional office just last year. He pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud that happened in early 2019 and was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade, who ordered him to pay $4,258,073 in restitution.

Mr. Rice, 33, admitted he lied to his potential investors, claiming that AriseBank, the world’s first decentralized banking platform based on the proprietary digital currency AriseCoin, will offer consumers FDIC-insured accounts and traditional banking services, including Visa-brand credit cards, in addition to cryptocurrency services in his plea papers. 

In reality, AriseBank had not been authorized to conduct any banking in Texas, it was not FDIC-insured, and it did not have any sort of partnership with Visa. Apart from lying about the company’s benefits, Mr. Rice also silently transferred investor funds for his own personal gain. He spent the money he laundered on hotels, food, transportation, a family law attorney, and even a guardian ad litem. These are all facts he hadn’t disclosed to investors.

He also didn’t reveal the fact that he had pleaded guilty to state felony charges in connection with an internet-related business scheme. As for now, hundreds of investors have bought almost $4,250,000 in AriseCoin using cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Litecoin, as well as fiat currency. The FBI’s Dallas Field Office conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mary Walters, Sid Mody, and Erica Hilliard prosecuted the case.

Rice was sentenced to five years in prison afterwards.

Regulation of Cryptocurrency

As cryptocurrencies continue to grow in market cap and influence, whistleblowers will be essential in helping the government catch wrongdoers and prevent fraud. Whistleblowers can also take advantage of the various whistleblower reward programs offered by the SEC, CFTC, and IRS and potentially share in any government recovery.

The SEC, CFTC, and IRS all assert regulatory control over cryptocurrency under certain circumstances. For the SEC, a given cryptocurrency must qualify as a security, or the investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others. The SEC developed its application of this test to cryptocurrency in its now-famous report on The DAO, a German crypto ecosystem. The CFTC also has authority to regulate crypto as a commodity in accordance with the Commodity Exchange Act. The CFTC has recently stated that crypto enforcement is a top priority because of its high risks for investor fraud.

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Blockchain News

Richard Teng To Expand Binance Operations In Singapore

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Richard Teng To Expand Binance Operations In Singapore

Richard Teng was just hired by Binance to be the CEO of their operations in Singapore and expand it in the process.

Binance Singapore is the leading fiat-to-crypto platform for trading cryptocurrencies in SGD (Singapore Dollars). The crypto exchange giant stated on Monday in a press release that they had hired the ex-CEO of Abu Dhabi Global Market to man its operations in Singapore.

During his term as the CEO of ADGM, Teng did played a huge role and drove the force that made the company recognized globally by regulators worldwide. They also gained massive popularity from industry bodies and were tagged in a Forbes article as one of the world’s foremost innovative regulators. ADGM witnessed remarkable development from a newly established financial center to a globally-recognized firm with over almost 3,000 registered licenses.

Teng was the head of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at Abu Dhabi Global Market for six years. Before joining the firm, Richard Teng has been the Chief Regulatory Officer of the Singapore crypto exchange firm SGX where he led a regulatory organization responsible for policy, framework, and rule formulation. Features of the regulatory included clear trading and offering solutions for new products and services. Mr. Teng also spent thirteen years working with Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). He went on later became their Corporate Finance Director.

A newspaper reported that Teng has been talking with Binance Singapore; showing his interest in joining them throughout last week. He is reported to have said that he is happy to join Binance Singapore, especially at this crucial a time for the crypto and blockchain industry. The exchange company welcomed the move as an avenue of crossing over their regulatory curve; something that has been causing great distress for them in the past couple of weeks.

Binance Singapore has plans to offer trading pairs for Bitcoin, Ethereum‘s Ether, and Binance coin. Also mentioned in the Monday press release is that the exchange platform via xFers Direct issues withdrawals and deposits in SGD (Singapore dollar).

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Blockchain News

$97 million Stolen From a Japanese Cryptocurrency Exchange

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$97 Million Stolen From A Japanese Cryptocurrency Exchange

Hackers stole a $97 million worth of Ethereum and other altcoins from a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange. The Tokyo-based firm called Liquid reported in a statement that it had detected unauthorized access of some of the crypto wallets managed by the company.

The cryptocurrency exchange company has been struggling to recover the stolen assets from the minute the heist was made. The company recently announced in a tweet that some of its digital currency wallets have been compromised, making this the second-largest crypto fraud made in recent days. It comes second after the $600 heist from the digital token platform Poly Network just a little over a week ago.

Elliptic, a London-based blockchain analytics firm which helps track stolen cryptocurrencies, made an analysis of the heist and reported that over $97 million worth of crypto have been received by the accounts identified by Liquid as belonging to the thief. Elliptic investigators are also aiding Liquid with tracking the stolen funds at the moment.

Hackers trying to steal cryptocurrencies apparently moves the funds through many different accounts at a super fast speed, that can shoulder hundreds of thousands of transactions at a time, in an attempt to cover their tracks. But industry players too have upped their game. They are gradually becoming better at identifying and blocking stolen coins. Liquid said $16.3 million worth of stolen Ethereum has already been frozen thanks to the help gotten from the crypto community and other exchanges.

A Little About Liquid

Liquid was founded in 2014 and it operates in over 100 countries, serving millions of customers all around the world. It is one of the world’s top 20 biggest cryptocurrency exchanges by daily trading volumes. Liquid is also ranked among the top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges globally based on daily traded spot volume with deep BTC/JPY liquidity. They are focused on providing a great user experience & world-class service levels.

Bottomline is Liquid is a big-time company with pretty tight security, which just seems like the perfect combination hackers are looking for these days. We hope the entire money lost will be gotten back somehow like Poly Network’s was.

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Altcoins Guides & Tutorials

How to Create Your Own Token And Get It Listed

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How To Create Your Own Token And Get It Listed

If your wish is to create a token of your own, then this article is definitely for you. Here you are with this great new business idea or getting ready to launch a startup, ready to embrace the fascinating opportunities of the new world and create your own token. But how exactly do you do that, you wonder? The Internet might be full of information but, as it often happens, it’s refuting and spattered all over the place that sometimes it’s simply hard to understand due to the heavy industry jargon.

Cryptocurrency is a word you can’t avoid these days. It’s everywhere. News, blogs and even big-time financial authorities. Everyone is obsessing over it. you gotta admit the world is changing in front of our eyes. Everyone is hopping on it; for various reasons. buy, sell, hodl, and CREATE.

While several cryptocurrencies have been created over the years, with the most popular ones being Bitcoin and Ethereum. So how does a person creates a crypto token and is it different from a crypto coin?

Both coins and tokens are cryptocurrencies. The only difference is that coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum all run on their own blockchain technology. Blockchain is a digital ledger that stores data related to transactions in blocks. Each block is connected to the previous one with a unique hash code.

Read on to find out everything you need to know about creating your own cryptocurrency.

How to Create a Blockchain

It’s a common misconception that creating your own token will be a long, hard and complicating procedure that requires intricate technical knowledge about coding. That’s not exactly true. It’s pretty easy to create your token. Tokens are a digital class asset that run on top of a pre-existing blockchain. Like Ethereum which is blockchain technology with the native token Ether.

  • Know your use-case and define your objectives clearly at the very beginning.
  • Choose a consensus mechanism.
  • Choose a blockchain platform depending on the consensus mechanism you’ve chosen. A few popular ones are:
  1. Ethereum (market share — 82.70%)
  2. Waves (WAVES)
  3. NEMNxt (NXT)
  4. BlockStarter
  5. EOS
  6. BitShares 2.0
  7. CoinList
  • Design the Nodes. A node is an Internet-connected device supporting a blockchain by performing various tasks, from storing the data to verifying and processing transactions.

How Crypto tokens Are Released

Tokens can be released through a process known as ICO (Initial Coin Offering). The token will be introduced via crowdsales, and one can buy publicly available tokens once the ICO is done. If people get interested, they will invest in or fund the token using existing coins.

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Blockchain News

BNB Trades at $500: How High Can It Go?

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Bnb Trades At $500: How High Can It Go?

The native token of the Binance Smart Chain network is now trading at $500. BNB has been improving over the last couple of weeks along with the altcoin market despite the regulatory scrutiny Binance is facing all over the world. BNB has rallied over 64% in the last 4 weeks from trading at $304 to currently stand at $500.

This price point has not been seen since the crash that happened in May 2021, which sent BNB from an (ATH) all-time high of $690 to a very low price of $262; a 62% decline. The cryptocurrency market capitalization is also up by 2.44% to currently stand at $2.16 trillion as of the time this article was published.

Stats shows bulls have mixed feeling over BNB’s future given Binance’s regulatory troubles and the new mandatory KYC policy that was announced just last week. This is why many have taken more interest in Solana’s native token SOL; a competing smart contract platform, which reached an ATH of $81.81 only three days ago.

BNB’s market capitalization is at approximately $84 billion right now. The altcoin is ranked 4th by market capitalization as Cardano’s ADA flipped BNB for the 3rd spot on news of its smart contract launch.

However, Binance seems to be facing a lot of regulatory pressure which has caused the platform to shut down derivatives trading for its Hong Kong and European clients. On August 18, De Nederlandsche Bank, the Netherlands’ Central Bank, issued a warning to Binance after concluding that the exchange offered crypto services to local residents.

The authority claimed that the company is not acting in compliance to the country’s Anti-Money-Laundering and Anti-Terrorist-Financing Act. Since then, Binance has tried to be more regulatory complaint. The firm made big moves in order to improve its regulatory team by 500% since last year and has plans to improve the team by another 1000% before the year ends.

How High Can BNB Go?

Experts are quite confident that BNB will only grow further. Some believe that BNB will reach $1,000, and even exceed that number, by the end of 2021. Others argued it will take longer, perhaps 5 years or so. That being said, it seems almost certainly that BNB will keep going up. Most experts believe it is a wise investment. The choice is yours because cryptocurrencies are and will always be volatile. No one can ever really be certain about what will happen.

How high BNB can go is anyone’s guess, but predictions are certainly very favorable at this time.

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Bitcoin News

MicroStrategy is Buying Bitcoin Again!

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Michael Saylor of MicroStrategy just announced in a tweet that the company has purchased an additional 3,907 Bitcoins for roughly $177 million in cash. The average price for the Bitcoins purchased was $45,294 per coin which is roughly 7% lower than current levels, but higher than the 50-day moving average of $37,849.

The company now holds 108,992 Bitcoins accumulating to almost $3 billion at an average purchase price of $26,769. They own more Bitcoin than any other public company in the world. Saylor has always been one of the most vocal Bitcoin bulls in the entire crypto industry. He was the one who influenced Tesla to invest $1.5 billion in the digital currency.

However, MicroStrategy’s latest bitcoin purchase is smaller than it’s June buy, when it bought roughly $489 million worth of 13,005 bitcoin. The company have been relentless in its commitment to Bitcoin as it continuously adds up to its holding of the cryptocurrency at different price points. 

MicroStrategy is currently the largest independent publicly-traded business intelligence firm with the leading enterprise analytics platform in the world, and the firm believes that 2021 is the grand year for Bitcoin. MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin purchasing spree started off in December 2020 with an initial $650 million BTC purchase.

It is noticeable that MicroStrategy does not take part in any Bitcoin lending or invest in any other cryptocurrency. The company’s consistent strategy has been to buy Bitcoin with cash, self-custody it and to hodl it indefinitely.

Bitcoin market’s however has position based on market capitalization as it continues to be the supreme king of cryptocurrency. And therefore, the market capitalization of the crypto amounts to over $912 billion. The cryptocurrency is now being acknowledged by more firms around the world.

Think it’s fair to say that Bitcoin has a huge potential of becoming the future of the payment system of the world. Today, the price of BTC swings between $49.4k to $49.8k and $50.1k with a 30-day growth rate of over 35.3%.

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Blockchain News

$610 Million Stolen Cryptocurrency Finally Returned by Hacker

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$610 Million Stolen Cryptocurrency Finally Returned By Hacker

The hacker behind a the biggest cryptocurrency heist of all time finally returns all of the stolen funds.

Widely known as Mr. White Hat, the hacker began returning assets almost instantly after the heist was revealed, evidently moving funds little by little. On Monday morning, Poly Network, a decentralized finance platform, or DeFi, that works across blockchains, was contacted by the hacker, who provided a private key to the remainder of the outstanding funds.

Poly Network lets people swap tokens across multiple blockchains, including popular cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum. “At this point, all the user assets that were transferred during the incident have been fully recovered,” the company said and added that it’s now working to return the assets to their owners.

The decentralized finance platform had reported earlier this month that over $600 million USD in various cryptocurrencies was stolen by a hacker. The heist was considered to be one the largest ever made. The hacker had exploited a vulnerability in the Poly Network’s code and that was what allowed them to transfer the funds.

$273 million of Ethereum tokens, $253 million in tokens on Binance Smart Chain and $85 million in USDC on the Polygon network was stolen in the first attack.

For several weeks, Poly Network kept in touch with the hacker, and even offered them a $500,000 bug bounty to return the stolen funds and inviting them to act as the company’s chief security advisor. The company additionally promised to release an additional bounty program worth $500,000 on the Immunefi platform meant to encourage researchers to find and report additional security flaws in the code.

The hacker promptly turned down the bounty and in returning some of the final funds, they even left a message for the platform apologizing for the inconvenience and asking it to share out the assets to the victims of the hack. It’s not exactly clear why the hacker decided to return the money all of a sudden, but it is reported that there was a message included in the digital currency transaction by an anonymous person who claimed to be the hacker. They said the reason for returning the money was because they wanted to quit the show. 

The person added that, “My actions, which may be considered weird, are my efforts to contribute to the security of the Poly project in my personal style.”

Some people are starting to suspect that the whole scenario is a PR stunt.

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Blockchain News

PayPal Extends its Cryptocurrency Services to the United Kingdom

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Paypal Extends Its Cryptocurrency Services To The United Kingdom

PayPal just announced that it’s expanding its cryptocurrency services for customers in the United Kingdom, which will support four kinds of cryptocurrencies and allow users to track crypto prices in real-time. The four currencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.

The same service was extended to the US customers almost a year ago and just like in the US, the service will allow users to sell, hold and buy the four supported cryptocurrencies with purchase amounts starting at £1.

Transaction fees starts from £0.5 for amounts up to £25. For amounts higher than that, PayPal will take transaction fees spanning from1.5 percent to 2.3 percent. The rest of the press release and the main crypto page focuses on educating users about crypto and warning about its risks. Users can also track cryptocurrency prices via the PayPal app and access all kinds of info regarding risks and opportunities.

PayPal have high hopes that the service to do really well in the United Kingdom, like it has been doing in the U.S. The demand for cryptocurrency products has multiplied by ten folds. This is because the company puts growing importance on easing the way of customers into crypto. The service in the U.K. will begin rolling out later this week.

PayPal blockchain, crypto and digital currencies VP and GM Jose Fernandez da Ponte wrote and it’s quoted: “The pandemic has accelerated digital change and innovation across all aspects of our lives— including the digitization of money and greater consumer adoption of digital financial services. Our global reach, digital payments expertise, and knowledge of consumer and businesses, combined with rigorous security and compliance controls provides us the unique opportunity, and the responsibility, to help people in the U.K. to explore cryptocurrency. We are committed to continue working closely with regulators in the UK, and around the world, to offer our support—and meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”  

Paypal’s going to keep using Paxos as one of their key partners to offer this service. Paxos, a regulated cryptocurrency company based in NYC, have already contacted regulators in the U.K. regarding this service, to ensure they are in compliance with the law.

Paypal isn’t only limiting itself to offering investment services to its customers, it is also shifting its service to offer cryptocurrency payment processing. On March 30, the company announced it had launched a new service called Checkout With Crypto. The service enables users to make crypto payments at millions of online stores.

In any case, the payment processor giant still functions as a closed network. That means it doesn’t allow its customers to withdraw purchased cryptocurrencies to third-party wallets; something that has earned them a ton of criticism from bulls around the world.

Either way, the anticipated service to be launched is a positive news and we can’t wait to see how incredible it’ll do.

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Bitcoin News

Bitcoin Crosses the $50k Mark

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Bitcoin Crosses The $50k Mark

After an ongoing recovery from a disorderly rout just three months ago, Bitcoin has finally crossed $50,000 again. The largest virtual coin has advanced as much as 4.2% to almost $50,019.20 this morning.

BTC traded 2.42% higher at $49,915.30 over 24 hours at press time. For the week, the apex cryptocurrency traded 4.97% higher. Since the year began, BTC has gained 70.28%. Bitcoin last traded above the $50,000 mark in May.

Other tokens like Ether and Cardano’s ADA are also rising. The comeback from the virtual currencies has excited the spirits of bulls to have increasing faith in Bitcoin. Predictions of Bitcoin hitting $100,000 is back in fashion as we see the volatile asset carving out a wider trading range.

We’re seeing some very bullish signs here, people. Bitcoin is likely to reach or even breach its all-time high again, especially pushing past levels that some had seen as major challenges.

Bitcoin hit a record of almost $65,000 back in April which was driven by a tide of liquidity, fast-money bets and optimism about growing demand from institutional investors. Optimistic views from the likes of billionaire Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and the direct listing of several digital-currency platforms like Coinposters also fueled the outcome.

But pessimisms and criticisms later emerged, including an turn-about from the Tesla CEO, which focused (in part) on the environmental cost of the energy consumed by the computers that underpin Bitcoin. Bitcoin collapsed below $30,000 after a crypto retreat in May. The recovery since then has seen the value of more than 9,000 digital tokens reach about $2.2 trillion from $1.2 trillion in just a month.

Bulls haven’t taken to heart more recent comments from Elon Musk, Ark Investment Management’s Cathie Wood as well as the conjecture over Amazon’s possible involvement in the crypto sector. The Tesla CEO had said last month that he’d like to see the token succeed and he has personally bought Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin. Ark’s Wood also said that companies might want to consider adding Bitcoin to their assets and liabilities.

It is clear that Bitcoin is getting closer and closer to the higher end of what was speculated as a new trading range has gone quickly from the lower $40,000s to lower $50,000s. Apart from the largest coin, Ether has also been climbing, increased by an upgrade to its fundamental network that signals a more impelling supply of the token. 

Categories
Blockchain DeFi News News Technology

Google Play Has Taken Down 8 fake Cryptocurrency Mining Apps

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Google Play Has Taken Down 8 Fake Cryptocurrency Mining Apps

Google has just taken down 8 applications that were promoted as cryptocurrency mining apps only to be found malicious and run by hackers. You might want to delete these apps; if you have any of them downloaded:

  • BitFunds – Crypto Cloud Mining
  • Bitcoin Miner – Cloud Mining
  • Bitcoin (BTC) – Pool Mining Cloud Wallet
  • Crypto Holic – Bitcoin Cloud Mining 
  • Daily Bitcoin Rewards – Cloud Based Mining System
  • Bitcoin 2021, MineBit Pro – Crypto Cloud Mining & BTC miner 
  • Ethereum (ETH) – Pool Mining Cloud.

As cryptocurrencies are gaining a vast popularity around the world, fraudsters has decided to do what they do best; which is take advantage of a trending digital cash system to launder money online. 

Trend Micro, a security firm, has managed to discovered how the fake crypto mining apps were tricking netizens into watching ads, paying for subscription services that have an average monthly fee of $15, and paying for increased mining capabilities without getting anything in return.

Trend Micro filed a report of its findings to Google, which took action almost immediately by taking down the apps from its Play Store. 

The report highlighted that despite the fact that the apps weren’t associated with cloud mining operations or having any cryptocurrency mining features. Some of the apps were prompting users to pay for increased cryptocurrency-mining capabilities through the applications’ in-app billing systems that range from as low as $15 to as high as $190.

Although the apps are no longer on Play Store, they have have already been downloaded by users worldwide on their smartphones . According to the report, two of these aren’t even even apps so users has to purchase them in order to use. The paid apps include Crypto Holic – Bitcoin Cloud Mining which costs US$12.99 to download, and Daily Bitcoin Rewards – Cloud Based Mining System which costs US$5.99.”

Trend Micro pointed out that upon searching “cloud mining” on Google Play, it discovered several “concerning applications” of the same concept still roaming on the platform. 

“Some of these apps have even been downloaded more than 100,000 times,” they said.

Trend Micro Mobile App Reputation Service (MARS) data went further to discover that over 120 fake cryptocurrency mining apps are still available online. These apps do not have cryptocurrency mining capabilities and were fashioned to deceive users into watching in-app ads. This has affected more than 4,500 users globally from July 2020 to July 2021.

Some of these apps can still be found on Play Store’s finance category. Trend Micro experts have however found after going through one of these apps’ terms of use that it was designated as a game that claims to not have any cryptocurrency-mining functionality.

This means it is not required to issue cryptocurrency payments to any users. It also does not guarantee a firm return for any virtual goods and features purchased in the app. Trend Micro’s report also found out that some of these malicious apps trick its users to click on ads instead of prodding them to pay for increased computing power.

To avoid falling victim to such fraudulent apps, it is advised that netizens turn to security solutions that can alert users of fraudulent applications.

Categories
Blockchain News Press Release

Binance has Enforced Stricter KYC Requirements

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Binance Has Enforced Stricter Kyc Requirements

Binance has announced that all existing users who have not completed intermediate verification will have their accounts’ permission temporarily changed to ‘withdrawal only’ until they do so.

The altcoin has been facing criticism and backlash from various countries. Some of which are the U.S, U.K, Germany, and Italy among others. In an attempt to remedy some of the ongoing scrutiny, Binance has publicly announced KYC requirements for all users on its platform.

The statement asserts that all new users are required to complete intermediate verification to access Binance products and service offerings. That includes cryptocurrency deposits, trades and withdrawals.

For old users who have not completed their intermediate verification, the announcement stated that they will have their account permissions temporarily changed to ‘withdraw only.’

The announcement also stated that old users who were previously allowed to trade without intermediate verification will only be allowed to process withdrawals, order cancellation, position close, and redemption.

Binance’s Take

Binance strongly advise its users to complete their intermediate verification as the change in policy will be rolled out in phases in order to minimize disruptions in user experience. However, it also assured that immediate KYC verifications will allow the users to have complete access to their products and services.

The closing statement in the announcement said that Binance is announcing these measures to help support its efforts in KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering). This will further enhance user protection and combat financial crime.

It is clear that Binance is making strong changes to its policies to enable it operate smoothly and have a better relationship with regulators in numerous countries. Binance has amped up efforts to counter the criticism its business operations currently face, mainly from regulators around the world.

Earlier, CEO Changpeng Zhao even announced that the daily withdrawal limit for unverified Binance users dropped to 0.06 Bitcoin from the previous limit of 2 Bitcoin. Binance stated it had increased its compliance team by 500% since 2020. It has also recently added a former US Treasury Criminal Investigator, Greg Monahan, to be the company’s GMLRO (Global Money Laundering Reporting Officer).

Binance’s native token, BNB, is currently at $446, up approximately 6% for the day, at the time this article was written.

A Little About Binance

Binance is the world’s leading blockchain and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider with a financial product suite that includes the largest digital asset exchange by volume. It’s trusted by millions worldwide. The Binance platform is dedicated to increasing the freedom of money for users, and features an unmatched portfolio of crypto products and offerings. It includes trading and finance, education, data and research, social good, investment and incubation, decentralization and infrastructure solutions, and more. For more information about Binance, visit https://www.binance.com.

About KYC

KYC is an acronym for ‘Know Your Customer’. It refers to a mandatory verification of a customer’s identity, typically by a financial institution. It includes information that can be used to verify your identity, like a valid identification card, utility bills with your house address, social security number, etc.

Customers are typically required to submit KYC details during financial account opening and at times, when there has been a change in the information. For example, if you change your name officially a few months after creating your account, you are going to be required to update your KYC information. 

Why KYC Is Important in Crypto

If you do not complete the KYC process, you will not be able to access all the features on a cryptocurrency exchange and many finance platforms. For example, Binance allows customers to create accounts, use basic functions and perform limited transactions without submitting KYC information. In order to gain full access and increase higher deposits and withdrawal limits, customers will need to complete the KYC verification process.

Categories
Bitcoin Blockchain News

Bitcoin Is Hitting $50k Again!

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How Cross-chain Liquidity Aggregation Can Shape The Future Of Defi?

Cryptocurrency prices continue to be green as Bitcoin manages to flip all skeptics and surge back, making it obvious that the leading altcoin is going to hit $50,000 again pretty soon.

Many traders expected Bitcoin prices to further or consolidate  around its $30,000 mark, but alas, Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency market has managed to show great signs of a comeback. Today, Bitcoin’s price is well above $49,000, and it seems like it is eyeing its previous all-time high price of 65K. But can it? 

Prices have been falling very low since May 2021 where Bitcoin reached the bottom price of $28,700 from its all-time high price of $65,000. Soon, it spiraled even lower and entered a downtrend channel.

It reached bottom for the last time on July 20th, as prices began skyrocketing, hitting $40,000 in just one week. After a brief correction, prices continued on their uptrend and are almost around the Bitcoin $50K mark.

A confirmation of the end of the downtrend was seen clearly at the beginning of August 2021, where prices dawdled for some time before moving higher.

The Crypto Market Today

The cryptocurrency market managed to reach and breach the $2 Trillion market capitalization in the past week or so. The top gainers are AVAX, AUDIO, and AR. They gained respectively 165%, 90%, and 85%. On the other hand, CEL, BTT, and HOT lost the most, specifically -7% each.

1– Bitcoin (BTC) : + 5.05 %

2- Ether (ETH) : + 0.73 %

3- Cardano (ADA) : + 12.42 % 

4- Binance Coin (BNB): + 11.37 % 

5- Tether (USDT) : 0 %

6- Ripple (XRP) : + 2.61 %

7- Dogecoin (DOGE) : + 12.47 % 

8- Polkadot (DOT): + 26.67 %

9- USD Coin (USDC) : + 0 %

10- Solana (SOL) : + 71.80 %

Can/Should You Buy Bitcoin Today?

Looking at how Bitcoin’s price is increasing along with the critical level it reached, it’s not entirely advisable for you to buy the altcoins at their current price. This zone represents a strong resistance, and prices are highly likely to adjust following this extended uptrend.

Just like you shouldn’t let a price drop influence your decision to buy crypto, don’t let a sudden price increase alter your investment strategy. You should continue to hold and not worry about any fluctuations because it doesn’t matter if Bitcoin is going up or down. The best thing you can do is set it and forget it, like you would with any traditional long-term investment.

Here is to hoping Bitcoin reaches and breaches its all-time high before the year ends.

Categories
Blockchain News

Binance Suspends Futures Trading Features for Brazil Clients

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Binance Suspends Futures Trading Features For Brazil Clients

Binance suspends futures trading features for Brazil clients on Friday 21st August 2021, in an attempt to comply with the local regulations of the country.

Dating back to July 2020, Binance was subpoenaed by the CVM and asked to suspend its futures trading features for Brazilians, as the brokerage firm operated without authorization to do so.

Binance reportedly said, “To respect the Brazilian order, we have implemented restrictions on our website and stopped marketing on the derivatives products. If there are new changes, we will evaluate and proactively engage with the relevant stakeholders to find the optimal solutions for the local users. We will share more information if and when we have a decision and are ready to announce.”

The latest move in Brazil comes as no surprise. Binance has been reducing its product offering following backlash from global regulatory bodies across the globe. Recently, it announced that all users will be required to verify themselves through the exchange in order to make use of its services.

The announcement states that the move was to further enhance user protection. The Brazil suspension is a clear indication that the exchange is pushing for global adaptation and regulatory-friendly conditions in an attempt to continue operating on a global scale. 

Brazil Wants to Regulate the Crypto Industry

Brazil wants to regulate cryptocurrencies more closely. Roberto Campos Neto, said at an online event held on Thursday that the central bank and CVM are discussing the regulation of cryptocurrencies. He states that local regulations should facilitate investors’ demand for cryptocurrencies.

The Central Bank President seems to believe that cryptocurrencies will play a huge role in payment platforms. He believes that the industry is key to the growth of digital payments within the country. He said, “It is important to report that this arises from a need that people have for payments to be fast, open, secure and with transparency in all senses.”

 

 

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