roadrunner

Itau Unibanco, one of the biggest Brazilian banks, has announced it will offer cryptocurrency custody services in 2023. Itau Digital Assets, the cryptocurrency unit of the company, will be responsible for this offering, which will be first available to customers of the bank, and then to third parties as a service. Brazilian Bank Itau Unibanco to Debut Crypto Custody Offering Itau Unibanco, one of the largest private banks in Brazil and Latam, has decided to step into the crypto-related services business. The company announced on Nov. 17, 2022, that it plans to launch cryptocurrency custody services in 2023. Itau Digital Assets, the division of the company that deals with all things crypto, will be in charge of the tech behind this solution. For Itau Unibanco, custody services are an important part of the security framework that third-party companies can offer users. On this, Itau Unibanco’s product manager Eric Alftafim told O Globo: Custody is a fundamental element in this context, because, especially in a new market like crypto assets, it brings security to investors. We will safeguard customer assets in a reliable environment. The cryptocurrency custody service will be implemented in two phases. The first phase will allow customers of the bank to contract these services. The second phase will extend these services to third parties including other companies and institutions. Itau Unibanco expects to launch its custody solution in Q2 2023. However, the company did not reveal the assets supported by its solution. While Itau Unibanco is one of the first banks to announce this kind of service, it is not the first in Brazil. BTG Pactual, another institution in Brazil, debuted its cryptocurrency custody services as part of the launch of its own crypto exchange, called mint, in August. Itau’s Cryptocurrency Journey This is not the first time that Itau Unibanco flirts with crypto. The company announced that it might introduce cryptocurrency trading for its customers on July 14. In the same way, the bank is also operating a tokenization unit, that allows customers to issue tokens representing real-world assets in the bank’s own exchange. Itau Unibanco is also part of this year’s LIFT Lab, where a series of institutions present their projects with the idea of innovating the current finance system. The company was selected to present a Brazilian real pegged stablecoin solution, that could allow for quick exchange between tokens representing other fiat currencies in a decentralized finance environment. What do you think about Itau Unibanco’s new cryptocurrency custody service? Tell us in the comment section below. View the full article

The regulatory body overseeing the crypto market in Uzbekistan has issued licenses to two companies that will be providing exchange services. The decision to authorize their activities aims to make it easier for Uzbekistanis to purchase and sell digital currencies, the agency said. 2 Crypto Exchanges Licensed to Trade Coins in Uzbekistan Uzbekistan’s National Agency of Perspective Projects (NAPP) has granted licenses to two entities established to offer cryptocurrency exchange. Crypto Trade NET and Crypto Market have been registered as “service providers in the field of crypto assets turnover,” the authority announced. The NAPP, which is subordinated to the presidency in Tashkent, is the main regulator for the Central Asian nation’s crypto sector. “The Republic of Uzbekistan is one of the few countries in the world that has a well-formed framework for regulating the circulation of crypto assets,” the agency noted. The regulator is referring to several presidential decrees and resolutions issued to determine its responsibilities and develop the country’s digital economy, including the crypto space. They introduced rules for the licensing of businesses dealing with cryptocurrencies. Earlier his year, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree expanding the regulatory framework which provided legal definitions for crypto assets, exchange, and mining. The government also adopted new registration rules for miners and introduced monthly fees for crypto companies. While Uzbekistan already has one cryptocurrency exchange, the government-controlled Uznex, the two licensed companies will work as digital money exchangers or “crypto shops” as defined by the regulations. “It should be emphasized that Crypto Trade NET LLC and Crypto Market LLC became the first crypto shops in the CIS and Central Asia,” the NPP insisted and elaborated: Crypto shops are designed to provide easier access for citizens to buy or sell crypto assets. The National Agency of Perspective Projects also urged Uzbekistani citizens “to be as vigilant as possible” and avoid using the services of online trading platforms that don’t have a license to operate in the country. In August, the authority started restricting access to foreign-based crypto trading websites. The measures affected even well-known global platforms like the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance. However, this month the NAPP unblocked Bestchange.ru, a popular exchange aggregator in Russia and the former-Soviet space. Do you think Uzbekistan will license more crypto service providers in the coming months? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

The Brazilian cryptocurrency bill, sidelined several times due to the general election ballot that happened on October 30, might be discussed and voted on during the following week. According to reports, the project identified as 4.401/2021 will be on the agenda for being discussed by the Chamber of Deputies, marked as urgent, and listed to be discussed on Nov. 22. Brazilian Cryptocurrency Bill Back on Agenda The Brazilian cryptocurrency bill, a project that seeks to regulate the actions of cryptocurrency exchanges and custody agents, as well as establish clear cryptocurrency mining rules, will be on the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies next week. The bill, which had been sidelined before the general ballot that happened on Oct. 20, is slated to be discussed on Nov. 22. The bill might be discussed and voted on if the chamber decides that it is of importance, as the document is the fourth item in the list to be discussed in that session. Still, deputies can change the agenda of the day, and postpone the discussion of the bill, as has happened in several opportunities before. According to local reports, there might be a window of opportunity for the project to be discussed, due to the laws that are currently being discussed in the Senate. However, others key actors have disregarded this possibility, as president Lula’s takeover might bring important changes to the budget law for 2023, requiring attention from both chambers. Crypto Personalities Talk on Speeding Regulation Due to FTX’s Downfall The events surrounding the withdrawal pause and the subsequent bankruptcy of FTX, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, made several personalities in the cryptocurrency industry in Brazil touch on the importance of the approval of the bill. Roberto Dagnoni, CEO of 2TM, the holding company of Mercado Bitcoin, one of the biggest exchanges in Brazil, stated: If there is a good side, it would be that it gets the law prioritized. The rules that currently exist have not been applicable to some players, so they can do whatever you want. This (law) would change a lot. Brazil is one of the countries that have been more affected by FTX’s debacle. Per Coingecko’s numbers, Brazil would be the tenth more affected country on the list, with Brazilians already organizing to take legal action in several jurisdictions. A proposed class action lawsuit will group customers with more than $100,000 on the exchange to try to recoup some of the losses. What do you think about the new opportunity that the Brazilian Congress has to approve the cryptocurrency bill? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

On Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, Bitcoin’s difficulty rise erased the recent 0.20% decline recorded two weeks ago, as the difficulty metric rose by 0.51% at block height 764,064. The increase on Sunday has pushed the difficulty rating to another all-time high, from 36.76 trillion to the current 36.95 trillion. Bitcoin Difficulty Reaches All-Time High Nearing 37 Trillion, Leading Crypto Asset’s Fiat Value Sinks Lower Today it is 0.51% more difficult to find a Bitcoin (BTC) block reward than it was for the last two weeks or 2,016 processed blocks. The 0.51% increase has propelled the difficulty to a lifetime high at 36.95 trillion, outpacing the previous high recorded on Oct. 23, 2022. The difficulty increased during this retarget because block intervals were less than the ten-minute average, at nine minutes and 58 seconds. The average hashrate for the last 2,016 blocks was around ​​264.3 exahash per second (EH/s). On Sunday, around 7:15 p.m. (ET), the global hashrate is around 261.29 EH/s and eight days ago on Nov. 12, 2022, at block height 762,845, Bitcoin’s hashrate tapped an all-time high at 347.16 EH/s. The next difficulty adjustment is due on or around Dec. 4, 2022, and the current block generation time following the change is nine minutes and 26 seconds. The difficulty change is not good for bitcoin miners and BTC’s current fiat value isn’t helping miners either. Hash Price per Exahash Slides, Bitcoin Miners Deploy 8.25K Bitcoin to ‘Shore up’ Balance Sheets Bitcoin’s current value is more than 76% lower than the all-time high recorded on Nov. 10, 2021. The onchain analysis firm Glassnode explained on Nov. 18, 2022, that the bitcoin miner hash price has dropped to a lifetime low. “[Bitcoin] miner hash price has plunged to a new all-time low of $58.3k per exahash per day,” Glassnode tweeted. “With [bitcoin] prices now down over 76% from the peak, the mining industry remains under immense pressure,” the firm added. Since Glassnode’s tweet, the hash price per exahash has dropped even lower on Nov 20. “As news of the FTX fallout broke last week, bitcoin miners distributed an additional 8.25K [bitcoin] to shore up their balance sheets. This leaves around 78K [bitcoin] in miner treasuries, and erases all balance growth in 2022,” Glassnode added. Three-day statistics recorded on Sunday show that Foundry USA has been the top mining pool with around 71.76 EH/s or 27.36% of the global hashrate. Foundry is followed by Antpool’s 46.43 EH/s, F2pool’s 40.40 EH/s, and Binance Pool’s 37.99 EH/s. Foundry, Antpool, and F2pool are followed by Viabtc and Braiins Pool, respectively. There are 13 known mining pools dedicating hashrate to the BTC chain, and unknown hashrate otherwise known as stealth miners, command 2.76% of the global hashrate or 7.24 EH/s. Miners successfully mined 435 bitcoin blocks which equates to 2,718.75 freshly minted BTC worth $44 million, and the fees associated with those blocks. What do you think about Bitcoin’s mining difficulty rising by 0.51% on Sunday evening? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

A special council under Ukraine’s securities regulator will be tasked to develop rules for crypto taxation in the country. The new body will be also responsible for coordinating the regulation of various crypto activities and adjustments to the applicable legislation. Advisory Board to Take On Matters Related to Cryptocurrency Taxation in Ukraine The National Securities and Stock Market Commission of Ukraine (NSSMC) has set up an advisory council that will be entrusted with the further development of the regulations for the digital asset market in the Eastern European nation. The new board’s first task will be to prepare amendments to the country’s Tax Code reflecting the specifics of taxing cryptocurrency transactions, the authorities in Kyiv said in an announcement published before the weekend. The changes are necessary in order to enforce Ukraine’s law “On Virtual Assets,” which was adopted in September 2021 and signed after revisions by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March, this year. The council will draft the respective amendments to the VA law, too. According to the NSSMC, the law will be finalized taking into account the provisions of the European Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, the crypto news outlet Forklog noted in a report. The board, expected to “provide quality expertise and professional evaluation,” will also coordinate efforts of government institutions in finding solutions for other issues pertaining to the regulation of activities in the crypto market. The body will comprise representatives of relevant regulatory bodies, leading market experts and other interested participants. “The opinion of all parties to the process is important and interesting for the Commission, so it is ready for an open and constructive dialogue,” the statement emphasized. Amid an ongoing war with Russia, Ukraine has been relying on crypto donations to fund its defense and humanitarian efforts. Before the conflict started in late February, the country had already established itself as a regional leader in terms of crypto adoption. Do you expect Ukraine to quickly regulate the taxation of crypto transactions amid ongoing hostilities with Russia? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) says India is currently not a viable business environment for his cryptocurrency exchange, citing a strict tax regime. The executive explained: “Binance goes to countries where regulations are pro-crypto and pro-business.” Binance’s CEO on Indian Crypto Environment The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), does not currently see India as a viable country to expand his crypto exchange operations. He detailed at a Techcrunch Crypto conference Thursday: To be honest, I don’t think India is a very crypto-friendly environment. Zhao is particularly discouraged by the crypto tax regime that the government of India implemented earlier this year. In addition to taxing crypto income at 30%, crypto transactions are subject to a 1% tax deduction at the source (TDS). Citing India’s aggressive tax environment, the Binance CEO said: “If you are going to tax 1% on each transaction, there is not going to be that many transactions.” He stressed: A user could trade 50 times a day and they will lose like 70% of their money. There is not going to be any volume for an order book type of exchange. So we don’t see a viable business in India today. “We just have to wait. We are in conversation with a number of industry associations and influential people and trying to put some logic there,” CZ continued. “We are trying to get this message across, but tax policies typically take a long time to change,” Zhao cautioned, adding: Binance goes to countries where regulations are pro-crypto and pro-business. We don’t go to countries where we won’t have a sustainable business — or any business, regardless of whether or not we go. Several other global cryptocurrency exchanges have attempted to launch in India, including the Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The exchange tried to launch in India in April but soon halted services. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in May that the firm disabled its support for the local payments system UPI “because of some informal pressure from the Reserve Bank of India.” While cryptocurrency income and transactions are taxed, India still does not have a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency. The Indian finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, previously said that crypto regulation will be one of the topics of focus during India’s G20 presidency. The government hopes to establish a tech-driven regulatory framework for crypto after discussing it with other G20 countries. What do you think about the comments by Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Amazon founder and former chief executive Jeff Bezos has given some advice to consumers and small businesses about what they should do given that the U.S. economy is either already in a recession or is headed into one “very soon.” The billionaire said: “The economy does not look great right now. Things are slowing down. You’re seeing layoffs in many, many sectors of the economy.” Jeff Bezos on U.S. Economy and How People Should Prepare for a Recession Jeff Bezos, founder and former CEO of retail giant Amazon, shared his view about the U.S. economy heading into a recession and what consumers and small businesses should do in an interview with CNN last week. Responding to a question about whether the U.S. is in a recession and what his advice would be for small businesses, the billionaire, who currently serves as Amazon’s executive chair, cautioned: The economy does not look great right now. Things are slowing down. You’re seeing layoffs in many, many sectors of the economy. While admitting that he does not know “whether we are technically in a recession,” citing that economists have argued over that topic, he emphasized: “The probabilities say if we are not in a recession right now, we are likely to be in one very soon.” “My advice to people,” including small business owners, is “take some risks off the table,” Bezos said, adding: If you were going to make a purchase, maybe slow down that purchase a little bit. Keep some dry powder on hand, wait a bit, and see. Try to reduce some risk in your business or your life. “If you are an individual and you’re thinking of buying a large screen TV, maybe slow that down, keep that cash, and see what happens. Same thing with a refrigerator or a new car, whatever, just take some risk off the table,” Bezos advised. “If you are a small business, maybe delay some capital purchases … have some cash on hand. Just a little bit of risk reduction can make a difference for that small business if we do get into even more serious economic problems. You’ve got to play probabilities a little bit,” the Amazon executive chair suggested. Bezos was also asked about how long he thinks this recession could last. “I don’t think even the most experienced economist in the world could answer that question,” he responded, elaborating: You just have to try and be reasonable about it, take as much risk off the table as you can …. hope for the best but prepare for the worst. In October, Bezos commented on Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon stating that there is a good chance of a recession. The Amazon executive tweeted at the time: “Yep, the probabilities in this economy tell you to batten down the hatches.” A recent survey shows that 98% of chief executives are preparing for a U.S. recession. Some people are expecting a severe recession, such as renowned investor Jim Rogers who believes that it will be the worst recession in his lifetime. Economist Peter Schiff warned that the Federal Reserve’s action could lead to market crashes, a massive financial crisis, and a severe recession. However, the White House is not preparing for a recession. President Joe Biden recently claimed that the U.S. economy is “strong as hell.” What do you think about the comments by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO and the new owner of Twitter, have addressed suggestions that the social media platform should have less anonymity. Clinical psychologist Dr. Jordan B. Peterson is among the users who want less anonymity on the platform while Dorsey believes it would be a big mistake to impose a policy allowing less anonymity. Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey Discuss Twitter’s Anonymity The topic of how much anonymity Twitter should allow its users to have has been heavily discussed on the social media platform. Clinical psychologist Dr. Jordan B. Peterson is among the Twitter users who want less anonymity on the platform. On Friday, he tweeted to Elon Musk, who recently bought Twitter for $44 billion: Don’t allow the anonymous troll-demons to post with the real verified people. Peterson added: “Put them in their own hell, along with others like them: LOL LULZ BRO BRUH hyper-users are narcissistic, Machiavellian, psychopathic and sadistic.” In a follow-up tweet, the psychologist wrote: “And they’re driving polarization and destabilizing the entire domain of public discourse.” He further told Musk: “Virtualization enables psychopathy.” At the time of writing, Peterson’s original tweet has garnered nearly 6K comments and has been liked 12.6K times. Among those who agreed with him was Twitter user Lucid Fitzpatrick who tweeted that he totally agreed that less anonymity is needed on Twitter. However, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey quickly warned that having less anonymity would be a mistake for the social media platform. Musk then clarified: “Verification through the payment system plus phones, but allowing pseudonyms is the least bad solution I can think of.” Many people agreed with Dorsey that having less anonymity would be a huge mistake for the social media platform. Several bitcoin proponents have stressed the importance of voicing opinions anonymously. One Twitter user described: “The reason we’re anonymous on Twitter is the same reason Satoshi [Nakamoto] was anonymous.” Another Twitter user opined: “Taking away anonymity will kill Twitter. Anonymity is absolutely mandatory to allow freedom of expression and freedom of existence. Discoveries, problem-solving and learning, and investigative activities only blossom under anonymity on the internet. Otherwise, they would be dead.” A third user stressed: Without the anonymity Twitter will absolutely die. Replying to Peterson, Dorsey, and Musk, the pro-bitcoin CEO of Microstrategy, Michael Saylor, detailed: “The problem isn’t the anonymity, it is the lack of meaningful consequences in the event of malicious behavior. If Twitter requires verified accounts to post a security deposit and forfeit those funds for malicious/bot/spam behavior, we can have civil discourse & respect privacy.” Do you think Twitter should have less anonymity? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Following the highly criticized New York Times article that features commentary from the former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the public continues to give the mainstream media flak for publishing “puff pieces” about SBF and the Alameda Research executive Caroline Ellison. A number of articles have been called out for being too lenient on the former FTX and Alameda executives and even going as far complimenting the individuals. Critics Say Specific FTX-Related Articles Published by Forbes, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal Give Praise to FTX and Alameda Execs On Nov. 15, 2022, Bitcoin.com News published an article about the criticism a New York Times (NYT) article received after it published an article that said the former FTX executive Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was sleeping better and playing video games. People were not too pleased with the NYT article, and critics said at the time that the news publication went soft on SBF. The NYT article is not the only editorial that mainstream media (MSM) outlets have published that has caught flak for being soft on former FTX and Alameda executives and even praising the individuals. For instance, critics slammed the Washington Post’s Dan Diamond for his report called “Before FTX collapse, founder poured millions into pandemic prevention.” Diamond’s report highlights SBF’s significant donations toward initiatives that would prevent another pandemic like Covid-19. However, when the Washington Post tweeted Diamond’s story, the news outlet was dunked on for giving SBF praise. “Stop making him look noble. He was a crook running a Ponzi scheme,” on individual wrote to the Washington Post (WP). Another person replied to the WP’s tweet and said: “Where is the part that says ‘This Is a Sponsored Post.’” The economist and trader Alex Krüger also knocked the WP article when he tweeted: Incredible. The @washingtonpost also decided to write about FTX as if it were the case of a well intentioned charitable entrepreneur, rather than what it is: the most egregious financial fraud of the 21th century. What a disgrace. Public Opinion Has Spoken: No One Cares That Alameda’s Top Exec Was a ‘Harry Potter Fan’ or So-Called ‘Math Whiz’ Some people called the Washington Post reporters clowns, and numerous people called Diamond’s reporting a “puff piece.” The NYT article and the Washington Post editorial were not the only articles condemned for singing praise to FTX and Alameda executives. A Forbes article was also slammed for propping up the former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison. At the time, the Twitter account called “Unusual Whales” tweeted: “This is wild by Forbes. Caroline Ellison is called a ‘math whiz’ and a person who ‘takes big risks.’” Unusual Whales added: Rather than being called an individual who went against FTX’s own terms of services, allegedly used customer funds, and has not faced recourse. Furthermore, when Forbes shared the article on Twitter, the description said that the FTX story was a “new darling of the alt-right.” One person wrote: “What happened to Forbes? They used to be better.” “This spin is ridiculous. Caroline is ridiculed by everyone on the right and left,” Wayne Vaughan tweeted in reply to the Forbes’ take on Caroline Ellison. The whistleblower known as “Fatman” also shared his two cents on the MSM stories covering SBF and Alameda’s Ellison. He also shared a screenshot of a reporter from Forbes that wanted to report on Ellison in a “nuanced way.” “I believe someone is funding a media campaign to influence the narrative around the FTX crew – who should be seen as nothing short of supervillains,” Fatman said. “Here is a Forbes reporter seeking favourable comments from ‘supporters’ instead of reporting on the actual facts.” The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has also been grilled for reporting on Alameda’s Ellison in a favorable manner. On the Reddit forum r/cryptocurrency, the Redditor “kindred_asura” shared a WSJ article that concentrates on Ellison. “Front page puff-piece about Caroline Ellison right now at the WSJ. Not ONE mention of fraud or illegal activities,” the Redditor said. The Reddit post got roughly 811 upvotes before r/cryptocurrency moderators decided to removed the post. “I sure wish I never just ‘find myself’ losing billions of customers’ funds while running a fraudulent business,” the Redditor u/kindred_asura commented. Overall, a great deal of people seem to believe that MSM has purposely dropped the ball when reporting on FTX and Alameda executives. Moreover, social media and Reddit forum posts arguably indicate that no one cares about SBF donating millions for pandemic prevention. Further, the hundreds of comments on social media and forums suggest that people certainly do not care about Ellison’s so-called “nerdy” behavior and the fact that she likes Harry Potter. What do you think about the reporting mainstream media has done so far on the FTX scandal? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

The much-awaited football-themed promotion ‘World Cup Predictions’ is now live! The world at large has set its eyes on the games happening at the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Everyone at least knows one such person who is fanatically hyped up about their favorite teams or players on the roster. While professional players battle it out on the field, football enthusiasts can place their bets on the outcome of these world cup matches in the newly launched World Cup Predictions promotion by Bitcoin.com Games. Bet on your favorite games, and win free rounds! Lloyd’s of London, one of the largest marketplaces for risk assessment solutions, is reported to have England at the top of their favorites list to win the world cup. Other data-driven platforms using artificial intelligence are heavily leaning towards Brazil to take the helm at the end of the tournament. Whether to believe either of them is your choice, in either case, you can capitalize on your gut feeling by participating in the World Cup Predictions promotion and placing bets on who will win in every match of the tournament. Win, Loss, or Draw – all that players have to do to choose their favorites for each match is to collect 50 points by wagering on the casino and use those points to select what they think will be the outcome of the match. Once the match finishes and the result is declared, everyone that predicted the outcome correctly will win up to 500 Free Spins for every match. The more points you have, the more games you can predict Up to 500 Free Spins to be won on each game! With more than 60 matches at the world cup, there’s a chance for everyone to win Free Spins in the World Cup Predictions promotion. What is even more exciting is that you can choose to play any of the football-themed slot games on Bitcoin.com Games in order to collect points towards the promotion. Some of these smashing slots include Football Mania Deluxe, Football Superstar, Hot Soccer, Super Striker, and many other immersive slot games that will set you in just the right mood for the World Cup. The World Cup Predictions promotion is now live and you can bet on Win, Loss, or Draw for every game of the FIFA World Cup 2022 right up to the Finals to win loads of Free Spins! Predict the outcome of World Cup matches in World Cup Predictions now or check out other football-themed games with big jackpots and bonuses that you can play on Bitcoin.com Games. What do you think about World Cup Predictions? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. This is a promoted post. Learn more on how to reach our audience here. Read the disclaimer below. View the full article

The trading price of the altcoin SNM suddenly rose by over 4,000% to $10.91 on Nov. 20, 5:30 a.m. (ET), while the coin’s 24-hour trade volume stood at just over $720 million. The altcoin’s abrupt price surge has fueled speculation that the altcoin is being targeted by a pump-and-dump group. Binance Dominates the Altcoin’s Trade Volumes SNM, an altcoin, which had only previously traded above one dollar on April 30, 2021, went up by more than 4,000% to $6.70 — a new all-time high — on Nov. 20, 5:30 a.m. (ET). According to coingecko.com data, in just under 24 hours SNM’s trade volumes had surged from just over $1.2 million on Nov. 19, at 04:02 a.m. to over $720 million by 8:00 p.m. (ET). A dead shitcoin that had an ICO in 2017, SNM, suddenly surged nearly 20x on Binance tody. Its official website has not been updated for a long time. The coin is almost exclusively tradable on Binance, but Binance did not delist it. https://t.co/TSaEM36GLg — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) November 20, 2022 Before altcoin’s latest price and traded volumes surge, SNM, which debuted with an initial coin offering (ICO) price of $0.16 in 2017, has only been sold above $0.50 on three occasions which are Aug.26 ($0.503), Sep. 12 ($0.707), and Sep. 12 ($0.517). The data also shows that traded volumes also spiked during the same periods. Although the altcoin, which has a circulating supply of 44.4 million tokens, is listed on five exchange platforms, data shows that Binance accounted for more than 99% of SNM’s traded volumes on Nov. 20. Pump and Dump Claims On Twitter, some users speculated that the altcoin’s activity could indicate that a pump-and-dump scheme is underway. Chinese crypto journalist Collin Wu tweeted: Not sure if it is a contra trading involving stolen coins or a lack of liquidity due to the withdrawal of market makers. Another user, Andrew Sun, argued that the altcoin’s sudden price and traded volumes surge could be an indication that an identified group had chosen to use SNM for pump-and-dump purposes. Sun tweeted: “A pump and dump group has chosen it. They often find dead coins. Ones with low liquidity and without a perpetual contract that will let people/bot go short on it to do their pump and then dump.” What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

While there’s been a lot of discussions concerning proof-of-reserves, self-custody, and the more than $5 billion in bitcoin and ethereum that left exchanges between Nov. 7 through Nov. 14, 2022, Binance’s bitcoin stash has grown significantly since Nov. 12. In fact, metrics from cryptoquant.com indicate that Binance’s bitcoin reserves reached an all-time high on Nov. 19, 2022, as the trading platform holds roughly 582,054 bitcoin worth $9.62 billion using bitcoin’s exchange rate on Nov. 20, 2022. Binance Holds Close to 600,000 Bitcoin Today or Roughly 2.77% of the 21 Million Capped Supply The centralized exchange (cex) Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, and the trading platform holds quite a bit of digital assets. There’s been a lot of discussions concerning proof-of-reserves lately and exchanges have been sharing crypto addresses to prove they hold specific assets. Following the FTX collapse, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told the public that “Binance will start to do proof-of-reserves soon.” The exchange then provided hot and cold wallet addresses that week associated with Binance and the company further promised “Merkle tree [proof-of-reserves]” with plans to share them with the “community in the next few weeks.” The analytics firm Nansen also published a dashboard that includes digital currency exchange reserves from Deribit, Crypto.com, Okx, Kucoin, and Binance. A snapshot from archive.org indicates that Binance’s reserve status on Nov. 11, 2022, was $26.71 billion. Nine days later, Nansen’s Binance reserves dashboard indicates the firm now holds crypto assets worth $65.69 billion. Six days ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on the fact that data had shown between Nov. 7 through Nov. 14, 2022, more than $5 billion in BTC and ETH was removed from exchanges. Statistics from cryptoquant.com shows Binance held approximately 526,128 BTC on Nov. 6, 2022, and by Nov. 12, Binance’s BTC stash was down to 447,964. The firm’s BTC reserves dropped by 78,164 bitcoin in six days time. On Nov. 18, blockchain parsers, and more specifically btcparser3, had shown Binance was moving a lot of BTC from cold and hot wallets. Furthermore, Binance’s bitcoin (BTC) reserves stash, at least according to cryptoquant.com statistics, is sitting at an all-time high. On Nov. 19, 2022, cryptoquant.com records show 582,511 bitcoin is reportedly stored on Binance. If cryptoquant.com’s data is correct, Binance commands 2.77% of BTC’s 21 million total supply. Coinglass.com’s bitcoin exchange balance data shows Binance holds 572,332.34 on Nov. 20, 2022. The metrics from coinglass.com indicates that 127,224.90 was added to Binance’s bitcoin cache in the last seven days. Binance’s exchange balance stats stemming from both cryptoquant.com and coinglass.com indicates that the exchange currently holds more BTC than Coinbase. Cryptoquant.com metrics show Coinbase Pro held 533,946 BTC on Nov. 19, 2022. Coinglass.com’s bitcoin exchange balance data shows Coinbase Pro holds 529,544.83 BTC on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. What do you think about Binance’s bitcoin reserve status growing close to 600K bitcoin this weekend? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

While it’s widely reported that hundreds of millions of dollars in Ethereum-based tokens were siphoned from the FTX wallet after the company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, another $333 million worth of FTX-related bitcoins somehow vanished as well. At one point, FTX held $3.3 billion worth of bitcoins during its heyday, but by Nov. 7, 2022, the exchange held 0.25 bitcoin. 5 Days Before FTX Filed for Bankruptcy, 20,176 Bitcoin Left the Exchange in Less Than 24 Hours After Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told the public that Binance would be dumping all of its FTT tokens, people immediately started to watch FTX’s reaction. In addition to watching FTX’s reaction to CZ’s statements, people started to eye the beleaguered exchange’s crypto balances. A great deal of people are watching the Ethereum-based addresses that siphoned funds from the exchange the same day it filed for bankruptcy protection. However, FTX also held at least 20,176.84 bitcoin (BTC) on Nov. 5, 2022. Yet the following day, FTX’s BTC reserves dropped to 220.26 bitcoin. By Nov. 7, 2022, data revealed the exchange only held 0.25 bitcoin as it was all transferred well before the firm’s bankruptcy filing. Last year, when FTX was a top exchange in terms of global crypto trade volume, cryptoquant.com data shows the trading platform held 75,303 BTC, and bitcoin was exchanging hands for around $46K per unit. At that exchange rate in mid-April 2021, the stash of 75K + bitcoin was worth roughly 3.3 billion nominal U.S. dollars. By mid-September 2021, FTX’s bitcoin reserves dropped down to the 20,000 range and remained that way for well over a year. An archived snapshot recorded on May 8, 2022, indicates that coinglass.com data had once shown FTX was the 11th largest exchange in terms of BTC reserves. On that day, FTX held 20,048.43 bitcoin according to coinglass.com’s data. Coinglass now places FTX in the 18th position as it shows the exchange holds 7.03 BTC. Cryptoquant.com’s metrics indicate that FTX’s wallet holds roughly 7 BTC on Nov. 19, 2022. The 20,176.84 BTC is worth around $333 million but when it was transferred the funds were worth about $409 million. The 20,176.84 BTC leaving FTX was reported on via Twitter and a couple of crypto media publications. Moreover, FTX’s bitcoins vanished before CZ told the public Binance would acquire FTX and then later revealed Binance backed out of the deal over due diligence. While the proof-of-reserves concept has been gaining traction, a number of exchange addresses were already known to the public. FTX’s BTC reserve stash was recorded by a number of onchain data sites including cryptoquant.com, glassnode.com, and coinglass.com. What do you think about the 20,000 bitcoins that vanished from FTX on Nov. 7, 2022? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

The ethereum wallet known as the “FTX Accounts Drainer” has started to offload the ethereum it collected this past week after becoming the 27th largest ether address. On Nov. 19, 2022, the wallet held 250,735 ether, but by 7:44 a.m. (ET) on Nov. 20, the “FTX Accounts Drainer” transferred roughly 50,000 ether out of the wallet. By leveraging Ren’s bitcoin gateway, the entity has been swapping out the ethereum in exchange for bitcoin. The ‘FTX Accounts Drainer’ Entity Wants Bitcoin The wallet known as “FTX Accounts Drainer” has dropped from the 27th largest ethereum wallet position to the 37th position after unloading roughly 50,000 ether worth around $58.3 million on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. The day prior, Bitcoin.com News reported on the wallet becoming the 27th largest ether wallet after it consolidated more than 250,000 ETH. Onchain analysis indicates that “FTX Accounts Drainer” has sent the 50,000 ethereum through Ren’s bitcoin gateway, a platform that tokenizes bitcoin (BTC) on the Ethereum blockchain. The “FTX Accounts Drainer’s” identity is currently unknown as some believe it’s a malicious entity, others believe it’s a former FTX executive, and some people believe it may be a white hat hacker. The entity’s other address, which holds over 100 ERC20 tokens, has remained untouched for a week now and it’s worth roughly $189 million. Choosing to offload through Ren’s bitcoin gateway indicates that the user wants to get bitcoin in exchange for the ether. Using Ren instead of swapping into WBTC was likely chosen because WBTC is managed by Bitgo. The Renvm protocol is more decentralized as it can mint tokens that represent non-Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies. While tokenized BTC products like WBTC are popular, RENBTC is a lot less liquid in comparison. What do you think about the “FTX Accounts Drainer” offloading ethereum for bitcoin using Ren’s bitcoin gateway? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

With the colossal collapse of crypto exchange FTX in recent weeks, excitement in the world of cryptocurrency and finance has been in no short supply. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s private jet was reportedly spotted heading to Argentina, Kraken’s CEO has addressed the fallout of the Alameda/FTX saga, saying that “The damage here is huge,” and many, many more stories surrounding the debacle have emerged. On top of this, more so-called sleeping bitcoins have awoken, and Elon Musk has given his two cents on bitcoin and dogecoin once more. Flight Radar Report Shows FTX Co-Founder’s Private Jet Flew to Argentina, SBF Says He’s Still in the Bahamas According to Flightradar24’s official Twitter account, the most tracked flight at 3:33 a.m. on Nov. 12, 2022, was Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) private jet flying from the Bahamas to Argentina. While the flight track doesn’t mean SBF took the flight, a number of people suspected someone from SBF’s inner circle did fly out of the Bahamas. The former FTX CEO, however, texted Reuters after the flight report, and told the news outlet he did not leave the Bahamas. Read More Elon Musk: Bitcoin Will Make It — Dogecoin to the Moon Tesla CEO and Twitter chief Elon Musk has made bullish statements about bitcoin and dogecoin despite crypto market sell-offs. He said bitcoin “will make it” and “DOGE to the moon.” Amid crypto winter and the chaos surrounding bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, Musk believes there is a future for bitcoin, ethereum, and dogecoin. Read More Kraken CEO Discusses Impact of FTX Failure — Says Damage to Crypto Industry Is Huge, Will Take Years to Undo The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has outlined the impact of FTX’s failure on the crypto industry. After listing multiple red flags, the executive stressed: “The damage here is huge … We’re going to be working to undo this for years.” Read More 6,522 ‘Sleeping Bitcoins’ Worth $107 Million Wake Up After 5 Years of Inactivity On Nov. 16, 2022, at Bitcoin block height 763,474, someone transferred 6,522 bitcoin worth roughly $107 million after the coins sat idle for more than five years. While bitcoin’s value is 75% lower than it was a year ago, so-called sleeping bitcoins have been waking up amid the recent crypto market capitulation. Read More What are your thoughts on this week’s top stories? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s mission concluding statement, Nigeria’s rising inflation rate as well as the continuing shortage of foreign currency are fueling the naira devaluation speculations. To achieve a unified naira exchange rate, the global lender said Nigeria needs to dismantle “the various exchange rate windows at the CBN [Central Bank of Nigeria]” The Widening Gap Between the Official and Parallel Market Exchange Rate The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said Nigeria’s foreign currency shortages, the rising inflation, and the country’s limited debt servicing capacity are fueling naira devaluation speculations. This, in turn, hinders the “much-needed capital inflows, encourages outflows and constraints private-sector investment.” In the global lender’s staff concluding statement of the 2022 Article IV Mission, the IMF reiterated its call on Nigerian financial authorities to consider moving “towards a unified and market-clearing exchange rate.” To achieve this, the IMF said Nov. 18 statement that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) needs to abandon the multiple exchange rate system. As has been reported by Bitcoin.com News, Nigeria officially pegs its currency at just under 450 nairas for every dollar. However, in practice, many Nigerian businesses and individuals can only source the greenback and other global currencies on the parallel market where the rates recently touched an all-time low of N900:$1. Further, the IMF’s concluding statement suggested that the CBN’s influence or control of foreign exchange markets needs to be curtailed. “In the medium term, the CBN should step back from its role as main FX intermediator, limiting interventions to smoothing market volatility and allowing banks to freely determine FX buy-sell rates,” the IMF statement explained. Nigeria Falling Short of Its Financial Inclusion Targets Despite expressing its concerns about Nigeria’s exchange rate policy, the global lender’s concluding statement still lauds the CBN for tightening liquidity and curbing “inflationary pressures through increasing the monetary policy rate (MPR) by a cumulative 400 basis points.” A tighter monetary policy is often adopted by central banks when prices are rising too fast or when an economy is growing quickly. However, in the statement, the IMF mission insisted that overall conditions remain accommodative — Nigeria’s monetary policy rate (MPR) of 15.5% is below the inflation rate which peaked at 21.1% in October. The global lender’s mission also said that the funding for the country’s budget and as well as the central bank’s “directed lending schemes continue to drive strong monetary expansion.” On financial inclusion, the IMF mission said Nigeria “continues to fall short of its inclusion targets, particularly in access to financial products.” However, the mission commended the CBN’s plan to launch a regulatory sandbox for fintech. It also urged authorities to “provide more targeted training in using financial products, and extend the e-naira further to the unbanked population.” Register your email here to get a weekly update on African news sent to your inbox: What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

Former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair Sheila Bair likens the fall of crypto exchange FTX and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to the infamous Ponzi Scheme of Bernie Madoff. “It felt very Bernie Madoff-like in that way,” she said. Former FDIC Chair Compares FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme Sheila Bair, a top U.S. regulator during the 2008 financial crisis, explained in an interview with CNN Monday that there are eerie similarities between the rise and fall of FTX and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and that of Bernie Madoff. Bair chaired the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from 2006 to 2011. She now sits on the board of directors at blockchain infrastructure firm Paxos. She explained that both Bankman-Fried and Madoff proved adept at seducing sophisticated investors and regulators into ignoring red flags hiding in plain sight. FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week and Bankman-Fried stepped down as the CEO. “Charming regulators and investors can distract [them] from digging in and seeing what’s really going on,” Bair described, elaborating: It felt very Bernie Madoff-like in that way. Madoff ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history, worth about $64.8 billion. He promised investors high returns but rather than investing, he deposited their money into a bank account and paid, upon request, from existing and new investors’ funds. Convicted of fraud, money laundering, and other related crimes, he was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison. Madoff died in prison on April 14, last year, at the age of 82. Bankman-Fried secretly transferred about $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to his other trading firm Alameda Research and reportedly used a “backdoor” to avoid triggering accounting red flags. FTX garnered its $32 billion valuation with investments from major companies and venture capital firms, including Blackrock, Softbank, and Sequoia. Bair commented: You get this herd mentality where if all your peers and marquee names in venture capital are investing, you’ve got to, too. And that adds credibility with Washington policymakers. It all feeds on itself. The former FDIC chair is not worried about the FTX implosion threatening the entire financial system the way Lehman Brothers did in 2008, noting that crypto is still a relatively small part of the broader economy and financial market. However, the crypto market remains largely unregulated, leaving investors vulnerable if something breaks. Bair stressed: It’s time to settle on a regulatory regime for crypto and sort out who is regulating what because people are getting hurt. The former regulator further urged investors to use caution and be skeptical. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” she said. Do you agree with the former FDIC chair about the similarities between the fall of FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried and the Ponzi Scheme run by Bernie Madoff? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

South Korea’s prosecutors have reportedly obtained a court order to freeze assets worth about $104 million belonging to Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin. The authorities allege that he unfairly profited from selling cryptocurrency LUNA at high prices before the token crashed. Shin has denied the allegation. South Korean Authorities Freeze Terraform Labs Co-Founder’s Assets The Seoul Southern District Court reportedly approved local prosecutors’ request Thursday to freeze about 140 billion won ($104 million) in assets belonging to Terraform Labs co-founder Shin Hyun-seung, aka Daniel Shin. The pre-indictment freeze order is a precautionary measure to prevent a suspect from disposing of criminal proceeds before a trial. The prosecutors have accused the Terra co-founder of making “unfair” profits of about 140 billion Korean won by selling pre-issued cryptocurrency LUNA, now known as luna classic (LUNC), without proper disclosure to investors. However, Shin reportedly told the prosecutors Thursday that he did not sell the crypto at its peak price before the token crashed. Hwang Suk-jin, professor of information security at Dongguk University and a regular speaker on crypto policy at South Korea’s National Assembly, was quoted by Forkast as saying: It’s a problem with pre-mining. It’s because they did not make proper disclosure in issuing the tokens. The professor added that for example, if investors “thought 1,000 tokens have been issued and in fact 10,000 have been issued, investors inevitably suffer losses.” Shin and Chai corp., a local payments tech company he founded, are currently under investigation for allegedly using customer information without consent in launching Chai’s Terra payment services. The payments company was reportedly raided by local authorities on Thursday. South Korean prosecutors have also been investigating the collapse of LUNA since May and have issued an arrest warrant for Kwon Do-Hyung, aka Do Kwon, who co-founded Terraform Labs with Shin. Interpol has also issued a Red Notice for him. Last month, South Korean authorities said they have frozen crypto assets belonging to Kwon. However, Kwon denied that the frozen coins were his. What do you think about South Korea freezing the assets of the Terraform Labs co-founder? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Bitcoin.com announced the creation of a program that will reward people affected by centralized crypto company insolvencies while encouraging the adoption of decentralized finance and self-custody. The CEX Education Program will draw its resources from Bitcoin.com’s wallet token VERSE, which is launching in December. Five percent of the total VERSE token supply is dedicated to the program. Victims of FTX, Blockfi, Celsius, Voyager, and other failed centralized entities will be eligible to claim a reward from the CEX Education Program by signing up at getverse.com. In the future, Bitcoin.com will continue to use the program to assist victims and incentivize them to onboard to self-custodial products. “With slick UX, logos on sports stadiums, Matt Damon commercials, Tom Brady endorsements, and big ‘guaranteed’ returns, the lure of CeFi is strong. But as we’ve seen, lack of transparency in the centralized model, whether it be in crypto or tradfi, is an enabler for the gross mismanagement of customer funds and, in some cases, blatant fraud,” said Bitcoin.com CEO Dennis Jarvis. “Centralized companies masquerade as ‘crypto,’ but in reality their business model relies on separating users from their coins, which is antithetical to the entire proposition of crypto. Bitcoin and decentralized finance are transformative precisely because they empower people to take custody of their assets while at the same time enforcing radical transparency in the underlying financial infrastructure. The CEX Education Program is an effort to provide the incentives needed to encourage the transition away from risky centralized exchanges to self-custody, where the real benefits of this technology lie.” Bitcoin.com has a long track record of being a vocal supporter of self-custody. The Bitcoin.com Wallet, which provides a safe and easy-to-use self-custodial experience, has served as the gateway for millions of newcomers to the space. Users hold their own private keys, which means they are not at risk of fraud or mismanagement of their funds — as they are when they forfeit management of their cryptoassets to centralized entities. Now, with more than 35 million wallets created across five blockchains — including Ethereum, Avalanche, and Polygon — the Bitcoin.com Wallet constitutes an important retail gateway to DeFi. Bitcoin.com’s commitment to DeFi is bolstered by VERSE, which will reward participants for buying, selling, storing, using, and learning about cryptocurrency while supporting those who are seeking accessible onboarding into the self-custodial model. The implosion of FTX and Alameda strengthened the Bitcoin.com team’s resolve in their mission to help create economic freedom by building the tools people need to safely engage in decentralized finance. “Despite this and other implosions occurring in CeFi (not DeFi), it’s nevertheless a black eye for the whole industry. Many who got burned will leave, and many more still on the sidelines will view it as a reason to stay away – and that’s a real shame because decentralized finance is a force for good. Bitcoin.com has decided to do something about this situation that will extend some sort of recompense, promote the foundational tenets of self-custody and DeFi, and help build back this industry stronger than ever.” View the full article

The CEO of Ripple Labs, Brad Garlinghouse, believes that the crypto industry will come out stronger after the FTX meltdown if transparency and trust remain its key focus. He stressed the importance of having “honest conversations about solving real-world problems with crypto and blockchain.” Ripple’s CEO Optimistic About Crypto’s Recovery After FTX Meltdown The CEO of Ripple Labs, Brad Garlinghouse, shared his opinion Wednesday on the crypto industry’s recovery following the collapse of FTX during Ripple Swell, an annual conference held by Ripple. FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week. Reiterating what he said on stage at the conference, Garlinghouse tweeted: I firmly believe that crypto will be stronger because of this if we keep focusing on transparency and trust. Ripple has and will continue to lead in this regard. “With all that’s happening in the past few weeks (and over the course of this year’s ups and downs), it feels even more imperative that we’ve gathered together in person to have honest conversations about solving real-world problems with crypto and blockchain,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet. Garlinghouse told CNBC Wednesday that the idea that crypto is not regulated is “overstated,” adding: Crypto has never just been sunshine and roses and as an industry, it needs to mature … Transparency builds trust. Ripple is currently seeking a license in Ireland to drive EU expansion, the company’s general counsel, Stuart Alderoty, told the news outlet Friday. The firm’s European expansion drive comes in anticipation of a new regulatory framework provided by the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) bill, which seeks to align rules on crypto assets across EU countries. “I think MiCA’s a very good start,” Alderoty said. Regarding the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple, Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen over the sale of XRP, both Alderoty and Garlinghouse expect a ruling on the case to arrive in the first half of 2023. Final legal briefs are due by Nov. 30, after which a judge can either make a ruling or refer it to a jury trial. “We are at the beginning of the end of the process in our case,” Alderoty opined. Do you agree with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey has weighed in on the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. “I told you so,” he repeatedly said, reiterating his long-standing advice that investors should not put money into crypto. Dave Ramsey on Bitcoin, Crypto, and the FTX Collapse Personal finance guru and Ramsey Solutions CEO Dave Ramsey weighed in on the implosion of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in a Dave Ramsey Show episode, published Friday. Ramsey, a self-proclaimed personal money management expert, calls himself “America’s trusted voice on money.” He is the author of seven best-selling books that have sold more than 11 million copies altogether. A longtime bitcoin and crypto skeptic, Ramsey called BTC “funny money” in December 2020. He also expressed his doubt that bitcoin could be cashed out, advising investors to sell their coins now. In January, he said crypto is fun and here to say but should only be a small part of a portfolio “for entertainment.” Referencing his warning about crypto, the self-proclaimed personal finance expert said “I told you so” several times during his show that was published Friday. He recalled: I got so much crap from the Bitcoin bros … They are pretty much like Mary Kay for young men … They can’t listen to anything. Their brains are turned off if you’re not going to do their thing. Ramsey added that every time he advised, “don’t do crypto,” he got flooded with responses like “I’m an idiot. I’m a boomer. I’m out of touch. I don’t understand.” He then read out a news article that likens FTX and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to the Enron fraud and Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. The cryptocurrency exchange filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week. Noting that FTX is facing a criminal probe in the Bahamas, Ramsey commented: “If you can get the Bahamians upset enough about you that they go after you — because they’re a pretty laid-back bunch — I’m just saying you get them pissed off you have really stepped in it.” The Bahamas securities regulator has taken action to freeze FTX’s cryptocurrencies. Ramsey exclaimed: It’s straight-up thievery. Ramsey proceeded to quote some crypto proponents telling him in the past: “Dave, come on, at what point, Boomer, are you going to wake up to this new and shiny wonderful thing, you don’t know what you’re talking about telling people to stay away from this, I’ve already made…” He continued: Where is your money now? Mr. Fried took it. “It’s all over the news for the last 48 hours. This may be the biggest fraud and theft in human history,” he stressed. While expressing his dislike for “over-regulation” when it comes to his money, the personal finance guru admitted: “I do like a wee bit, and right now aren’t you wishing you had a wee bit of regulation with FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried.” In conclusion, Ramsey said: I hate that you lost money guys but I did tell you not to do this stuff. “I just hate the spirit around this stuff and what it does to people because they get sucked into it and then they get their heads taken off,” he opined. Following the FTX collapse, a growing number of lawmakers have called for tighter crypto regulation. While some analysts have warned about contagion risks to the entire crypto ecosystem, many people are still optimistic about the future of the industry. El Salvador‘s president said Thursday that his country will start buying BTC every day. Shark Tank star Mark Cuban explained that the FTX implosion is not a crypto blowup while Tesla CEO Elon Musk said bitcoin will make it. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell described: “The damage here is huge … We’re going to be working to undo this for years.” What do you think about the comments by Dave Ramsey? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Economist and gold bug Peter Schiff says bitcoin still has a long way to fall after the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. He also believes that $10K is the real price of bitcoin, warning that “The lion’s share of the selling has not even started yet.” Schiff Predicts ‘Bitcoin Still Has a Long Way to Fall’ Gold bug and economist Peter Schiff has warned in a series of tweets about the price of bitcoin falling a long way from its current level. He began by referencing the forecast he made in June that the need to sell bitcoin to pay bills will only get worse as the recession deepens and long-term BTC holders without paychecks are forced to sell. Noting that it did not take long for his prediction to come true, Schiff tweeted Wednesday: The lion’s share of the selling has not even started yet. Bitcoin still has a long way to fall. He added in a follow-up tweet: “I’ve been warning for years that all the people who made money in crypto will be sued by all the people who lost money in crypto. So lawyer up pumpers.” Commenting on the collapsed crypto exchange FTX and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), Schiff wrote: “I never looked into SBF as I never even considered investing in FTX. But had I done ten minutes of due diligence the red flags would have been obvious.” He elaborated: That many in crypto were so easily duped by an obvious conman calls into question their judgment on everything crypto. Schiff Thinks $10K Is the Real Price of Bitcoin Schiff also shared his thoughts on the recent performance of Grayscale’s bitcoin trust (GBTC) and its relation to the price of bitcoin. The bitcoin skeptic wrote Friday: Based on GBTC’s 43% discount to NAV, bitcoin is already trading well below $10K. I think this is the real price of bitcoin, as when you sell GBTC you get paid real cash. But when you sell BTC you get paid tether. To get actual cash for bitcoin you must accept a huge discount. “GBTC is trading at a 46% discount now. New record. Something is definitely going on. Bitcoin is in real trouble. Get out while you can!” the gold bug added. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $16,727. Many people on Twitter disagreed with Schiff. One user opined: “This is just embarrassing. Imagine trashing BTC since it was $100, and all these years later, you still have no idea about any aspect of it.” Another wrote: “I have never got tether when I sold bitcoin. Also, the discount is because there are hedge funds that can only buy GBTC and not BTC that are getting trashed and have to raise whatever liquidity they can.” Market analyst Joe Consorti explained on Twitter Friday that GBTC has been dumped by institutions all year long and its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) has chosen to pick up the bag “to mitigate the impact of the institutional-level selling pressure and prop up the fund’s net asset value (NAV).” However, he noted, “Still, that intervention hasn’t stopped the discount to NAV of the fund widen out to -42.7%.” On Friday, Grayscale Investments shared information on the safety and security associated with its products. The asset management firm insisted that its products’ digital assets are safe and secure. What do you think about the comments by Peter Schiff? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The exploiter responsible for siphoning millions of dollars in ERC20 tokens and ethereum from FTX has added more ether to the entity’s holdings. The wallet is now situated in the top 30 largest wallet positions in terms of ethereum holdings. The address dubbed the “FTX Accounts Drainer” now holds 250,735 ethereum on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022. ‘FTX Accounts Drainer’ Consolidates Ethereum Stash Adding 22,212 Ether to the Mysterious Wallet There’s a lot of curiosity surrounding the ethereum address called the “FTX Accounts Drainer” or “0x59a” because it’s associated with the entity that drained millions of dollars in tokens from FTX hours after the company filed for bankruptcy protection. The blockchain surveillance firm Elliptic wrote about the situation on Nov. 12, 2022, and the company estimated that the entity siphoned roughly $477 million. Bitcoin.com News explained on Nov. 15, 2022, that the address known as “FTX Accounts Drainer” also consolidated a large cache of ether following Elliptic’s blog post. At that time, the wallet was the 35th largest ethereum wallet, and the address held 228,523.83 ether. The stash of ethereum, however, has increased since then by over 22,212 ethereum, and the wallet is now in the 27th position in terms of the largest ethereum wallets today. The funds at the time of writing are valued at $303 million and the wallet has seen 688 transactions, some of which are dust transactions sent by unknown parties. In addition to the 250,735 ethereum held by the “FTX Accounts Drainer” or “0x59a” the exploiter is associated with another known address. The ethereum (ETH) address “0x97f” also holds a substantial sum of ERC20 tokens associated with the FTX exchange. The wallet has over a hundred ERC20 tokens and blockchair.com estimates the wallet’s value to be around $191.69 million. Etherscan.io estimates the tokens to be worth roughly $244 million. The most dominant token in the wallet is FTX’s coin FTT as “0x97f” owns around 45.85 million FTT tokens. The address is actually the second-largest FTT wallet today and it holds 13.94% of the circulating FTT supply. ‘0x97f’ Is a BOBA, LEO, and SRM Whale The wallet also holds 143.88 million BOBA coins from the Boba Network project and the supply is also the second largest in terms of circulating BOBA as it controls 28.78% of the supply. Besides Bitfinex, the address “0x97f” is one of the largest LEO holders today as the wallet is the third largest unus sed leo (LEO) holder. The address also holds 52.93 million serum (SRM) and it’s the second-largest SRM holder with 20.28% of the entire supply. The wallet holds the 40th position in terms of decentraland (MANA) wallets with 0.35% of the supply. The wallet is also the 32nd largest graph (GRT) holder as well holding 0.44% of the GRT supply. What do you think about the “FTX Accounts Drainer” wallet and how it acquired more than 250,000 ethereum? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Nine major financial institutions and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York have started to experiment with a digital dollar proof of concept to see if distributed ledger technology can improve settlement between central banks, commercial banks, and regulated non-banks. The New York Fed details that the proof of concept will be done in a test environment and it will only leverage simulated data. The central bank’s New York branch further insists that the test is “not intended to advance any specific policy outcome.” New York Fed Reveals 12-Week Proof of Concept to Test the Banks’ Regulated Liability Network During the first week of November, Bitcoin.com News reported on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York completing the first phase of the digital dollar experiment called “Project Cedar.” The central bank’s New York branch is the second central bank digital currency (CBDC) project following MIT’s and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s “Project Hamilton” project. The last report concerning Project Cedar said the first phase of the testing had shown the wholesale central bank digital currency (WCBDC) showcased “instant and atomic settlement.” The WCBDC testing utilized software developed in the programming language Rust, and the distributed ledger is a “permissioned blockchain network” that borrows BTC’s Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) transaction model. Following the successful testing, the New York Fed and “members of the U.S. banking community” announced launching a proof of concept (PoC) for a regulated digital asset settlement platform on Nov. 15, 2022. The banks’ PoC will be operated on an “interoperable digital money platform known as the regulated liability network (RLN).” The press release states: The 12-week PoC will test a version of the RLN design that operates exclusively in U.S. dollars where commercial banks issue simulated digital money or ‘tokens.’ The pilot program’s list of financial institutions participating includes Wells Fargo, Citi, HSBC, Mastercard, BNY Mellon, U.S. Bank, PNC Bank, TD Bank, and Truist. The New York Innovation Center (NYIC) and Swift are also lending a hand in the PoC effort. The pilot is leveraging Amazon Web Services and the technology is being provided by SETL and Digital Asset. The legal services will be handled by Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and the project will utilize Deloitte for advisory services. The Announcement Insists the Digital Dollar Project Does Not Signal a U.S. CBDC Launch or ‘Any Specific Policy Outcome’ Some have said the United States is behind when it comes to CBDC development, in comparison to other nations like China. The CBDC developed by the country’s central bank the People’s Bank of China has moved well past settlement experiments with China’s top banks, as it has seen a broad push into mainstream venues. In 2021, the Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell told the public that he didn’t think the United States was behind in the area of CBDCs. “I don’t think we are behind. I think it’s important to do this right than to do it fast,” Powell said at the time. Roughly a year later, Powell talked about the digital dollar during a panel discussion, and he said even if the Fed wanted to run with a CBDC, it would need approval from Congress and the executive branch. “We see this as a process of at least a couple of years where we are doing work and building public confidence in our analysis and in our ultimate conclusion,” Powell said at the end of September this year. As far as the New York Fed’s digital dollar project is concerned, the announcement stresses that the PoC does not intend to lead to any policy decisions concerning an official U.S. CBDC launch. “It is not intended to advance any specific policy outcome, nor is it intended to signal that the Federal Reserve will make any imminent decisions about the appropriateness of issuing a retail or wholesale CBDC, nor how one would necessarily be designed,” the announcement explains. “The NYIC looks forward to collaborating with members of the banking community to advance research on asset tokenization and the future of financial market infrastructures in the U.S. as money and banking evolve,” said Per von Zelowitz, the director of the New York Innovation Center, in a separate statement published by the NYIC. What do you think about the New York Fed working with nine major banks on a CBDC-like digital dollar proof of concept? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Russian lawmakers have proposed changes to the current law “On Digital Financial Assets” in order to regulate crypto mining while banning the circulation of cryptocurrencies in the country. The legislation also prohibits the non-targeted advertising of crypto-related products and services. New Attempt to Legalize Cryptocurrency Mining in Russia After months of deliberations, efforts continue in Moscow to establish a more comprehensive regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies. The latest initiative in that direction comes from a group of high-profile deputies from the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, including the head of the Financial Market Committee, Anatoly Aksakov. The lawmakers have filed a bill amending the law “On Digital Financial Assets,” in force since January of 2021. The draft is meant to regulate the extraction of cryptocurrencies as well as the taxation of the generated income. It permits the sale of the minted coins “without using Russian information infrastructure” or through authorized entities operating “within experimental legal regimes.” The document introduces a detailed definition of crypto mining which makes reference to the use of computing equipment and distributed ledger technology. It also describes mining pools and obliges miners to share information with the state in accordance with the tax legislation of the Russian Federation. Under the proposed provisions, crypto mining activities will be overseen by a special government-appointed body. The executive power will also determine the requirements for legal entities or individual entrepreneurs that want to get involved in the industry in coordination with the Central Bank of Russia. Bill Sponsors Seek to Prevent Wide Offering of Crypto Services If adopted, the new legislation will prohibit the advertising or other forms of promoting crypto assets to unlimited audience. The ban refers to wide, non-targeted advertising of products and services linked to the issuance and circulation of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, with the exception of mining. According to the Russian crypto news outlet Bits.media, this means that any commercial crypto activities, like those of exchanges, for example, would be outside the law, while peer-to-peer exchange should be allowed. Forklog noted in a report that previously introduced restrictions concern only the dissemination of information on the offering and acceptance of digital currencies as a means of payment. Another mining bill submitted to the Duma in late October permits their use in cross-border payments amid sanctions. The latest piece of legislation is expected to be adopted in December and enter into force on Jan. 1, 2023, Anatoly Aksakov announced. Earlier in November, he revealed that Russian authorities plan to “allow the mining of any cryptocurrency.” Do you think Russia will legalize crypto mining in the coming weeks? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article