roadrunner

On September 17, 2021, Solana protocol fans were introduced to the launch of the Wormhole Network’s ethereum – solana bridge, which means assets between each chain can be intermingled. The launch announcement notes that Saber, the Solana-fueled protocol with more than $4 billion total-value locked (TVL), will support migration from Wormhole V1 to V2. Wormhole Launches Ethereum – Solana Bridge Solana has risen 5,504% in value during the last year and today, solana (SOL) is a top ten crypto-asset holding the seventh largest position in terms of market capitalization. At the time of writing, the overall solana (SOL) market valuation is $48.4 billion and there’s a circulating supply of 296,830,872 SOL, according to Coingecko data. On Friday, the Wormhole Network announced the launch of the Wormhole Token Bridge. “Today we’re incredibly excited to announce the launch of our Wormhole Token Bridge starting with Ethereum and Solana,” the Wormhole Network’s Twitter account said. “First up – migration of assets from the soon to be unsupported Wormhole V1 to Wormhole V2 will be available. V1 users will be able to simply exchange their assets for V2 assets at a 1-to-1 rate on wormholebridge.com.” “The liquidity for this swap will be replenished periodically, please bear with us. There are about $250M worth of assets in Wormhole V1 to be migrated,” the Twitter thread added. In a recent report, Bitcoin.com News detailed how the growth of blockchain bridges and cross-chain capabilities have expanded a great deal. In a panel hosted by Sanctor Capital, the founder of the Yearn Finance project, Andre Cronje, emphasized the importance of cross-chain compatibility. “The whole defi wave gave a reason for people to begin interacting with different blockchains. And the more we’re interacting, the more we are realizing that there’s actually a little bit too much activity for any one chain to handle this stuff,” Cronje said. The Yearn Finance founder added: While I can’t specifically pinpoint a big bang moment, it’s a combination of the maturing of different blockchains and their defi ecosystems, and things like NFTs that are giving people more and more of a reason to interact. Solana IDOs Explode With Demand, Saber TVL Surpasses $4 Billion There’s been a lot of attention cast at Solana since its rise in value and the development that has happened over the last few months. SOL-based initial dex offerings or IDOs have exploded as projects like Matrixetf, Parrot Protocol, Solanium, Grape Protocol, Boca Chica, and more have caused significant demand. $4B 🚀 +$3B (+329%) increase in 7 days 📈 According to @DefiLlama, Saber is the 13th largest protocol in all of DeFi by TVL. pic.twitter.com/HiCshuTzzN — Saber (@Saber_HQ) September 12, 2021 Saber has $4 billion TVL and projects like Serum, Raydium, Orca, Mango Markets, and Oxygen. Moreover, tokens like cope, step finance, maps.me, kin, and bonfida have caught the attention of SOL proponents. “Wormhole V2 assets will initially show up as NFTs in the Phantom wallet until a few upgrades to the wallet are rolled out next week,” the Wormhole Network further tweeted. “Speaking of TVL, we’re excited to announce that Saber HQ will support the migration of Wormhole V1 assets to V2 [and] move over incentives to Wormhole V2 assets. Saber has been on an absolute tear with growth since launch having just surpassed $4 Billion in TVL.” the Wormhole Network team tweetstorm concluded. What do you think about the Wormhole Network’s ethereum – solana bridge launch? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Binance’s troubles with regulators grow as U.S. authorities are now reportedly investigating the exchange for possible insider trading and market manipulation. The investigation involves the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The Justice Department (DOJ) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have also been investigating Binance on a separate issue. Binance Probed for Possible Insider Trading, Market Manipulation U.S. authorities are now investigating Binance for possible insider trading and Market manipulation to ascertain whether the company or its staff profited by taking advantage of its customers, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Binance was quoted saying: At Binance, we have a zero-tolerance policy for insider trading and a strict ethical code related to any type of behavior that could have a negative impact on our customers or industry. The review involves the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) investigators, who have been reaching out to potential witnesses in recent weeks, the publication conveyed. The derivatives watchdog has already been probing whether Binance lets U.S. residents buy and sell derivatives linked to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which is prohibited since Binance is not registered with it. Besides the CFTC, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are also investigating Binance. The two previously launched criminal probes into whether the exchange has been a conduit for money laundering and tax evasion, the publication also reported. The company has not been accused of wrongdoing and the investigations may not lead to any official action. A growing number of regulators globally have issued warnings against Binance for illegally operating in their jurisdictions, including in the U.K., Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania, and South Africa. What do you think about Binance being investigated for market manipulation and insider trading? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Paypal has completed the first international expansion of its cryptocurrency offering outside of the U.S. Paypal Crypto is now available to customers in the U.K. allowing them to buy, hold, and sell four kinds of cryptocurrencies. Paypal Crypto Now Available to All Eligible UK Customers Payments giant Paypal Inc. announced Friday that it has completed the rollout of its crypto offering in the U.K. The rollout began in late August when the company announced the launch of its crypto service in the U.K. The official account of Paypal U.K. tweeted: We are delighted to share that all eligible customers in the UK can now buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash & litecoin from their Paypal account. The company’s website explains that the crypto service in the U.K. is provided by Paypal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., a credit institution supervised by Luxembourg’s financial regulator, Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier. However, the crypto service is not regulated by any regulators, including the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Paypal further detailed: “You can buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency through Paypal’s cryptocurrency service, but you can’t use it to send cryptocurrency. Purchases and sales of cryptocurrency aren’t reversible and cannot be changed.” However, the company said in May that it plans to allow crypto transfers to third-party wallets. The payments giant noted that the U.K. launch “marks the first international expansion of the company’s cryptocurrency offering outside of the United States.” Paypal announced that it was launching a crypto service in the U.S. in October last year to allow “its millions of U.S. customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.” According to Paypal, its platform is available in over 200 markets, serving more than 400 million consumers and merchants. The company’s cryptocurrency offering is through a partnership with Paxos Trust Company, a New York-based financial institution and technology company specializing in blockchain. In March, Paypal announced “Checkout with Crypto” and then rolled out crypto service on its mobile payment service Venmo in April. In July, the company unveiled its plans to expand crypto services, hiring over 100 crypto positions. In addition, Paypal’s venture capital arm has made investments in blockchain and crypto startups, including crypto risk management firm TRM Labs, crypto tax software provider TaxBit, and institutional-grade crypto infrastructure technology Talos. What do you think about Paypal launching in the U.K.? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

While bitcoin continues to become more scarce every day, the most popular set of physical bitcoins, crafted by Mike Caldwell from 2011 to 2013, have become far scarcer than their digital counterparts. As of September 18, 2021, there are now less than 20,000 active bitcoins from the Casascius physical bitcoin collection. Casascius Physical Bitcoin Collection Grows Scarcer Bitcoin has become a well-known technology and in the early years a number of people and companies deployed concepts called “physical bitcoins.” Essentially, a group or individual would fabricate a coin with the bitcoin symbol etched on it and the coin would also hold digital BTC hidden within the coin’s body. It’s safe to say that the Casascius physical bitcoin collection created by Mike Caldwell is the most popular collection to date, and these rare physical bitcoins are sold for much more than the face value of the digital bitcoin they hold. Casascius bitcoins sport a holographic tamper-resistant sticker on one side of the coin, and if the sticker is peeled, the digital bitcoin’s private key is revealed. Caldwell crafted both coins and bars that held loaded bitcoin (BTC) and created series 1 (1-1,000 BTC), series 2 (0.5-500 BTC + the DIY Storage Bars), and series 3 (0.5-1 BTC). Casascius physical bitcoins made by Mike Caldwell have gained significant collectible and numismatic value well over the face value of the digital bitcoin loaded on these coins or bars. Unfortunately, the U.S. government forced Caldwell to stop minting Casascius bitcoins with loaded BTC on them. By the end of Caldwell’s tenure making these coins, he managed to mint around 27,920 Casascius bitcoins with various increments of loaded BTC. Over the years owners have redeemed the loaded value held on these Casascius bitcoins in a process called a “peel.” Image via casasciustracker.com on September 18, 2021. On December 23, 2019, Bitcoin.com News reported on a 100 BTC gold bar that was peeled or redeemed. This means the digital BTC value was spent by the owner and the physical bar is empty with zero digital value left. Ten years after the first Casascius bitcoins were minted, there’s under 20K left that are active with loaded BTC. 19,920 Casascius Physical Bitcoins Left to Peel According to statistics from casasciustracker.com, on September 18, 2021, there’s approximately 19.92K active Casascius bitcoins waiting to be peeled. So far 8,009 coins or bars have been redeemed over the last ten years and there’s approximately 43K BTC left unpeeled worth over $2 billion. Image via casasciustracker.com on September 18, 2021. 48,169 BTC worth $2.3 billion has been spent by the peel process. Furthermore, there are some lucky owners who still have yet to peel 1,000 BTC bars or coins worth $48 million using today’s exchange rates. For instance, out of the six 1,000 BTC Series 1 Casascius bitcoins, only 2 have been redeemed so far. In that same series, Caldwell minted 16 1,000 BTC bars and so far 87.50% or 14 bars have been redeemed. There were 81 Series 2 100 BTC coins (worth $4.8M each) minted by Caldwell and to date 47 coins or 58.02% of the BTC has been redeemed from that minted set. Today, the Casascius physical bitcoin collection has gathered significant numismatic value and the coins and bars are considered coveted bitcoiner collectibles. Even peeled Casascius bitcoins still hold value and some of them are being sold for $1,999 (for a 2012 piece). A loaded silver Casascius physical bitcoin with 0.1 BTC ($4,834) from 2013 is selling for $20,000 today. A rare unloaded set of 125 Casascius physical bitcoins made of aluminum is selling for $4,995. What do you think about the fact that there are now less than 20,000 Casascius bitcoins left active today? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Social media dream builder Charlie Rocket and Dreamr Labs announce 2nd nationwide tour with $1 million traveling giveaway kicking off at Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas, 9/17 Click to tweet: Hit the road with Charlie Rocket and @dreamr_app as they travel the country building dreams and giving away $1 million in DMR tokens! Download the Dreamr app at https://www.dreamr.app/ and declare your dream. No dream is too small. LAS VEGAS (SEPTEMBER 11, 2021) – Dreamr, the community-driven app platform and ecosystem created for users to declare their dreams that recently went viral (as seen with Oprah, TMZ, Entertainment Tonight, and more), and Dreamr social media sensation Charlie “Rocket” Jabaley announce the return of its nationwide Dream Machine Tour – a 45-day traveling tour that will make stops in multiple cities, kicking off locally in Las Vegas at Life is Beautiful Festival this weekend. Launching Friday, September 17th, Charlie Rocket and the “Dream Machine” tour bus will make magic happen and dreams come true once again, traveling across the country from Las Vegas to Miami to help people actualize their dreams. To celebrate the announcement of the tour, Dreamr will give out $1 million worth of DMR Platform Tokens to app users and people they meet along the way – furthering its mission to make the pursuit of dreams practical. Cities and stops along the tour will be selected based on a combination of real-world collisions and inspiring stories shared on the Dreamr app. With help from those in positions to give, from friends and neighbors to celebrities who have previously caught wind of Charlie’s social media shares which include the likes of Will Smith, Steve Harvey, and Mike Tyson – this tour is sure to be one that changes many Dreamr app users’ fates, with $22,222 a day given out to those bold enough to state their dreams across 45 days. The Dream Machine Tour will visit Downtown Las Vegas on Saturday, September 18th during the Life Is Beautiful Festival where its next dream will come to fruition. A 21-year-old musically talented young man who has recently fallen on hard times and became homeless reached out to Charlie Rocket, who is set to surprise him with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate on a song with Grammy-nominated Aloe Blacc, which he will perform on the Rising Star Stage at Downtown Container Park at 9 pm during the Life is Beautiful Music Festival to help him launch his career. The Dreamr team has helped over 900 people build a foundation to live their dreams via social media sensation Charlie Rocket’s Dream Machine Tour. Recent notable dreams include dreamrs like Richard Hutchins, an artist who after several setbacks found himself homeless, and a young man with Cerebral Palsy named Matthew Fernandez. With the help of Dreamr, Richard’s paintings and sketches were featured at a successful gala and the richardhutchinstudio.com was created, selling over $100,000 worth of prints in 5 days while Matthew was able to launch a clothing line, Violets Are Kinda Purple, which garnered over $250,000 in sales within hours counting a variety of A-list celebrities as patrons. Download the Dreamr App and start Declaring Your Dreams today! ABOUT DREAMR Dreamr® is an ecosystem of social networking and financial tools designed specifically to make practical the pursuit of our biggest dreams. The dreamr platform is a positive and powerful space for users to declare their dream and build a supportive community of new, like-minded connections. With web3 integration, the community-based network is thoughtfully designed into an easy-to-use mobile app experience. Founded in July 2015 and operated in stealth until 2019, the dreamr app officially launched on iOS & Android in September 2020. Its team of technologists, entrepreneurs, and creatives have come together around a mission to make the pursuit of our biggest dreams and aspirations more practical for everyone – already raising nearly $2 million to build upon the vision of a digital ecosystem comprised of mobile networking & decentralized financial tools. As a brand, Dreamr is known for infusing a community-first, philanthropic spirit into everything it does. The Dreamr team achieves this by gamifying the process of social networking through its primary networking feature, Dream Connect. With the removal of vanity metrics, the thoughtful approach focuses on allowing anyone’s dream the ability to gain traction across the network. Financial tools in development to help users monetize their dream-network include the new DMR token, Dreamr Crowdfunding, P2P Service Marketplace, and P2P payments. Media Contacts: Megan Fazio, Neon PR info@neonpublicrelations.com 702-673-0667 This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. View the full article

In mid-September, the total-value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) continues to climb higher, as the value held on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, Solana, and more blockchains has risen dramatically to $171 billion today. On the Ethereum network, there’s 270,783 bitcoin held in TVL worth more than $13 billion and $15 billion has been swapped across 14 different Ethereum-based decentralized exchange (dex) platforms. $23.8 billion has been swapped across a variety of blockchain protocols, according to a recently published defi weekly report. Defi Growth Remains Exponential A number of crypto assets like bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) have increased in value during the last month, but for the most part, crypto-assets like solana (SOL) and avalanche (AVAX) stole the show during the last 30 days. Across 14 different Ethereum-based dex platforms, there’s been $15 billion in swaps during the last seven days. Data recorded by Dune Analytics. Decentralized finance (defi) solutions continue to grow exponentially and statistics from Dune Analytics indicate that $15 billion has been swapped on 14 Ethereum-based dex platforms. Uniswap captured more than 62% of that $15 billion worth of global trade volume by commanding $9,620,102,739 in swaps during the last week. Defillama.com statistics indicate that Pancakeswap has $5.55 billion TVL and Sushiswap with more chain connectivity, has $5.46 billion TVL. While Uniswap has a lot of volume, the Binance Smart Chain dex Pancakeswap has a TVL of around $5.55 billion according to metrics recorded on Saturday. Sushiswap has $5.46 billion and it has far more connections than just the BSC network. The total dex weekly trade volume across a number of blockchains according to Coin98 Analytics is $23.8 billion. Weekly dex metrics by Coin98 Analytics, which leverages data from Debank, and Dune. Metrics show that there’s $171 billion in TVL stretched across a myriad of blockchains. Ethereum still dominates the TVL by a long shot but a number of other chains have been moving up the ladder in terms of activity during the last month. Data from Coin98 Analytics’ latest defi report indicates that the total number of Polygon wallets has surpassed 68.3 million. Coin98 Analytics findings also show that “Optimism and Arbitrum addresses increased by 2 and 6 times, respectively.” “Although the number of Optimism addresses [has] far exceeded that of Arbitrum, the past week signifies a strong rise of Arbitrum against Optimism,” Coin98 Analytics said. “Specifically, the total number of Arbitrum addresses reached 121,000, while the number of Optimism addresses fell behind at 103,000,” the report adds. Over $7 Billion Across Bridges, Lending TVL on Ethereum Reaches $44 Billion, Large Quantity of Bitcoin Is Leveraged on Ethereum Dune Analytics’ “Bridge Away (L1 Ethereum)” statistics show that there’s $7.71 billion TVL on Harmony Bridges, Near Rainbow Bridge, Optimism ERC20 Bridges, Arbitrum Bridges, Solana Wormhole, Fantom Anyswap Bridge, Polygon ERC20 Bridge, and the Avalanche Bridge. On Friday, the project Wormhole announced that its ETH – SOL token bridge is now live. Layer 2 (L2) fee data for September 18, 2021, according to L2fees.info. L2fees.info indicates that an ether transfer using Loopring is $0.25, a transfer across Polygon Hermez is also $0.25, Zksync is $0.27, Arbitrum One costs $1.64 and Optimism costs around $3.06 on Saturday. Meanwhile, L2fees.info shows that the median fee to send ethereum (ETH) on September 18 is over $5 per transfer. Metrics by Coin98 Analytics, which leverages data from Debank, and Defillama. Another interesting stat for defi this week discovered by Coin98 Analytics, is the lending total-value locked on Ethereum today is roughly $44 billion. Also, out of seven different bitcoin (BTC) projects that use the Ethereum network, there’s 270,783 bitcoin held in TVL worth more than $13 billion today. This measurement includes projects like WBTC, TBTC, SBTC, IMBTC, PBTC, HBTC, and RENBTC. 76% of the 270K bitcoin or $13 billion worth of wrapped or synthetic BTC is used by the Wrapped Bitcoin (BTC) project and its participants. What do you think about the growing activities tied to the decentralized finance (defi) space? Do you envision defi slowing down any time soon? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Recently Bitcoin.com News covered the stablecoin tether and how the crypto asset’s market valuation jumped more than 1,500% in just over 500 days. In addition to this exponential increase, the decentralized stablecoin DAI’s market capitalization has also swelled significantly as DAI’s market valuation jumped more than 800% during the last 12 months, increasing from $696 million to $6.3 billion today. Makerdao’s Stablecoin Rises 800% Since September 2020 On Saturday, September 18, 2021, there’s approximately $127.29 billion worth of stablecoins and they currently command $62 billion worth of today’s trade volume. There is no doubt that stablecoins have become huge over the last three years and news outlets and research studies often refer to tether’s (USDT) massive growth. The thing about tether (USDT) is that there are humans calling the shots when it comes to the stablecoin project’s operations. The stablecoin DAI, on the other hand, is operated by the Makerdao project which is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). There are of course people behind the minting of DAI stablecoins, but it is based on participants adding value and overcollateralization to the service. The Makerdao website says that DAI helps financial freedom “with no volatility” by offering a “price-stable currency that you control.” The website says that users can read the whitepaper to understand how it works and generate DAI on their own terms. During the last 12 months, the overall DAI supply has increased a great deal, jumping 808.90% since September 18, 2020. At that time, the DAI market cap was only $696 million but today it’s over $6.3 billion. Coingecko’s stablecoins by market cap stats show that DAI is the fourth largest stablecoin by market capitalization today. DAI is behind tether ($69.5B), USDC ($29.4B), and BUSD ($12.8B). BUSD’s circulating supply is a touch more than half of DAI’s overall supply. Monthly Stats Show Decentralized Stablecoin Market Cap Increased by Over 10% On Saturday, DAI saw roughly $279 million in 24-hour global swaps so far and records show that more than 400 decentralized applications (dapps) and centralized exchanges leverage the DAI stablecoin today. DAI is utilized a great deal in decentralized finance (defi) across liquidity pools, swaps, and cryptographic lending apps. DAI and the Makerdao protocol are not without controversy and in April 2019 the stablecoin struggled to hold its $1 peg. Dai tokens themselves are very dependent on excess collateral and if the price of ether suddenly crashed, back then it could leave DAI holders uncollateralized at a certain price range. However, after a black swan incident did just that on March 12, 2020, otherwise known as ‘Black Thursday,’ Makerdao developers had to craft new ideas like leveraging other coins for collateral besides ether to offset risk. Unfortunately, for the users who wanted compensation for their undercollateralized investments, a governing vote decided not to reimburse these users. This decision ultimately led to a class-action lawsuit against the creators of the Makerdao project. Meanwhile, the Makerdao community has moved on and the DAI stablecoin continues to see growth in issuance. Over the last 30 days, the DAI stablecoin has increased its valuation by 10.3%. What do you think about the DAI stablecoin increasing more than 800% in a year? Let us know what you think about this project in the comments section below. View the full article

A statue of Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, has been unveiled in Budapest, Hungary. “The statue is made of bronze, the face is made of a special bronze-aluminium composite, thus every visitor can see their own face when looking at Satoshi. We are all Satoshi.” Statue Representing ‘We Are All Satoshi’ in Honor of Bitcoin’s Creator A statue of bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, was unveiled Thursday in the capital of Hungary, Budapest. It is located in Graphisoft Park. According to the initiative’s website: The goal of the statue is to honor Satoshi Nakamoto … his work is truly something to be remembered. Not just because of its significance in the world of IT, but because of its value for humanity in general. “Satoshi’s statue represents a general human figure, since we do not know the gender, race, age, height of the mysterious developer,” the website describes. “Satoshi is wearing a hoodie, with the Bitcoin logo on its chest. The statue is made of bronze, the face is made of a special bronze-aluminium composite, thus every visitor can see their own face when looking at Satoshi. We are all Satoshi.” Statue of Satoshi Nakamoto in Hungary. Source: statueofsatoshi.com The basic idea for a Satoshi statue came from András Györfi, editor of Hungarian crypto news site Kripto Akadémia. He said the statue is an effort to raise awareness of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. The statue is the work of two Hungarian sculptors, Gergely Réka and Tamás Gilly. They sought to portray a human form while staying true to the anonymity of Satoshi Nakamoto. Gilly told the Associated Press: It was a big challenge. It is very difficult to make a portrait sculpture of a person that we don’t know exactly what they look like. I hope that through the language of sculpture I have managed to convey the basic idea of Bitcoin, that it belongs to everyone and no one at the same time. What do you think about this statue of Satoshi Nakamoto? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The deadline for cryptocurrency exchanges to meet the requirements to continue operations under new crypto regulations in South Korea is rapidly approaching. A total of 28 cryptocurrency exchanges have reportedly been cleared by the regulators to remain open. However, only four crypto exchanges have met the requirements to offer trading in Korean won. 28 Cryptocurrency Exchanges Meet Regulatory Requirements South Korea’s financial authorities have released a list of 28 cryptocurrency exchanges that have met the regulatory requirements to stay open past Sept. 24 under the country’s new crypto regulations. The amended Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information requires cryptocurrency exchanges to obtain Information Security Management System (ISMS) certification by Sept. 24 and report to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a division of the Financial Services Commission (FSC). Crypto exchanges that fail to do so must cease operations by Sept. 24. Jeon Yo-seop, head of FIU’s Planning and Coordination Office, explained that given the approaching deadline: It is unlikely that there will be additional certified virtual asset trading platforms. The 28 exchanges that have been ISMS-certified include Gopax, Upbit, Korbit, Coinone, Bithumb, Hanbitco, Casherest, Tennten, Dove Wallet, Flybit, Gdak, Aprobit, Huobi, Coin&coin, Probit, Borabit, Coredax, and Okbit. However, in order for crypto exchanges to offer trading in Korean won (KRW), they must also partner with banks to offer customers real-name verification deposit/withdrawal accounts. So far, only the country’s top four crypto exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit — have been able to secure partnerships with banks, which have been reluctant to partner with crypto exchanges due to risks including money laundering. Crypto businesses that do not have banking partners to provide real-name verification deposit/withdrawal accounts must terminate the trading in the KRW market even if they have received ISMS certification. That means 24 out of the 28 exchanges will be crypto-only exchanges. Financial authorities in South Korea have also distributed business closure guidelines to the cryptocurrency industry. Exchanges must notify users of the expected closing date and how they can withdraw their funds at least seven days before the closing date. They must also provide a window of at least 30 days from the closing date to allow users to withdraw their funds. Korean authorities are also reportedly monitoring crypto exchanges that are likely to shut down to ensure they return funds to customers. What do you think about the 28 crypto exchanges meeting regulatory requirements? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. INTERNET CITY, DUBAI – LBank Exchange, a global digital asset trading platform, will list NBL on September 15, 2021. For all users of LBank Exchange, the NBL/USDT trading pair will be officially available for trading at 22:00 (UTC+8) on September 15, 2021. Esports industry has grown rapidly in recent years, and now, crypto space is trying to further reshape it. As a revolutionary new BSC utility token, Nobility (NBL) focuses on disrupting the esports industry with its unique smart contract capabilities, offering the industry a fairer, more balanced, and sustainable revenue system. Nobility’s NBL token will be listed on LBank Exchange at 22:00 (UTC+8) on September 15, 2021. What is NBL? Nobility (NBL) is a revolutionary esports platform and utility token on Binance Smart Chain (BSC). It focuses on revolutionizing the esports landscape by organizing and providing tournaments with large prize pools, helping content creators earn more from playing the game they love, and more use cases that will fill glaring holes within the community. Nobility aims to solve the problems involving the current limitations of the esports gaming industry by innovating onto the industry the use of blockchain technology combined with the advantages of decentralized finance to create a fair, balanced and sustainable model for all market participants. By being listed on LBank Exchange, NBL will be able to reach out to a wider audience of investors around the world and have a greater chance of being adopted in the global esports gaming industry. What are the tokenomics of NBL? The total supply of NBL token is 100 billion, 40.3% of it was for initial burn, and the time period of liquidity lock is 1 year. There is a 11% fee that includes all swaps and transfers on the network. Unlike other projects, users of NBL get reflection rewards in BUSD instead of the token itself. The 11% token fee is broken down and allocated in the following structure: 7% is redistributed by weight to all holders in BUSD via a method known as a friction-less yield. No need to claim, no need to request. It just appears in user’s wallet. 2% is automatically added to the liquidity pool for increased market stability. 2% is captured into Nobility Use wallet. This balance will be used for, including, but not limited to, Esports tournament prize pools, marketing, business development, charity donations, scholarship funding, manual burns, community events, and giveaways. The listing of NBL on LBank Exchange will undoubtedly help it further expand its business and draw more attention in the market. Learn More about NBL Token: Official Website: https://nobilitytoken.com/ Litepaper: https://docs.nobilitytoken.com/nobility-litepaper/ Listing Announcement on LBank Exchange: https://support.lbank.site/hc/en-gb/articles/4406346681625-NBL-Nobility-will-be-Listed-on-LBank About LBank Exchange LBank Exchange, founded in 2015, is an innovative global trading platform for various crypto assets. LBank Exchange provides its users with safe crypto trading, specialized financial derivatives, and professional asset management services. It has become one of the most popular and trusted crypto trading platforms with over 6.4 million users in more than 50 countries around the world. Social media: l Facebook l Twitter l LinkedIn Contact Details: LBK Blockchain Co. Limited LBank Exchange marketing@lbank.info This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. View the full article

A news release published by the New Jersey government web portal indicates that the cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius has been sent a cease and desist order from the New Jersey Bureau of Securities. Furthermore, the Texas State Securities Board has ordered Celsius to appear at a hearing and is also threatening with a cease and desist. Regulators are not taking too kindly to platforms that offer high-yield interest rates on various cryptocurrencies. New Jersey Regulators Send Cease & Desist to Celsius Over ‘Earn Rewards Accounts’ U.S. regulators from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), politicians, and securities watchdogs from single states have targeted centralized exchanges, decentralized finance (defi), and more specifically platforms that offer yields. In recent times, Blockfi had issues with regulators in New Jersey and Vermont, Texas, Alabama, and Kentucky. The state watchdogs had problems with the firm’s Blockfi Interest Accounts (BIA). Even Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong had words to say about the SEC threatening to sue the Nasdaq-listed firm. Now a newly published cease and desist order from New Jersey Bureau of Securities (NJBOS) chief Christopher Gerold is targeting the cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius. Similar to Blockfi, the Celsius Network says that it offers up to 13% APY on cryptocurrency assets. NJBOS Gives Celsius Until October, Texas Hearing Scheduled for February 2022 “Put your crypto to work and earn on your coins, paid out every Monday,” the web portal details. Similar to the complaints filed with Blockfi, Gerold and the NJBOS say the “order is to protect the investing public.” “The Celsius Earn Rewards accounts are not registered with the Bureau or any other securities regulatory authority,” the cease and desist order stresses. Therefore, these accounts Celsius offers are “not protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC).” The order adds: [A] lack of a protective scheme or regulatory oversight subjects Celsius investors to additional risks not borne by investors who maintain assets with most SIPC-member broker-dealers, banks and savings associations, and credit unions. According to the NJBOS filing, Celsius must stop soliciting New Jersey customers by October. In the order stemming from the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) the regulator says the firm is “not licensed as a Money Service Business in Texas.” The Celsius Earn Accounts are “also not protected by Securities Investor Protection Corporation, otherwise known as the SIPC.” Interestingly, Texas has given Celsius a hearing date that’s much further away and will be held on February 14, 2022. What do you think about the Celsius cease and desist order stemming from the New Jersey Bureau of Securities? What do you think about the company’s problems with Texas? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

One of the African continent’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, Luno, has told its Nigerian users that it is “in the process of reinstating deposit and withdrawal functions on our platform.” According to an email that was sent to Nigerian users, this reinstatement is expected to happen “in the coming weeks.” Luno Not in Direct Communication With CBN As a report by The Guardian noted, this announcement by Luno is coming some seven months after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed banks to exclude cryptocurrency entities from the banking ecosystem. Consequently, some users in Nigeria have speculated that this announcement means the CBN is about to reverse this decision. However, Owen Odia, Luno’s country manager for Nigeria, denied that this was the case. He suggested in a statement to Bitcoin.com News that the mere sending of the emails does not mean the exchange is privy to CBN discussions about the lifting of its directive to banks. The Luno manager, however, did confirm that Luno has been working with other Nigerian stakeholders as it tries to find a solution that “prioritises the safety of its customers.” He explained: With regards to Luno’s engagement with the CBN, we have not been in direct conversation with them regarding this. However, we have engaged relevant stakeholders in Nigeria who can collectively work with the government and regulatory bodies, to find a quick and suitable resolution. Odia emphasizes that while Luno is not in a position to comment on the CBN’s plans concerning its directive, his organization remains hopeful that “this situation will be resolved.” Crypto Regulatory Framework in the Works Following the CBN’s abrupt decision to lockout cryptocurrency entities from the banking system, Luno became one of the few exchanges that pledged to assist Nigerian authorities in their quest to find the right regulatory framework for crypto. While there have been no reports of real progress on this front, Luno’s announcement still suggests that the exchange might have reached some kind of compromise with Nigerian regulators. Crypto enthusiasts in Nigeria are now waiting on Luno’s reinstatement of the deposit and withdrawal function to know if the CBN has reversed its decision. What are your thoughts about this announcement by Luno? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

Laos has authorized a series of cryptocurrency mining and trading projects in the country, looking for another source of income to supplement the losses caused by the drop in tourism due to COVID-19 related measures. Six companies have been authorized to start cryptocurrency trading and mining operations in the country, according to the office of the prime minister. Laos Embraces Digital Currencies Laos has authorized mining and trading operations in its territory, contradicting policies from its central bank that issued warnings against crypto just a month before. The move comes as the small Asian nation tries to find alternative income sources to deal with the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. The office of the prime minister stated that six companies were now authorized to conduct cryptocurrency-related activities in the country. Now, according to reports, the government will start work to regulate these activities. Laos could also be trying to attract some of the miners ousted from China, by being a close substitute that can also offer plenty of cheap, hydroelectric power currently not being used at its full potential. Green Mining Potential and Money Laundering Concerns The origin of this clean energy could also be a big attraction now that people are more aware of the mining industry’s heavy energy consumption. This push for green energy and renewables for mining was, in part, introduced by Elon Musk, who commented that the Bitcoin network energy consumption was “insane,” and suspended bitcoin payments for cars at Tesla. This might be a lifesaver for Laos, as its own energy consumption is orders of magnitudes lower than what the country produces, making it easy to introduce a mining industry without disrupting the national electrical grid. However, regulators have concerns. Laos sits in an area that is very famous for the volume of narcotics produced there. Many are worried that the rise in these industries might translate to cryptocurrencies being used for money laundering purposes. Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, declared to news outlet FT that: You should always be concerned when countries with poor regulatory records start to get involved in things like cryptocurrency. To say that the Laotian financial system is immature would be a brutal understatement, and we have to be concerned if they are rushing into this. What do you think about Laos authorizing cryptocurrency mining and trading? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

As the floodgates are opening for large businesses and corporations to enter the crypto market, you see increasing demand for an established digital asset management platform. Luckily, Unido is among just a few who fits these criteria, but with all the noise in the crypto space now, it is crucial to compare similar products and projects to understand the options and differences between platforms better. Among the very few options today, this article will look at Fireblocks to analyze the different product offerings against the Unido ecosystem. Fireblocks is a digital asset management platform with similar product offerings as Unido, such as Multi Party Computation (MPC), DeFi integration, DeFi APIs, complete control over governance, and a thoroughly robust security system for digital assets. Fireblocks vs. Unido Fireblocks was founded in 2018 and is an end-to-end blockchain security platform that protects, stores, transfers, and issues digital assets to the blockchain/s while using Multi-Party Computation (MPC). Fireblocks has governance controls and custody solutions and is an enterprise-grade solution that allows customers to transfer assets across exchanges, wallets securely, and custodians using MPC & patent-pending chip isolation technology to secure private keys, API credentials eliminate the need for deposit addresses. Unido, whose parent company, PAC Blockchain & Digital Advisory (over 17 years old), quickly developed and identified the crypto custodial problem back in 2017, from which Unido was born, thus began development on a multisig wallet that is usable on any blockchain. Since then, Unido has produced a patented custodial-grade, secure digital asset platform built to handle crypto transactions, enable enterprises to manage their on-chain assets easily, a crypto-banking suite with a business banking portal, governance, and security compliance controls, and DeFi vault access, seamlessly. Both Unido and Fireblocks are making it easy for enterprises and different-sized organizations to enter DeFi today, and both products offer unparalleled security, access to DeFi strategies, Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs like Uniswap and Balancer), and total access to all the exchanges and decentralized applications (dApps) in the crypto ecosystem. Unido and Fireblocks offer comprehensive security, easy compliance with regulations, and an easy-to-use platform that makes it easy to enter crypto for large to small businesses. David vs. Goliath The proliferation of businesses entering the crypto economy has been booming since Michael Saylor began buying Bitcoins en masse for Microstrategy (a U.S.-based publicly-traded company), which now has over 108,997 Bitcoins in their balance sheet (estimated at over $3 Billion). In 2020 it became apparent that it wasn’t just retail investors jumping into crypto markets but rather large influxes of Venture Capital funding and institutional scale investments making their way into the crypto economy. Unido projects that institutional investment into the crypto space will grow exponentially by region and the number of businesses growing exponentially (see chart below). (Source of the image is from Unido Whitepaper; page 5) Fireblocks is undoubtedly a name well-known in the cryptoverse and has many prolific backers and VCs associated with its project. They recently raised $310 Million in a Series D funding co-led by Sequoia Capital, Stripes, Spark Capital, Etc., bringing the company’s enterprise valuation at over $2 Billion to continue developing their digital asset platform. While Unido remains a lower-cap gem compared to the capital raises of Fireblocks, that’s not to say that we don’t have similar, if not comparable, digital asset platforms built for enterprises and institutions. Fireblocks uses their MPC-CMP algorithm that enables digital asset transactions to be signed up to 8X faster and supports transaction signing from cold and hot wallets. It gives institutions the ability to configure a key management scheme that fits their organization. MPC-CMP follows a strict set of steps that guarantee there is never a single point of compromise of the private key because it is never concentrated on a single device at any point in time. Similarly, Unido Core, or its MPC, is deep tech, patented solution that provides cold storage levels of security for all transactions while maintaining an intuitive and app-driven environment that makes it easy for businesses to use the software. The Unido core proprietary algorithm divides up the keys into portions and stores them securely among all the wallet members. This distribution of keys vastly reduces the probability of them being lost or stolen and gives multiple members of a team variable levels of access and rights. With the keys distributed using its MPC patented technology, Unido can deliver the required governance and security for sophisticated enterprises that want to adopt blockchain and DeFi technology into their business. Both Fireblocks and Unido offer similar services to institutions, from governance to fast settlement times, from cold-wallet level security through MPC to DeFi APIs that allow developers to build on the platforms with ease. Although Unido diverges from Fireblocks in some areas, it is plain to see that there is much crossover in both product suites. Fireblocks also features a digital asset transfer network that acts as an institutional settlement layer. At the same time, Unido has Unido X. This new platform leaves total control for institutions to take complete control over their assets, whether for settlement or manual or automated transactions. Unido X provides companies with liquidity from other financial institutions with swaps matched with the best pricing available on any network. Unido also has the Enterprise Platform (EP) that allows crypto-native companies and asset management firms to manage their crypto assets. The EP platform has a crypto banking suite that acts as a business bank portal that enables enterprises to handle daily operations and capital expenditure, DeFi Vault access that lets businesses store, manage, and invest crypto assets securely, and a robust suite for governance and security, which helps enterprises enter DeFi in a way that meets all their compliance and regulatory needs. EP provides enterprises and SMEs an integrated custodial function, cross-chain interoperability, and blockchain-level multi party sign-off for private key operation, making it a perfect fit for all investor classes, including the underserved enterprise and asset manager investor segment. But Wait… There’s More Other Fireblocks features include an institutional settlement layer with access to various crypto exchanges to trade, offer up liquidity, operate lending desks, and institutional DeFi access with algorithmic trading, top security, and private key management. Total Market Cap of UDO token at different prices compared to Fireblocks’s Total Valuation In The End Fireblocks is by far one of the most well-known and used digital asset platforms for enterprises available today. Fireblocks was valued at $2 Billion after their latest $310 Million raise, and have been very successful at attracting enterprises to the platform, with clients like Revolut, BNY Mellon, and many others. The Unido team views Fireblocks as a significant example of a great digital asset management solution with a similar approach, including MPC technology and regulatory compliance. Although Fireblocks has no native token like $UDO, their market valuation and money raises make it one of the most formidable competitors in the custody and institutional crypto space. With such a vast growing ecosystem today, Unido, with a much smaller current market capitalization, has similar features to Fireblocks. While Unido might not yet compete with Fireblocks’ clientele, the team, vision and patented deep technology will make Unido a formidable force as they expand and build out Unido shortly. About Unido Unido offers a suite of crypto custody solutions for enterprises and institutions based on a state-of-the-art fragmented private key signing engine, allowing distributed transaction signing at the blockchain level and providing a corporate governance framework over crypto ownership. This level of corporate governance workflow and security technology is needed by sophisticated organizations to confidently leap crypto, augmented with a Defi investing dashboard to make earning a yield on digital assets a point-and-click activity. This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

The Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell has directed his staff to start an ethics inquiry into the financial activities of Fed members, as a number of senior central bank officials are being questioned for their investments. Reports indicated last week that the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve branch, Robert Kaplan, benefitted from “multiple million-dollar-plus stock trades” in 2020. Fed Presidents Profit From Multiple Million-Dollar Stock Deals Members of the Federal Reserve seem to have a mess to deal with as politicians and the media have called out a few members of the Fed for benefitting from major stock deals. Bitcoin.com News has reported on critics looking directly at the Fed’s members and even accusations of Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell doing the same thing. Last Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article that revealed Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan “made multiple million-dollar-plus stock trades in 2020, according to a financial disclosure form provided by his bank.” The New York Times followed as well with an article about Fed members and stock trading. The media caught wind of the investments after Democrat senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts sent letters to all of the Fed’s regional bank presidents. Warren also published a press release about the subject and scorns the “troubling reports.” “Following troubling reports that two regional Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) Presidents made extensive stock trades in 2020 as the Fed took extraordinary actions to address the COVID-19 pandemic,” Warren’s press statement notes. “This controversy over asset trading by high-level Fed personnel highlights why it is necessary to ban ownership and trading of individual stocks by senior officials who are supposed to serve the public interest,” Warren further declared in a statement. “Regional Fed leaders must ban the ownership and trading of individual stocks by senior officials, and impose strong and enforceable ethics and financial conflicts of interest rules for themselves and their staff to restore public trust.” Now reports show Jerome Powell is getting involved and reports indicate the Fed chairman has ordered an ethics review. Discussing the subject with CNBC, an unnamed Fed spokesperson discussed the ethics inquiry into the stock trading activities conducted by senior officials. The spokesperson said Powell has ordered a “fresh and comprehensive look at the ethics rules around permissible financial holdings and activities by senior Fed officials. Because the trust of the American people is essential for the Federal Reserve to effectively carry out our important mission.” The spokesperson further said: This review will assist in identifying ways to further tighten those rules and standards. The Board will make changes, as appropriate, and any changes will be added to the Reserve Bank Code of Conduct. Too Little, Too Late Meanwhile, the well known wallstreetonparade.com journalists Pam Martens and Russ Martens published an article that highlights the “latest outrage over [the] Fed presidents’ trading stocks is just the tip of the iceberg. The Martens detail that while Jerome Powell testified in Congress in 2020, and while Fed members knew “its every monetary move during the pandemic was on behalf of the average American, the Dallas Fed President is making million-dollar bets on big tech stocks the Justice Department is investigating for anti-trust activity.” Moreover, the Martens also wrote that when two Fed presidents said they would sell their stocks, it was “too little, too late.” The scathing report on wallstreetonparade.com adds: Fed Presidents are privy to market-moving information that the general public is not privy to. That was especially true last year as the Fed took unprecedented measures to combat the economic impact of the pandemic. The Fed slashed the Fed Funds rate to zero, established a panoply of bailout programs for Wall Street, and began buying up $120 billion a month in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. What do you think about Jerome Powell starting an ethics inquiry and the complaints aimed at the Fed’s senior officials making millions from stock trades? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

U.S. Senator Margaret Hassan has requested that government agencies take “additional targeted steps to prevent and prosecute the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes.” She expressed her concern over “the rise in the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes.” US Senator Requests Agencies Take Steps to Prevent and Prosecute Use of Crypto for Criminal Purposes U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland expressing her concern about the criminal use of cryptocurrencies Thursday. Garland is the 86th U.S. attorney general, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer who leads the Department of Justice (DOJ). Senator Hasan wrote: I write to express my concern over the rise in the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes, and request that your agencies take additional targeted steps to prevent and prosecute the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes. The letter was also forwarded to Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); Charles Rettig, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); and Himamauli Das, acting director of the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN). In her letter, Hassan brought up that the town of Peterborough in New Hampshire suffered a cyberattack last month and $2.3 million in taxpayer dollars were stolen, noting that most of the funds were converted into cryptocurrencies. The senator from New Hampshire asserted: The anonymity provided by cryptocurrency has helped facilitate its use by criminals in a myriad of ways. These uses include drug sales over the dark web, payments for ransomware attacks, tax evasion, financing for terrorism and organized crime, money laundering, and more. She then pointed out that decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges have less strict know-your-customer (KYC) requirements than centralized ones, emphasizing that “some have no KYC requirements at all.” The senator then referred to “Recent studies [which] have found that many exchanges, both centralized and decentralized, have weak KYC requirements.” Hassan opined: “It is clear that more robust KYC requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency kiosks, and OTC cryptocurrency trading desks could improve transparency in the U.S. and global cryptocurrency markets, and lead other countries to follow our lead in requiring KYC information for users on these services.” She elaborated: This in turn could prevent illicit use of this novel financial technology while allowing the legitimate use of cryptocurrencies to flourish as a whole. The senator concluded her letter by asking the attorney general eight questions, many of which were about additional authority needed to regulate cryptocurrency trading. She also asked whether “additional civil or criminal penalties” would aid the agencies’ “efforts to prevent and prosecute the criminal use of cryptocurrency.” What do you think about the request by Senator Hassan? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Following the successful Alonzo hard fork, the Cardano network now has a large swathe of new smart contracts. However, developers must wait to use them as they are locked in a timelock contract. At the time of writing, metrics show an aggregate total of 2,352 smart contracts since the Alonzo upgrade was implemented. Cardano Has More Than 2,300 Smart Contracts Waiting to Be Deployed The Cardano (ADA) network upgraded last week and since then the most topical conversation among ADA proponents is smart contracts. The use of smart contracts on the Cardano network has been a holy grail of sorts for ADA fans and even skeptics. Critics have wondered why ADA has been the third-largest crypto asset by market capitalization well before the protocol had smart contract capabilities. Meanwhile, networks like Terra, Avalanche, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, and more have been gathering steam as they already have compatibility with Ethereum and smart contract benefits. Image via smartcontracts.vercel.app. Data shows on September 17, 2021, there are now 2,352 smart contracts introduced to the Cardano protocol, but right now the contracts are unusable and are locked in a timelock contract. Wait on Smart Contracts May Be Affecting Cardano’s Price Negatively Essentially, while the capabilities are there, developers still need to wait to deploy decentralized finance (defi) projects, decentralized applications (dapps), and other concepts like tokenization and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). A number of projects are ready to deploy new protocols and ideas like Cardax, Liqwid, and Singularitynet. It’s possible that the wait for these smart contracts has been affecting ADA markets in a negative manner. Cardano (ADA) is still the third-largest market valuation among all the cryptos in existence. However, since the upgrade, seven-day stats show a 6% loss in ADA’s fiat value and 14-day stats indicate ADA has lost 20.2%. Metrics also show that 57.16% of all ADA trades on September 17, are swapped with tether (USDT). This is followed by BUSD (9.22%), BTC (9.10%), USD (6.59%), KRW (5.28%), and EUR (4.69%). ADA is down 23.5% since the crypto asset’s all-time high (ATH) 15 days ago at $3.09 per unit on September 02, 2021. What do you think about Cardano’s smart contracts and how developers must wait to use them? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

According to reports stemming from the Salvadoran Court of Accounts, the regulatory body is planning to investigate the government’s bitcoin automated teller machine (ATM) purchases and Chivo kiosk construction. The investigation follows the recent protest in El Salvador against the adoption of bitcoin as the crowd set fire to a bitcoin ATM. Human Rights Group Cristosal Files Complaint Against Nayib Bukele’s Regime On September 15, a large group of protestors took to the streets in San Salvador to protest the new bitcoin law implemented by Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele. It’s not the first time protests against the law have happened, but this time around a bitcoin ATM was set ablaze. Following the protest, El Salvador’s Court of Accounts is looking into a complaint about the Bukele regime’s bitcoin ATM buys and kiosk construction. A document was witnessed by Reuters staff and the complaint was filed by a human rights and transparency organization called Cristosal. The complaint Cristosal filed with the Salvadoran Court of Accounts is against six Board of Directors members of the Bitcóin Trust. Furthermore, the complaint is also against the Salvadoran secretariat of Commerce and Investments and members of the Finance and Economy ministries. The Human Rights Foundation’s (HRF) chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein discusses the pros and cons tied to the new bitcoin legal tender law. The HRF representative Gladstein’s entire Twitter thread on the subject can be read here. The Court of Accounts (CoA) says the complaint was received on September 10, five days before the protest and torched ATM. The CoA can impose sanctions against Salvadoran government officials. Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele has been called a dictator and has been investigated before. Cristosal Says CoA Complaint Has Been Accepted For instance, in May Bukele’s New Ideas Party fired several Supreme Court members and the attorney general. Twenty government institutions linked to the Bukele administration were under investigation for manipulation and corruption. He then fired all those who were involved in the investigation. The news publication El Faro also accused Bukele of secretly negotiating a deal with Mara Salvatrucha, the most powerful gang in El Salvador. The latest investigation stemming from the CoA and Cristosal notes that an analysis of the bitcoin situation will take place. Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele is considered a “dictator” and has been referred to in that way by many global leaders and news outlets. Bukele has been accused of being friendly with the largest Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha and members of Bukele’s family were recently accused of planning to launch a stablecoin. “Having admitted the complaint, it will proceed to carry out the legal analysis report and, in a timely manner, forward such report to the General Audit Coordination,” the CoA document reviewed by Reuters notes. The news outlet detailed that an unnamed source from Cristosal says that the complaint written to the CoA “has been accepted.” Moreover, the CoA has the power to start criminal proceedings if the investigation into the bitcoin ATM purchases and kiosk construction uncovers suspicious elements. What do you think about Cristosal’s complaint and the CoA starting an investigation into the Bukele regime’s bitcoin affairs? Let us know what you think about this situation in the comments section below. View the full article

xSigma, a blockchain R&D lab and subsidiary of ZK International (Nasdaq: ZKIN), is excited to announce the launch of their all-new, official non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, MaximNFT.com. The platform is launched in partnership with Maxim, a legendary men’s magazine available in 75 countries. The burgeoning marketplace will grant exclusive access to Maxim’s own NFT collections. Maxim’s Brand Meets xSigma’s Top Talent The partnership behind the project combines Maxim’s prestigious brand name with xSigma’s world-class software development capabilities. Maxim is a 25-year old men’s lifestyle magazine, covering the world’s finest cars, sharpest clothing, top travel destinations, and most beautiful women. Their content connects with over 10 million men across 75 countries every month, and their covers have featured dozens of female celebrities such as Shakira, Angelina Jolie, Megan Fox, and more. xSigma is ZK International’s R&D lab for building blockchain-based infrastructure and supply-chain technology solutions, while also developing their own DeFi, NFT, and stablecoin based products. Their highly capable team features former developers of Google, Facebook, and Ripple Labs. MaximNFT will allow users to buy, sell, and easily create NFTs across numerous top blockchain platforms. These include Ethereum, Polkadot, and the Binance Smart Chain. Together, Maxim will attract a large user base to the MaximNFT marketplace using their numerous print, social, and digital publishing outlets. Meanwhile, MaximNFT will be operated by xSigma, whose team will develop never-before-seen marketplace features alongside a stellar user experience. One of these features includes “NFT tokenization”, an innovative new tool allowing traders to exchange mere fractions of any NFT in the market. This will change the status quo of NFTs in which all NFTs are completely unique assets, and allow the same digital commodities to be shared across the crypto community. Maxim will be entering this growing digital space with a collection of various high-value NFTs from popular brands, celebrities, and superstar athletes – all soon to be announced. The marketplace goes live this fall. Subscribe to the waitlist here to get the latest updates about exclusive NFT drops on MaximNFT. Maxim’s Contribution to NFTs Maxim’s new NFT marketplace will focus on providing sports, celebrity, and gaming-themed digital collectibles to their community. They predict that in-game interaction with NFTs will be a game-changing phenomenon, and so plan to infuse AR and VR technologies into their future NFTs. Maxim enters the NFT market in response to a clear trend toward the technology’s mass adoption. Q1 of 2021 saw $1.5 billion in NFT transaction volume, according to Dappradar. Furthermore, data from NonFungible.com suggests that monthly NFT sales volume soared to $896 million last month. Most surprisingly, an NFT collection of cartoon-style apes recently sold for over $20 million. About Maxim Maxim is a world-leading men’s magazine of 25 years. Available in 75 countries, read by 10 million men every month, Maxim’s covers have featured dozens of female celebrities including Angelina Jolie, Megan Fox, Shakira, Beyonce, Jessica Alba, Lana del Ray and others. About xSigma The blockchain R&D lab xSigma Corporation is a subsidiary of ZK International (Nasdaq: ZKIN). In 2018, ZK International established xSigma as a research and development lab to address real-world infrastructure issues. The group has since evolved into an independent blockchain R&D lab developing NFT, DeFi, stablecoin, and supply chain technology solutions. The team includes former engineers from Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Ripple Labs. This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

Investors in Ireland are attracted to digital opportunities offering better returns and often find them online, a new survey has indicated. According to the poll, 11% of investors have already bought a digital asset and a quarter of the young Irish are betting on cryptocurrencies. Low Interest Rates, Search for Long-Term Returns Push More Irish Investors Toward Alternatives Investors in the Republic of Ireland are exploring opportunities in the digital space and over half of the participants in a new survey, 56%, say they make investments online. A staggering 80% of the respondents do it to achieve better long-term returns on their money while almost half admit their decisions are influenced by the low interest rates in the traditional banking system. The poll, the results of which have been quoted by the national broadcaster RTE and the Irish Independent, also shows that more than one in 10 of those questioned have put money into one crypto asset or another. The share of cryptocurrency investors grows to 25% of people aged 25 – 34. This group is the most open to saving in digital coins like bitcoin. At the same time, stocks and shares have turned out to be the most preferred investment option for 19% of those surveyed. Government or corporate bonds, the Irish media reports reveal, are the second most popular asset among investors in the country. The majority of 1,000 people who took part in the study, ordered by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), stated they use online resources to find investment-related information (62%). Among these are online banking or investment websites, financial news sites, blogs, and social media platforms. The rest, 38%, prefer to talk to an advisor from a bank or other financial institution. Online investing options are even more popular among Irish investors under 35. Of this age group, 36% said they would use a trading platform or a mobile app such as Etoro or XTB, while 29% would employ an online financial services provider like Revolut, for example. Only 22% admitted they would invest through a bank or an investment company, and just 10% said they would refer to a broker. “It is important that consumers are aware that investment products can often be highly complex, so it is essential consumers understand the type of product they are investing in,” said Grainne Griffin, Director of Communications at the CCPC, commenting on the findings in the survey. The commission is urging Irish investors to do their due research before spending any funds. Griffin also warned that along with the potential for better returns, crypto investments come with higher risks than traditional financial products. Hers is not the first such warning issued in Ireland, with Central Bank Governor Gabriel Makhlouf being among those who have cautioned people that they could lose their money when investing in cryptocurrencies. However, Makhlouf has previously highlighted some of their positives as well, recently praising the “secure, decentralised” crypto technology. Do you expect the number of crypto investors in Ireland to grow in the future? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The Nigerian currency, the naira, plunged to a new all-time low of N570 for every dollar on September 16, 2021. This new exchange rate means since August 17, the naira has now lost about a tenth of its value on the foreign currency black market. Naira Overvalued In spite of this plunge, which has been attributed to the biting shortage of foreign exchange, authorities insist the naira’s real exchange is unchanged at N411 for every dollar. This means forex buyers that source this commodity on the parallel market are now paying a premium of over N150. Alternatively, the new parallel market exchange rate of N570 may suggest that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is now overvaluing the naira by 40%. In fact, this latter point appears to be corroborated by comments made by the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele. In his comments to a group of investors in late June 2021, Emefiele suggested at the time that the naira was overvalued by 10%. He also hinted that devaluation of the naira was in the cards. However, since then, the naira’s official exchange rate has remained unchanged while the currency’s rate of depreciation on the parallel market appears to have accelerated, particularly in the past few weeks. Meanwhile, the central bank’s unwillingness to devalue the naira may have created more problems for the CBN — the hoarding of foreign exchange. Foreign Exchange Hoarding As an investigation by the Daily Trust found, “some people and corporate entities in Nigeria are now saving their fortunes in dollars.” In its report, the publication quotes Malam Nura, a Bureau de Change operator, who said: If importers don’t have dollars, and if the naira keeps falling, they may not be able to import and their businesses may be affected. I think this is why they are buying and holding it so that they can have enough for import for a long period. Bitcoin.com News has similarly reported that Nigerians were accumulating foreign currencies in order to shield their wealth from the naira’s depreciation. Aside from worsening the country’s already precarious foreign exchange situation, the naira’s continuing depreciation is believed to be fueling Nigeria’s inflation woes. While data shows that the country’s headline inflation dropped to 17.01% in August, a report by Proshare attributes this to “base year effects.” Regarding Nigeria’s monthly inflation increase, the report concludes that this could be tied to the naira’s “weakness in the forex market” and that this is now “being transmitted into [rising] domestic prices.” What should the CBN do to stop the naira’s fall? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

Avalanche, a smart contract-enabled cryptocurrency, has received a $230 million investment from a group of VC companies. The funding round, which is being described as a private sale, was led by Polychain and Three Arrows Capital, with the participation of other companies. This investment will give these companies participation in on-chain Avalanche governance and exposure to the price via token ownership. Polychain and Three Arrows Capital Put Funds in Avalanche Avalanche, one of the youngest smart contracts-enabled cryptocurrencies, has raised $230 million in a funding round led by Polychain and Three Arrows Capital, two leading VC companies. The funding round, which was categorized as a private token sale, also had the participation of R/Crypto Fund, Dragonfly, CMS Holdings, Collab+Currency, Lvna Capital, and a group of angel investors. About the interest of these venture capital companies, Emin Gun Sirer, director of the Avalanche Foundation, stated: Despite being years younger than its peers, Avalanche has quickly turned promise and potential into real-world impact and value creation for DeFi users and developers. The Avalanche blockchain has encountered some problems in the past, but now its defi ecosystem is booming, thanks in part to a program of liquidity incentives called Avalanche Rush. This has made yield seekers flock to the chain to get more earnings. Funding and Grants Coming The Avalanche foundation stated that the funds coming from the token sale (held in June) will be used to incentivize and support the growth of defi, enterprise applications, and other use cases on top of the Avalanche blockchain. The funds will be invested in giving grants, token purchases, and various forms of investments for projects in the ecosystem. The blockchain is now experiencing the defi boom, supported by several platforms built on top of its services. According to Defillama, a defi aggregator, there is now more than $2.7 billion locked in Avalanche defi protocols, a rise of 7.36% in the last 24 hours. The price of avax, the native currency of the blockchain, has also spiked due to the funding news, reaching ATH levels of $67.52 at the time of writing. Investors were very optimistic about the current state of the project and its future in the market. Kyle Davies, chairman at Three Arrows Capital stated: Avalanche has found a product-market fit for what DeFi users want today, while also building for where the space is moving with custom blockchains on the platform. What do you think about Avalanche’s $230 million token sale? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has made Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2021. The programmer was listed as an innovator, and Time valued his ability to empower other creators with his continued support for Ethereum and all the things that its prime feature, smart contracts, can help them accomplish. Vitalik Buterin in Time’s Top 100 Influencers The most famous Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has been included in Time’s top 100 influential people of 2021 list. The magazine lists the most important people according to current events and specifies the unique roles of the individuals on the list. Others included for 2021 are Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, who pushed the inclusion of Bitcoin as legal tender, and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who is also a cryptocurrency enthusiast. Alexios Ohanian, one of the original builders of Reddit, discussed Buterin’s inclusion this year, saying: What makes Vitalik so special, though, is that he is a builder’s builder. No one person could’ve possibly come up with all of the uses for Ethereum, but it did take one person’s idea to get it started. From there, a new world has opened up, and given rise to new ways of leveraging blockchain technology—some of which I’ve invested in. Ethereum Is a Platform for Platforms This year, Ethereum has been the hotbed for the rise of NFTs, a technology that is changing how artists and creators monetize their work. Opensea, one of the main NFT markets, has already surpassed the one-billion-dollar mark in sales. Another important Ethereum-based project that has risen this year is Axie Infinity. Axie was created in 2017, but it is now in the spotlight due to the impressive income some are achieving by playing it. Axie is making a big impact in emerging economies like the Philippines and Venezuela. Ohanian, who wrote the review for Buterin, also makes reference to some important projects in the Ethereum ecosystem. He stressed: Whether it’s startups like Sorare reinventing fantasy sports or Rainbow users showing off their NFT collections, none of this would’ve existed without Vitalik’s creation. I’ve never been more excited about the potential of the Internet, and that’s largely thanks to Vitalik Buterin. Ethereum is now hovering over the $3,500 mark, up 4.3% in the last 24 hours. What do you think about Vitalik Buterin being included in Time’s list? tell us in the comment section below. View the full article

On August 5, 2021, the Ethereum network and its participants successfully completed the highly anticipated London upgrade, which saw the implementation of the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-1559. Since then, 303,681 ether worth more than a billion U.S. dollars have been burned. More Than 300K Ether Burned Following EIP-1559 More than a billion dollars worth of ethereum (ETH) has been burned to date, after the London upgrade was implemented 42 days ago. The biggest changes added to the Ethereum blockchain included EIP-1559 and EIP-3554. While EIP-3554 changed the difficulty bomb, EIP-1559 changed Ethereum’s fee rate to a new scheme that makes the crypto asset ether deflationary. Essentially, fees are standardized and calculated based on network demand, as a transaction pricing mechanism introduces a base fee for every block found on the network. The remainder of the fees will be burned and ether proponents assume this will significantly reduce the overall supply of ethereum. As of today, September 16, 2021, the Ethereum network has burned 303,681 ether worth over $1 billion using Thursday’s ether exchange rates. Opensea Still Largest Burner, Stablecoin Transfers Add to the Burn Pile The biggest burners in the network are people transferring ether from one address to another and decentralized applications (dapps) and decentralized finance (defi) platforms as well. The largest ether burner today is the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Opensea as Dune Analytics stats show the market has burned 42,991 ether worth $146.1 million today. Opensea is followed by traditional ether transfers which have added 25,514 ether to the burn pile. Uniswap V2 and the stablecoin project Tether (USDT) command the third and fourth positions in terms of the top ether burners. To date, the second version of the Uniswap decentralized exchange (dex) has burned 16,665 ether worth $55.8K. Tether’s stablecoin USDT has added 15,015 ether to the burn pile as it is responsible for burning $51 million. Other top burners include Axie Infinity, Uniswap V3, Metamask, the stablecoin project USDC, and Opensea’s registry. What do you think about the 303,681 ether worth over $1 billion burned? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

While the dogecoin’s token price has floundered during the last seven days, the meme-coin’s rival shiba inu (SHIB) has moved up the ranks in terms of weekly gains. Dogecoin has shed 5.8% during the last week, but shiba inu has spiked 21.3% during the course of the week and 21.1% in the last 24 hours. Shiba Inu Gains 21% in 24 Hours Two days ago, Bitcoin.com News covered the DOGE market action concerning dogecoin’s four-legged fall in recent times. Weekly stats show dogecoin (DOGE) is still down 5.8% during the last seven days but it is still the largest meme-based crypto asset in terms of market capitalization. The second leader in that category is shiba inu (SHIB), an ERC20 token that’s been moving northbound in terms of price in recent times. SHIB is currently swapping for $0.00000824 per unit but has lost 8% during the last 30 days. SHIB has been trading for $0.00000720 to $0.00000824 per unit on September 16, 2021. Today there’s 657,335 SHIB holders according to Etherscan data and 3,540,457 lifetime SHIB transfers. As the second largest meme-currency besides DOGE, SHIB has a $3.6 billion market capitalization. In comparison to dogecoin’s market valuation the coin represents more than 11% of dogecoin’s overall market cap. Sending SHIB can be costly as the cost to move ethereum (ETH) right now is $5.66 per transaction according to l2fees.info. Sending a token transfer can cost $12.93 per transfer using the Ethereum chain. Dogecoin Fees Are Cheaper, Tether Is SHIB’s Top Trading Pair on Centralized Exchanges Meanwhile, the cost to send DOGE according to bitinfocharts.com stats, is around 2.38 DOGE ($0.573) or 0.0045 DOGE per byte. That’s still 887.78% cheaper to send in contrast to sending the ERC20 SHIB unless the SHIB users are leveraging L2 platforms like Arbitrum One, Loopring, Optimism, and Zksync. The SHIB-focused decentralized exchange (dex) platform Shibaswap currently has $246 million total-value locked on the platform. SHIB sister tokens like LEASH ($792), and BONE ($1.05) are leveraged on the platform for liquidity pools and incentives. Metrics show that SHIB has had around $316 million in global trade volume during the last 24 hours. While SHIB has a wide range of pairs on dex platforms like Uniswap, Sushiswap, and Shibaswap, on centralized exchanges tether (USDT) commands 79% of all trades according to a cryptocompare.com analysis. This is followed by BUSD (9.77%), TRY (6.03%), WETH (1.82%), EUR (1.74%), and USD (0.77%). The top SHIB exchange is Binance with a share of 61.14% of the ERC20 token’s trades. This is followed by Huobipro, Okex, Bitmart, and Gateio respectively. What do you think about the dogecoin rival SHIB moving up the ladder in terms of weekly gains? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article