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The private investment management firm with $402 billion in assets under management (AUM), Neuberger Berman Group LLC, has revealed the company now has active exposure to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The multi-billion-dollar asset manager disclosed this information in a Form 497 in order to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR filing system. Neuberger Berman’s 497 Shows Bitcoin and Ethereum Exposure Neuberger Berman (NB) has detailed in a Form 497 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it is now permitting active exposure to crypto investments. The company is a well known wealth manager with $402 billion AUM today and in 2003 Neuberger Berman merged with Lehman Brothers. Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, Neuberger Berman continued to operate and spinned itself away from the parent company. The filing with SEC shows the firm permits exposure to cryptocurrencies now and mentions the leading crypto assets bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) in the filing. “Neuberger Berman Commodity Strategy Fund’s (the “Fund”) investment strategy will permit actively managed exposure to cryptocurrency investments and digital assets through (i) cryptocurrency derivatives, such as bitcoin futures and ether futures, and (ii) investments in bitcoin trusts and exchange-traded funds to gain indirect exposure to bitcoin.” CIK Filing Discloses Crypto Volatility Fund, NB Blog Post Highlights the Benefits of Bitcoin The statement also follows Neuberger Berman’s Central Index Key (CIK) filing on the SEC’s network system that discloses information on the “Neuberger Berman Hedged Cryptocurrency Volatility Fund LLC.” The CIK filing was published on July 29 and there’s been no official mention of the crypto fund from Neuberger Berman’s marketing team. The company has been experiencing strong growth since 2010 seeing 14% per year when it tapped $250 billion AUM in 2014. In mid-March, the crypto community caught a whiff of Neuberger Berman’s interest in bitcoin when it published a blog post called “The Bitcoin Experiment.” The editorial written by a number of Neuberger Berman asset managers highlights that the “ascent of bitcoin is capturing the imagination of investors globally.” What do you think about Neuberger Berman adding bitcoin and ethereum exposure? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. The last two weeks saw decentralized finance cryptocurrency startup LOFI-DEFI gain intense social adoption for what is positioned to be the biggest fair launch in DeFi history. Tens of thousands of investors have gathered in its combined international Telegram communities to await the launch of their native token LOFI. “There’s an art to effective marketing in the crypto space,” says Robert Tedders, CEO of TokenCulture.com, one of the premier cryptocurrency marketing firms. “Lofi-Defi has the ‘secret sauce’ to set the standard and we are going to prop them up every step of the way.” LOFI-DEFI is breaking DeFi norms by not only being listed on a decentralized exchange (Pancakeswap), but also simultaneously listed on a centralized exchange, WhiteBit. Pancakeswap is one of the largest decentralized exchanges in all of cryptocurrency and regularly sees daily volumes in amount between $500 million and $1 billion. WhiteBit currently has over 500,000 registered users and does more than $1.6 billion in daily volume. Pancakeswap launch date and time: Trading LOFI/BNB: 16:00 August 21, 2021 (UTC) LOFI-DEFI seems to be following in the social footprints of Safemoon which also launched on Pancakeswap and listed on WhiteBit as its first centralized exchange a month later, but LOFI-DEFI is moving at a faster pace than Safemoon. About LOFI-DEFI LOFI, which will be the native token of the LOFI-DEFI platform, is a deflationary asset with a passive rewards system. The smart contract features a reflection mechanism which rewards holders with extra tokens when trading occurs, and a burn mechanism which passively lowers the total supply as part of transactions in order to make remaining tokens more valuable. The LOFI token will be used on the LOFI-DEFI platform which is a social medium for artisans to connect with investors and earn income while building their profile. The ability to use an appreciating asset as a tool to invest in creators thereby increasing the value of their early works provides the perfect use case for the token. The contract is fully audited by Tech-Audit.org and was found to have no issues security or otherwise. Learn more about the project at https://lofi-defi.com “We are thrilled to be scouted and identified by WhiteBit as a listing partner for our first centralized exchange!” enthuses David Cohen, CEO of LOFI-DEFI. “WhiteBIT is not only one of the largest and most reputable exchanges in crypto, but they’re an established and compliant centralized exchange (CEX) in Europe and we are happy to offer our community a premium low fee trading alternative.” Offering a fiat payment gateway, WhiteBIT meets EU KYC and AML requirements. It charges one of the lowest trading fees for its crypto-to-crypto as well as crypto-to-fiat transactions. In terms of security, the exchange deploys cutting edge technologies and holds 96% of all assets on cold wallets. Offering SMART staking for passive earnings, the platform also provides Stop-Market and Stop-Limit Orders with quick deposits and withdrawals carried out by Dash InstantSend. WhiteBIT is currently one of only six exchanges in the world with a full-fledged margin trading terminal. Its user-friendly and reliable interface is suitable for both newbies and pros. WhiteBIT trading schedule details are as follows: Deposit：16:00 on August 26, 2020 (UTC) Trading LOFI/USDT: 16:00 on August 27, 2020 (UTC) Withdrawal: 16:00 on October 03, 2020 (UTC) Open an account on WhiteBIT with the following referral link: About WhiteBIT WhiteBIT is a centralized crypto-to-fiat exchange trusted by 500K+ users from 190 countries. It has the European Exchange and Custody licenses and is considered to be one of the safest platforms for trading and holding assets. https://whitebit.com LOFI-DEFI Officials: Website: https://lofi-defi.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/lofi_defi Telegram: https://t.me/lofi_defi Discord: http://discord.gg/HqF4dwAdNN Media Contact Robert Tedders, TokenCulture.com lofi.media@tokenculture.com 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

Following a number of statements this week from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Gary Gensler, wealth management firm Vaneck has filed for a bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF). Vaneck Files for a Bitcoin Futures-Focused Fund Called the Bitcoin Strategy ETF On August 10, the wealth manager Vaneck filed an application with the SEC in order to list the “Bitcoin Strategy ETF,” a fund that seeks “capital appreciation.” The fund will be an actively managed ETF that leverages bitcoin futures, pooled investment vehicles, and other ETFs that provide exposure to bitcoin (BTC). The latest Vaneck bitcoin ETF filing stresses: “The Fund does not invest in bitcoin or other digital assets directly.” The Bitcoin Strategy ETF will utilize bitcoin futures under the laws of the Cayman Islands, and it may also invest in “ETFs listed and traded in Canada, and exchange-traded products that provide exposure to bitcoin through the subsidiary.” Vaneck currently commands $63 billion in assets under management (AUM) and has been involved with bitcoin (BTC) for quite some time. At the end of June, Vaneck applied with the U.S. regulator to launch a bitcoin mutual fund, and the company is also hoping for approval for another bitcoin ETF that was filed back in December 2020. Vaneck is further shooting to provide an ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded fund as well. Last week, SEC Chair Gary Gensler outlined the regulator’s plans to regulate crypto assets and discussed crypto ETFs. Gensler’s statements seemed optimistic in regard to crypto ETFs when he said he looks “forward to the staff’s review of such filings, particularly if those are limited to these CME-traded bitcoin futures.” Investment Company Act of 1940 and Current Bitcoin Futures Regulations Could Bolster a Futures-Centric Crypto Fund Vaneck executive Gabor Gurbacs tweeted about the ETF filing on Tuesday and noted the company was the “first to file for a futures-based bitcoin ETF in 2017.” Members of the industry believe that CME’s bitcoin futures have been regulated for quite some time and because of Gensler’s latest statements, a bitcoin futures ETF may see the first approval. When Gensler said he looks forward to regulators reviewing ETFs that are particularly associated with bitcoin futures, he mentioned the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940 as possibly being sufficient enough for regulation. Vaneck’s Bitcoin Strategy ETF explains that the fund is a “non-diversified fund under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the ‘1940 Act’), and, therefore, may invest a greater percentage of its assets in a particular issuer.” Gensler has also written a letter to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren in regard to her concerns over cryptocurrency regulation. What do you think about Vaneck’s latest crypto ETF filing? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

In a strange twist of fate, two companies named Polygon are the source of a storm of confusion on Twitter as a video game community gets a unique introduction to Polygon’s blockchain technology. Crypto Scammers Hit Game-Related Feed Polygon, the rebranded layer 2 blockchain solution (previously Matic Network), has been mixed up with another identically named organization. This case of mistaken identity has caused some perplexing activity on Twitter as spammers and scammers highlight a “coin drop” to an online American video gaming website named Polygon that is entirely unrelated to the blockchain network. In several posts published by the video game organization’s Twitter feed, which operates under the handle @Polygon, spam accounts with little to no history and activity mentioned coin drops for Polygon and Matic. Twitter users who scrolled past the normal responses to the “Might Be Offensive” content were quickly inundated with crudely written tweets that tagged @POLYGON_BONUS and @MATICGIFT. Fallout 76’s new water parks make the wasteland fun — perhaps too fun https://t.co/VqQnHpeSr2 pic.twitter.com/5ooaVBrNew — Polygon (@Polygon) August 9, 2021 Games Workshop promises customers will be able to purchase the new Kill Team boxed set without scalpers getting in the way https://t.co/I5SefBTQVi pic.twitter.com/UYlOhW5ONR — Polygon (@Polygon) August 9, 2021 This has been a common attack vector for enterprising scammers seeking to have crypto users unwittingly send their coins to a scammer’s wallet. Scammers will often explain that users will be eligible for a coin drop or other promotion designed to give them more coins than they sent in return for sending a few coins, only to steal the coins and disappear. Thanks to poor spelling, grammar, and obvious tells like an account’s history, these scams are relatively easy to spot. Over the years, many of these scams have routinely been perpetrated, especially by accounts posing as recently deceased crypto evangelist John McAfee. However, this mistake also reflects common errors made by algorithms attempting to automate certain behaviors. A strong example is headline screening algorithms that are used to make financial trading decisions. They sometimes pick up on errant tweets and headlines that cause spikes in unrelated financial instruments, only to later realize a case of mistaken identity. The next crypto twitter scam is already here. Fake Binance account added me to list "John McAfee" with a scam URL in the image. Please retweet to spread awareness Report these accounts as you see them#SCAM #Crypto #CryptoTwitter #Bitcoin @officialmcafee @binance @cz_binance pic.twitter.com/yGR8f98yOF — JRNY Crypto (@JRNYcrypto) July 18, 2020 In Polygon’s (the blockchain solution) case, this example of mistaken identity probably did more help than harm by exposing the video game site’s users to cryptocurrency and its layer 2 scaling solution, or at the very least, the tactics of shady spammers. What do you think of the Polygon mistaken identity Twitter storm? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Global cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Bitmex has settled charges with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The exchange has agreed to pay as much as $100 million to end investigations by the two agencies. Bitmex Settles With CFTC and FinCEN Bitmex confirmed Tuesday that “it has reached a resolution with both the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in relation to investigations by both agencies.” The company wrote: Bitmex agreed to pay as much as US$100 million to resolve the charges. “Today marks an important day in our company’s history, and we are very glad to put this behind us,” commented Bitmex CEO Alexander Höptner. “As crypto matures and enters a new era, we too have evolved into the largest crypto derivatives platform with a fully verified user base.” The CFTC separately announced Tuesday that “the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has entered a consent order against five companies charged with operating the Bitmex cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform.” The companies are HDR Global Trading Ltd., 100x Holding Limited, ABS Global Trading Ltd., Shine Effort Inc Limited, and HDR Global Services (Bermuda) Ltd. FinCEN, a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, also confirmed in an announcement Tuesday that it has assessed a $100 million civil money penalty against Bitmex “for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act” and its regulations. “Bitmex, which operated as an unregistered futures commission merchant (FCM) and provided money transmission services, willfully failed to comply with its obligations under the BSA,” FinCEN detailed. “For over 6 years, BitMEX failed to implement and maintain a compliant anti-money laundering program and a customer identification program, and it failed to report certain suspicious activity.” This is FinCEN’s first enforcement action against an FCM. The bureau added: These willful failures expose financial institutions to an increased risk of conducting transactions with money launderers and terrorist financiers, including noncompliant exchanges in high-risk jurisdictions, ransomware attackers, and darknet marketplaces. Furthermore, FinCEN detailed that the exchange “conducted at least $209 million worth of transactions with known darknet markets or unregistered money services businesses providing mixing services.” It also “conducted transactions involving high-risk jurisdictions and alleged fraud schemes” and “failed to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) on at least 588 specific suspicious transactions.” Besides the civil penalty, Bitmex has agreed to several independent consultations to determine if it must file additional SARs and “to ensure that appropriate policies, procedures, and controls are in place.” The announcement concludes: FinCEN’s $100 million assessment will be satisfied by immediate payments totaling $80 million to FinCEN and the CFTC, with $20 million suspended pending the successful completion of the SAR lookback and independent consultant reviews. What do you think about Bitmex paying $100 million to settle charges with the CFTC and FinCEN? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, has written a letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren about crypto regulation. After outlining his concerns and priorities in the crypto sector, he said, “additional authorities” and “more resources to protect investors in this growing and volatile sector” are needed. SEC Chair Gensler Replies to Senator Warren About Crypto Regulation On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren released the letter she received from the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, in response to her July 7 letter about cryptocurrency regulation. Gensler’s letter, which mirrors his speech at the Aspen Security Forum last week, outlines numerous areas in crypto the chairman is concerned about. It is dated Aug. 5 even though Senator Warren demanded that he reply to her by July 28. The former crypto professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) explained that there are both centralized and decentralized finance (defi) platforms, adding that some of them implicate securities laws, commodities laws, and also banking laws. “This raises a number of issues related to protecting investors and consumers, guarding against illicit activity, and ensuring financial stability,” he opined. “Right now, I believe investors using these platforms are not adequately protected.” Noting that a typical crypto trading platform supports more than 50 tokens and many have well over 100 tokens, Gensler emphasized: While each token’s legal status depends on its own facts and circumstances, the probability is quite remote that, with 50 or 100 tokens, any given platform has zero securities. “I believe we have a crypto market now where many tokens may be unregistered securities, without required disclosures or market oversight,” he stressed. The chairman also mentioned that some unregulated overseas platforms allow U.S. investors to trade cryptocurrencies using private virtual networks (VPNs). The SEC chief proceeded to outline his concerns regarding stablecoins, stating: The use of stablecoins on these platforms may facilitate those seeking to sidestep a host of public policy goals connected to our traditional banking and financial system: anti-money laundering, tax compliance, sanctions, and the like. “I believe we need additional authorities to prevent transactions, products, and platforms from falling between regulatory cracks. We also need more resources to protect investors in this growing and volatile sector,” he described, reiterating what he said at the Aspen Security Forum: In my view, the legislative priority should center on crypto trading, lending, and Defi platforms. “We stand ready to work closely with Congress, the Administration, our fellow regulators, and our partners around the world to close some of these gaps,” Gensler concluded. What do you think about Gensler’s comments to Senator Elizabeth Warren? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

On Tuesday, the decentralized finance (defi) project Poly Network was hacked for over $600 million in digital assets. The attack was the largest defi hack to date eclipsing all of 2021’s defi hacks combined. The very next day, however, the hacker started to send funds back to the Poly Network team as the project’s official Twitter account says it received $4.7 million so far. White Hat Hacker Communicates With Poly Network Attacker The Poly Network hack will go down in history as one of the largest defi attacks since the inception of this technology. In fact, the hack is up there with some of the largest hacks in crypto as it surpassed the Coincheck hack in 2018 which saw a loss of $530 million. Following the hack on Poly Network, the team published a letter that asked the hacker to start communicating with the project’s team members. “Law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major crime and you will be pursued,” Poly Network’s letter detailed. The hacker allegedly wrote messages to the Poly Network team and stressed that the hack could have been worse. Now, according to the official Poly Network Twitter account, the project has seen $4.7 million returned on Wednesday morning. “So far, we have received a total value of $4,772,297.675 assets returned by the hacker,” Poly Network said. The company also disclosed the amount and type of funds the hacker returned. The returned crypto assets include: ETH address: $2,654,946.051 BSC address: $1,107,870.815 Polygon address: $1,009,480.809 Moving in the Right Direction: Hacker’s Identity Possibly Discovered, Attacker Wants Tether Unfrozen After Sending USDC On Tuesday it was discovered that a security company called Slowmist published findings on the alleged hacker. Slowmist detailed that the hacker’s identification was exposed and the group had access to the hacker’s email and IP address. According to Slowmist, the hacker was able to leverage a relatively unknown crypto exchange in Asia and they claimed to have a lot of information on the attacker. Reports show a white hat hacker has been attempting to communicate with the Poly Network attacker. “We can offer you a security bounty when you return all the remaining assets. We will provide a secure address through email,” the white hat wrote. “The decision made by DAO can’t change the fact that the assets are stolen from crypto believers. We want to offer a security bounty and we hope it will be remembered as the biggest white hat hack in history,” the white hat hacker added. Then the hacker was suddenly “ready to return the funds” in a message sent to the Poly Network team. Next the hacker detailed that the attempt “failed to contact the Poly” and “I need a secured multisig wallet from you. It’s already a legend to win so much fortune. It will be an eternal legend to save the world. I made the decision, no more DAO.” The white hat responded and said: “We are preparing a multi-sig address controlled by known Poly addresses.” The hacker also said: “Accept donations to ‘the hidden signer’ now. Encrypt your msg with his pubkey.” Following this statement, the hacker sent over 1 million USDC tokens back to the Poly Network. “You are moving things [in] the right direction. We received 1+M USDC on Polygon. Did you ask us to encrypt the receiving addresses with your BookKeeper public key?” the white hat hacker asked. The hacker then sent more funds back to the project’s team members. Next, the hacker would ask the team to donate to an address if they supported his decision. The hacker added: Encrypt your msg with his pubkey if you want to talk. Dumping sh**coins first… How about unlocking my USDT after returning enough USDC? What do you think about the Poly Network hack and a fraction of the coins being returned the next day? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. The Estonian based company SWAG celebrates the first 2 years of international activity by signing an important agreement with Coincover, a platform providing industry-leading technical protection and insurance-backed guarantees for cryptocurrency investors. This choice allows Swag to continue its careful and constant growth trend, increasing the number of top partners and offering its users a growing number of useful services to improve performance, system reliability and economic return. These are the main points of the deal signed between Swag and Coincover: The agreement reached with Coincover allows Swag to offer a new and important deposit protection guarantee for each specific customer, protecting them from the risk of their wallet being lost or that access to the cryptocurrency is limited in the event that the Swag platform is not available or accessible. A service of great importance and similar to the bank guarantee provided by the FDIC. In addition to the Deposit Protection Guarantee, each Swag customer “wallet” will be eligible for coverage against loss resulting from theft, underwritten by Lloyd’s of London. An advantageous premium solution useful for providing greater protection to the growing number of Swag users, while, at the same time increasing the existing differences in treatment compared to those offered by other competitors. The basic package includes $10,000 of theft cover per wallet, with the option to increase individual coverage limits for every specific customer. These services are made possible by Coincover’s industry-leading technology. The first-to-market backup and recovery solution focuses on preventing loss in the first place, meaning that: o Access to funds can usually be recovered quickly rather than relying on coverage to payout. o Insurers’ risk is mitigated so theft cover can be offered to users at a greatly reduced cost than would otherwise be possible. “Swaggy now has the opportunity to offer high-value protection for the wallets of its users”, explains Giovanni Lionetti Ceo of SWAG, “thanks to the collaboration with a top brand such as Coincover, a leading digital company that will protect the owners of Swaggy wallets with the best professionalism. This is a double coverage for our users, who will thus be able to further protect their wallet in case of malicious activity and theft. In this way, Swag takes another step forward by further diversifying itself from the market as a premium brand ”. With this agreement, SWAG, today among the fastest growing mining companies internationally, aims to provide a more secure platform for its customers to manage, send and receive payments. Wallet protects aim is to ensure that the customer’s assets are well-protected from any theft and in case of loss of their private key. “This partnership represents another step towards making cryptocurrency safe for everyone to use,” said David Janczewski, Coincover CEO. “Ultimately it means users can be confident they can recover funds if something goes wrong. Problems due to human error can now be avoided by our industry-leading loss prevention technology. This minimises risk and enables coverage for theft and loss by a world-leading insurer for the best price available.” Building the safety standard for cryptocurrency Founded in the UK in May 2018, Coincover provides solutions for crypto ownerships, technology, cyber-security, crypto, and blockchain insurance. The main goal is building the world’s safety standard for cryptocurrency. The company’s services ensure that users and businesses never lose access to cryptocurrency funds due to user error, business or infrastructure failure. By combining advanced technology and insurance-backed guarantees, Coincover provides disaster recovery and business continuity options for cryptocurrency businesses and enables consumers to enter this exciting market safely. The tailor made world of Swag In two years of activity, SWAG has been able to build an important customer base by offering innovative services in the field of mining and e-wallet management. More and more performing machines, agreements with international top players, increasingly innovative technology at the service of its users through a tailor-made and turnkey service, with clear and accessible costs. These are the strengths of SWAG. 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

Coinbase published the company’s shareholder letter on Tuesday which detailed it made over $2 billion in net revenue during the second quarter. The firm said “Q2 was a strong quarter” for Coinbase as it saw both “growth and diversification” this year. While netting in $2 billion, Coinbase said it has 68 million verified users and the company also noted it has been working with Spacex, Tesla, PNC Bank, Wisdomtree, and Elon Musk. Coinbase Q2 Results: Over $2 Billion in Revenue, Retail Users Rise, 9,000 Institutional Customers Coinbase (Nasdaq:COIN) has published data on the company’s second-quarter earnings and growth. The firm said that retail monthly transacting users (MTUs) rose to 8.8 million, spiking 44% since the first quarter. The company also noted that during the second quarter, digital currencies like bitcoin crossed all-time highs. This favorable landscape was “highly correlated” with the firm’s trading revenue. “The crypto market environment heavily influenced our Q2 financial results,” the Coinbase documentation notes. Coinbase claims to have 160,000 industry partners and is working with over “9,000 institutions.” The company stressed that retail trading volume was fueled by MTUs and stated: Growth in retail trading volume was driven by higher MTUs, a strong crypto market environment, product innovation, and our ability to support more assets for trading. Institutional trading volume was $317 billion, an increase of 47% compared to Q1. Institutional volume comprised 69% of total trading volume, up from 64% in Q1. In the quarter, institutional onboarding to the Coinbase platform increased rapidly as well as higher capital allocations into crypto. While observing MTUs, Coinbase said that the firm is “deepening engagement” and 27% of Q2 retail MTUs — or roughly 2.4 million people — invested or engaged with at least one non-investment Coinbase product. The report highlights the 9,000 institutional users Coinbase has been working with, a number of well-known firms and “10% of the top 100 largest hedge funds” that chose to onboard with Coinbase. “In addition, in recent months, we have formed partnerships with industry leaders including Elon Musk, PNC Bank, Spacex, Tesla, Third Point LLC, and Wisdomtree,” the company’s Q2 report highlights. Coinbase added: Institutions are choosing Coinbase for the deep pools of liquidity we offer, our sophisticated algorithmic order execution, as well as the trust that comes with being a public company. A Coin Toss and Stiff Competition While the company revealed it made around $2 billion in net revenue, David Trainer, CEO of New Constructs, an investment research firm, is a bit skeptical. The research firm New Constructs asserts that it utilizes “fundamental data” in order to provide “unconflicted insights.” Trainer says Coinbase faces stiff competition and other firms are nipping at the company’s heels. “Coinbase’s results are impressive, but they aren’t good enough to justify the stock’s very expensive valuation of roughly $56 billion,” Trainer explained to Bitcoin.com News. “Coinbase will likely not be able to sustain blowout earnings going forward thanks to rising competition in the cryptocurrency trading space.” The New Constructs executive added: Coinbase faces intense competition. Coinbase’s business has few barriers to entry and other companies can easily do what they do, including incumbents Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and Nasdaq (NDAQ), as well as other startups like Robinhood (HOOD), Etoro, Gemini, Binance and Kraken. Coinbase also noted that the firm held a large quantity of both bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH). The Q2 report published by Coinbase disclosed that the company has around $180 billion under the hood. About $92 billion is tethered to institutional funds while retail has around $88 billion. “As of June 30, 2021, Assets on Platform totaled $180 billion. Crypto assets on the platform represented 11.2% of the total market capitalization of crypto assets. Despite price movements, we saw billions of dollars of net asset inflows and new customers added throughout Q2,” the Coinbase report explained. A report published by Barron’s highlights Dan Dolev, a Mizuho senior analyst researching fintech equity. When Dolev discussed Coinbase shares he remained neutral on the subject and stressed that the next financial results from the company will be a “coin toss.” “With August average daily volumes running 80% above July, the excitement around the stock in the past week is somewhat understandable,” Dolev told Barron’s. “However, since volatility can fade just as quickly as it comes, Coinbase’s fiscal-year outlook remains somewhat of a coin toss.” What do you think about the recently published Coinbase Q2 earnings report? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Personal finance guru Suze Orman says she recommends dollar-cost averaging into bitcoin. She sees upsides to the cryptocurrency, noting that it could “turn into a payment structure.” Personal Finance Guru Bullish About Bitcoin, Advises Dollar-Cost Averaging Into the Crypto Personal finance guru and best-selling author Suze Orman has shared her view of why she is bullish about the price of bitcoin. The Suze Orman Financial Group founder, whose show ran on CNBC from 2002 to 2015, has written 10 consecutive New York Times bestsellers about personal finance. She was named twice on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people and was appointed as a personal finance educator for the United States Army and Army Reserve in 2016. In addition, she won two Emmy Awards and eight Gracie Awards. In her recent Women & Money podcast, Orman advised her listeners how to invest in bitcoin and shared why she thought the cryptocurrency will perform well in the future. In terms of how to get into bitcoin and how much to invest, Orman advised: I think it’s something that you hold for the long term or you dollar-cost average into it with very, very little amounts. While the amount varies from person to person, she gave $100 a month as an example. As for where to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Orman mentioned the Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase and Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange. Previously, she recommended Paypal. However, the company currently does not allow users to transfer cryptocurrencies away from its platform, something the CEO said will soon change. Explaining why the price of bitcoin rallied recently, she cited Amazon’s job posting for a “Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead.” Orman pondered if the e-commerce giant is thinking about accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for payments. There were reports that the company will begin accepting BTC by the end of the year. However, Amazon denied the report, stating that there was no specific plan. Orman said, “When Amazon enters something you have got to pay attention to it.” Next, the financial expert pointed to Tesla, Elon Musk’s electric car company, which began accepting bitcoin in March but suspended it due to environmental concerns. However, Musk recently said that Tesla will likely start accepting BTC again. Another reason, Orman noted was that there were $800 million in shorts on bitcoin and, like Gamestop, investors had to cover their shorts, which would send the price of BTC higher. She also said that all of a sudden wall street firms and venture capital firms are starting to invest again in companies dealing with bitcoin. Furthermore, she noted that cryptocurrency could become a payment mechanism, elaborating: It seems that the direction bitcoin is going is that, unlike gold that can’t be used to make a purchase, it seems like people are starting to gear up where crypto isn’t just going to be something like gold. It really would possibly turn into a payment structure. Orman added: “Now, if that were to happen where people are starting to take crypto as a payment then ethereum is a great place for you to look as well in terms of investing.” What do you think about Orman’s advice? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

According to a report, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is planning to have its proposed digital currency designated “critical national infrastructure” in order to protect it from operational and cyber-security risks. In addition, the CBN will also apply regulatory and compliance mechanisms to prevent what it calls “disruptive competition for electronic money.” Cost Versus Benefit As a Thisdaylive report explains, the digital currency which will be known as the e-naira will initially co-exist with traditional payment systems. CBN hopes that this strategy will help it “address interoperability risks that might be associated with the implementation.” With respect to the costs and risks involved, Thisdaylive, whose report is ostensibly based on a leaked CBN document, says the central bank is hopeful that the increased efficiency in operations will offset the initial costs of deploying the digital currency. On the other hand, the CBN reckons the risk of financial disintermediation will be addressed via the imposition of limits on e-naira holdings. Public-Private Partnership Arrangement The report also explains how the issuing of the e-naira will lead to the creation of a public-private partnership arrangement between the central bank and regulated institutions. As part of this arrangement, the CBN will be tasked with the design and distribution of the digital currency to regulated institutions. These institutions, in turn, “provide the digital cash to individuals and businesses.” This latest report by Thisdaylive appears to buttress earlier reports that the CBN is planning to launch a trial run of the e-naira on October 1, 2021. The report also appears to be the first time that finer details about the workings of the proposed digital currency have been made public. With just a few weeks left before launch, it now remains to be seen if the digital currency, which CBN officials insist will lead to cheaper and more efficient transactions, is going to come to life as promised by central bank governor Godwin Emefiele. What are your thoughts on this story? Share your views in the comments section below. View the full article

Circle, a cryptocurrency fintech services company, announced it intends to become a full-reserve national commercial bank. This would bring a set of responsibilities and duties to the company equal to those of other mainstream banks: having to report to the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, OCC, and the FDIC. However, it would also put the company in a unique position to link blockchain and traditional finance. Circle Aiming to Become Full-Reserve Bank Circle, a cryptocurrency fintech services company part of the Centre consortium, the issuer of USD Coin, has revealed in a blog post yesterday it intends to become a full-reserve national commercial bank. The announcement was made by its CEO Jeremy Allaire in a post where he explains the journey the company will have to undergo to reach that goal. Allaire stated that, since its inception, Circle has intended to become a financial institution. And now that its flagship stablecoin, USD Coin, has reached a critical issuance mass of more than $27 billion dollars, it’s time to take things a step forward. Allaire stated: We believe that full-reserve banking, built on digital currency technology, can lead to not just a radically more efficient, but also a safer, more resilient financial system. The company is embarking on this new journey because it anticipates a boom in the growth of USDC that will ostensibly be a crucial asset in the future of the cryptocurrency market. Allaire state that it is important to establish standards for these currencies. He stated: Establishing national regulatory standards for dollar digital currencies is crucial to enabling the potential of digital currencies in the real economy, including standards for reserve management and composition. USD Coin Controversy Allaire addressed the worries of some customers and analysts in the cryptocurrency market, who have stated that USD Coin is not backed 1:1 by cash or cash equivalents. He recognizes that while the company has strived to maintain a high level of transparency, publishing attestations of its holdings, critics have valid points when it comes to “fundamental questions of liquidity, including liquidity in times of intense demand to redeem Usdc.” For this reason, Allaire stated that now Circle will “begin to publish information about the fundamental liquidity of USDC and our liquidity coverage under Basel III,” a protocol that defines the Liquidity Coverage Ratio banks must maintain to serve users in high-stress periods. What do you think about Circle intending to become a full-reserve bank? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

Chainalysis, one of the leading blockchain intelligence companies in the world, has announced it will now cover the Dogecoin network in its reports. The company argues that dogecoin became one of the most known cryptocurrencies in the world after being promoted by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla during this year. This, consequently, has attracted criminals to the chain, that are now enticed to use it due to its popularity. Chainalysis Announces It Will Cover Dogecoin The blockchain intelligence company Chainalysis announced it will now include dogecoin (DOGE), the infamous memecoin, in its upcoming reports. Dogecoin has gone from being a joke meme to becoming one of the most popular currencies in the market, moving big volumes after being promoted by Elon Musk, who has brought knowledge of it to the general audience. This has also put dogecoin in the eyes of criminals and regulators, like internet scammers that use the image of Musk and its relationship with dogecoin to steal cryptocurrency from users. This has happened several times, with the latest scam raking in $40,000 from users that sent a number of coins expecting to get the double from Tesla’s CEO. All of this has made dogecoin one of the most requested coins to cover from public and private sectors, that want to enhance compliance when dealing with this new asset. Now, the data-driven reports issued by the company will also include insights about the movements and origin of dogecoin (DOGE) tokens in the market. Chainalysis Growth Blockchain intelligence firms have experienced steady growth this year, as a result of governments and other organizations ramping up their tracking capabilities for certain cryptocurrency assets. Last June, Chainalysis raised $100 million in its Series E funding round, reaching a valuation of $4.2 billion. At that time, the company aimed to expand its capabilities to tracks decentralized finance linked currencies that move across decentralized exchanges. The firm is also interested in getting monero (XMR) tracking capabilities, and it is actively investing resources to reach that goal. In fact, the company won a $1.25 million contract from the IRS to scrutinize the Monero network and second layers like Lightning Network last year. However, Chainalysis has not reported any updates in this regard. Last week, crypto compliance firm Ciphertrace reported it had developed enhanced tools to facilitate the tracking of Monero based transactions. What do you think about Chainalysis introducing Dogecoin coverage in its reports? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. BENQI, an algorithmic liquidity market protocol, and the Avalanche Foundation are collaborating on a joint liquidity mining program to celebrate the launch of the BENQI protocol on the 19th of August and the next phase of growth within Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem. $3MM of AVAX will be allocated as liquidity incentives for BENQI users, with additional incentive programs coming soon. The AVAX will be offered as rewards to users who are lending and borrowing AVAX, ETH, LINK, wBTC, USDT, and DAI on the protocol with BENQI. AVAX is the native token of Avalanche. It’s a hard-capped, scarce asset that is used to pay for fees, secure the platform through staking, and provide a basic unit of account between the multiple subnets created on Avalanche. BENQI recently closed a $6MM fundraising round backed by the Avalanche Foundation, Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, & the Spartan Group. BENQI and Avalanche Brings High-Performance Borrowing and Lending to the Masses To date, Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem has garnered over $220MM+ in total value locked. For the first phase of the ecosystem’s development, many decentralized exchanges, specifically automated market makers (AMM), deployed on Avalanche mainnet to maximize opportunities enabled by high-speed, low transaction costs, and near-instant transaction finality. Marketplaces like these are imperative for price discovery. The leading AMM on Avalanche, Pangolin, has seen $1.3B+ in total trading volume since launch in February. The next phase will focus on expanding upon a variety of high-performance financial primitives, like money markets. With the impending launch of an industry-first secure bridging architecture to make asset transfers to Avalanche much cheaper and faster, BENQI and other select projects are leading the charge, with many more dapps expected to launch on Avalanche. “Decentralized finance (DeFi) is primed to take off on Avalanche with the arrival of another cornerstone DeFi functionality. BENQI is joining a rapidly growing ecosystem of DeFi users, assets, and applications on Avalanche, and we expect users and developers to leverage BENQI to expand the utility of their assets.” says JD Gagnon, Co-Founder of BENQI. “BENQI is launching at a key moment for Avalanche users and the broader DeFi ecosystem. Its technology adds a missing piece to the puzzle, and will make Avalanche even more attractive to users being priced out of other networks,” says John Wu, President of Ava Labs, a team supporting development on Avalanche. “This is an exciting step in a broader community initiative to bring more assets and liquidity onto the platform.” ### About BENQI Built on Avalanche’s highly scalable network, BENQI’s is bridging decentralized finance (DeFi) and institutional networks beginning with the launch of BENQI on the Avalanche C-Chain. Through BENQI, Avalanche users will be able to earn interest on their assets, obtain credit through over-collateralized loans and earn QI governance tokens as rewards for providing liquidity on the protocol and Pangolin. For more information about BENQI, please visit: benqi.fi About Avalanche Avalanche is an open-source platform for launching decentralized applications and enterprise blockchain deployments in one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem. Avalanche is the first decentralized smart contracts platform built for the scale of global finance, with near-instant transaction finality. Ethereum developers can quickly build on Avalanche as Solidity works out-of-the-box. Website | Whitepapers | Twitter | Discord | GitHub | Documentation | Forum | Avalanche-X | Telegram | Clubhouse | Facebook | LinkedIn | Reddit | YouTube 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

Afek Zard, a resident of Israel, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzling a large sum of cryptocurrency that belonged to a friend of his. The man, who refused to cooperate with the investigation, will have to pay a hefty fine as well. Israeli Resident Sentenced for Cryptocurrency Theft The 27-year-old Zard received the sentence from the Be’er Sheva District Court, Israeli news outlet Ynet reported this week. According to the website, Zard stole 75,000 DASH worth an estimated 22 million Israeli shekels ($6.8 million). The fiat equivalent dates back to the time the theft took place. The coins’ current value is almost twice as high. Zard, who has not returned a single dash to this day, has been convicted of theft in aggravating circumstances and other offenses. The court has also imposed a fine of five million shekels (approx. $1.55 million) and a maximum compensation of 258,000 shekels (almost $80,000). The crypto thief, a resident of Eilat in Southern Israel, took advantage of his friendship with the victim, identified previously as Alexei Yaromenko, who had invested in cryptocurrency. Zard had access to his apartment where he reportedly hacked into Yaromenko’s computer and acquired the details of his digital wallet with dash (DASH), which was selling for $82.5 per coin at the time. In the course of the investigation, Afek Zard denied all accusations, did not cooperate with the Israeli police, and refused to provide them with the passwords to his own personal computer and cellphone. As a result, authorities were unable to seize the stolen digital coins. During the court proceedings, Judge Yoel Eden ruled that the defendant’s testimony was unreliable. Eden convicted him of all alleged offenses that also include hacking into computer equipment, money laundering, fraud, and income tax violations. The prosecution had requested Zard to be sentenced to between 12 and 15 years in prison for crimes involving a new currency. However, his defense managed to convince the court to issue a reduced sentence of 8-year actual imprisonment plus probation. Zard’s lawyer, Giora Hazan, argued that although the offense was committed on a new platform, the damage itself was “normal and old.” What’s your opinion about the court’s decision in the case of the large cryptocurrency theft in Israel? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

A commissioner with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has criticized the securities watchdog for focusing on enforcement actions in its oversight of the crypto industry. SEC Commissioner Slams Agency for Focusing on Enforcement Actions in Regulating Crypto Assets SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce criticized her own agency Monday after it announced an enforcement action against cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. She noted that the SEC’s action against the exchange “doubles down on the Commission’s enforcement-centric approach to crypto.” The securities watchdog alleges that Poloniex operated without being registered and planned internally to be “aggressive” in listing more assets in 2017 despite saying publicly that it would not list securities. The regulator said that in 2018 the exchange let users trade assets it deemed “medium risk” of being classified securities. Peirce, also known as “crypto mom,” argued that the SEC was taking its time in dealing with cryptocurrencies at the time. “During the period at issue here (mid-2017 through 2019), the Commission was moving very cautiously with respect to regulated entities’ engagement with crypto assets,” she explained, elaborating: Sure, Poloniex could have tried to register. Had it done so, it likely would have waited . . . and waited . . . and waited some more. The commissioner opined: “Given how slow we have been in determining how regulated entities can interact with crypto, market participants may understandably be surprised to see us come onto the scene now with our enforcement guns blazing.” A report published in May shows that the SEC has brought 75 enforcement actions against companies and individuals in the crypto industry. Last week, the SEC took action its first action involving decentralized finance (defi). Recently, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler outlined his approach and priorities to regulating crypto assets, focusing on investor protection. He said last week that Satoshi Nakamoto’s “innovation is real,” adding that “it has been and could continue to be a catalyst for change in the fields of finance and money.” What do you think about the SEC focusing on enforcement actions in regulating the crypto industry? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The U.S. Senate has passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill with a crypto reporting requirement provision that has been described as “unworkable.” Senator Ted Cruz warned: “This infrastructure bill has in it a portion that is designed to obliterate crypto. That would be a tragic mistake.” Senate Passes Infrastructure Bill With ‘Unworkable’ Crypto Tax Provision The U.S. Senate voted 69-30 to approve the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill Tuesday without a crypto amendment. Many people have raised concerns about the cryptocurrency provision in the bill. Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania called it “unworkable.” Two amendments were put forward to rectify the situation. On Monday, the senators who sponsored the two amendments reached an agreement with the Treasury Department and a compromise crypto amendment was born. The Senate voted on the compromise amendment Monday afternoon. However, it required a unanimous consent agreement and Senator Richard Shelby from Alabama objected after he failed to get support for his own amendment. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas tweeted Tuesday: This infrastructure bill has in it a portion that is designed to obliterate crypto. That would be a tragic mistake. Senator Mike Lee from Utah warned during the Senate session Saturday that if this bill passes, “it’s going to have a chilling effect on innovation within this sector … Places outside the United States may well be the ones to reap the benefit associated with the laws here in the United States if we adopt an unproven, untested, unknown strategy. What you’ll see is the flight of innovation, and investments related to innovation, to offshore locations around the globe.” Many people in the crypto community agree, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who wrote, “We will see future development of blockchain technology move offshore to countries like China that are currently embracing it.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk concurred, emphasizing that “There is no crisis that compels hasty legislation” for cryptocurrency. A major problem in the bill is the definition of a “broker” who must file reports with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). As it stands, a broker could include software developers, transaction validators, and node operators who do not collect the information the IRS requires. NBC’s Jake Sherman reported Tuesday: Sen. Shelby just told us he’s actually for the [crypto] amendment he blocked yesterday, but blocked it simply because he didn’t want them to get an amendment unless he got his defense amendment. The bill has now moved to the House of Representatives, which does not return from recess until Sept. 20. Despite the setback, crypto supporters are not giving up. After the compromise crypto amendment failed to pass in the Senate, four congressmen began their efforts to lessen the impact of the bill. Rep. Tom Emmer wrote: “I, along with bipartisan Blockchain Caucus co-chairs Rep. Darren Soto, Rep. David Schweikert, and Rep. Bill Foster sent a letter to every single representative in the House raising concerns about the Senate infrastructure bill being paid for by our crypto industry.” He elaborated: The House must consider amendments to this provision that exempt entities that don’t conduct crypto transactions and keep blockchain software development, cryptocurrency mining, and more in the United States. What do you think about the Senate passing the infrastructure bill without a crypto amendment? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Venmo, a Paypal service, has introduced the “Cash Back to Crypto” feature to allow credit card customers to automatically buy four types of cryptocurrencies with their cash back without incurring transaction fees. Cash Back to Crypto on Venmo Payments giant Paypal announced Tuesday a new feature on its Venmo platform called “Cash Back to Crypto” that enables Venmo credit card customers to “use monthly cash back in their Venmo account to auto-purchase cryptocurrency of choice, with no transaction fees.” The announcement details: Starting today, Cash Back to Crypto will be rolling out to Venmo Credit Cardholders, offering more ways to use cash back and expanding on Venmo’s crypto functionality, which launched earlier this year. Cash Back to Crypto will be available to all eligible Venmo Credit cardholders in the coming weeks, the company noted. Venmo launched crypto trading on its platform in April, allowing over 70 million users access to four types of cryptocurrencies: bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), and bitcoin cash (BCH). “Customers will be able to manage their cash back to crypto auto-purchases in real time and can choose to change their crypto of choice at any time,” the announcement adds, elaborating: Purchases made from their Venmo account using the auto-purchase feature with Cash Back to Crypto will not have any transaction fee associated with the purchase, with a cryptocurrency conversion spread built into each monthly transaction. Paypal is currently hiring over 100 positions, including for Venmo, to expand its crypto service. The company recently revealed its expansion plans, including via a new wallet “super app,” open banking integration, U.K. expansion, and third-party wallet transfers. “We continue to be really pleased with the momentum we’re seeing on crypto and we’re obviously adding incremental functionality into that,” said Paypal CEO Dan Schulman. What do you think about Venmo’s Cash Back to Crypto feature? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. EQIFI, a regulated and licensed decentralized platform for pooled lending, borrowing and investing Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and select fiat currencies, has announced that its native token, EQX, has been enlisted on the Bloomberg Terminal under the EQX ticker symbol. Bloomberg’s influential audience of financial and business decision-makers will now enjoy access to the price data of EQIFI’s fungible ERC-20 EQX token, which bestows numerous benefits and rewards to users on the platform. Jason Blick, Chairman of EQIFI, said: “We are delighted to see institutional investors gain access to EQX data, and thus open up the world of decentralized finance to a wider audience that very few DeFi protocols have access to. Providing exposure to global financial hubs is just the next step in positioning EQIFI to become an industry leader.” EQIFI operates under a community-focused, decentralized standard through its native EQX token, which allows community members to make crucial decisions about the future of the project, such as listing and delisting assets and tokens, adjusting interest rates according to the market, and modifying collateral limits. EQIFI is powered by EQIBank, one of the world’s leading licensed and regulated digital banks. EQIBank offers competitive rates, 24/7 service, trusted security and an innovative, simple online global banking experience. EQIBank provides bank accounts, loans, custody, debit and credit cards, over the counter, and wealth management to EQIFI and all its qualified clients. For more information, visit EQIFI’s website. About EQIFI EQIFI, the first DeFi project powered by a licensed and regulated digital bank, is setting new standards, establishing trustless transactions, and driving real-world adoption. EQIFI’s infrastructure is optimized for real-time digital interactions. We are at the forefront of embracing today’s ever-demanding culture that wishes to embrace the evolution of digital technologies. For media inquiries David Cullinan Chief marketing officer EQIFI david@eqifi.com 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

Bitcoin’s hashrate has been steadily climbing after dropping to 69 exahash per second (EH/s) on June 28, as it reached a high of 117 EH/s on Tuesday morning (EDT). The rise in hashpower will likely lead to the highest difficulty expansion in 89 days as estimates currently show a 7.39% increase is due in two days. Bitcoin Block Rewards Expected to Be More Than 7% Harder to Find in 2 Days In a touch more than two days’ time, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is expected to jump over 7.3% as the crypto asset’s overall hashrate has improved a great deal. Since June 28, Bitcoin’s hashrate has jumped 69.56% and has been rising higher following the lift in market prices. Bitcoin hashrate over a 1-year zoom on August 10, 2021. On July 15, Bitcoin’s hashrate hit a high of 130 EH/s holding just below that zone for the last 25 days, and once in a while, it has tried to surpass the metric. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty makes it more difficult for miners to find blocks and during the last epoch, it increased more than 6%. However, the largest increase since then was on May 13, 2021, when the difficulty increased by 21.53% that day. At the time of writing and current hashrate speed, the mining difficulty is expected to increase more than 7%. The next difficulty change shows an estimate of around 7.39% and could increase higher if the hashrate continues to climb. This means that over the last month, the difficulty will be close to 13.39% higher in two days. At the time of writing, BTC’s mining difficulty is around 14.50 trillion, and it is expected to be around 15.57 trillion after the next difficulty change. Besides the May 13 change, the difficulty adjustment will be the highest change since January 9, 2021. While the difficulty makes it harder to find BTC blocks, it can increase and decrease depending on how much hashrate is dedicated to the blockchain. Antpool Still Commands the Top Spot, Bitcoin’s Inflation Rate Per Annum Is 1.76%, Bitcoin Halving Is 1,006 Days Away On Monday, Antpool is the largest BTC miner, capturing 17.71% of the overall hashrate. Antpool has over 20 EH/s dedicated to the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain and is followed by Poolin’s 15.12 EH/s of hashpower. With more than 15 exahash Poolin has over 13% of the network hashpower today while Viabtc commands the third position. 3-day BTC mining pool hashrate distribution on August 10, 2021. Viabtc’s 11.46% of the network hashrate derives from the 12.9 EH/s of hashpower it is applying to the chain. The fourth position is held by F2pool (10.83%), and the fifth-largest miner is Foundry USA (9.79%). Unknown hash or stealth miners still have a large quantity of global hashpower with 9.17% of the hashpower today or 10.9 EH/s. As of August 10, 2021, there are approximately 1,006 days until the next block reward halving and it’s likely miners will try to mine with as much hashpower as they can until then. When that happens, the 6.25 BTC block reward will shrink to 3.125 coins per block post halving. Give or take hashrate speed, there are roughly 144 blocks found every day and the BTC inflation rate per annum is only 1.76%. At the time of writing, the next difficulty retarget will be 386 BTC blocks away and at the current velocity of the network and market prices, it seems miners are in for a run of consecutive difficulty increases. What do you think about the upcoming difficulty increase and the fact that Bitcoin’s hashrate has been recouping from the losses at the end of June? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

On August 10, the decentralized finance (defi) project Poly Network suffered a loss of over $600 million according to various reports. The hack follows a recent Ciphertrace report on how defi-related hacks and fraud in 2021 have already surpassed 2020. The Poly Network hack on Tuesday is well above the entire year’s worth of defi hacks. $600 Million Drained, Poly Network Defi Hack Eclipses 2021’s Defi Hacks This week, the blockchain analysis and intelligence company Ciphertrace published a report that shows $474 million was lost to defi-related hacks and fraud. The findings highlight how defi hacks have hit record highs but the Poly Network hack on Tuesday takes the cake. Around 9:00 a.m. (EDT) the Poly Network’s official Twitter account tweeted about the massive hack. “We are sorry to announce that Poly Network was attacked,” the Twitter account said and explained that the hacker was able to access funds on various chains. Poly Network hacked for over $600 million across Ethereum, Polygon, and BSC. https://t.co/e1mJW0gijehttps://t.co/84gmgphqAHhttps://t.co/3ICgaeJgUs Poly network hasn't even verified their contracts on Ethereum so it's tedious to analyze. Here are my current thoughts 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/WDvMbpGVwN — Mudit Gupta (@Mudit__Gupta) August 10, 2021 The Poly Network project originally stems from the Neo project which leverages three different blockchain networks. This means the Poly Network hacker was able to obtain funds stemming from the Polygon, Ethereum, and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) protocols. The assets stolen include a great number of tokens including ETH, DAI, UNI, SHIB, FEI, BUSD, BTCB, ETHB, BNB, USDT, and more. A great number of people assessed the situation on Twitter and although tedious it is estimated that more than $600 million in tokens were stolen. Hacker Says It Could Have Been More Sushiswap “super-coder” Mudit Gupta claimed that the issue was not a “defi or smart contract hack but a traditional key compromise combined with irresponsible design decisions taken by Poly Network.” The company Tether Limited has frozen the USDT on the Ethereum chain which equates to roughly $33 million. . @Tether_to just froze ~33M $USDt on 0xC8a65Fadf0e0dDAf421F28FEAb69Bf6E2E589963 as part of the #PolyNetwork hack https://t.co/EviPTAkQJD — Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) August 10, 2021 The team behind the Poly Network project has also written a letter asking the hacker to cooperate with the team. “We want to establish communication with you and urge you to return the hacked funds,” the letter reads. However, it doesn’t seem like the hacker is willing to cooperate with the Poly Network project. Some transaction messages that allegedly stem from the hacker and can be read on etherscan.io, detail how the hacker is now trolling the project with a few statements. “It would have been a billion hack if I had moved [the] remaining sh**coins. Did I just save the project? Not so interested in money, now considering returning some tokens or just leaving them here.” The hacker’s message continued: What if I make a new token and let the DAO decide where the tokens go? What do you think about the $600 million defi hack against the Poly Network project? What do you think about the hacker’s trolling comments? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

In the history of every successful startup, there comes a ‘defining’ moment – a moment when the vision of its founders clashes with the impossible and, against all odds, triumphs by becoming a reality. ADAX, a decentralized exchange (DEX) within the Cardano ecosystem, has just experienced that moment. We are thrilled to demonstrate that, as promised, ADAX’s trustless protocol will enable censorship-resistant token swaps within the Cardano ecosystem, make full use of ‘social sentiment’-based trading tools, and ensure ample asset liquidity through unique liquidity pools. For the last three months, our team of seasoned developers and finance professionals have been working tirelessly to hit this milestone. We are now proud to say that we are on the right track. Welcome to the DeFi world powered by frictionless transactions on ADAX. Platform Key Features Modern UI/UX Our UX team have spent countless hours making sure that ADAX DEX is built according to the industry’s best practices and that the user experience is both intuitive and frictionless. Take a look at the new UI designed for your convenience at ADAX.pro. Effortless Token Swaps ADAX DEX protocol is streamlined to be lean and mean. ADAX users are empowered to execute smart contract-based trades instantly and only at a fraction of the cost of the Ethereum network. ADAX also has no order book – all intermediaries and cumbersome procedures have been stripped out of the equation, giving users untrammelled freedom to trade without ever giving up control of their assets. Revolutionary Social Sentiment Trading Tool Thanks to our exclusive partnership with Stockgeist.AI, a market sentiment monitoring platform, ADAX’s traders will be empowered to re-calibrate their investments based on early signs of changing ‘social sentiment’. By utilizing the data scraped from social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Discord, ADAX’s traders will know exactly which tokens are getting hot and which are cooling down, thus stretching their lead over the competitors even further. Deep Liquidity Pools Most liquidity pools in existence rely on dynamically changing ratios, with impermanent loss rampant in low-volume assets, often undermining the very risk/reward-based rationale of early liquidity providers. ADAX liquidity pools are different and do not suffer from that all-too-common problem that saps the market liquidity services of our competitors. Seamless Wallet Integrations To inch closer to the goal of becoming the UniSwap of Cardano, ADAX is in the process of ensuring widespread wallet integration. Will offer full support of Yoroi, GeroWallet and CardsWallet, we have many more API-based integrations planned for the immediate future. Throughout our journey to ensure the prosperity of all stakeholders within the Cardano ecosystem, we have received more support than we could have ever predicted. We’ve had an oversubscribed private sale and a tremendously successful IEO on ExMarkets. We’ve also cultivated partnerships with projects like Charli3 and BlackDragon and welcomed the backing of some of the most important crypto stakeholders, including Roger Ver, the so-called ‘Bitcoin Jesus’, and Mate Tokey, a co-founder of Bitcoin.com. Most recently, our list of valued relationships has expanded to include GeroWallet, a multi-functional Cardano Wallet, and MELD, a leading non-custodial banking protocol. The latter will be using our platform as the designated DEX for their token and providing the Polygon bridge to further increase the cross-chain spread that ADAX is aiming for. In short, we are both extremely excited and humbled by the amount of support we have received. We hope that by delivering on our promises, we can begin to give back to the enthusiastic Cardano community, which continues to support us throughout our quest to become the most powerful trading venue within the Cardano ecosystem. To find out more about how ADAX is changing the world of DeFi on Cardano, visit the website at https://adax.pro/ Twitter || Telegram This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

The South African businessman and CEO at Barrick Gold Corporation, Mark Bristow, recently explained in an interview that “no one believes in fiat currencies anymore.” Bristow says the world is currently “battling” on how to “position investments on the back of the unforeseen and unrealized damage of how the pandemic crisis was managed.” Mark Bristow: ‘Everyone’s Desperate to Find Alternatives’ Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow joined CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” this week to discuss the global economy, gold’s recent falter, and other types of investments. The Barrick Gold executive discussed the company’s goals and 2021 revenue on Monday as well, and noted that it didn’t expect inflation to hurt gold. While speaking with CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla, Bristow stressed that the gold market was a “long-term business” and further emphasized that “the gold price goes down and it goes up and not necessarily in that order.” Bristow showed a distaste for fiat currencies and how the world’s central banks handled the economy during the pandemic. The Barrick Gold CEO explained to Quintanilla that he’s not a fan of crypto assets and it’s not the first time he’s told CNBC that he believes cryptocurrencies are “inferior.” On May 20, 2021, Bristow told the hosts of the “Mad Money” broadcast that gold can’t be created so easily. “That’s one thing you can’t do, is no one can print gold. We can still make cryptocurrencies,” Bristow said at the time. On Monday, during the interview with Quintanilla, Bristow reiterated his dislike for digital assets, but further explained why he thinks people are attracted to them. “This world is battling with how to position investments on the back of the unforeseen and unrealized damage of how the pandemic crisis was managed… and the impact it has on the global economy which really hasn’t materialized yet,” Bristow remarked. Quintanilla delved into the crypto subject and Bristow stated that when it comes to digital assets “there’s no comparison with gold.” The Barrick Gold executive explained that one thing was “critical” and that “you can’t just create value… and what you are really buying [with crypto] is energy.” Bristow wholeheartedly believes the global battle on how to position investments is what’s causing crypto adoption. The lack of trust in fiat is the main reason, Bristow noted, saying: No one believes in fiat currencies anymore and everyone’s desperate [to find alternatives]. Gold Buying Opportunity As far as the recent precious metals flash crash, Bristow thinks it’s a buying opportunity. Bristow thinks developing countries are hurting far worse than a number of other regions worldwide. “The whole issue here is that everyone wants instant gratification, everyone’s already concerned about how you store your [wealth] that you’ve seen grow in the developed worlds,” Bristow said. “The emerging and developing world’s economies are in dire straits,” the Barrick Gold CEO added. Bristow further said: Without a doubt, this is a buying opportunity and you still need a 5% or so part of your investments in gold. What do you think about Mark Bristow’s opinion that no one believes in fiat currencies these days? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Duniapay, a digital banking platform created by three students from Burkina Faso, has added a personal savings feature to its banking application that already provides residents from some 14 West African countries with a flexible digital platform to access financial services. Using a Stablecoin to Save The new feature, which is viewed as another demonstration of the game-changing potential of blockchain technology, comes with an offer of over 8% annual interest on savings. This interest rate offer according to Duniapay surpasses the typical 3.5% interest that is offered by most traditional banks. A statement released by Duniapay reveals that this new feature became possible following the creation of the cxof stablecoin which was “developed by Duniapay on Celo’s decentralized finance ecosystem.” It is this stablecoin — which tracks the region’s CFA franc (XOF) — that enables residents of these countries “to easily save money and to earn interest.” As Radha Mathur of Duniapay explains, this interest rate feature is a step up from the firm’s initial mission of enabling “money transfers and conversions from crypto to fiat currencies for the people of West Africa.” Currency Swapping The statement also claims that the cxof stablecoin will allow residents to “transact globally by swapping natively between multiple stable currencies available on Celo [cEUR, cUSD and others].” Duniapay’s introduction of a privately issued stablecoin to users in West Africa comes a few weeks after the regional parliament warned residents to be wary of the risks associated with cryptocurrencies. The parliament cited cryptocurrencies’ lack of a central authority to monitor transactions as well as the concentration of assets in just a few hands as some of the risk factors. However, in its statement, Duniapay suggests that its operations are conducted “within a safe, secure, and regulated environment.” In addition, the cxof stablecoin users are able to freely trade this “on any Celo compatible wallets.” What are your thoughts on this story? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc., plans to accept bitcoin by the end of 2021 according to CEO Adam Aron on an earnings call on Monday. Aron said the movie theater chain will start accepting the leading crypto asset once the company has information technology (IT) systems in place. AMC Plans to Accept Bitcoin According to Firm’s CEO On Monday, during an AMC earnings call, the company’s board members and CEO discussed cryptocurrency acceptance. AMC is the largest movie theater chain in the world as the firm operates 7,967 screens in 620 theatres across the U.S. and 2,866 screens in 358 theatres in the EU. Adam Aron said during the conference call that he learned about cryptocurrency when he was on the Centricus Acquisition Corp board. ​​“I’ve had to learn more in the past six months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned about it in the entire decade before that,” Aron told the earnings call participants. The AMC CEO added: This increased knowledge has given me the confidence to tell you all today that AMC is hereby formally announcing on this call that by year’s end we will have the information technology systems in place to accept bitcoin. Following the announcement, AMC shares started to climb, gaining a significant 3.36% during the last 24 hours, and AMC is also up a whopping 1,494% during the last 12 months. The yearly gains AMC has seen have been attributed to the recent Wallstreetbets fiasco that took place a few months ago. While discussing the subject, Aron told the attendees that the system would have to work online so people can purchase movie tickets and concessions with bitcoin. AMC is also looking to improve its revenue sources because even though shares have done well, the company suffered from 18 months of lockdown procedures that shut down the entire AMC circuit. On March 26, after a number of California theaters started to reopen, AMC estimated that 99% of the U.S. theater circuit was open to the general public. What do you think about AMC accepting bitcoin for movie tickets and concessions? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article