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On March 2, 2021, the average fee on the Ethereum network costs around 0.0083 ETH in gas or around $12.89 per transaction. Transaction fees of this caliber have dampened Ethereum-based decentralized finance (defi) applications and Web3 platforms. On February 23, however, crypto proponents were introduced to an alternative solution called Moeing chain. The Moeing chain project aims to provide the same benefits as Ethereum 2.0 scaling solutions but with help from the Bitcoin Cash network. Moeing chain to Introduce an EVM and Web3-Compatible Sidechain for Bitcoin Cash Decentralized finance (defi) has been a hot topic in 2020 and into 2021. Defi has also been dominant on the Ethereum (ETH) network, but during the last year, defi has leaked over to a number of other blockchains. The Moeing chain project introduced itself on February 23, 2021, on Twitter. For instance, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) proponents have recently welcomed the noncustodial exchange Detoken and the Anyhedge protocol built by the startup General Protocols. Additionally, on February 23 a project called Moeing chain announced its arrival onto the scene on Twitter. The Twitter account dubbed “Moeing chain” said: Hello World. Moeing chain is an EVM & Web3-compatible sidechain for Bitcoin Cash. It will allow for a block gas limit of one billion, and provide the same benefits of ETH2.0 very soon—so stay tuned. The tweet leads to a web portal called moeing.org, which explains what the project is with a similar description. A sidechain compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Web3 wallets and other infrastructure can open up numerous possibilities. The benefits of leveraging Bitcoin Cash (BCH) means that users can utilize extremely low fees and lightning-fast confirmations while using Ethereum. Developers can get some perspective on the Moeing chain project’s Github repository. Bitcoin Cash Proponents Anticipate Possible Launch in June 2021 According to sources, Jihan Wu the cofounder of Bitmain is backing the Moeing chain project. A recent report notes that the project has been under development for some time now and is expected to launch in June 2021. Other sources say Moeing chain could launch as early as May this year. The crypto blogger on read.cash Claudio83 who authored the report explains the various benefits of the Moeing chain concept. “The Moeing team is implementing many improvements in order to reduce the cost of gas on the chain for any type of transaction and offer users maximum efficiency and simplicity with minimum costs,” Claudio83 writes. “The sidechain will guarantee the Bitcoin Cash blockchain a high number of transactions.” The read.cash author continued: An exciting 2021 for Bitcoin Cash that is gaining particular attention from the crypto world and is considered to be among the most underrated projects to date. In my opinion, Moeing’s implementation will be BCH’s turning point and yet another demonstration of the enormous potential compared to the surviving Bitcoin. As of right now, the Moeing chain website allows interested people to subscribe to the mailing waitlist in order to get updates concerning this upcoming project. Meanwhile, ETH fees have been over $12 per transaction this week and upwards of $38 last week according to bitinfocharts.com average ETH gas data. The web portal bitcoinfees.cash indicates that the cost to get into the next BCH block is $0.0027 per transaction, a fee that’s considerably less than ETH’s average fee. What do you think about Moeing chain’s EVM&Web3-compatible sidechain for Bitcoin Cash? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region in northern China, is planning to shut down all cryptocurrency mining activities in the area by April 2021, as part of efforts to improve energy efficiency. Regulating the Electrical Consumption in Inner Mongolia The government of Inner Mongolia will also stop approving new projects in energy-intensive industries such as steel and coke production, Reuters reported on Mar. 1, citing a draft policy to regulate energy consumption in the region. Chinese journalist “Wu Blockchain” tweeted that the decision might be due to China’s need to meet its carbon emissions commitments under the U.N. climate change treaty. Much of the energy produced in Inner Mongolia is coal-based, a major source of climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. China, the world’s second-largest polluter after the U.S., aims to achieve carbon-neutrality by 2060. Together with the likes of Sichuan and Xinjiang provinces, Inner Mongolia is a favorite destination for miners looking to extract bitcoin (BTC) at low electricity prices. According to Cambridge University’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, Inner Mongolia accounts for eight percent of the global hash power total, and China 65%, though these figures have been brought into question. Beijing’s Energy Consumption Targets Carbon Neutrality Before 2060 However, the region drew criticism from the central government in September after it failed to meet Beijing’s energy consumption and energy intensity targets in 2019. It was the only one of 30 Chinese mainland areas that failed to do so, according to the Reuters report. Now, China’s second-largest coal-mining region is going all out to cut consumption from sectors considered to be using a lot of electricity, including bitcoin mining. Crypto mining, which requires large amounts of computing power, will be shut down by April this year. Other affected industries have until the end of 2022 to wind down their operations. Per the Reuters report, Inner Mongolia “aims to cap energy consumption growth at around five million tonnes of standard coal equivalent in 202.” It also plans to cut “the amount of energy consumed per unit of economic growth, by three percent from 2020 “[(Inner Mongolia] will tighten its energy control measures and bear the targets throughout all economic and social aspects,” said the draft policy. The region’s energy intensity rose by 9.5% during the period 2016-2019. What do you think about the impending closure of crypto mining in Inner Mongolia? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) has applied to list the Vaneck Bitcoin Trust, as an exchange-traded fund (ETF) if the fund is approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The filing Form 19b-4, if approved by financial regulators, would allow Cboe to “list and trade shares of the Vaneck Bitcoin Trust.” Cboe Aims to List the Vaneck Bitcoin Trust BZX On March 1, 2021, the largest U.S. options exchange, Cboe filed a registration with the U.S. SEC in order to list shares of the Vaneck Bitcoin Trust under the ticker “BZX.” The filing written by Cboe’s associate general counsel notes that the shares may be redeemable for bitcoin (BTC). The Cboe registration is based on the Vaneck proposal the company applied for on December 30, 2020. Cboe filed to list the Vaneck Bitcoin Trust on March 1, 2021. New York-based investment management firm Vaneck applied with the SEC at the end of 2020, following the successful listing of a crypto ETF in Europe. The announcement back in December revealed the fund’s shares would start trading on Cboe. “The Vaneck Bitcoin Trust (the ‘Trust’) is an exchange-traded fund that issues common shares of beneficial interest (the ‘Shares’) that trade on the Cboe BZX Exchange Inc.,” Vaneck said at the time. So far, however, U.S. financial regulators have not approved a U.S. bitcoin-based ETF and have rejected numerous filings over the years. However, last month the Evolve and Purpose bitcoin ETFs were listed in Canada and were dubbed the “first North American bitcoin ETFs.” Vaneck is also facing ETF competition, as many others have filed for a U.S.-based bitcoin exchange-traded fund in recent times. Competitors and Cboe’s Continued Cryptocurrency Interest New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) registered for a bitcoin ETF and named Morgan Stanley as a participant in the SEC filing. At the end of January Valkyrie Digital Assets also filed an ETF registration proposal called the Valkyrie Bitcoin Trust with hopes to list the fund on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Moreover, back in 2018, Cboe filed for a prospective bitcoin-based ETF and also initiated the first regulated bitcoin futures markets in December 2017. Both crypto projects were eventually discarded from Cboe’s playbook. In March 2019, Cboe discontinued its bitcoin-based futures and ether futures as well. In the latest attempt with Vaneck’s prospective ETF listing, Cboe is showing it is still very much interested in the cryptocurrency industry. What do you think about Cboe filing to list the Vaneck Bitcoin Trust if the SEC approves the ETF? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

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Crypto bank Unicas, a joint venture between Cashaa and United Multi State Credit Cooperative Society, has expanded its operations by opening another physical branch. The bank believes that the Indian government will introduce positive crypto regulation and not impose an outright ban on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. New Physical Crypto Bank Branch Opens in New Delhi Physical crypto bank Unicas has opened another branch, Cashaa announced last week. Unicas is a joint venture between crypto banking platform Cashaa and United Multistate Credit Cooperative Society. Noting that this will be the first of many branches in the city, the announcement details: Unicas – the world’s first crypto financial institution with physical branches today opened in India’s capital, New Delhi. Unicas is banking on the Indian government introducing a bill to approve the legitimate use of cryptocurrency. “We are proud to bring Unicas to the nation’s capital,” Unicas CEO Dinesh Kukreja commented. “Delhi is a key market for us and we look forward to opening many branches to service India’s rapidly growing crypto market in a regulated manner.” The new branch is located at 611 A Devika Tower, Nehru Place, New Delhi 110019. This location is a short drive from the Parliament of India. The bank is headquartered in Jaipur and currently has one more branch located in Gujarat. According to Cashaa: Unicas will continue to roll out its branches across NCT, Gujarat and Rajasthan. It plans to open 50 branches in 2021 and 100 branches by the end of 2022. Customers will have access to a number of cryptocurrencies through Unicas, including BTC, ETH, XRP, and CAS, Cashaa’s native token. Cashaa CEO Kumar Gaurav opined: We are very confident that the government will create regulations that will reduce scams related to cryptocurrency, while encouraging its legitimate use. Such regulations will enable India to become a global leader in blockchain technology. The Indian government is getting ready to introduce the cryptocurrency bill. It seeks to provide a regulatory framework for the digital rupee to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) but ban private cryptocurrencies. The finance ministry recently confirmed that the bill is still being finalized. Meanwhile, the governor of the central bank revealed last week that the bank is working on the digital rupee and has communicated its concerns about cryptocurrencies to the government. What do you think about Unicas opening more physical bank branches? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Global investment bank Goldman Sachs has brought back its bitcoin trading desk and will start handling bitcoin futures next week. The firm is also reportedly exploring the potential for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) and plans to provide a crypto custody service. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has restarted its cryptocurrency trading desk, Reuters reported Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter. Goldman first set up a cryptocurrency desk in 2018, after a bull run as the price of bitcoin was falling from record highs, muting investor interest in the cryptocurrency. The desk will “begin dealing bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards for clients from next week,” the publication conveyed. It will also take on projects involving blockchain technology and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The crypto desk will be within Goldman Sachs’ global markets division and will serve as a market-maker, buying and selling on behalf of clients but not actively managing cryptocurrencies itself, according to Forbes. “The bank is also exploring the potential for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund and has issued a request for information to explore digital asset custody,” the source detailed. Currently, North America has two bitcoin ETFs, recently approved in Canada. As bitcoin continues to outperform other assets, more companies are seeking to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency. For example, the Nasdaq-listed Microstrategy announced Monday that “it had purchased approximately 328 bitcoins for $15.0 million in cash” and “now holds approximately 90,859 bitcoins.” Moreover, 42 companies now collectively hold more than $65 billion worth of bitcoin. The price of bitcoin has risen about 56% since the beginning of the year, currently standing at $48,677, based on data from markets.Bitcoin.com. Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein recently warned, “If I were a regulator, I would be kind of hyperventilating at the success of it [bitcoin].” Meanwhile, Goldman’s current global head of commodities research, Jeff Currie, said that the bitcoin market “is beginning to become more mature,” calling the cryptocurrency “a retail inflation hedge.” What do you think about Goldman Sachs bringing back its crypto trading desk? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The price of bitcoin and a number of digital assets saw significant gains on Monday, as the entire market capitalization of the crypto economy has gained 2.4% in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin’s value passed the psychological $50k zone after hitting a low of $43,021 the day prior on Sunday. Bitcoin (BTC) touched a high on Monday, March 1, at $50,244 per unit at around 7:26 p.m. (ET). At the time of publication, BTC’s overall market valuation is around $926 billion and there’s $22.83 billion in global trade volume. The current price is over 15% higher than the low of $43,021 per unit on February 28. Out of all the crypto-assets in existence, BTC’s market dominance in terms of market valuation against the $1.44 trillion in value is 61.02% today. Bitcoin is still down 8% for the week but is up 44.92% against the U.S. dollar during the last 30 days. The second-largest market capitalization is ethereum (ETH), which is now trading for $1,583 per coin. ETH has jumped over 9% during the last 24 hours, but ether has lost 12% over the course of the seven-day span. 30-day odds against the U.S. dollar shows ETH is up 13.19% today. Cardano (ADA) still commands the third-largest market valuation as each ADA is exchanging hands for $1.29 per unit. ADA’s increases on Monday are not spectacular as the crypto asset has only increased 1.8%. However, the token is up 18% during the last week and a whopping 256% over the course of the last month. Binance coin (BNB) is up 18% at press time, and is swapping for $262 per token. BNB is down 4.4% against the USD during the last week, but 30-day stats show BNB has gained 470%. Tether (USDT) the stablecoin has moved down to the fifth position this week and has seen an increase in volume during the crypto economy’s dip. USDT’s trading volume is currently larger than BTC’s on March 1, 2021. Crypto prices are looking on the upside right now. After seeing a number of significant bull traps during the last week. Bitcoin prices, in particular, in March, and other crypto-asset markets, in general, have usually done well during this month. This is historically so except for March 12, 2020, otherwise known as ‘Black Thursday.’ #Bitcoin bull market in 2017: • 6 corrections of 30-40% • followed by average gain of 153% pic.twitter.com/cx1M10vpKS — Bitcoin Archive 🗄🚀🌔 (@BTC_Archive) February 28, 2021 To many observers, it looks as though we’ve hit two small speed bumps in the 20-25 percentile range. The Twitter account dubbed ‘Bitcoin Archive’ noted that during the bull market in 2017 there were “[six] corrections between 30-40%” and each one was “followed by [an] average gain of 153%.” Bitcoin Logarithmic Growth Curves on March 1, 2021, according to lookintobitcoin.com stats. “Bitcoin seems to have bounced back today as cryptocurrency markets start the week in a resurgent mood,” Paolo Ardoino, the CTO of Bitfinex said in an investor’s note on Monday. The backdrop of huge pent-up institutional demand and interest from long-term investors may be here to say, but time will tell,” Ardoino added. The Bitfinex CTO further said: “Those drawing parallels to the bursting of the crypto bubble in 2017 may not be accounting for the technology’s advancement since then. We believe the technological infrastructure of the space as a whole is proving itself to be robust.” Interested in seeing all the crypto asset prices in real-time? Check out markets.Bitcoin.com for the latest price action. What do you think about the recent price movements within the crypto economy? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Thanks to TON Labs, BSN will now be able to produce real-life applications that require a scalable backend and use cases in compliance with China’s regulatory framework while still using an inherently decentralized network to do so. China’s Developers Gain Access to TON Technology China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) and TON Labs announced today that they have struck a partnership agreement to provide China’s developers with access to TON Technology through BSN’s Open Permissioned Blockchain (OPB) Initiative in order to build applications and create use cases in compliance with Chinese regulatory demands. OPB Initiative is designed for public chains to enter the Chinese market legally. It makes public chains regulatory compliant by removing the mechanism of using cryptocurrencies to pay for gas fees and offering permissioned controls over node deployment. The TON protocol, originally developed by Telegram, was ultimately abandoned by its founders back in April of 2020 due to regulatory pressure, in effect creating a chasm for millions who believed in the project. Thankfully, a diverse group of active supporters came together to launch the network as a community-driven project. TON Labs became one of the many initiators from a group of top-tier developers and validators who helped launch that network as Free TON. Free TON has no investors, no registered entity, and never had a token sale of any sort, making it a people’s blockchain run entirely by a community of developers, validators and promoters from around the world that receive tokens (TON Crystals as the native token) on a meritocratic basis as rewards for winning contests that add value to the community, and as part of collaborations with partners that similarly bring value. TON is a Proof-of-Stake, multithreaded, low latency, almost infinitely scalable blockchain with large throughput, making it ideal for real world applications and business cases. The TON protocol itself is arguably the most versatile smart contract platform to date. TON Labs made the network accessible through high level languages such as C, C++ and Solidity, as well as through a set of developer tools that make it easy for anyone to build on. These tools are readily available for developers based on their signature TON OS product with its developer suite of SDK and Solidity compilers, as well as decentralized certificates that are out-of-the-box. Win-Win for All With Chinese developers eager to get their hands on this technology while under certain prohibitive circumstances, specifically an inability to transact via cryptocurrency, BSN turned to TON Labs for a solution for in-country realization. As a result, BSN will now be able to produce real-life applications that require a scalable backend and use cases in compliance with China’s regulatory framework while still using an inherently decentralized network to do so. In short, China can now use a for-all permissionless blockchain in a way that conforms to its own legislative mandates. The parent network will benefit from what new developers can bring to it, while the Chinese community will benefit from what TON provides technologically. Win-win for all. Cyril Paglino, CEO of TON Labs stated: “What we have here is a small step toward a giant leap that will build bridges between the decentralized and centralized worlds in a way where everyone gains. It’s a creative approach to send a strong message that a company, a country, a people, even when facing certain statutory hurdles, can still find a way to use technology earmarked for everyone on the planet despite whatever localized mandates there may be, and while remaining in total compliance, vis-a-vis, adoption.” Yifan He, CEO of Red Date Technology and Executive Director of BSN Development Association, stated that: “We are very impressed with the actual performance of TON technology on throughput, speed and latency, which opens up opportunities for use cases that require higher levels of scalability. BSN sets the stage for TON Labs to enter the Chinese market to provide its technologies and services to Chinese enterprises and developers legally. I am sure that the addition of TON will lead to a more thriving OPB ecosystem in China. We look forward to seeing great dApps to be built on this OPB.” The BSN is a cross-portal, cross-cloud, and cross-framework global infrastructure network used to empower developers and companies to create, deploy and manage next-generation decentralized applications (dApps) more efficiently, conveniently, and at low cost across multiple different protocols under a uniform standard. The BSN was jointly initiated by four founding partners, namely the China State Information Center, China Mobile, China UnionPay and Red Date Technology. This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

Since the company Microstrategy shifted a lot of its treasury reserves into bitcoin, a great number of companies have followed the firm’s lead. According to the web portal, bitcointreasuries.org, data shows that 42 companies are now represented on the list and the businesses hold more than $65 billion worth of bitcoin. The Corporate Bitcoin Stash- 6.43% out of the 21 Million Capped Supply It has become a trend to add bitcoin (BTC) to a company’s balance sheet and the company Microstrategy invoked the trend when the business purchased $250 million worth of BTC. Since then, a great number of companies have followed suit and BTC’s value has skyrocketed as well. For instance, at the end of 2020, 29 firms held around 1.1 million bitcoin worth more than $30 Billion using exchange rates on December 28. Moreover, at the time, the 29 companies owned 5.48% of the entire 21 million BTC supply. Today, according to bitcointreasuries.org statistics the numbers have changed a great deal. There’s now 42 companies listed on the web portal showcasing firms from all around the world that hold BTC treasuries. According to the data on March 1, 2021, the companies own $65 billion in aggregated value using BTC/USD exchange values on Monday afternoon (EST). The companies hold a massive 1,350,073 BTC or 6.43% out of the 21 million maximum supply. Since adding 13 more businesses to bitcointreasuries.org’s list, there are a number of new entrants. Companies, trusts, and hedge funds like Tesla, Inc., MOGO Financing, Osprey Bitcoin Trust, Evolve Bitcoin ETF, Ninepoint Bitcoin Trust, and more have been added to the list. Of course, the biggest holder on the list is Grayscale with 649,130 BTC or 3.09% of the 21 million supply cap. In fact, Grayscale’s massive BTC hoard is close to half of the entire bitcointreasuries.org’s aggregate count of bitcoin balance sheets. The private entity called “MTGOX K.K.,” holds the second-largest amount of BTC with 141,686 BTC. Behind the Mt Gox stash is Block.one’s treasury, which holds 140,000 BTC worth $6.7 billion today. Microstrategy is the fourth-largest holder listed and steadily working toward the six-digit bitcoin holdings with 90,859 BTC under management today. The intelligence firm recently announced buying up $15 million in BTC this past week. Unmentioned Crypto Businesses With Bitcoin Balance Sheets Other firms close to Microstrategy include businesses like Tesla, Coinshares, Ruffer Investments, Galaxy Digital, Tezos Foundation, and 3iQ The Bitcoin Fund. Furthermore, there are numerous companies that are not included on the bitcointreasuries.org website including the Mediterranean restaurant chain Tahini’s, the Canadian graphics software company Snappa, the cannabis firm Synbiotic SE, and even Coinbase. On February 24, the San Francisco exchange Coinbase explained how it can help corporate strategies obtain bitcoin for their treasury positions. The blog post also mentioned that Coinbase has held BTC on its balance sheets since 2012. It is likely that many cryptocurrency-centric businesses have adopted this model long ago, and have held BTC and other digital assets in their treasuries for quite some time. What do you think about the 42 companies holding 1.3 million BTC worth over $65 billion today? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Recently, Messari Crypto Researcher, Mira Christanto published a report that looks into Asia’s cryptocurrency landscape in-depth, as 60% of the world’s population resides in the region. Christanto’s study shows that six out of the top ten largest cryptocurrency unicorns are located in Asia. Moreover, 98% of ethereum-based futures and 94% of bitcoin futures volumes stem from Asia. Asia’s Financial Landscape Is Ripe for Disruption When it comes to cryptocurrencies, Asia accounts for a huge number of crypto users, companies, miners, traders, and more. The cryptocurrency and blockchain researcher from messari.io, Mira Christanto, explains that Asia has a “history of dictators, currency depreciation, [and] capital controls – all ripe for disruption.” This has likely led to Asia being the most active cryptocurrency markets, according to Christanto’s recent findings. Her recently published study called “Asia’s Crypto Landscape” covers the “key exchanges, funds, and market makers that define crypto in China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Southeast Asia, with commentary on regulatory and investment trends.” Countries like China, Japan, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and more are covered in the 98-page study. “Leading crypto countries, such as China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore, have deep pools of liquidity, while other countries have a great potential to scale,” Christanto’s report says. “The nature of traditional finance has played a key role in the adoption of crypto: capital controls pushed investors towards cryptocurrencies in China and South Korea while low-yields pushed adoption in Japan,” she added. “By the end of 2019, six of the top ten largest crypto firms in the world were located in Asia,” Christanto’s data further shows. “As of January 12, 2021, of the top 20 token projects with headquarters, 42% of the market capitalization is based in Asia. Asia has an outsize role in the crypto markets due to a variety of reasons.” Christanto’s report continues: Each country has its own nuances, but factors include high penetration of public market investing, high-technology pedigree, the prevalence of WiFi, deep penetration of e-payments, propensity for gambling, and high percentage of computer- science graduates. Furthermore, Asia’s development as a finance hub has helped contribute to fintech progress. Japan, Shanghai, and Hong Kong are among the top five largest stock markets in the world. Asia’s Thriving Crypto Landscapes A few key factoids from Christanto’s study show: Binance, Huobi, and Okex combined have about the same bitcoin holdings as Coinbase. Hong Kong is home to some of the largest crypto derivatives companies in the industry. Japan is a unique market with the largest retail foreign exchange industry, representing a third of total global foreign exchange (FX) and Contract for Differences (CFD) retail volume. South Korea has the highest penetration of crypto investors with a third of workers invested in crypto. Singapore is one of the more lax Asian markets for crypto-specific regulations, though strict on AML, KYC, fit-and-proper controllers, and FATF Travel Rule compliance. The Philippines has one of the largest overseas foreign workers populations in the world, ranking fourth in global remittance recipients. Asia’s Crypto Landscape findings also indicate that a great number of countries in Asia have thriving landscapes and all for different reasons. For instance, Vietnam’s capital controls “means the crypto spot market operates somewhat in isolation,” Christanto says. Vietnam’s market is retail driven, the report notes and “when bitcoin prices are volatile, the Vietnam market lags by a couple of days.” In Malaysia Luno is the top exchange in the country as the firm founded in 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa is dominant there alongside Singapore. Christanto and messari.io’s research also saw help from the independent blockchain infrastructure platform Blockdaemon. Mira Christanto’s messari.io research report on the Asian crypto landscape can be read in its entirety here. What do you think about Christanto’s 98-page study covering the Asian crypto landscape? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

After saying that cryptocurrencies “rank as the poorest hedge for major drawdowns in equities, with questionable diversification benefits,” JPMorgan says investors can put 1% of their portfolios in cryptocurrencies. This can help “achieve any efficiency gain in the overall risk-adjusted returns of the portfolio,” the firm’s strategists explained. Investors Can Allocate 1% of Portfolios to Bitcoin, Says JPMorgan JPMorgan Chase now sees benefits in adding a small percentage of bitcoin to a multi-asset portfolio. The firm’s global head of research, Joyce Chang, and vice president of strategic research, Amy Ho, wrote in a note to clients Wednesday: In a multi-asset portfolio, investors can likely add up to 1% of their allocation to cryptocurrencies in order to achieve any efficiency gain in the overall risk-adjusted returns of the portfolio. However, the strategists clarified: “Cryptocurrencies are investment vehicles and not funding currencies. So when looking to hedge a macro event with a currency, we recommend a hedge through funding currencies like the yen or U.S. dollar instead.” While many analysts believe that bitcoin is a way to hedge against significant fluctuations in traditional asset classes, including stocks, bonds, and commodities, JPMorgan has doubts. It was only last week that the investment bank claimed bitcoin was an “economic sideshow,” adding: Crypto assets continue to rank as the poorest hedge for major drawdowns in equities, with questionable diversification benefits at prices so far above production costs, while correlations with cyclical assets are rising as crypto ownership is mainstreamed. JP Morgan also said that the recent prices of bitcoin are well above the cryptocurrency’s fair value estimates. The firm further asserted that mainstream adoption increases bitcoin’s correlation with cyclical assets, which rise and fall with economic changes. This reduces bitcoin’s benefits of diversifying portfolios. Nonetheless, its most recent report recommends that investors can add a small percentage of bitcoin to their portfolios. The investment bank has come a long way since its CEO Jamie Dimon called the cryptocurrency a fraud back in September 2017. Earlier this month, JPMorgan’s co-president Daniel Pinto said that he is certain the demand for bitcoin “will be [there] at some point.” The executive confirmed: “If over time an asset class develops that is going to be used by different asset managers and investors, we will have to be involved.” Moreover, the firm’s analysts have predicted that bitcoin’s price could reach $146,000 as the cryptocurrency’s competition with gold heats up. What do you think about JPMorgan’s view on bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Harvard Professor of Economics and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kenneth Rogoff says that central banks won’t allow bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to become mainstream. “Eventually over the long course of history, the government first regulates and then it appropriates, and I think we can see that happening here,” he warned. Harvard Professor’s Warning About Bitcoin American economist Kenneth Rogoff shared his views on the future of bitcoin, its regulation, and the recent bull run in an interview with CNBC TV18 last week. Rogoff is the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and a professor of economics at Harvard University. He also served as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from 2001–2003. “Zero interest rates can produce a lot of funny asset valuations. So that is certainly part of it,” he responded to a question about the rise in popularity of bitcoin and its recent bull run. “Clearly, there are a lot of wealthy people and well-known financiers, often very senior, who publically said they are investing in it [bitcoin] and that has given confidence.” Nonetheless, the professor of economics cautioned: “But I have to say, regulation is in its early innings – if there is no final use case for bitcoins, [and] I don’t think it’s going to be, [then] ultimately this bubble will pop, but it could take a decade.” Given the recent BTC price surge and the subsequent spike in its market capitalization, Rogoff was asked why central banks and governments have not passed strict regulations to control its trading or even banned it. “I think they are all over it,” the professor replied, pointing out that the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the G7, and the G20 are all closely watching the cryptocurrency. “Every central bank is looking at this and trying to decide what to do,” he emphasized. “The real issue is that for the moment it is not really used for a lot of meaningful transactions, except in war-torn states, where I think people use it to get money in and out. That’s certainly a good use,” Rogoff opined. The economist proceeded to predict: “As it really starts to compete with ordinary, fiat currencies, government currencies, I think they’ll clamp down on it like a ton of bricks. They are not going to allow that to happen.” Comparing bitcoin to modern art, the economist elaborated: Right now it is an asset class and I suppose in the way modern art is, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is in the mainstream. I think that is extremely misleading. Central bankers will never ever allow that. A growing number of companies are investing in bitcoin, such as Elon Musk’s Tesla, which recently put $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency, and Jack Dorsey’s Square, which invested $170 million more in BTC. Tesla will also be accepting bitcoin as a means of payment in the near future. Citing bitcoin’s rising adoption and a growing acceptance as a legitimate means of payment, such as what is happening in the U.S. city of Miami, Rogoff was asked if regulating bitcoin would become more difficult for governments. “I don’t think regulating it is all that difficult,” he replied. “I think that there has been a hesitation to move too quickly because there has been a lot of innovation in the cryptocurrency space and governments want to allow that to proceed.” In conclusion, professor Rogoff warned: But make no mistake, the governments need to retain control over taxation, controlling crime, etc. They need to maintain control over the unit of account — the currency. Yes, private innovation can come out for a while, but eventually over the long course of history, the government first regulates and then it appropriates, and I think we can see that happening here. What do you think about professor Rogoff’s bitcoin warning? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The total assets under management across all crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) worldwide have risen 50% this month to nearly $44 billion. Among listed products, Grayscale’s bitcoin trust tops the list with the most assets under management while Bitwise’s fund was the best performing bitcoin product by market price over the last 30 days. Cryptocompare published its “Digital Asset Management Review” for the month of February on Friday. The report states that the total assets under management (AUM) across all exchange-traded products (ETPs) increased 50% to $43.9 billion from mid-January to Feb. 23. The price of bitcoin was above $50K on Feb. 23. It has since fallen to $46,876 at the time of writing, based on data from markets.Bitcoin.com. The crypto exchange-traded product with the most AUM was Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) with $35 billion in assets under management, according to the report. As of Feb. 26, GBTC’s AUM has dropped to $30.72 billion due to the lower BTC price. Other listed crypto products with the most AUM include Grayscale’s Ethereum Trust, Litecoin Trust, and Bitcoin Cash Trust. The bitcoin fund by 3iq (QBTC) also made the top five list with $1.27 billion under management. Most of the investments into crypto exchange products are made by institutional investors, particularly hedge funds. In its Q4 2020 report, Grayscale wrote that “Institutions are here,” noting that institutions accounted for 93% of all its capital inflows during the period. As for exchange-traded notes (ETNs), ETC Group’s BTCE has the largest AUM with $1.01 billion. Wisdomtree’s BTCW came second with $314.8 million and 21shares’ ABTC with $257.8 million. The report also ranks exchange-traded certificates. XBT Provider by Coinshares’ Bitcoin Tracker Euro holds the highest AUM with $1.72 billion, followed by Bitcoin Tracker One with $1.06 billion. The best performing bitcoin exchange-traded product by market price over the last 30 days was Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW) with 156%, the report notes. Its performance exceeded both Cryptocompare’s CCCAGG BTC/USD Index performance (64%) and MVIS’ MVDA Index performance (48.9%). Furthermore, North America now has two bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF): Purpose Bitcoin ETF and Evolve Bitcoin ETF. The former accumulated $165 million on its first day of trading. What do you think about investing in crypto exchange-traded products? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

On February 25, onchain analysts noticed two 2010 block rewards that were transferred after sitting dormant for over a decade. A lot of old blocks have been spent in 2021, and after the large strings of 2010 block rewards spent on January 3rd and 10th, another massive string of 20 block rewards from 2010 were moved on the 25th. In addition to these old bitcoin moves, block rewards from 2011 have started to wake in great numbers as well. 80 Block Rewards from 2010 Spent This Year, 4,000 Bitcoin Worth $188 Million For a good portion of 2020 and into 2021, news.Bitcoin.com and a small group of onchain researchers have been combing the Bitcoin (BTC) network for old-school spends. The technical term “spend” or “spent” simply means the bitcoins moved from one address to another single address or group of addresses. It doesn’t necessarily mean the person has relinquished ownership of the bitcoins, but most of our 2020 and 2021 discoveries look as though they have been sold on exchanges. Some old coins moved today (100 BTC from June 2010). It's very rare to see pre-GPU era bitcoins move, it only happened dozens of times in the past few years. And no, it's probably not Satoshi. pic.twitter.com/0jZXnmWUes — Antoine Le Calvez (@khannib) February 24, 2021 At block height 671,986, a group of two 2010 block rewards with 100 BTC was spent on February 25, and a number of publications reported on the movement. What hasn’t been noticed formally, is the massive amount of 2010 spends this year, and the large amount of 2011 movements as well. Although members of news.Bitcoin.com, Btcparser.com, and Russian blockchain researcher Issak Shvarts have been investigating these old-school spends thoroughly. Following the reports of the decade-old, 20 block reward spend on the 12th anniversary of the Bitcoin network, news.Bitcoin.com also noticed a massive 20 block spend from 2010 spent on January 10. Fifteen days later, and possibly the same suspect, another 20 rewards from 2010 on January 25, 2021, was spent. So far, this particular entity or entities have not moved a major string of bitcoins since then. But there have been plenty of single 2010 block reward spends and an increasing number of 2011 rewards. $94 Million Worth of 40 Block Rewards from 2011 Wake from Slumber in 2021 In 2021, there were 80 block rewards from 2010 moved to-date that held 4,000 BTC total. Currently, using today’s BTC exchange rates that’s more than $188 million worth of old-school coins. Leveraging Btcparser.com, news.Bitcoin.com has counted 40 block rewards from 2011 spent this year as well. That’s 2,000 BTC born in the year 2011 worth around $94 million today. The last massive spend from January 25, 2021, can be seen on the “Satoshi’s bags tracker” at theholyroger.com. The two 2010 block rewards spent on February 25 at block height 671,986 saw the BTC spent, but the corresponding BCH and BSV remain intact. Similarly, a number of the 2011 blocks that were spent this year have also seen only the BTC move. Many of the 2011 addresses combed during our research still have the corresponding BCH and BSV unspent as well. The individual or group who has been spending the consecutive strings of 2010 block rewards has been spending the bitcoin cash (BCH). Whatever the case may be, the sky-high BTC price jumping over the $58k handle last Sunday, and even where the price rests today, has caused old-school mining whales to wake bitcoins from slumber. What do you think about all the old-school bitcoin block rewards spent in 2021? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Another firm is joining the bitcoin trust sector, as the California fund manager Arca has filed a registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its Arca Accredited Investor Bitcoin Trust. The trust will compete with a number of competitors including Grayscale’s popular bitcoin investment vehicle GBTC. Arca Files With the US SEC to List Its Accredited Investor Bitcoin Trust The finance manager Arca has filed a Form D registration with the U.S. SEC in order to provide investors with a new bitcoin trust offering. The fund will be called the “Arca Accredited Investor Bitcoin Trust” and it will be taking investments of $25k or more, according to the Arca filing. This is half the value of Grayscale’s GBTC minimum investments set at $50k. Arca has other crypto fund products and the Arca U.S. Treasury Fund. The fund is “a closed-end fund registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 issuing shares as digital securities that are transferable using blockchain technology,” according to the company. The Arca U.S. Treasury Fund dubbed “arcoin” was launched on July 6, 2020. The Arca Accredited Investor Bitcoin Trust will focus on bitcoin (BTC). Arca Will Compete With Grayscale, Bitwise, Crosstower, Osprey Fund, and Blockfi Arca will compete with the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, a popular investment vehicle that commands more than 3% of the entire BTC supply. Grayscale purchased $350 million worth of BTC this past week as the trust now has around 690,000 BTC held in custody. Arca’s Form D registration does not disclose the issuance size and will use the federal exemption Rule 506(c). The California-based firm will be competing with not just Grayscale but a number of other funds joining the bitcoin trust race. News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on the Bitwise fund and the offering from the financial services firm Blockfi. But the Arca bitcoin trust will also compete with trusts stemming from Crosstower, and the Osprey Fund as well. All of the trusts have different frameworks for fees that are different from Grayscale’s fee structure. What do you think about the Arca Accredited Investor Bitcoin Trust? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

In Spain, an investment company has begun to promote what they called the “first crypto hedge fund.” The product has been registered in Malta by Avenue Investment Crypto, headed by a crypto advocate, Martin Huete. Investments Allocated Mainly in Bitcoin and Ethereum According to Infobae, the hedge fund “exclusively” targets qualified investors whose minimum investment starts at 100,000 euros ($120,600). However, anyone who would like to join the crypto hedge fund should prove to the firm that they hold assets for 750,000 euros ($904,900). Although Avenue Investment Crypto just launched the product, it was created by the firm in 2019. Huete was appointed as the institutional relations manager amid the commercialization phase of the crypto hedge fund. Within the portfolio offered by the firm, the total exposure of the crypto hedge fund ranges between 40% and 100% of the fund with investments in ethereum (ETH), bitcoin (BTC), and other undisclosed cryptos. Still, the fiat serving as base currency fund is the euro, and Avenue Investment Crypto clarified all profits accrue. Firm Expects to Raise $122 Million by the End of 2021 The people in charge of managing the crypto hedge fund are Arne Vaagen and Francisco Gordillo. Vaagen co-founded the hedge fund Futuris with Brummer & Partners in 1999, with over 1,300 million euros under management. Also, Gordillo has 25-years’ experience in the banking sector, and since 2012, it has been studying the cryptocurrencies sector, said the firm. Gordillo commented about the crypto hedge fund: What we propose to the investor is that they keep a plot of the future; it is like investing in Wall Street in its founding moments, taking a position on the foundations of the future. In the first instance, the investment company seeks to promote the fund across Spain, Portugal, and North Europe. Moreover, the second stage targets Latin America and the rest of Europe. Avenue Investment Crypto expects to collect almost $122 million before the end of 2021. As of press time, they’ve raised over $24 million. What are your thoughts on the idea of a crypto hedge fund? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

In an apparent rebuke of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Vice President of Nigeria Yemi Osinbajo says the country’s monetary authorities must consider regulating crypto assets. He adds that instead of “killing the goose that might lay the golden egg”, Nigerian monetary authorities must consider providing a “robust regulatory regime” that addresses their concerns. The Importance of Disruptive Technologies Still, in his address at a Bankers Committee meeting, Osinbajo says “he fully appreciates the position” that has been articulated by the CBN. Since the CBN prohibition went into effect, leaders at both the CBN and the Nigeria Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have defended this decision. However, in his speech, the Nigerian Vice President suggests that the country’s regulators must consider embracing emerging and disruptive technologies. Pointing to the past impact of some disruptive innovations, the Vice President said: “As seen in many other sectors, disruption makes room for efficiency and progress.” Meanwhile, Osinbajo, who seemingly wants both the CBN and the SEC to take a cue from these other sectors, says “there is a role for regulation” even with cryptocurrencies. Still, concerning this regulation, Osinbajo says: So it should be thoughtful and knowledge-based regulation, not prohibition. The point I am making is that some of the exciting developments we see call for prudence and care in adopting them. We must act with knowledge and not fear. Confusion Reigns Supreme In the meantime, on Twitter, reaction to the Vice President’s comments appears to have reignited the controversy that surrounds the CBN prohibition. On one hand, crypto opponents have attacked Osinbajo’s remarks while on the other hand, crypto players are lauding the Vice President’s comments. Still, others say the Vice President’s remarks laid bare the extent of confusion inside the Nigerian government. A Twitter user known as Pedro Kalu said: “This shows lack of clear economic policy, The Vice-president is supposed to be the leader of the economic team and here he is speaking from one side of the mouth while the CBN Governor does another.” Another user, Rancho remarks, “This should have been said to the CBN before they made that rash decision. A VP as sound [and] knowledgeable as Prof. Osinbajo should have been consulted. Right now, the govt doesn’t look or speak with one voice. Discordant tunes. Bad policies. Confusion everywhere!” What are your thoughts on comments that were made by the Nigerian Vice President? You can share your views in the comments section below. View the full article

As China keeps paving the way to adopt its central bank digital currency (CBDC), scammers are also actively emerging on the scene. The police in a Chinese province are now warning about a “sophisticated” CBDC-themed scam. Bogus Platform Is Set to Be Launched in March, Say Scammers According to a post from the cybercrime unit of the Weifang police force in Shandong Province, a scam named “Central Bank’s International Wallet” is claiming to be a digital yuan wallet platform. The bogus platform seems to have caught almost 500 users as of press time. The scam operators are advertising that the platform will give members the possibility to access a “secret CBDC promotion fund” worth $186 million. It should be noted that the Weifang police is quoting a previous report first published by local media outlet Sina on the matter. Scammers claim that the platform’s users could get profits of around $24,800. Although the wallet is not “live,” scam operators say the platform will be launched in March. However, Weifang police’s cybercrime unit raised concerns because scammers already gathered personal details from the users, such as bank details and real names, through a smartphone app. The scammers further claim that the collected funds are going to promote the digital yuan usage globally and nationwide. Moreover, scam operators also promised users that they will get 2% of bonuses per deposit. Chinese Central Bank Keeps Warning on Fake Digital Yuan Investment Opportunities The People’s Bank of China has been actively warning people of the surge of bogus organizations that claim to be digital yuan promoters. However, the central bank says such schemes turn out to be just Ponzi schemes hidden behind “multi-level marketing strategies.” Recently, the Beijing municipal government handed out a total of 10 million yuan ($1.55 million) worth of digital yuan to 50,000 people in the city who registered for the lottery giveaway using mobile phone apps. Users were able to spend the CBDC during the Chinese New Year celebrations. What do you think about the warning issued by the Chinese authorities? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

A regional report from China indicates that bitcoin mining rig manufacturers have seen a massive surge in demand since the price of the leading crypto asset skyrocketed. Companies such as Canaan Creative have placed significantly sized mining rig orders while other companies like Bitmain are completely sold out. Bitcoin Mining Rig Manufacturers Experience a Device Demand Boom Bitcoin (BTC) prices in February have spiked considerably in value and this has fueled the BTC mining sector a great deal. On Friday, the Bitcoin network hashrate is hovering above the 150 exahash (EH/s) range and there are 21 pools directing hashrate at the blockchain. On Sunday, February 21, 2021, BTC prices touched an all-time high (ATH) at $58,354 per unit but the price has since dropped in value since then. The price per BTC has been hovering around the $47k handle at the time of publication on Friday afternoon (EST). On Thursday, a regional report from China details that Chinese mining device manufacturing businesses are seeing lots of demand for products. China’s Global Times contributor Yin Yeping highlights that mining machine makers [are] seeing a surge in demand.” The report notes that Shanghai Securities News revealed that Canaan Creative shares jumped 318% this year. Moreover, the company Ebang and Ebon International shares were up 82%. Advance-Orders and Sold Out Stock Yeping’s report also says that Canaan has revealed it has seen a “jump in orders since last year.” Central Asia and North America were the two regions with the most demand for mining devices, Canaan detailed. On Tuesday, Canaan told the regional publication that it has contracted advance orders from both Core Scientific and Hive Blockchain. Canaan will supply 6,400 ASIC mining machines to Hive and 6,000 mining rigs to Core Scientific. According to Canaan, 100,000 units have been pre-ordered by customers from North America this year and the firm claims to have seen advance payments of up to $200 million. Yeping also highlights that Bitmain is completely sold out and “new products are not available yet.” Bitmain’s website shows the company’s latest machines but the devices are indeed sold out and the website’s new orders display says “to be determined (TBD)” Microbt’s Whatsminer products are also sold out as well. The company Innosilicon’s ASIC mining rigs are completely sold out and Ebang’s web portal says customers need to make an inquiry about orders. Ebang’s site also notes that shipments are “3-3.5 months after payment.” The lack of ASIC availability directly from the sources has made bitcoin mining rig second market prices skyrocket. For instance, a Microbt-made Whatsminer M20S 68TH/s located in the U.S. on Ebay is selling for $5,000. Machines with 11-13TH/s are selling for $250-$800 per unit on Ebay. What do you think about the surge in demand for bitcoin mining machines? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

A number of forum posts and tweets say that the website bitcoinpaperwallet.com is compromised and people have said they have lost bitcoin using the paper wallet generator. Three years ago the website domain changed ownership and ever since then losses have been reported on Reddit forums, bitcointalk.org, Twitter, and other public venues. The owner of the paper wallet generating web portal denies the platform’s codebase is compromised and claims it has been audited by a security expert. Bitcoinpaperwallet.com Wallet Generator Site Accused of Being Compromised and Unsafe Years ago, a website that was once operated and owned by, Canton Becker, called bitcoinpaperwallet.com was once an extremely popular paper wallet generator. However, when the website was sold in 2018, bitcoinpaperwallet.com’s reviews became very negative. The complaints continue to this day and a month ago on Reddit, a user named u/heroiclife created a thread asking people to help him shut down the website. “Help me shut down the bitcoinpaperwallet.com scam,” the post explains. The Reddit user u/heroiclife said he wasn’t personally affected, but he was a crypto wallet recovery service provider that heard about several cases. “I’ve heard from customers who had their Bitcoin stolen there. It’s dumb to use a paper wallet in 2021, but not everyone knows that,” the individual said. He also asked if bitcoiners could help submit abuse complaints to Enom the domain registrar, report abuse to Linode the web host, and to flag the website on Google Safe Browsing as malicious. Twitter is also littered with posts that say that bitcoinpaperwallet.com has been compromised. On January 3, 2021, on Bitcoin’s 12th anniversary, Dustin Dettmer said: “Just had a friend lose all his holdings using this website, which appears to be a total scam. How do we get it shut down? We should get the word out about this particular scam bitcoinpaperwallet.com,” Dettmer added. On December 13, 2019, a Reddit user named u/maff1989 said he lost funds after getting a paper wallet inside a Christmas card. User Claims His $700,000 in Bitcoin Was Sent to Another Wallet One Minute After Loading the Paper Wallet A month ago, on the web portal stackexchange.com one user said he leveraged the website bitcoinpaperwallet.com offline and sent 14.5 BTC ($700k+) to the wallet’s public key. A minute later, his 14.5 BTC was sent to another wallet. “Any advice on what I can do?” he asked. “I’ve accepted the loss and the lesson (should have used the offline generator) but want to make sure this doesn’t happen to others.” After the site was sold in 2018, some Reddit users have accused the current owner of going “rogue.” Others have said that it is obvious that the website is not producing private keys as it should. The Reddit user u/senor_curioso explains it can be tested and said: “Yes, here is how you can prove that the current site is producing predictable keys. Save the HTML generator to computer Find the long set of “testing keys” represented by eckey_test=[{,,,}]; and replace it with just a single keypair like this:eckey_test=[{pub:”MUtDQ25Td05uQ0I0Y05ZN0hFc0hja1M4Vjk5bUxFNjJKZQ==”,priv:”NUpreTZtM2lZS2FxTm1NZ2NvaEdYb2o0dXVyVTNXaXhiak54R1N4NmNlbmU3S25FWGR6″}]; Now load up the generator. It will generate the exact same (predictable) wallet over and over. The server is giving each visitor a different set of “testing keys”. They are not being used as tests. There are being used as seeds for the random number generator, and are obviously being saved on the server so that they can be stolen later.” Website Owner Claims Paper Wallet Generator’s ‘Servers Are Clean’ and Audited by a Security Expert A recent report written by the author, Colin Harper, details that the paper wallet generating website is currently maintained by an individual named Sarkis Sarkissian. In the report, Sarkissian is quoted as saying that the owner has “received complaints from users who claim to have lost their bitcoin using our website.” It seems he was available for commentary concerning the matter at hand. Sarkissian stressed, however, that the complaints were likely “resolved” or the user figured out it was “their own fault.” Harper also asked Sarkissian if he was aware of a “back door” in the bitcoinpaperwallet.com codebase. “We have searched our source code for the issues present in those documents and we cannot reproduce the same results,” Sarkissian was quoted as saying. “Our servers and source code has been verified clean by [our security expert Jonel Richard]. He is still on retainer and continues to investigate, trying to reproduce the issue found by others,” the website’s current owner insisted. Creating a paper wallet must be handled with great care and it’s possible that user error was involved with a number of the accusations toward the domain strewn across the web. It is always mentioned in many walkthrough guides, no matter what type of wallet generator leveraged, it should always be done completely offline. A person who attempts to create a cryptocurrency paper wallet online, while being connected to the web, is extremely vulnerable to hacking exploits. What do you think about the website bitcoinpaperwallet.com accused of being compromised? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. BitMax.io (BTMX.com), an industry-leading digital asset trading platform built by Wall Street quant trading veterans, has announced the joint primary listing of the Oxygen token (OXY) with auction facilitation for its platform users. The auction will begin on Bitmax on March 11 at 9:00 a.m. EST and the listing will go live on March 16 at 9:00 a.m. EST. Oxygen Protocol is an on-chain, decentralized, non-custodial prime brokerage built on the Serum DEX and ecosystem, running on fast Solana public blockchain, and seeded by the Maps.me 2.0’s massive userbase. Oxygen will start with a borrow-lending protocol before moving to recreate quasi-marketplace- business units that are typically part of investment banks and making them accessible to everyone. Oxygen is built upon a pools-based infrastructure, wherein users can create a pool by depositing their assets and marking which ones to lend. The clearing price for Oxygen’s borrow-lending is market-based through on-chain order-book matching using Serum DEX, instead of a pre-set, manually adjusted market model. Users can generate yield on their portfolio while borrowing other assets at the same time (multiple use of same collateral), maximize utility of their portfolio as collateral when borrowing, and interact with the Serum ecosystem and DEXes directly from their pools with streamlined in-pool trading. Oxygen Protocol is order-book based, allowing users to get a fair price for borrowing/lending. Oxygen also enables multiple uses of the same collateral and the post of all your portfolio as collateral to borrow (meaning lower portfolio liquidation risk). To drive the platform growth, Oxygen will be seeded with the 140M registered users from Maps.me’s userbase who will generate yield from their embedded wallets, jump-starting Oxygen as one of the largest fintech applications. Oxygen is also built on Solana blockchain, which can support over 50,000 TPS, with block times of 400ms and transaction costs of approx. $0.00001, indicating that Oxygen has scalability as a completely on-chain P2P borrow-lending and prime brokerage protocol. Oxygen Protocol will use 100% of net revenue for the benefit of OXY token holders. Token holders can decide on how exactly to direct the net revenue of Oxygen Protocol plus community fund in terms of whether to buy, burn, offer staking yield or anything else. About BitMax.io Launched in August 2018, BitMax.io is a leading digital asset trading platform with a broad range of financial products and services for both retail and institutional clients, with robust and innovative design ranging from cash to margin trading, derivatives trading, staking products, and other investment solutions. For more information and updates, please visit: Website: https://bitmax.io/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BitMax_Official Telegram: https://t.me/BitMaxioEnglishOfficial Medium: https://medium.com/bitmax-io About Oxygen Protocol Oxygen Protocol is an on-chain, decentralized, non-custodial prime brokerage built on the Serum DEX and ecosystem, running on Solana, and seeded by the Maps.me 2.0’s massive userbase. For more information and updates, please visit: Website: https://oxygen.trade/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/oxygen_protocol Telegram: https://t.co/dOTnuwRzWA?amp=1 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

According to a new study conducted by Crypto.com, the total number of global cryptocurrency users has surpassed 100 million for the first time ever. The study, which measured the cryptocurrency marketplace’s size using onchain metrics, survey analysis, and internal data, recorded 106 million cryptocurrency users in January 2021. January’s Bitcoin Rally Accumulated a 15.7% Jump in Global Users Compared to December 2020, the 106 million users represent a 15.7% increase in just one month. What’s fueling the growth of the crypto market? According to Crypto.com’s research, it comes down to bitcoin adoption momentum. Eric Anziani, Crypto.com COO had this to say to Bitcoin.com regarding the research’s findings: Our study improves upon previously used methods to find a clear trend of growing cryptocurrency ownership. As more companies and merchants adopt cryptocurrencies as a treasury asset and means of payment, we expect 2021 to be a banner year for crypto mass adoption, bringing us ever closer to our vision of ‘Cryptocurrency in Every Wallet’. Bitcoin smashed through its previous all-time high, pushing its market capitalization past $1 trillion. The growth shows no apparent signs of slowing down either as sentiment around cryptocurrency increases, especially as JP Morgan and BNY Mellon will start offering digital payment methods. Not even two full months into the year yet, investors are piling 10-digit figures into bitcoin. Tesla bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin at the beginning of February, and investment website Motley Fool announced a $5 million investment just a week later. Bitcoin isn’t the only thing that’s fueling the demand for cryptocurrency. Several other factors are at play too. Crypto.com’s research attributes this rapid ascent to the growth of the decentralized finance (defi) market, the ability to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency through Paypal, and the institutional adoption of cryptocurrency are attracting new crypto users every day. Defi Momentum is Growing The defi market’s momentum is significant given the increased demand for ethereum and other altcoins like Binance’s BNB. The total market capitalization of coins locked in defi has grown from $690 million to over $11.7 billion, a significant number that’s encouraging new investors to enter the market. According to Crypto.com’s research, ETH’s growth rate was higher than BTC in November and December 2020; BTC’s unique users grew by 1.5% in November compared to ETH’s 2.8% growth. In December, ETH’s change was nearly double that of BTC’s: 2.8% compared to 1.2%. How accurate are all of these numbers? A total number of 24 exchanges were included in the research, and while Crypto.com has updated and improved its methodology since its last report, it does admit these figures may be subject to some small caveats. How long do you think it will now take to reach 200 million users? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Craig Wright, the individual that claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, seems to be planning to initiate legal action against a number of open-source blockchain developers. Wright’s legal team, Ontier LLP, has allegedly sent letters to programmers who work on blockchains like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoinsv as well. The self-styled Bitcoin inventor’s legal action letters claim 111,000 bitcoin was stolen from his “computer network” back in February 2020. Editor’s Note: This article was updated at 5:00 p.m. (EST) in order to reflect the legal action Craig Wright may face for claiming to be the owner of the ‘1FeeX’ address that is said to be associated with the notorious Mt Gox hack. The So-Called Fiduciary Duty: Regaining Access to the Alleged Stolen Keys The Australian businessman who has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto for years now, has announced he may be initiating legal action against open source developers. Despite the fact that many experts, the media, and the greater crypto community believe Wright’s Satoshi Nakamoto claims are false, Wright has continued to stand behind his word. Bitcoin Developers face £3.5bn legal action from Bitcoin inventor #DrCraigWrighthttps://t.co/5J2141jRxT ONTIER team lead by Paul Ferguson, Derek Stinson and Oliver Cain. — ONTIER LLP (@ONTIERLLP) February 24, 2021 Recently, Wright’s legal team has asked a few websites like bitcoin.org to remove the white paper from the domain over ostensible copyright claims. Now reports disclose that Wright has begun his next form of legal action. Coingeek contributor, Jordan Atkins, explains that Wright had the private keys from two bitcoin addresses stolen in a hack. Atkins and the letter from Ontier LLP, say that back in June 2020, Wright sent letters to developers who work on BTC, and other public blockchains. Wright and his legal team seem to believe that incumbent Bitcoin network developers are legally responsible to “avoid illegitimate transactions being entered onto the blockchain.” Ontier’s letter shows two addresses and one address contains 79,957.20 BTC while the other address contains 31,000 BTC. Both addresses still have all the coins sitting idle and the corresponding BCH and BSV tokens remain intact as well. The address with the 79k BTC has never spent a satoshi since it was created ten years ago. The address with 31,000 BTC had spent 21,700 coins during the wallet’s 11-year lifespan. Allegedly Ontier’s letters were sent in June, and the latest notice says “we have had no responses to the important matters set out in our 12 June Letter.” The legal team said it had noticed extracts of the letter were published online. Ontier’s letter is also written on behalf of a company called “Tulip Trading Ltd,” (TTL) and it claims Wright held the keys for TTL. “Unknown hackers stole the private keys for the addresses and deleted copies of the keys on Dr Craig Wright’s computer,” the Ontier notice details. “Preventing him from accessing the digital assets at those addresses, which he operated on behalf of TTL. Accordingly, TTL is (absent steps being taken by the developers) unable to access or control digital assets that are TTL’s legal property,” the letter adds. It continues to inform the developers the written correspondence is simply a “letter before action” and if there is no response “legal action may be taken.” “We recommend that you seek urgent legal advice,” the letter further stresses. The ‘1FeeX’ Address Mt Gox Mystery and a ‘Steaming Pile of Horse Puckey’ Back in June, when the original letters were sent out, the publication Coingeek wrote about the alleged hack and the author claimed it would be “more complex [than the] Kleiman vs. Wright lawsuit in Florida.” Essentially, the latest round of letters asks the developers to allow Wright to regain access to the alleged stolen keys. The notices also note that the developers have “legal duties under English law” because they have “high level of power and control.” The Ontier notice further reveals that TTL and Wright’s argument will rely on tortious and fiduciary duties. Wright is also claiming ownership over the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoinsv (BSV) that are tethered to these two addresses. What’s interesting about one of the addresses mentioned in the letter, is that it is said to have connections to the Mt Gox hack. After the news of Ontier’s letters being sent out to developers in February, Monero’s Riccardo Spagni tweeted about the conflict of interest with the specific address connected to the now-defunct exchange. Spagni also referenced the conflict of interest with the address dubbed “1FeeX” on June 12, 2020. On February 24, 2021, Spagni said: Finally, we have confirmation, via his lawyers, that Craig Wright is the Mt Gox hacker (see his claim of ownership on the 1FeeX address). I’d imagine those affected by the Mt Gox hack will want to pursue Craig Wright for his theft of their BTC. On February 24, 2021, a victim of the Mt Gox hack named Danny Brewster has sent a letter to Ontier LLP, according to his recent tweet. Since Wright is claiming to be the owner of the address associated with the Mt Gox hack, there’s a conflict of interest according to Mt Gox victims. The letter says that Wright is placed on notice until he or Ontier discloses ownership of the 1FeeX address. Wright does have a chance to say he’s not the owner of the address to avoid future litigation. The attorney Stephen Palley, who often speaks on bitcoin and blockchain legal matters, also spoke about Ontier’s letters and Wright’s latest claims on Twitter. “Craig Wright’s English lawyers’ threat to sue bitcoin developers is a steaming pile of horse puckey,” Palley tweeted. “It’s not winnable. In the U.S. you might get sanctioned for this malarkey,” he added. What do you think about Craig Wright’s recent claims and the letters from Ontier LLP? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company has chosen the direct listing route and has applied for its shares to be listed on Nasdaq. Coinbase filed Form S-1 Registration Statement for its IPO with the SEC on Thursday. The company revealed in December that it had confidentially applied to go public. The company explained that it is offering “Class A common stock for sale via a direct listing,” which means “any person or business with a brokerage account” can place an order for the shares in the opening order book. The SEC filing explains that Coinbase has applied to list its Class A common stock “on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol COIN.” Coinbase states that it currently has “approximately 43 million retail users, 7,000 institutions, and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries.” As of Dec. 31, 2020, the platform had executed $456 billion in trading volume since its inception and stored over $90 billion worth of assets. In May 2020, the company became “a remote-first company,” which means, “we do not maintain a headquarters.” Moreover, Coinbase’s valuation jumped to more than $100 billion ahead of the IPO. According to Axios, “The most recent batch of 127,000 shares was sold [last] Friday at $373, which works out to a valuation of $100.23 billion.” On FTX exchange, Coinbase’s (CBSE) pre-IPO contract soared when the SEC filing news broke but has since retreated slightly. As for revenue, Coinbase declared that “Since inception through December 31, 2020, we generated over $3.4 billion in total revenue, largely from transaction fees that we earn from volume-based trades on our platform by retail users and institutions. For the year ended December 31, 2020, transaction revenue represented over 96% of our net revenue.” For its IPO, the company explained: “We will be treated as an ’emerging growth company’ as that term is used in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 for certain purposes until we complete this listing.” What do you think about Coinbase’s IPO? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

India’s central bank governor Shaktikanta Das has revealed that the bank has “major concerns” about cryptocurrencies, and it has informed the government of them. He expects that the government will soon make a decision on cryptocurrency. Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is giving its full attention to the digital rupee. RBI Has Major Concerns About Cryptocurrencies The governor of India’s central bank expressed concerns over the possible impact made by cryptocurrencies on the country’s financial stability and the economy Wednesday. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das shared: We have certain major concerns about cryptocurrencies. We have communicated them to the government. It is under consideration in the government. He elaborated: “On crypto, we have major concerns from the financial stability angle and we have shared it with the government.” The governor further clarified: “I do expect and I think sooner or later the government will take a call and if required Parliament also will consider and decide.” While Das did not explain further what the major concerns are, the central bank has previously expressed concerns that cryptocurrencies are being used for money laundering and terror financing. The Indian government is planning to introduce a cryptocurrency bill during the current session of parliament. The bill seeks to provide a regulatory framework for the digital rupee to be issued by the RBI but bans all private cryptocurrencies. Regarding the digital rupee, Das confirmed that the RBI is “very much in the game” and is getting ready to launch its own digital currency. He detailed that the “Central bank digital currency [CBDC] is work in progress,” noting that the “RBI team is working on it, technology side and procedural side, how it will be launched and rolled out.” Regarding the launch date of the central bank digital currency, Das said: It will be very difficult and not possible for me to give a date as there are several loose ends that need to be tied up and it is receiving our full attention. A number of other central banks around the world are also looking at issuing their own digital currencies. China has been actively testing its digital yuan in major cities over the past months. The U.S. Federal Reserve said this week that the digital dollar is a very high-priority project for the Fed. As for the digital euro, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, has said that it may be ready within four years. Do you think the Indian government will ban cryptocurrencies like bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article