roadrunner

Ever since bitcoin and a number of other digital assets started seeing price gains 11 months ago, a great number of celebrities started jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon. More recently famous people like Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, the retired American rapper Logic, hit record producer Murda Beatz, and Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams have all been talking about digital currencies like bitcoin. On Wednesday, the well known actress Lindsay Lohan tweeted about the leading currency to her 8.4 million followers. For years now, famous people have joined the crypto economy in some way or another. Whether they talk about crypto assets, invest in digital currency companies, or invest in bitcoin itself— a great number of celebrities have shown interest in crypto. Luminaries like Paris Hilton, Floyd Mayweather, DJ Khaled, Mike Tyson, Serena Williams, Manny Pacquiao, Lionel Messi, Ashton Kutcher, and more have been connected to the crypto space in some form. During the last 11 months since the crypto-asset BTC and a slew of alternative cryptos started rising in value celebs have been coming out of the woodwork. From left to right: Logic, Kanye West, and Murda Beatz have all endorsed bitcoin in recent days. Just recently, news.Bitcoin.com reported on Kanye West when the hip-hop star was running against Joe Biden and Donald Trump for the U.S. Presidential Election. During his candidacy, West told Joe Rogan in an interview that bitcoin supporters “really have a perspective on what the true liberation of America and humanity will be.” After the election, the Grammy-nominated rapper known as Logic (Robert Bryson Hall II) dropped around $6 million into bitcoin. During the last 30-days, the rapper Soulja Boy has been examining cryptocurrency solutions and pondered creating his own non-fungible token (NFT) assets. bitcoin to the moon 🚀 — Lindsay Lohan (@lindsaylohan) February 10, 2021 Soulja Boy is a bit late to the NFT party as a number of well known celebrities have been jumping into the NFT space. For instance, the Rick and Morty cartoonist, Justin Roiland, sold an NFT art collection for over $1 million in ether. Just recently, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda auctioned some NFT creations. Additionally, companies have been using popular celebrities to do cameo endorsements for the leading cryptocurrency. On the 12th anniversary of the Bitcoin white paper, the cybersecurity company Halborn and its cofounder Rob Behnke got a number of big-name stars to plug bitcoin. From left to right: Mike Shinoda, Maisie Williams, and Gene Simmons. Celebrity cameos for the 12th-anniversary celebration included RZA, Hassan Johnson, Charlamagne Tha God, Doug Benson, Carole Baskin, Charlie Sheen, David Hasselhoff, and Gilbert Gottfried. “Bitcoin was not invented by Satoshi Nakamoto,” David Hasselhoff said in his guest appearance video. “Bitcoin started with the Hoff.” In mid-November 2020, The New Mutants and Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams created a poll on Twitter asking her followers if she should invest in bitcoin. A number of well known people replied including Tesla’s Elon Musk and Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor. From left to right: Sean Ono Lennon, Snoop Dogg, and Akon. Hit record producer “Murda Beatz” told his fans that he purchased bitcoin in October 2020. Today, on February 10, 2021, the American actress, singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur Lindsay Lohan tweeted about bitcoin. “Bitcoin to the moon,” Lohan tweeted with a rocket ship emoji. Recently, news.Bitcoin.com has been reporting on the Kiss bassist and rockstar Gene Simmons and his opinions about the cryptocurrency phenomenon. “I don’t believe for a second that most people understand what cryptocurrency is, what it is designed to do, but it is immediate and you don’t have to deal with banks— I like that,” Simmons told Bitcoin.com’s podcast host Dustin Plantholt. Simmons has been tweeting away with Elon Musk and the hip-hop star Snoop Dogg in regard to the meme-based crypto-asset dogecoin (DOGE). Snoop has been into cryptocurrencies for quite some time, alongside rappers such as Gramatik, 50 Cent, TI, Akon, Nas, and Talib Kweli. More recently hip hop moguls like Jermane Prime, Young Thug, and Swae Lee have shown interest in cryptocurrencies as well. Popular Youtube stars have also been into cryptocurrencies these days including Ali Spagnola, Logan Paul, Andrei Jikh, and even Pewdiepie. At the end of November, John Lennon’s Son explained that bitcoin empowers people and it was one thing that made him optimistic toward the future. It’s likely that as cryptocurrencies like bitcoin grow more popular, celebrities and luminaries will jump on the bandwagon because they like to please the masses. However, some people think that celebrities like Lindsay Lohan tweeting about bitcoin may be a sign that the leading crypto asset is closing in at the top. The popular actress tweeted on Wednesday that she created a new non-fungible token asset using the Rarible.com app. “I believe in a world which is financially decentralized and the power of dreams to be the core lightning network of humans,” Lohan’s Rarible.com NFT description notes. What do you think about all the famous people and celebrities in recent days endorsing bitcoin and the cryptocurrency economy? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

During the last few years, smart contracts and blockchain oracles have transformed the crypto industry, and one specific project called Chainlink is the most widely used oracle network to-date. Another interesting thing about Chainlink is the project’s creator, Sergey Nazarov has been a Satoshi Nakamoto suspect in recent times. Last year, a number of reports attempted to prove that Nazarov could be Bitcoin’s creator by leveraging circumstantial evidence and speculation. Chainlink Founder Sergey Nazarov Deemed a Satoshi Suspect Over the last few years, news.Bitcoin.com has written extensively on what some people believe is the greatest mystery of all within the cryptocurrency space. A great number of sleuths are hunting for Satoshi Nakamoto and the whereabouts of all the bitcoins the creator mined while kick-starting the network. Our newsdesk has also created a comprehensive list of all the Satoshi Nakamoto suspects and the most recent on our list is a present-day theory. Last year, a couple of reports and a Youtube video outlined the possibility that the creator of Chainlink (LINK), Sergey Nazarov, could be Bitcoin’s inventor. One report written by UX Sequence (uxsequence.io) gives a comprehensive look at all the evidence that allegedly ties Nazarov to the creation of Bitcoin. The following is the tenth installment of news.Bitcoin.com’s “The Many Facts” Satoshi Nakamoto series. The 32-year-old Sergey Nazarov (pictured left) has been considered a suspect in the hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto. The picture on the right is all of Nazarov’s interesting domains. Smartcontract.com was created six days before the Bitcoin white paper was published. At the very least, speculators think that Sergey Nazarov was at least around during Satoshi’s incubation period. Nazarov is currently 32-years-old and his parents are Russian immigrants who migrated to New York. Chainlink is a popular asset, as it currently holds the ninth largest market valuation at the time of writing. Basically, the project is a decentralized oracle network and the protocol connects smart contracts to a number of external elements and APIs. The project launched in 2017, but purportedly it was originally founded in 2014 by Steve Ellis and Nazarov. Chainlink is leveraged by many organizations including Open Law, Web3 Foundation, Google, SWIFT, Zeppelin, and a myriad of others. Smartcontract.com Registered 6 Days Before the Bitcoin White Paper Published The first piece of evidence that links Nazarov to the creation of Bitcoin is the fact that the Chainlink creator purchased the domain smartcontract.com six days before Satoshi’s white paper was published on Halloween 2008. Right now the website is tethered to the Chainlink (LINK) web portal, and in order to get a look at the history of it, one has to leverage archive.org. These days, smartcontract.com forwards visitors to the Chainlink website, but this is what it looked like years ago. The web portal’s creation days prior is hardly a smoking gun that points to Nazarov being Satoshi, but it is interesting circumstantial evidence. Hypothesizers, however, believe it is also odd that Sergey Nazarov and Satoshi Nakamoto also share the same initials. Furthermore, in October 2020, Nazarov appeared in a video with Chainlink’s Ben Chan that shows him explaining how long he has been involved with blockchain. During the video, Nazarov says he’s been in the blockchain space for ten years and then corrects himself. If that’s the case, Nazarov would have been working on bitcoin at age 21-22 during the same time period Nakamoto was around. QED Capital and the Russian Proxy Nazarov also owns a number of blockchain-related domains that were registered in the early days. While smartcontract.com was registered on October 25, 2008, a site called trustedoracles.com was registered in April 2016. Other website domains show that Nazarov has a strong connection with a Russian firm called QED Capital. In June 2020, the financial reporter Michael Kapilkov discovered that the first version of Bitcoin (v0.1.0) contains a Russian proxy. Nazarov registered a few QED Capital websites in 2012, and the company was behind two of his past projects Secure Asset Exchange (SAE) and Crypto Mail. Believers in the present-day Nazarov-Nakamoto theory, have pointed to the recent discovery which shows Satoshi Nakamoto allegedly used a Russian proxy to hide his location and identity. QED Capital’s web page details that Nazarov serves as the managing director and the firm is also mentioned in Nazarov’s original smartcontract.com Whois filing. The Tale of Kokichi Mikimoto and the Perfectly Spherical Cultured Pearls In addition to the connections with QED Capital, speculators also refer to a unique metaphor Nazarov published in 2013 about a person called “Kokichi Mikimoto.” According to the tale, Mikimoto created super spherical pearls or pearls that are smoother than they are today. Mikimoto Pearls were also farmed and the entire metaphor is eerily similar to Satoshi Nakamoto’s story. “In 1878, Kokichi Mikimoto discovered how to make superior pearls through man-made pearl farming, his pearls/product turned out to be better than the majority of the best pearls found in all-natural conditions,” Nazarov wrote at the time. “He made this discovery with no education in the ‘natural sciences’ and basically came to his innovative results through costly trial and error.” Nazarov story further said: Before his discovery the vast majority of pearls did not even appear spherical to the naked eye, today 90% of all pearls sold are made using his method to create what appear to be perfectly spherical ‘cultured pearls.’ Chainlink’s Sergey Nazarov is not the only cryptocurrency developer who has been accused of being Satoshi Nakamoto. Reports have said Hal Finney was the mysterious creator, and one stylometry study also pointed the finger at Gavin Andresen. The creator of the first proof-of-stake cryptocurrency and the Peercoin network Sunny King has been a suspect. Moreover, the pseudonymous Grin founder Ignotus Peverell was also a candidate in the summer of 2019. What do you think about the claims that say Sergey Nazarov may be Satoshi Nakamoto? Let us know what you think in the comments below. View the full article

A panel of experts at the United Nations says that North Korea has amassed $316 million in cryptocurrencies from various cyberattacks on crypto exchanges and financial institutions. The panel also investigated North Korea’s involvement in the $281 million hack of a crypto exchange. UN Expert Panel Sheds Light on North Korea’s Cyberattack Activities A United Nations panel of experts has submitted a draft report reviewing the measures on North Korea to the Security Council’s North Korea Sanctions Committee. Nikkei says it has obtained a copy of the document, noting that it will be made public after discussion and revisions by the council’s board member nations. The report highlights that North Korea’s “total theft of virtual assets from 2019 to November 2020 is valued at approximately $316.4 million,” citing one unidentified country. North Korea allegedly uses cyberattacks against financial institutions and crypto exchanges to generate money to support its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, according to the report. Moreover, the panel revealed that it investigated malicious activities by North Korea’s primary intelligence agency called the Reconnaissance General Bureau, an entity on the U.N. sanctions blacklist. Its activities include “the targeting of virtual assets and virtual asset service providers, and attacks on defense companies.” “Preliminary analysis, based on the attack vectors and subsequent efforts to launder the illicit proceeds strongly suggests links to the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea],” the U.N. experts said. In addition, the panel said it is investigating a September 2020 hack against a cryptocurrency exchange during which approximately $281 million worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen. Blockchain data analysis indicates that this hack is related to a second hack in October 2020 where $23 million were stolen. The $281 million hack is believed to be that of cryptocurrency exchange Kucoin. The report further outlines how North Korea continues to launder stolen cryptocurrencies by exchanging them for fiat currencies, like the U.S. dollar, via over-the-counter (OTC) brokers in China. In its previous report, the U.N. panel found that North Korea amassed $571 million from hacking crypto exchanges and companies between January 2017 and October 2018. What do you think about the findings by the U.N. expert panel about North Korea and cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. After transforming businesses across various industries, blockchain has combined with MLM (Multi-level Marketing) to bring profound, positive changes in the industry. India’s Antier Solutions has executed transactions worth a 100 million USD across its blockchain based MLM platforms. At the core of blockchain technology is a “shared distributed ledger” where the data and transactions are recorded. This distributed ledger is accessible to everyone on the network, thereby promoting transparency. Blockchain acts as a new type of database system that allows multiple parties to share access to the same data, at virtually the same time, enabling an unprecedented level of confidence. Furthermore, blockchain holds huge potential to automate and expedite business processes by using smart contracts that eliminate the involvement of any third-party to perform the operations. Although almost every industry is ripe for blockchain adoption, one area that holds significant potential for blockchain implementation is the MLM industry. MLM has long been a mainstay for start-ups and companies to promote their products while reducing the marketing costs. A few examples of successful companies that have harnessed the potential of MLM include Amway, Market America, and Avon Products Inc. However, the traditional MLM process is plagued with inefficiencies like centralized control over the system, lack of transparency and trust, and delayed payments to release users’ incentives. All of these inefficiencies can hold back even the best of MLM projects. Blockchain brings solutions to these pain points, enabling the MLM industry to position itself as a reliable market. Blockchain eliminates the involvement of a central authority and brings everything on a distributed ledger to enable transparency. The smart contract automates and accelerates the MLM process and drives peer-to-peer transactions. Furthermore, smart contract integration contributes to immutability. It prevents any change in the MLM business plan once the smart contract has been deployed on the blockchain, thereby building people’s trust in the system. These benefits have escalated the popularity and adoption of blockchain MLM software among businesses and participants. While start-ups and companies are readily launching smart-contract-based MLM platforms, users are confidently investing in these platforms being sure of a transparent process and secure, instant payouts. Antier Solutions, a digital assets management solutions providing company, is helping businesses to launch their MLM smart contract platforms. Equipped with a team of 150+ blockchain developers and subject matter experts, 15+ years of rich technical experience, and breadth of expertise, Antier Solutions has helped over 100 companies to launch their MLM platforms on blockchain like TRON, Ethereum, and Bitcoin. “Blockchain is serving as a catalyst to drive a meaningful change in the billion-dollar MLM industry and Antier Solutions is working to initiate that change. As businesses navigate towards blockchain and cryptocurrency MLM software, we will continue orchestrating our solutions to help businesses ride the next wave of multi-level marketing”, said Devender Junas, the Product Head of Antier Solutions. About Antier Solutions Antier Solutions is a global digital assets management solutions providing company helping businesses transit from conventional technology platforms to blockchain-driven systems. Antier, with its deep domain knowledge and rich experience, has created a well-rounded ecosystem of solutions to help businesses launch their digital assets trading platforms, lending platforms, banks, and more. Creating a harmonious trifecta of technology, design-driven thinking, and intelligent strategies, Antier creates an innovative roadmap to deliver consulting and development services for a new decentralised digital world. Media contacts: Antier Solutions: +91 98550 78699 (India), +1 (315) 825 4466 (US) Email: info@antiersolutions.com Website: https://www.antiersolutions.com/ Telegram: https://t.me/antiersupport Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/antiersolutions LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/antiersolutions/ 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

After previously claiming that Elon Musk was too smart to buy bitcoin, Euro Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff is reacting angrily to reports that Tesla has acquired the cryptocurrency. In a series of tweets on February 8, Schiff now claims that Musk has no interest in bitcoin’s store of value credentials but is only interested in pumping the crypto. BTC Bias Allegations In its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tesla says it decided to acquire bitcoin because it fits with the company’s updated investment policy. According to the company, this new policy, which provides Tesla with the flexibility to diversify and maximise returns on idle cash, authorizes the company to buy gold bullion as well. However, in one of his tweets, Schiff appears to take aim at Musk and Tesla for choosing to announce the BTC acquisition while not mentioning anything about gold. Schiff says: Though Tesla’s SEC filing also authorizes the purchase of gold, no purchases were disclosed, and my guess is that none are actually contemplated. Elon Musk has no interest in a store of value or an inflation hedge. His goal is to pump more air into the bitcoin and Tesla bubbles. Immediately following Tesla’s acquisition, BTC’s value spiked with the top crypto setting another all-time high (ATH) of just above $48,000. After Tesla’s acquisition, some bitcoiners now predict the crypto asset will reach $100,000 by year-end as more large institutions join the buying frenzy. BTC Not Crashing Meanwhile, Schiff, who has predicted BTC’s crash on numerous occasions, also attacks the mainstream financial media for “doing everything it can to promote” bitcoin at the expense of gold. In particular, the gold bug is unhappy with the U.S. network CNBC’s coverage of Tesla’s bitcoin acquisition. Schiff says: As expected, CNBC is providing non-stop coverage of Tesla’s bitcoin buy, with one guest after another, most with a vested interest in promoting bitcoin, praising the decision. No guests have really criticized the decision, to the delight of Grayscale, CNBC’s biggest advertiser. In the meantime, on Twitter, user Peter Elon is quick to remind Schiff that in just under 48 hours after the announcement, Tesla’s BTC investment is already $150 million up. Another user, Anthony Kloda explains why Schiff is rattled. He says: “Peter is rattled because the bitcoin narrative currently is digital gold and he’s afraid of an institutional shift from physical gold to bitcoin driving down gold leadership position as the dominant inflation hedge. In my opinion, there is more than enough room for both.” What are your thoughts on Peter Schiff’s latest anti-BTC tweets? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has answered some questions regarding cryptocurrency in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s parliament. The questions include measures the government plans to impose on the crypto industry. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Answers Crypto Questions in Parliament The Indian finance minister answered four questions Tuesday in Rajya Sabha regarding the “trading in cryptocurrency,” including measures outlined in the crypto bill. Minister Sushil Kumar Modi asked the minister of finance whether “a ban was imposed on bitcoin trading in 2018,” which was later lifted by the supreme court, whether other cryptocurrencies are still banned, and whether “despite the ban, illegal trading of cryptocurrency is still being done on a large scale.” To these questions, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replied: “In view of the risks associated with virtual currencies (VCs), including bitcoins, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), vide circular dated April 6, 2018, had advised all the entities regulated by it not to deal in VCs or provide services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling VCs.” She confirmed: However, the honorable supreme court, vide judgment dated March 4, 2020 … had set aside the above circular dated April 6, 2018. The last question reads, “By when government proposes to issue strict guidelines in this regard keeping in view the risk involved therein?” The finance minister proceeded to provide a long answer, similar to the first part of one of the answers provided last week by Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur. Quoting the Budget Speech of 2018-2019, Sitharaman said: “The government does not consider cryptocurrencies legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate use of these crypto assets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payment system. The government will explore use of blockchain technology proactively for ushering in digital economy.’” She proceeded to talk about the recommendations by “A high-level interministerial committee (IMC) constituted under the chairmanship of Secretary (Economic Affairs) to study the issues related to VCs and propose specific actions to be taken in this matter.” This committee was headed by Subhash Chandra Garg who has resigned from government. The finance minister said that the committee “recommended in its report that all private cryptocurrencies, except any cryptocurrency issued by the state, shall be prohibited in India,” adding: The government will take a decision on the recommendations of the IMC and the legislative proposal, if any, would be introduced in the parliament following the due process. The Indian government has answered a few more questions about cryptocurrency and any measures it plans to impose on the industry since it listed the bill to be introduced in Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament. The bill seeks to ban cryptocurrencies while providing a regulatory framework for the digital rupee to be issued by the central bank, the RBI. However, the bill has not been made public, leading to much confusion about the status of the bill and what prohibitions it will entail. Some suspect that it may closely resemble the one submitted by the Garg committee. Last week, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur answered questions in Rajya Sabha regarding the government’s stance on cryptocurrency and the digital rupee. Then, on Tuesday, he answered more crypto questions and confirmed that the crypto bill is being finalized and will soon be sent to the cabinet. What do you think about what the finance minister said about cryptocurrency? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Following the outcry over the Central Bank of Nigeria’s latest directive that targets cryptocurrencies, the institution has reaffirmed its stance with another statement. In the latest five-page document, the CBN insists that this directive is intended to protect the country’s financial system from the “risks” that are associated with cryptocurrencies. Debunked Claims Still, the central bank claims the directive has “not placed any new restrictions on cryptocurrencies” but is only regurgitating what was said four years ago. In January 2017, the CBN published a circular which claimed then that the use of cryptocurrencies was against the “key mandate of the CBN as the issuer of legal tender in the country.” Nevertheless, the country has since seen the use of cryptocurrencies grow and now Nigeria ranks as one of the leading cryptocurrency markets in the world. Despite the apparent embrace of cryptocurrencies, the CBN statement appears to ignore this evidence. Instead, the statement relies on unsubstantiated claims to justify the CBN’s decision to sideline crypto players from the banking system. For instance, the CBN claims that China has “completely banned and all exchanges (are) closed as well.” In another instance, the CBN attempts to discredit cryptocurrencies by invoking billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s infamous remarks about bitcoin. Using these and other debunked claims, the press statement then concludes that the CBN “has no comfort in cryptocurrencies at this time.” Consequently, the central bank says it will “continue to do all within its regulatory powers to educate Nigerians to desist from its use.” Global Condemnation In the meantime, as anger at the directive to banks grows, the CBN’s statement explaining this decision is seemingly failing to calm nerves. Some crypto players have suggested they might have to leave their country of birth and seek opportunities elsewhere. However, for some crypto players like Adedayo Adebajo, this CBN decision was inevitable. Adebajo, who is the managing director at Jelurida Africa, a consultancy firm, points to the recent Endsars protests as one factor that contributed to this changed approach by the central bank. Towards the end of 2020, when the CBN ordered the freezing of bank accounts that were associated with leaders of the Endsars protest movement, organizers began to ask for donations in bitcoin instead. As a result, donations to bankroll the Endsars continued to flow in and this has since inspired other activists as Adebajo explains: Again recently (cryptocurrencies were) used to raise funds for Sunday Ighoho, an activist acting in the interest of the people. My question is, will the CBN reinstate the cryptocurrency support if the fundraising is carried out in support of the sitting government? Situations like this provide more reasons why decentralization, as offered by the blockchain technology, is highly required in Africa. Meanwhile, the condemnation of the CBN decision has also come from crypto influencers from outside Nigeria. For instance, after reports of this directive began circulating, prominent bitcoin educator, Andreas Antonopoulos tweeted: “Disappointing policy from Nigeria.” The Rise of P2P Trading Still, a few players in the Nigerian crypto industry are adamant that this directive will ultimately boost peer-to-peer trading. For instance, in his reply to Antonopoulos’ tweet, Chris Ani, a teacher and startup adviser, insists that the CBN directive “did not ban cryptocurrencies.” Instead, he says this directive only applies to “crypto trading with the banks and crypto exchanges.” In the meantime, Alexander Belov, a co-founder at Coinstelegram Media and Fund, tells news.Bitcoin.com that this CBN directive has more to do with the state of that country’s economy. The Nigerian economy, which has been hit hard by the global pandemic, is facing ongoing shortages of foreign exchange. Foreign exchange shortages, in turn, force many to switch to cryptocurrencies which can be bought via local exchanges. Therefore, by banning banks from accommodating cryptocurrency entities, the CBN is trying to force Nigerians to return to traditional banking channels which it controls. The directive could also be an attempt to mask the real challenges besetting that economy as Belov explains: It (the directive) just shows the willingness of countries with weak economies to toughly respond to the growth of crypto adoption among the population in order to protect their economies and banking system. What do you think is going to be the final outcome of this directive? You can share your views in the comments section below. View the full article

Launchpool : noun – A group of crypto industry participants who pool together resources to launch projects. The concept behind the project is to bring investors together, aligning all for the benefit of everyone and the project. Each investor is put on the same footing and given the same incentive to see the project grow, this will result in the betterment of the collective rather than a few individuals that is often the case. This project is in no way affiliated with Binance or the Binance Launchpool. Introducing Launchpool One of the most exciting projects brewing recently is Launchpool. With some really big names behind it LP has been gaining support from every corner of the industry. This was achieved by bringing some of the biggest names in the space together. Each of the funds will provide part of their deal flow to the Launchpool community at the same price they paid and under the same vesting terms; this is what brings everyone onto the same footing and provides transparency in the tokenomics of each project. The funds currently signed up are: Alphabit, Alpha Sigma Capital, FBG, GBIC, Jun Capital, Master Ventures and A195 Capital. Ultimately there is no way that having these funds share their purchases won’t provide a huge opportunity for the wider crypto community. Not only does it show the community which of the latest projects funds think will be successful but it also allows them to be exposed to the upside from the same level. The Benefits for Projects and Investors One of the most interesting parts of this is how much it will benefit projects who are accepted into the pool. Not only will projects have doors opened by some of the most well known funds in the space but they will also have access to an ever growing list of contacts as the community expands. One can also see this allowing much more cross community growth as the LPT will incentives investors to support all the projects that have been accepted into the pool. The launch pool token is your gateway into this exciting ecosystem. By staking your LPT you are provided the equivalent percentage of tokens on offer from the project. For example if you staked $1,000 of LPT and the total value of the pool was $10,000 you’d receive the opportunity to purchase 10% of the tokens on offer from the new project. Launch pool has also limited the total staking from each wallet to $2500 helping to provide more people an opportunity to buy in and spread the potential gains, not just allowing them to end up in the hands of a few large whales. Contacts: Telegram – https://t.me/launchpoolxyz Twitter – https://twitter.com/LaunchPoolxyz This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

Over $3 billion worth in bitcoin seized by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), belonging to Silk Road, are likely linked to a former U.S. Secret Service agent. The latest findings suggest that “Individual X” is, in fact, Shaun Bridges. Bridges Is Set to Be Freed in November Per recent court filings, cited by Fortune, the 69,370 bitcoins taken by the law enforcement also have possible ties with Carl Mark Force IV, a former official from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Both agents were part of the investigations related to the now-defunct darknet marketplace. Although the report cannot be taken as a legal confirmation of Bridges’ relation with the BTC seized, Fortune pointed out that some clues in a DOJ statement shed some light about it: Individual X was able to hack into Silk Road and gain unauthorized and illegal access to Silk Road and thereby steal the illicit cryptocurrency. It’s worth noting that the disgraced U.S. Secret Service agent was convicted for using an informant’s credentials in the Silk Road case to steal BTC from the vendors. He got a sentence of 71 months in prison in 2015. Afterward, Bridges served an additional two-year sentence in 2017 after pleading guilty to money laundering charges. He’s expected to be a free man in November 2021, as he’s still in a Nashville federal prison. Disgraced US Agent Likely Has Secret Crypto Wallets However, more clues arose during the whole case after some reports made the headlines in 2016. Bridges planned unsuccessfully to flee the country, as he tried to apply for citizenship in foreign countries. Fortune says such a flight plan could suggest that he might have other secret crypto wallets to fund its escape. As of now, the “Individual X” wallet contains a similar amount — of the BTC seized — in other cryptos such as bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin gold (BTG), and bitcoinsv (BSV). According to court filings, Ross Ulbricht — who the U.S. government claims is the mastermind behind Silk Road and currently spends a double life imprisonment sentence — stated that he wouldn’t take any legal claims BTC seized. Our newsdesk published in November 2020 an in-depth outlook about the Silk Road bitcoin address that was seized by the U.S. authorities. What do you think about a possible link between disgraced Secret Service agent and Silk Road’s bitcoins seized? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The cryptocurrency financial services firm Blockfi has launched a bitcoin-based trust that offers custody from Fidelity Digital Asset Services. Blockfi’s investment vehicle aims to give investors exposure to the leading crypto asset as bitcoin assets under management (AUM) was over $29 million on February 8, 2021. Blockfi Launches a Competitive Bitcoin Trust With a Sponsor Fee of 1.75% On Tuesday, the lender and financial services company Blockfi launched its bitcoin trust as it is managed by Blockfi Management LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Blockfi. The trust will charge a sponsor fee of 1.75% and the company leverages custodial services from Fidelity’s crypto arm. According to the announcement, the company will use Coin Metrics’ index services and pricing data. The company Grant Thornton LLP will be the Blockfi Bitcoin Trust’s financial auditor. Blockfi’s trust will compete with Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) and it offers an annual fee that is .25% lower than GBTC’s fee rating. There are approximately 685,500 shares outstanding and each share represents 43.64 BTC according to Feb. 8 2021 data. “Given the level of institutional activity in recent months and demand for new, professional-grade investment vehicles, the timing of Blockfi Bitcoin Trust is ideal,” Zac Prince, the founder and CEO of Blockfi said during the announcement. Prince added: As we work to broaden the availability of this vehicle to retail brokerages, we expect this product will facilitate greater investments in digital assets – at the core of Blockfi’s mission in bridging crypto with traditional finance. Fidelity Digital Assets Sees the Need for a More Diversified Set of Products Offering Exposure to the Asset The recent Blockfi news follows the company’s Visa credit card launch that offers BTC rewards. Furthermore, a few days prior in December 2020, Blockfi launched a cryptocurrency trading platform. As far as Blockfi’s trust is concerned, Fidelity Digital Assets looks forward to its partnership with the crypto financial services firm. “The digital asset ecosystem has grown significantly in recent years, creating an even more robust marketplace for investors and accelerating demand among institutions,” the head of sales and marketing for Fidelity Digital Assets, Christine Sandler said. Sandler continued: An increasingly wide range of investors seeking access to bitcoin has emphasized the need for a more diversified set of products offering exposure to the asset. Like Blockfi, we believe pairing innovative products with institutional-grade solutions that provide high caliber security will help enable broader adoption of digital assets. Blockfi is not the only competitor trying to compete with Grayscale’s bitcoin trust product, as the crypto asset manager Bitwise recently filed to publicly trade its bitcoin fund. On February 2, 2021, Bitwise Asset Management, announced it had filed a Form 211 with the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for the Bitwise Bitcoin Fund (BBF). What do you think about Blockfi launching a bitcoin trust? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

A South Korean cryptocurrency exchange announced it established its first legally recognized branch in China. Although the nation banned all local crypto trading services, DBX said the firm already obtained a license to go ahead with the operations. Final Certificate of Incorporation Granted on February 5 According to Money Today, DBX received the operating license to establish the subsidiary in China as part of its overseas expansion plans. The crypto exchange is affiliated with the Korea Blockchain Coordination Association. Per the details given by the exchange, the Chinese government first green-lighted the opening of the branch on December 28, 2020, by issuing a temporary permission. However, the officials granted the final incorporation’s certification on February 5, 2021. A DBX official commented on the matter: The license to establish a corporation this time received from the Chinese government is a license that was obtained from the opposition to the establishment of foreign (crypto) exchanges in China so that it can give even greater meaning. The branch, named Tabi, will open its doors “no later than” March, said crypto exchange officials. DBX plans to extend its operations across the United States, Singapore, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Domestic Crypto Trading Is Still Banned in China The relationship cryptocurrencies-China has been quite turbulent. Since 2017, Chinese regulators have been placing bans on crypto-related activities by first issuing a ban on local crypto exchanges. However, the government later went beyond and cracked down on domestic trading and mining operations as well. However, the nation’s authorities have been making some clarifications over the past of years regarding their stance towards bitcoin (BTC). The Beijing Arbitration Commission published an article on the legal nature of bitcoin in China in August 2020. They stated that bitcoin’s use as a commodity has never been banned in the Asian giant. Moreover, China is paving the road to adopting its upcoming central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan. Recently, news.Bitcoin.com reported that the country has been giving away 10 million yuan ($1.55 million) in its CBDC in Beijing. Recipients can spend the digital yuan during the Chinese New Year festival. What do you think about this opening of a crypto exchange’s overseas branch in China? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Following the revelation that Tesla now owns $1.5 billion in bitcoin, crypto spot markets across the board skyrocketed. Data shows that crypto derivatives markets also saw significant demand as bitcoin futures open interest tapped $15 billion on Monday. Moreover, this week was the start of ethereum futures on CME Group’s exchange, and ether-based futures registered $33 million worth on the first day of launch. Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Jumps to $15 Billion Bitcoin (BTC) derivatives markets are in high demand these days and other cryptocurrencies like ethereum (ETH) and bitcoin cash (BCH) derivative products are as well. Just recently, news.Bitcoin.com reported on Bit.com’s introduction of BCH options which saw volumes double every day since the launch. Then on February 8, 2021, it was discovered that Tesla had purchased $1.5 billion worth of BTC, and the crypto asset saw its largest daily candle to date. Moreover, the action also caused massive demand for BTC futures and the crypto derivatives analysts over at skew.com tweeted about the subject on Tuesday. Skew tweeted: Bitcoin futures open interest new all-time-high yesterday >$15bln. The open interest is an aggregate from all the derivatives exchanges that offer bitcoin futures including Kraken, Bybit, CME, Bitfinex, Bitmex, and many others. On Monday Skew also noted that “short positions are being unwound by leveraged funds on CME bitcoin futures.” Skew has also has been discussing the recently launched ETH-based futures on CME as well. ETH/BTC sold off tweeted the following day on Tuesday. “ETH/BTC implied vol spread collapsed,” Skew added. CME Group’s Ether-Based Futures Sees $33 Million Contracts on Day One CME Group Inc (NASDAQ: CME) Exchange also launched its ETH-based futures product on Monday and contracts are dubbed ETH1. Contracts started to be initiated right away as soon as the market opened and by the closing bell, 388 contracts worth over 19,400 ETH were registered. Following the ether futures introduction on CME, ETH spot markets reached a 2021 high at over $1,800 per token. Ethereum’s price has retreated from that range and hovers just above the $1,700 handle. Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis Global Trading discussed the CME launch on Monday and said CME Group has helped bolster digital currencies into a new asset class. “CME Group has been an integral participant in the continued institutionalization of this asset class, and the launch of Ether futures is yet another milestone,” Moro said. “Genesis is excited to continue to work closely with CME in this effort,” the executive added. What do you think about the increased demand for crypto derivatives products and markets? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

A state-affiliate cybersecurity expert warned about hackers exploiting the Russian government’s IT facilities to mine cryptocurrencies. The deputy director of the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents believes such threat actors have been very active in recent times. Global Cybersecurity Landscape Remains ‘Tense’ According to TASS, Nikolai Murashov pointed out that hackers managed to inject unknown malware into the infrastructure of Russian government entities, medical institutions, defense contractors, and even research institutes. The cybercriminals then look for IT resources to use to illicitly mine cryptos. He added: For the first time, there have been cases of the introduction of malicious software that encrypts user data into the information infrastructure of medical institutions. However, the expert didn’t provide more details about the attacks during his speech at the XXIII National Information Security Forum “Infoforum-2021” in Moscow. Also, he didn’t clarify if some of these attacks are related to ransomware incidents. Murashov raised red flags on the global cybersecurity landscape, as he considers it currently “tense.” He backs up his statement by saying that hackers have been actively targeting government bodies across the board to “steal information.” The National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents was created by the Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2018. Among their tasks include detecting, warning and mitigating cyberattacks in Russia. Report: Crypto Mining Is Not a Major Method of Funding for Hackers But crypto mining remains a low-profile type of cyberattack in current times. At least, that’s one of the findings published by the cybersecurity firm Group-IB in their “Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2020–2021” report. Per the firm, crypto mining is not a highly attractive method for threat actors to provide funding, at least in Russia. In fact, hackers actively rely on encrypting malware and then threatening to leak the encrypted info, asking for a ransom payment. What do you think about the warning issued by the Russian government-affiliate cybersecurity expert? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Mad Money host Jim Cramer has applauded Elon Musk and Tesla for their bitcoin investment. He said that Tesla, Paypal, and Mastercard are pushing bitcoin more into the mainstream. He believes that more companies should do more with their cash as Tesla did. Jim Cramer on Tesla, Paypal, and Bitcoin Jim Cramer shared his views Monday on bitcoin and Elon Musk’s Tesla investing $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency on The Street. Cramer is the host of Mad Money on CNBC and a former hedge fund manager who co-founded the financial website Thestreet.com. He discussed Tesla stock which has been steadily climbing over recent months and news that the company has invested in bitcoin. According to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), published Monday, Tesla invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin in January. In addition, the company plans to accept BTC as a form of payment for its products. Cramer was asked if Tesla’s announcement pushes bitcoin more into the mainstream. “I think it is,” the Mad Money host replied, adding that “So do Paypal’s and Mastercard’s announcements.” He continued, “I noticed that Mastercard is doing work with crypto but they don’t talk about it as much as they should,” elaborating: Do I think that Tesla did the right thing? Absolutely. I have always felt that companies should do more with their cash than just keep it in short term … I completely applaud Tesla. Once again they are at the forefront. Commenting on people buying dogecoin because Elon Musk talked about it, he said, “I find the synergies between what Elon Musk stands for and what Tesla is doing with its balance sheet and what Paypal is saying people want … makes it seem kind of, not ho-hum, but of course.” Cramer also talked about the bitcoin advice he previously gave to his viewers. The Mad Money host bought and recommended his viewers to buy BTC when it dropped to about $12,000. “They switched some of their gold, which I always thought is important allocation, to bitcoin,” Cramer said. He noted that he did exactly what he said for his own investment. He bought bitcoin and regarded it as a cash equivalent. “Obviously this cash went up big. That was not my intent. My intent was it would be a storehold of value … and I took some off. Why? Because I am a trader at heart in the sense that I wanted to take my capital out,” he opined. “Once the capital came out, then I’m just gonna let it run, so I feel pretty good today.” Do you agree with Jim Cramer about Tesla and bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The price of bitcoin soared to new heights after Tesla informed the public that it added $1.5 billion to the company’s balance sheet. Bitcoin touched an all-time high (ATH) reaching $48,216 per unit and has retreated in value a hair since then. While crypto enthusiasts are bullish, a few supporters and analysts believe the crypto asset might be overbought, and bitcoin prices may see a drop as we cross over into the Chinese New Year. The Crypto Economy’s Trillion-Dollar Market Cap Continues to Swell Bitcoin (BTC) has seen significant gains during the last 24 hours as the cryptocurrency touched an ATH at $48,216 per coin. During the last hour, the crypto asset is exchanging hands for prices between $46,500 to $47,100 per unit with $39 billion in global trade volume. Out of the $1.32 trillion market cap amongst all 8,416 cryptocurrencies and 33,534 markets, BTC has a dominance rating of 62.9% today. BTC has gained 27% this week, 18% during the last month, 188% for the 90-day span, and 360% against the USD for 12 months. Ten years ago today, the price of bitcoin reached $1 and yesterday was the largest daily candle in history. Largest daily candle in Bitcoin history. Low: $38,058 – High: $46,929 pic.twitter.com/MJg2e4H3VK — Visualize Bitcoin (@visbitcoin) February 8, 2021 At 4:02 a.m. (EST) on Tuesday, markets.Bitcoin.com data shows that ethereum (ETH) tapped the $1,800 range. Currently, ETH is swapping for $1,748 per unit and captures roughly $13.2 billion in global trade volume. Polkadot (DOT) is trading for $22.99 per coin and has displaced cardano (ADA) after the two currencies have been battling for the fourth largest market cap. Cardano (ADA) is swapping for $0.68 at the time of publication with $21 billion worth of volume. Coin Metrics’ State of the Network: Ethereum Onchain Transfers Top Bitcoin’s Transfer Value The Coin Metrics team and analyst Nate Maddrey explained on Tuesday that the top two leading crypto assets (ETH & BTC) have seen increased onchain metrics. “BTC and ETH onchain metrics were in the green across the board this past week,” Maddrey detailed in the firm’s 89th newsletter. “BTC market cap grew by 12.9% week-over-week, while ETH market cap grew by 19.6%. BTC and ETH realized cap also grew by 3.3% and 12.8% respectively, as both continue to set new all-time highs,” Maddrey added. The Coin Metrics’ analyst continued: ETH’s onchain transfer value has topped BTC’s. ETH’s adjusted transfer value reached over $19B on February 4th, its highest level ever. The following chart shows the 7-day average ETH transfer value, adjusted to remove self-sends and other noisy behavior. Tesla Moved the Needle The cryptocurrency analyst Simon Peters explained on Tuesday that people should expect a giant shift into the crypto economy following Tesla’s recent purchase. “Yesterday’s move by Tesla to invest in bitcoin and start accepting it as payment for its own products really moved the needle,” Peters said. Tesla execs, as fiduciaries to the shareholders, decided it is less risky to have $1.5B of bitcoin than $1.5B of cash on its balance sheet. — Mike Belshe (@mikebelshe) February 9, 2021 “Already there is talk of copycat moves from Apple and Google, linking it to their own payment systems. The shift to digital consumption is growing. We expect to see others follow in Tesla’s footsteps, with bitcoin payments increasingly making sense for businesses that conduct nearly all their sales online,” the Etoro analyst added. Is Bitcoin Overheated? Technical Indicators Say Yes On Twitter, analysts and crypto supporters are questioning whether or not bitcoin (BTC) is overheating at this point. Linas Beliūnas asked his Twitter followers: “Is bitcoin severely overbought? These indicators suggest it is,” he added. Beliūnas shared an image stemming from the data site Marketmilk that shows a number of technical indicators. Marketmilk statistics on Feb. 9, 2021. Marketmilk stats show that indicators like Bollinger Bands, Relative Strength Index (RSI), Stochastic Oscillator, and other signals suggest BTC is “overbought.” Tradingveiw’s network summary of technicals, however, is different as the summary says BTC is a “buy,” moving averages point to a “strong buy,” and oscillators are reading “neutral.” Tradingview statistics on Feb. 9, 2021. The Chinese New Year Transition Some crypto enthusiasts think there’s a great possibility of a Chinese New Year dip ahead for bitcoin (BTC) as value drops have traditionally been consistent during every Chinese New Year transition. On February 5, 2021, the cryptocurrency supporter Tyler Reynolds told his 17,000 followers that a correction may happen soon. On February 1, 2019, Phoon Mei Hui published a report called the “‘Chinese New Year Effect’ in BTC Market.” The author says, however, that the Chinese New Year dump may not be a reality. “We’ve seen some potentially interesting relationships (though not proven causal) between BTC price movement and trading activities during Chinese New Year,” Mei Hui wrote at the time. “Are the signs compelling? Maybe not,” she added. “If I had to guess, defi just broke it’s parabola and we’ll drop at least 40% from these levels,” Reynolds tweeted. “ETH and BTC won’t drop 40%. If it did break (still unclear), I would expect a fairly sharp pick up ( “I have my guns loaded to buy this upcoming dip which I also believe is overdue,” Coingecko founder Bobby Ong wrote to his Twitter followers this week. “Chinese New Year dip, I’m all ready for you. Buy orders at 30% from ATH peak has been set. Let’s see if a correction comes this weekend.” Last year’s Chinese New Year was the “Year of the Rat,” and this year is the “Year of the Ox” or Metal Bull. However, just because this pattern has been consistent over the last few years it may not come to fruition. For instance, traditionally during the end of the year in the U.S., there’s a lot of sell-off before January 1 because of tax implications. Instead, cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH touched new all-time price highs and continued to jump forward into 2021. 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

Free TON is a community driven blockchain network with a focus on decentralized governance based on the open-source TON project which was previously developed by Telegram. Dune Network is a platform for distributed applications over a blockchain, focused on safety and security. The two groups will now begin to merge following a successful vote for a decentralized M&A proposal. First Decentralized Merger and Acquisition More than 50% of participating community members have voted in favor of a merger proposal between Free TON and Dune Network. This is important for both groups as the Dune project will effectively be absorbed into Free TON, but it’s also a milestone for the whole blockchain ecosystem as the first truly decentralized M&A. The cost of the operation is estimated at 9 million TON crystals, equivalent to the market cap of Dune Network, and it will be funded through contests on Free Ton. The acquisition further grows the large Free TON community by adding an enthusiastic group of more 2000 Dune Network supporters, and expands its brand reach with a transfer of all the social media accounts and 16 Ambassadors across 6 countries that Dune has. On the technical side, Dune also brings with it around 30k accounts and smart contracts, a network with over 50k daily transactions and a community of more than 90 validators, including 8 companies that can become validators. The deal will also give Free TON access to all the exchanges where Dune is traded, familiarity with the top tier investors that backed Dune, and a new lab that will contribute to its development (see below). As for the benefits for the acquired project, Ben Sunderland, Dune Network’s community manager explained: “Thanks to its advanced technical stack, fully decentralised nature, unique partnership model and growing community, Free TON has established itself as a strong contender for global adoption. For us, this is an opportunity to work on, and aid in the advancement of, one the best technical infrastructures available, and who also share our morals and philosophies regarding decentralisation.” Together, the Dune Network and FreeTon communities become stronger, more than the sum of our individual components. Through unification of forces, we enable our communities to go further, faster. – Ben Sunderland, Community Manager, Dune Network Dune Network Acquisition Adds Lab With Top Researchers to Free TON Development Dune Network is a platform for distributed applications over a blockchain focused on safety and security. It offers multiple programming languages for smart contracts, accessibility, access control features, and industrial applications, as well as provides an entire ecosystem of dApps, features and tools. In addition, it offers business and technical support to help entrepreneurs innovate and scale up via the network whilst facilitating the integration of established companies onto its platform. Since the creation of Dune Network in July 2019, it has been supported by investors like Xavier Niel (Founder of Free/Illiad, 42school, Station F), Sean Rad (founder of Tinder), Antoine and Alexis (founder of Zenly), Alexandre (Founder of Voodoo), Yan Hascoet (Founder of Kapten (Uber competitor, sold for +$200m), Marc Simoncini (founder of Meetic, sold to Match for +$300m), Oussama Amar (founder of The Family), Jean David Blanc (Founder of AlloCiné), Georges Mohammed Cherif (Founder of Buzzman), and more. Origin Labs, the lab behind many developments on Dune Network, will now focus all new developments on Free TON going forward. It is one the most productive research and development groups in the blockchain space. Origin Labs has a team of 9 Ph.D. research engineers trained in top technological universities of France that are widely recognized as experts in formal verification, tooling design, and blockchain technology. Over the last decade they have been involved in projects with established household brand names, such as Jane Street, Samsung, Bloomberg, Facebook, as well as having developed leading tools for OCaml, such as opam. About Free TON Free TON is a community powered movement for a free and open decentralised internet. It’s a next-gen blockchain technology that belongs to no one and to everyone at the same time. The network does not have an owner or centralized management that decides what should be done or when, nor what tools or projects should run on it. Instead, Free TON practices decentralized governance principles empowering the community to engage, contribute and make decisions. Technology-wise Free TON is the first multi-threaded, multi-sharded, highly scalable blockchain with low latency. It has an advanced Proof-of-Stake consensus and a versatile smart contract platform supporting several high level computer languages such as Solidity, C and C++. Free TON promotes a unique concept of End-to-End Decentralization which essentially moves DNS servers and storage on-chain, i.e., a decentralized backend. When this future development will be completed all data and privacy will be absolute. To learn how Free TON was born out of the abandonment of the the Telegram Open Network by the private messaging giant Telegram due to the U.S. SEC, read Free TON, From an Abandoned Project to the Frontier of PoS Networks. This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. View the full article

Indian crypto exchanges have been experiencing a flood of INR deposits and surging trading volumes since it was revealed that Elon Musk’s Tesla purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. The positive sentiment swept the Indian crypto industry despite the uncertainty of the cryptocurrency bill that may soon be introduced in parliament. INR Deposits and Trading Volumes Spiked After Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy News Indian cryptocurrency exchanges experienced high deposit volumes on Monday after Elon Musk’s Tesla revealed that it bought bitcoin. According to the company’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Tesla put $1.5 billion into bitcoin in January and expects to accept payment in the cryptocurrency for its products and services in the near future. The move caused a massive inflow of orders on cryptocurrency exchanges in India and globally. Sathvik Vishwanath, the CEO of Unocoin, a major Indian crypto exchange, told news.Bitcoin.com Tuesday: We have seen a sudden uptick in INR deposits and BTC trading volumes on Unocoin since Tesla announcement. The markets in India were not reacting so quickly before, so this should be a very strong trigger this time. “The INR deposits have more than doubled since the last 18 hours. The number of new registrations in the same time span is what we generally see in a week,” he further shared. Another major Indian crypto exchange, Wazirx, saw a similar trend after the Tesla news broke. CEO Nischal Shetty told news.Bitcoin.com: “We saw 3x more deposits in the first few hours compared to other days. Deposits have been on an upward trend ever since.” Cryptocurrency exchanges outside of India also experienced high volumes after Tesla’s news, including Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken. A spokesperson for Kraken told Reuters: “The recent run-up far exceeded anticipated increases in demand, up over five-fold from previous all-time highs.” On the regulatory front, the Indian government is preparing to introduce the crypto bill that may ban cryptocurrencies while creating a regulatory framework for the digital rupee to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Amid reports that the government may fast-track this bill, the central bank says it will soon announce the decision regarding the central bank digital currency. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency industry in India has launched a campaign to convince the government to not ban cryptocurrency. Then on Tuesday, the finance ministry revealed in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s parliament, that the bill is actually being finalized and will soon be sent to the Cabinet. What do you think about the Indian crypto market being influenced by Tesla’s BTC buy? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

China is giving away 10 million yuan in its central bank digital currency in Beijing. Recipients can spend the digital yuan during the Chinese New Year festival. Beijing has become the third major city in China to test the central bank digital currency. 50,000 People to Receive Free Digital Yuan China is actively testing its central bank digital currency (CBDC). Beijing is the next city to receive a digital yuan airdrop. The Beijing municipal government announced over the weekend that it will hand out a total of 10 million yuan ($1.55 million) to 50,000 people in the city who register for the lottery giveaway using mobile phone apps. The results will be announced on Feb. 10. According to CNBC, recipients will be selected from a pool of applicants, who must have a Chinese ID number or a residence permit from Hong Kong, Macao, or Taiwan. Each person will receive 200 yuan (about $30) in digital currency in the form of a red packet. The two previous test cities, Shenzhen and Suzhou, also distributed digital yuan to their residents this way. Six banks are participating in the test: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, and Postal Savings Bank of China. From Feb. 10 to Feb. 17, during the Lunar New Year holiday, recipients can spend the central bank-issued digital currency at designated offline locations or on parts of the e-commerce site JD.com. Beijing is preparing for more pilot use of the country’s digital currency during the upcoming Winter Olympics in 2022. What do you think about the digital yuan airdrop in Beijing? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The Indian government has spoken about the cryptocurrency bill again. This time, the minister of state for finance has clarified the status of the crypto bill that is expected to be introduced in parliament during the current session. Indian Ministry of Finance Clarifies Crypto Bill Status The subject of bitcoin and the cryptocurrency bill in India was raised on Tuesday in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s parliament. Recently, the crypto bill was listed to be introduced in Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament. The bill seeks to ban cryptocurrencies while creating a regulatory framework for the central bank digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Since its Lok Sabha listing was made public, questions have been raised in Rajya Sabha about the crypto bill. Last week, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur clarified the government’s position on cryptocurrency and the digital rupee. On Tuesday, more questions were raised in Rajya Sabha about the cryptocurrency bill. Parliament Member K.C. Ramamurthy asked: “There is no doubt the problem of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is escalating … I would like to know from the honorable finance minister whether there is any proposal to bring in a bill to curb cryptocurrencies in the country.” Minister Thakur replied: Regulatory bodies like RBI and SEBI, etc, also don’t have a legal framework to directly regulate cryptocurrencies, as they are neither currencies, nor assets or securities or commodities. He continued to explain that “The existing laws are inadequate to deal with the subject,” adding that an interministerial committee (IMC) was therefore formed and the committee has given a report. Minister Thakur further revealed that “There was a meeting of the empowered technology group which happened earlier,” noting that another committee with the Cabinet Secretary has also given a report. In conclusion, he said: The bill is being finalized and would be sent to the Cabinet soon. The Indian crypto community welcomes this clarification by the minister of state. Nischal Shetty, the CEO of the Indian crypto exchange Wazirx, told news.Bitcoin.com: “I think that’s a positive sign. There will also supposedly be discussions around the bill, so it’s not going to be implemented in a hurry. I think overall this is a very positive development that just happened.” Do you think India will ban cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Cryptowisser, who operates the world’s largest crypto exchange list, has published the second installment of its quarterly empirical report on trading fees among cryptocurrency exchanges. The 2020 Q4 report analyzes 350 different exchanges and is the biggest of its kind, giving an insight into trading fees development. According to Cryptowisser’s previous installment from Q3 2020, fees were set to generally decrease on trend with the impressive 17% decrease over the last 3 years. However, with the recent surge in Cryptocurrency, it seems some exchanges have had enough demand to actually increase their trading fees (Albeit marginally). For example, it is reported that the average spot trading taker and maker fees both increased by (0.004%) and the average contracts trading fees also saw a 0.0007% increase. Average BTC Withdrawal Fees Cryptowisser was also able to retrieve fixed BTC- withdrawal fees from 324 of their listed exchanges and reported an average withdrawal fee of 0.000643. The report also shows quite the range with 16 exchanges having 0 withdrawal fees all the way to one exchange reporting a 0.005 BTC withdrawal fee ($218 in today’s market!). While many exchanges don’t charge any fees at all, you still end up paying network fees to the miners. These “network” fees are also included in Cryptowissers database. Crypto Exchange Giants still Taking Advantage of Their Power Position? In the first study Cryptowisser highlighted some of the higher fees prevalent among big industry players. The report shows some big industry players are in line with industry averages – Binance and Poloniex for instance, show a customer focus and competitive rates. However, many other reputable big brand competitors seem to be using their brand awareness to their advantage. For instance, Coinbase Pro charges both takers and makers a 0.50%, pushing their taker fees 135% (130.41% in Q4) above the industry average. Kraken and BitZ also came up high on fees as seen in the report Consumer Friendliness vs. The Free Market With the financial freedom that cryptocurrency offers, a spectrum of fees and methods are to be expected. While the report shows higher fees with the more recognizable company names, the report also shows hundreds of other exchanges coming up through the ranks. With higher fees with the titans, it opens up the market for the smaller exchanges to flourish, giving a healthy future to the Cryptocurrency landscape. What does the report show for the Future? While the Q3 report predicted trade fees to generally decrease, the biggest surge in cryptocurrency showed that anything can happen in a bull run. Fees marginally increased, however over a long enough time line, fees are still expected to decrease. As for some of the leading exchanges charging trading fees substantially above the industry average, once the market becomes more mature and transparent, traders will find that it’s fairly uncomplicated to switch between trading platforms. As a result, exchanges will need to improve their fee offerings in order to retain existing customers and attract new ones. If not, it seems reasonable to believe that they will lose both existing and new customers to other alternatives, such as decentralized exchanges or more customer-oriented centralized exchanges. About Cryptowisser Cryptowisser is a cryptocurrency services comparison site with the world’s largest, most frequently updated and most trusted lists of cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets, debit cards and merchants. With more than 1,000 reviews of the various exchanges, debit cards, wallets and merchants, they help you make all of your purchasing decisions and service choices in the crypto world. Media Contact: press@cryptowisser.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

A Serbian national has been extradited to the United States to face charges of defrauding investors out of more than $70 million through a cryptocurrency mining and binary options scam. Antonije Stojilkovic, 32, and six accomplices, who were all arrested between July and October 2020, faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted. Bogus Profiles According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Stojilkovic was nabbed in his home country after the country submitted a “provisional arrest request on July 24, 2020. The statement adds that his removal “from Serbia to the Northern District of Texas” was completed on On Feb. 4, 2021. Alongside his six coconspirators, Stojilkovic is accused of targeting “investors around the globe – including several in north Texas – soliciting ‘investments’ in binary options and cryptocurrency mining.” The DOJ says the defendants, who used their home bases in China and Serbia, orchestrated the scam through “more than 20 fraudulent investing platforms and “concocted profiles.” Further, as the DOJ statement explains, Stojilkovic and the co-conspirators would project “their binary options platforms as the world’s market leader in binary options.” The accused also claimed to be “the world’s market leader” in binary options with “an average payout of 80 percent, and promised 20 percent refunds on every lost trade.” Concerning the cryptocurrency mining side of the scam, the DOJ says: On the cryptocurrency mining platforms, meanwhile, they claimed investors could ‘purchase bitcoin at the half market price’ due to a ’24-7 mining’ at facilities ‘worldwide.’ No Trading Occurred Meanwhile, in an effort to sell the scam to unsuspecting investors, Stojilkovic and his co-defendants “fabricated trading activity, withdrawal history, and wire receipts.” However, the investigators still found that “no actual trading had occurred.” Instead, investor funds were “used to cover defendants’ personal expenses, to pay commissions, and to further the scheme.” In the meantime, U.S. officials say Stojilkovic’s arrest and extradition demonstrate law enforcement’s ability to “investigate and dismantle these elaborate schemes.” What are your thoughts on the arrest of Stojilkovic and his accomplices? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

An incentive of 100G$ will be given to registered users for new referrals, and 50G$ to new users as a ‘welcome bonus.’ Etoro, one of the world’s leading social trading platforms, has announced that it’s funding rewards for the next one million users of its Gooddollar project, following the launch of a brand new referral program. Stablecoin G$ Aims to Become Digital Universal Basic Income Gooddollar is a digital coin and wallet founded in September 2020 by Yoni Assia, the cofounder, and CEO of Etoro. It provides a digital form of universal basic income (UBI) to citizens worldwide by issuing a stablecoin named G$. To date, Gooddollar has supported over 50,000 users with its digital UBI, with this new referral program set to grow that further. Under the terms of the referral program, Gooddollar users will receive a bonus of 100 G$ for each new invitee that signs up. New users are set to benefit too and receive a welcome bonus of 50 G$ once registration is completed. Etoro has yet to announce if these referral bonuses will be capped at a certain amount. In announcing Etoro’s sponsorship of this new program, Yoni Assia remarked: Real people are hungry to participate in social projects designed to make the world a better place. We are confident that our sponsorship of Gooddollar tokens for new users will support the onboarding of 1 million users to Gooddollar, as part of our larger mission to give more people the ability to experience and use digital currencies. Our support for Gooddollar presents a new model for how corporate entities such as Etoro can use their resources to do social good, through supporting efforts that educate and prepare people for how to use digital currencies in a digital world. Etoro highlights that its reserve-backed crypto asset is currently held by ‘more than 50,000 users,’ and explains that the Gooddollar network will be expanded by this new referral scheme, which will ‘strengthen the utility of G$ to be used for global peer-to-peer commerce and varied community usage.’ According to Etoro, Gooddollar is being adopted by a growing number of social entrepreneurs using G$ to fund social projects, including a soup kitchen in Israel and promoting tree-planting in Spain. One of the benefits of digital currencies such as G$ is they can be distributed directly to users through their cell phones, directly bypassing governments. This is a benefit for countries that suffer from hyperinflation. Venezuela is one of those countries, with a recent report in The Rio Times calling it ‘one of the most rapid adopters of cryptocurrency in the world.’ To date, over 99 million in G$ has been claimed by users of the platform. Etoro’s Gooddollar is not the only crypto project that is attempting to create a digital form of UBI. Projects like Circles, Myubi, Basic Income Earth Network, and Zeropoverty are also experimenting with the crypto-centric basic income concept. Do you support universal basic income? Let us know your thoughts about Gooddollar in the comments section below. View the full article

The new administration in Estonia is still planning to pursue an agenda to tighten rules for companies dealing with cryptocurrencies. The Ministry of Finance is looking to strengthen anti-laundering measures within the context of a major money-laundering scandal that involved Danske Bank. Estonia Revoked Over 1,000 Crypto Firms’ Licenses in 2020 Per a report by ERR News, the Ministry of Finance is not aiming to ride-off from the past administration’s agenda regarding the regulation of crypto assets, such as bitcoin (BTC). The current draft legislation is inherited from Jüri Ratas, the former country’s prime minister and head of the Centre Party. Although Estonia was considered several years ago as a crypto-friendly hotspot in the region, especially during Taavi Rõivas’ mandate, the situation has changed recently. Before the ministry drafted legislation to make regulations stricter, Estonia issued over 1,300 licenses. With the Ratas’ legislation, over 1,000 licenses of crypto firms were revoked, representing 70% of Estonia’s digital asset companies. However, the government didn’t enact the new rules to target specifically the crypto industry. In fact, they wanted to target a case of a larger illicit financial flow of over $220 billion laundered. Existing Licensed Crypto Firms Should Reapply for Another License The existing legislation also seeks to give powers to the Financial Supervisory Authority (Finantsinspektsioon) to oversee the national crypto industry. Previously, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) was the entity responsible for supervising and issuing licenses for the sector. According to the local media outlet, the existing 381 licensed companies dealing with cryptos should reapply for another license with the Finantsinspektsioon. Citing the advisor at the finance ministry, Erki Peegel, ERR News says the measure doesn’t aim to shut down operators. However, the advisor warns that the nation could sustain around 50 to 100 crypto firms. The media outlet also adds that the new cabinet does not believe the rules to acquire a license are enough stricter. What do you think about current Estonia’s stance on cryptos? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

In Argentina, a provincial legislature has voted in favor of a bill to impose new taxes on gross incomes from crypto transactions. Cordoba’s central province is now the first one to impose crypto taxes in the country, which involves crypto exchange platforms and retail traders. Approved Tax Bill Grants a Definition of Cryptocurrencies According to CBA4N, the “Tax Law 2021” approved by the legislature seeks to tax people 4% to 6.5% on gross incomes from crypto-related transactions. Also, individuals or businesses who receive payments in cryptocurrencies “in exchange for goods or services” will be subject to a rate of 0.25%. Citing Cordoba Bitcoin, a local crypto community, the local media outlet believes other provinces and even the national government could replicate the measure. Cordoba Bitcoin also clarified CBA4N that previously, there was only a 15% tax corresponding to earnings, and that covered cryptos as a result of the difference in price in the year. The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic required the local exchanges to inform about any transactions related to cryptocurrencies. In this case, the novelty is that the approved bill is now granting a clear definition to cryptocurrencies: A digital representation of value that can be subject to digital commerce and whose functions — direct and/or indirect — are to constitute a means of exchange and/or a unit of account and/or a store of value. New Rules May Scare off Investors in the Sector, Warns Expert The law mentioned by Cordoba’s crypto community is the Income Tax Law, modified in 2017 to include crypto assets within its content. Marcos Zocaro, a local tax consultant, told La Nacion the following about the negative side such bill approved could bring to the local economy: Increasing the tax burden can be dangerous because not only will it scare away investments in the sector, but it will also keep many cryptocurrency operations informal. He also pointed out the ambiguity of the terms’ definitions such as bitcoin or stablecoins under the tax law: They [cryptos] are put in the same condition against the tax, for example, bitcoin, stablecoins, and security tokens. Is bitcoin (which doesn’t have an underlying asset) the same as a dollar-backed stablecoin? Clearly not. What are your thoughts on this bill’s approval in Cordoba, Argentina? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF)’s Alex Gladstein has heaped praise on bitcoin saying it’s an escape hatch from tyranny and that there is more to it than its price. In comments made via a short video, Gladstein, who is the chief strategy officer (CSO) at HRF, asserts that “people who buy bitcoin are strengthening a tool for protecting human rights.” Bitcoin Preserves Freedom Meanwhile, Gladstein uses the video to push back again bitcoin critics like Paul Krugman whom he describes as living in a “sheltered environment in a liberal democracy with constitutional protections.” The CSO adds that since Krugman’s “native currency (USD) is globally dominant and relatively stable,” it is easy for him to open a bank account. Similarly, the HRF executive says it easy for Krugman to use a mobile app to “pay bills or to grow his wealth by investing in real estate or stocks.” In contrast, these privileges are not extended to 4.2 billion people that are living under “authoritarian regimes that use money as a tool for surveillance and state control.” Therefore, according to Gladstein, “saving and transacting outside the government’s purview is not a shady business. It’s a way to preserve their freedoms.” Bitcoin Funding and Donations In the meantime, the CSO identifies several countries that use control of the monetary system to silence human rights defenders and how bitcoin can make a difference. Some of the named countries include China, Russia, Belarus, Nigeria, and Myanmar (Burma). Meanwhile, when speaking about people living under such governments, Gladstein says: Bitcoin provides a way to preserve their money in cyberspace, locked away by encryption, safe from devaluation, in a network that has never been hacked. For them, it’s digital cash and digital gold rolled into one. The CSO then gives examples of some pro-democracy groups or individuals that have used bitcoin to beat repressive governments. Gladstein says: In the past few months, Belarusian activists have used bitcoin to defy the regime by sending more than 3 million dollars of unstoppable money directly to striking workers, who then convert it locally to rubles in peer-to-peer marketplaces to feed their families as they protest the country’s dictatorship.” Nigeria’s Endsars movement and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny are notable examples where human defenders turned to bitcoin. Similarly, citizens of democratic states too can use bitcoin to escape “financial controls, de-platforming, and an ever-expanding surveillance state.” Meanwhile, Gladstein says as more people “rely increasingly on easily surveilled apps such as Apple pay and Alipay,” bitcoin provides an alternative. Do you agree with Gladstein that bitcoin offers an escape for victims of tyranny and currency debasement? Tell us what you think in the comments section below. View the full article