roadrunner

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is refunding about 8,000 victims who lost money from investing in two bitcoin scams. The fraudulent schemes promised that investors could turn their cryptocurrency payments of about $100 into $80,000 in monthly income. Bitcoin Pyramid Schemes’ Victims Get Refunds The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has started sending refunds to victims of two cryptocurrency investment scams: Bitcoin Funding Team and My7network. According to an announcement by the FTC on Wednesday, the two schemes “falsely promised that participants could earn large amounts of money by paying cryptocurrency such as bitcoin or litecoin to enroll in the schemes.” However, the FTC detailed: Bitcoin Funding Team and My7network were chain referral schemes that depended on the recruitment of new people to make money. In fact, most participants failed to recoup their initial investments. The FTC is sending 7,964 refunds through Paypal totaling more than $470,000 to victims of the two schemes beginning on Nov. 5. “The average refund is approximately $59. Recipients who receive a refund via Paypal will have 30 days to accept the payment,” the FTC clarified. The promoters of the two schemes — Thomas Dluca, Louis Gatto, and Eric Pinkston — were shut down in March 2018. They claimed that Bitcoin Funding Team “could turn a payment of the equivalent of just over $100 into $80,000 in monthly income,” the FTC explained, adding that the two schemes were “chain referral schemes — a type of pyramid scheme.” The FTC alleges that a fourth defendant, Scott Chandler, promoted Bitcoin Funding Team and another deceptive cryptocurrency recruitment scheme called Jetcoin. This scam claimed that investors could double their investment in 50 days, but the FTC says “the scheme failed to deliver on these claims and ceased operation within two months of launching.” The defendants violated the FTC’s “Act’s prohibition against deceptive acts by misrepresenting the chain referral schemes as bona fide money-making opportunities and by falsely claiming that participants could earn substantial income by participating in the three schemes,” the federal agency explained. In August last year, the promoters settled with the FTC. As part of their proposed settlements, Dluca would pay $453,932 and Chandler $31,000. “Pinkston also agreed to a $461,035 judgment, which will be suspended upon payment of $29,491, due to his inability to pay the full amount. If he is later found to have misrepresented his finances, he will be required to pay the full amount,” the regulator noted. In addition to the monetary judgment, all four defendants “are permanently prohibited from operating, participating in, or assisting others in promoting or operating any multi-level marketing program, pyramid, Ponzi, or chain referral scheme,” the FTC stated. What do you think about the FTC refunding bitcoin scam victims? Let us know in the comments section below. The post 8,000 Bitcoin Scam Victims Get Refunds From US Regulator appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Cash App, a mobile payment service of Square Inc., generated more than $1.63 billion in bitcoin revenue in Q3 2020, which is an increase of more than 1,000% over the same period last year. The company recently invested 1% of its total assets, or $50 million, into bitcoin. Cash App’s Bitcoin Revenue Soars Square Inc. released its Q3 2020 earnings report on Thursday. The NYSE-listed (NYSE: SQ) company with a market capitalization of $86 billion provides software and hardware payments products and small business services. Its CEO Jack Dorsey also co-founded Twitter. Square’s flagship mobile payment service, Cash App, launched bitcoin trading in 2018 to enable users to buy and sell BTC. The company wrote: Cash App generated $1.63 billion of bitcoin revenue and $32 million of bitcoin gross profit during the third quarter of 2020, up approximately 11x and 15x year over year, respectively. “Bitcoin revenue and gross profit benefited from an increase in bitcoin actives and volume per customer,” the report adds. Cash App’s bitcoin revenue for the three months ending Sept. 30 this year was $1,633,764, compared to $148,285 generated during the same period last year, representing an increase of 11x or about 1,002%. This was a significant improvement from the Q2 performance when the company reported that Cash App’s bitcoin revenue surged 600% and profits rose 711%. In addition, Square’s bitcoin revenue represents about 54% of the company’s net revenue of $3,033,874, according to its consolidated earnings statement. As a separate segment, Cash App generated $2,068,595 in revenue in Q3, 80% of which were from bitcoin. The San Francisco-based company explained that it counts “the total sale amount of bitcoin to customers” as bitcoin revenue and the total BTC amount it purchases to facilitate customers’ access to the cryptocurrency as bitcoin costs. Moreover, it applies “a small margin to the market cost of bitcoin” when customers buy the cryptocurrency through Cash App. Square Inc. recently made a significant investment in bitcoin, putting about 1% of the company’s total assets or about $50 million into the cryptocurrency. Square’s decision to invest in BTC followed another public company, Microstrategy, putting about half a billion dollars into bitcoin and making the cryptocurrency its primary Treasury reserve asset. Square declared: We invested $50 million in bitcoin as we believe cryptocurrencies are an instrument of economic empowerment and aligns with the company’s purpose. We expect to hold this investment for the long term. Do you buy bitcoin on Cash App? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Cash App’s Bitcoin Revenue Soars 1,000% to $1.63 Billion in Q3, Square Announces appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On November 7 at around 12:37 a.m. (EST), another string of so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ were moved for the first time since 2010. The peculiar movement stemmed from 20 blocks from 2010 with approximately 1,000 BTC spent ($15.5 million) in a single block. 2020 has been a wild year and in the Bitcoin world, it’s been no different. This year a great number of decade-old bitcoin addresses often referred to as ‘sleeping bitcoins’ or ‘zombie coins’ have been spent. On October 14, news.Bitcoin.com reported on an old coinbase reward being spent after a string of 21 block rewards were spent on October 11. After the October 14th spend, four more coinbase rewards from 2010 were spent days later. On October 17, 25, 29, and November 1, approximately 200 BTC from 2010 was transferred. None of the small transfers during the last two weeks have matched the large transfer of 21 block rewards from 2010 on October 11. The last string of 21 blocks also matched the same spending pattern that took place the day before March 12, otherwise known as ‘Black Thursday.’ The day prior, on March 11, 2020, 21 coinbase rewards stemming from 2010 were moved alongside the corresponding forks. Speaking with news.Bitcoin.com on November 7, 2010, researchers from Btcparser.com, discovered another string of 20 coinbase rewards from 2010 were transferred on Saturday morning around 12:37 a.m. EST. Out of the 20 blocks each block contained 50 bitcoins worth over $777,000 using today’s exchange rates. That was the case up until today, as another large string of coinbase rewards were transferred on Saturday morning. The 20 blocks from 2010 were initially caught by the researchers from the blockchain crawler web portal Btcparser.com. Around 12:37 a.m. for a few minutes, the owner of 20 unspent blocks from 2010 were moved. At the time of writing, the 1,000 BTC transferred is worth roughly $15.5 million using today’s exchange rates. The owner of the 20 blocks also spent the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) blocks as well. However, as of right now, the corresponding bitcoinsv (BSV) blocks are not spent and still sit idle. All 20 of the 2010 BTC blocks were spent at block height 655,788 on November 7, 2020. All of the bitcoin cash (BCH) coinbase rewards ($250k worth) were consolidated into a single address. The $15.5 million or 999.99 BTC was consolidated into one address and then coins were sent to other addresses in fractions. A visual perspective of the string of 2010 coinbase rewards spent today on November 7, 2020, at 12:37 a.m. EST. The chart stems from the (Not) ‘Satoshi’s Bags’ Tracker hosted on the theholyroger.com web portal. Similar to the mid-March and October strings of so-called ‘sleeping bitcoin’ awakenings, the 20 blocks from 2010 spent on November 7 was probably the same owner. Data from the blockchain explorer Blockchair’s Privacy-o-Meter shows that today’s 1,000 BTC spend was sent with a high privacy score of “100.” All of the block rewards spent on Saturday morning were mined in the months of August, September, and October 2010. The string of blocks can be viewed at Btcparser.com, but the “(Not) ‘Satoshi’s Bags’ Tracker” on the web portal theholyroger.com also shows the string of 2010 spends from a chart perspective. So far, from our intensive research over the last few weeks, news.Bitcoin.com has reported on approximately 80 block reward spends from 2010 worth over $62 million using today’s exchange rates. There are zero certainties, as to why these so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ from the Satoshi era are being moved today or if the coins are being sold on the open market. What do you think about the 20 blocks from 2010 being transferred on Saturday morning on November 7? Let us know what you think about this story in the comments section below. The post Another Mysterious String of 1,000 ‘Satoshi Era’ Bitcoins Mined in 2010 Moved Today appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Yearnify Finance is considered as one of the most innovative sources of passive income by most of the investors. It has drawn attention due to its potential high returns and extreme security majors. What is Yearnify Finance? In this article, we will provide detailed information about Yearnify Finance and its overall aspects. Yearnify Finance is a community-centered DeFi-project, modeled to take the successful features of Yearn Finance (YFI), and improve upon them, yearnify aims to bring the true value of yield farming finance accessible to all users, yearnify offers the most secure and simple way to earn reliable yields on your assets. Yearnify is generally a platform composed of the protocols built on Ethereum. It increases the annual percentage yields (APY) of the cryptocurrencies which are deposited into the DeFi system Yearnify Finance is a powerful DeFi Platform focusing on staking, farming, borrowing and mortgage. Our platform is powerful enough from a scalability, interoperability, developability and governance perspective to help make the vision of Web3 a reality that aims to get more value for an investment, Yearnify Finance Products We’re building a transparent, secured, user-friendly, and simple yield farming platform, that would provide opportunity for the YFY holders to get benefits from several platforms provided by Yearnify Finance. Yearnify Finance staking platform enables investors to earn a yield on YFY token, depositing, and selecting the amount you want to stake, you will get an APR of 29%, and it can be unlocked anytime and you will get FYFY Token reward also. Lending – YFY will provide you with the highest yield in the market today, Upto 29% APR for supported coins (DAI, USDC, USDT, TUSD, BUSD, PAX) STAKING – Stake YFY and Earn 29% APR, YFY can be unlocked anytime without any lock period or other obstacles on your way. Yield Farming – It is simply based on a farmer who plants and harvests all his crops. The more you farm, the more the harvest, the more the invest the more the profit. With YFY you will be able to enjoy Yield Farming to its fullest. Yearnify Exchange – Exchange between your assets without sending anything to anyone or without any fear of loss. Dapps – Yearnify is also developing their own Dapp running on the Ethereum Network, allowing users to use it from any of their favorite wallet (Trust wallet, MEW, Metamask etc.) to search and use their Decentralized Ecosystem. Where to buy YFY Tokens : ( pre-sale ) The fact that makes Yearnify unique is its Limited token supply. Talking about limited supply, only 29,000 YFY minted will be distributed to the community through Airdrops and Pre-sale events. Yearnify finance has also made some big announcements such as getting their YFY Token listed on big exchanges like Uniswap, Kucoin and Hotbit , before the end of the year with an initial listing price of 3200$ per YFY Token. Presale link : https://yearnify.com/index.php/pre-sale-yfy-token/ Presale steps: Go to the YFY presale link, then connect Your Metamask , Get your ETH ready, add amount you want to buy and press buy YFY , if you do not have metamask , simply follow instructions here https://telegra.ph/YEARNIFY-FINANCE-PRE-SALE-IS-LIVE-10-18 (Tokens unsold would be burned, Uniswap liquidity will be locked 100% for 1 year) Yearnify Finance Tokenomics : Token Type : ERC-20 Token symbol : YFY Token Name : Yearnify Finance Contract : 0xb9ae6fe574982e891666a5b1c2b33e79eb5dabb5 Total Supply : 29,000 YFY Circulating Supply : 12,000 YFY Initial Uniswap Liquidity : 9,000 YFY YFY for Pre-sale : 8,000 YFY Team Tokens : 500 YFY Marketing & Development : 2,000 YFY Airdrops : 8,000 YFY Conclusion Yearnify finance offers an innovative platform and promotes Defi to an advanced level. It aims to work efficiently with the other existing protocols of Defi to build the new world ecosystem . Yearnify Finance Community : Website : https://yearnify.com Telegram channel – https://t.me/yearnifynews Email : support@yearnify.com This is a sponsored post. Learn how to reach our audience here. Read disclaimer below. The post Yearnify Finance (YFY) Bringing Value To Decentralized Finance Ecosystem – Token Pre-Sale Is Live appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The trustee of the now-defunct crypto exchange, Quadriga CX says the sell-off of the platform’s assets raised $30 million. This contrasts with the $171 million in claims that has been filed with the trustee by Quadriga creditors. Consequently, Ernst and Young (EY), the accounting firm mandated with administering Quadriga’s liquidation process, says it will not be able to reimburse in full all the claims. Disproportionate Claims As shown in one report, the trustee says it “received completed claim forms from 17,053 creditors of the exchange while a total of 42,957 claims were filed.” Explaining the higher number of claims filed against the actual number of creditors, the report suggests that some creditors may have signed more than one claim form. In its court motion, EY also reveals that the claims filed by users and creditors are composed of both cryptocurrencies and fiat. The motion lists the cryptos claimed as follows 24,427 BTC, 7,723 bitcoin cash,17,934 bitcoin gold, 7,098 bitcoinsv, 65,457 ethereum and 87,031 litecoin. Still, EY argues that “roughly one-third of the forms have a defect” which the accounting firm says will be too costly “to follow up and fix.” Consequently, the trustee wants the court to rule on its proposition to evenly distribute the available funds. In its request, the trustee says: EY is asking that user claims all have equal footing, as sorting out who would have priority for distribution on a claim by claim basis would be inefficient, costly and a significant drain on estate assets otherwise available for distribution. Confirmation of Impropriety Meanwhile, EY’s motion appears to validate some of the longstanding allegations against Cotten. Explaining the discrepancy between Quadriga’s assets and liabilities, the motion explains: “Mr (Gerald) Cotten proceeded to trade these account balances with affected users that had deposited real assets, as such, Quadriga’s assets likely never matched the liabilities owed to affected users.” Cotten’s death in December 2018 sparked controversy after it emerged that there had been no provisions for a handover or retrieval of private keys to the exchange’s cold wallet. The exchange subsequently shut down a month later leaving thousands of users in limbo. Now, after nearly two years of waiting, Quadriga CX users and creditors are now expected to get the reimbursement of a portion of their funds. What are your thoughts about the reimbursement offer made to Quadriga CX creditors? Share your views in the comments section below. The post Quadriga CX Trustee Raises $30 Million for Reimbursements to Creditors, Claimants Want $171 Million Instead appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Two years ago the cryptocurrency firm Circle announced the launch of USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. This week, Circle revealed the launch of high yield digital dollar business accounts with APY up to 10.75%. On September 26, 2018, Circle and the Centre open-source consortium launched an ERC20 token called USD Coin or USDC. At the time of publication, USDC is the 12th largest blockchain in terms of market capitalization with $2.8 billion circulating today. Under tether (USDT), USDC is the second-most popular stablecoin. “USDC is the first of several fiat tokens Centre expects to deliver, and Circle is the first of several forthcoming,” Circle stated at launch. On November 5, 2020, Circle’s official Twitter account tweeted about USDC business accounts that offer high yield returns. “Circle is planning to introduce short and medium-term high yield interest rate business accounts built entirely on USDC. Starting at 8% APY, make sure to secure a spot on the waitlist today. Restrictions will apply,” the firm tweeted. The waitlist web page states: “Secure a spot on the waitlist for high yield digital dollar business accounts. Talk with us to explore short and medium-term high yield interest rate accounts built entirely on USDC so you are first in line when the service becomes available.” The open term APY offer of 8.50% says that it offers no withdrawal limits and account holders can access their digital dollars at any time. A fixed term of 12-months can accrue 10.75% and six months can get 10.25%. “Interest payments are paid out weekly and accrue daily” and the process is “natively integrated into your Circle Account and customizable through Circle APIs,” the company’s website details. Most all cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), and ethereum (ETH) can be leveraged in high yield interest-bearing accounts through various outlets. Yet stablecoins, no matter the flavor, typically accrue much higher interest rates. What do you think about Circle introducing high yield digital dollar business accounts with USDC? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Stablecoin Savings: Circle Launches High Yield USDC Accounts for Businesses appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This December the cryptocurrency community may see the first introductory phase of the highly anticipated Ethereum 2.0 consensus change. On Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation published ETH 2.0 specifications explaining how the genesis phase will be invoked. Moreover, on November 5, Ethereum’s cofounder Vitalik Buterin sent 3,200 ETH to the genesis phase deposit contract in order to begin staking after the shift. For quite some time now, the ETH 2.0 transition was postponed and it seems the first phase is set to begin on or around December 1, 2020. The first stage of ETH 2.0 is often referred to as “phase 0” and Ethereum developers claim the transition will reduce energy consumption. The blockchain will also introduce shard chains, but most people these days are discussing how proof-of-stake (PoS) will be implemented. Being a PoS blockchain, ETH owners will be able to stake their coins and run validator nodes. Anyone will be able to stake within the Ethereum network, as long as the owner owns a minimum of 32 ETH. According to the Ethereum Foundation, ETH 2.0 is shipping in phases and network participants can see the roadmap here. The phase 0 contract address on November 6, 2020. On Wednesday, November 4, the Ethereum Foundation’s Danny Ryan published an update called “eth2 quick update no. 19.” The update shows the specifications for the phase 0 launch, which is expected to happen on or around December 1. Additionally, Ryan published the mainnet deposit contract address that will be used to trigger the staking deployment. “To trigger genesis at this time,” Ryan wrote. “There must be at least 16,384 32 ETH validator deposits 7 days prior to December 1. If not, genesis will be triggered 7 days after this threshold has been met (whenever that may be).” Ryan also detailed that the mainnet Launch Pad is up and running, and he stressed that people should make sure they leverage the correct deposit contract address. “Check, double-check, triple-check the deposit contract address before sending any funds anywhere,” Ryan stressed. Vitalik Buterin sent 3,200 ETH to the deposit contract address. In addition to the announcement from the Ethereum Foundation, the cryptocurrency’s cofounder Vitalik Buterin has sent funds to the deposit contract address. According to the Etherscan data, Buterin sent 3,200 ETH ($1.4 million using today’s exchange rates) to the address. At the time of publication, there’s approximately 39,173 ether worth $17.3 million held in the ETH 2.0 contract address. A number of Ethereum proponents are excited about the ETH 2.0 phase 0, but ETH 2.0 has had its share of skeptics as well. A Medium post called “The Real Challenge for Ethereum 2.0” written by Robert Greenfield IV notes that “plutocracy is a threat to ‘decentralized equity.’” In the blog post, Greenfield says that the emerging blockchain sector might be “doomed to inherit the inequities of the traditional technology sector.” Meanwhile, in another blog post author, Adam Cochran, shows seven reasons why “ETH 2.0 will create the next economic shift.” Cochran further states: The best reason for this growth, and one that only ETH 2.0 can really claim, is actual demand for the asset, as use for gas in a decentralized computer. With the release of ETH 2.0 (among other improvements) we’re going to see ETH drastically increase its tx/s and therefore its commercial and consumer viability. Gas clogs, high transaction costs, long wait times in dapps all go away, even in a busy market. Meanwhile, the other roadmap phases (1 & 2) are expected to launch during the next few years and the network will likely operate a lot differently. Ethereum proponents hope that the phase 0 launch will be successful and everything will work smoothly according to plan. With approximately 39,173 ETH in the deposit contract address today, the deposit address needs around 485,115 more ETH to initiate the trigger’s 524,288 ETH threshold. What do you think about the Ethereum 2.0 launch expected to happen this December? Let us know in the comments section below. The post ETH 2.0 Scheduled for December, Vitalik Deposits $1.4M Worth of Ether Into Phase 0 Contract appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Switzerland-based bank Sygnum has announced this week that the fintech firm is now storing digital assets with the company Taurus Group. On Friday, the bank also revealed that the FINMA-approved firm’s clientele can purchase and stake XTZ by leveraging the Tezos network. Earlier this year, news.Bitcoin.com reported on a number of Switzerland-based fintech services like Sygnum, Arab Bank Switzerland, Falcon, Maerki Baumann, SEBA Bank, and others obtaining banking licenses from the country’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). In January, the Swiss bank Julius Baer started offering digital currency services alongside SEBA bank. In August, the firm Basler Kantonalbank (BKB) revealed it’s subsidiary Bank Cler is now offering crypto services. This week Sygnum bank revealed that it is partnered with the company Taurus Group, a firm that also works with SEBA bank and other Swiss fintech services. Sygnum has detailed that the company will be using Taurus’s node system and crypto storage framework. Taurus claims to offer the “most secure, most compliant, and reliable infrastructure and tools for digital assets” according to the company’s web portal. In addition to the collaboration with Taurus, Sygnum bank also announced it will be allowing customers to purchase and stake coins stemming from the Tezos network. “For the first time, XTZ can be deposited and staked with a regulated bank, enabling clients to participate in the Tezos network and earn staking rewards of up to 5 percent annually,” Sygnum said on Friday. The bank plans to offer other staking services from a variety of digital asset networks going forward. “We are strong supporters of Tezos and its unique Liquid Proof-of-Stake governance mechanism, which aligns with our Sygnum values,” Martin Burgherr, Sygnum Bank’s Chief Clients Officer said during the announcement. “With XTZ staking, our clients can access a unique asset, which offers staking rewards and enables them to structure their digital asset portfolios in more creative ways. Tezos is the first proof-of-stake (PoS) token on Sygnum Bank’s platform, where we are continually expanding our offering to provide more choice for our clients,” Burgherr added. Sygnum was founded in 2018 by Gerald Goh, Luka Muller, and Mathias Imbach, and all the bank’s digital assets are screened through Sygnum’s proprietary AML tool. Additionally, in order to maximize private key storage, Sygnum’s key ceremony is ISAE 3000 audited. Sygnum customers can also use fiat currencies such as USD, CHF, EUR, and SGD with the Swiss bank’s digital currency services platform as well. The number of Swiss banking services offering digital currency products to customers has increased a great deal this year, and the trend has been much higher in comparison to other countries. However, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is now allowing United States-based federal savings associations and national banks to hold stablecoins. What do you think about Sygnum working with Taurus and offering staking services for Tezos? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. The post Swiss Bank Sygnum Begins Storing Crypto With Taurus Group, Launches Staking Service appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. The objective of IMCoin is to be the first Hybridcoin on the market, giving its holders the possibility of having an asset backed with an audited and public underlying where the money from the sale of the token is entered, but which in turn tries to increase in value. to positively impact the price of the coin. In this way, we consider that both the Stablecoin and Performance Coins public can be interested in and benefit from IMCoin. People who invest in Stablecoins will no longer have to sacrifice profitability for stability and people who invest in cryptocurrencies will no longer have to sacrifice stability for returns. IMCoin also has a project to create a stable and profitable business model using cryptocurrencies as a security deposit, as well as an investment asset. Our model aims to facilitate access to credit to IMC users, based on the security and transparency of Blockchain technology with its platform. There you can become a lender or a borrower. In addition, within our platform there is the possibility of using “Lucybook” a commercial accounts auditor for all markets such as fx, futures, stocks, cryptocurrencies and others. It will become a fundamental tool for traders who want to show their trading results, verified by a tool based on blockchain technology for the validation of transactions. It will also become a fundamental tool for the future appearance of other Hybridcoins that want to be audited. Token sales: Start: May 15, 2019 (9:00 AM GMT) Ends: April 15, 2021 (11:00 a.m. GMT) Number of tokens for sale: 100,000,000 Initial token price: 1.00 USD Current token price: $ 1.74 (updated based on underlying) January 2021 projected price: $ 2.00 Token currently sold: 18,966,431 Minimum purchase amount: 100 IMC Web: https://www.imcoinproject.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imcoinok Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imcoinok email: info@imcoinproject.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. The post Imcoin (IMC) “The First Hybridcoin” Arrives To Impose a New Concept of Cryptocurrencies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A recent report by Consensys says the surge in decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes in Q3 of 2020 is down to their adoption of the automated market maker (AMM). According to the report, DEXs that use AMM, a software that algorithmically creates token trading pairs, now represent 93% of the market. The good side of AMMs Already, as a consequence of using the AMM, Uniswap’s September traded volume topped $15.4 billion, a figure nearly $2 billion ahead than that of Coinbase’s. Prior to the surge in the use of AMMs, order-books were used instead. The Consensys Defi report asserts that the increase in use of AMMs is largely down to them being “seen as a valuable way to reduce the chances of human error or manipulation and also to leave a clear audit trail for regulators.” According to an excerpt from the report, the market maker software’s “success in Q3 proved that AMMs were ready for the mainstream — so much so that the total value of AMMs on Ethereum surpassed $4 billion.” The key difference between AMMs and order books is that liquidity providers do not compete with each other for order flow. All the liquidity providers avail liquidity only at the prices established by the one algorithm that applies to everyone. The entire order flow is distributed among all the liquidity providers proportionally. The counter-narrative However, many within the Defi community space are making the argument against AMMs despite the embrace by DEXs. Expounding on this is Dmytro Volkov, the CTO at CEX.IO who makes one key point: “(An) AMM creates an inefficient market! Arbitrageurs extract profit from the inefficiencies of liquidity providers, meaning that liquidity providers suffer a loss (or lose profit) to make that possible. This makes such markets very attractive to arbitrageurs because they provide profit basically without risk.” Volkov also notes that “inefficient liquidity providers are up against arbitrageurs, who are professional or very experienced traders with fast, high-quality arbitrage algorithms.” According to him, the outcome of such a scenario is quite predictable, the professional traders will prevail. So while the Defi report attributes the increased DEXs volume to use of AMMs, Volkov thinks liquidity providers that currently use this market-making technology, are only using this for the sake of “simplicity” despite the possibility they will incur losses. Reiterating the same inefficiency point is Sam Bankman Fried (SBF) the CEO at FTX, whose tweet in October makes the argument that “liquidity providers are making a mistake, and bleeding to impermanent loss (IL) but don’t realize it.” The CEO, who says AMMs exist “because blockchains don’t have the throughput to support order-books,” argues that IL is just a “PC euphemism for doing bad trades.” IL is when a liquidity provider has a temporary loss of funds because of volatility in a trading pair. No sustainable use case In his long Twitter thread, SBF ultimately concludes that “AMMs force you to always make two-sided markets at mid. That strategy does not generally do so well. And throwing math at it, or synthetic hedges, or whatever, doesn’t really help.” In the meantime, John David Salbego, the founder and CEO at Anrkey X praises “the math, algos and initial premise” of AMMs but argues that “there is no real use case or sustainability with AMMs in their current state.” Salbego, who generally echos the same sentiments as SBF and Volkov, is also concerned with other problems that plague AMMs such as high ETH gas fees, the arbitrage, market price fluctuations and the risk of not filling. Unsurprisingly, IL is cited as another hurdle as Salbego explains: “Also, I do think having control over your IL is another major challenge holding back this technology, but I see some cool projects working on solutions that seem really promising.” Dissenting view However, other players like Viacheslav Akhmetov, the blockchain lead at Mercuryo.io remain hopeful about its prospects. Akhmetov points out that the concept of “AMM is still emerging and there are a lot of new things that could be introduced.” Others think using a different blockchain could produce better results. Still, they acknowledge that the current popularity of the Ethereum blockchain makes switching between chains difficult. What are your thoughts on the role of AMMs? Share your views in the comments section below. The post Decentralized Exchanges That Use Automated Market Makers Now Represent 93% of the Market appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Doubleline Capital’s CEO, the billionaire “bond king” Jeffrey Gundlach, has predicted that the stock market is going to “crack pretty hard.” While he is bearish on the stock market and long-term bonds, Gundlach says bitcoin and gold are good for hedging against inflation. Jeffrey Gundlach Discusses Stock Market Outlook, Gold and Bitcoin Billionaire fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach talked about bitcoin on the Rosenberg Research webinar earlier this week. He discussed the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and his investment strategies with economist David Rosenberg, Yahoo Finance correspondent Julia La Roche reported. The CEO of Doubleline Capital is sometimes referred to as the “bond king” after he appeared on the cover of Barron’s in 2011 as “The New Bond King.” Institutional Investor named him “Money Manager of the Year” in 2013 and Bloomberg Markets named him one of “The Fifty Most Influential” in 2012, 2015, and 2016. Gundlach explained that he is now bearish on long-term bonds, including the 30-year Treasury, but finds it necessary to own some. “I hate long bonds, but I still think you’re supposed to own some, and in a deflationary environment, you would want your portfolio to have that hedge,” he described. Gundlach has also said repeatedly prior to the U.S. presidential election, which is still being finalized, that he expected Donald Trump to win. Moreover, Gundlach recommends owning something to protect against inflation. He said bitcoin and gold “are good for [the] inflation case,” La Roche conveyed, adding that he believes that the price of gold will increase substantially over time. Gundlach’s positive bitcoin comment this week came as a surprise to some people in the crypto industry since he made a negative comment about bitcoin in a Realvision interview last month. He said: “I don’t believe in bitcoin. I think that it’s a lie. I think that it’s very tracked, traceable. I don’t think it’s anonymous.” While Gundlach made it clear that he does not like bitcoin, he emphasized that he also “not at all a bitcoin hater.” Gundlach is bearish on the stock market. “The U.S. will be the worst-performing stock market over the next five years,” he said during Schwab’s virtual Impact 2020 conference last week. The billionaire fund manager blames Federal Reserve policies for the overvaluation of U.S. equities. In an October interview, he predicted that stocks would crash within 18 months and that the dollar would tumble in the long run. Marketwatch quoted him as saying: Within 18 months, it’s going to crack pretty hard. I think that you want to be avoiding it for the time being. When the next big meltdown happens, I think the U.S. is going to be the worst-performing market, actually, and that’ll have a lot to do with the dollar weakening. Furthermore, Gundlach believes that it would be “a disaster” for the economy if the government fails to deliver a big enough stimulus package. “When you use such blunt instruments, like the money spray, the effects for the economy are quite uneven. There’s a big tremor but then there are aftershocks,” he opined. The Doubleline CEO also expects a “substantial change” to happen within the next six years, including the possibility of the U.S. breaking into more than one country. What do you think about Jeffrey Gundlach’s views? Let us know in the comments section below. The post ‘Bond King’ Jeffrey Gundlach: Stock Market Will Crack Pretty Hard, Bitcoin Good Inflation Hedge appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

South Korea is to ban crypto exchanges from handling digital assets it considers “dark coins”. Regulator Financial Services Commission (FSC) is specifically targeting privacy coins such as dash, monero and zcash. ● The ban is with effect from March 2021. In an update to crypto regulations under the Special Payments Act, the FSC accuses privacy coins of facilitating money laundering activities. ● It says that transactions involving privacy-oriented coins like monero (XMR) or zcash (ZEC) are hard to trace for law enforcement agencies, including the Commission itself. ● That’s because such virtual currencies use complex techniques to obscure their transactional records – mainly for the purpose of hiding them from unwanted attention, such as law enforcement’s. ● The FSC is also directing that crypto exchanges implement strict know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) policies. It requires that the platforms check these details against government-issued documents such as IDs or passports. ● The exchanges will have to report their operations to authorities six months following implementation of the guidelines. ● South Korean platforms such as Okex have since been forced to delist several privacy coins to align with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) rules around money laundering. ● In the U.S., the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently awarded a contract worth $1.25 million to Chainalysis and data forensics company Integra Fec to provide it with tools that can break the privacy-focused coin, monero. What do you think about the planned privacy coins ban in South Korea? Let us know in the comments section below. The post South Korea To Ban Crypto Exchanges From Handling Privacy Coins appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. Black Horse Finance (BLHF) is changing the way you play. Brought to you by the Black Horse Foundation, the BLHF will be the exclusive gaming token of some of the world’s leading gambling operators. Developed by an ambitious Casino lovers team, Black Horse Finance is a revolutionary blockchain technology-based platform that uses ETH as the primary in-game currency and BHC as bonus fuel, offering all benefits of the crypto world alongside. BLHF is the Black Horse economy’s currency and may be used for all our products, such as poker and other casino games. It also provides players with exclusive benefits and supports future developments delivered to our community. Pre-sale Details :- Pre-sale started on 1st November 2020. Pre-sale Link : www.blackhorse.finance Total Pre-sale Duration: 45 Days Total Token for Pre-sale: 1,000,000 BLHF Payment Method: Bitcoin(BTC). Ethereum (ETH), Tron (TRX) Pre-sale is distributed on a total of 4 (Four) Phases. The token rate and duration are different as per phase. Phase details are in the following: -: Phase 1 :- Phase 1 token : 2,50,000 BLHF Token Rate: $ 7 USD Time Duration: 10 Days -: Phase 2 :- Phase 1 token : 2,50,000 BLHF Token Rate: $ 8 USD Time Duration: 10 Days -: Phase 3 :- Phase 1 token : 2,50,000 BLHF Token Rate: $ 9 USD Time Duration: 10 Days -: Phase 4 :- Phase 1 token : 2,50,000 BLHF Token Rate: $ 10 USD Time Duration: 15 Days After 45 Days of Pre-sale :- – After 45 days of Pre-sale, the User gets a daily 1% return of their distribution token for 200 days. For example, the User has 200 BLHF, Users get 2 Tokens every day after the Pre-sale period is over. – This amount of return is automatically deposited at your address every day. This distribution is decentralized. – At the end of the sale, we are listed on the Vindax and Other Exchanges, so be ready to trade. Built for the Global Gaming Industry Features and tools have been customized to meet the needs of users, operators, and regulators. Users BLHF delivers users unprecedented speed, security, and control over their funds via a simple and intuitive user experience, making it easy for non-crypto users to understand. Operators Operators who utilize the PlayChip can access our rapidly growing blockchain-enabled sports and gaming community, who are already KYC and AML verified. Also, we deliver increased transparency and lower costs. Regulators BLHF blockchain-based gaming platform gives regulators increased trust and transparency through all transactions’ documentation and immutability, ensuring efficient legal and regulatory compliance in all jurisdictions. BLHF Core Features:- Black Horse Finance is an innovative social gameplay solution built on blockchain technology. Designed to tackle conventional gaming’s key challenges, it delivers a host of unique features and improvements: 1. Powerful Technology 2. Community-Centric 3. Provably Fair 4. 100% Decentralized 5. Fun and Social 6. Player Promotions Token Details :- Token Name: Black Horse Finance (BLHF) Technology: ERC20 Total Supply : 5,000,000 BLHF Pre-Sale : 1,000,000 BLHF Platform Reserved : 2,250,000 BLHF Marketing Purposes : 500,000 BLHF Platform Development : 500,000 BLHF Advisor : 250,000 BLHF Bounty : 250,000 BLHF Black Horse Team : 250,000 BLHF Website Link : www.blackhorse.finance For Telegram Support: BlackHorseFinancesupport Social Media Link: Facebook: blackhorsefinanceofficial Twitter: BlackHorseFin Instagram: black_horse_finance Telegram Channel: blackhorsefinance 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. The post Casino Token: Black Horse Finance (BLHF) Pre-sale started on 1st November 2020. appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Two years ago, an onchain social network called memo.cash was launched and the application has developed quite a bit since then. On Tuesday, the Memo team revealed that the platform is now available for iOS phones via the App Store. Apple users can now connect to the social network that etches a user’s content to the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. During the last few years, especially with deplatforming on the rise, uncensorable forums, immutable streaming video apps, and onchain social media projects have been developed. Worldwide governments in collaboration with Big Tech have managed to censor dissenting opinions against the status quo on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and more. One particular decentralized application called memo.cash skips all that nonsense, as it allows users to post content to the BCH chain. Because nearly every action works by writing transactions to the BCH blockchain, the data stored allows for censorship-resistant social media in comparison to the platforms run by Big Tech giants. The memo.cash application also works with the cryptocurrency bitcoinsv (BSV) as well. On November 3, 2020, the Memo team announced that the application is now available via Apple’s App Store. This means anyone with an iPhone can download the onchain social media application that tethers content to a decentralized cryptocurrency network. Memo works just like it does in a browser and users can simply register a new account or login with their existing credentials. In addition to leveraging the BCH chain, the memo.cash application also works with the cryptocurrency bitcoinsv (BSV). Newcomers should understand that memo.cash needs a small fraction of bitcoin cash (BCH) in order to execute things like posting content or updating profiles. Users can leverage less than a nickel of BCH on memo.cash, by depositing the satoshis to the profile’s wallet address or even a small fraction of satoshis from a faucet. Memo is similar to Twitter as it only allows for 217 characters in a given post. But just like Twitter, users can post not only threads but also videos, pictures, and URL links. Memo users can also start a poll with a variety of options. Unlike Twitter, which is well known in 2020 for blatant censorship, Memo app’s onchain content is immutable. In addition to the posting abilities, users can also access a native wallet within the Memo app that allows users to send BCH and SLP tokens as well. The main feed has a few different filters that allow Memo users to choose “hot” and “new” topics, alongside the ability to refresh the page in the top right corner of the screen. While memo.cash app newcomers will have to navigate and explore the onchain social media application, veteran Memo users will get the gist of the app much quicker. Of course on Reddit, the new iOS mobile version of memo.cash was welcomed by the r/btc community. “Congrats Memo team,” one BCH proponent wrote on Tuesday, congratulating the developers. What do you think about the Memo social media app being added to Apple’s App Store? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin Cash-Fueled Onchain Social Media Platform Memo Launches iOS App appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Iranian government has adopted bitcoin for international trade as the country’s economic crisis deepens, with rising Covid-19 cases, depreciating rial, and intensifying sanctions imposed by the U.S. government. Iran’s Economic Troubles Magnified Iran is undergoing a severe economic crisis as Covid-19 cases surge in the country. The Iranian health ministry says that the number of daily Covid-19 infections has more than quadrupled in less than two months. In addition, an increasing number of sanctions have been placed on Iran by the U.S. government, while the local fiat currency, the rial, continues to dramatically fall. Steve H. Hanke, Professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University and a hyperinflation expert, described the situation in Iran as “a classic death spiral.” He detailed on Wednesday: Since 1/1/20, the rial depreciated 54.23% against the USD in the free market & Inflation rose from 21.89%/yr to 158.31%/yr by my measure. Bitcoin: A Solution to Iran’s Problems While Iran has long been pro-bitcoin, having regulated the crypto industry since August 2019, the country made a major move last week to take cryptocurrency adoption to the next level. IRNA publication reported that the Iranian cabinet amended cryptocurrency legislation based on a joint proposal by the CBI and the Iranian Ministry of Energy to enable the central bank to use cryptocurrency to pay for imports. This could also help the central bank evade restrictions imposed by the U.S. government. While the government is still working out the details of how this will be done, the publication reported that licensed bitcoin miners in the country will have to sell their coins directly to the central bank. Iran Daily described: The Iranian government amended its regulations on cryptocurrencies to allow them to be exclusively used for funding imports at a time of increased pressure on the country’s normal use of hard currencies. “Based on the laws, cryptocurrencies legally mined in Iran will only be exchangeable when they are used to finance imports from other countries,” the news outlet continued. “The miners are supposed to supply the original cryptocurrency directly and within the authorized limit to the channels introduced by the CBI.” Furthermore, “the legal cap for the amount of cryptocurrency for each miner would be determined by the level of the subsidized energy used for mining and based on instructions published by the Ministry of Energy.” What do you think about the Iranian government using bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Iran Adopts Bitcoin for International Trade Amid Heavy Sanctions, Falling Rial, Soaring Inflation appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

At its current price per unit, the decentralized cryptocurrency Bitcoin’s market valuation has surpassed the overall value of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Drawing Rights market (SDR $281 billion). Since the massive global market rout on March 12, bitcoin has risen over 323% since the crypto asset’s $3,600 low in 2020. The price of bitcoin has increased a great deal in 2020. Especially after the global market crash that wiped out nearly every commodity and stock under the sun. Even then, the price of bitcoin (BTC) had a hard time in mid-March, as prices shuddered to a low of $3,600 on ‘Black Thursday.’ At press time, with over 18.5 million BTC in circulation today, the crypto asset’s market cap is larger than the Special Drawing Rights market (SDR) created by the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF). Bitcoin’s market valuation is currently hovering above $285.5 billion and data from the IMF shows that the 204.2 billion SDR (equivalent to about US$281 billion) is allocated to members. The SDR is considered a global reserve asset and it was developed to be a supplementary international reserve asset. The SDR derives its value from a basket of five different fiat currencies including; the British pound sterling, the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, and the Chinese renminbi. Of course, with more than a quarter trillion U.S. dollars in value, BTC’s market cap has a long way to go to catch up with gold’s multi-trillion dollar market cap. At the time of publication, gold’s market valuation is around $9 trillion dollars. Bitstamp BTC/USD data on November 5, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. EST. Prices touched a high of $15,613 and the price is currently still hovering between $15,380 to $15,500 at the time of publication. The entire BTC market cap needs to jump over 3,500% from the current $285 billion market valuation today. Still, in October 2010, the price of a single bitcoin was around $0.12 per coin, and the value has increased by over 12.7 million percent since then. Bitcoin’s market cap had already surpassed the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights market in 2017. But the price dropped and bitcoin saw a three-year-long period that many traders considered a bear market. No one is certain how long it will stay above the IMF’s SDR this time around but many traders and analysts expect much higher BTC prices from here. Meanwhile, the entire crypto market cap of all 7,000+ digital assets is nearing the half a trillion mark ($426B). Bitcoin (BTC) is currently swapping for $15,613 per coin at 6:00 p.m. EST on Thursday evening. What do you think about bitcoin (BTC) surpassing the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights market valuation? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin’s Market Cap Is More Valuable Than the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights Reserves appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The U.S. government has seized over $1 billion in bitcoin from previously undetected transactions associated with the Silk Road marketplace and is now seeking the forfeiture of the cryptocurrency. US Confiscates $1 Billion in Bitcoin From Silk Road The U.S. government has filed a lawsuit seeking the forfeiture of bitcoin currently worth over $1 billion that it seized on Tuesday, according to the court document. The Department of Justice said on Thursday that this bitcoin seizure is the largest the U.S. has ever made. The “Defendant Property” seized includes bitcoin and its forked coins, which were: Approximately 69,370.22491543 bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin gold (BTG), bitcoin SV (BSV), bitcoin cash (BCH), obtained from 1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbh. Twitter bot @whale_alert flagged the transaction on Tuesday, leading to speculation of why the coins suddenly moved from the dormant wallet. Today, the mystery is solved as it was in fact law enforcement transferring the coins to a government-controlled wallet. Following the DOJ’s announcement, blockchain data analytics firm Chainalysis explained that “Law enforcement agents used Chainalysis tools and investigative assistance to identify the largest cryptocurrency wallets with connections to Silk Road.” They analyzed “bitcoin transactions executed by Silk Road and identified 54 previously undetected bitcoin transactions representing the proceeds of unlawful activity. They also found that a hacker, known as Individual X, stole those funds from Silk Road,” the firm detailed. Funds seized by the U.S. government. Source: Chainalysis The 54 transactions, worth 70,411.46 BTC, were sent from the Silk Road’s bitcoin addresses to two bitcoin addresses, the court document describes, adding that about 69,471.08 BTC were then sent to 1HQ3Go3ggs8pFnXuHVHRytPCq5fGG8Hbhx. The court document refers to this address as “1HQ3” for short. From 1HQ3, 101 BTC were sent to BTC-e, the defunct Russian exchange. About 69,370 BTC remained in 1HQ3 and were subsequently seized by the government. The address also contains approximately 69,370 BCH, BTG, and BSV prior to the government’s seizure. The court document claims that “Individual X, whose identity is known to the government” was in control of the 1HQ3 address. The DOJ alleges that this person “was able to hack into Silk Road and gain unauthorized and illegal access to Silk Road and thereby steal the illicit cryptocurrency from Silk Road and move it into wallets that Individual X controlled.” The government further alleges that Silk Road marketplace founder Ross Ulbricht “became aware of Individual X’s online identity and threatened Individual X for return of the cryptocurrency to Ulbricht.” However, “Individual X did not return the cryptocurrency but kept it and did not spend it.” Ulbricht was convicted by a federal jury in February 2015 and given a double life sentence. On Tuesday, Individual X signed a Consent and Agreement to Forfeiture with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California, the court document continues, adding: On November 3, 2020, the United States took custody of the Defendant Property from 1HQ3. What do you think about the U.S. government seizing $1 billion worth of bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. The post US Seizes Previously Undetected Silk Road Bitcoins Worth Over $1 Billion appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) says it has seized cryptocurrencies worth $24 million after receiving an official request from the government of Brazil. The seizure stems from an ongoing investigation into the $200 million cryptocurrency scam that may have defrauded tens of thousands of Brazilians. The authorities in Brazil say the scammers duped people by typically promising exaggerated returns and falsifying where the funds were invested. Criminal violations In a statement, the DOJ says the U.S. acceded to Brazil’s request in line with the cooperation treaty signed between the two countries with respect to “Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters.” Meanwhile, according to the DOJ statement, “the U.S. seizures were tied to Brazilian Marcos Antonio Fagundes’ alleged role in the scheme.” Fagundes and several unnamed accomplices have been “charged with several criminal violations of Brazilian law, including, among other offences, the operation of a financial institution without legal authorization.” The statement adds that the accused also faces charges of “fraudulent management of a financial institution, misappropriation, and money laundering, as well as securities law violations.” The DOJ statement provides a short summary of a Brazilian court’s findings against Fagundes and his accomplices. The statement says: During August 2017 to May 2019, Fagundes and other defendants solicited funds from prospective investors over the internet, sometimes in combination with telephone and other means, and held the funds received in a manner that subjected it to regulation as a financial institution under Brazilian law, with which Fagundes and the other defendants failed to comply. The statement reveals that the “defendants solicited investors to give money to corporations they controlled, in the form of Brazilian currency or cryptocurrency, which the companies would then invest in a variety of virtual currency types.” False claims However, as the Brazilian court found, “only a very small amount of funds were invested in cryptocurrencies as promised, and very little was returned to the investors.” Meanwhile, the DOJ says U.S. authorities are now working in close cooperation with the Brazilian authorities and others to “restrain the virtual currency and preserve it for forfeiture proceedings pending in Brazil to compensate the investors victimized in this fraudulent investment scheme.” The statement concludes that “the cryptocurrency firm holding the accounts cooperated with law enforcement authorities in executing this seizure.” Still, the statement does not give the name of the cooperating crypto firm. What do you think of this cooperation between the two countries? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. The post $200 Million Brazilian Crypto Fraud Scam: The US Seizes $24 Million Worth of Digital Currencies appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

PRESS RELEASE. DeFi is a risky investment. It can deliver huge returns – but also you can waste all your money. Objectively, many DeFi projects are a scam, and if they give dishonest promises or steal your money you have no way to get your money back or find the responsible persons. For this reason, the odds of becoming rich with investing in DeFi are against you. On the other hand, safe investing like government bonds or a stock market is also not very interesting. The 3% annual yield is interesting only to pensions funds and old-fashioned investors. The real trick is finding the golden middle – high-yield-moderate-risk investments – they provide great legal protection to investors in combination with very solid returns. However, these investments are accessible almost exclusively to those who are already rich – large institutions and high-net-worth individuals. These are private industrial enterprises in developing countries, early-stage venture funds, etc. Other stuff, like DeFi or stock market are only phantoms so that common people believe they have the chance. Here we have a problem – you have to invest like the rich to become rich – but for that you have to become rich in the first place. This is how the existing elite protects their wealth. Or protected so far. No door can remain closed forever. In the last 2 years, a powerful financial technology trend has been building up. An award-winning company Stobox has been building the way for common investors to invest like the rich. The technology is called a “security token offering”. An example of its amazing applications is that it can reduce the investment threshold in a venture fund from $1,000,000 to only $500. A great example of such investment is Igniter 100 STO, organized by Stobox. Stobox has its own token STBU issued as well and listed on Uniswap, Probit and Coinsbit. Such investments can often outperform stock market 2x on average. This adds up to 16x over the stock market in four years, while the market itself grows. A great way to get more knowledge about STOs, how to pick right projects, is to visit educational virtual events, such as an upcoming Digital Assets Investment Conference. It will gather great speakers from London Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and other elite institutions to share a professional perspective on security tokens. To become rich you have to invest like the rich. Stobox and security tokens provide you the unique access to this opportunity. Press Contact Email Address bp@stobox.io Supporting Link https://www.stobox.io/ 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. The post Stobox Offers a Better Way To Make Money in Crypto Than DeFi. Invest Like the Rich appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The crypto economy has jumped over the $400 billion mark and is now hovering around $414 billion at the time of publication. The largest crypto asset in terms of market cap, bitcoin has climbed over 9% during the last 24 hours steadily marching toward the $15k zone. During the last 30 days, Bitcoin (BTC) has gained over 39% touching a new all-time 2020 high of $14,964 on Bitstamp, Thursday morning. Bitcoin (BTC) is up 9.8% during the last seven days and 27.3% during the last 90 days. Bloomberg Senior Commodity Strategist, Mike McGlone, expects BTC to go “parabolic” in 2021. “Bitcoin may undergo a parabolic 2021, as it did in 2013 and 2017, if previous patterns play out again,” McGlone tweeted. “New highs are a next potential iteration and may be only a matter of time unless something we don’t foresee trips up the trend of greater adoption and demand vs. limited supply.” Watching the #Bitcoin price chart today is more interesting than watching Netflix. It hit the highest point since January 2018. Hodlers, you were right! — Nadia (@CryptoNadia) November 5, 2020 Out of 7,594 cryptocurrencies and 32,171 markets, bitcoin’s (BTC) dominance index is around 65.7% on Thursday. Besides BTC’s incredible gains on Thursday, a number of lesser-known coins saw significant spikes that were much larger. Coins such as yoyow, refereum, gifto, ankr, machine xchange coin, deep brain chain, terra, and celsius saw gains between 12-98%. A number of traders and analysts now believe the trajectory toward $20k is imminent. “As we mentioned previously, it was important for Bitcoin to overcome the resistance area near $12,000,” Alex Kuptsikevich, Fxpro senior financial analyst said on Thursday. “Once it was passed, the coin did not have any significant hurdles to jump to repeat the rally towards $20,000. All obstacles were crushed, and now any news background is perceived as positive for the leading cryptocurrency.” Ahead of the November, 15th upgrade, bitcoin cash (BCH) is up 3.4% and trading for $244 per coin. Ethereum (ETH) prices are up 5% on Thursday, as prices have been hovering around $404 per unit. With an overall $414 billion crypto market valuation, there’s $28.5 billion in global cryptocurrency trade volume today. What do you think about bitcoin nearing the $15k price zone on Thursday? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin Price Spikes Over 9% as the Crypto Asset’s Value Nears $15K appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

At least 69,369 bitcoins, worth about $955 million, were on Wednesday moved from a wallet address that may be linked to the collapsed Silk Road darknet marketplace. This is the first time that the funds have moved from the address — bitcoin’s fourth largest — since April 2015. The address has long been a target for hackers, who shared it in their forums, hoping to crack the wallet and steal the BTC inside. Crypto forensics firm Elliptic says the funds were transferred from an address associated with Ross Ulbricht’s Silk Road darknet market. “Through blockchain analysis we can determine that these funds likely originated from the Silk Road,” said Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist of Elliptic, in a blog post. “They (BTC) left the Silk Road’s wallet back on May 6, 2012 when they were worth around $350,000 and then remained dormant for nearly a year, before being moved to the 1HQ3.. address in April 2013.” Silk Road shut down in 2013 after just two years in operation. In 2015, founder Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison for his role and operating the marketplace, which dealt in goods considered by the U.S. government as illegal. At the time of its closure, says Elliptic, Silk Road had attracted about 150,000 buyers and 4,000 vendors, and facilitated total sales of $183 million. The FBI seized 174,000 BTC from Ulbricht, worth around $105 million then, and $2.4 billion now. Altogether, the platform had amassed up to 614,000 bitcoins in total commissions by the time it went under. Robinson observed that there’s roughly 440,000 BTC ($6.1 billion at current prices) from the Silk Road era that remain unaccounted for. “The movement of these bitcoins today (Nov. 4), now worth around $955 million, may represent Ulbricht or a Silk Road vendor moving their funds,” he opined. Or that the funds may have indeed been stolen. In the hacker groups, the address in question has been passed along for the past year, as hackers attempted to decrypt a file that supposedly contained the private keys required to ransack the bitcoin wallet. “Alternatively, the encrypted wallet file may have been real, and the password has now been cracked – allowing the bitcoins to be moved,” Robinson noted. What do you think about the $1 billion bitcoin that has just moved? Let us know in the comments section below. The post $1 Billion Silk Road Bitcoin Moves for First Time in Five Years appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Gold industry players say the inevitable printing of new money by the U.S. will lead to an increase in the circulating supply of fiat currency. This increase, in turn, will further dilute the value of U.S. currency and thus diminish its perceived status as the world’s foremost reserve currency. The gold industry players also add that the resultant depreciation of the dollar will likely boost the price of the precious metal in the medium to long term. New Money Boon for Gold Gold, which went down slightly on the eve of the U.S. elections, is widely regarded as an alternative and a better store of value. In August, a few months after the U.S. government released stimulus checks to cushion American citizens and businesses, the spot price of gold touched a new all-time high of $2,058. However, as Stephen Innes, a strategist at financial services firm Axi, explains in a report, there are expectations that a potential Biden administration to will approve a “substantial Covid-19 stimulus program.” According to him, this will “weaken the dollar and boost gold value in response.” Similarly, Guido van Stijn, managing director of Aurus Technologies tells News.bitcoin.com that another round of stimulus checks is coming irrespective of the winner of the U.S. presidency. Stijn says: With both [Biden and Trump] having expressed their support for various quantitive easing measures, (so) we can expect a bullish mid-to-long term gold price increase, regardless of who is elected. However, the expected deluge of new money might not deliver the desired outcome, as some anticipate due to surging cases of new Covid-19 infections. As fears grow that a second wave of the infections will result in more fatalities, countries like England and France have since announced new lockdown measures. Covid-19 a Potential Spanner in the Works If more countries, including the United States, go the route of lockdowns, this will not be good news for gold as Innes explains: Gold traders are worried that these lockdowns could lead to deflationary pressures … gold’s next trade is really for a reflation trade. The previous lockdowns saw demand for some goods and services dropping which caused their prices to drop as well, as falling prices or deflation diminishes the appeal of gold as a store of value drops as well. Still, it remains to be seen if more countries are going to reintroduce lockdown restrictions. Meanwhile, at the time of writing, the spot price for gold was $1,895.72. Do you agree that more quantitative easing will boost the price of gold? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. The post Gold Price Expected to Rally Despite Concerns About Lockdown 2.0 appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The Bitcoin Cash blockchain is set to upgrade on Sunday, November 15 and it’s still expected that the network will bifurcate. So far, a number of crypto services have revealed contingency plans for the fork, and today’s data shows that at least 754 out of 1,000 bitcoin cash blocks were mined with the BCHN software. In 11 days, the Bitcoin Cash upgrade is coming and the latest feature that will be added to the network is the ASERT Difficulty Adjustment Algorithm (DAA). However, the community is also preparing for a contentious fork, as one of the seven BCH full node projects has introduced the Infrastructure Funding Proposal (IFP) into the codebase. The IFP has been extremely controversial, as it has created a great divide between those who support it and those who do not. In September, news.Bitcoin.com reported on how most BCH market participants including businesses, executives, miners, and developers from six full node projects decided to bid Bitcoin ABC farewell. As far as coin votes, hashpower, and futures markets are concerned, Bitcoin ABC is not faring well in comparison to the six other full node projects. Block statistics from the web portal Coin Dance shows that 75.4% or 754 blocks out of 1,000 were mined using the BCHN software. 11 blocks out of the last 1,000 BCH blocks have signaled for ABC, which accounts for 1.09% of the thousand blocks mined. There is roughly 2 exahash per second (EH/s) of SHA256 hashrate pointed at the Bitcoin Cash network on Wednesday, November 4. Data from the web portal Coin Dance on Wednesday, November 4, 2020. Bitcoin ABC futures show that the market is trading for much less than BCHN futures on Wednesday afternoon. Poloniex ABC futures paired tether (USDT) indicates the token is swapping for $20 per unit. ABC futures on Coinflex are priced similarly at $20.50 per ABC token. The ABC futures on Coinex are even lower, as the ABC token is swapping for $16.34 at the time of publication. If the prices end up being roughly the same after November 15, 2020, then the ABC airdrop will have a very small market valuation amid the totem pole of top coin market cap positions. Since our last report, a few infrastructure providers have announced contingency plans for the upcoming fork. For instance, the mining operation Poolin has revealed its plans for the BCH fork scheduled on the 15th. “The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network is expected to undergo a hardfork on the 15th of November, 2020,” Poolin detailed. “There are currently two competing fork proposals, Bitcoin Cash ABC (ABC) and Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN). As per the latest data from Coin Dance, 76.3% of BCH blocks have signaled support for BCHN over the last 7 days, compared to 1.0% for ABC. In the event of a successful fork, users holding BCH prior to the fork will receive the new assets.” The mining pool also said the operation will switch all of the BCH hashrate to BTC one day before the hardfork, it also plans to suspend BCH payments on November 15, and “a separate announcement about switching the BTC hashrate back to BCH will be published once the hard fork has completed and the network is stable.” At press time, Poolin only captures a touch over 1% of the BCH network hashrate, according to Coin Dance data. On October 30, the firm Bitgo detailed that it was preparing for the upcoming fork on November 15 as well. “Bitgo is currently running BCHN nodes and expects that it will be the dominant chain post-fork,” the company tweeted. “We will pause all BCH services at 00:00 a.m. UTC Nov. 15 in preparation for the fork. We will monitor the network and restore service as soon as the dominant chain is confirmed. Our primary goal is to ensure the safety of client coins. We will post more details about Bitgo’s approach to this upcoming potential fork in a blog post next week,” the company added. During the evening crypto trading sessions (ET), the San Francisco exchange Coinbase revealed its plans for the upcoming fork. “Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is expected to undergo a hard fork on November 15th, 2020,” Coinbase tweeted. “Prior to the fork, Coinbase will run BCHN nodes and expects that it will be the dominant chain post fork. Once the fork begins, BCH sends/receives to and from coinbase.com and Coinbase Pro will pause, and will be re-enabled once we’ve determined the upgrade is stable.” Coinbase added: Once the fork is complete, please be aware that we will NOT support BCH ABC forked coin sends/receives on coinbase.com or Coinbase Pro. The hardware wallet firm, Satoshilabs (manufacturers of the Trezor wallet), revealed its contingency plans on November 4, 2020. According to the blog post, Satoshilabs has decided to run Bitcoin ABC and conceding to understand that there “may be service interruptions.” “Depending on user consensus following the fork, this will either remain unchanged or switch to supporting only the forked chain, named Bitcoin Cash Node,” Satoshilabs’ post explains. “Following the fork, Satoshilabs will monitor whether the forked chain has sufficient support to justify supporting it. If the community chooses Bitcoin Cash Node, Satoshilabs will drop support for Bitcoin Cash ABC and connect to the new network,” the company added. Bitcoin Cash proponents and Trezor owners on social media and forums were not pleased with Satoshilabs’ decision to operate the minority node. Furthermore, the hardware wallet company Ledger Wallet gave information on how the firm will handle the upcoming upgrade in mid-November. “Ledger will suspend their BCH services from the 12th of November at 07:00 UTC for security reasons,” the hardware wallet company wrote. “We’ll be keeping an eye on the developments after the fork to see which chain will remain viable both technically and economically.” Seven days ago, the exchange, Okex, informed customers about the trading platform’s BCH fork contingency plans. “The Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network is expected to undergo a hard fork,” the blog post notes. “There are currently two competing fork proposals, Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCH ABC) and Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN). In the event of a successful fork, Okex users holding BCH prior to the fork will receive the two new assets, BCH ABC and BCHN.” The trading platform Binance detailed its BCH fork arrangements on November 3, 2020, and said that this is “a contentious hard fork that may result in an additional token.” Interestingly, the exchange is listing a leverage tokens market called “BCHUP” and “BCHDOWN” and Binance plans to delist the market on November 9, 2020. Moreover, two days ago the exchange Huobi also announced the trading platform’s contingency plans. “This upgrade is expected to fork Bitcoin Cash out of two chains, BCHA (Bitcoin Cash ABC) and BCHN (Bitcoin Cash Node),” Huobi’s blog post details. “Since there is no fair naming standard for the BCH fork in the current community, Huobi Global respects the opinions and consensus of the community and users and will set a transition period for the fork. After the community has formed a consensus on BCH naming, we will end the transition period and rename BCHA or BCHN.” With just over a week left until the upgrade and possibility of a minority fork, BCH supporters are preparing for the outcome. The best thing users can do is patiently wait, but also make sure they have control over their bitcoin cash private keys. BCH enthusiasts who store funds on an exchange should make sure the trading platform has updated customers on how it will proceed with the fork. If a BCH user is unhappy with the direction of any third-party software provider or trading platform, they should move their BCH to another location before the fork. What do you think about the upcoming Bitcoin Cash upgrade and the possibility of a chain split? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Hash Watch: Bitcoin Cash Services Reveal Contingency Plans for Upcoming Fork appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The gold industry was shaken when it was discovered that 83 tons of fake gold bars were used to back loans worth 20 billion yuan in China. While Chinese authorities have not said whether the real gold exists or where it is, an insider claims to know what happened. The Mystery Behind the Chinese Scandal Involving 83 Tons of Fake Gold Bars One of China’s largest gold jewelry manufacturers, Kingold Jewelry Inc., was caught in a major fake gold scandal earlier this year. The company used 83 tons of gold bars to back loans worth 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) from 14 Chinese financial institutions. This amount of gold would be equivalent to about 22% of China’s annual gold production. However, the media reported in July that the gold bars turned out to be fake and were just gilded copper alloy, but the company and its executives denied any wrongdoing. Kingold Jewelry is a Nasdaq-listed company headquartered in Wuhan, China. Its share price plunged 88% since the scandal surfaced to $0.1334 on Wednesday. The company announced in August its plan to voluntarily delist from Nasdaq. Price chart of Kingold Jewelry Inc. (KGJI). Source: Nasdaq While the Chinese authorities have not revealed where the real gold is or whether it even exists, one man claims to know what happened, NTD reported last week. Yizhi Wei told the publication that the real gold bars were swapped for fake ones and smuggled out of China into Hong Kong where they were sold below market prices. He claimed to be one of the middlemen. The publication described Wei as “a member of China’s so-called red aristocracy … from the Manchu ethnic minority.” In addition, “His father was a senior communist official” and “His grandfather was a communist revolutionary who helped the regime seize power.” Wei detailed: “Every day it would come in from the Chinese city of Shenzhen. We would go buy it every day, 10 kilos, 20 kilos, 30 kilos. Then we will sell it in the afternoon on the same day. We made money from the price differences. We didn’t know where the gold came from.” He became certain that the gold bars he bought and sold were the same ones as those belonging to Kingold Jewelry because the numbers printed on them matched the range of numbers supposedly printed on Kingold Jewelry’s gold bars. Wei added that nearly all organized crime groups and triads in Hong Kong were involved in the gold laundering. They were responsible for contacting buyers and transporting the gold. He noted that all the gold buyers they found were big foreign investors, not Chinese ones. “That’s because there is a problem with one person in China buying gold in large quantities so they were looking for foreign buyers, those from the U.S., Europe, and Japan,” he explained to the news outlet. Furthermore, he believes that the people being investigated by the Chinese authorities over the fake gold scandal are just scapegoats since the scale of this operation is “not something one or two people can do,” noting that the amount he got involved with “is just the tip of the iceberg.” The gold bars were discovered to be fake in February but the media and Chinese regulators kept quiet about it until June, the publication pointed out. Wei opined: “Till this day, nobody knows where the gold is. That’s why I want to say that the Chinese system is rotten from its roots.” What do you think about this story? Let us know in the comments section below. The post 83 Tons of Fake Gold Bars Backing $3 Billion Loans in China: This Man Claims to Know the Truth appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A bitcoin hodler has won a U.S. Senate seat. Cynthia Lummis is a bitcoin owner who bought her first bitcoin in 2013 because she believes in the economic power of scarcity and the potential for bitcoin to address some of the manipulations in the financial system. Bitcoiner Wins Senate Election Republican candidate Cynthia Lummis has been running to fill the seat of Senator Mike Enzi (R). Lummis, who served as a Wyoming conservative Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years, will become the first woman to represent Wyoming in the U.S. Senate. With the endorsement of President Donald Trump, she has been running against her Democratic opponent Merav Ben-David. While election results are still being finalized, the Associated Press called Tuesday’s election in her favor within three minutes of polls closing in Wyoming. Lummis recently revealed during the third annual Wyoming Blockchain Stampede that she is a bitcoin hodler after she learned about the cryptocurrency while serving in Congress. “I bought my first bitcoin in 2013 because I believe in the economic power of scarcity and the potential for bitcoin to address some of the manipulations in our financial system,” she said. “Now I am a hodler and I hodl because, like gold, I want to preserve the relative value of my labor over time,” she revealed. “I was struck by how innovative bitcoin is with its decentralized public ledger and a fixed supply.” Bitcoin advocate Caitlin Long tweeted in response to Lummis winning the Senate race: “Awesome news for crypto folks from the crazy US election tonight. Cynthia Lummis won Wyoming’s US Senate seat. The U.S. Senate now has an unabashed bitcoin supporter & hodler (since 2013) among its ranks.” Long is the CEO of Avanti Bank & Trust which received a banking charter last week in Wyoming. The bank was “formed to serve as a compliant bridge between digital assets and the U.S. dollar payments,” its website details. “Senator Lummis,” Long opined. “She is likely to be one of the most powerful US senators, given how divided the new senate appears to be. She loves what Wyoming did in crypto — publicly said tonight that she wants to defend it against federal encroachment.” What do you think about a bitcoin hodler in the Senate? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Bitcoiner Elected to US Senate: Cynthia Lummis Sees ‘Great Promise’ in Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article