Daily Crypto Newscast

The Bitcoin price has made a V-shape recovery from $3,600, following a capitulation-esque fall on March 12. Since then, the crypto market has recovered rapidly, similar to gold in previous crises, cryptocurrencies could perform strongly in the medium to long-term. As CryptoSlate previously reported, gold demonstrated a close correlation with stocks in the early days of past financial crises. As time passed, gold broke out of the correlation, ultimately outperforming stocks. Bitwise Global Head of Research Matt Hougan said in a letter to investors that crypto may see a similar pattern as gold, which makes the medium to long-term trend of the asset class highly optimistic. Real demand, real buyers in crypto In 2008, after the subprime mortgage crisis swept across the U.S. causing financial wreckage, all asset classes plunged in a short period of time. In the next 12 months that followed, the price of gold increased sharply, making 2009 to 2011 the best performing years in gold's history. Hougan wrote: “Toward that end, we are reminded of what happened to gold following the 2008 crisis. Although the initial deflationary impact of that crisis drove gold prices down sharply, prices rebounded rapidly in 2009 and beyond as the government's response to the crisis rippled through the system. In fact, 2009-2011 was one of the strongest three-year return periods in gold's history.” Bitcoin has seen a fast-forwarded version of gold's swift recovery in the 2000s. When the U.S. equities market was still struggling to rebound, BTC began to see a firm recovery from $3,600. Within less than a month and a half, its price rose by more than two-fold. Based on the historical performance of gold in the aftermath of crises and the rising perception of Bitcoin as digital gold, Hougan said that Bitwise Asset Management remains increasingly bullish on the intermediate and long-term outlook for crypto. He wrote: “It is chiefly for this reason that we are increasingly bullish on the intermediate- and long-term outlook for crypto. We are in unprecedented times, seeing anomalous and unexpected developments in financial markets, including gold, and witnessing extraordinary fiscal and monetary responses to the coronavirus pandemic. In such an environment, a small allocation to crypto in a diversified portfolio seems increasingly prudent. We are hearing this from clients, and seeing it in our inflows.” Recovery is backed by actual retail demand The shift in the volume of major crypto assets from futures exchanges to spot trading platforms in recent weeks has shown that the market downturn was actively bought by retail traders, rather than by existing traders in the futures market using high leverage or debt to push up the market. The fast rebound of crypto assets, which many existing investors in the cryptocurrency market did not anticipate, could solidify the image of cryptocurrencies as a potential store of value and safe haven over the long-run.

IOHK has announced that Daedalus 1.0.0 mainnet wallet has finally launched and is now available to every user of Cardano (ADA). The launch of Daedalus comes after 18 months of work and marks the beginning of a series of important launches from IOHK that will bring about Shelley, the blockchain's staking era. The company has also released the independent code audit carried out by security experts, R9B

It's a whole different story today; since the highs set at the peak of 2018's bubble, altcoins have fallen off dramatically by dozens and dozens of percent, crushed under the pressure of a dominant Bitcoin that has benefited from a strong first-mover advantage and sell-offs in the altcoin market. But, according to a fund manager and a flurry of fundamental signs, it may be time for Ethereum to start to reclaim some of its lost gains. Ethereum may have finally printed a “major cycle low”: fund manager Late last year, ETH traded as low as 0.016 BTC. But, when Bitcoin maximalists were certain the altcoin was well on its way to zero, it reversed, with the trading pair attempting to double when it nearly reached 0.029 BTC just earlier this year. According to Mohit Sorout — partner at crypto fund Bitazu Capital — it is “quite possible that ETH has printed a major cycle low [against Bitcoin],” pointing to the below chart, which he claims shows a bullish “weekly market structure.” As to why exactly it signals upside is likely, he pointed to two factors: ETH/BTC has begun to print consecutive higher lows and higher highs, indicative of a reversal And the directional movement index (DMI) indicator has recently crossed bullish. Quite possible that $ETH/ $BTC has printed a major cycle low. Weekly market structure is bullish

Bakkt, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) crypto subsidiary, suffered its second high-profile executive exit last week after CEO Mike Blandina stepped down. While the rumored institutionalization of cryptocurrency remains a far-fetched vision, several empty promises and misplaced hypes question Bakkt's integrity as a company. Third executive in four months As reported on Bloomberg, Blandia resigned the Bitcoin futures bourse after just four months on the job. He now joins J.P. Morgan to head its payments technology division. Interestingly, the U.S. investment bank was poised to develop its JPM coin in 2019, but not much has transpired on that front since. When Ethereum Blandia joined Bakkt as CEO in December 2019, he vowed to oversee the exchange's expansion in key markets, explore newer product offerings, and even launch a retail application for everyday payments. Previously, Blandia had stints at PayPal and Google, both centered in the payments division. Bakkt's new CEO is David Clifton, previously at ICE as head of M&A and integrations. XRP Adam White continues his role as company president, and no further announcements on the exchange's future exist at press time. Promises, hot air, and zero substance Formerly, Blandia replaced U.S. senator Kelly Loeffler, who was recently in the headlines for gaining millions in the stock market based on insider information. Loeffler was extensively praised in 2018-19 for bringing in institutional tools for the cryptocurrency market before her administrative appointment. But Bakkt's poor, non-existential performance in the recent months has begged larger questions — are institutions even interested in Bitcoin exposure at all? Crypto fanatics once regarded Bakkt as Bitcoin's “killer app” — a so-called slang for products/services that revolutionize industries and rival products. Popular crypto commentator Scott Melker tweeted: The @Bakkt news is arguably the most bullish event for institutional investors in the history of bitcoin. PHYSICALLY delivered futures (require the holder to either produce actual bitcoin or take delivery from the exchange) backed by the New York Stock Exchange. We are maturing. The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) August 16, 2019 However, since its launch in September 2019, Bakkt has no substantial metric or use case to boast about. On the first hour of trading post-launch, only five contracts changed hands. At the end of the session, only 28 contracts were traded — a number smaller than the worse ranked crypto exchanges. The exchange's main selling point — that of physical-settled Bitcoin futures — turned out a disappointing farce. Only 63 percent of contracts were reportedly settled in the digital currency. Myth: Bakkt futures fully backed by bitcoin. Reality: Bakkt futures 37% backed by dollars or treasuries. Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) December 2, 2019 Bakkt's daily volumes continue to remain woefully low — only 200 June BTC contracts — and any developments about the much-hyped Starbucks application seem buried. Most who expected Bitcoin prices to rise substantially after the launch were in for a surprise, the currency fell 50 percent in the months to come, exactly a day after Bakkt's launch. Among a rotating door of executives, low volumes, absent mobile applications, lies about daily Bitcoin settlement, a former executive involved in insider trading, and questionable margin statements – Bakkt comes across as an “institutional” leader no better than “unregulated” crypto exchanges.

“Standing on the stones” was the phrase to describe the last resort of the many desperate, hungry, unemployed London workers in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. Men who had no fixed employment would rock up early in the morning, thronging in masses to await any possible job tickets that were dispensed two or three times a day. 150 years later, the London docks are the base for businesses at the interface of finance and technology. Today, fintech entrepreneurs stand on the stones of what remains of the beating heart of trade in the London Docks. Fintech workers like those at Level39 now find themselves “slamming the keys” as they work in offices high above the Docklands' West Wood Quay, now called Canary Wharf. In doing so, these innovators continue the vibrant trade history of the London docks. Canary Wharf was named because the docklands' primary trading partners were the Canary Islands, a Spanish group of islands 3,760 miles from London on the coast of West Africa. Curiously, the islands themselves were named after the large native dogs inhabiting the islands. Since the Docklands are located on the Isle of Dogs, it was only fitting to name them Canary Wharf. From 1802 to 1939, this area of London was one of the busiest docks in the world. Harking back to the time when innovation played a vital role in establishing the backbone of society, you can now see a return to these values as a new breed of fintech craftsmen embed themselves in the heart of Canary Wharf. Designed by world-famous architect, Cesar Pell, One Canada Square established Canary Wharf as a new financial centre. It was completed in 1991 and was initially the tallest skyscraper in London (it is now the third). It has been followed by another thirty skyscrapers that serve as residential and business establishments. Set on the 39th floor of One Canada Square in Canary Wharf, the eponymously-named Level39 is a prime example of how a company can successfully provide a space and community for tech startups and scaleups. Level39's Ecosystem Development Manager, Nancy Gonzalez-Rivera, told CryptoSlate: “Over the past nine years, Level39 has grown significantly, now occupying 80,000 sq ft in One Canada Square and boasting a vibrant community of over 180 member companies, operating in fintech, cyber security, smart cities, green tech, and most recently, life sciences and medtech.” One Canada Square indisputably paved the way for establishing Canary Wharf as one of the main financial centers of the world. But it almost didn't happen. A billion-dollar bet that almost went horribly wrong In the mid-80s London needed to build a new financial hub. At one point while One Canada Square was being constructed, the private group financing the construction was unsure whether establishing Canary Wharf would be a giant failure. The increasing construction costs and lack of an underground transportation line connecting it to the rest of London were the critical factors. The London financial scene had already changed in the mid-80s when deregulation of the stock exchange occurred and the market went digital; Canary Wharf was primed to address that reality in a way that would facilitate its role as not just a financial center, but the leading fintech center of the world. How Level39 provides fintech infrastructure Some of the biggest names in fintech which have made Level39 home have grown to become billion-dollar brands. Heavyweights such as Revolut and Etoro have helped it develop a strong reputation within the fintech and crypto communities. Of course, taking the leap towards entrepreneurship is not for the faint-hearted. Being associated with Level39's infrastructure facilitates credibility and strength for the ambitious entrepreneurs diving head-first into the innovative and enigmatic waters of fintech, providing safe sailing to succeed. Research conducted by the Harvard Business Review found that people who co-work demonstrate higher levels of thriving than their co...

Surely the greatest irony in the blockchain space is that there has never been any agreement on “the best” consensus model. Bitcoin and Ethereum are widely lauded for pioneering the concepts of blockchain and smart contract platforms respectively, but both also come under heavy criticism for their lack of scalability. The scalability challenge is largely due to their use of the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus method. Therefore, teams of developers have been focusing for years on devising a different method for achieving consensus among network participants. One that removes the bottlenecks caused by PoW, but still achieves the security of decentralization, while maintaining the right balance of incentivizing honest actors and deterring bad ones. So far, there have been dozens of attempts at solving this quandary. However, only a few have emerged as main contenders, namely proof-of-stake (PoS) and delegated proof-of-stake (dPoS.) However, a new horse just entered the race. It's not a new consensus protocol – rather, a means of speeding up consensus. A blockchain project called Solana is developing a secure, scalable blockchain that can handle up to 50,000 transactions per second on its testnet. How does it achieve this? It uses a feature called Proof of History to determine the passage of time, which, in turn, considerably reduces the weight of consensus. Proof of History, Explained Proof of History (PoH) aims to lighten the load of the network nodes in processing blocks by providing a means of encoding time itself into the blockchain. In a regular blockchain, reaching consensus over the time a particular block was mined is as much a requirement as reaching consensus over the existence of the transactions in that block. Timestamping is critical because it tells the network (and any observer) that transactions took place in a particular sequence. In a PoW scenario, the successful block miner is the first to find the correct nonce, which requires a certain amount of computing power to perform. However, PoH uses a newer cryptographic concept called Verifiable Delay Functions (VDFs.) A VDF can only be solved by a single CPU core applying a particular set of sequential steps. No parallel processing is allowed, so it's easy to define exactly how long it takes to apply those steps. Therefore, the passage of time is evident. PoH solves the time challenge, and thus reduces the processing weight of the blockchain, making it lighter and faster. Solana combines PoH with a security protocol called Tower Byzantine Fault Tolerance (Tower BFT), which allows participants to stake tokens so they can vote on the validity of a PoH hash. This protocol penalizes bad actors if they vote in favor of a fork that doesn't match the PoH records. Furthermore, Solana deploys proof-of-stake (PoS) as a means of determining who can participate as a block validator. The Evolution of Blockchains So how does Proof of History stack up to its predecessors? Proof-of-Work There are some similarities between Proof of Work and the Proof of History feature. Mainly, that both methods rely on a defined expenditure of computing power to produce blocks, or hashes as they are known in PoH. Like Bitcoin and most other PoW blockchains, Solana also uses the SHA-256 algorithm. This may raise the question of whether an ASIC could significantly speed up solving the VDF function in PoH. Solana believes that this isn't a challenge and that the processing power of most ASICs would be within an acceptable range of what's available to the wider network. Because PoH removes the timestamping burden from the network, it results in a far lighter, faster blockchain than anyone has been able to achieve so far using PoW. The incentive mechanisms are protected by combining with Tower BFT. Regardless, PoH can work together with Proof of Work as well, thereby improving its scalability. Proof-of-Stake Proof of Stake (PoS) has been the long-promised solution to Ethereum's scalability. In PoS, net...

A couple of days ago, we published an article on Planetwatch. In it, I toyed with the idea of a crypto mining super box that could mine different cryptocurrencies. Well, a few hours after it went live, I received an email from a reader informing me that there was indeed such a device. It is called the Match X M2 Pro and costs a whopping $2,900. Initially, I was skeptical. The email was from a total stranger on the internet who was, for all intents and purposes, shilling a token in which he had invested. However, after I dug a little deeper, I found something to be explored. Proof of Participation The description of the miner states that it uses a “Proof of Participation” model for mining; Proof of Participation (POP) model, M2 Pro offers a new type of mining in which the amount of tokens mined is determined by the value of the miner's participation in the network itself. With POP mining, as opposed to the more common POS or POW, a miner proves his participation in the network by mining “data blocks,” which use next to no power. In fact, the power consumption for the M2 Pro is minuscule, 4-6W. It looks very similar to a home WiFi router because internally, it is very similar and has similarities to Helium miners. The difference is that MXC claims to be compatible with large machines, not just small IoT devices. Oh, and you can mine Bitcoin with it too! Proof of Participation is the principle behind the MXC token created by The MXC Foundation, a Berlin-based non-profit organization. MXC is an open-source Machine Xchange Protocol that connects Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technology with the blockchain. What to mine So how on earth does a 4W device mine Bitcoin in any real sense? Consumers own the gateway devices that receive rewards based on the POW protocol. Above them are supernodes run by staking partners who also receive MXC rewards. The infographic below details how the protocol works. Sensor owners connect to the gateway owners via LPWAN. These then connect to supernodes which are created through token staking. The supernodes are, in turn, connected to full nodes, which are operated by parachains and link directly to the data buyers. The MXC protocol reviews each node based on its participation in the network and removes any that are no longer active. Miners are then rated based on their participation. Rewards are then distributed based on this rating. The system promotes decentralization and for more users to join the network, making the network more secure. Multi-token mining The M2 Pro can mine DHX and MXC tokens by design. It can identify itself on the network to mine both tokens. However, this is the juicy bit. The MXC Foundation is about to announce the results of their pilot program to mine Bitcoin using an LPWAN device such as the M2 PRO. The project was called the Das Kaiser Projekt III and was available to the entire M2 Pro network towards the end of last year. To be a part of the project, you need an M2 Pro miner, miner health of 90%+, and 6,000 MXC tokens locked into staking. How does it mine Bitcoin without hashing? It doesn't. The device uses the POP protocol to measure participation in the network just as it does with its native token. Miners can then ‘mine' Bitcoin through their devices and receive their BTC rewards in their wallets. Whether we should call this mining is now up for debate. Squirreled away on their website, they explain the process in more detail. When ‘mining‘ Bitcoin, the network leverages the collective network strength and reliability into a cloud mining unit that acts as a unified bidder to request for a swap for BTC in a predictive AMM market. So they are not mining Bitcoin, then? DKP II utilizes a powerful scraping tool to scan transactions and liquidity orderbook to set a forward-oriented valuation of BTC to ensure maximum bidded swap between POP mining rewards and BTC's POW mining rewards. The short answer is, unsurprisingly, no. A 4W device is not capable of hashing at th...

Major cryptocurrency payment service provider BitPay has added support for the Lightning Network (LN), Bitcoin's (BTC) Layer-2 scalability solution, granting users access to a faster and cheaper method of transacting their BTC. In an announcement shared with CryptoSlate today, BitPay co-founder Tony Gallippi noted: “BitPay's integration with the Lightning Network offers customers more choice and merchants more ways to be paid leveraging blockchain technology.” Lightning, what is it good for? The Lightning Network is a so-called Layer-2 payment and communication protocol built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. The solution allows transactions to be processed off-chain, taking the load off the mainnet and improving the network's scalability. As a result, payments made via the LN can be processed not only faster but also cheaper thanks to lower fees. Following the integration with BitPay's Payment Processing Platform, merchants can now receive transactions from crypto wallets that support the LN, including CashApp and Strike. In their turn, consumers now have a “low-cost alternative” when they make payments at BitPay-enabled dealers. Notably, BitPay merchants won't need to make any changes to their existing setups to start accepting Lightning payments However, BitPay's wallet app does not currently support the LN—at least “yet.” Another step toward mass adoption Meanwhile, American retail clothing brand Pacific Sunwear of California (PacSun) has become one of the first BitPay partners to accept BTC payments via the Lightning Network, the company's CEO Michael Relich noted, adding: “The Bitcoin Lightning Network provides our customers with instant payments and exceptionally low network fees, and creates more opportunity for all holders of Bitcoin to shop online at [our store].” As CryptoSlate reported, the total value of BTC locked on the Lightning Network exceeded $130 million in late February—and that figure has already grown to just over $162 million since then. However, despite significant growth in 2021, the solution arguably still remains a niche product. But with giants such as BitPay adding support for it, perhaps this is about to change.

Continued global unrest may be crucial in a sell-off affecting both stocks and crypto. Several factors at play are causing uncertainty in the markets, which has been a driving factor in pullbacks since 2020. Investors historically move away from risk-on assets such as tech and crypto whenever the road forward is unclear. Today, Bloomberg is reporting that the “cost of insuring Russia's government debt now signals a record 99% chance of default within a year,” according to CDS data. The impact of one of the world's most significant economic powers going into default seemingly has the world worried. In addition, Russia having to pay its dollar debt in Rubles signifies an apparent issue with its liquidity due to sanctions. Bloomberg states: “Russia paid rubles for some of its dollar-debt obligations due this week after foreign banks declined to process payments of almost $650 million, raising speculation over a potential technical default.” A further uncertainty comes as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once the wealthiest person in Russia, stated that Putin already views Russia as being at war with the West. He claims that Putin “thinks NATO is weak and that they will not defend the Baltics.” Given the support that NATO states have given to Ukraine, this line of thinking seems highly plausible. Following a White House statement yesterday that condemned China, India, and Brazil for not joining the sanctions against Russia, a worrying narrative is developing. The White House stated that “our expectation is not only that other countries will abide by, but that they will also be a constructive part of holding Russia accountable.” White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese said Wednesday that: The U.S. has told India that the consequences of a “more explicit strategic alignment” with Moscow would be “significant and long-term.” Putin may believe that he is already at war with NATO, China, India, and Brazil are now being warned by the US that they should not show any “strategic alignment” with Russia. It seems that Russia is almost certainly going into default within the following year. The next move will be critical for the crypto market and macroeconomic stability globally. Bitcoin has shown the closest correlation to the stock market in its history this year as it recently hit a 17 month high. On days like this, it isn't easy to focus on technical analysis or crypto fundamentals. World events are always a factor in the price of Bitcoin, whether you believe it to be an inflation hedge or not. Today, markets seem concerned by their inability to predict what, politically, will transpire next. We will continue to report on events as they happen and how they affect the crypto landscape.

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings plans to relocate its coal-powered Hardin mining facility in the US state of Montana to a more sustainable location. This is part of its efforts to reduce its carbon footprint by using non-carbon emitting sources of energy for its operations. Marathon Digital eyes sustainable energy sources According to the CEO, Fred Thiel, the company is dedicated to ensuring that it employs sustainable mining practices as soon as possible. “With the majority of our fleet already scheduled to be deployed at renewable power facilities and deployments currently underway, we believe it is an appropriate time to transition our legacy operations away from fossil fuel generation and towards more sustainable sources of power,” he said. Beowulf hosts the Hardin mining facility and owns the coal power plants powering them. According to Marathon, it plans to transition to a carbon-neutral energy source by this year's third quarter. While the company did not provide information about where it's planning to relocate or the kind of energy it will adopt, Thiel did state that its mining strategy is to deploy rigs close to sustainable energy producers, so they don't have to be on the grid. The company has previously stated that it will deploy 199,000 Bitcoin miners in 2023 as part of its goal to reach 23.3 exahash per second (EH/s). It also said that it intends to deploy 100,000 miners in Texas that will be powered mostly by solar and wind farms. Marathon has also pledged that all its operations will be carbon-neutral by the end of 2022. Green energy comes to fore for Bitcoin mining The decision to transition comes at a time when Bitcoin miners are opting for sustainable energy practices. This is a direct result of the increased scrutiny from government and environmental organizations about the impact of mining practices on the environment. Stakeholders in Europe have also urged the governments in the region to ban blockchains dependent on the proof of work consensus mechanism. However, the European Union voted against that in its crypto regulatory framework. On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report included crypto mining as a source of carbon emissions. Before then, Greenpeace launched a campaign “change the code, not the climate,” which aimed to reduce Bitcoin energy impacts by transitioning to a more energy-efficient consensus model. Although many have criticized this campaign, Bitcoin advocates still recognize the need for more energy efficiency. This is why more miners are working towards a sustainable environmental practice. However, some crypto advocates have opined that there has been too much attention on crypto energy consumption when Bitcoin CO2 emission is lesser than that of the global banking system and the gold industry.

Sky Mavis, the company behind blockchain-based game Axie Infinity, has successfully closed a new $150 million funding round led by crypto exchange Binance, according to a press release shared with CryptoSlate today. Always have, always will be there for our Labs family member! @SkyMavisHQ @AxieInfinity

Despite dipping below $41,000, Anthony Scaramuucci, the founder of SkyBridge Capital, a 17-year-old “alternative assets” investment firm, still believes the price of Bitcoin will hit $500,000 per coin. In a recent interview with Financial Review, he described why this has caused his firm to pivot into digital assets in 2021. SkyBridge now offers a digital innovation portfolio that includes securities he believes will correlate directly to the price of Bitcoin. In 2021, Scaramucci projected a $100,000 top for Bitcoin, which did not play out. He said he had not correctly assessed and accounted for the regulatory environment during the latter part of the year. Scaramucci believes we are still early in terms of adoption and compared current frustrations with web3 to the “clunky” internet experience of dial-up modems in the late nineties. He argued that within five years, we will be in a position where: “Virtually everyone in the Western world will have a [smart] wallet on their smartphone and they'll likely be able to transact with every restaurant in the world.” He recounted how JP Morgan & Co. believes there are 53 million millionaires on Earth but a total supply of only 21 million Bitcoins. If every millionaire in the world wanted a Bitcoin, it would not be possible, Scaramucci said. He clarified that: “I'm just trying to explain to people the inelasticity of this situation and the likelihood of these prices heading to half a million dollars.” SkyBridge reportedly holds 15% of its money in Bitcoin from an initial 4% position. Cathie Wood's Ark Invest has notoriously advocated for all companies to keep at least 5% of their treasury in Bitcoin. Such a move could push Bitcoin above $500,000 in the next few years. Ark also believes Bitcoin could reach $1 million per coin by 2030. We know that many factors move the markets, and we have to zoom out to see the bigger picture. However, on a monthly timeframe, Bitcoin has been on an upward trend since 2011. On a logarithmic scale, as shown below, a price of $500,000 would be in the top area of the blue rectangle. It would take a rise of around 1000% to see Bitcoin at this level. Since the crash in May 2020, Bitcoin is up just over 1000%. If Scaramucci's prediction comes true, we will need to see another surge bull market to take us there.

Lightning Labs, the company behind the Lightning Network, has developed a new protocol that can help introduce more use cases to the Bitcoin network, the company's CTO Olaoluwa Osuntokun announced April 5, noting that he designed the protocol, dubbed Taro. According to Osuntokun, Taro's integration will enable the issuance of assets and collectibles on the Bitcoin network. The protocol will also allow all Lightning Network participants to enjoy the benefit of Lightning's nearly free, almost instant, global transaction capability. All this without having to put up with BTC's current volatility. Essentially, the protocol will introduce assets like stablecoins to the Bitcoin network, letting BTC adopters increase or dial down their exposure to volatility. This feature will be especially beneficial for populations that have a low tolerance for BTC's volatility, due to their socioeconomic status. Leveraging Taproot To unlock these functionalities, Taro will use Taproot — the latest update to the Bitcoin network that became active in November 2021. Taproot enhanced the security, privacy, and transaction throughput of Bitcoin. Additionally, it introduced smart contract capabilities to Bitcoin's blockchain. By leveraging Taproot, Taro can also depend on Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus model to ensure the correct ordering of transactions and mitigate the risk of double-spending. Explaining why Lightning Labs seeks to integrate Taro, the company's CEO Elizabeth Stark said, One of our core tenets at Lightning Labs is solving real problems for real people, and we've talked to myriad community members in emerging markets who've told us what a big difference stablecoins on bitcoin and Lightning would make in their economies. Slow but steady growth While protocol development maintains the Bitcoin fundamentals, conservative changes create room for what developers can build on Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. Taro's relationship with Taproot demonstrates such changes. At the moment, BTC functions as a commodity. However, the combination of Taro and Lightning Network brings the flagship cryptocurrency even closer to serving as a means of payment. Recently, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis said BTC would quickly become a means of payment. Her belief stems from the fact that BTC came out of a whitepaper that didn't include means of payment. However, Lightning Network filled this gap by providing a payment method for BTC. To this end, Lummis believes such advancements will ultimately lead to further innovation in the payment space.

The Aventador is coming to the end of its production run as Lamborghini electrifies its entire line-up. But intent to go out with a bang, the Italian supercar builder is selling the last ever Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae Coupé as a 1/1 NFT to be auctioned at Sotheby's. Aventador NFT is Lamborghini's last hurrah for petrol power The Lamborghini drop will be the world's first NFT-physical supercar auction. Responsible for creating the NFT artwork and music are contemporary artists Krista Kim and Steve Aoki. In describing her artistic inspiration for the project, Kim spoke of “higher states of consciousness” meeting with “leading-edge technology & design.” While Aoki, who was tasked with the soundtrack, said the music reflects the “soulful energy — the vibe, the spirit, and the power” of the car. Not only will the winning bidder own the last ever V12 petrol-powered Aventador, but they will also become immortalized as part of the brand's legacy and have access to a range of VIP benefits. This includes exclusive virtual previews of future limited edition Lamborghini models, a private tour of the Museo Lamborghini, and a virtual “Meet and Greet” with Aoki and Kim. The CEO of Lamborghini, Stephan Winkelmann, alluded to the NFT auction concept being an ideal way to usher in a new beginning for the firm. “we are projecting this car into the digital world. It's an end of an era, but it's also the start of a new beginning.” The death of the internal combustion engine The European Commission (EC) is set on introducing a zero-emissions target for vehicles sold after 2035. Commenting on this, Hildegard Müller, Head of Germany's VDA car lobby group said: “That would not only mean the end of the internal combustion engine, but also the end of plug-in hybrids.” Although insiders had warned the EC was planning such a move before the announcement was made in June 2021, it still came as something of a surprise. Electric cars, and their associated infrastructure, have a long way to go in terms of rivaling the convenience of filling up with petrol. Also, how would people who live in flats, or have no parking directly outside their property, charge their electric vehicles? The EC seems to be ignoring the devastating environmental and social effects of mining for battery minerals. For example, Congolese miners describe slave-like working conditions and practices as they dig for cobalt, earning as little as 30p ($0.40) an hour. Also, locals report contaminated water supply due to the use of large amounts of groundwater to extract lithium. Nonetheless, Lamborghini, and other manufacturers, are falling in line with the EC and pushing for all-electric line-ups. Bidding for the Aventador NFT drop opens on April 19, with the auction set to close on April 21.

Texas-based Vantage Bank announced plans to offer employees a savings plan where a portion of each paycheck can be saved in Bitcoin. Commenting on this new program, Vantage Bank's chief of human resources Eric Thompson said: “During this ‘Great Resignation,' attracting and retaining top talent has been especially challenging. Focusing on our employees and the benefits we offer help make Vantage Bank Texas an employer of choice for current and potential employees.” Any Vantage employee who wants to step away from traditional savings will be able to participate in the new Bitcoin savings plan. The New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), which is offering asset management, custody, and execution services for digital assets, will hold the converted Bitcoin. In addition to the new savings plan, Vantage Bank is also educating its employees about cryptocurrency. Referring to the necessity of training, Thompson said: “As part of that [the savings plan], we are also providing associates with education about Bitcoin, sharing the risks and considerations that should be evaluated before directing their post-tax dollars to a Bitcoin Savings Plan.” Despite the modern approach to diversifying its employee's savings plans, Vantage Banks does not facilitate buying, selling, or trading of crypto for its customers for now. Crypto adoption in Texas According to Thompson, the Bitcoin Savings Plan was a suggestion from one of the lender partners that had already started to apply it. In addition, the state has also been taking bold steps to increase crypto adoption. For example, in May 2022, the Governor of Texas, Gregg Abbott, signed a law that made it easier for businesses to use crypto as collateral for loans. Abbott also created the Work Group on Blockchain Matters, where industry leaders collaborate to lure crypto investors, developers, and miners to Texas. Recently, the Texas Blockchain Council wrote a draft bill to eliminate taxes on flared gas sales used to mine Bitcoins.

With a market cap of over $2 trillion, crypto has given birth to several billionaires since the first Bitcoin was mined. Although anonymity makes it difficult to determine who has what, a new report from Forbes has revealed some of the richest people in crypto and what they are worth. Topping the list is Binance CEO Chanpeng Zhao, with a net worth that is almost 3x higher than that of the next person on the list. Binace CZ tops crypto's richest list According to Forbes' latest estimates, CZ owns at least 70% of Binance, enough to make him the 19th richest man globally, with a net worth of $65 billion. In 2020, Forbes had put the estimate at $1.9 billion. Meanwhile, in January, CryptoSlate reported that Bloomberg News estimates CZ's net worth to be around $96 billion, making him the 11th richest person in the world at the time. CZ‘s success is mostly tied to the strategic acquisitions and expansionist moves of Binance, which has the largest trading volume of all crypto exchanges. It is reportedly responsible for roughly two-thirds of the trading volume of centralized exchange transactions. Binance generated approximately $20 billion in revenue in 2021, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. Beyond his stake in Binance, Zhao also owns a vast amount of BNB, as well as some Bitcoin. However, the exact nature of his crypto portfolio is unclear. Others on the list The second richest person on the list is FTX exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Forbes estimates that he is worth $24 billion. His net worth includes about half of FTX and the $7 billion worth of FTT, which is the exchange's native token, that he holds. Before the Bloomberg report, the common perception was that SBF was the richest person in crypto. However, more public information has shown that to be false. There are still several other billionaires on the list but none of them have a net worth higher than $10 billion. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is the third richest person on the list, with $6.6 billion. He has a 19% stake in publicly traded Coinbase. Others on the list include Gary Wang, the co-founder of FTX, Chris Larsen of Ripple, and the Winkelvoss twins, who own Gemini. Not everyone on the list is a developer or founder of a crypto startup. Several names are those of investors and venture capitalists, including Tim Draper and Mathew Rosack, both of whom became billionaires through early investments in Bitcoin and other crypto companies.

This week, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak tweeted about payment regulation reform recognizing crypto stablecoins as a valid payment in the UK. In the same post, Sunak also linked a gov.uk page detailing other steps the government is taking to turn the UK into a “cryptoasset technology hub.” This includes: Legislating for a financial sandbox called “CryptoSprint,” which would be overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Developing a “Cryptoasset Engagement Group” as an interface between industry and government. Examining tax reforms that encourage competitiveness. Commemorating this new approach to digital assets by way of a specially commissioned NFT in conjunction with the Royal Mint. Given the uneasy relationship between the UK and crypto to date, the skeptical among you will wonder what's going on. The UK is looking to crypto to regain a footing UK officials have generally taken a hostile stance towards crypto in the past. For example, as recently as December 2021, the Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey reiterated comments that cryptocurrencies do not meet the definition of a currency, have no intrinsic value, and warned that investors could lose all their money. Addressing the Financial Policy Committee at that time, Bailey played down the significance of digital assets, saying they aren't a risk today but could be in the future. “It probably isn't a financial stability risk today but it has all the makings of something that could become one.” Then there's the FCA, which has been accused of taking a draconian approach in dealing with Binance as it seeks to register with authorities. The FCA said its approach corresponded with Binance's failure to respond to basic queries. However, in an apparent turnaround, Chancellor Sunak is now signaling a pro-crypto stance. He said the efforts are part of a plan to keep the UK financial industry “at the forefront of technology and innovation.” What's more, Chancellor Sunak also spoke about attracting businesses and jobs through this policy change. “We want to see the businesses of tomorrow – and the jobs they create – here in the UK, and by regulating effectively we can give them the confidence they need to think and invest long-term.” The EU is closing its doors The UK financial services sector brought in £165 billion ($215.7 billion) in 2020, accounting for 9% of the country's total economic output. The City of London is traditionally seen as one of the world's leading financial centers. But leaving the EU on January 31, 2020, meant losing jobs and businesses to competing centers. While the UK government acknowledged this, it also diminished the effect by saying the impact may not be as significant as initially thought. “The data so far suggests that jobs and business has been lost to other financial centres as a result of the UK leaving the European single market, but the impact may not be as big as initially feared by some.” Nonetheless, Patrick Hansen, the Head of Strategy & Business Development at Unstoppable Finance, recently commented that this change from the UK government directly responds to anti-crypto sentiment coming from the EU. He thinks the UK “wants to outplay” the EU and scoop up all the capital flight that's set to leave the region should proposals on unhosted crypto wallets get ratified in law. With Brexit, the EU lost its biggest financial hub, the city of London. Seems like the UK wants to outplay the EU with regards to crypto too. The timing of this, just a few days after heavy public backlash against an EU vote on crypto, is certainly not a coincidence.. Patrick Hansen (@paddi_hansen) April 4, 2022

Filings in 2022 indicate that one thing about the metaverse is that it will be well fed and well dressed. Companies with a combined market cap of around $1.1 trillion have filed for trademarks related to metaverse and NFTs this year alone. If you include Meta in this discussion, the figure rises to almost $2 trillion. In addition, 1967 NFT-related applications have been filed in 2022 alone. This is already higher than the total for the whole of 2021. However, as we are well aware of Meta's plans due to their rebrand, so lets focus on the lesser-known metaverse players. Brands such as Ralph Lauren, Chevron, McDonald's, Monster, Colgate, WWE, Levis, Playboy, and many more are gearing up to enter the metaverse and protect their intellectual property. For some, registering trademarks in a new space will be a simple legal exercise to ensure their corporate image is protected. However, it is clear from the filings that this is not just about brand protection. Here's a breakdown courtesy of trademark lawyer Mike Kondoudis. You can read the specifics of the trademarks by searching for the serial numbers at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. McDonald's McDonald's is coming to the metaverse. We first reported on this back in February. McDonald's filed to use the names McDonald's, McCafe, and the famous golden arches with a virtual world. They also plan to offer actual and virtual goods through their virtual restaurants. Therefore, it seems that you will be able to walk into a McDonald's in the metaverse, order a BigMac and have it sent to your door in the real world. Victoria's Secret In February, the international lingerie, clothing, and beauty brand, Victoria's Secret, filed for several trademarks, including downloadable virtual goods, digital collectibles, virtual fashion shows, and online clothing, including undergarments. This one feels very NSFW, in all honesty, but what's interesting is that they see an opportunity and a need to ready themselves for a deeper move into the digital world. Post-2020, it is easy to understand the potential market for virtual fashion shows. However, virtual underwear is something metaverse developers themselves may not have considered quite yet. Chevron This is the biggest company outside of Meta to be readying themselves for the metaverse. They have a market cap of over $300 billion and filed for trademarks directly related to NFTs this year. Their application covers NFTs, virtual gas, virtual stores, and virtual renewable energy products. Virtual gas will likely be a tool to run v vehicles in the metaverse. However, I hope brands cannot get a consensus from blockchain validators to add sponsorship to gas transactions fees. Can you imagine every Ethereum transaction forcing a Chevron advert to your wallet? Monster Energy The drinks and beverages brand has often looked to be at the forefront of trends. So their move into the metaverse is less surprising than most. Like McDonald's, they are looking to use their brand to offer NFTs, downloadable virtual food, drinks, and clothing and create a marketplace for virtual goods. With Death Stranding, Monster Energy has already found its way into the gaming world. In the game, Monster is the only source of boosting stamina in the main character's private room. Perhaps we can now expect similar deals with metaverse projects. Other notable brands There seems to be a clear trend within the current trademark applications. Food and beverage brands are all filing to protect their ability to offer virtual restaurants and virtual food. In-game food often relates to health bonuses or regeneration. The ability to be a recognized option for a player to regain their health should offer immense brand awareness among popular games. Dunkin, KFC, Pizza Hut, Hooters, Sonic, Red Bull, Burger King, and Arby's are all restaurants we can expect to see in what is increasingly likely to be a Ready Player One-style metaverse of the future. Another apparent trend is con...

Popular blockchain detective Zachbxt has revealed details about a possible rug pull that occurred on the Bored Bunny NFT collection, leading to the loss of around $20.7 million. According to Zachbxt, the project is a clear rug pull. His investigations reveal that the team behind it has been involved in other shady NFT projects in the past. But the past two, Ancient Cats Club and Crazy Camel, pale in value compared to this. The investigation also identified the three main people allegedly behind the project: Slavi Kutchoukov, Amir Adjaouti, and Remy Goma. The Bored Bunny slow rug pull The Bored Bunny NFT was announced in December 2021, with lots of promises. The developers claimed it to be a pfp project with 4999 NFT and a mint price of 0.4 ETH. The project became popular through marketing involving celebrities like Floyd Mayweather, Jake Paul, David Dobrik, DJ Khaled, French Montana, and Chantel Jeffries. 4/ Here are all the marketing videos that were produced for BB: French Montana: David Dobrik: Chantel Jeffries: Floyd Mayweather (Two times): zachxbt (@zachxbt) March 31, 2022 The project launched with many promises and sold out within hours, with the team making 2000 ETH from primary sales alone. However, further analysis of the project by the pseudonymous bax1337 on Twitter revealed signs of insider trading. Bax, who works with Convex Labs, discovered that before the actual reveal, a dev wallet bought the Celeb/Influencer NFTs. Following the first mint, the team launched another collection tagged Bored Bad Bunny NFT. This contained 1111 NFTs and minted for 0.4 ETH too. The third collection, Bored Mutant Bunny, came out a few days after. It had 3000 NFTs and went for 0.25 ETH. Unlike the first two, it didn't sell out as people were beginning to question what the developers were doing. The team's undoing, however, was that most of the funds generated from minting went to multiple centralized exchanges such as Binance. A further look at the team's history would reveal that they are not first-time offenders as they have been attached to other projects that had sour endings. Bored Bunny denies wrongdoing The official account of Bored Bunny has come out to deny this, claiming the reason for the lack of communication was due to receiving multiple emails. Hi Bored Bunny Members⁰Hope you are all well, I come back to you to give you some news about myself and some explications about the project. Primarily, the reason of my absence this last month was that I have been through a lot of the emails, messages in private. 1. BoredBunny (@BoredBunnyNFT) March 29, 2022 The team is now suggesting handing over the control of the project to a Discord Moderator, but the floor price of the project has fallen to 0.082 ETH on OpenSea. Per data from Nansen, one in three NFT collections ends up as a “dead” project due to little to no trading activity. The trading activity of the Bored Bunny collection seems to have stalled following the developer's shady activities. However, the recent arrest of the masterminds behind the Frosties NFT rug pull opens a new frontier for investors looking to recoup their lost funds. Update: Slavi Kutchoukov has denied any association with the Bored Bunny project.

It seems that the more intense the chaos, the deeper the changes emerge from it. In the present post-Covid-19 chaos of supply disruptions, 40-year high inflation rates, and a war in Europe—we seem to be on the brink of a major monetary pivot. To understand its implications and how digital assets fit into it, we first must revisit the previous reset. World War II as the First Great Reset As World War II chaos was coming to closure in July 1944, it birthed a new paradigm we still live in today. In the Bretton Woods mountain resort, 44 nations set up a new international monetary system. The arrangement was simple. As the economic and military powerhouse, the US would become the monetary center, as other nations would peg their currencies to the dollar. In turn, the dollar itself would be pegged to US gold reserves, at $35 per ounce. Other nations would then contract or expand their USD supply within the 1% range of the fixed-rate, as investors used forex brokers to exchange foreign currencies. President Richard Nixon abandoned the gold peg in 1971—and effectively the Bretton Woods system altogether—framing it as “There is no longer any need for the United States to compete with one hand tied behind her back.” Yet, the Bretton Woods legacy remained. Both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have served as key cogs for the post-Bretton Woods era – the petro-dollar. The US as the World's Money Controller President Nixon was correct in that the gold peg hobbled US expansion. On both sides of the equation, the gold peg has a number of issues: Because the money supply was constrained by a fixed exchange rate, so too were the government's expansionary policies. These ranged from unemployment interventions to military spending. Furthermore, the gold peg was a double-edged sword. Although countries that pegged their currencies to the dollar ceded some of their domestic economic policies, they could also redeem dollars for gold. While the gold itself is rare and expensive to mine, its supply is not fixed. Even so, its supply doesn't match up with the economic growth of the global economy. If a nation falls into a deficit, when the government's income is lower than its spending, it has fewer options available to right the course around the recession storm. Altogether, it was the last point that made Nixon cut off the gold peg. He needed the Federal Reserve to provide an inexpensive money supply via lower interest rates. In this way, the economy would be flooded with cash, meaning it would grow sufficiently to offset a recession, regardless of the dollar being devalued in the process. Sound familiar? We have certainly seen record-high stock market gains thanks to the Fed's injection of trillions of USD, which triggered a new era of retail traders using commission-free stock trading platforms. Needless to say, with the stabilizing gold peg gone, the 1970s were a period of the Great Inflation, just as appears to be happening now. Nonetheless, things would have been worse without the USD growing into its petrodollar status. In a nutshell, the USD has become the world's global reserve currency because the US spends nearly as much on the military as the entire world. With influence over Europe stemming from WWII firmly entrenched and its control over the Gulf states, the US has been using the petrodollar as a vehicle to offset the downsides of unlocking its money supply and relentless spending. Both OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and non-OPEC nations, such as Russia and Qatar, have been using dollars to trade oil and gas. Such a system holds a glaring vulnerability that the West punctured this March, as it took unprecedented financial moves against Russia. New World Monetary Order Emerging As a nation with the world's largest landmass, Russia holds an abundance of energy reserves. Accordingly, Russia's main exports are energy-related products, at 63%, of which 26% and 12% constitute crude oil and gas, ...

The world is marching on toward the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. This is evident in almost every metric one can look at when analyzing the crypto market, even in volatile times and during sharp downturns. Venture capital investments in crypto have surpassed $30 billion, with more than $10.5 billion invested in the last quarter of 2021 alone. Alongside institutions, retail investors have also begun realizing the potential of crypto and are flocking to it in record numbers. To find out more about what makes the crypto market tick and get an understanding of the broad makeup of its participants, Gemini conducted an ambitious survey of 30,000 people across 20 countries. The survey explored awareness of cryptocurrencies and crypto companies, the motivations for buying and trading, as well as barriers to owning cryptocurrencies. What the survey found was that 2021 was crypto's breakout year—there have never been more people entering the market, more people interested in entering the market, and more people realizing the potential of cryptocurrencies. Identifying crypto curiosity and crypto ownership While it's easy to quantify current market performance, predicting its future performance depends on a multitude of factors—the biggest being its participants. Gemini set out to discover just how much untapped potential there is outside of the crypto market by surveying people about their general curiosity about cryptocurrencies. According to the report, 41% of its global respondents said that they were crypto-curious. This means that they currently don't own cryptocurrencies but plan on buying in the next year. Diving deeper into the geographic makeup of the crypto-curious reveals that a significant number of them come from Europe. Ireland led among the crypto-curious, both globally and in Europe, with 58% saying they were interested in purchasing cryptocurrencies in the near future. A significant number of crypto-curious respondents came from Germany, Colombia, and the United Arab Emirates—53%, 50%, and 49%, respectively. The data shows that the majority of the crypto-curious come from developed nations with stable financial systems, with the exception of Colombia. This, however, isn't the case when it comes to crypto ownership. Gemini's data shows that the least amount of ownership comes from developed nations—15% in Denmark, 16% in France, 17% in Germany, 18% in Australia, 18% in the U.K., and 19% in Norway. The exceptions to the rule are Kenya and Colombia, where only 15% and 16% of respondents owned crypto. The largest crypto ownership was identified in Brazil and Indonesia, where 41% of respondents said they owned cryptocurrencies. Approximately a third of respondents from Singapore and the U.A.E. owned crypto, while the ownership decreased to around a quarter in Israel, Nigeria, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Mexico. Crypto is the future of money for many The extremely high rate of crypto ownership in certain countries can be attributed to several correlating factors. People in countries with the highest adoption and the highest percentage of crypto curiosity tend to see cryptocurrencies as the future of money. This is due to the fact that these countries have seen their national currencies devaluate against the dollar over the past decade, drastically affecting both the quality of life and financial stability. Respondents in countries with 50% or more devaluation against the dollar over the past 10 years were more than 5 times more likely to say they plan to purchase crypto in the coming year, compared to those who experienced less than 50% inflation. A significant number of respondents saw cryptocurrencies as a way to protect against inflation—46% of respondents in Latin America and Africa said they were looking into the asset class as a way to offset currency devaluation. In regions where the local currency hasn't experienced significant long-term devaluation, respondents were far less likely to see cryptocurrencies as ...

Francis Suarez, Miami's mayor, believes the city's success as an upcoming tech hub is partially due to adopting crypto. He said this during an interview with Maria Bartiromo of Mornings with Maria on Monday. According to Suarez, crypto is part of Miami's transitional brand from a city that was great to visit or retire to what Financial Times refers to as the most important city in America. He added that Miami has been leaning into innovation through crypto. In doing so, it has helped get rid of the notion that some specified cities are the technological hubs of the US. Suarez further noted that Miami has seen its venture capital increase by 200% year-over-year after embracing crypto. Moreover, this approach has helped the city move over $1 trillion in assets under management companies to its jurisdiction over the past 16 months. Bitcoin 2022 Suarez added that Miami now hosts the largest crypto conference, Bitcoin Conference, after positioning itself as a crypto-friendly city. Bitcoin 2022, this year's event, will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The event commences tomorrow and will run through April 9. The conference will feature keynote speeches from speakers like Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, among others. Commenting on the event, which is just hours away, Suarez said, We are going to have 50,000 attendees and it's going to be an economic development boom for our city, creating thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in economic incentives for our city. Suarez continues pushing for Miami to embrace crypto on a larger scale Suarez's disclosure of the efforts that are helping shape Miami as a crypto hub comes as he continues advocating for the city to embrace crypto on a broader scope. As part of these efforts, he volunteered to become the first US politician to take his salary in Bitcoin (BTC). On top of this, he steered Miami toward launching MiamiCoin (MIA), the city's native cryptocurrency, which seeks to fund municipal projects by generating additional yields. MIA generated a revenue of $21 million within the first three months of going live. Based on this performance, Suarez projected that the coin has the potential to rake in $80 million annually. As a result of MIA's outstanding performance, Suarez recently said each Miami resident with a digital wallet would soon be eligible to receive BTC dividends earned through MIA.

The US Department of Justice had announced that it had secured the biggest cryptocurrency forfeiture after a South Florida resident forfeited $34 million worth of cryptocurrency tied to illegal dark web activities. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida filed the civil forfeiture complaint and were successful. US gets biggest crypto forfeiture This came after identifying the unnamed resident involved in the large-scale sale of illegal items on several dark web marketplaces. Not only that the person also hacked online account information of popular services such as Uber, Netflix, and HBO, among others. The statement from the DOJ further explained that the individual used The Onion Router (TOR) to access the Dark Web. They were able to hide the sources of the funds and almost launder successfully by using “tumblers,” which are cryptocurrency mixers. This, along with illegal money transmitters, made it possible for the person to perpetrate illegal activities. DOJ and other law enforcement agents show they can tackle crypto crimes While over 90% of crypto activities are legal, even if unregulated, many bad actors try to take advantage of the features that make crypto better. Also, the rise of ransomware attacks last year and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine have led to an increased focus on crypto and its uses. Though the crypto community has assured that it would be almost impossible for Russia to circumvent the sanctions being imposed on it via crypto, law enforcement agencies and financial regulators, however, have chosen to intensify their efforts in policing the activities within the crypto space. This, inadvertently, would lead to a more secured and investor-friendly industry. Interestingly, the federal law agents recently arrested two men involved in the Frosties NFT rug pull and will be prosecuting them. Germany seizes Bitcoin tranche It's not only the US that's going after crypto linked to illegal activities. Just today, Germany announced that it has shut down the Russian darknet marketplace (DNM), Hydra, and seized Bitcoin worth $25 million. Hydra has been in existence since 2015 and per available data accounts for around 80% of the entire market share of DNMs. The marketplace has more than 19,000 vendors' accounts selling everything from narcotics to fake identities to its 17 million customers. In 2020 alone, it had a trading volume of at least $1.2 billion. According to the BKA federal police, several institutions including US agencies were involved in the investigation which started in August 2021.

The U.S. Senator from Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis, recently championed Bitcoin as a future currency in an interview. The interview started with the question, “Is Bitcoin a currency or commodity?” Senator Lummis quickly and confidently responded: “I own [Bitcoin], a commodity. I believe it will be currency someday, but at this point of its existence, it's a commodity just like cattle, wheat, and gold. At some point, it's going to become a means of payment.and it's going to happen really fast.” To explain her confidence, Lummis referred to the launch of the Bitcoin payment protocol, Lightning Network. She noted that Bitcoin came out of a whitepaper that didn't include means of payment. Lightning Network filled the gap by providing a payment method for Bitcoin which should lead to further innovation in the payment space. Is it a currency if it's denominated in U.S. dollars? Following up on Lummis' arguments, NBC News political director and moderator of “Meet the Press” reports Chuck Todd said that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are denominated in U.S. dollars, and therefore they would not be able to behave as currencies. In response, Lummis claimed that Chris Giancarlo intentionally made this denomination during his tenure as the Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to protect the US dollars' international status. Lummis said: “[Giancarlo] Wisely recognized that we want to see Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be denominated in US dollars.I think that's tremendously important because we want the US dollar to continue to be the global currency.” How does it get regulated? Accepting the duality, Todd later asked about the suitable regulatory approach to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Lummis, again, confidently argued that it would be regulated both as a commodity and a stock. She said that such a regulatory suggestion had been made in the bill drafted by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and herself and would be presented in April. She added that: “It will be regulated by both, just the way current traditional assets are. CFTC will regulate it as a commodity, [and it] will also have spot markets and futures markets. The SEC [the US Securities and Exchange Commission] side will regulate for consumer protection and other necessary regulations to make sure purchasers are not subject to fraud.” She also said that their bill included a method to prevent projects from being shut down due to fear of the unknown. According to Lummis, the new bill will also suggest creating a regulated sandbox environment to allow people to build and innovate freely.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, commonly referred to as CZ, believes Russia cannot use cryptocurrencies to circumvent western sanctions. He said this during a recent interview with Richard Quest, the host of CNN's Quest Means Business. According to him, crypto is too traceable, a trait that makes it unsuitable for dodging sanctions. Zhao pointed out that governments across the globe are increasingly getting better at tracing crypto transactions. To this end, he believes an intelligent person would not try to use crypto for such purposes. Nonetheless, he said Binance observes the sanction rules closely and will block anyone on the sanction list. CZ added that Binance would also block the accounts of anyone that is remotely related to the people on the sanction list. However, he asserted that Binance considers freezing assets of normal Russian users illegal. As such, the exchange will stand by its decision not to ban all Russians. To show the organization's willingness to adhere to rules, CZ said it is up to the governments to decide whose assets Binance should freeze or unfreeze. Standing up against the war, not the people Unlike many organizations unwilling to take a stand on whether Russia was wrong for invading Ukraine, CZ said Binance is against the war and the politicians that started it. He reiterated that Binance is not against the people because the war has impacted both Ukrainians and Russians. According to him, Binance seeks to help these people overcome their difficulties. Touting the firm's efforts of helping those in need, he pointed out that Binance was among the first companies to pledge $10 million to aid Ukrainian refugees. CZ added that Binance has already given out most of this amount. This news comes after Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the exchange would not preemptively ban all Russian users. In a March 4 tweetstorm, Armstrong said Coinbase believes everyone deserves access to financial services unless the law says otherwise. He added that, Some ordinary Russians are using crypto as a lifeline now that their currency has collapsed. Many of them likely oppose what their country is doing, and a ban would hurt them, too. That said, if the US government decides to impose a ban, we will of course follow those laws.

Popular on-chain sleuth, Zachxbt, has revealed information about another rug pull in the non-fungible token scene. In a Twitter thread, he exposed how French influencer and reality TV star Laurent Correira allegedly played a major role in the Billionaire Dogs Project. Billionaire Dog NFT rug pull The project launched in December 2021 with promotions from various influencers, including Correira, promising giveaways, and luxury cars to investors. Initially, it was meant to be a collection of 6500 NFTs selling for 0.1 ETH presale and 0.2 ETH public sales. 1/ Time for another $960k NFT rug this time involving Laurent Correia a popular French influencer with a reality TV show. zachxbt (@zachxbt) April 4, 2022 But the low interest in it meant they had to reduce the supply to 2000 NFTs. However, a week after the minting, the website and Discord server was deleted, and the team disappeared. If any hope of tracking the $960k proceeds from the project looked to have disappeared, Correira himself revived it. On-chain data reveals that Correira received more than $400k of the money in his public wallet. It was easy to trace this because he used the same wallet to buy NFTs, including a Mutant Ape, Doodle, and CloneX. He even posted the purchase on his social media while changing his Instagram profile picture to the NFT. Correira appears to be based in Dubai based on his social media activity and Zachxbt has tagged the Dubai Police on Twitter to bring him to justice. But the possibility of this remains slim, given the unregulated nature of NFTs. Was Correira more than an Influencer? This event again brings to the fore the need for regulations, especially for NFTs. In recent months, several influencers and celebrities have been involved in promoting NFT projects that eventually rug pulled. The prevalent use of influencer marketing by crypto projects explains why some countries, including Australia, are trying to regulate financial influencers. While Zachxbt might have exposed the entire project as a rug pull, previous revelations suggest that Correira was more of a mastermind than an influencer. As far back as January, a Dubai businessman named Mohammed Amin revealed the scam in an interview. Then, he accused Correira of deceiving him and other investors who bought the NFTs based on several promises. Correira, it was said, used his flashy social media life to lure them in, claiming that renowned personalities like Kanye West and Lebron James were involved. But he soon disappeared with their $500,000 worth of crypto invested into the project. Since then, Amin claimed that he, along with other victims, has been gathering evidence so they can file an action in the UAE. The new information from Zachxbt could further help their case.

When LooksRare started operating in January, it came with the promise of challenging OpenSea's dominance in the NFT space. But three months down the line, it seemed to have developed a reputation for wash trading. According to CryptoSlam and cited by Bloomberg, about $18 billion or 95% of trading volume on the platform is wash trading. Wash trading is an act where a trader sells an asset belonging to them to another wallet controlled by them. It is usually an attempt to inflate the price of the asset and also give the impression of demand. But that's not the only reason why LooksRare traders are doing it. LooksRare incentives indirectly promote wash trading The prevalence of wash trading on the marketplace is due to the incentives attached to active trading on the platform. While the concept of wash trading is frowned upon by many, there are no regulations that prevent it. But even if the intention of the wash traders is to earn tokens and not pump prices, there's no doubt that the act masks the true state of things in the NFT scene. This has led many to describe it as market manipulation. According to David Silva, a lawyer with experience in crypto matters, it doesn't matter whether it is stocks, bonds, or NFT, “Wash trading is a form of market manipulation in which an investor simultaneously sells and buys the same instrument to create misleading, artificial activity in the marketplace.” However, it appears that LooksRare's attempt to wrestle some of the NFT market shares from OpenSea is gaining some traction. A senior data analyst at DappRadar, Pedro Herrera, noted that organic trading on LooksRare has increased as its lower fees and rewards are bringing in new users. But OpenSea remains the most prominent platform with about 10 times more daily users than LooksRare. Decline in NFT trades not affecting corporate interest Despite OpenSea still maintaining its dominance, the overall NFT trading volume has declined over the past two months. Since it hit a record of almost $5 billion in monthly trading volume in January, transactions have dropped significantly, and so has the number of new investors entering the space. The trading volume in March was around $2.5 billion. However, the decline in interest hasn't discouraged corporate investors from getting into the metaverse space. Companies like JP Morgan and HSBC now have virtual venues on the blockchain. Other companies such as Meta and Google have also revealed plans to integrate NFTs into their products.

Premier League football club Liverpool is reeling after its six-day Sotheby's auction ended on Monday, having sold just 9,721 out of an available 171,072 NFTs. The LFC Heroes Club Collection is described as cartoon avatar depictions of the Liverpool squad. Token holders are granted “access to a range of ongoing benefits.” “Holders have access to a members-only LFC Discord community chat channel where they can interact with other passionate LFC Heroes Club members. Additional benefits include virtual hang-outs, competitions, guest appearances, updates from the LFC Foundation and LFC retail discounts.” In addition, a percentage of the proceeds will go to the LFC Foundation. This independent charity provides support in the local area (and beyond) for sports activities, health and wellbeing, and youth interventions, among other aims. In recent times, gamers have made it clear they don't welcome NFTs due to the potential monetization strategies they offer game developers. Based on the poor uptake of the LFC Heroes Club Collection, sports fans hold a similar view. LFC Heroes Club NFTs The LFC Heroes Club Collection was available as part of a two-tier auction. The “Legendary” auction featured 1/1 NFTs of the 23 squad members plus first-team manager Jürgen Klopp. All 24 Legendary lots were sold, with Mohamed Salah fetching the highest price, at $88,200. Followed by Lot 1: Jürgen Klopp raising $81,900. The “Hero Limited Edition” auction made up the remaining 171,048 NFTs. This range also features the squad, but each NFT varies according to the background color and “Match Mode, Fresh Mode and Super Mode traits.” The asking price for Hero Limited Editions was $75. And with 9,697 sold, revenue generated comes in at $727,275. Of which 10% will go to the LFC Foundation. The revenue generated by the Legendary auction comes to $745,290. Of which 50% will go to the LFC Foundation. All in all, LFC Heroes Club earned Liverpool Football Club a total of $1,472,565 ($1,027,193 after charitable contributions). This falls way short of the projected sales figure of $11.2 million. What does the community say? Liverpool Football Club was keen to stress that the LFC Heroes NFTs operate on the energy-efficient Polygon blockchain, making the Collection environmentally friendly. “We have chosen to mint all LFC Heroes Club NFTs on Polygon, one of the most energy-efficient blockchains. Creating an NFT on Polygon has the same carbon impact as sending just 2.5 emails, which means LFC NFTs consume 99.95% less energy than projects on Ethereum.” However, in conjunction with the charitable element, this wasn't enough to rouse sufficient interest in the project. The Director of Centre for the Eurasian Sport Industry, Professor Simon Chadwick, claims that single buyers purchased multiple NFTs, making the sales figures even worse than initially thought. It appears that although just under 10,000 Liverpool NFTs have been bought, the number of buyers is significantly less than 10,000. In several instances, single buyers have bought multiple NFTs, further calling into question the number of people in total who have made a purchase Professor Simon Chadwick (@Prof_Chadwick) April 4, 2022 Football Journalist David Lynch said the club had been weighing up the pros and cons of releasing an NFT collection for some time. But in the end, they opted to go, ahead despite the drawbacks, for reasons of financial gain. Liverpool have spent a long time assessing external sentiment around NFTs in recent months and were warned about potential harms to investors/the environment but proceeded anyway. Presumably the financial gain outweighs any backlash as far as they're concerned. David Lynch (@dmlynch) March 24, 2022 An examination of grassroots sentiment shows there is enormous skepticism towards digital assets. Common themes include NFTs being a vehicle for tax evasion, copying pictures is the same as owning the NFT, and this being a money grab for Liverpool Football Club.

Elon Musk bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter for $2.9 billion, making him the platform's biggest shareholder. Recently, the Tesla CEO had slammed Twitter on the grounds of it “failing to adhere to free speech principles.” As a response to the problem, Musk teased the possibility of starting his own social media platform or even buying Twitter. However, few imagined he would follow through with either of these ideas. Nonetheless, analysts expect this acquisition of a stake in Twitter to be the start. What's more, with Musk being a fan of Dogecoin, should we expect a collaboration between the two? How might Dogecoin fit in? Crypto markets are mainly flat today. However, among the large caps, Dogecoin posted the second-biggest gains in the last 24-hours, at +5%. NEAR Protocol leads the pack with +5.7% gains. Musk disclosed his crypto holdings to CNBC last year, saying he owns Bitcoin, Ether, and Dogecoin. On his reason for liking Dogecoin, he said: “That's why I decided to support Doge — it felt like the people's crypto.” Given Dogecoin's response to the news, it's clear that markets expect Musk to utilize $DOGE on Twitter in some capacity. But will that ever happen? Before the acquisition stake, as Musk was canvassing opinions on how to tackle Twitter censorship, one user posted a tongue-in-cheek comment saying Dogecoin, for sure, will be used as a tipping mechanism. To which Musk replied, “100.” “One of the best things about Elon Musk either buying Twitter or starting his own platform is you know there would be a Dogecoin tip jar!“ The initial use case of $DOGE was as an internet tipping currency. But as pointed out by this eight-year-old Reddit post, there are three barriers to preventing this from happening. One, tipping in meaningful increments, two, making Dogecoin easier to send and receive, and three, having a social media platform on board. “create widgets/apps that allow content creators on blogs/tumblr/twitter/etc to be tipped for their work at the click of a button.” What's next for Musk and Twitter? Speaking to CNBC Squawk Box, Dan Ives, Analyst at Wedbush Securities, speculates that Musk may “take a more aggressive stance on Twitter,” which could eventually lead to a complete takeover of the company. Commenting on the situation, crypto influencer Layah Heilpern points out it reflects poorly on the Western world that Musk is single-handedly trying to “save freedom of speech.” Technically we are relying on @elonmusk to save Freedom of Speech. Quite incredible what western society has come to. Layah Heilpern (@LayahHeilpern) April 4, 2022 As an indication that he intends to shake things up at Twitter, Musk posted a humorous tweet asking whether users want an edit button. But Dogecoin holders want more information on Musk's plans for the meme coin going forward.

Seven out of 10 crypto investors own a hardware wallet, out of which, 54% keep their backup phrases on paper, while 50% of these investors keep their full backup in one place, according to a survey by Ngrave. NGrave‘s 2022 Crypto Security Self-Audit report reveals that 50% of hardware wallet owners' keys would be compromised if someone were to find their backup. The company's CEO Ruben Merre commented on the report and said: “The results of our annual Security Self-Audit show that there are glaring gaps in the methods investors are using to ensure the security of their assets, especially at a time when high-profile and high-valueN breaches are becoming increasingly common.” He further elaborated: “It is clear that there is much to be done to secure the crypto assets of investors the world over, if the industry is to avoid the hacks that we have seen in recent months.” As attacks on wallets remain to be a serious problem for crypto holders, the community has been working on new methods to prevent irreversible losses and increase wallet security. Other Findings The study included over 2000 unique respondents from 87 countries, mainly Europe and North America. The numbers showed that almost half of the participants hold less than $20,000 in their portfolio, while one out of five investors has more than $100,000. 66% of the participants indicated that they prefer to buy and hold instead of trading. Merre referred to this percentage and said: “The behaviour of crypto investors remains stable compared to 2021. Given the nature of the survey, an overrepresentation of nontrader profiles was expected and confirmed.” When it comes to storage, the numbers indicate that 76% of the respondents have a part of their portfolio stored on an exchange, and almost all of them (92%) use a two-factor authentication method.

MicroStrategy's spree of adding bitcoin to its balance sheet continues without rest. Announced in a tweet by the company CEO Michael Saylor, the IT-services company bought another 4,167 bitcoin (BTC). As reported by CryptoSlate on March 30, the purchase was expected after MicroStrategy announced the company had borrowed $205 million to buy more bitcoin. Aside from Saylor's tweet, the company also, as required, filed a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC. MicroStrategy's 129,218 bitcoin hoard MicroStrategy announced securing a loan with Silvergate Bank. Under the agreement, $205 million was issued, with bitcoin held by the subsidiary firm MacroStrategy (note: macro, not micro) collateralizing the deal. The press release also mentioned the payment of costs related to the loan and “general corporate purposes.” As per Saylor's tweet, the company did not use the entire amount of the loan to buy bitcoin as MacroStrategy roughly $190 million at an average price of $45,714 per BTC. MicroStrategy first bought bitcoin in August 2020 and this latest purchase strengthens its position as the largest known corporate holder of bitcoin, which it has achieved through a mix of self-funding and borrowing. MicroStrategy's bitcoin holdings now total 129,218 bitcoin acquired for $3.97 billion at an average price of $30,700 per bitcoin. Self-funding bitcoin buys from company reserves is one thing. But eyebrows were raised in July 2021 when the firm announced it was going through with a complex corporate bond to acquire more. This saw MicroStrategy borrow $400 million to buy Bitcoin. Bitcoin bounced over $47,000 on the news On the news of MacroStrategy's purchase, the market price of bitcoin briefly bounced above $47,000 and is at press time trading around $45,800. The price of bitcoin has been fairly level the past week, after a dip down to $44,350 on April 1st, holding itself in a corridor between $46,000 and $ 47,000. According to crypto analysts IntoTheBlock, on-chain data shows that retail customers are accumulating bitcoin. Addresses holding 0.1-1 BTC have increased their balance by 1.47% in just 30 days. Moreover, since the January lows, all the clusters of addresses holding below 1 BTC have increased their holdings up to 5.51%. Since the all-time high at $60,044 set on November 10th, 2021, bitcoin is down 32.3%.

A pseudonymous user, known as “s27,” today lost roughly $570,000 worth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) after exchanging his Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) #1584 and two Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) tokens for fraudulent NFTs deceptively disguised as genuine. The exchange was first spotted by crypto enthusiast Quit thanks to his Discord server configured to track ape listings that are at least 5% below their floor price in Ethereum (ETH): “The pings are rare, but when they happen it generally means one of two things: somebody is panic selling, or somebody is compromised. When I saw the notification for #1584, I instantly knew it was the latter.” Indeed, according to NFT marketplace OpenSea's records, BAYC #1584 as well as MAYC #13168 and MAYC #13169 were transferred from s27 to another address today — literally for free. Further, Quit discovered that not only did s27 transfer his valuable NFTs to a scammer, but he was also the initiator of the trade. As it turned out, s27 used Swap.Kiwi, a blockchain service that allows collectors to swap certain NFTs for others — preferably of equal or greater value — just like trading cards. But as usual, there was a catch. Do your own research Investigating further, Quit has tracked down the scammer's NFTs that s27 received after the swap was made. All of them appeared as genuine BAYC tokens — but only at first glance. 6/ Well, the hacker used that to his advantage. Here are the apes that s27 received in return:://t.co/pIgu3mRGVY You'll see that each has the green check added directly to the image. quit (@0xQuit) April 5, 2022 In reality, the “green checkmark” Swap.Kiwi uses to verify that tokens are really authentic can be easily counterfeited via a simple image editor — and that's exactly what the scammer did. Essentially, he downloaded some “jpegs” depicting a few expensive BAYC apes and added a fake watermark so that they would appear like the real deal when displayed on Swap.Kiwi. Of course, a deeper look into the scammer's wallet would reveal that his tokens are anything but genuine, although a lot of crypto users oftentimes neglect such procedures, sadly. Shortly after receiving the BAYC and two MAYC NFTs, the scammer sold them for 98.85 ETH (currently around $350,00), 23 ETH ($81,000), and 25.25 ETH ($90,000) — worth a total of $521,000 at press time. However, these listings were lower than their corresponding floor prices, placing s27's potential loss in the ballpark of $570,000, according to Quit. 9/ So what can you, the tradoooor, do to protect yourself? Well, there are a few things. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.– Close your DMs. Negotiate in public.– Always assume everybody is out to get you. They probably are.– Independently verify EVERYTHING quit (@0xQuit) April 5, 2022 Meanwhile, NFT holders are seemingly becoming the prime target for scammers of all sorts who, in their turn, keep coming up with increasingly inventive schemes for their endeavors. As CryptoSlate reported, crypto users discovered a new wave of Discord NFT scams just yesterday, April 4. And it is very unlikely that bad actors are planning to dial down their activity any time soon.

Germany's Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) have successfully seized the server infrastructure of the world's largest illegal darknet marketplace Hydra. Per a press release published by the BKA today, the law enforcement agencies have also confiscated approximately €23 million worth of Bitcoin. “Among other things, there is a suspicion of the commercial operation of criminal trading platforms on the Internet, the commercial procurement or granting of an opportunity for the unauthorized purchase or the unauthorized sale of narcotics as well as commercial money laundering.” What is Hydra? Launched around 2015, Hydra was hitherto the most prominent Russian darknet market and “likely the largest darknet market in the world”—despite operating mostly in CIS countries, according to crypto intelligence firm Ciphertrace. Namely, the marketplace served customers in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Moldova. In total, around 17 million customers and over 19,000 seller accounts were registered on the marketplace. Hydra ran out of heads Naturally, trades on Hydra — the lion's share of which reportedly involved illegal narcotics — were conduсted using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the BKA pointed out, adding: “According to ZIT and BKA estimates, ‘Hydra Market' was probably the illegal marketplace with the highest turnover worldwide. Its sales amounted to at least 1.23 billion euros in 2020 alone. In particular, the Bitcoin Bank Mixer, a service for obfuscating digital transactions provided by the platform, made crypto investigations extremely difficult for law enforcement agencies.” Following Hydra's closure, a special banner was placed by the agencies on its website, notifying users that “the platform and the criminal content have been seized by the Federal Criminal Police Office on behalf of Attorney General's Office in Frankfurt am Main in the course of an international coordinated law enforcement operation.” As CryptoSlate reported, despite being of Russian origin, Hydra wasn't actually used to evade the western sanctions that followed the country's armed conflict with Ukraine, according to blockchain data platform Chainalysis. And now it never will be, apparently.

The new crypto tax regime in India has finally gone into effect, and it appears to be affecting the trading volume in the country. Media reports from the country suggest that trading volumes on crypto exchanges have dropped by an average of 15% within the first three days of the month. Not only that, but crypto exchanges operating within the country have also seen their domain traffic drop by 40%. India crypto exchanges trading volume suffers Co-founder of Crypto India, Aditya Singh, confirmed these reports on Twitter. He posted graphs showing a significant dip in the trading volume of 4 of India's top exchanges. Indian Exchanges saw Volume drop after New Crypto tax rules became applicable on 1st April. Aditya Singh (@CryptooAdy) April 2, 2022 The trading volume of WazirX, the country's biggest exchange, dropped from $208 million to less than $100 million before the month even started. The drop in trading volume doesn't come as a surprise, given the hefty tax imposed on crypto. Indians will have to part with 30% of their profits with the new tax law. In addition, another tax will come into effect next month, which will deduct 1% on every crypto transaction from the source. Already, crypto stakeholders are predicting that the 1% tax on every transaction will affect liquidity within the sector. They claim that this tax will limit the number of trades as investors who are high-frequency traders will cut down on their trades. The rule also prevents tax write-offs for losses made on trades which means investors would be more likely to run at a loss. Stakeholders lambast the new tax regime Many predict that such a tax regime could push many crypto traders and companies to leave the country. According to Nischal Shetty, CEO of WazirX, the 1% tax-deductible at source (TDS) is “the worst-case scenario for the industry.” The executive director of policy at CoinDCX, Manhar Garegrat, also stated that “There will be no liquidity left in the markets” if TDS comes into effect. “Trades placed by buyers will not get executed as efficiently as they do today, and such inefficiency will eventually dwindle the whole ecosystem,” he added. Major exchanges want to invest in India While crypto stakeholders are worried about an exodus, major exchanges like Coinbase and FTX are showing interest in investing in the crypto space of the Asian country. Earlier today, Coinbase revealed that it plans to invest $1 million into crypto and Web3 projects initiated in the country. Another report revealed that FTX could be set to invest in India's Mobile Premier League (MPL), which intends to launch NFTs and a play to earn based game before the end of the year. This shows that despite the government's best effort at making the industry unattractive to investors, some stakeholders still believe there is ample opportunity for them in the country.

Singapore's parliament has passed an omnibus bill that will expand the powers of its primary market watchdog and introduce tighter regulation for crypto companies in the country. Passed on Tuesday, April 5th, the law is the government's latest effort to tighten its grip over the booming crypto industry. Singapore's lawmakers, however, maintain a crypto-friendly outlook and are set on continuing on a regulatory path that will make Singapore the capital of Asia's blockchain and crypto industries. Singapore's market watchdog gains more control over the crypto industry First introduced in February 2022, the Financial Markets and Services Bill was designed to bring digital token services in Singapore in line with new standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organization fighting money laundering. The legislation will require virtual asset service providers—or cryptocurrency companies—which only do business overseas to be licensed. Companies headquartered in Singapore and not servicing customers in the state weren't subject to anti-money laundering and terrorism financing laws. Alvin Tan, Singapore's state minister of trade, said this created a regulatory gap where such companies presented “reputational risks” for Singapore. He explained that overseas companies that offer crypto services in Singapore are subject to the country's laws even though they aren't physically operating in the country. And while most parliamentarians welcomed the new bill, some raised concerns that it could lead to crypto service provers being “double regulated,” or subject to different legislation in different jurisdictions. The same parliamentarians also said that the bill does little to mitigate consumer risks due to the speculative nature of cryptocurrencies. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country's leading market watchdog, said that it would keep a close eye on the adoption of cryptocurrencies to determine whether further user protection measures are needed. On the other hand, Tan maintains his position that laws don't offer foolproof protection against investment losses, saying that consumer education and awareness remain the best weapons for fighting that kind of risk. Nonetheless, the new bill gives MAS the power to impose harsher penalties if companies fail to maintain the security of their platforms. The bill sets the maximum penalty for a breach of security at $740,000, a significant increase from the current liabilities administered by MAS. MAS will also have the power to issue prohibition orders against individuals deemed unfit to perform critical roles, activities, and functions in the financial and crypto industries. “The financial penalty, coupled with the flexibility to impose additional supervisory actions strike a balanced approach, signals the importance of having robust technology risk management, without being overly excessive for smaller financial institutions,” Tan told The Business Times.

Scammers have reportedly found a new way to compromise users' Discord accounts — including those on servers related to cryptocurrencies and non fungible-tokens (NFTs) — by hijacking QR codes used for logging in. According to pseudonymous crypto enthusiast Serpent, malicious actors — disguised as Discord's verified bot called Wick—are now reaching out to users to offer a collaboration, potential employment, or some other enticing opportunities. But there's a catch — to continue the discussion, scammers ask users to verify via a QR code. New NFT discord scam going around, this time using QR codes. Pretty terrible scam, but this is how it works

While the armed war between Ukraine and Russia may appear to be confined to a military level, it is likely to have far-reaching consequences for much of the world. Economic analysts expect it to trigger a dramatic rise in inflation partly because Russia is the world's biggest exporter of natural gas and second-largest seller of oil. In addition, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people will be displaced from Ukraine, posing a new refugee issue for the world (and specifically Europe). Furthermore, there's cryptocurrency. While many people aren't focusing on the cryptocurrency market and industry at the moment, there's no doubt that the protracted fight will affect Bitcoin. There is no doubt that it has already had some effects, particularly since Bitcoin dropped by more than 10% in a single day in response to the initial rumors of a Russian invasion on February 24. Russia's potential escape from sanctions by using crypto may result in increased regulation of the business in the West, but the conflict may benefit the market. This is mainly because it illustrates how cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, can boost great causes and empower individuals when other avenues are unavailable. Those in need can benefit from cryptocurrency in real-world situations Since the initial assault, the market has reassuringly stabilized (as of this writing). Bitcoin fell to a low of $34,740 on February 24 as investors fled riskier assets. The Russian incursion into Ukraine raised significant concerns at the time, but given the Ukrainian forces' resistance and the perception that sanctions against Russia were less severe than expected, the situation has since improved for BTC (and other assets). Indeed, BTC has increased by an astonishing 25% since plummeting to £34,740, to over $43,500. Depending on the situation, the market could fall again if violence erupts or sanctions have a significant impact on Western nations. Despite the ongoing conflict, markets are currently performing well in light of the current situation and many other aspects of the conflict that are beneficial to crypto. In particular, cryptocurrency has once again proven its worth as a tool for crowdfunding and charitable giving. In the latest tally from the analytical firm Elliptic, the Ukrainian government and pro-government NGOs have received approximately $24.6 million in various cryptocurrencies. This sum is the result of 26,000 separate gifts, including one for $3 billion in bitcoin and another for $1.86 million. Ukraine has also been offered contributions from Uniswap (crypto exchange), Aid for Ukraine (DAO) and Dr. Gavin Wood (the founder of Polkadot). Since the start of the conflict, Ukrainian officials posted Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses on their Twitter account, giving donors a direct and clear address to which to send donations. Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDT. BTC – 357a3So9CbsNfBBgFYACGvxxS6tMaDoa1P ETH and USDT (ERC-20) – 0x165CD37b4C644C2921454429E7F9358d18A45e14 Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 26, 2022 Over $10.2m (9.2 million euros) worth of cryptocurrency was donated to the wallets within four days of the start of the invasion. The Ukraine government has gone on to receive more than $100m worth of crypto ever since, with 60% of the donations coming from the “Crypto Fund for Ukraine”, which is run by Michael Chobanian – the founder of the Ukrainian crypto exchange Kuna. “We are still collecting crypto. It is being spent on aid like daily rations and bullet-proof vests and helmets,” the 37-year-old Ukrainian told AFP. Such contributions benefit not only the Ukrainian government and military but also show how cryptocurrencies can help break down barriers to international transactions and operations. To put it another way, cryptocurrency acts as a dependable link between various peoples and countries. Indeed, numerous recent cryptocurrency-related headlines from Ukraine have co...

On March 31, 2022, the People's Bank of China held a symposium on the pilot work of digital RMB (digital yuan) research and development to summarize the preliminary research and development pilot work, and arrange the deployment of the next stage of work. Present at the symposium were Yi Gang, Governor of the People's Bank of China, and Fan Yifei, Vice Governor of the People's Bank of China, as per a statement from PBoC. Also attending the symposium were relevant departments, bureaus, and directly affiliated units of the People's Bank of China, all-digital RMB participating R&D institutions, and relevant “responsible comrades” of the local governments and branches of the People's Bank of China in the pilot regions. “The meeting believed that since 2017, the People's Bank of China, together with all participating research institutions, and with the strong support of the party committees and governments of the pilot areas, have made overall plans and careful organization to carry out the pilot projects steadily, dynamically improve the business technology design, continue to innovate application scenarios, and focus on solving financial service difficulties,” the statement reads. Pain points verified the feasibility and reliability of digital yuan According to the meeting parties, the pain points have preliminarily verified the feasibility and reliability of digital renminbi-related theories, policies, businesses, and technologies. At present, the digital renminbi has formed a number of application models in the fields of wholesale and retail, catering, cultural tourism, and government affairs payment. Without providing any specific data or other evidence, the PBoC states that the major pilot projects such as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics have been successfully completed, “the number of users, merchants, and transactions participating in the pilot has grown steadily, and the market has responded well.” The PBoC does not, however, seem to consider the digital renminbi to be ready for a full-scale roll-out in the entire country, instead, trials will continue in additional cities and areas. The PBoC pointed out that there remain issues that need to be sorted out through further research and exploration. To this point, the statement says the research and development of digital renminbi will face new situations and new problems in terms of demonstrating convenience, optimizing inclusiveness, highlighting innovation, ensuring security, reflecting compliance, and strengthening sustainability. Furthermore, the PBoC emphasized that the digital renminbi research and development pilot should adhere to the “people's nature”, without expanding on the meaning of this expression. The future is dependent on softer values In the statement there are, however, hints that the future success of the digital renminbi, and for it “to play a greater role”, the issue is not a technical one but is rather dependent on “softer” values such as the coverage and inclusiveness of financial services, it helps local economic development, supports the construction of digital government affairs, improves the quality and efficiency of financial services for the real economy, and improve the business environment. “In the process of the development, promotion, and popularization of the digital renminbi, the policy design should fully stimulate the enthusiasm and creativity of financial institutions, technology enterprises, local governments, and other parties, and encourage competition in the promotion and operation,” the statement reads, which may be interpreted as some participating entities aren't as enthusiastic about the digital renminbi as the Chinese government and the PBoC would want them to be. Other areas mentioned in the statement, that seem to need further research, include legislative questions and the impact of the digital renminbi on the financial system, the security of the digital renminbi system, and the relationship between privacy protection ...

Hardware cryptocurrency wallet manufacturer Trezor has divulged that its customers are being targeted by so-called “phishing” attacks after Mailchimp, the firm's email automation service provider, was “compromised by an insider targeting crypto companies.” “We are currently investigating how many customers might have been affected following an insider compromise of a newsletter database hosted on Mailchimp,” Trezor wrote in a blog post today, adding: “The Mailchimp security team disclosed that a malicious actor accessed an internal tool used by customer-facing teams for customer support and account administration. The bad actor gained access to this tool as a result of a successful social engineering attack on Mailchimp employees.” Status update on the ongoing phishing attack: Trezor (@Trezor) April 4, 2022 Keep your app close, keep your seed phrase closer Further, the attacker is specifically targeting crypto-related companies, Trezor noted. As a result, its wallet users began receiving phishing emails on Sunday, April 3, asking them to click a link that leads to the download page for a “Trezor Suite lookalike app.” If an unsuspecting user falls into this trap, the malicious app then asks for their seed phrase—basically the private key that gives the perpetrators full access to their crypto holdings. Once entered, the seed gets compromised and users' funds are immediately transferred to the attackers' wallet. “This attack is exceptional in its sophistication and was clearly planned to a high level of detail. The phishing application is a cloned version of Trezor Suite with very realistic functionality, and also included a web version of the app.” MailChimp have confirmed that their service has been compromised by an insider targeting crypto companies. We have managed to take the phishing domain offline. We are trying to determine how many email addresses have been affected. 1/ Trezor (@Trezor) April 3, 2022 Luckily, since potential victims have to actually install the malware on their devices (although there is also a web version), contemporary operating systems should alarm them about its unknown source. “This warning should not be ignored, all official software is digitally signed by SatoshiLabs,” Trezor pointed out. Stay vigilant According to Trezor, the firm has already shut down the phishing domain. However, if some users have entered their seed phrases after all, they should immediately move their crypto to a newly generated address (unless it's already too late, of course). “If you have not received such an email, there is still a chance your email address has been leaked, so it is best to remain vigilant in case a new wave of emails appear. Compromised email addresses may be targeted again in future so please report any new phishing attempts directly to security@trezor.io.” Until this issue is resolved, the wallet manufacturer has ceased any newsletter activity. Additionally, users should “not open any emails appearing to come from Trezor until further notice” and make sure they are using anonymous email addresses for “Bitcoin-related activity,” the firm urged.

Coinbase unveiled that it will be significantly expanding its presence in India, growing both its employees and investments in the country. Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, laid out the company's strategy in a blog post, saying that India has already built a robust identity and digital payments infrastructure that can be further accelerated with crypto and Web3 technology. Coinbase wants more out of India India's controversial crypto tax law seems to have brought some much-needed regulatory clarity to the country, despite the overwhelmingly negative effect it had on trading volume. With all doubts removed as to how the government sees cryptocurrency trading, Coinbase is set to significantly increase its footprint in India. The exchange announced plans to expand its global reach earlier this year by hiring over 2,000 employees. According to Armstrong, half of those employees will come from India, where he will spend the next several weeks putting down the company's roots. Coinbase's Indian tech hub, launched in 2021, already has over 300 full-time employees across the entire country. In a blog post, he said that Coinbase was on a mission to make crypto easy for anyone and anywhere in the world to use it. India's existing identity and digital payments infrastructure, combined with its “world-class software talent,” provide a lot of potential that Coinbase plans on tapping into. “We believe that crypto and web3 technology can help accelerate India's economic and financial inclusion goals,” he said in the blog post. Coinbase Ventures, the exchange's venture capital arm, has already invested $150 million in Indian tech companies, both in the crypto and Web3 spaces. The company will continue to invest heavily in the country, doubling down on its regional investments, which include CoinSwitch Kuber and CoinDCX. To further expand its reach, Coinbase will host a crypto community event in Bangalore on April 7th. On April 8th, Coinbase Ventures and Builders Tribe will host a startup pitch event where local companies will be able to pitch and win up to $1 million in funding. As of March 27th, over 100 startups applied for the pitch day, with the final number expected to be much higher. Armstrong said: “India is a magical place, and I believe crypto has a big future here. We're excited to help build that future, and this event is an important step,” Coinbase's entry into India is a positive development for the country. As crypto companies in India are bracing themselves for the repercussions of a 30% unrealized gains tax on crypto trading and a 1% TDS tax, having a company with Coinbase's volume dive head-first into the market paints an optimistic picture. The exchange has so far managed to overcome every regulatory obstacle it faced in the U.S. and has since become one of the main drivers of regulatory discussions with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Rumors of Apple utilizing Bitcoin in some capacity are running red hot. Fanning the hearsay, YouTuber Crypto Rover summed up sentiment by saying the knock-on effects will see Bitcoin moon. Apple will send #Bitcoin to the moon! Crypto Rover (@rovercrc) April 3, 2022 There have been numerous reports of an Apple-crypto tie-up in the past. Perhaps the most prominent example of this was talk of Bitcoin being added as a treasury reserve asset just over a year ago. However, despite the attention, all such rumors have fizzled into nothing. Will this time be any different? Strike CEO drops a hint of an Apple Bitcoin connection Strike CEO Jack Mallers hints that things could be different this time. Late last month, Mallers posted an uncaptioned tweet featuring a video from the Apple “think different” advertising campaign that ran from 1997 to 2002. The commercial featured black and white footage of well-known historical figures, including Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, and Muhammad Ali. The accompanying voice-over talks about misfits, rebels, and troublemakers, who are often seen as crazy, being the very people who drive change. A few days before this, Mallers also posted a tweet about the upcoming Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami between April 6 and 9. Four pictures accompanied the tweet. The first is an infographic showing a QR code payment system, then a mission statement from Strike, followed by a photo of Mallers flipping the bird in front of a Chase ATM wearing an Apple hat in Google colors, and finally a promo of Mallers' speaking slot at the conference. The biggest announcement of last year's Bitcoin conference was the news that El Salvador would adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. Chances are, this year's event will see another disclosure of equal if not greater significance. A rundown of the rumor According to Bloomberg, Apple is working on its own payment processor technology that would result in less reliance on third-party partners. The long-term plan would see Apple bring a range of payment functions in-house, including payment processing, risk assessment for lending, fraud analysis, credit checks, and additional customer-service roles, as it seeks to expand Apple Pay. Might there also be room for Bitcoin, as suggested by Mallers in his cryptic tweets? Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook shut down rumors that his firm was about to add Bitcoin as a treasury asset. He said he didn't see Apple stock as a vehicle for crypto exposure. Cook also said the firm is not planning “to take crypto for our products,” but they are looking at other things. Roll on Bitcoin Miami 2022.

Oklahoma lawmakers are in the final stages of introducing legislation that would make the state the new cryptocurrency mining hub in the U.S. Called the “Commercial Digital Asset Mining Act of 2022,” the proposed bill would see the state provide various incentives to businesses in “innovative technological industries” that set up shop in Oklahoma. Cheaper electricity, lower taxes, and a welcoming local government in Oklahoma In March, the Senate got the first glimpse of a new bill that has the potential to change the landscape of cryptocurrency mining in the U.S. Republican Senator John Montgomery presented his “Commercial Digital Asset Mining Act of 2022,” saying that the mining industry was growing and won't be going away anytime soon. This, he told the Senate, is why Oklahoma wants to draw as many of those businesses across their state lines and have them set up roots there. This would be done through a series of incentives that would remove a significant amount of tax burden from mining companies. And while Sen. Montgomery said that his working group is yet to set a cap on those incentives, he said they'd be worth no more than $5 million. While those supporting the bill believe that this would be enough to put Oklahoma on the map for many large miners looking to relocate, some senators questioned the effectiveness of the incentives, fearing that they wouldn't benefit state and local services and programs. “With a growing industry it's exciting, but we've got to make sure that we don't miss the opportunity to invest back into our state from that growth industry,” Senator Julia Kirt said during the debate last month. However, there is already evidence that Montgomery's crypto-welcoming policy could have significant benefits for the state. Earlier in March, German tech company Northern Data announced that it will establish its North American headquarters in Pryor, Oklahoma. The $270 million investment will see the data company establish a 100-acre operation at the MidAmerica Industrial Park and hire more than 150 employees in the coming months. The company will initially set up a cryptocurrency mining operation but will expand into other “innovative technological industries,” including data centers, cloud services, and research labs dedicated to data processing. The campus is expected to become operational within 24 months and will add more employees as it expands in the future. To power the huge operation, Northern Data will purchase up to 250 megawatts of power from the Grand River Dam Authority, the state-owned utility that provides low-cost, reliable energy to municipalities and corporate customers. Having a company the size of Northern Data set up roots in Oklahoma will likely be enough to push other companies to follow suit, regardless of the tax incentives. The incentives will provide companies with a credit against the tax imposed by the state for investing in a mining facility or increasing the number of full-time employees in an existing mining operation. To qualify for a credit against tax, a company must invest at least $40 million over three years in a “qualified depreciable property.” Mongtomery's legislation was cleared by the Oklahoma Senate on March 22nd and moved to the legislature's lower chamber on March 23rd. The Senate published its standing committee report on the bill, suggesting passing the law as amended earlier that month, and is expected to finally amend the bill in the coming weeks.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued new warnings to financial influencers. This was contained in its Information Sheet, highlighting what influencers and companies hiring them should be aware of. While there's no specific mention of cryptocurrency, these rules will most likely apply to the crypto industry. ASIC issues warning to financial influencers The rule appears to target the promotion of unlicensed financial services, something that crypto services fall under. In a warning directed at financial influencers who are unsure of whether the brand violates the law, ASIC states, “Think about your content carefully and whether you are providing unlicensed financial services.” The new information sheet says that influencers may need a license to give financial advice. The penalties for breaking the rules appear severe as companies could get up to 5 million dollars in fines while individuals could get as much as five years imprisonment. The rules come amidst new efforts by regulators to protect consumers in the country. In recent weeks, several Australians have fallen victim to targeted crypto scams. Regulators have also doubled down on their effort to prevent and recently filed legal actions against Meta for not preventing the promotion of crypto scams on its platforms. Influencers have a hold over youths Influencers have attained a prominent role in the new economy, necessitating licensing. A 2021 ASIC survey estimated that 33% of citizens between 18 and 21 follow financial influencers. It also discovered that 64% of young people in the country modified their behavior because of an influencer. Based on this, ASIC believes it's important to regulate the sector. ASIC Commissioner Cathie Armour stated that Influencers who discuss financial products and services online must comply with the financial services laws. If they don't, they risk substantial penalties and put investors at risk. What actually qualifies as influencing? However, there are questions as to what qualifies as influencing. ASIC's explanation suggests that influencing has to do with recommending rather than just stating facts. Modify old content / minimise investing discussion / not mention any financial products, funds etc. Some may choose to close up shop, I know one who is, while others will prob continue for enjoyment in a limited capacity. Sad situation for free speech. Dave Gow | Strong Money Australia (@strongmoneyaus) April 2, 2022 But Financial blogger Dave Gow who runs Strong Money Grow, wrote that Writing almost anything could influence someone to invest or use any financial product. Some believe that these rules shouldn't apply to crypto. One of them is Senator Andrew Bragg, who said that ASIC's current policy applies the law to crypto to the extent that digital assets fall within the definition of a financial product. Crypto is currently unregulated and not a financial product. I believe we can do more. This statement echoes the general call for more regulatory clarity on crypto in the country. Authorities appear to be working on that presently though nothing is concrete yet.

We are teaming up with Charged Particles for another AMA today, April 4th, at 3.30 PM GMT via Twitter Spaces. You can set a reminder via our pinned tweet or the link below. We will be giving away the last few whitelist spots for the upcoming Particlon drop which takes place on April 5th. Charged Particles NFTs can hold nested tokens and other digital assets resulting in yield-bearing art. Owners can gain interest on Aave aTokens nested within their NFTs, as well as reap the benefit from any appreciation in the price of the artwork itself.

The UK announced plans to mint an NFT and said it want to bring stablecoins into the country's payments framework to enable issuers and service providers to flourish in the country. The announcement is part of the country's long-term plans to regulate the crypto industry as a whole and become a “world leader” in innovation and financial technology. The UK has a long standing history as a global financial hub and intends to keep that spot. The NFT and Stablecoins City Minister John Glen broke the news at a fintech event London — the Innovate Finance Global Summit — and told the conference that Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has asked the country's Royal Mint, which is responsible for minting coins in the UK, to create and issue an NFT “by the summer.” He added that: “There will be more details available very soon.” Meanwhile, the UK government's website published a press release detailing some of its plan to become a “global cryptoasset technology hub.” Under the plan, the country intends to officially adopt stablecoins as a recognized form of payment to foster growth in the industry and help both issuers and service providers grow. Bringing stablecoins under the umbrella of regulation is the first in a series of measures to set the country up as a hub of crypto technology and investment, according to the release. However it is unclear how they will regulated and whether this will include all stablecoins or only a few. According to Sunak, the government hopes to give more clarity to the industry in terms of regulation to foster growth and innovation. He said: “This is part of our plan to ensure the UK financial services industry is always at the forefront of technology and innovation.” Sandbox for DLT innovation Glen also said that the UK is very interested in Distributed Ledger Technology, or DLT, and how it can be leveraged to make various systems more efficient. He added that the government will legislate to establish a financial market infrastructure sandbox to allow firms to experiment with DLT and how it can be used to innovate infrastructure services that underpin markets. The government also intends to conduct research into how DLT can be used for sovereign debt instruments and the potential benefits of doing so. Regulation Glen said that a full regulatory regime coming into effect is still a ways off, however, there will be more developments in the coming months. He added that there will be consultation on how crypto should be regulated later in the year. According to the release, the government intends to create a competitive tax environment for crypto, which will include a review of DeFi based loans and profit. It may look to bring cryptoassets under the Investment Manager Exemption regime to give DeFi participants leeway. Meanwhile, the Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, will hold a two day “CryptoSprint” in May to gather insight from industry participants on how to regulate the sector. Additionally, the Economic Secretary will establish and chair a Cryptoasset Engagement Group which will consult key regulatory authorities and the industry on the issues affecting the crypto sector.

South Australian group of private companies Peregrine Corporation has partnered with Crypto.com to enable more than 170 On the Run (OTR) convenience operations, including service stations, restaurants, and drive-through locations, to accept issue cryptocurrency as a payment method. Crypto.com's general manager for the Asia-Pacific region, Karl Mohan, said: “Paying with cryptocurrencies at real-time market prices and avoiding the cost and hassle of fiat conversions. We're thrilled to be bringing this vision to life with one of the most trusted companies in Australia.” Crypto.com's focus on payments Crypto.com's recent focus on crypto payments is driven by internal research which revealed that 75% of its customers are interested in paying with crypto in 2022. Referring to Cyrpto.com's research and commenting on the company's partnership with Peregrine Corporation, Mohan said: “A note to merchants: customers are ready when you are! This is a great opportunity to increase your addressable market, reduce dispute costs, and lower transaction fees.” Despite being the largest, this partnership is not Crypto.com's first venture in Australia regarding payment services. The company also launched a payment app and a Visa card in the country in 2021. Australia's take on crypto According to Gemini's latest report, Australia ranks 8th in crypto ownership in the world with 18% of the populace holding crypto. The country's government has been publicly pro-crypto as well. It recently stated that it does not perceive crypto as a threat and is working on regulation to protect crypto customers. Meanwhile, a recent study from Australian crypto exchange company Swyftx revealed that most business leaders are open to implementing crypto payments within their businesses. This partnership between the Peregrine Corporation and Crypto.com also marks the first step towards more mainstream acceptance of crypto payments in Australia. Peregrine Corporation Executive Chairman Yasser Shahin commented on the partnership and said: “[This partnership is] a clear opportunity to tap into the momentum of this fast-growing space for the benefit of our customers.Crypto.com is a world-changing platform. It is synonymous with the future of technology, payments, and business.”

As reported by CryptoSlate last week, a hacker ran off with about $615 million in ether (Ethereum) and stablecoins after exploiting a multisig contract regulating funds in the Ronin-to-Ethereum bridge – Ronin being the blockchain behind Axie Infinity, the most popular play-to-earn game in the world. Now, the funds stolen by the yet undisclosed hacker are being redistributed among various wallets and solutions to hide the tracks and withdraw digital assets into fiat, as reported by WuBlockchain. Multiple wallets involved in a swirl of transactions According to a tweet by Wu Blockchain, the hackers have transferred 1,001 ETH, almost $3.5 million, to another Ethereum wallet that has no marks or tags whatsoever, but there seem to be multiple wallets involved in a swirl of transactions aimed at confusing analysts. The address of the hacker who stole $610 million in the Ronin_Network case began to move, transferring 1000 ETH to another address and then 200 ETH to TornadoCash. Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 4, 2022 At press time, the hacker also moved 2000 ETH (about $7 million) to Tornado Cash, a coin mixing solution on Ethereum, obviously in an attempt to hide the movements of the stolen funds. As pointed out by several experts in regards to the now largely dismissed issue of sanctions evasion by the Russian government and oligarchs, the liquidity in the Tornado Cash tumbler is limited, and the question is whether this hacker is able to use the tumbler to clean all of the loot or just fractions of it. The hacker managed to steal about 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5 million USDC, thus even 3000 ETH is a relatively small amount compared to the total amount stolen. Exchanges won't touch the loot The only realistic way the hacker can withdraw such a large amount of ether to fiat would be through centralized exchanges with sufficient liquidity. However, the Ethereum addresses used by the hacker are being recorded on a black list as the hacker moves the funds around, and no serious exchange will touch them. If the funds are moved to an exchange, they will in all likelihood be seized. Considering the current dollar worth of lost assets, the Ronin hack may very well become the biggest hack in decentralized finance's (DeFi) history, as CryptoSlate previously reported. While crypto exchange Mt. Gox famously lost around 850,000 Bitcoin in 2014 – which would currently be worth $40.2 billion – that figure was much smaller at the time since Bitcoin was trading at a fraction of its price today. The second-biggest hack of approximately $600 million stolen from Poly Network was blocked by the crypto community, as almost every project in the space agreed to block any inflows from the blacklisted wallet. The Poly Network hacker soon turned back most of the loot and was subsequently offered a job at Poly Network.