MoneyOnComputer

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Development of China’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, continues to show signs of progress. On July 8, a major domestic e-commerce platform and a video sharing site both joined the CBDC project, according to local news.

Companies Meituan and Bilibilibili have apparently both begun to cooperate with a number of banks involved in the digital Yuan project. Meituan is a major service platform with over 240 million consumers and five million local merchants, and Bilibilibili is known as China’s largest video sharing website. In addition, Chinese multinational tech group, ByteDance, is also said to be in close discussion with the banks about CBDC collaboration.




BitFlyer, the biggest crypto exchange in Japan in terms of trading volume, has announced a partnership with Brave, the privacy-protecting browser.

No further details about the new crypto wallet have been made available. Japanese users of Brave browser are rewarded with Basic Attention Token Points (BAP), due to regulations that prevent them from earning the cryptocurrency BAT, or trading their points for money on exchanges. The announcement is likely to fuel speculation that the new crypto wallet could pave the way to enable Japanese users to earn BAT, instead of BAP, or somehow convert between the two.




The U.S. Department of Justice, or DoJ, indicted Andrey Turchin, known under the pseudonym "fxmsp," with various federal crimes. Turchin allegedly founded a cybercrime group that targeted the computer networks of several companies. After stealing each company’s data, Turchin’s group allegedly sold the data on the dark web.

Turchin, a 37 year old Kazakhstan national, is affectionately known on the dark web as "the invisible god of networks." He allegedly sold access to thousands of networks breached with his malware attacks, amassing a million dollar crypto fortune over the course of three years. The Western District of Washington is now conducting criminal indictment procedures against Turchin, who is accused of attacking companies based in over 40 countries.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Central Bank Digital Currencies, or CBDCs, have been an increasingly popular topic in the cryptosphere and financial world as a whole, especially with the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. In the United States, the need for a universal electronic payment system for stimulus checks gave rise to a proposition for the creation of a digital dollar and its implementation.

While members of the U.S. government move to create a CBDC on the back of the pandemic, it doesn’t end there. A recent report by the Bank for International Settlements has also revealed that the development of CBDCs may be accelerated by the impact of the coronavirus on retail payments, which have seen a sharp decline in cash payments due to concerns over viral transmission. However, CBDCs have been in the works for many years in some countries, as there are many other benefits in the eyes of lawmakers that speak in favor of introducing them. In fact, the Chinese government has been working on its digital yuan since 2015, with few details about the project being known.




Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is clear: The video games industry is thriving. As people around the world find themselves with more time on their hands thanks to government-mandated lockdowns and a partial economic shutdown, video game sales have skyrocketed.

Despite being overshadowed by some of the more glamorous uses for blockchain technology, the gaming industry may be poised for a generational leap forward with the advent of asset tokenization — a practice that could expose the gaming industry to a whole new wave of investors while simultaneously unlocking myriad benefits for the world’s 2.5 billion gamers.




Digital currency payments may become a reality for G20 members before the next summit in Saudi Arabia.

As reported by Kyodo News on July 11, officials revealed that the G20 summit compromising representatives from 19 countries and the European Union will be laying the groundwork to accept digital payments. The changes are expected to begin in October, presumably at the G20 Finance Ministerial and Deputies Meetings in Washington DC and before the next summit in Riyadh in November.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:



The World Economic Forum believes that blockchain could contribute to a $365 billion savings by 2030 by reducing food loss and waste in the food supply chain.

A report published by the World Economic Forum, or WEF, highlighted the critical role of fourth industrial revolution technologies. New technologies like blockchain could help stimulate growth by implementing “nature-positive” solutions following the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the “Future of Nature and Business” study shared with Cointelegraph, nature-friendly solutions could have the capacity to create 395 million jobs and generate $10.1 trillion in business opportunities by 2030.




Xiao Gang, the former chair of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, says in his latest book on China capital market reforms that the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) will pave the way for digital stocks.

Stocks and currencies are separate entities in traditional finance, however blockchain-based digital currencies blur the boundaries between the two and raise new possibilities. Xiao adds that “digital stock is the natural product of digital currency in the future.” Before that can happen a number of challenges that need to be explored in theory and practice including: how to connect the CBDC with the digital capital market, how to prepare smart contracts to issue digital stocks, and how to use the digital currency to carry out digital stock trading and settlements.




The Japanese government is expected to include consideration of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in its official economic plan. The news comes 10 days after the Bank of Japan’s announcement that it will start experimenting with the digital yen to check its feasibility from a technical perspective.

According to Nikkei, the consideration of CBDC will be included in the Honebuto Plan for Economic and Fiscal Revitalization. The Honebuto Plan is the basis for Japan’s economic and fiscal policy and the report says the Japanese government “will consider a CBDC while coordinating with other countries”. After China began testing its CBDC or digital yuan, the Japanese government has accelerated preparations for its own CBDC.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Elliptic says 22% of bitcoins from Twitter hack were likely sent to a Wasabi Wallet address for mixing

Blockchain analysis company Elliptic released a report today saying 2.89 bitcoins were sent to an address it believes to be a part of a Wasabi Wallet. According to the report, the funds, which account for 22% of the funds obtained by the Twitter hacker, were sent to a Wasabi Wallet address late Thursday night. Elliptic used a special feature to identify Wasabi Wallet addresses using what it called "distinctive transaction patterns." Blockchain data analyzed by The Block Research previously identified signs of mixing transactions.




The “Mekotio” trojan went from conventional banking malware one fine-tuned to steal crypto.

According to a report published by cybersecurity firm ESET, the malware is known as “Mekotio” and has been active since approximately March 2018. Since then, threat actors have been continuously upgrading the capabilities and range of attack, mostly known by targeting over 51 banks.




Bitcoin’s (BTC) consistent failure to break the $9,400 level over the past three weeks has led to some analysts becoming skeptical about the chance of a positive breakout.

Although the $9,000 support has been holding strong for the past 50 days, any slightly negative indicator tends to get more attention from media and pundits. Recently, crypto media has focused on Bitcoin’s 25 % skew as proof that options traders are turning bearish in the short-term, but in reality there’s more to it than just interpreting signals from one data point.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




The former chief operating officer at disgraced payments firm Wirecard has reportedly transferred "significant sums" of bitcoin following his escape from Germany, according to reporting by a leading German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

Jan Marsalek was a key figure behind the breakdown of Germany-based Wirecard, which has made headlines for filing for insolvency and allegations of improper accounting tied to billions of dollars that went missing from its balance sheet. The transfer of bitcoin suggests Marsalek is now in Russia. As per German publication Handelsblatt, Marsalek has been missing for weeks and he "is said to have brought significant sums to Russia in the form of bitcoins from Dubai, where Wirecard had dubious operations" as per a translation of a Sunday evening report.




Payments giant PayPal is said to have partnered with Paxos Crypto Brokerage to launch its crypto service.

Paxos Crypto Brokerage was launched last week, with Revolut U.S. as its first client. The API-based brokerage service allows fintech firms to integrate crypto buying, selling, holding and sending capabilities into their own applications. Paxos handles all regulatory, technological, and liquidity aspects, while fintech firms take care of front-end experiences.




Barry Silbert, CEO of cryptocurrency investment firm Grayscale Investments and Digital Currency Group, believes the United States is past the point of no return for banning Bitcoin.

The CEO said relationships with regulators are much better off due to the effort made by groups including the Blockchain Association — a group speaking out in favor of many blockchain and crypto companies in front of the SEC — and Coin Center, a non-profit crypto advocacy group. Grayscale reported a substantial increase in the inflow of cryptocurrencies for Q2 2020, which totaled $905.8 million. This was up from $503.7 million in Q1.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




The government of South Korea has finalized its plan to charge a 20% tax on income generated from cryptocurrency transactions.

The country's Ministry of Economy and Finance amended its tax code on Wednesday, saying that an annual income of more than 2.5 million won (~$2,000) from crypto trading will be subject to a 20% tax for residents. Any income less than that amount will have no charge.




Bitbond, a Germany-based firm that provides blockchain enabled tokenization services, announced on Tuesday that it had become a member of the German bank association Bankenverband.

In an emailed announcement, the firm said that the bank association has already been working with initiatives like the digital euro, and BitBond would contribute its expertise in the tokenization and digital asset custody area through its membership. Bankenverband, or the Association of German Banks, represents about 200 commercial banks in the country. Back in February, BitBond said it had partnered with the Munich based bank, Bank von der Heydt, to help integrate blockchain technology with the bank’s established securitization services.




Leading NFT collectibles issuer Dapper Labs has announced a deal with Dr. Seuss Enterprises to launch tokenized collectibles depicting the firm’s iconic characters.

Dapper will sell digital packs of the crypto collectibles, allowing fans to assemble and curate NFT collections. Fans who assemble specific 'sets' of tokens will unlock exclusive content, and be able to access unique experiences beyond those offered by the purchasable packs.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




The CEO of a crypto firm that recently settled with the SEC over its 2017 ICO is suing T-Mobile over a series of SIM-swaps that resulted in the loss of $8.7 million worth of crypto.

According to filings published on July 22, the chief executive of crypto company Veritaseum, was first targeted by SIM-swappers during July 2017. Despite immediately reporting the incident to T-Mobile, Middleton claims to have been the victim of four successful SIM-swaps over the rest of 2017, and further attacks during 2018 and 2019.





Gibraltar Finance, the business development arm of Gibraltar’s government, will provide support to the forthcoming Post-COVID Hackathon.

Gibraltar Finance has been announced as an official partner of the upcoming Post-COVID Hackathon — a global, online initiative intended to create open-source solutions addressing the health, social and economic challenges posed by the post-COVID-19 era. The event is expected to see participation from hundreds of teams internationally building in the distributed ledger technology (DLT) sector, with over 200 industry experts slated to assist participants.




As real estate security tokens grow in popularity, tZERO has partnered with Aspen Digital to support trade in a five-star resort-backed token.

Leading security token exchange tZERO has partnered with Aspen Digital Inc. to enable trade for Aspen’s digital security. The ‘ASPEN’ token, previously dubbed ‘Aspen Coin’, represents $18 million worth of indirect ownership in the St. Regis Aspen Resort — a five-star, 179-room hotel situated in Colorado. ASPEN’s listing on tZERO comes as the popularity of real estate tokens continues to show steady growth.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Brave Browser takes the security and privacy of iPhones and iPads to the next level by partnering with Guardian, provider of VPN and Firewall services.

July 27, Brave Software partners with Guardian to bring greater levels of security and privacy to the iPhone and iPad users. This partnership will combine the privacy stack of the two companies — Brave’s privacy focused browser with Guardian’s VPN and firewall service. The iOS users of Brave Browser will be able with one click to turn on Brave Firewall + VPN that will protect the entire device from privacy intruding trackers.




China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) will be integrating with some of the most well-known public blockchains over the next 12 months.

He Yifan, CEO of Red Date Technology, the private company behind the BSN, told Cointelegraph that the network aims to integrate with 30–40 public blockchain networks by June 2021. In the following year, it will further integrate more blockchains to purportedly double that number. Launched in April, BSN is China’s first government-backed blockchain initiative that was initially positioned to help small to medium-size businesses and entrepreneurs build and deploy blockchain applications on permissioned blockchains. It has since registered 6,000 enterprises and individuals on the network.




Registered by Swiss crypto investment manager FiCAS, the new Bitcoin Capital Active ETP trades crypto without direct investor involvement.

Swiss SIX Exchange, one of the world’s largest stock exchanges, is listing a new cryptocurrency exchange-traded product, or ETP. Dubbed the “Bitcoin Capital Active ETP,” the new trading product represents an actively managed crypto ETP, trading Bitcoin (BTC) against 14 top altcoins like Ether (ETH) and exiting to fiat without active involvement from investors. Claimed to be the world’s first actively managed crypto ETP, the new product is now listed on SIX Exchange under index BTCA.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Bakkt breaks another record with more than 11,700 Bitcoin futures contracts traded on Tuesday.

Intercontinental Exchange subsidiary, Bakkt, is reporting record numbers of trades for its monthly Bitcoin futures contracts as BTC prices made a new high for the year. The institutional investing platform reported its highest ever figure for Bitcoin monthly futures on Jul. 28 with 11,506 contracts — an increase of 85% over the previous record. The move followed a surge in the underlying asset’s price to a 2020 high of $11,400.




New York investment bank Goldman Sachs is raising its price target for gold while sounding the alarm about risks to the U.S. dollar.

In a note to clients Tuesday, the bank reaffirmed its position of gold being "the currency of last resort" amid uncertain economic conditions, raising its price target for gold to $2,300 per ounce after a surge to record levels earlier this week. The bank tied the metal's rally to a "potential shift in the U.S. Fed towards an inflationary bias against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions, elevated U.S. domestic political and social uncertainty and a second wave of Covid-19 related infection."




Hackers have transferred roughly $38.7M out of $1.3B worth of Bitcoin from wallets connected to the infamous 2016 hack of crypto exchange Bitfinex.

Some of the 119,756 Bitcoin that was stolen from crypto exchange Bitfinex in 2016 has started moving again. According to a series of tweets posted by Whale Alert on July 27-28, wallet addresses known to be associated with one of the largest breaches ever of a crypto exchange moved 3503 Bitcoin (BTC) — worth roughly $38.7 million — over 12 transactions. The largest individual movement was of 476.32 BTC, or approximately $5.2 million, while the smallest was 2.612703 BTC, or $28,849.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




In a letter to investors released on July 29, Pantera Capital CEO Dan Morehead noted that the United States has printed a shocking amount of money to combat the pandemic-induced financial crisis.

“The United States printed more money in June than in the first two centuries after its founding,” Morehead wrote. “Last month the U.S. budget deficit — $864 billion — was larger than the total debt incurred from 1776 through the end of 1979.” Morehead made it clear that Pantera Capital sees Bitcoin as the solution for the current crisis. He also contrasted the effects of money printing in recent months, to how the equivalent amount of currency had performed across centuries.




Despite early hype, real estate tokenization has failed to garner significant momentum, leading some to question its future viability.

As the initial coin offering (ICO) boom subsided and the 2018 crypto bear trend began to set in, many analysts predicted that security tokens may drive the next market cycle — with the vast capital locked in the real estate sector being eyed hungrily for tokenization. However, with the Bitcoin halving, Ethereum 2.0, and the emergence of DeFi capturing the imagination of crypto markets recently, real estate tokenization is no longer the flavor of the month, and some are questioning its viability.




US GDP dropped a mammoth 32.9% in Q2, sharply contrasting with a cryptocurrency market that grew over the same timeframe.

The gross domestic product of the United States just had its worst quarter-to-quarter drop in history. But the economic slump hasn’t had an adverse effect on Bitcoin crypto. According to the US Department of Commerce’s Q2 report, US GDP fell 32.9% in Q2, the worst quarter-to-quarter change in the country’s history. The second worst plunge came in 1921, when GDP fell some 28%. For comparison, the most drastic hit to GDP during The Great Recession was in the ballpark of 8%.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Travala.com now offers a total of 3 million accommodation options users can book with cryptocurrency.

Online travel booking platform Travala.com has added one million new homes across 195 countries to its site with the release of a designated home bookings section called ‘Homes’. Holiday homes and apartments can be booked with over 30 different cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), and Travala.com’s native coin AVA.




ShareRing has launched an anonymous e-passport app with contact tracing in an effort to revive the $9 trillion global tourism industry.

Enterprise-focused blockchain company ShareRing has launched a blockchain based contact tracing solution it will offer to 2.6 million hotel and activity providers that currently use one of the company’s services. The anonymous e-passport app hopes to solve the privacy issues facing similar tracing apps. ShareRing’s app, which focuses on tourism’s $9 trillion tourism industry, allows users to upload important documentation, such as e-visa on arrival (eVOA), passport information, travel insurance, flight and accommodation bookings and a negative COVID-19 test result.




Bloomberg finds Ethreum’s bull run to be speculative while contending that Bitcoin’s appreciation is driven by fundamentals.

The report points out that Ethereum faces “plenty of competition from similar crypto platforms and about 6,000 tradable coins.” On the other hand, Bloomberg has remained consistently bullish about Bitcoin, noting its gold-like qualities and increased institutional demand. The success of the DeFi space has led to the appreciation of Ether, with some comparing it to the ICO boom. As more smart contract platforms mature, competition will only get tougher. When it comes to the world of professional investors, Ether does not have a clear selling point like Bitcoin’s limited supply.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




The Chinese academic sector is “seriously lagging” in terms of keeping up with demand for blockchain specialists.

As the blockchain industry keeps expanding across China, there are concerns that the academic sector is failing to keep up with demand for comprehensive, undergraduate, blockchain-related educational programs. The head of the Digital Economy Development Research Center at the Beijing-based Communication University of China, Sun Daojun, said the first batch of “blockchain graduates” will start courses later this year and complete their studies in 2024.




The Cannabinoid Association of the Netherlands has unveiled a blockchain-based CBD tracker for customers to trace a product’s journey from seed-to-sale.

Cannabidiol users concerned about the quality of their product in the EU can now trace the plant’s journey from when it was first planted in the fields to when it was sold in retail stores. An Aug. 6 statement from the Cannabinoid Association of the Netherlands (CAN) revealed it would make a blockchain tool — CanCheck — free for consumers to track cannabidiol (CBD) products in the EU online. HempFlax, one of the group’s founding members, and Europe’s largest independent grower and processor of industrial hemp, will be one of the first to offer traceable CAN products.




A new analysis suggests the token supplies for most DeFi projects are not widely distributed, with up to 99% held by the top 500 addresses.

Token supplies for most decentralized finance (DeFi) projects are not widely distributed according to an analysis by the co-founder of DeFi Italy and Head of CryptoLab’s Digital Assets Investments Simone Conti. He compiled data from Defi Pulse and Etherscan that suggests that 90% of tokens for almost all DeFi projects are held by the top 500 addresses. For three of the projects, that figure rises to 99%.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Researchers at the Black Hat security conference revealed that crypto exchanges might be vulnerable to hackers. Although crypto exchanges have high privacy and security to protect their funds, researchers still found three ways hackers can attack these crypto exchanges, according to Wired on August 9.

Aumasson, a cryptographer, and Omer Shlomovits, cofounder of the key-management firm KZen Networks broke down the attacks into three categories: an insider attack, an attack exploiting the relationship between an exchange and a customer, and an extraction of portions of secret keys.




Blockchain and crypto data platform LongHash revealed on August 8 in a tweet that China’s blockchain sector has grown substantially despite the pandemic this year. It stated that over 10,000 blockchain companies were established between January and July.

The report also shows the current number of blockchain-related companies in China is on track to surpass 2017’s total figure. LongHash said 2020 could also pass 2018’s total of 18,500 and for a new all-time high.




The president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, who once claimed the Federal Reserve was flush with cash, called for a nationwide lockdown to fight COVID-19.

In an op-ed in The New York Times, Neel Kashkari and co-writer Michael T. Osterholm of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota said a more restrictive lockdown of up to six weeks is necessary to fight the virus and save the economy.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




In a Cointelegraph interview, director of IBM financial services and digital assets, Nitin Gaur, shared how the technology company is helping financial institutions to capitalize on the DeFi movement.

Gaur — the author of Blockchain for Business — says it is essential that banks understand and embrace DeFi space. DeFi presents a set of regulatory challenges to financial institutions and IBM believes it can help their clients navigate it. However, most financial institutions are still in early exploratory stages when it comes to DeFi, and are stuck at the crossroads between true decentralized finance and just digitizing traditional securities. Regardless, Gaur foresees an entry “of the large banks, starting with investment banks.”




With sentiment suggesting Bitcoin and the crypto markets are about to go on a bull run, seasoned old timers are warning about the lessons learned from previous rallies.

With Bitcoin correcting 5% in the past day, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index is back to 75. A measure of sentiment that looks at the volatility, market volume and social media activity of digital, a reading of 75 equates to “greed”, down slightly from 84 — or “extreme greed” on Aug. 10. But either way expectations are high of boom times ahead.




Bitcoin acts more like a tech startup stock than digital gold — with investors reaping big rewards if it works but potentially losing everything if the crypto asset fails.

That’s the conclusion of an Aug. 10 report from digital asset manager CoinShares titled A Little Bitcoin Goes a Long Way. In it authors James Butterfill and Christopher Bendiksen argue that the fact Bitcoin (BTC) “starting its life at a price of zero” gave it a stellar reputation.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




The global P2P markets are pumping, with numerous African and Latin American markets touching new all-time highs for volume.

Combined global peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin trading volumes have surged to their highest levels since January 2018, with nearly $95 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) changing hands on Localbitcoins and Paxful in the first week of August. The spike comes as many Latin American markets have seen trade activity rally into new highs over recent weeks, with the Bitcoin P2P markets in Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, Honduras, Paraguay, Uruguay and The Bahamas all posting record highs since the start of July.




A proposed capital gains tax cut could be good news for crypto traders in the U.S.

A proposed tax cut by U.S. President Donald Trump could be a big win — or a relatively insignificant win — for the crypto industry if it is passed. There is a debate over the extent of President Trump’s ability to deliver tax cuts. The long term capital gains rate of 20% is primarily governed by Congress, so to deliver a big cut he’d need to get lawmakers on side via negotiation.




Yam Finance uncovered a bug the day after ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees called the project a scam.

Yam finance (YAM), the latest fad in the crypto space, recently warned the public of a technical bug affecting the ecosystem. As the decentralized finance, or DeFi, crypto boom continues, something called yield farming has come into the spotlight. Yield farming is essentially the latest passive income fad in crypto. Yam has risen to the top of conversation recently as the headline act in the yield farming sector.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Bitcoin’s seven-day average hash rate passes 129 TH/s for the first time as the price continues to meet resistance at the $12K level.

Data from Blockchain.com confirms that on Aug. 15, Bitcoin’s seven-day average hash rate reached a new peak of 129.075 TH/s. The achievement comes after two weeks of fairly stagnant hash rate growth, with the previous record set on July 28. Bitcoin and gold may prove to have a stronger correlation in 2020 as many investors turn away from traditional finance during the Federal Reserve’s and other central banks’ response to the pandemic.




Asian countries have found ways to use blockchain amid the pandemic.

The Corona pandemic prompted many Asian countries to adopt blockchain technology to secure their data via the Internet against hackers and cyber thieves, according to a report from the Nikkei Asian Review. This increase in adoption comes as The Business Research Company said the global blockchain market is expected to hit $15.88 billion in 2023.




Bitcoins Are Being Tokenized Faster Than They’re Mined as DeFi Craze Continues

Since Sunday, 1,043 more bitcoins were tokenized through Wrapped Bitcoin than were actually created by bitcoin miners as the Ethereum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) boom shows no signs of abating. About 900 bitcoins are mined per day, given the current issuance rate of 6.25 bitcoins minted per block and the target 10-minute block time. At last check, nearly 31,000 bitcoins have been tokenized on Ethereum, according to Dune Analytics, 75% of which were minted by Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso suggested blockchain would be key in the world’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic as the technology can be used for contact tracing while ensuring privacy.

Aso gave the opening remarks for the Blockchain Global Governance Conference, also known as the FIN/SUM Blockchain & Business, on Aug. 24 in Tokyo. There are almost 24 million COVID-19 cases around the world, with more than 60,000 in Japan. Despite the topic of Aso’s speech, a limited number of people were allowed to physically attend the blockchain conference, with others watching speakers through livestream coverage.




Blockchain data storage and privacy start-up Sharder wants to increase its data storage space as it looks to provide the storage hub for the Island blockchain application.

The new application, called Boxes, punches up Sharder’s storage by an additional 96 terabytes. It’s current storage hub currently handles 32 terabytes. Sharder provides secure storage of files across multiple blockchains. Data is encrypted and then split into fragments before being distributed to different nodes. The company said its model ensures data is more secured this way. It also allows for easier authentication and validation of data.




Tachyon Protocol, a blockchain-based network set up by proof-of-stake creator Sunny King, reported its decentralized virtual private network, or VPN, reached 1 million users worldwide last week after only six months.

The VPN has seen tremendous growth since May when Cointelegraph reported it reached 100,000 users. According to the website, Tachyon VPN allows users to bypass internet activity restrictions. It provides many features such as a P2P network without central nodes, multi-path routing to prevent single-point attacks, protocol simulation to disguise traffic in transit and free access to Facebook, Netflix, Spotify, and other platforms.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




The United States Postal Service, or USPS, recently filed a patent for a mail-in voting system that utilizes Blockchain and other technologies for verification.

Soto described the USPS's blockchain patent as timely, although he said he did not know whether or not it will come into play in time for the 2020 presidential election. “Certainly I could see it being utilized very soon, over the next couple of election cycles,” he said.




DLT supply chain firm Everledger is partnering with local Chinese diamond sellers to ensure customers only receive genuine gemstones.

In an Aug. 25 announcement, Everledger, a global digital registry for diamonds, said it would be working with Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com as well as the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to implement a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based supply chain capable of verifying the authenticity of individual stones.




The crypto price surge since March has been accompanied by a wave of cryptojacking attacks according to new research published by cybersecurity firm Symantec.

According to the company there was a 163% increase in browser-based cryptojacking activity in the second quarter of 2020. Cryptojacking had previously been in a steep decline from March 2019 due to the shutdown of the mining script maker, CoinHive. Symantec points out the increase in the last quarter coincided with a surge in the value of Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR), two cryptocurrencies often mined by the threat actors that rely on browser-based cryptojacking malware.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Turkish football club Trabzonspor is the latest team to issue their own fan tokens using the Blockchain voting and rewards app, Socios.com, which will be available via the Chiliz exchange.

According to the announcement, $TRA token holders will be able to vote in various polls and earn rewards for their engagement with the football club. Rewards could include VIP stadium attendee status, and even the ability to meet with players once the COVID-19 pandemic has passed. Socios’ app will also enable users to compete to become the #1 fan in their region or country.




A group of North Korean hackers is engaged in a massive campaign targeting U.S. financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges around the world — with U.S. authorities warning of the high level of threat it poses to the country.

According to an alert issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), agencies including the FBI, the U.S. Cyber Command, and the Department of the Treasury are moinotiring the resurgence of the North Korea-sponsored hacking group, BeagleBoyz. The hackers have not been as active in the last few years as the notorious Lazarus Group – another hacking group from the hermit regime. However, they are reportedly responsible for stealing $2 billion since at least 2015, mostly related to “lucrative cryptocurrency thefts,” said the U.S. DHS.




Framework Labs, the sister company of Framework Ventures, has raised $8 million in a new seed round.

Station 13, an investment firm focusing on blockchain ventures related to sports, media, and entertainment, led the $8 million fundraising round for Framework Labs. Framework will use the funds to grow its team of researchers, traders, and engineers. The company has already hired former CTO and co-founder of decentralized exchange IDEX Ray Pulver and former principal at Wavemaker Partners Roy Learner. According to an Aug. 27 report from Forbes, Framework Labs founders Michael Anderson and Vance Spencer have developed a new investment model called Network Capital to invest in DeFi companies at multiple stages.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Blockchain security firm Quantstamp has published a security review of hyped DeFi protocol SushiSwap, identifying ten issues with the platform.

The good news is the issues with the Uniswap fork aren’t likely to be fatal — unlike the critical bug that took out YFI clone YAM after 48 hours. The researchers identified two medium risk, three low risk, and five informational issues with the code. Among the concerns identified were errors failing to prevent the same liquidity provider token from being added more than once — risking disruptions to reward variables; a vulnerability potentially allowing funds to be stolen from the platform should the owner’s private key become compromised; and an issue that could result in the protocols ‘massUpdatePools’ running out of gas.




Cybersecurity experts at ESET published an in-depth study about a new malware named “KryptoCibule.”

This exploit specifically targets Windows users with three methods of attack, including by installing a crypto mining app, directly stealing crypto wallet files, and replacing copy/pasted wallet addresses as a means to hijack individual transactions. According to the cybersecurity firm, KryptoCibule’s developers rely on the Tor network and BitTorrent protocol to coordinate the attacks.




A U.S. circuit court has concluded its review of a terrorism financing case that begin in 2010, saying that the NSA's phone tapping was illegal but that it was a minor part of the evidence.

In the final decision on a criminal case that began a decade ago, an appellate court has said that the National Security Agency’s phone data collection practices were in fact illegal. They did, however, uphold the convictions in the case. The court continued to attack the program, writing that the government’s case neglects that “the collection of millions of other people’s telephony metadata, and the ability to aggregate and analyze it, makes the collection of Moalin’s own metadata considerably more revealing.”


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Tesla and Bitcoin price surged higher after recovering from a sharp correction, leading analysts to take a closer look at the BTC to S&P 500 correlation.

On Sept. 9 the price of Tesla stock surged 10.92% after undergoing a 21% plunge earlier in the day. Coincidentally, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) also soared by nearly 5% in the past 24 hours. In the past several days, the correlation between Bitcoin and stocks has increased once again. Data from Skew shows the 1-month correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 surged from 18% to around 55%.




The Committee on Energy and Commerce has just approved two pieces of legislation to spur more in-depth analysis of blockchain technology in government, clearing the way for their vote in the House of Representatives.

In an online debate moderated by Chamber of Digital Commerce founder Perianne Boring on Sept. 9, Democratic Representative of Florida’s 9th District Darren Soto announced that after “nearly two years of pushing,” the Committee on Energy and Commerce had passed the Digital Taxonomy Act. In addition, the committee approved the American COMPETE Act. Both pieces of legislation will now go to the main floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote.




Revolut, a major European cryptocurrency-friendly trading application is expanding to another major market.

The London-based firm has launched its digital banking app in Japan, as Revolut announced in a Sept. 8 tweet. According to a report by The Nikkei, Japan is the first non-English speaking market for Revolut. Headquartered in London, the company reportedly has 13 million users worldwide, operating in European countries, the United States, Australia and Singapore.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Finance ministers from five European countries have called on the EU Commission to issue regulation for stablecoins as well as sanctions for providers that break the rules.

Ministers from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands told the Commission that stablecoins regulation was needed to protect consumers and preserve the bloc's monetary sovereignty from Big Tech firms, according to Reuters. In a joint statement at the Bundesbank Conference Friday, ministers said private stablecoin providers needed to adhere to European regulation and should not be allowed to operate in the bloc if they fall below a certain standard.




A new group seeking to promote research and support blockchain firms has been formed.

The Ticino Blockchain Technologies Association was launched with the participation of the University of Southern Switzerland, also known as the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI), and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI). The group’s goal is to support research and companies in the blockchain sector and promote academic studies of the technology. Other founding members are Bitcoin.com, Copernicus Holdings, Eligma, Euronovate, Eventboost, Pangea Blockchain Fund, Poseidon Group, the Quadrans Foundation, StrongBlock.io, Superflat and the Swiss Blockchain Consortium.




Jameson Lopp, co-founder and CTO of Casa, a crypto custody firm has released a test result report on Bitcoin multi-signature hardware signing performance on the Casa blog on Sep. 13.

The result shows that hardware crypto wallet devices can handle small, simple transactions well. However, they have trouble performing once the transaction becomes complicated. Casa is said to be built upon geographically distributed multisig, dedicated hardware devices to secure keys, designed user experience, and client services.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Bakkt Bitcoin futures smashes daily volume record by 36%. Despite the milestone, Bakkt’s future volumes pale in comparison to those of top crypto exchanges Binance and Huobi.

Bakkt, a regulated platform for crypto asset custody and trading owned by Intercontinental Exchange, has reported record daily trading volumes for its physically-settled Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts. On September 16, Bakkt announced that more than $200 million worth of BTC contracts had been traded over a single day — breaking its previous record by 36%.




Yam is gearing up for its V3 release later this week after undergoing a security audit from PeckShield.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Yam Finance is relaunching on September 18. Yam Finance V2, a fork of Compound (COMP) featuring a native token with an elastic supply, burst onto the DeFi scene last month — garnering more than half a billion in assets from yield farmers within 24 hours of launching. However, the unaudited V2 of Yam Finance came to a dramatic conclusion when a catastrophic bug caused excessive reserves to be minted which rendered it impossible for governance to be executed.




DeFi could fall under regulatory pressure if it is seen as a haven for money laundering.

The rapid growth in decentralized finance and yield farming is likely to attract greater regulatory attention according to a recent report. A joint research paper by global management consulting firm BCG Platinion and Crypto.com has indicated that the rapid growth in DeFi in 2020 has created the potential for money laundering which will bring it under the radar of regulatory authorities. Since the beginning of the year, the dollar value of crypto collateral locked across DeFi platforms has increased over 1200% to reach $9 billion according to data provider DeFi Pulse.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




A CoinGecko survey has found that the majority of yield farmers do not understand the smart contracts underpinning the DeFi protocols they use.

The majority of yield farmers do not understand how to read the potentially risky smart contracts that underpin the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem — but that hasn’t stopped them making huge profits. Crypto market data aggregator CoinGecko has published its findings from a survey of 1,347 of its users about yield farming, finding that 93% of respondents claim to have reaped a financial return of at least 500%.




Ethereum’s correction triggered a DeFi-token collapse which resulted in YFI and UNI dropping by 46%.

After outperforming Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) strongly in August, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) tokens are now plummeting as many registered losses of up to 50%. At the moment, the two coins garnering the most attention are Yearn.finance (YFI) and Uniswap (UNI) as both have dropped by 46% and 48% since reaching a monthly peak.




Brazil’s Hashdex is teaming up with Nasdaq to bring the world’s first Bitcoin ETF to the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

Regulated Brazilian fund manager Hashdex has inked a deal with Nasdaq to launch the world’s first crypto asset exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX).


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:




Bitcoin’s realized capitalization has soared above its 2017 record high

Crypto market data aggregator Glassnode has published data indicating that Bitcoin’s (BTC) realized capitalization has increased by more than 50% since tagging its all-time high of $20,000 at the end of 2017. Bitcoin’s realized cap currently sits at $115 billion — $43 billion more than at the all-time high in 2017.




Bears lurk as Bitcoin price is down and $284M in CME BTC options are set to expire on Friday

As of now, the $622 million total open interest for BTC futures expiry on Friday seems quite relevant. This Friday, a total of $100 million in CME Bitcoin (BTC) options are set to expire. 58% of these are call (buy) options, meaning buyers can acquire BTC futures at a fixed price.




Bloomberg suggests that Bitcoin should be $15,000 according to this adoption metric

Their belief seems to be that Bitcoin is destined to appreciate unless these key indicators reverse themselves. According to the Bloomberg crypto newsletter, a key on-chain indicator suggests that Bitcoin (BTC) is currently greatly undervalued. Bloomberg’s crypto analyst Mike McGlone believes that the recent all-time highs in Bitcoin’s hashrate and more importantly, the 30-day average of active Bitcoin addresses, suggests a $15,000 price level for the asset.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zank]

News of the cryptocurrency market:





The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has remained relatively flat for September and the strong decline in altcoin and DeFi token prices seems to be making the situation worse for many investors.

Despite this lack of bullish momentum, on-chain data reveals that new participants are joining the Bitcoin network at an alarming rate. Although the price has failed to react to the sharp inflow of new participants, on-chain analyst Willy Woo believes that this is a strongly bullish sign.




The first debate of the 2020 U.S. presidential election had no clear winner, but crypto-powered prediction platforms are having a field day.

Election futures on crypto derivatives exchange FTX boomed, with the platform’s CEO reporting more than $4 million in open interest trying to pick the winner between Democrat Joe Biden, and Republican Donald Trump. On FTX, Trump’s brash debate performance got a big thumbs down and drove a 10% crash in the price of futures contracts backing his re-election.




MyEtherWallet’s founder used to pay his rent by mining Bitcoin

Kosala Hemachandra, founder and CEO of crypto asset storage platform, MyEtherWallet, mined Bitcoin as a way to pay his Los Angeles rent between 2014-2015. When it came time to pay his bills, he would convert his coins into cash to facilitate the actual transaction.


Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!