Author: Jody McDonald

Jody is a Brisbane-based freelance writer who specialises in writing about business, technology, and the future of work.

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Binance Blockchain Crypto News Markets Social media Steem

Social Blockchain Token STEEM Explodes 60% Following Major Exchange Listings

Steem (STEEM), the native cryptocurrency of the social media-focused Steem blockchain, has surged over 60 percent following an announcement from Binance that the exchange would start offering a STEEM/USDT trading pair from April 22.

Immediately following the announcement, before Binance even listed STEEM, its price went virtually vertical, surging from US$0.36 to $US0.56 in just a few hours. Once trading began on Binance, STEEM’s price increased further to $US0.61 – an overall gain of over 60 percent. 

What is the Steem Blockchain?

Steem blockchain was created in 2016 by Ned Scott, co-founder of BitShares, and Daniel Larimar, lead developer of the EOS blockchain. Steem aims to reward people who actively contribute content on social media. It incentivises constructive participation on social platforms by providing a non-censorable monetisation layer that rewards creators of digital content with cryptocurrency.  

The flagship platform running on Steem is Steemit, a Reddit-like social blogging platform that offers users crypto rewards based on participation. There are currently more than 400 social media applications actively using the Steem blockchain.

STEEM Price Action Since Binance Listing

In the days since its Binance listing, STEEM retraced most of its gains, bottoming out at around US$0.40 before again surging in the past two days. At the time of writing the price of STEEM was sitting at US$0.56, around 54 percent higher than its pre-listing price – making it the 254th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.

According to data from CoinGecko, STEEM’s price is still down 93.1 percent from its all-time high of US$8.19, which it hit on January 3, 2018, at the height of the 2017-18 bull run, indicating there may still be considerable room for price growth in the medium to long term.

STEEM’s price surge on the back of a major exchange listing is a familiar story. For example, in December Measurable Data Token (MDT) gained 90 percent in a single day after its Coinbase Pro listing; similarly, IDEX surged over 85 percent in December after it was listed on Huobi.

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Crypto Exchange Education NFTs Zipmex

Zipmex Partners NRL and A-League Teams to ‘Boost Crypto Literacy’

Singapore-based crypto exchange Zipmex has partnered with Australian National Rugby League (NRL) premiership club Penrith Panthers and A-League football club Central Coast Mariners to elevate sports fans’ crypto literacy and expand the exchange’s customer base.

The partnership also includes some smaller community sports clubs – Wyong Rugby League Football Club, also based on the NSW Central Coast, along with Penrith Brothers RLFC and soccer club Penrith Rovers, both based in western Sydney.

Focus on Crypto Education and Giveaways

The partnership will focus on educating the clubs’ fans and members about cryptocurrency by running a series of workshops aimed at crypto newbies.

Zipmex plans to have a regular presence at home games for both the Penrith Panthers and Central Coast Mariners, manning information booths, running giveaways of up to A$500 in BTC, and creating NFTs of high-profile players.

The community-based clubs will see similar types of engagement and education, presumably on a smaller scale.

Zipmex Pushing to Grow its Share of Australian Market

These partnerships form part of Zipmex’s recent push to raise its profile and grow its share of the Australian crypto exchange market. 

The exchange has launched several new products into the Australian market recently, including ZipUp, its high-yield, no lock-in staking program, introduced earlier this month. In March the exchange also partnered with New Venture Wealth to offer Australians the opportunity to hold crypto in their self-managed super funds.

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Australia Bitcoin DeFi Ethereum Market Analysis

Australians Made $2.1 Billion in Gains from Crypto in 2021

Australians realised US$2.1 billion in crypto gains in the 2021 calendar year, putting Australia in 17th place globally for annual realised crypto gains, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

Globally, gains were up more than five-fold compared to the previous year, increasing from US$32.5 billion in 2020 to US$162.7 billion in 2021, with the US seeing the most gains by a wide margin:

Many Countries Record Increases of 400-500%

This is the first year that Chainalysis has reported annual gain data on cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin (BTC), so it’s hard to draw direct comparisons – but based on the BTC data, it appears gains in Australia are up around 5x, which is in line with similar economies around the world. In 2020, Australia saw around US$0.2 billion in BTC gains, while in 2021 this figure was close to US$1 billion.

Many other countries saw similar increases: the US recorded growth of 476 percent, from US$8.1 billion to US$47.0 billion; UK gains grew 431 percent; and gains in Germany were up 423 percent.

China’s gains increased from US$1.7 billion to US$5.1 billion, a modest gain of 194 percent. This relatively subdued growth is most likely a reflection of the Chinese government’s crackdown on crypto activity over the past year.

Majority of Gains From Ethereum

On a per-crypto basis, the majority of realised gains globally came from Ethereum at US$76.3 billion, with Bitcoin coming in second at US$74.7 billion.

Crypto gains by country by coin. Source: Chainalysis

Chainalysis attributes Ethereum’s dominance to the explosion in DeFi in 2021, saying:

We believe this reflects increased demand for Ethereum as the result of DeFi’s rise in 2021, as most DeFi protocols are built on the Ethereum blockchain and use Ethereum as their primary currency.

Chainalysis

Good Signs for Crypto

Chainalysis believes its data shows that crypto is in a vigorous growth phase and suggests it still represents a good economic opportunity moving forward, explaining:

While there are still risks the industry must work to mitigate, the data not only shows that crypto asset prices are growing, but also that cryptocurrency remains a source of economic opportunity for users in emerging markets.

Chainalysis

The crypto environment in Australia in particular looks bright, with increased regulatory clarity on the way and numerous crypto ETFs set to launch in the coming weeks.

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Crypto News Payments Polygon Social media

Stripe Tests New Crypto Payments Product Using Twitter and Polygon

Global payment processing giant Stripe has introduced crypto payouts to its Stripe Connect service, partnering with Twitter to pilot the technology before expanding it to other platforms in coming weeks.

The pilot will allow select creators who use Twitter’s monetisation features – such as Ticketed Spaces and Super Follows – to be paid for their content and receive their payouts in crypto via the Polygon network. Stripe has chosen to use the Ethereum scaling solution as the first network to process its crypto payments because of its “low fees, high speed, integration with Ethereum and broad wallet compatibility”.

Initially, Stripe will only support payments in the USDC stablecoin, but this will presumably expand in future as the technology matures and grows beyond Twitter.

Aim is to Streamline Traditional Payment Systems

In the announcement, Stripe’s product manager of crypto, Karan Sharma, cited the complexity and heterogeneity of traditional payment systems as a key factor in the decision to integrate crypto payments into Stripe Connect:

While we are continuously expanding our geographic coverage, many countries remain out of reach in part due to the intrinsic complexity involved in supporting heterogeneous local payments systems. Unfortunately, this makes participation in the online economy harder for many of those who stand to benefit most.

Karan Sharma, Stripe product manager, crypto

Stripe to Handle ‘Crypto-Related Complexity’

Twitter already uses Stripe Connect to handle payouts to creators, so the addition of crypto payments should be smooth. 

Stripe will handle all the “crypto-related complexity and operations” and no code changes will be required by Twitter. Nor will it have to worry about acquiring, storing or transferring crypto – Stripe will handle all of these functions. In addition, Stripe will perform all the required Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.

Stripe plans to support crypto payouts via Stripe Connect in more than 120 countries by the end of 2022.

Twitter Expands Range of Payments

Twitter is enthusiastic about offering creators more payment options and potentially expanding the range of users who can take advantage of its monetisation products:

As the Elon Musk takeover is now confirmed, this news marks the latest move by Twitter towards greater crypto adoption, having already rolled out Bitcoin tipping and Ethereum tipping for creators in the past few months.

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Blockchain DeFi Stablecoins TRON

Tron to Launch an Algorithmic Stablecoin Backed by $10 Billion in Crypto

Tron CEO Justin Sun has announced his plan to launch a decentralised algorithmic stablecoin known as Decentralised USD (USDD) on the Tron blockchain, scheduled for May 5.

Tron CEO Justin Sun. Source: azcoinnews.com

Unlike traditional stablecoins such as Tether (USDT), which already runs on Tron, USDD will supposedly be “fully decentralised” – it won’t be backed by centralised assets held in traditional financial institutions such as banks, but will depend on algorithms to keep its peg to the US dollar.

Tron’s ‘Self-Imposed Revolution’ 

Sun characterised the plan as a “self-imposed revolution”, going on to describe USDD as “a fully decentralised stablecoin underpinned by mathematics and algorithms, bringing the development of stablecoins to the next level”.

He explained how he envisions USDD maintaining its peg to the US dollar even in the face of extreme market conditions:

USDD will be pegged to the underlying asset, TRX, and issued in a decentralised manner. When USDD’s price is lower than 1 USD, users and arbitrageurs can send 1 USDD to the system and receive 1 USD worth of TRX. When USDD’s price is higher than 1 USD, users and arbitrageurs can send 1 USD worth of TRX to the decentralised system and receive 1 USDD. Regardless of market volatility, the USDD protocol will keep USDD stable at 1:1 against the US dollar via proper algorithms in a decentralised manner.

Justin Sun, CEO, Tron

Tron DAO to Establish US$10 Billion Reserve, Offer 30% Interest Rate

In a related announcement, Sun explained that Tron DAO, the decentralised autonomous organisation created to manage USDD, will establish the Tron DAO Reserve, which aims to raise US$10 billion from unnamed “prominent blockchain industry players”. This plan closely mirrors a recent announcement from Terra founder Do Kwon, who outlined his intention to acquire US$10 billion in BTC to act as a reserve for Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin, UST.

Sun said that the purpose of the Tron DAO Reserve would be to “safeguard the overall blockchain industry and crypto market, prevent panic trading caused by financial crises, and mitigate severe and long-term economic downturns”.

Sun added that Tron DAO Reserve would offer a “basic risk-free” interest rate of 30 percent, which surprised some Twitter users who considered it unrealistically high and unsustainable:

Announcement Sparks Gains and Scepticism

According to CoinGecko, TRON’s native token TRX gained about 18 percent following the announcement, hitting a high of US$0.074. TRX has since lost about half those gains and sits at US$0.067 at the time of writing.

While the announcement sparked investor interest, not everyone was convinced. Several Twitter users pointed out that the Tron blockchain itself isn’t exactly leading the way on decentralisation. Others pointed out that the plan resembled a poor man’s version of Terra’s UST being run by a guy with a less than stellar reputation:

Terra’s UST is the most popular algorithmic stablecoin in current circulation: UST flipped Binance USD to become the third-largest stablecoin by market cap earlier this week.

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Bored Ape Yacht Club Markets Mutant Ape Yacht Club Tokens

APE Token Pumps 55% Following Rumours of Land Drop Going Viral

The price of ApeCoin (APE) has exploded 55 percent following Twitter speculation that holders of the token would be able to purchase land in the Otherside metaverse MMORPG via a Dutch auction land sale.

Since the morning of April 18, APE has surged from its recent low of US$11.05 to a high of US$17.30 on April 21. According to CoinGecko, at the time of writing APE had retraced its gains slightly and was trading at US$15.95.

A Tale of Two Tweets

The APE buying frenzy has been driven by speculation that holders will have access to land in the Otherside metaverse MMORPG, which is currently being developed by the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Yuga Labs.

Rumours had been circulating online since April 18, but two tweets in particular sparked investor interest. The first, tweeted a day later by a user known as ‘WillyTheDegen’, suggested that holders of the Yuga Labs-created NFTs BAYC and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) would be airdropped land in Otherside:

The second tweet, posted on April 20 by ‘renegademasterr’, stated that Yuga Labs would be running a Dutch auction – where the starting price is high and bids get gradually lower – to sell Otherside land using APE as the purchasing currency:

This surge illustrates just how fickle the crypto market can sometimes be, driven by social media chatter and a healthy dose of FOMO.

APE Has Had a Turbulent Time

Since launching in March 2022, APE has been quite a volatile asset, even by crypto standards. On its first day of trading the token plunged 80 percent from its all-time high of US$39.40, and early this month it fell 20 percent following a hack on the related BAYC Discord servers.

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Australia Banking Scams Social media

Commonwealth Bank Issues Scam Alert Over False Crypto Platform Partnership Report

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) issued a scam alert this week to notify the public about a false article circulating on social media sites such as Facebook that claims the bank has partnered with a crypto trading platform. 

CBA emphasises that the claims made in the story are “totally false and untrue”.

The fake story purports to be from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and is designed to exploit people’s trust in, and familiarity with, CBA’s brand and convince them to click through to the scammer’s website. Once on the scammer’s website, users are asked to enter personal information and transfer money.

CBA encourages anyone who receives the scam article through any channel – be it social media, email or text message – not to respond or click on any associated links.

In addition to warning its customers directly, the CBA has reported the scam to all relevant authorities and has asked social media sites to remove the story from their platforms.

CBA’s Genuine Interest in Crypto May Confuse Readers

The scammers may have chosen to use the CBA brand in their fake news story partly because the bank has been particularly enthusiastic about crypto of late.

Last month, CBA said it intended to invest heavily in crypto-related services and just weeks ago its crypto trading app, the first offered by an Australian bank, was delayed due to regulatory hurdles following a successful beta.

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Crypto Wallets MetaMask Scams

MetaMask Issues Phishing Attack Security Alert for iPhone Users

Software-based crypto wallet MetaMask has warned its users on Apple devices that their assets may be at risk from an iCloud-related phishing scam. 

MetaMask tweeted out the alert on April 18, stating that users of Apple devices should ensure their Apple ID password is “strong enough” and providing instructions for disabling iCloud backups:

The alert comes after a Twitter user known as revive_dom reported losing US$650,000 of digital assets to the scam.

iCloud Stores MetaMask Seed Phrase 

The crucial vulnerability the scammers exploited is that, by default, iCloud backs up the MetaMask seed phrase and stores it digitally online. 

This means that if a MetaMask user on an Apple device hasn’t specifically turned off iCloud backups and a scammer can gain access to the user’s iCloud account, the scammer has full access to the digital assets stored in that user’s MetaMask wallet.

Classic Phishing Scam with a Twist

The details of how the scam was carried out against revive_dom were tweeted by Twitter user Serpent, who is also the founder of the NFT project DAPE: 

Essentially, the scammers raised the user’s suspicions by triggering numerous iCloud password reset attempts, which made it appear as though someone was trying to maliciously access the user’s iCloud account. 

The scammers then called the user from a spoofed number, which made them appear to be from Apple support. After the scammers established trust, the user mistakenly told them the two-factor authentication code to reset their iCloud password. The scammers then had full control of the user’s iCloud account and MetaMask wallet and stole all the user’s assets.

Scam Highlights Hot Wallet Security Risks

Most Twitter users have been supportive of revive_dom and other victims of this scam, but many have also emphasised the inherent risks of storing your assets on a hot wallet such as MetaMask and have suggested victims should have been using cold wallets such as Ledger and Trezor:

MetaMask is a popular software wallet in the Ethereum ecosystem. It has made news recently for adding a feature that allows iOS users to purchase crypto directly through the MetaMask mobile app using a debit or credit card, and for blocking users from some countries, such as Iran and Venezuela, from accessing their wallets.

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Australia Bitcoin ETFs Investing Regulation

Australian Crypto ETF Stalled by High Collateral Requirements

The creation of Australian-based spot Bitcoin ETFs is being hampered by what some fund managers regard as excessively high collateral requirements being imposed by traditional clearing houses. 

High collateral obligations mean many clearing participants are reluctant to agree to trade Bitcoin ETFs, with only three out of 35 acceding to the requirements. The ASX’s internal, independent clearing house, ASX Clear, requires at least four to get involved before Bitcoin ETFs can be made available to investors.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs are backed by actual Bitcoin, as opposed to Bitcoin Futures ETFs which are backed by Bitcoin Futures contracts. Generally, crypto futures ETFs have faced lower regulatory hurdles and are therefore currently more common, but spot ETFs have several advantages that make them more attractive to many investors.

High Collateral Costs Intended to Offset Risk

ASX Clear sets collateral requirements for different investment products based on risk. Following an assessment of the risks and volatility of Bitcoin, ASX Clear decided that a Bitcoin ETF would require a 42 percent margin to be lodged against each trade, which is very high compared to other investment products.

To get a sense of just how high these collateral requirements are, the BetaShares Crypto Innovators ETF, which invests not in cryptocurrencies but in 34 companies involved in the digital asset industry, faces collateral requirements of under 15 percent.

Speaking to the Australian Financial Review, the ASX’s chief risk officer Hamish Treleaven explained the high requirements:

In all of our decision-making on this we have remained focused on appropriate risk management for the clearing house – that’s our regulatory obligation.

Hamish Treleaven, chief risk officer, Australian Securities Exchange

Lucrative Prize Awaits First Bitcoin ETF

There are currently several fund managers racing to launch the first Australian Bitcoin ETF, including Betashares, Cosmos Assets Management, ETF Securities, Monochrome Asset Management and VanEck Australia. 

ETF Securities announced its planned launch of Australia’s first spot Bitcoin ETF last year, but like those of all such products, this has been delayed due to regulatory issues.

Many in the industry believe the first fund to launch could attract over A$1 billion of capital, with some predicting over A$100 million could pour in on launch day alone – more than double the funds BetaShares Crypto Innovators ETF attracted on its first day of trade last November.

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Banking Crime Crypto News Ethereum

ETH Developer Virgil Griffith Sentenced to 5 Years for North Korea Crypto Trip

A New York US Federal Court judge has sentenced former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith to 63 months in prison and fined him $US100,000 for speaking at a 2019 crypto conference in North Korea and teaching North Koreans how to use crypto to evade US sanctions.

After initially protesting his innocence, Griffith eventually pleaded guilty to the charge of violating presidential executive orders designed to exclude the North Korean regime from the international banking system as punishment for repeatedly threatening to launch nuclear weapons against the US.

Following Early Support, Seriousness Becomes Clear

Many in the crypto community initially considered the charges against Griffith an overreaction. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, for one, signed an online petition to free Griffith in 2019 and tweeted his support:

However, following a long investigation by the FBI it became clear that Griffith did more than illegally travel to North Korea and speak at a crypto conference – much of the evidence against him showed that he specifically sought to help the North Korean regime escape sanctions using crypto.

Images were uncovered showing Griffith wearing a North Korean military uniform standing next to a whiteboard where he’d drawn a happy face and written the words “No sanctions” and “yay”.  

The investigators also found Griffith had shared text messages with North Korean citizens assuring them he’d be able to help them get around US sanctions using crypto, in one message telling them that setting up an Ethereum node in North Korea will “make it possible to avoid sanctions on money transfers”.

North Korea Uses Crypto to Fund Illegal Activities

The actions of Griffith were treated so seriously by US authorities partly because the North Korean regime has been enthusiastic to use stolen crypto to skirt sanctions and fund its illegal weapons programs.

Through government-backed hacker groups such as the Lazarus Group, the North Korean regime steals huge amounts of crypto. According to Chainalysis, in 2021 alone it stole almost US$400 million worth of crypto, which is 2.4 percent of the nation’s total annual GDP.