Sydney-based crypto mining company Mawson Infrastructure is looking to increase its mining power in Australia by purchasing 17,352 ASIC bitcoin mining rigs from Chinese manufacturer Canaan Creative.
On August 12, Mawson announced it had purchased an additional 17,352 latest-generation Avalon A1166 and A1246 mining rigs, which will be deployed across the company’s US and Australian operations in late 2021 and early 2022.
Mawson Sets 5000 HP Goal by 2022
The company is looking to reach its goal of 2000 PH (petahashes) by the end of 2021, and 5000 PH by 2022. If all machines are deployed successfully, Mawson’s current hashrate capacity could increase by 1,500 PH.
Coupled with our extensive power infrastructure across the US and Australia, we look forward to having these units online in late 2021 and early 2022. We again reiterate our end of CY21 goal of 2000 PH and end of CY22 goal of 5000 PH, and look forward to updating shareholders further on hardware purchases in due course.
James Manning, Mawsonfounder/CEO
Chinese bitcoin mining companies have had a hard time with their businesses thanks to the PRC government crackdown on mining this year, and Canaan is no exception. The company has had to move its operations across borders, mostly to Kazakhstan.
The recent purchase comes in handy for both the mining company and the manufacturer, as hardware supply is becoming harder to get.
We are very happy to have contracted another large order with Canaan, who have been fantastic partners to date. Canaan has delivered consistently and on time, and in an environment where ASIC bitcoin mining hardware supply is once again becoming harder to secure, we are delighted to further cement our partnership.
James Manning, Mawsonfounder/CEO
As Crypto News Australia revealed a month ago, Mawson Infrastructure acquired 90 percent of Luna Squares, a major US bitcoin mining group, and it plans to fully acquire the company over time. The Canaan deal only consolidates its mining armoury.
It’s good news for the crypto community as the market recovers positively after months of constant price corrections, once again crossing the US$2 trillion threshold.
Ethereum Up 18%, ADA Surges 40%
On August 11, the overall crypto market retook its $2 trillion peak following months of massive price corrections that wiped $1 trillion from the market. Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies were on the green, especially Ethereum, which has been up over 18 percent following the activation of the London hard fork.
Throughout last week, BTC surged 14%, currently priced at US $47,239 as per data from Coinmarketcap. BNB is up 17%, Ripple by 39%, and the one that surprised everyone is ADA, which performed extremely well in the market – up by 40% – after Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson announced that the Alonzo hard fork is imminent. DOGE almost took the protagonism of ADA by surging 39% in the market.
Market Thrives Despite Regulatory Hurdles
The crypto market is ignoring global regulatory uncertainties. Many thought the recent bipartisan infrastructure bill imposed by American authorities would tumble the market, yet it didn’t have as strong an effect as expected.
As Crypto NewsAustralia has reported, the battle for crypto amendments in the US sparked a heated discussion between politicians and industry leaders on Twitter, many calling for proper, revised amendments to change the bill’s outdated and poorly written language. There might be a light at the end of the tunnel with Democrat Senator Anna Eshoo urging House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to amend some of the flaws in that bill.
Despite the regulatory uncertainty, bulls are taking the upper hand, and the Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index is finally showing extreme greed after three months. We could also have a new wave of SMSFs approaching the market, as happened on April 8 this year.
As the number of crypto scams continues to grow, Australians should be wary when entering certain fake crypto trading websites.
Beware of Fake Crypto Trading Platforms
Scamwatch, run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), recently issued warnings on how scammers are targeting Aussies to rip them off using fake platforms.
Not only are scammers designing highly detailed websites posing as crypto exchanges, they are also targeting Aussies on apps including Telegram and other channels to lure investors by offering trading tips and then sending them to fake platforms:
Thinking of investing in #BitCoin? Beware of scammers that take advantage of this being unregulated! They may contact you on apps like Telegram, offer to show you how to trade & might show you real looking platforms like this. For safe investing tips visit https://t.co/nqOxvtBT8upic.twitter.com/tNBmJcCBFx
There are many types of Bitcoin scams going on. The most common are fake exchanges and wallets, blackmail scams and impersonation giveaway scams.
First of all, a legitimate crypto exchange or broker will never reach out to your Telegram, Gmail or any other channel to offer you trading tips or whatever strategy they come up with. Scammers are persistent, so expect them to make several calls or send emails offering investment advice or trading tips. Another red flag is ads for sites or seminars with “risk-free” investments, or the classic how to “get rich quick” invitation.
For more information, read our guide about common bitcoin scams and how to protect yourself from making a bad decision and losing your capital.
Cardano (ADA) has surged more than 20 percent this week after CEO and founder Charles Hoskinson said he would pinpoint a date on August 13 for the launch of Alonzo, the hard fork that will add smart contract capability to the network.
We’ll be able to announce when the Alonzo hard fork is going to happen, and at that point you’ll be able to run smart contracts on Cardano.
Charles Hoskinson, CEO/founder, Cardano
ADA Up 600 Percent This Year
After the announcement, ADA surged to US$1.88. It has skyrocketed 36.5 percent in the past seven days, and a whopping 600 percent from the beginning of the year.
IOHK, the company behind Cardano, says it has begun the new user onboarding process. Once the team is set up, the hard fork is imminent.
The Cardano community has been anticipating the Alonzo hard fork for some time, part of a multi-stage upgrade that will allow developers to deploy smart contracts on the Cardano network.
With Friday’s revelation that the mainnet launch is on track, crypto investors and enthusiasts in general, were hyped on the optimism that a supposedly superior blockchain infrastructure with the possibility to support the next generation of smart contracts is on the horizon.
Konstantin Anissimov, executive director, CEX.IO
Hoskinson, who is also the co-founder of Ethereum, has said Cardano could overtake Ethereum in the long run. Ethereum, however, isn’t falling behind in this race as ETH’s London hard fork was successfully activated on August 4, skyrocketing its price to levels above US$3,000.
Poly Network, a multi-chain platform that provides interoperability between blockchains, reportedly suffered an attack on Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum and Polygon, losing over US$600 million, making it the biggest DeFi heist in history.
Important Notice: We are sorry to announce that #PolyNetwork was attacked on @BinanceChain@ethereum and @0xPolygon Assets had been transferred to hacker's following addresses: ETH: 0xC8a65Fadf0e0dDAf421F28FEAb69Bf6E2E589963 BSC: 0x0D6e286A7cfD25E0c01fEe9756765D8033B32C71
The protocol urged all miners of the affected blockchain and crypto exchanges to blacklist tokens coming from a list of addresses from the hacker (or hackers). However, one user told the attacker(s) to try depositing the stolen funds without Tether – which they did, placing all the addresses into Curve.
As a show of gratitude for the help, the hackers gifted the user US$45,000 in Ethereum.
Hacker Returns $258M
At about 4:00 am UTC, the hacker sent an ETH transaction to himself with a private note saying “ready to return the fund”. In a subsequent message, he asked for a multisig wallet to transfer the funds to after failing to contact Poly.
The protocol provided the hacker with three different addresses from BSC, ETH and Polygon to return the funds. “We are preparing a multisig address controlled by known Poly addresses,” Poly Network said in a private message embedded in an ETH transaction to the address provided by the hacker(s).
$260 million (As of 11 Aug 04:18:39 PM +UTC) of assets had been returned: Ethereum: $3.3M BSC: $256M Polygon: $1M
The remainings are $269M on Ethereum, $84M on Polygon
Media Outlets Scramble to Cover Biggest Ever Heist
This is the most controversial theft in the history of DeFi, so much that media outlets like Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, CNBC and Reuters have covered it too. Other heists amounted to relatively small sums, such as the US$25 million stolen from Popsicle Finance or the $13 million stolen from THORChain.
After the hacker(s) showed intentions to return the funds, software developer O3 Labs suggested the person(s) behind the hack might be a white hat hacker – an ethical hacker that specialises in penetration testing and other testing methodologies to ensure the security of an organisation’s information system.
The hacker left a final message saying: “It’s already a legend to win so much fortune. It will be an eternal legend to save the world. I made the decision, no more DAO.”
Republican Senator Richard Shelby has opposed a revised bipartisan amendment that would provide clarity for the mooted US$1 trillion infrastructure bill and exclude node validators, miners, protocol developers and more from the term “broker”.
On August 10, the Alabama lawyer filed an objection to a negotiated amendment between three Republicans – Pat Toomey, Cynthia Lummis and Rob Portman – and Democrats Mark Warner and Kyrsten Sinema after he tried to include his own amendment to the bill, an unrelated proposal that sought to increase military spending by adding US$50 billion in defence funding.
Senators Called For a Unanimous Vote
The senators called for a unanimous vote to revise the crypto tax provisions to the infrastructure bill and thus protect certain key players in the crypto industry from being labelled as “brokers”. But the proposal failed after Shelby rejected the proposal.
The Senator’s only words were “I object”, after which Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders objected to the Shelby motion, which resulted in Shelby objecting to the overall compromise.
“We’ll Be Back on This”
The objection didn’t go unnoticed by the amendment’s proponents, who shared their thoughts about the consequences of leaving the language of the bill as it is. “Who knows how much innovation we’re going to stifle?” said Toomey.
Senators Toomey and Lummis Hold Press Conference on Agreement to Fix Digital Asset Reporting Requirements in the Infrastructure Bill https://t.co/oqJLIIIQw7
We’ll be back on this, because we’ll do a lot of damage. Who knows how much innovation we’re going to stifle? Who knows what kind of new apps never emerge? It’s hard to predict what kind of completely impossible mandate results in, but it’s not good, and it’s going to bring us back here trying to clean up a mess which we could have prevented.
Senator Pat Toomey
The bill has now gone from the Senate to the House, leaving transactions reporting requirements unchanged and – somehow – forcing miners, node operators and anyone who deals with digital assets transactions to report taxes to the IRS.
It’s Not Over – Ted Cruz Calls for Crypto Rule Drop
In a speech, Republican Senator Ted Cruz shared his thoughts about the current state of the crypto space in the US, summarising the consequences and harms of this new legislation for digital assets: “The regulation of cryptocurrency might be the ugliest legislation we have seen,” he said.
If we want to legislate on this, let’s actually do our jobs, be a deliberative body, hold hearings, listen to witnesses, understand the consequences, know what we’re doing. That would be the reasonable, rational thing to do. Don’t just put out a rule of massive taxes and regulations with no understanding of the consequences on jobs and real people that would be hurt.
Senator Ted Cruz
Fear That Innovation Will Be Pushed Offshore … to China
One fear shared by the crypto community and its giants like Brian Armstrong is that this legislation would not only harm crypto in the US and force exchanges to impose Orwellian surveillance mechanisms on customers, but it will also push innovation offshore – something Cruz fears as a consequence of creating a hostile environment for software and hardware developers.
My amendment is very simple. It doesn’t add anything new to this bill. It just strikes these provisions […] let’s not do this until we know what we’re talking about. Let’s be cautious. Let’s be reasonable. Let’s not be the number one economic developer for the Communist Party of China by sending cryptocurrencies overseas to our competitors because we’ve made it impossible for them to succeed here.
A retired US truck driver has retrieved 10 million DOGE thanks to a wallet recovery service that helped him step by step to recover his fortune.
The man contacted KeychainX, a crypto wallet recovery service launched in 2017. He had stacked a massive amount of DOGE in 2015 for about US$1,500, now worth over US$3 million.
The only problem was that the PIN to the man’s Android wallet was 12 digits long, which the company viewed as nearly impossible to crack. Step by step, KeychainX started asking the man for important numbers, like the year of his birth. From there, the team analysed the wallets used to assess the type of wallet encryption that was deployed.
A Nail-Biting Moment
The most difficult part for the recovery company was to ensure the funds were moved safely. The team said the synching could take several days as the stack dated back six years, so extra precautions were taken to ensure the funds could safely arrive at the destination.
KeychainX CEO Robert Rhodin said the truck driver was so delighted with the service that he invited the team for a drink on him the next time he’s in town.
Losing a PIN in your wallet isn’t bad. If you manage to open it years later, it could be a life-changing amount. It happened this time.
Robert Rhodin, CEO, KeychainX
KeychainX says it has recovered more than 100 wallets from mobile, hardware and software wallets in the past six months. The company is the only publicly registered company in the industry, as other wallet recovery services operate under pseudonyms.
There is a widespread view that 20 percent of bitcoins are lost forever; we believe these are bitcoins waiting to be discovered.
A few days ago, the US Senate introduced a US$1.2 trillion bipartisan bill designed to update and regulate the country’s infrastructure. Unexpectedly, within the bill, there were provisions relating to the crypto industry.
These provisions relating to crypto sought to alter the definition of “broker” to include anyone who is “responsible for and regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets”.
This means that smart contracts, software developers or node validators are considered “brokers” as well – something that makes no sense to the crypto community.
Crypto Amendment Battle Over Legal Language
The bill sparked a battle among Democratic senators trying to narrow down the language in which the bill was written, and subsequently getting White House approval.
Crypto advocates Senators Cynthia Lummis, Pat Toomey and Ron Wyden proposed an amendment that redefines intermediaries and would exclude node validators, miners, wallet providers and open-source developers from the umbrella term “broker” and prevent them from reporting transaction data to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The Wyden-Lummis-Toomey amendment is simple. It clarifies in law what most of us already believe—that validators of distributed ledger data like miners & stakers, hardware wallet providers & software developers should NOT be required to report transaction data to the IRS. pic.twitter.com/cMtoHMehiU
However, the White House appears to back Senator Mark Warner’s amendment, which imposes tighter crypto rules and decides which technologies are legal and which are not in the crypto space. Warner proposed that Proof of Stake validators comply with US tax laws, excluding Proof of Work miners without explanation.
This means US regulators will decide which cryptocurrencies and technologies are valid and which are not, something many in the industry such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Elon Musk, the Winklevoss twins, politicians including Ted Cruz, and even celebrities like Gene Simmons have criticised on Twitter.
Agreed, this is not the time to pick technology winners or losers in cryptocurrency technology. There is no crisis that compels hasty legislation.
A Poorly Crafted Bill, Says the Crypto and Fintech Community
The crypto and fintech community has classified this bill as a “poorly written proposal” that would force crypto exchanges to establish surveillance mechanisms on their platforms as they would be required to collect user data, including names and addresses.
Armstrong was one of the first to denounce the bill’s flaws, such as defining those who deal with digital assets as brokers, or establishing Orwellian reporting requirements to surveil customers’ transactions.
4/ This makes no sense. Smart contracts, for instance, are not companies, and cannot be modified to collect KYC info or issue 1099s. They are simply software running on the blockchain that anyone can use.
Right now there’s a fight brewing in the US that could decide the future of innovation and financial freedom in the country. Industry leaders have warned that if the Warner amendment is approved, it will have a profoundly negative impact on the crypto industry, including pushing innovation offshore.
12/ The Wyden-Lummis-Toomey Amendment is win-win for lawmakers and our industry. It will provide tax revenue from crypto and ensure suitability and clarity for crypto innovators who want to build in America.
Here are the top 10 coins showing percentage increases, including infamous coins like DOGE, which has surged 14,000%+ since 2017.
1- Bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) is the founding father of cryptocurrencies – a decentralised P2P online token launched in 2009 by a possibly fictitious person who goes by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin has gained over 1400% since its previous all-time high in 2017.
Bitcoin’s rise was mostly due to May’s 2020 halving, amplified by the institutional capital that came to the market in October last year. The first quarter of 2021 saw a massive influx of institutional investors, payment companies, hedge funds and asset managers embracing crypto and blockchain, which further accelerated BTC’s price surge.
2- Ethereum
Ethereum is an open-source platform for decentralised applications (dApps) that adds smart contract functionality to developers. Users don’t need to worry about third parties as smart contracts allow peer-to-peer agreements that execute themselves through a code that runs on the Ethereum blockchain.
Ethereum is the platform that most DeFi developers seek to build their dApps without downtimes, fraud or interference from a third party. It has raised 1200%+ since 2017.
Altcoin seasons are always contributors to Ethereum’s price rally. Another boom for Ethereum is largely thanks to institutional capital coming to crypto. It’s worth noting that some of these institutions have also taken interest in opening job positions for Ethereum developers such as JP Morgan or Amazon.
The Ethereum 2.0 upgrade and the London Hard Fork are two primary forces driving up ETH’s price. Just recently, Ethereum notched a 12-day winning streak, a new record for the token.
3- Binance Coin (BNB)
Binance Coin (BNB) is the native token of the centralised exchange Binance, used primarily as the utility token to pay for transactions and trading fees on the platform. BNB’s price soared over 60% in the past 30 days, and has gained a total 40,000%+ since its 2017 launch.
The more people come to Binance, the more people will use BNB. During the institutional bull run in the first quarter of 2021, Binance registered a massive influx of newcomers as crypto became mainstream. This further pushed BNB’s price to higher levels.
However, BNB’s price has been affected negatively by the number of rugpulls in the Binance Smart Chain – Binance’s decentralised exchange that adds smart contracts programmability for dApps.
4- Cardano (ADA)
Cardano (ADA) is an open-source Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain with very ambitious ideas. The project is overseen by the Cardano foundation, founded by Charles Hoskinson in 2015.
Cardano has performed well during the first half of this year as the foundation announced the launch of “Alonzo”, an upgrade that would allow the platform to host smart contract compatibility for developers.
ADA has gained over 800% at ATH since 2017. Last week it gained 6% on a single day after trading in an uptrend last month. However, it has struggled to keep above levels of $1.40/1.50.
5- Ripple (XRP)
Ripple is an open-source money transfer network released in 2012 along with its native currency, XRP.
While XRP had performed steadily in the market during most of 2020, it fell sharply when the SEC announced on December 21, 2020 it was filing a lawsuit against Ripple, which traded in a downtrend during Q1 2021.
However, XRP managed to gain some ground after the company rallied in its fight against the SEC. A price boost for XRP came shortly after the judge denied SEC access to Ripple’s legal advice.
6- DOGE
DOGE, a cryptocurrency created by IBM software engineer Billy Markus that started as a joke, has skyrocketed 17,500% since 2017.
The coin debuted in the market in 2013. It only met popular demand when Elon Musk decided to talk about the memecoin, which massively boosted its popularity in the first months of 2021. Another boost for the token came after Coinbase decided to list DOGE on its trading platform.
Some people in and outside of the crypto community have claimed that Musk’s actions amounted to market manipulation as the price of DOGE is sensitive to whatever Musk says, good or bad. However, it appears that Musk’s recent efforts to pump DOGE are failing.
7- Polkadot (DOT)
Polkadot is a shared multi-chain platform that allows blockchain interoperability. DOT is Polkadot’s native currency, used for transactions and trading fees.
DOT started trading in 2020, which is why it looks different to the other charts, which started earlier.
DOT has managed to record a 1400%+ rise starting in the first months of 2021, turning it into one of the currencies with the best return on investments (ROI).
It peaked at US$373.19 after Facebook announced it was making an ecosystem for creators on the Polkadot Blockchain.
8- Uniswap (UNI)
Uniswap (UNI) is a decentralised exchange (DEX) that facilitates automated swaps between tokens on the Ethereum network. It was built by the company going by the same name on November 2, 2018.
Uniswap has had an overall solid market performance during the first half of 2021. The token seems to be gaining traction after trading negatively during May, but it seems the company is the subject of rumours about working with centralised institutions. A recent video emerged showing Uniswap’s growth lead, suggesting possible tie-ups with PayPal, E*Trade and Stripe.
9- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a cryptocurrency product of a fork of Bitcoin, created in 2017. It has surged above 600% of its 2017 ATH, in a similar move to other high-market cap currencies.
BCH resulted from a disagreement between two groups over scaling issues. It offers lower transaction fees and greater throughput. While BCH was recovering from losses in previous sessions, it’s now trading in a downtrend as fear takes over the market.
10- Chainlink (LINK)
Chainlink is the leading decentralised oracle service built on Ethereum. Its native token, LINK, has surged over 10,000% at ATH since 2017.
LINK has become an efficient data provider from off-chain sources to on-chain smart contracts through oracles. It has been trading largely in an uptrend as many companies have embraced the oracle solution to rely on trustworthy real-time information.
A hacker this week managed to execute a transaction that drained 85 percent of the deposit pools of Popsicle Finance, a multi-chain yield-generating platform for liquidity providers.
Popsicle Sorbetto Fragola, our Uniswap V3 optimizer last night was hacked.
Thanks to all that supported us in the last hours, and in general to our unbelievable community that continuously makes us want to deliver!
According to the post-mortem, the attacker targeted the Sorbetto Fragola contracts (UniswapV3 optimiser) while other contracts like nICE staking and ICE Farming were left unaffected. He/she managed to drain over US$20 million using flash loans to borrow US$30 million in USDT, along with $32 million in ETH.
$1 Million Bounty Offered for Return
In response to the attack, the protocol addressed the hacker, offering a US$1,000,000 bounty if he/she returns the funds. Deposits to all pools have since been locked.
The protocol is working out a compensation plan, asking for feedback from its community to spurt ideas. Two months ago, Rari Capital reimbursed up to US$26 million after suffering a similar hack for 2600 ETH.
Popsicle Finance’s community showed itself to be supportive instead of accusing the protocol of an exiting scam. Before the launch of Sorbetto, the community voted to release the contract unaudited, yet the team decided to wait for data analytics companies CertiK and PeckShield Inc to audit the project.
A Commonly Exploited DeFi Bug
SushiSwap core developer Mudit Gupta said the hacker found a bug in the smart contract that allowed anyone to receive rewards and claim them multiple times for the same shares from much further back in time than they should have been able to. Gupta added that this was a common bug in most exploited DeFi protocols.
Popsicle Finance’s hack adds to the list of over 20 DeFi hacks this year, amounting to a total of US$310 million lost since 2020. Since DeFi hacks have become a common topic in the industry, many in the community believe most of them are undercover rugpulls.
Two months ago, DeFi100 went down – its official website displayed an “Error 404” message, and more than US$32 million vanished. Despite the protocol insisting it didn’t rug-pull its investors, the incident raised concerns over a potential exit scam.
