Author: José Oramas

José is a journalist and translator with a keen interest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

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Australia Coinjar Crypto Art Crypto News Melbourne NFTs

Melbourne Street Artist Lushsux Has Made Over $500,000 From NFTs

Lushsux has become one of the most popular street artists in Melbourne, reaching international recognition for his large mural paintings depicting internet meme culture. He has now become one of the highest-paid artists in Australia, selling his NFTs for over $500,000 AUD.

Over the weekend, Lushsux has sold over $130k worth of NFTs with some pieces that originally sold for $333 are today reselling for over $20k.

Some of his most popular (and controversial) paintings represent the latest trends in the meme culture. His artwork ranges from politicians like Donald Trump in the form of ice cream, or popular icons in the crypto scene, including Doge, Elon Musk with a “genetically engineered catgirl” and the CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao with laser eyes.

“Funds are Safu,” a limited edition at Makersplace

In an interview with Coinjar, Lushsux admitted he was not deep into the cryptocurrency space at first, but he saw a great opportunity in it and, especially, in the NFT industry.

The idea of selling JPEGs and other digital content for thousands of dollars seemed like a “cool idea” to him, and he’s now selling his work in markets like Rarible and Nifty Gateway.

I sold a piece called ‘The 8’ for 88.8 ETH, or like $250,000. I’m literally one of Australia’s highest paid living artists. Top 20 at least. And some guy is trying to sell one of my Elon Musk portraits for $1.4 million. You could buy a Whiteley for that price. Or, like, a 2-bedroom house in Melbourne.

Lushsux

NFTs are still in season

NFTs are Digital creations that provide certain benefits for their creators, like copyrights, transparency, and better revenue. Some of these artworks are being sold for hundreds of thousands —and even millions. Read more about it in our guide to NFTs.

The NFT craze reached the mainstream due to these millionaire purchases, calling the attention of artists, musicians, and other celebrities who now see it as an opportunity to promote their work. Even former NSA consultant Edward Snowden auctioned an NFT for US$5.4 million.

Lushsux said NFTs are an “excuse to spend more time building things in the digital world,” although he doesn’t believe the market will be sustainable in a few months.

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Crypto News NFTs

Solana (SOL) Has Surged 4000% in Just Four Months

Solana (SOL) reached $43.64 on Sunday, a new all-time high followed by outstanding success in its protocol development and the integration of new DeFi projects.

A 4000% Growth in Just Four Months

SOL has outperformed various tokens in the market, going from $1 USD in December 2020 to $43.64 USD on Sunday. This is a 4000% growth in just nearly four months. Another boost for SOL came after getting listed on Binance on April 10, spiking 300% after the announcement.

SOL/USD: TradingView

Its new price record comes after the integration of successful projects, including Solstarter, which is the first Initial Dex Offering powered by Solana, and Chainlink which is now its decentralised oracle solution.

NFTs Coming to Solana

Solana is experiencing tremendous growth as more projects decide to build on its blockchain. Its fast throughput and its hybrid model of Proof-of-history and Proof-of-Stake have called the attention of many investors and DeFi protocols.

Solana also plans to work with upcoming projects such as Star Atlas, a next-gen virtual metaverse that will bring Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to the protocol.

Solana is currently the thirteenth currency per market cap, according to CoinMarketCap, with a $12 billion USD market cap. Solana is now becoming one of the hottest tokens in the DeFi space: will it overtake BSC (Binance Smart Chain) in the upcoming months?

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Australia Crypto News Regulation

Australian Big Banks Will Be In Trouble When Global Competition Comes With Blockchain Ready Solutions

We are seeing a surge in interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in Australia and worldwide. Still, many in the local crypto community fear that outdated Australian regulations and indifferent policymakers prevent local investors and businesses from getting involved.

Steve Vallas, CEO of Blockchain Australia, claims the country has the potential to become a leader in digital assets and blockchain development but is instead falling behind global competitors. “We’re well placed but that doesn’t mean we’re doing a good job,” he said.

“The big banks will absolutely have their lunch eaten when globally competitive businesses set up shop here,”

Steve Vallas for Business Insider Australia

At Blockchain Week Australia, Vallas warned that the big banks are dragging their feet when it comes to digital currencies, and they will have no choice but to take cryptocurrencies more seriously once foreign competitors come into our country.

Australia Needs Better Regulation

The surge in interest for cryptocurrencies has led Australian-based exchanges to record large trading volumes and activity in only six months. The number of corporate accounts, including SMFS, has grown in platforms like BTC Markets and Binance Australia.

However, despite the growing interest, local authorities have barely done anything to regulate the environment. The lack of clear regulatory laws in Australia forces crypto-enthusiast to look overseas for a better environment or, even worse, to invest in doubtful, shady crypto companies.

“They haven’t done anything because they don’t have to right now, but once the big international guys move into this space in Australia they won’t have a choice.”

— Said Adrian Przelozny, CEO of Independent Reserve [Business Insider Australia]

Philip Lowe, governor of the RBA, reiterated the bank’s intention for launching a national digital currency, but Przelozny claims big institutions are not taking crypto seriously.

Banks Affected by Lack of regulations

The lack of regulation on cryptos seems to affect banks as well. Ross McEwan, CEO of National Australia Bank —one of the four largest banks in the country— shared the concerns of the blockchain community.

We need to think, as a country, ‘what is crypto, how could it be used, and do you trade it?’. If it is something that should be traded safely, [how do] we make it safe?. Those are the issues we need to think about, and quite quickly, because people are making a livelihood out of trading.”

—Said McEwan, speaking to a House Committee

As previously reported, Australian authorities need to provide a better, updated infrastructure for the crypto market to compete globally, according to Caroline Bowler, CEO of BTC Markets.

“Australia needs regulatory oversight. I do think that regulatory clarity will help with other international projects and partners. We are strong advocates for proportional, appropriate regulation of our sector’s risks. With that, we can build a robust, responsive industry ready for the future.”

—Said Bowler.
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Australia Crypto News Scams

Billionaire Australian Racehorse Investor Breaks Ties After Frozen Prize Money Amid Crypto Scam

Aquis, one of the largest racehorse investor in Australia, has broken ties with Phoenix Thoroughbreds, a Dubai-based company that was recently accused of money laundering through horse racing.

Billionaire Tony Fang, director of Aquis, was a partner of Aamer Abdulaziz, Chief Executive Officer at Phoenix Holding Group, but terminated the relationship with the firm after the US authorities accused Abdulaziz of taking part in a cryptocurrency scheme called OneCoin.

An unnamed horse bought by Tony Fung and Phoenix for $1.8 million at Magic Millions in January – source

Australians Have Reportedly Lost AU$779 Million Through OneCoin Scam

In January, Both Aquis and Pheonix invested around US$11.6 million on 19 horses at the Magic Millions auctions, located on the Gold Coast. However, racing authorities decided to freeze the prize funds as the investigation is ongoing.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Australians have lost an estimated €500 million (AU$779 million) buying OneCoin, an accused Ponzi scheme promoted as a cryptocurrency, in which Abdulaziz was an investor.

A spokesman for Aquis said Phoenix didn’t tell them about the frozen funds. The firm has denied their involvement in money laundering, claiming the prize money is not affected, and their co-owned horses can still race.

“We have sought further clarification from Phoenix multiple times since late last week over matters of their relationship with racing regulatory bodies in Australia, but they completely failed to answer questions. The matter has been placed in the hands of our lawyers.”

— The Aquis spokesperson said

OneCoin, A US$4 Billion Crypto Scam

Ruja Ignatova, the head of OneCoin, allegedly sold over US$4 billion through OneCoin. The company gained notice when the FSC (Bulgaria’s Financial Supervision Commission) issued a warning of potential risks in new cryptocurrencies, citing OneCoin as an example.

The firm immediately ceased all activity in Bulgaria and used foreign banks to handle wire transfers from investors. One of them was Abdulaziz, which according to government lawyers, received €185 million in a wire transfer from the Bank of Ireland.

The ASIC to Support the Crypto Space Despite Scams

According to official data, Australians have lost over US$634 million to scams in 2019 to all kinds of scams, including cryptocurrency schemes and fake invoice emails

Despite the scams, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has expressed its support to the crypto industry in the country, according to ASIC commissioner Cathie Armour.

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Crypto News Ripple

SEC Accuses Ripple of “Harassment” For Trying to access Internal Records

On April 9, a judge granted Ripple executives access to various internal records from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The records contain information about XRP, Bitcoin, and Ethereum, where the SEC classifies these three assets as “cryptocurrencies.”

Now the SEC accuses Ripple of “harassment,” for gaining access to the documents, claiming the defendants are not seeking relevant evidence but to “derail the case’s focus away from its merits.”

SEC Asks Judge To Block Access to Documents

The SEC sent a letter to judge Sarah Netburn on April 21, requesting limited access to the records. Lawyer Jeremy Hogan found a document in which the SEC refers to XRP as a “digital currency” in 2016.

The court order requires the SEC to search between tens of thousands of external emails of at least 19 custodians for documents related to XRP, BTC, and ETH. However, the SEC claims:

It has become evident through the meet-and-confer process that Defendants are seeking to ignore the limitations of this Court’s Order and to mire the SEC in indefinite discovery disputes and, if successful, document review.

Gary Gensler, MIT professor and crypto advocate, was announced as the new SEC Chairman. Many in the XRP community speculate that Gensler could withdraw the lawsuit, which could give XRP a dramatic boost in price.

On April 19, the XRP community filed a motion to intervene in the case. The file, which contains a Memorandum of Law, emphasizes that many US government agencies recognize XRP as a currency, and developers, businesses, and holders had to halt their work due to the delisting of the currency across exchanges, causing further price decrease.

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Bitcoin Blockchain Crypto Exchange Crypto News

Lightning Network Goes Live on OKEx Exchange for Faster BTC Deposits and Withdrawals

Crypto exchange OKEx has announced the integration of the Lightning Network into its platform, allowing faster and cheaper BTC withdrawals and deposits.

The Lightning Network is a layer 2 protocol with a bi-directional payment channel, designed to provide scalability and higher throughput.

By integrating layer 2 solutions like the Lightning Network, OKEx is able to offer an improved trading experience to its users — with lower costs and faster transactions — alongside supporting the Bitcoin ecosystem by increasing the number of participating nodes.

OKEx

Number of Nodes Doubling as BTC Grows

The number of nodes in the Lightning Network has doubled as corporations have started adopting BTC and Blockchain. According to data from Bitcoin Visuals, the number of active nodes reached 10,000 this month, with $69 million in locked value.

Before OKEx, Bitfinex was one of the first exchanges to adopt the Lightning Network, followed by Kraken, CoinCorner and OKCoin. The number of companies embracing BTC has doubled in the last five months and it looks like it keeps growing.

Bitcoin is trading at $73,225 AUD, slowly recovering from the market crash that happened this weekend. Its price tumbled below $67,300 AUD following the massive liquidation of high leveraged traders on Binance and other exchanges, causing a market crash that dragged most altcoins with it.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Gaming

Ubisoft Partners With Tezos to Become a Validator Node

Videogame giant Ubisoft has partnered with Tezos protocol to become an official corporate validator node, as announced by Nomadic Labs, a technology research team within the Tezos ecosystem.

By becoming an official “baker”, Ubisoft will experiment with the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, validating blocks and implementing them on the Tezos blockchain.

The company will be added to the set of 277 bakers. These validators can stake their XTZ — Tezos’ native asset — to distributing rewards and participate in the network’s governance.

Spreading Blockchain Technology With Videogames

Nomadic Labs said that blockchain can bring benefits to gamers and developers alike, and this collaboration is part of Ubisoft’s long-term research to spread and facilitate innovative technology.

Ubisoft is one of the first large companies to show interest in blockchain technology by testing several protocols through the years and we are happy to welcome them in our ecosystem. Their experience and vision will be an asset in the Tezos community.

Michel Mauny, President of Nomadic Labs

This is not the first time that Tezos works with high-profile businesses. In September 2020, one of the largest banks in France, the Société Générale, started experimenting with the Tezos network. After several months of testing, the bank issued its official security token using its public blockchain.

By now, Ubisoft is the first major corporation in the gaming industry to join the protocol, and Nomadic Labs will support other companies that want to build on Tezos, contributing to the development and spread of the protocol’s corporate baker ecosystem.

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Bitcoin China Crypto News

China Sees Bitcoin as an “Investment Alternative” Say High-rank Officials

After almost five years of harsh regulations regarding the issuance of cryptocurrencies, it appears that China has shifted the tone on Bitcoin, calling it an “investment alternative”.

China’s former Central Bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, and Li Bo, current deputy governor, shared their thoughts about the future role of cryptocurrencies in the financial system.

We regard Bitcoin and stablecoin as crypto assets… These are investment alternatives. […] They are not currency per se. And so the main role we see for crypto assets going forward, the main role is investment alternative.

Li Bo at the Boao Forum for Asia

Crypto Could Play a Major Role in the Future

China has been known for having a harsh stance against crypto assets. In 2017, local authorities closed several crypto exchanges and banned initial coin offerings, causing immediate price drops.

It seems their stance has softened, as the country is currently studying Bitcoin and other assets — while maintaining current regulations.

We believe that crypto assets should play a major role in the future, either as an investment tool or as an alternative investment. Many countries, including China, are also studying it as an investment tool.

Li Bo

China Is Studying a New Regulatory Environment

The two officials said the authorities would maintain the current legislations for crypto assets. Due to the market’s inherent volatility, China is studying what kind of regulatory body there should be to avoid financial risks.

If it is used as an investment tool, many countries, including China, are also studying what kind of regulatory environment should there be for such an investment method. Although this regulatory  rule is the minimum regulatory rule, there are still regulatory rules.

Li Bo

On the other hand, Xiaochuan said people don’t need to know the technology behind digital assets or whether they are decentralised because they don’t understand it. He added that whatever the use case for cryptocurrencies, they should not be used for illicit activities such as tax evasion or money laundering.

The Market Slowly Recovers

These comments were well received by the community after the crypto market crashed on the weekend. As reported, Bitcoin and most altcoins suddenly tumbled, wiping $310 billion USD from the market, liquidating over 1,300,000 traders.

The market is currently recovering. Bitcoin managed to stay above $55,000 USD, while other currencies like Binance’s BNB and ETH recovered 20% and 10%, respectively.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Market Analysis

Top Analyst Explains the Reasons Behind The Crypto Market Crash

The crypto market tanked over the weekend, losing over 300 billion USD in market capitalization, dropping to $1.9 trillion USD.

Bitcoin dropped below $70k AUD, and most altcoins also dropped in value. ETH was down -11%, falling to $2,900 AUD. Ripple’s XRP, which made significant gains over the last week, fell by -12%, while Binance’s BNB coin dropped by -10%.

China Mining Blackouts

At first, the reason behind the crash was attributed to massive blackouts in Northwest China, specifically, in the Xinjiang region, which affected the hash rate of several BTC mining pools. The hashrate dropped nearly 50%.

Some others blamed the circulating rumours about the US Treasury charging financial institutions with money laundering, but there is no evidence to back this claim.

High Leveraged Liquidations

According to analyst Adam Cochran, the reason behind the crash can be attributed to a set of conditions that include ignorance of market-making combined with massive leveraged trading across exchanges like Binance.

The rumours, the power outage, combined with margin accounts trading with 100 – 150x leverage on several exchanges could have made the perfect receipt for disaster.

Binance Futures markets tanked the hardest. Exchanges with high leverages remained at lower prices, while Coinbase and other exchanges remained at average levels during the crash.

Margin accounts on Binance were building big positions using leverage up to 150x, but as price dips below certain points, some of these accounts were below maintenance limits, which liquidates them.

When traders are liquidated, crypto is exchanged for Tether, which makes the crypto drop in price. Currently, the volume/market cap for Tether is 4.62, and Tether went up 1.05 USD after the crash.

This triggers other accounts to sell their positions, creating a toxic cycle that ends in the liquidation of most retailers. Over 1 million positions were liquidated, while the largest liquidation was $68 million on Binance.

Despite the sudden crash, the market is slowly recovering. Several cryptos rebounded quickly. Ethereum is now trading at $2,150 while Bitcoin managed to recover above $56k, after falling nearly $10k in price.

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Australia Crypto News Scams

Two Australians Lose $130,000 To Tesla Scam While Buying The Electric Car Online

Two Australians have lost $130,000 AUD in total while trying to buy the Tesla 3 model by falling for a fake invoice scam. This scam involves changing the bank details of the supplier’s email while leaving the original design of the invoice intact – fooling the user into thinking it’s a real invoice.

Once of the victims, Andrea Hammond, told ABC News how she lost $74,647 AUD by sending the money to the bank account on the invoice received in an email from the company, instead of making her final payment through Tesla’s official site.

Hammond was not the only Australian that felt for this trick. Another Aussie, who preferred to go by the name of “Ron” was also scammed when he tried to buy a Tesla 3 model in late 2019. Ron managed to recover $17,800 AUD which had not yet moved out of the hacker’s bank account, but the rest of the money was lost.

Hackers Changed The Bank Details on the Invoice

It seems the hackers managed to intercept the email from Telsa and change the bank details on the invoice attached. This scam method has become prevalent with hackers as they do not need to change the original email design, leaving everything else looking exactly the same, including the design, address, logo, order information – but only changing the payment details.

Tesla Need To Improve Their Services in Australia

Ron said that while he wanted to check the legitimacy of the bank account, there was no phone number available to contact Tesla.

Both victims have stated that Tesla should verify its payment method and offer better alternatives. A month ago, the company announced the support for bitcoin payments, but it is only available in the US.

“The issue I have with Tesla, in my opinion, is that they have failed in their duty of care to their customers by using what is clearly, and certainly one can see this in hindsight, an insecure way and a risky way of requesting payment for the vehicles,”

— Ron said

Tesla said it would expand its support for Bitcoin payments in other continents. The company has not responded to the complaints about this outdated payment method.

The company is the biggest seller of electric cars in Australia. Aussies customers could benefit from paying with bitcoin so hopefully this option will become available soon.