Category: Bitcoin

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Bitcoin Crypto Exchange Press Release

HardBlock Helps You Save With Bitcoin, The Easy Way: Dollar Cost Average With 99 Sat Withdrawal Fee

If you listen to enough Bitcoin podcasts you’ll almost always hear discussions about DCA (dollar-cost-averaging) or stacking Sats. Everyone in this space has figured out that saving in fiat is not getting them anywhere due to inflation, so they’ve turned to bitcoin.

HardBlock Bitcoin Exchange have just launched an Automated Bitcoin Savings Plan, including a 99 Sat withdrawal fee, designed to make DCA as simple as possible. We’ve made it easier and cheaper to save with hard money.

But what about Bitcoin’s eye-watering volatility? Surely it’s better to buy the dip, or maybe trade in and out? Listen to a few more bitcoin podcasts and you’ll come across a guest who passionately talks about DCA for a whole episode. We spoke with one such bitcoiner (Friar Hass) to get his insights on why DCA is the best way to save with bitcoin:

Hardblock: Most people want to buy bitcoin when the price dips. How do you explain the benefits of DCA over trying to time the market?

Friar Hass: The first time I bought bitcoin, in Oct/Nov 2013, I bought 19 dips before it stopped dipping. The best thing is not to be arrogant and think you know everything and instead just work hard and stack slowly. When the price rips, it rips hard and doesn’t last long. It’s hard to resist the FOMO. Salvation is promised to the stackers, the stats are undeniable.

Hardblock: What do you see as the risks for a user who saves with bitcoin over a period of years and decades?

Friar Hass: The main risk is that people call us a cult and religion. Everyone has their own interpretations of the sacred text. Some key rules are:

  1. Everyone has the right to send value.
  2. Everyone has the right to be self-sovereign.
  3. Fixed 21 million supply cap.

Is bitcoin going to zero? Is Christianity going to zero? Is Islam going to zero? So long as people believe it’s not going to zero, then it won’t. All religions keep a copy of their holy book at home, I keep a copy of the blockchain. An army of savers is not just doing charity to themselves, they are doing charity to the world. They’re boot-strapping a new economy. Salvation is promised to the stackers. No army can stop an idea whose time has come. I think the idea to have freedom and sovereignty over wealth has come. If the government starts being responsible with its money and allowing users to be self-sovereign, then yes, bitcoin could go to zero. History has shown us this is very unlikely though. Plus, one of the valuable attributes that bitcoin has is its immaculate conception; no other crypto or fiat currency can ever replicate that. The chance of a 51% attack is also long gone; we just had a massive drop in hash-rate after China banned bitcoin mining and nothing happened.

Hardblock: Bitcoin’s historical performance includes its origin where it started from zero; how do you estimate its future return?

Friar Hass: Due to the way fixed supply works, if me and 2% of the world’s workforce decided to save 10% of our income in bitcoin, because of that daily attrition, all the bitcoin will end up in the hands of savers, and the only bitcoin left will be the new coin issuance from mining. Eventually you will wear out the traders, and there will only be coins left in strong hands. I agree with Michael Saylor – the S curve price will go up forever, although it will eventually slow down to 1% a year. If you discount the early years, bitcoin’s price growth is freakishly consistent at 60-70% CAGR (compound annual growth rate), and I would expect it to be 40-50% for the next decade.

Hardblock: Any final thoughts?

Friar Hass: Work hard, stack slow. There are no shortcuts. Stick to your beliefs, stick to your guns. Be proud of whatever you manage to stack for yourself. Don’t wish you were in bitcoin earlier.

Ready to start stacking Sats? With HardBlock, you can set up your account once and then send bitcoin from your bank to your hardware wallet without lifting a finger.

Find out more here.

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Bitcoin Bitfinex Crypto Exchange Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Hackers Illegal Tokens

Bitfinex Token LEO Soars 60% Amid BTC Seizure from 2016 Hack

Bitfinex’s UNUS SED LEO token (LEO), an altcoin most had forgotten since it launched in 2019, has just surged 60 percent in value following the seizure of almost US$4 billion in Bitcoin lost in an infamous 2016 hack.

LEO Price Hits All-Time High

LEO went from trading at US$4.97 to US$8.04, according to data from CoinMarketCap, reaching an all-time high. The price has settled since to US$6.84, but the surge seems to be related to the seizure of stolen crypto assets that formerly belonged to Bitfinex users.

On February 8, the US Department of Justice announced it had recovered 94,000 BTC stolen in the infamous hack of the crypto exchange Bitfinex. The 2016 hack saw 119,754 BTC stolen, worth about US$72 million at the time. The value of the stolen crypto is now almost worth US$4 billion. On February 1, an estimated US$3.5 billion in BTC was moved from wallets associated with the hack into a single wallet, alerting authorities to the stolen Bitfinex BTC.

Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino took to Twitter to express his gratitude:

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement: “Today’s arrests, and the department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals.” The statement also named Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan as the two culprits charged with attempting to launder the stolen property.

According to the FBI, Morgan and her husband Lichtenstein spent part of the proceeds on gold, NFTs and other items. Each faces up to 25 years in federal prison should they be convicted.

LEO Buys Back

In 2019, Bitfinex sold its Leo token and raised US$1 billion in 10 days. The token is a basic exchange utility token, so using it on Bitfinex lowers trading fees. However, LEO has an additional unique property. According to its whitepaper, the firm pledged to use most of any recovered BTC from the hack to purchase LEO on the open market and burn it after.

The whitepaper indicates: “Bitfinex and its subsidiaries will use an amount equal to at least 80 percent of the recovered net funds from the Bitfinex hack …. to repurchase and burn outstanding LEO tokens.”

The whitepaper also gives the firm 18 months to dispose of the BTC, thereby allowing it to do so at a time-weighted average price rather than shock the market with one giant sale.

In a statement following the news of the seizure, Bitfinex said: “We want to express our appreciation for the dedication and hard work by the DoJ team that led to this great success. We will continue to support their efforts.”

LEO comes from the Latin phrase, “unus sed leo”, a line in the Aesop’s fable The Lioness, and the moral of the story is quality over quantity. If all goes according to plan, there will soon be considerably fewer LEO tokens in circulation.

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Bitcoin Ethereum NFTs

‘Satoshibles’ Becomes First NFT Collection to Bridge Between ETH and BTC

As non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continue to dominate headlines, Stacks, an NFT platform leveraging the security of Bitcoin and the scalability of Ethereum, quietly made history. Its ‘Satoshibles‘ collection is officially the first to bridge between BTC and ETH.

Bitcoin-Backed NFTs

‘Satoshibles’ describes itself as the “NFT for Bitcoin” and comprises 5,000 algorithmically generated NFTs, each unique and hand illustrated. The collection is inspired by a photograph of Dorian Nakamoto, the man incorrectly alleged to be Satoshi Nakamoto in 2014.

Satoshible #1 inspired by Dorian Nakamoto. Source: Satoshibles

Satoshibles developers chose to create the collection on Stacks, saying:

It was only right to create the NFTs on a platform that honoured Satoshi’s legacy.

Brian Laughlan, creator of ‘Satoshibles’

However, in an effort not to split the crypto community, they decided to build a cross-chain bridge, StacksBridge, to allow Satoshibles holders to move NFTs between Ethereum-based platforms and Stacks.

How StacksBridge Works

To move NFTs between chains, Satoshibles NFT holders must simply connect to the bridge with a MetaMask Ethereum wallet and Hiro Stacks wallet. Thereafter, they need to pay transaction fees to execute the movement from one chain to the other.

Importantly, NFTs can only be active on one blockchain at a time, with access being locked on the other. Initially, to optimise security, the bridge is employing a model based on trust, however they are exploring a trustless version that runs on automated smart contracts.

The response to the news was overwhelmingly positive, typified by one Twitter user’s comment:

Although they’re mostly old and crusty, I think #Bitcoin investors secretly want to start dabbling in the NFT space. Love the @satoshibles vision of bringing NFTs to a space where there currently is none. First mover advantage is HUGE.

@El_Crypto_Chapo via Twitter

At the time of publication, Satoshible #4043 is the most expensive available for purchase, at 35,000 STX (approximately US$60,000).

Satoshible #4043. Source: Stacks

If you’re an NFT enthusiast keen to get involved, head over to Stacks, connect your Stacks wallet, and make your pick. Unlike CryptoPunks and Bored Apes, Satoshibles are still somewhat affordable.

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Bitcoin Blockchain Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

Institutional Adoption Grows as $9.5 Trillion BlackRock Moves to Offer Crypto Trading

According to three anonymous insiders, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has plans afoot to launch a crypto trading service to its investor clients.

Not BlackRock’s First Rodeo

Unsurprisingly, the Wall Street titan is no stranger to the world of crypto. For starters, BlackRock owns 16.3 percent of MicroStrategy, whose current Bitcoin exposure is north of US$5 billion.

And then last year it started “dabbling” in Bitcoin futures and, most recently, it filed for a blockchain ETF (exchange traded fund), which purports to track the performance of companies exposed to blockchain technology within the US and abroad.

But it doesn’t end there – BlackRock is also seemingly building up internal blockchain development capacities, based on a recent job posting for its wealth management platform, Aladdin.

Crypto Trading Offering

While BlackRock has declined to comment, it has been suggested that it intends to offer its clients leveraged crypto trading through Aladdin. In other words, clients (such as pension funds and hedge funds) would be allowed to trade using borrowed funds after posting crypto as collateral.

The move is somewhat anticipated, given the perpetual growth in institutional adoption within the space. This was seemingly confirmed by one insider who referred to an internal crypto working group of approximately 20, saying: “They see all the flow that everyone else is getting and want to start making some money from this.”

Another with knowledge of the matter, commented that BlackRock was “looking to get hands-on with outright crypto” and “looking at providers in the space”. Interpret this as you will, but the subtext appears to be that BlackRock is on the acquisition trail hoping to reel in crypto native companies.

Zooming out and focusing on macro trends, it’s been a big week for crypto, and Twitter knows it:

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Australia Bitcoin Brisbane Cryptocurrencies

Crypto Meets Coffee in Brisbane

Crypto is now part of your daily coffee run, via a café in inner suburban New Farm, Brisbane. This one-of-a-kind venture – Crypto Coffee – allows patrons to pay with funds from a crypto wallet, using a business model developed in partnership with cryptocurrency platform Swyftx.

https://content.cryptonews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/crypto-coffee.jpg
Crypto Coffee exterior and counter, with live currency screens.

Crypto Coffee uses crypto in all its transactions, removing banks from the equation entirely. Cryptocurrency platform Swyftx, based in the Queensland capital, helped bring the idea to life, removing currency conversion hurdles and helping to convert crypto newbies by offering A$20 worth of bitcoin to new Crypto Coffee customers.

How to Buy Your Coffee with Crypto

Simply sign up to Swyftx with the QR code in-store. Once customers have a wallet, staff will help them place their orders. Swyftx also provides Crypto Coffee with links to live currency price charts that are displayed alongside the menu board.

All meals on offer at the café follow the crypto theme, adding extra novelty to the experience. Options include Shiba toast, Doge BLT, and the BTC chipotle chicken toastie.

Crypto-themed menu items from Crypto Coffee. Source: deliveroo.com.au

Word of mouth has been Crypto Coffee’s best promotional tool, with LinkedIn also spreading the news to the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), whose blockchain course further publicised the café. Crypto Coffee’s Instagram page garnered immense interest in the weeks prior to the café’s opening, further fuelling awareness of the venture.

Crypto Coffee is located at 572 Brunswick St, New Farm.

Crypto Moves into the Mainstream

Australia-wide, more and more industries are accepting crypto as a means of payment. These include online shopping, house renovations, solar installation and luxury properties. An example of the latter is a 2021 sale of a A$8 million Brisbane mega-mansion in a deal that allowed the use of crypto alongside standard payment methods for the purchase.

By Lauren Claxton, Crypto News Guest Author

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Bitcoin Crime Crypto News Hackers Social media

The Story of a Wannabe Rapper and How US Officials Seized $3.6 Billion in BTC

The US Justice Department has impounded US$3.6 billion in bitcoin and arrested a would-be rapper and her husband for conspiring to launder some of the funds – believed to be among the proceeds of the infamous Bitfinex hack of 2016.

According to the FBI, Heather Morgan and her husband Ilya Lichtenstein spent part of the proceeds on gold, NFTs, and other items. Each faces up to 25 years in a federal prison if convicted.

Rather than keep a low profile as you’d expect of alleged crypto criminals, Morgan in particular has a social media presence befitting her status as an aspiring rapper, published writer and influencer. She even has a website dedicated to her rapper alter-ego, named “Razzlekhan”:

Morgan’s LinkedIn profile notes her economics degree, while as a journalist the 31-year-old has been published in Inc and Forbes magazines, with the latter running an article of hers ironically titled “How to Protect Your Business From Cyber Criminals”.

How the FBI ‘Followed the Money’

The Bitfinex hack involved the theft of 119,756 bitcoin (worth just US$72 million at the time) following a security breach at the exchange. The amount stolen is now valued at more than US$5.1 billion.

In the five years since the hack, small amounts of BTC have periodically been moved in separate transactions, leaving the bulk of the funds untouched. The Justice Department traced 25,000 BTC of these transferred funds to financial accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan. Special agents were then able to gain access to and seize more than 94,000 BTC – worth US$3.6 billion at the time – from Morgan and Lichtenstein after a search warrant allowed them to view files containing private keys to several wallets, which just days ago were consolidated into a single wallet.

Morgan and Lichtenstein allegedly used a variety of methods to launder the illicit crypto, including chain hopping, depositing the coins at exchanges and darknet markets and withdrawing them, and automating transactions using computer programs. In addition, the pair set up business accounts in the US to “legitimise their banking activity”.

“[These] arrests, and the department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals,” said US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

“The [Justice] department once again showed how it can and will follow the money, no matter what form it takes.”

US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco

The Justice Department must, of course, still prove its allegations in court that Morgan and Lichtenstein laundered the US$4.5 billion in bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. The hack is a separate matter.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum Institutions

KPMG Canada Adds BTC and ETH to its Balance Sheet

“Big Four” accounting firm KPMG Canada has announced it has completed its first allocation of digital assets to its corporate treasury, comprising BTC and ETH.

‘Giant Melting Ice-Cube’ Behind the Decision?

Michael Saylor, the charismatic founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, first started converting the company’s cash reserves into Bitcoin in late 2020. At the time, he described his treasury as a US$500 million “giant melting ice cube”, a narrative that is seemingly gaining traction in institutional circles.

Unlike Saylor, who allocated only to Bitcoin and views cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin as securities, KPMG has made an allocation to both Bitcoin and Ethereum.

In addition, as per its announcement, it has also made an allocation to carbon offsets to “maintain a net-zero carbon transaction to deliver on the firm’s stated environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments”. Greenwashing much?

KPMG Canada’s managing partner, who facilitated the acquisition through the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini, added:

Cryptoassets are a maturing asset class … Investors such as hedge funds and family offices to large insurers and pension funds are increasingly gaining exposure to cryptoassets, and traditional financial services such as banks, financial advisers and brokerages are exploring offering products and services involving cryptoassets. This investment reflects our belief that institutional adoption of cryptoassets and blockchain technology will continue to grow and become a regular part of the asset mix.

Benjie Thomas, managing partner, advisory services, KPMG Canada

According to KPMG, the investment illustrates the firm’s outlook on emerging technologies underpinned by blockchain:

We’ve invested in a strong cryptoassets practice and we will continue to enhance and build on our capabilities across Decentralised Finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse, to name a few. We expect to see a lot of growth in these areas in the years to come.

 Kareem Sadek, advisory partner, Cryptoassets and Blockchain Services co-leader, KPMG Canada

Institutional Wall of Money Still Coming?

KPMG Canada’s announcement follows that of US$2.5 billion insurance firm Lemonade, which recently added $1 million in Bitcoin to its balance sheet, as well as the City of Rio de Janeiro, which is allocating 1 percent of its treasury to Bitcoin.

However, the KPMG announcement somehow feels different. Who could have expected a global accounting firm to allocate to crypto?

One of the potential roadblocks towards institutional adoption has always been the innate conservatism of traditional finance, and who better epitomises conservatism than global accounting firms?

That said, it wouldn’t be surprising, in time, if KPMG Canada’s allocation is viewed as a watershed moment in the story of institutional adoption.

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Bitcoin Charity Crypto News Industries

GoFundMe Withholds Freedom Funds Highlighting the Importance of Crypto Donations

GoFundMe has withheld US$8 million in donations to the Freedom Convoy 2022 fundraiser for Canadian truckers after police stated it was no longer a peaceful protest. With an investigation pending into GoFundMe, this situation makes a clear case against centralised crowdfunding entities.

Vaccine Mandate Leads to Blockade

The Canadian insurrection has been driven by the Covid mandate requiring that all truck drivers crossing the US-Canadian border be vaccinated. Thousands of truckers in Canada have since gathered in capital Ottawa to protest the mandate and the force with which the state was handling the situation. During the debacle, a fundraiser was started on GoFundMe that raised an estimated C$10million for the protest.

On February 4, however, GoFundMe announced via Twitter that it would stop the fundraiser and reimburse the donors automatically:

According to a BBC report, GoFundMe shut down the fundraiser because the protest was deemed no longer peaceful, stating that “we now have evidence from law enforcement that the previously peaceful demonstration has become an occupation, with police reports of violence and other unlawful activity”. As a result, the company stopped the fundraiser since it was in violation of its terms.

However, truckers insist the protests have been peaceful but that the state is looking for a way to curb the protest due to its ramifications for the city:

How Decentralised Donations Could Solve the Problem

With GoFundMe deciding to scrap the fundraiser, others in the decentralised community have stepped up to create a fund that can’t be blocked by authorities. One such instance is HonkHonk Hodl, which uses the Lightning Network to donate satoshis (fractions of bitcoin) to the Freedom Convoy.

The Canadian Bitcoin community would like to have a second financial access point for #FreedomConvoy2022. Legacy financial infrastructure can sometimes be politicised and clamped down upon, whereas Bitcoin is a truly censorship-resistant method of communicating value. Don’t allow your voices to be silenced, and don’t allow your financial sovereignty to be trampled upon. 

HonkHonk Hodl

HonkHonk Hodl has at this stage reached its goal of 600,000 satoshis, and is in fact well beyond with over 9 BTC (900,000,000 satoshis). Big names in the industry have joined the cause, with KrakenFX CEO and co-founder Jesse Powell, for example, making a donation:

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Bitcoin Crypto News DeFi Ethereum Hackers

ETH Sidechain ‘Meter.io’ Hacked for $4.4 Million 

Blockchain infrastructure company Meter.io has confirmed that US$4.4 million was stolen in an attack on its network on February 6 and has since urged users not to trade unbacked meterBNB circulating on the Moonriver parachain. Meter added in a Tweet that it is working to compensate funds to affected users:

What Went Wrong?

Meter explained that the contract did not execute wrapped tokens correctly. A bug introduced in the automatic wrap, and the wrap of native tokens like BNB and ETH extended by the Meter team, allowed the hacker to fake BNB and ETH transfers by “calling the underlying ERC20 deposit function”.

Blockchain security company PeckShield reported that 1391 ETH and 2.74 BTC were stolen during the incident. Both the Meter network and the Moonriver network were affected by the hack. 

A user named @ishwinder provided a full explanation of the hack on Twitter:

Hacks on DeFi and blockchain platforms have become a regular occurrence. Just last month, Crypto News Australia reported that Grim Finance had been hacked for US$30 million in Fantom tokens.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News

Australia’s Bitcoin Industry Body to Hold Historic Meeting With El Salvador

As the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender, El Salvador has become the Bitcoin nation state poster child, inspiring others to consider following suit. Australian Bitcoin Industry Body (ABIB), for one, is looking to engage with El Salvador on its Bitcoin adoption journey in a meeting to be held this week:

Bitcoin Industry Body – a Voice for Australian Bitcoiners

At its foundation, newly launched ABIB seeks to provide a voice for the burgeoning local Bitcoin industry:

ABIB was established primarily for two reasons:

  1. to provide the local Bitcoin industry with a platform to engage directly with regulators such as AUSTRAC (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre); and
  2. to provide a proper understanding of Bitcoin in response to misinformed perspectives in the media.

To get a better overall sense of ABIB’s role and purpose, see the video below in which one of its founding directors, Ethan Timor, provides a little more context:

ABIB Meets with El Salvador

On Wednesday, February 9, at 10am (AEDT), ABIB will hold a video conference with representatives from El Salvador, including its Ambassador to Australia, Werner Matías Romero, as well as its Director of Economic Relations, Eduardo Garcia.

In what is expected to be an exciting exchange of ideas, the topics expected to be discussed are Bitcoin adoption, learnings from the legal tender process, feedback from the citizenry, and how ABIB can collaborate with El Salvador going forward.

Crypto News Australia spoke with ABIB’s Ethan Timor in advance of the meeting, who added:

ABIB’s members and sponsors are thrilled to have the opportunity to meet with El Salvador’s representatives to discuss their historic Bitcoin legal tender adoption. One of our stated objectives is to advance Bitcoin adoption within Australia, and having an opportunity to meet with those at the forefront of Bitcoin innovation is invaluable to our mission. We are excited to learn about their experiences and how we can collaborate with them in the future.

Ethan Timor, ABIB director

For ABIB, the meeting with El Salvador is just the beginning. Local Bitcoiners will be also be pleased to hear that it has some lofty ambitions, including:

  • Bitcoin being classified and treated separately to all other cryptocurrencies;
  • Bitcoin being declared a foreign currency, as opposed to personal property;
  • enactment of the HODL Act, empowering government and the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) to hold Bitcoin on its balance sheet to protect against fiat debasement; and
  • financial literacy and education, particularly among young Australians.

While the El Salvador meeting is only available to members and sponsors, Australian Bitcoiners can follow developments, as well as other ABIB initiatives, on Twitter.

If you’re a Bitcoiner and keen to get involved, eligible individuals and companies are encouraged to join.