Category: Crypto News

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China Crypto News Gambling

Police Arrest a Team Running Illegal Gambling DApp in China

The Jianhu police have arrested a team of developers in the city of Yancheng in Jianhu province, China. The team has been operating a decentralised gambling app on the EOS network. Police have seized 26 million Yuan ($3.8 million USD) in EOS and BTC in illegal revenue.

China’s First Illegal Gambling DApp shut down

In a news report issued by the Jianhu Police, they have arrested 25 suspects that have been part of the online casino called “DAPP Biggame“. Between June 2018 and December 2020, the team behind Biggame allegedly profited from the operations with crypto assets worth 60 million Yuan, or nearly $10 million USD, law enforcement officials said. This is China’s first case involving a decentralised digital casino.

Apprehended suspects at the Biggame office

The report states that a preliminary investigation was opened on November 13, 2020, where they analysed 27 million transaction data in order to find contract addresses used for betting, lottery, and prize distribution, which led them to the perpetrators. Cryptocurrencies were used as a medium for betting and provided a platform to participate in illegal betting.

This DAPP does not need to be downloaded. Users can access and log in on the public chain or through various grapefruit coin wallets, and directly use the grapefruit coins to place bets.

Jianhu police

The DApp allowed players to use EOS smart contracts to place bets on various games such as Dice, Texas Hold’em, and others.

Illegal Activity on The Blockchain

Toward the end of 2020 Yancheng court sentenced individuals that were behind a multinational pyramid scheme to up to 11 years in prison. The perpetrators defrauded investors out of 14.8 billion yuan (US$2.25 billion). The size of the PlusToken scam makes it one of the largest uncovered Ponzi schemes in China to have taken advantage of blockchain technology.

The Chinese police started an “Internet Cleansing Movement” operation which is set to clamp down on illegal online activities from online gambling to money laundering.

Since Q4 last year, an increasing number of court rulings show that nearly 100 individuals have been convicted for knowingly laundering money through crypto over-the-counter trading desks that involved more than $30 million worth of Tether’s USDT.

Other arrests we’ve seen recently:

Categories
Crypto News Litecoin

Litecoin Hits a Yearly High of $315 Amid Spike in New Addresses

Litecoin Hits a Yearly High of $316 Amid Spike in New Addresses

The 10th largest cryptocurrency, Litecoin (LTC), is back on the uptrend after reaching another yearly above $430 AUD ($330 USD) this weekend.

Although the cryptocurrency has not crossed its all-time high (ATH) yet, which was $360 USD back in Dec 2017, this new trend upwards is more than welcomed for the LTC community, who have been patiently waiting.

Interest in Litecoin in Soaring

The chart below shows the price action of LTC which you can see is showing a strong uptrend.

Litecoin is often ignored as a “store of value” and more seen as a “payment coin” which is backed up by the increase of transactions, rising significantly since the beginning of the year. Transactions in Bitcoin and Ether are quite expensive compared to Litecoin being 15% lower fees than BTC.

New LTC Addresses Reach Three-year High

New Litecoin addresses have also been increasing over the past months, which is indicative of the growing demand and interest in the LTC ecosystem.

On the seven-day moving average (7D MA), the number of new LTC addresses spiked to a three-year high of 4,990.982, according to data from Glassnode, an on-chain crypto analytics platform. 

LTC Number of transactions – Source Glassnode
Categories
Binance Binance Coin Crypto News

Binance Completes 15th BNB Quarterly Burn Worth Over $500 Million

Binance Completes 15th Quarterly BNB Burn Worth $595 Million

On Friday, cryptocurrency exchange Binance completed another quarterly burn of its native cryptocurrency, Binance Coin (BNB). More than $500 million USD worth of BNB was destroyed in this latest quarterly burn, which is the highest so far in terms of dollar value.

Over 1 Million BNB Destroyed Forever

For the 15th quarterly burn, Binance burned exactly 1,099,888 BNB, which was worth $595,314,380 AUD, during the time of the event. Burning a cryptocurrency is a strategic approach to reduce a coin’s circulating supply. Hence, the crypto exchange just reduced BNB supply from 170,532,825 BNB to 169,432,937 BNB. These coins are destroyed forever and cannot be restored to circulation.

The Binance Coin had a maximum supply of 200 million when it was launched in 2017. However, the exchange committed to reducing the supply by 100 million BNB (i.e. 50 percent of the max supply) through the process of quarterly “burning.” to help preserve the value of the coin.

So far, Binance has destroyed almost 30 million BNB, which represents about 15 percent of the maximum supply of the cryptocurrency. The remaining 35 percent will be completed in the coming years. 

What’s The Essence of Burning BNB

Burning BNB is part of the exchange effort to keep the cryptocurrency more relevant in terms of market value. Since this process reduces BNB supply, it creates scarcity for the cryptocurrency. Notably, scarce assets usually gain in value, amidst high demand. Thus, BNB holders and the exchange tend to benefit from this process.

Shortly after the announcement today, BNB briefly increased to $540 USD. At the time of writing, however, BNB was trading at $514 USD on Coinmarketcap, i.e. a 6.68 percent price decrease over the past 24 hours.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News

Australian Companies Are Starting to Accept Bitcoin as Payment

Australian Companies Are Starting to Accept Bitcoin as Payment

The adoption of Bitcoin payment options in Australia is growing, as more companies now accepting BTC as a payment option for their services.

Cryptocurrencies have seen significant price increases over the past year or so, and while lots of Aussies are seeing their holdings soar in value, companies might see this as opportunity to get more business if they accept cryptos as payment for their services.

Aussie Companies Now Accepting Crypto Payments

Australian companies from lots of different industries are getting in on the crypto payments, you can now order a custom PC built, buy your dog food, design a custom home, pay for your NBN, get a solar powered system, and pay for everything using Bitcoin!

Here are some of the recent companies now accepting crypto payments:

It’s not just BTC you can pay with, other popular digital currencies are being accepted – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin, and Ripple being the most used.

We see bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as being here to stay. by providing the ability for people to use cryptocurrency as a form of payment, it shows we are prepared for the future and at the forefront of technology change

Louis Gonzalez, the director at Broadwater Builds. 

Cryptos Are Going Mainstream in Australia

Crypto adoption in Australia has been surging in recent months, as seen with the local crypto exchanges, including Binance Australia, who saw record growth in Q1 2021. And Swyftx, a local Australian based exchange also seeing massive growth as Australians flock to buy cryptocurrencies.

Digital currencies have seen massive attention since the coronavirus outbreak, which led more companies to accept cryptocurrencies for payment. If you’re a business looking to accept cryptocurrencies you can take a look at our guide How to Accept Bitcoin Payments for a Business in Australia for more information.

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Binance Coinbase Crypto News

Binance Lists Coinbase (COIN) Stock Market Token For Trading

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has listed tokenised stocks for trading – including TELSA (TSLA) and Coinbase (COIN), with the latter recently launched on the NASDAQ exchange on Wednesday.

The tokenized version of Tesla and Coinbase will make company shares more accessible to crypto users who can’t trade them directly on the stock market for whatever reason.

Binance Postponed COIN Token Debut

The Coinbase stock tokens were supposed to be listed on Binance yesterday, shortly after it went live on NASDAQ. However, the exchange temporarily postponed the listing “due to market volatility.”

However, a separate announcement on Thursday confirms the Coinbase stock token has been launched on Binance, meaning Coinbase shares are now trading on the exchange.

How To Buy/Trade Them

To trade the tokenised stocks, here are some useful links:

At the moment, Binance only supports stock token trading with its stablecoin BUSD, for example using the token pairs COIN/BUSD.

The tokens will be pegged to the actual market price of COIN on NASDAQ. Hence, it enables crypto enthusiasts to “access” the Coinbase shares without having to trade directly on the stock exchange, which may have higher fees.

Binance Stock Tokens are zero-commission digital tokens fully backed by a depository portfolio of underlying securities that represents the outstanding tokens. Holders of stock tokens qualify for economic returns on the underlying shares, including potential dividends.

Binance
Categories
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.

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Australia Crypto News E-commerce Gaming

Buy A Custom Computer With Bitcoin Through Dream PC Australia

Dream PC Australia, a premier custom computer builder in South Australia and one of the largest PC exporters for Australia has now started accepting crypto as payment for their PCs.

How to Order your PC and Pay in Crypto

Go to Build a Custom PC, selected the items that you want to buy, it’s as simple as going to checkout, selecting the cryptocurrencies payment method, and then you’ll be redirected to a page where you can select either BTC, ETH, or USDC. You can then either scan the QR code or pay it to their address, then you’re done!

An Increase in Australian Companies Accepting Crypto

Dream PC Australia is one of many other businesses in Australia that are now accepting crypto payments for their services, such as Broadwater Builds, Launtel an Internet Service Provider, Queensland Solar and Lighting, and others.

Companies are opting for this payment method because they allow for easy and secure payments, this also opens the gates to people who might only want to play with crypto. With Bitcoin reaching new all-time highs, Aussies are coming into contact with crypto more than ever and business owners want to keep the digital asset due to the increasing price and speculative media coverage.

There are also some associated risks with keeping Bitcoin that need to be taken into account by companies like the volatility of the market, new tax regulations that need to be complied with, and secure storage of the digital asset.

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Australia Crypto News

Australian Mark Carnegie’s New Crypto Fund Targets 30% Annual Returns for Large Investors

Mark Carnegie
Mark Carnegie

Australian venture capital investor Mark Carnegie has partnered with entrepreneur Sergei Sergienko to launch MHC Digital Finance, a digital assets fund that combines DeFi and Crypto-trading to generate 30% annual returns for large investors.

As reported by the Australian Financial Review, Carnegie believes that DeFi and Crypto-assets have the potential to bring a better, decentralised financial system.

The platform is now live, and it offers institutional clients custody, OTC markets, and fund management, with a minimum investment of $50,000.

Crypto as a hedge Against Inflation

Talking about the declining use of fiat and the consequences of money printing, Carnegie said investors should allocate 1 or 2% of their total net worth into cryptocurrencies as a hedge against inflation.

The money printing is a risk and you’ve got to think what you’re going to do to protect yourself against it,” he said. “Now, with Australia the general solution is buy a house. The problem about that is you forgo a tonne of liquidity if that’s your only solution.

Mark Carnegie [AFR]

Carnegie lamented not seeing the potential of DeFi and cryptocurrencies at first when Ethereum and Bitcoin were barely taking place in investor’s portfolio.

He now believes the ecosystem has grown successfully through time and can bring a new opportunity for large institutions and individual investors. “All the success in DeFi is going to pull bitcoin higher with it”, he claimed.

Combining Traditional Market With DeFi

The fund combines the traditional aspect of the market while also combining some popular DeFi strategies like staking, where users lock their funds to receive rewards.

We use automatic market makers and the discrepancies in returns in stable coins to produce a greater return for the fund. Effectively, we’re providing liquidity to automatic market makers on DeFi market protocols and receive commission from the trades executed on those protocols. We do it on different blockchains, thereby also taking advantage of different pricing for commission on different blockchains.

Sergei Sergienko

The fund already saw participation from several private investors. It will invest 45-75% of its assets into high-market cap cryptos such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), and the rest into stablecoins.

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Coinbase Crypto News Markets

Coinbase Shares Finally Debut on NASDAQ at $381 per COIN

Coinbase Shares Finally Debut on NASDAQ at $381 per COIN

Coinbase, the leading United States cryptocurrency exchange, has finally launched on NASDAQ, with a 50 percent increase in the share price.

Coinbase Valuation Has Surpassed $100 Billion

The Coinbase Shares (ticker symbol COIN) began trading on the stock exchange on Wednesday at the market price of $381 USD. This is about 50 percent higher than the reference price set by the exchange on Tuesday. At 1:31 PM, New York time, the shares’ price exploded to as high as $403 USD, bringing Coinbase’s valuation to over $100 billion shortly after the market debut.

COIN performance so far ranked the exchange as the 142nd largest company in the globe, according to data from Companies Market Cap.

We’ve had a number of ups and downs on our way here. Through luck and skill, Coinbase succeeded where many predicted it would fail. […] Today’s listing is a milestone, but it’s not as important as every new day in front of us. Coinbase has an ambitious mission: to increase economic freedom in the world.

Brian Armstrong, Co-founder, and CEO of Coinbase

Industry Reaction to COIN Listing on NASDAQ

Coinbase listing on the stock market has been one of the most-discussed topic in the cryptocurrency space, as it marks the first-ever crypto company to go public. Instead of choosing the traditional initial public offering (IPO) route, the exchange direct-listed on NASDAQ, meaning the exchange will issue its existing shares rather than offering new ones.

Many crypto enthusiasts and companies reacted positively to the development today. Binance has announced it will list the Coinbase stock tokens after the stock market debut.

The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, also commented on the milestone, saying that Coinbase listing will bring more credibility to the crypto market.

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Coinbase Crypto Exchange Crypto News

Coinbase Bringing Crypto To Wall Street In Landmark Stock Market Listing

Wall St
Wall St

Wall Street is buzzing as the largest U.S. crypto platform is setting up for its debut on a traditional exchange on Wednesday. As Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies rise to record levels ahead of the direct offering there has been varied speculation about the listing price.

The Nasdaq on Tuesday night set a reference price for the company at $250 per share, meaning the company is can be valued at around $49.19 billion USD. Should Coinbase hit the public market around its latest private market valuation of $100 billion, taking into account a fully diluted share count, it would instantly be one of the 85 most valuable U.S. companies. Nearly 115 million Coinbase shares will be put on the market to start.

The opening public price will be determined based on buy and sell orders in the opening auction on Nasdaq.

Nasdaq

Varying Expectations of The Listing

Investors expect that valuations could top $100 billion, since the company just published an astounding set of preliminary Q1 2021 results, with revenue jumping 9x year-over-year. In an implied valuation on Tuesday by FTX exchange, Coinbase was valued at approximately $150 billion USD.

CNBC

Coinbase would be valued more than Nasdaq, which has a market cap of $25.9 billion and possibly the Intercontinental Exchange (parent company of the New York Stock Exchange), valued at more than $66.9 billion.

They make more money than any publicly listed exchange in the world. They’ll make more money than Nasdaq… Coinbase is also not the most profitable cyrpto exchange in the world.

Tom Lee, Fundstrat founder

There are positive and negative outlooks at the valuation of Coinbase, Stock research firm New Constructs stated it should be valued at $18.9 billion USD, since “the company has little-to-no-chance of meeting the future profit expectations that are baked into its ridiculously high expected valuation of $100 billion“.

On the other hand Susquehanna, a research and trading firm was considerably more optimistic stating a fair valuation would be between $96 and $108 billion USD, due to the company’s high growth.

Can Coinbase Be Consistently Profitable?

This could be a pivotal moment for the crypto currency industry however, investors need feel the need to practice caution, since the company has a dependence on the price of virtual currencies, which tend to be volatile. So the implication is that Coinbase’s revenue is correlated with the level of activity in cryptocurrency and especially Bitcoin and Ethereum. If price or volume declines, their business, operating results, and financial condition would be adversely affected.

The success of Coinbase and cryptocurrencies in general seems to have inspired competitors too. The head of the California-based cryptocurrency exchange platform Kraken told CNBC last week he hopes to take his company public next year, also via a direct listing – possibly resulting in more options for investing in digital asset exchanges.

The listing is significant in that it marks the growth of the industry and its acceptance into mainstream business.

William Cong, an associate professor of finance at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business