Category: Cryptocurrencies

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Crypto Exchange Cryptocurrencies Hackers

Cryptopia Hacked Again While Under Liquidation

Back in January of 2019, Cryptopia was hacked — leading to losses worth $1.97 million. 

The New Zealand-based exchange has since started liquidation procedures —  but they’ve been hit yet again.

Losses From First Hack Still Not Recovered

Following the 2019 hack that cost them nearly 2 million dollars, their liquidator, Grant Thorton, has started allowing former users of the exchange to send them claims for cryptocurrency lost back in 2019.

This incident alone constituted a loss of 15% of their entire digital currency stash and is considered the most damaging incident of theft in the history of New Zealand — and the proceeds are worth far more now than at the time of the theft, due to the explosion of multiple cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin chief among them. 

Stakenet — a U.S.-based creditor — stated that $45k worth of XSN had been transferred out of its cold wallet on the 1st of February. 

However, Grant Thorton stated that the transaction was not authorized — which makes one wonder how the hack could have occurred, as an attack on a cold wallet is much harder to pull off than an attack on a hot wallet, due to its intentional lack of connectivity to the Internet. 

Stakenet commented that Grant Thorton should take responsibility for the incident, assuming it happened on their watch.

“If this unauthorized transaction has happened under Grant Thornton’s watch then they need to explain to the users why they failed to secure … [their] assets like they were supposed to do and how someone was able to access them.”

Although Grant Thornton did not make a public statement regarding the issue, it’s been understood that they have contacted the police about the security breach and are investigating it internally. 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies Ethereum Mining

Nvidia Limits Mining Efficiency On RTX 3060

Nvidia has announced that they will be reducing the efficiency of Ethereum mining on its RTX 3060 series by 50%, in an effort to ease the shortage of graphics cards caused by crypto miners.

For over 2 years, graphics cards – usually snapped up by avid gamers – have seen numerous shortages, causing their prices to skyrocket on secondary markets. Between scalpers and miners, the market is tense – a move that has caused Nvidia to step in, hoping to restore high-end GPUs to their intended purpose.

However, in order to not leave crypto miners orders unfulfilled, Nvidia is also launching a GPU dedicated specifically for miners – the CMP .

Focused Due To Highest Yield Potential

To explain why they have specifically lowered the hash rate on the 3060 series, Nvidia stated that Ethereum has the highest global mining yield of any other cryptocurrency at the moment.

“It has the highest global mining yield for any GPU-mineable coin at the moment and thus is likely the main demand driver for GPUs in mining.”

By making Ethereum mining less efficient, Nvidia hopes it can deter miners from focusing on gaming GPUs and drive them towards their new dedicated CMP cards.

According to Nvidia, the CMP will remove focus from the graphics a high-end gaming card would be able to render and turn that power towards more energy-efficient mining processes.

However, critics have met this claim with a measure of skepticism – stating that more efficient mining hardware will do nothing to stop the card arms race – since miners with these cards will simply be competing against other miners with the same cards now, not against miners with regular graphics cards.

It’s worth noting that the current shortages have not only made the prices of GPUs skyrocket, but that of mining rigs as well, with some companies having their inventory sold out for the foreseeable future.

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Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

The Crypto Market has Surpassed Australia’s Total GPD, In Less Than 24 Hours

In less than 24 hours, the crypto-market has reached a total of $1.60 trillion, according to Coinmarketcap, even surpassing the total GPD —Gross Domestic Product— of two countries: Spain and Australia.

According to data from the World Bank —a financial institution that provides loans and bonds to governments— Australia’s current GPD is $1.48 trillion, while the Spanish GPD stands around $1.39.

No signs of Selling for the moment

Bitcoin’s price has been moving with speed since February 8, when Tesla announced investing $1.5B —almost AU$2B— in Bitcoin. Now the chart indicates a possible 46-48K price correction, before taking off or dropping below that level of support.

BTC/USD chart

Despite a possible price correction —or even a consolidation zone, BTC could reach higher levels of even $65K considering there still is a strong demand as the buying pressure still is strong between traders and investors.

BTC/USD investor’s sentiment

Higher price levels for Bitcoin are probable scenarios according to several top-investors and CEOs, including Antoni Scaramucci —SkyBridge founder, and analysts from JP Morgan.

The Securities and Exchange Commission —SEC— could soon allow a Bitcoin ETF, now that two major institutions: NYDIG —New York Digital Investment Group LLC—, and Morgan Stanley joined to file a petition in favor of a Bitcoin fund for their accredited investors, while Morgan Stanley will be NYDIG’s first authorized participant.

The move follows Australia and Canada’s recent plans for opening a Bitcoin ETF, with full permission and regulations.

Besides, Australia is also entering the crypto-market more than ever and even using Self-Managed Super Funds for buying Bitcoin despite the increase in price.

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Australia Cryptocurrencies Scams

US DOJ Charges 3 North Korean For Cybercrimes That Caused Over $1.3 Billion In Damages

The US Department of Justice is charging 3 hackers – presumed to be associated with the infamous Lazarus Group that took on Sony back in 2014 – with theft and extortion of cryptocurrency between 2017 and 2020.

Possible Funding Of Nukes Via Crypto Theft

It’s been less than a week since the UN made allegations that North Korea may be funding its nuclear program using cryptocurrency stolen by its army of hackers.

To go along with the charging of the 3 individuals, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Department of Treasury published a joint statement about a piece of malware known as AppleJesus. This malicious app poses as a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange, fooling users into downloading it and transferring their crypto to unknown sources – presumed to be run by North Korea.

“This report catalogues AppleJeus malware in detail. North Korea has used AppleJeus malware posing as cryptocurrency trading platforms since at least 2018. In most instances, the malicious application – seen on both Windows and Mac operating systems – appears to be from a legitimate cryptocurrency trading company, thus fooling individuals into downloading it as a third-party application from a website that seems legitimate.”

This attack appears to have targeted users and companies in Australia, the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, India, China, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Korea – among other countries.

Due to international sanctions, North Korea has turned to more unorthodox methods in order to turn a profit. In the past, these activities have run the gamut from farming in-game currencies on World of Warcraft to more typical methods.

In a press statement, Assistant Attorney General John Demers stated that North Korean hackers have been causing quite a lot of damage to banks – except this time, keyboards were used, instead of guns.

Categories
Cryptocurrencies DeFi Institutions

DATA Token Soars 115% as the EU Uses a DeFi Network to Bring New Financial Technologies

The DATA token —the native-currency of Streamr— soared over 100% in value, as the Ethereum-based DeFi protocol is joining a European Union program called ATARCA, in a new project that seeks to implement new financial technologies for data and market research.

The European Consortium granted $2.5M to this research program, a fusion between Streamr and ATARCA —Accounting Technologies for Anti-Rival Coordination and Allocation— to develop an open-source project and bring in a new token called the “anti-rival” token, which will work with the Ethereum ecosystem.

The project proposes a new market category —accordingly, both companies are creating an exchange platform where the value of goods relies not on supply and demand, but on abundance. This means that the more the goods are share, the more valuable they are.

A New Kind of Money

These”anti-rival” tokens are DLT-based —distributed ledger technology — and according to ATARCA, they will set a new category for financial technologies by helping markets globally to organize data and digital goods through community-driven currencies.

The new token will be tested in Barcelona using the REC —Real Economy Currency— a local currency in Spain backed by NOVACT, —Institute for Nonviolent Action—.

The interesting feature of these tokens is that they work as stores of value, collectibles, and a unit of account. But the value relies on sharing, instead of exchanging.

These distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based tokens are used to instantiate a new ‘substance’ of quantified anti-rival value, a medium of sharing. The smart tokens will enable efficient, decentralized, market-style trading and ecosystems for anti-rival goods.

Pekka Nikander, Professor of Aalto University in Finland, will lead ATARCA. According to the professor, the 21st century needs a new economic system that can solve the old problems that the current one still struggles with:

In ATARCA, we create cryptographically protected anti-rival tokens and test their applicability to governing industrial data markets and fostering cooperation in community-driven currencies. If successful, this technology will not only help to properly organize the markets for data and other digital goods but provide the structural fundamentals of a new type of economic growth. This will allow the societies at large to more widely explore structurally new incentives for systemic sustainability and scalable systemic intelligence. 

Recently, we have also seen other bullish news for DeFi such as Federal Reserve Bank Researcher Suggests DeFi May Lead To A More Robust and Transparent Financial Infrastructure. As this DeFi market continues to grow it will become harder to ignore as it attempts to reshuffle global economics as we know it today.

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Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Institutions

“Digital Assets are the Future”: BTC Hits A$62,346 as an American Bank Is Set to Support Crypto in 2021

America’s oldest custodian bank, Bank of New York Mellon Corp —BNY Mellon— will soon provide crypto support for asset-management clients.

The bank will support not only Bitcoin but several cryptocurrencies as well. The move comes amid after large American corporations like Mastercard and Tesla have adopted cryptocurrencies as payment methods.

Only a matter of time until banks worldwide begin to support cryptocurrency transactions —as crypto-assets, inevitably, are starting to take a broader space in the media.

“Digital Assets are the Future”

BNY Mellon executive, Mike Demissie stated that “Digital assets are the future”, adding that a large inflow of investors and institutional clients are seeking digital assets exposure through the bank.

We’re experiencing heightened interest from current clients who are seeking exposure to digital assets. We are also seeing new demand from prospective clients, particularly digital-native companies in the digital asset space, who are looking for BNY Mellon’s core investment services.

Stated Mike Demissie for Forbes

However, as many in the crypto-community see these events as a historical moment for crypto-assets, there are several users that believe this contradicts the original concept of decentralized finance.

Lots of people jumped into crypto because they wanted to escape from “custodians”. I don’t want someone who can suddenly freeze my money. Redundant service. Banks are wasting electricity

Stated a crypto-user on Twitter

BTC Hits New All-Time High

According to charts from TradingView, Bitcoin has reached another price record of $48.316.82 —A$62,346— following the bank’s announcement. An increase of 5.30% in 24 hours.

BTC/USD Chart

Institutional adoption has become a key element for BTC’s bull run, and it could be only a matter of time until crypto-assets are embraced worldwide. Although, some users in the crypto-market will see this multiform, some arguing that banks will need to adjust to cryptocurrencies, and others stating that traditional institutions will try to tax and freeze their coins.

Categories
Crypto Debit Cards Cryptocurrencies Payments

MasterCard Announces Crypto Support Coming This Year

In a recent blog post, Mastercard announced that they would begin supporting various cryptocurrencies later this year.

Stablecoins To Be Prioritised

Although MasterCard has not yet confirmed which cryptocurrencies will be supported natively, they have stated that they will most likely be offering more support for stablecoins.

This is due to the fact that as a credit card company, they want to offer as much stability as possible to clients.

However, the company has stated that they would not be hosting stashes of cryptocurrency directly – instead, they’ve created partnerships with companies such as Wirex, BitPay, and LVL who will convert fiat to crypto and vice versa – and only then will the “crypto” enter the Mastercard network.

Mastercard went on to say that their entire philosophy revolves around offering customers as much freedom of choice as possible – and given the widespread interest in cryptocurrency that shows no sign of stopping, adding support for cryptocurrencies was the logical choice.

“Our philosophy on cryptocurrencies is straightforward: It’s about choice. Mastercard isn’t here to recommend you start using cryptocurrencies. But we are here to enable customers, merchants, and businesses to move digital value – traditional or crypto – however, they want. It should be your choice, it’s your money. Doing this work will create a lot more possibilities for shoppers and merchants, allowing them to transact in an entirely new form of payment.”

The credit card company has also stated that they’ve engaged several central banks looking into creating CBDCs – a cryptocurrency that is backed by a central banking system. Examples of countries looking into CBDCs are Australia, China, France, Germany, and the USA. According to the blogpost, MasterCard provided some of these banks with a virtual environment to test these out.

MasterCard isn’t the only company dabbling in cryptocurrency, however; Visa has also been expanding its horizons and investing in crypto-affiliated fintech firms.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

45% of Australians Invest In Crypto “Because it’s going up in value”

Nearly 50% of Australians are investing in crypto-assets because “it’s going up in value”. Moreover, 19% of Aussies are investing in cryptos for “portfolio diversification”, followed by a 13% that consider digital assets as a hedge against inflation.

Reasons why Aussies are investing in crypto. Source: Finder

Likewise, Ethereum has replaced Ripple as the second most-preferred digital asset for Aussies, with 6% of them owning and trading ETH.

Crypto-preference by Australians.

Bitcoin as a Store Of Value For Aussies

There could be a biased background if Australians are only investing in cryptocurrencies in a rushed manner just because large corporations are accumulating and pumping BTC’s price —there is at least 30% of BTC supply own by tech and investment trusts—. The major differences for this bull compared to 2017 can be outlined in the following:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic not only crashed the Stock Market and contracted global economies— the U.S. Federal Reserve started to print more money as thousands of Americans were losing their jobs every day due to lockdowns.
  • Hence, the more money is printed, inflation increases. The Dollar is considered the world’s reserve asset and, naturally, people will seek better stores of values and any asset that works as a hedge fund against that inflation, such as precious metals; digital assets, and other commodities.

Bitcoin’s evolution has surpassed the first stages of hypeness that was driven by retail traders, trading and exchanging outstanding amounts of BTC. According to Forbes, transactions by November 2017 surpassed more than $2B worth of Bitcoin. Now the stage for BTC has surpassed that collectible level, entering the store of value scenario.

What Aussies Should Consider Before Investing in Crypto

Reviewing the charts, a $38-40k price could become an essential support level for Bitcoin. In mid-January, the price dipped more than -10%, entering a strong consolidation zone that swung the price between $30-34k levels before Tesla’s announcement.

The more vertical the price direction is, the more speed the price has in it. This is what is called time-based pricing. The arrival of institutions has skyrocketed the price of Bitcoin, turning the price direction more vertical — which means a higher price velocity.

The price drop at the end of January could be considered the first correction since the bull run started in mid-2020. Likewise, if other institutions follow Tesla’s path, Bitcoin could go as high as 100,000 by the end of 2021 before going through two more correction zones.

BTC/USD chart.

Reviewing the charts, there could be another correction zone with price swings between 40 to $45k, before taking off to +50K. This could mark an opportunity, considering several Aussies bought the dip when BTC fell to 28K.

CNBC crypto-trader and analyst Ched pointed out the price could reach even higher levels, up to US$70,000 in a month. The probability relies on the outstanding shift in price speed and trading volume reviewing the charts.

Australians who are new to cryptocurrencies looking to invest in them can also review Cryptonews Australia’s Bitcoin Guides to know the essentials before investing in these assets.

Categories
Australia Cardano Cryptocurrencies Ripple

Should Australians Switch to Cardano? ADA Surpasses XRP and other Altcoins in a Frenzy Bullish Run

Cardano —listed ADA— has outranked Ripple’s XRP as the fourth-highest market cap cryptocurrency, with a surge of more than 80% in just seven days. The token could become an attractive opportunity for Aussies looking to replace XRP.

At the time of writing, ADA is currently traded at $0.63, surpassing XRP with a trading volume of $11.913.631.193 and price gains over 17.00% in the last 24 hours.

Top ten cryptos with highest market cap on Coinmarketcap

While most altcoins slightly corrected after Bitcoin hit $41K and dropped -6% below that level, Cardano remained strong among other tokens, and increasing its market cap to over $20 billion.

XRP Still On The Lose

On the contrary, XRP, the second-most preferred digital asset by Australians still struggles to maintain itself on a solid price level.

In the last seven days, the asset fell into a downtrend following a crowd pump by the XRP community supporters and Reddit groups, who tried to break resistance levels but crashed massively just after Redditors from the r/WallStreetBets started buying as well.

The Goguen Mary Testnet Could “Outshine” ETH 2.0

Charles Hoskinson, Co-Founder of Cardano and Ethereum, believes that Cardano’s “Goguen Mary” testnet could outperform ETH 2.0 in the future. The Cardano company was working since February 3 on a “Mary” fork for Cardano, and it was successfully deployed this week.

I think Vitalik’s [approach] is a little bit riskier from an engineering and research viewpoint, which is why it’s been so difficult for them to get ETH 2.0 out.

The new features included the support of “native” custom tokens through direct transactions in the Cardano Blockchain —instead of using Smart Contracts like Ethereum or others. Now the Cardano network has transformed into a multi-asset ledger that could also improve the DeFi ecosystem through custom token support.

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Australia Cryptocurrencies

The Australian Tax Office is set to Target Cryptos For “Money Laundering Schemes” in Australia

During an online conference this week, the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement —known as J5— is shifting its focus on the “illicit” use of cryptocurrencies on crimes such as “money laundering schemes”.

The J5 is a well-known supergroup of international tax institutions from the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, with the Australian Tax Office —ATO—.

This week, the J5 made cryptocurrencies and the fintech space its primary topic. One of the key questions will be how are cryptos and digital assets being used by “criminals” and “tax evaders.”

The IRS Will Send a Secondment to the ATO

Jim Lee, Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation —IRS— chief, announced the U.S.-based federal agency will send next week a senior member from his office to the ATO, as a strategy to target cryptocurrencies, fight “tax criminals” and “money laundering schemes” in Australia.

IRS chief Jim Lee during an online J5 conference this Thursday. Source: Accounting Today

Many people out there feel that just because they’re dealing with cyber in the blockchain crypto area, they’re anonymous. But it’s a mistake to assume cryptocurrencies are untraceable by authorities.

Stated IRS-CI chief Jim Lee during the conference

But, ironically enough, several banks in Australia were recently the main protagonist on money laundering schemes. Two weeks ago, 16 banks —seven of them Australian and the rest Southeast-Asian— were behind major schemes together with South American drug cartels, for laundering more than $500M in international transactions.

The Australian Border Force decided to withhold the names of those banks due to “Security”, and “legal procedures”. At the time of writing, there has not been any more news about the topic.

Simon York, director of U.K.-based HM Revenue and Custom stated that Australia and other countries could expect a greater presence from the ATO, and a deeper study for Cryptocurrencies and their use.