Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Dogecoin gaining popularity for illegal activities, Elliptic report says

Popular meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) has increasingly become connected to several illicit activities such as terrorism financing, Ponzi schemes, and child sex abuse, according to a new report by Elliptic.　　The blockchain analytics company revealed in its report that the meme coin popularized by Elon Musk had become a popular choice for bad actors to facilitate transactions in the millions.　　While the vast majority of this activity consists of fraud, scams and Ponzi schemes, it also includes the most serious types of crime, including terrorism financing and vendors of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).　　In July 2021, Israels National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing issued a seizure order against 84 crypto addresses believed to be associated with the Hamas group. One of those wallets contained $40,235 in Dogecoin.　　Additionally, the analytics company also discovered that a small but growing number of CSAM vendors on the darknet and outside now receive Bitcoin. Elliptics only identified $3000 in Dogecoin, which is a small amount.　　But it warned that this could represent a growing “appetite for criminal actors to adopt a wide range of crypto assets to avoid notice.”　　Darknets accepting Dogecoin　　Several darknet markets and malware campaigns also accept Dogecoin. Elliptic identified darknet services such as Just-Kill that still

2022-06-24Deep Dive

Binance CEO says bailouts for bad projects ‘don’t make sense’

Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao said bad projects should be allowed to fail and Binance has no intention of offering “bailouts” to such projects.　　In the blog post titled “A Note on Bailouts and Crypto Leverage,” CZ said that Binance has to help “industry players survive and hopefully thrive” even if the company does not gain anything from such help.　　CZ categorizes bailouts　　He continued that there are different types of bailouts. He believes some projects or companies are bad, which is visible in their poor design, management, and operations.　　Such projects do not deserve to be saved regardless of the number of users they might have. According to CZ:　　Bailouts here don‘t make sense. Don’t perpetuate bad companies. Let them fail. Let other better projects take their place.　　The second category comprises projects with fixable problems. These projects made mistakes, like spending too much or saving too little.　　CZ said companies with these good qualities and fixable problems should be bailed out and “made to fix the problems that led them to this situation in the first place.”　　In the third category, projects with great potential but have struggled to survive because of limited budgets should be classified as great investment assets. CZ added that the Binance

2022-06-24Deep Dive

Coinbase to launch Advanced Trade as a replacement for Coinbase Pro

Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., is looking to discontinue Coinbase Pro and integrate its features into its mobile app and website through Advanced Trade, the company announced June 23.　　According to the announcement, the current setup forces users to rely on different sets of features when using Coinbase Pro and Coinbase.com. Coinbase Pro allows experienced traders to place trades and interact directly with the exchanges order book. On the other hand, Coinbase.com offers perks like staking, borrowing, and access to a dApp wallet, to name a few.　　As a result, most users have to move funds back and forth between the two products to satisfy their crypto trading needs on the exchange. To address this shortcoming, Coinbase has rebuilt the Coinbase Pro advanced trading experience within Coinbase.com and the Coinbase mobile app.　　At the moment, Coinbase is adding features to Advanced Trade, which will serve as Coinbase Pros replacement. The exchange plans to start shutting down Coinbase Pro later this year.　　Per Coinbase, Advanced Trade is equipped with all the capabilities of Coinbase Pro, but upgraded with the most seamless Coinbase experience to make informed trades, faster and easier.　　Improving user experience　　Before announcing plans to phase out Coinbase Pro, Coinbase redesigned its

2022-06-24Deep Dive

Solana Unveils Web3 Mobile Phone

Solana is planning to release a mobile phone, marking one of the industrys first attempts to grow Web3 technology beyond the desktop. Included in the phone will be a dApp store, Solana SDK, and hardware private key security measures.　　Web3 Goes Mobile　　The team behind Solana is launching a new mobile phone.　　Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko announced today at an event in New York City the launch of Saga, an Android phone built specifically with Web3 in mind. The phone will provide access to a decentralized applications (dApp) mobile store in which users will be able to download decentralized trading platforms and NFT marketplaces.　　The dApp store is to be released without fees; the teams avowed goal is to eventually let the Solana community participate in the governance of its catalogue.　　Solana is one of the largest blockchains in crypto. Famous for its high throughput (65,000 transactions per second against Ethereums 30) and very low fees, the protocol has been the subject of criticism for its high level of centralization and numerous outages.　　The Saga phone will sport a 6.6-inch display, 512 GB of storage, and 12 GB of RAM. While Solana Labs doesnt expect it to ship before the first financial quarter of 2023,

2022-06-24Deep Dive

Ronaldo and Binance Announce NFT Partnership

Key Takeaways　　Cristiano Ronaldo announced a multi-year NFT partnership with industry giant Binance.　　The Portuguese football legend said his collection would be an opportunity for fans to “own an iconic piece of sports history.”　　Despite being built on one of the leading crypto ecosystems, Binance NFTs have never really taken off.　　Cristiano Ronaldo and Binance are partnering up to offer football fans a chance to own “an iconic piece of sports history.”　　“Iconic Piece of Sports History”　　Cristiano Ronaldo is getting into NFTs.　　The football superstar announced today his exclusive partnership with Binance. Ronaldo stated the multi-year deal would be an opportunity for fans to “own an iconic piece of sports history” and be part of his Web3 community.　　“Today we are going to change the NFT game and take football to the next level,” said Ronaldo in a video. For more blockchain news, please download WikiBit - the Global Blockchain Regulatory Inquiry APP.　　Binance is one of cryptos largest ecosystems; its major components include the Binance centralized exchange and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). BSC is the second most used blockchain (behind Ethereum), with 407 different protocols built on it and $5.92 billion of value locked.　　Despite these impressive metrics, Binance has struggled to foster a thriving native

2022-06-24Deep Dive

Tether Launches Stablecoin Pegged to the British Pound Sterling

Tether Launches the Companys 4th Fiat-Pegged Crypto Asset　　On June 22, 2022, Tether announced the launch of GBPT, a stablecoin that will be initially issued by the Ethereum blockchain. GBPT is pegged to the value of the British pound sterling, the oldest fiat currency in the world, first issued in 1694.　　“GBPT will be a stable digital asset that is pegged 1:1 to the British Pound Sterling. GBPT will be built by the trusted team of developers behind tether USDT and operate under tether.to,” the Tether announcement sent to Bitcoin.com News details. “The creation of GBPT will put British Pounds on the blockchain and provide a faster, less costly option for asset transfers.”　　USDT is the largest stablecoin by market cap today with $68 billion and the project was just recently launched on the Polygon network. Over the last two months, more than 12 billion USDT has been removed from circulation.　　USDT commands significant trade volume and today, tethers global volume is around $40.9 billion during the past 24 hours, while the entire crypto ecosystem recorded $76.5 billion in trades on Wednesday.　　Out of the $956 billion crypto economy, USDTs market cap dominates by 7.035% and it is the third-largest crypto asset market cap out

2022-06-23Deep Dive

Is FTX the Federal Reserve of crypto?

The cryptocurrency industry sometimes markets itself as an alternative to the traditional financial system and its dependence on the US Federal Reserve, but this week crypto investors are learning how useful it is to have a lender of last resort.　　As the industry weathers a bear market thats destroyed $2 trillion, Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX gave crypto lender BlockFi a $250 million loan. The head of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, also owns quant trading firm Alameda Research which last week extended a revolving line of credit to crypto broker Voyager Digital last week. (Crypto markets are happy with the deal: In the last 24 hours, the FTX token is up nearly 9%).　　Collateralizing loans with digital assets that are worth more than the principal of the loan was supposed to keep crypto lenders solvent in a crisis.　　These lending standards aren‘t always followed, however, as some lenders offer unsecured loans and others lend out the collateral backing loans. Collateralization also doesn’t save a lender from a borrower who is unable to meet margin calls in a market where the price of the collateral plummets suddenly.　　FTXs CEO is now choosing winners and losers in the crypto bear market. The move is not unlike when JP

2022-06-23Deep Dive

ECB head calls for separate framework to regulate crypto lending

A week after the major American crypto lending platform Celsius had to freeze the withdrawal option for its users, European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde voiced her conviction on the necessity of tighter scrutiny over this part of the crypto market.　　During a testimony before the European Parliament on Monday, Lagarde expressed her thoughts not only about the looming inflation in Europe and around the globe but also about the increasing activities of crypto-asset staking and lending. In Lagardes opinion, this trend demands additional regulatory efforts from the European Union. Referring to the major regulatory package making its way through the legislative routine, Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), she even coined the term “MiCA II”:　　“MiCA II should regulate the activities of crypto-asset staking and lending, which are definitely increasing.”　　Lagarde warned about the risks, posed by the lack of regulation in this segment of the market:　　“Innovations in these unexplored and uncharted territories put consumers at risk, where the lack of regulation is often covering fraud, completely illegitimate claims about valuation, and very often speculation as well as criminal dealings.”　　The official made a separate mention of decentralized finance (DeFi), which, from her point of view, also poses a “real risk to financial stability”

2022-06-23Deep Dive

Powell Sees No ‘Macroeconomic Implications’ From Bitcoin Price Swings

The Federal Reserve is closely watching the crypto world—but isn‘t worried, according to the central bank’s chairman.　　Fed Chief Jerome Powell said today at a Senate committee meeting that the bank saw no “macroeconomic implications” from Bitcoin and the wider crypto markets volatile price swings, but that better regulation still was required.　　“I think the principle implication is really what weve been saying, and what others have been saying for some time, which is that in this [crypto] very innovative, new space, really there is a need for a better regulatory framework,” said Powell, after saying the central bank was closely watching it.　　Bitcoin and most other coins and tokens in the ecosystem have suffered dramatic price drops the past month as many investors worried about the Fed hiking interest rates to control inflation have sold off riskier assets.　　Bitcoin right now is trading for $20,162.59, according to CoinMarketCap. Last November, it went as high as $68,789.63. The crypto market selloff seems to be closely correlated with equities, and the U.S. stock market has had a horrible year.　　Powell also was asked about stablecoins—digital assets pegged to fiat money like the U.S. dollar that are less volatile than Bitcoin and considered the backbone of the

2022-06-23Deep Dive

eBay Acquires NFT Marketplace

American e-commerce company eBay has acquired KnownOrigin, one of the top NFT marketplaces, according to a Wednesday announcement.　　The acquisition is part of the companys “tech-led reimagination,” the press release says. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.　　Jamie Iannone, CEO of eBay, says that the e-commerce giant is looking forward to welcoming a passionate community of artists and collectors.　　KnownOrigin was launched back in 2018, which makes it one of the oldest markets worldwide. The Manchester-based start-up, which was started out of a basement, secured £3.5 million worth of funding after completing its Series A round this February.　　eBay launched its first collection of NFTs last month in partnership with OneOf, another NFT platform. For more blockchain news, please download WikiBit - the Global Blockchain Regulatory Inquiry APP.　　The company updated its policy to facilitate NFT sales last May.　　Iannone has repeatedly mentioned that the company was exploring cryptocurrency payments, but the San Jose, California-based company is yet to adopt them.　　The e-commerce giant, which came into prominence at the peak of the dot-com craze in the late 1990s, has been toying with the idea of embracing Bitcoin since 2013.　　Shares of eBay are up roughly 0.54%, peaking at $42.41. They have so far

2022-06-23Deep Dive

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