Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Binance Issues Warning On Fake Billboard Ads Rented In Turkey

With the recent popularity of Binance in Turkey, scammers have been finding ways to cash in on this new trend. Fake billboards are spotted all over town advertising bogus opportunities themed after the popular cryptocurrency exchange.　　The Binance TR team has sounded the alarm about a scam attempt targeting crypto investors in Turkey. The fake billboards and advertisements appear to have originated from an unknown source.　　Crypto investors in Turkey account for over 7% of the traffic to Binance‘s website. This is according to data from Similarweb. To take advantage of Binance’s popularity in Turkey, scammers have been found to rent billboards with fake offers related to the exchange.　　In a tweet on May 8th, Binance said:　　“For a while, billboards similar to the image below have been striking in different regions of Turkey. The image below has nothing to do with #Binance. Necessary legal processes have been initiated against persons who are clearly involved in fraudulent activities.”　　Source: Twitter　　Binance Turkey has warned the public about a fake advertisement on billboards. The billboard advertisement for “Binance Tourist exchange” is displayed on one of the most prominent billboards in Turkey.　　Furthermore, dialing the contact number they mention in their advertisement connects the victims (investors) directly to the

2022-05-10Deep Dive

US DOJ Charges Mining Capital Coin CEO for Allegedly Running a $62M Crypto Fraud

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted Luiz Capuci Jr., the CEO and co-founder of Mining Capital Coin (MCC), for allegedly running a $62 million fraud scheme.　　Mining Capital Coin CEO Allegedly Misled Investors　　According to the DOJ, Capuci and other unnamed members of his team had misled investors into thinking that MCCs mining and investment program had massive profit-bearing potential.　　Capuci claimed the firm has an international network of large-scale mining machines that could generate enormous profits and guaranteed returns if investors purchased the so-called “Mining Packages.”　　The investment would allegedly be used to mine a new cryptocurrency, MCCs native token dubbed “Capital Coin.” Capuci claimed the token was backed by the “biggest cryptocurrency mining operation in the world.” He, however, failed on these promises and rather resorted to using the funds raised by investors to fund personal crypto wallets under his control.　　The DOJ said: “As alleged in the indictment, however, Capuci operated a fraudulent investment scheme and did not use investors funds to mine the new cryptocurrency, as promised, but instead diverted the funds to cryptocurrency wallets under his control.”　　Running MLM Scheme　　In addition to fraudulent mining packages and token sales, Capuci allegedly marketed dubious MCC trading bots to unsuspecting investors.

2022-05-10Deep Dive

CAN BITCOIN FIX MICROPAYMENTS?

Micropayments were all the rage in the 1990s. The idea of allowing customers to pay tiny fees for physical or online products was thrilling and received a lot of attention. However, early micropayment models failed to solve the problem of incurring large costs on processing tiny transactions. This is why micropayments havent taken off, years later after the idea was conceived.　　But Bitcoin may offer — finally! — a workable model for micropayments for businesses and customers. Well explore how Bitcoin facilitates microtransactions and what benefits this technology offers.A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO MICROPAYMENTS　　Micropayments typically refer to transfers below a specific value threshold. Think of a micropayment as a really small transaction or payment — like the $1.20 you pay for a cup of coffee.　　Micropayments have received considerable attention from companies and researchers, and for good reason: Micropayments have the potential to unlock new income streams for businesses and increase value for customers.　　Let‘s imagine you visit Billy’s shop downtown for a cup of coffee, which costs $3.20. You don‘t have any cash on you, so paying with a credit card looks like the best option. But there’s a slight problem: Billy won‘t accept transactions below $5 because the payments provider often charges

2022-05-10Deep Dive

Meta Confirms Instagram Will Start Testing NFTs This Week

Meta, the tech giant that owns Instagram, has confirmed that the popular photo-sharing app will start testing non-fungible tokens this week, according to an announcement made by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.　　The billionaire says that creators and collectors will be able to display digital collectibles on their profiles.　　Zuckerberg has also revealed that the app plans to go a step further by letting users display augmented reality NFTs on their Instagram Stories. The feature will be powered by Spark AR, the biggest platform for mobile augmented reality.　　Facebook, the social media platform owned by Meta, will launch similar functionality in the near future, according to Zuckerberg.　　As reported by U.Today, rumors of Instagram adding support for non-fungible tokens started circulating in late 2021.　　In January, The Financial Times confirmed that Meta was working on a feature that would allow both Instagram and Facebook users to flaunt their NFTs. In addition, Facebook was allegedly working on its own marketplace for digital collectibles.　　On Sunday, cryptocurrency media outlet Coindesk reported that Instagram was preparing to add support for NFTs on four blockchains: Ethereum, Polygon, Flow and Solana. Meta is yet to confirm which specific blockchain platform its new NFT-related feature will support.　　Instagram will not be the first social media

2022-05-10Deep Dive

El Salvador Buys Another 500 Bitcoin Amid Market Pullback

El Salvador president Nayib Bukele has announced another Bitcoin purchase amid the current crypto market turmoil.　　Over Twitter, Bukele claimed to have bought exactly 500 Bitcoin for an average of $30,744 dollars each on Monday.　　The president, who has admitted to making Bitcoin buys from his phone using the countrys money, referred to the purchase as “buying the dip”.　　As of today, Bitcoin has closed its 6th consecutive red weekly candle for the first time since 2014.　　Its also reached the lowest price point since July of 2021 and is more than 50% below its all-time high.　　Bitcoin collapsed as low as $31,000 earlier today, wiping $300 million in open interest from the crypto markets within an hour. It now trades even lower at $30,972 at the time of writing.　　Bukele has never been one to fear the market, however. He has been known to buy more Bitcoin whenever its price drops, intent on collecting as many as possible. Please download WikiBit for more blockchain news.　　The International Monetary Fund has repeatedly called on the president to roll back El Salvadors adoption of Bitcoin, citing such volatility. Bukele has dismissed them at every turn.　　El Salvador‘s last big Bitcoin purchase was in January when it secured 410 Bitcoin

2022-05-10Deep Dive

El Salvador Buys 500 Bitcoins Amid Crypto Bloodbath

El Salvador Buys the Bitcoin Dip　　Amid a crypto bloodbath, El Salvador has bought the dip. The Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, announced Monday on Twitter that his country has purchased 500 more bitcoins. “El Salvador just bought the dip! 500 coins at an average USD price of ~$30,744,” he wrote.　　His tweet came as the crypto market lost billions, and the price of bitcoin fell more than 50% from its all-time high.　　At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $31,607. It was down 8.5% in the last 24 hours, 18.1% in the past 7 days, and 25.4% in the last 30 days.　　El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar in September last year.　　Since then, the company has been purchasing bitcoin periodically. After an initial purchase of 700 bitcoins, the country bought 420 BTC in October, 100 BTC in November, 171 BTC in December, and 410 BTC in January. With Mondays purchase, the total number of BTC purchased by El Salvador has grown to 2,301 bitcoins.　　According to one estimate, El Salvadors total bitcoin holdings have lost more than $30 million in value. Nonetheless, President Bukele is still bullish about bitcoin, expecting the price of BTC

2022-05-10Deep Dive

Bitcoin and Ethereum Down Over 50% From All-Time Highs

Having spent the last five weeks in decline, the industry’s largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, Bitcoin and Ethereum, are currently down roughly 50% from their all-time highs posted during the 2021 bull run. 　　Leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin still dominates 41.8% of the market with a capitalization of $628 billion. Its trading at $32,947 – a level not seen since July 2021, according to crypto data aggregator CoinMarketCap. 　　This figure records a 51.98% drop in value since Bitcoin set its all-time high of $68,789 on November 10, 2021.　　It’s a similar story with the second most popular coin, Ethereum. 　　Ethereum has a market dominance of around 19.2%, with a current capitalization of $289 billion, but today it’s worth $2,395, or about 50.8% of its former high of $4,891.70, posted on November 16, 2021. Bitcoin, Ethereum: Inflows and outflows　　Part of Bitcoin’s recent price movement can be understood in light of its inflows and outflows on exchanges. Greater inflows typically signal an imminent bear market as investors move their holdings onto exchanges to sell for fiat or fiat-pegged stablecoins. 　　Conversely, greater outflows can be a bullish signal as investors may be moving their holdings to cold storage wallets for long-term holding. 　　According to data from

2022-05-09Deep Dive

Just How Sustainable Are Play-to-Earn Gaming Pyramids?

The play-to-earn (P2E) GameFi sector was one of crypto‘s biggest success stories in 2021, with Axie Infinity alone accounting for USD 3.5bn in NFT sales last year. This is in addition to the increasingly high market capitalizations of a growing number of play-to-earn tokens, with CoinMarketCap currently putting the sub-sector’s total value at USD 12bn.　　However, questions have been raised as to the long-term viability and sustainability of play-to-earn, not least because Axie Infinitys DAU (daily active user) count has declined from 2.7m in November 2021 to 1.14m at the end of April. Given that some play-to-earn models rely on a constantly churning intake of new players, skeptics may assume the wheels are slowly coming off, yet industry analysts affirm that some of the biggest titles are evolving their structures accordingly.　　They also affirm that, while some argue that ‘play-to-earn’ is an oxymoron, the entertainment aspect of the best games is enough to keep players coming back for more, even when market conditions are tough.Where does the money come from？　　At its most basic and abstract, play-to-earn is a simple enough concept to understand: you play a game and receive in-game items that can be sold for profit to other players or on

2022-05-09Deep Dive

Coinbase Warns Some Russian Users Their Accounts May Be Blocked, Report Reveals

Coinbase Reportedly Asks Russian Clients to Withdraw Funds　　Some Coinbase users from Russia have received letters informing them that their accounts will be blocked on May 31, the crypto page of the Russian business news portal RBC reported. The company suggested that these customers withdraw their funds unless they provide documents indicating they are not subject to EU sanctions, the publication explained quoting the correspondence, which stated:　　Until May 31, 2022, you must withdraw all funds from your account or provide us with special documents that confirm that you do not fall under these sanctions.　　After that date, the funds may be frozen and all assets transferred to the accounts in the future will also be blocked, the crypto exchanges support team warned the Russians, according to the post published by RBC Crypto.　　The news of the notice comes after earlier in May, Coinbase‘s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal tweeted that the exchange could no longer provide services to certain Russian clients registered to the platform’s EU entities or located within the European Union.　　Grewal assured that the company is working with affected customers to give them an opportunity to demonstrate if these sanctions dont apply to them or help them withdraw their funds from

2022-05-09Deep Dive

Luna Foundation Guard Lens $1.5B in BTC and UST for Stablecoin Peg

Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) will lend $1.5 billion in bitcoin (BTC) and TerraUSD (UST) to defend the peg of its algorithmic stablecoin to the U.S. dollar.　　· In a tweet thread, the Singapore-based LFG said it would loan $750 million worth of BTC to trading firms to help protect the peg and also loan $750 million in UST to accumulate bitcoin to help normalize the market.　　· “The traders will trade the capital on both sides of the market to help accomplish both #1 and #2, eventually maintaining parity of the LFG Reserve pool (denominated in BTC) as market conditions progressively stabilize,” LFG wrote in the thread.　　· UST relies on another token, LUNA, to keep its price of a dollar via a set of on-chain mint and burn mechanisms and is one of the largest algorithmic stablecoin.　　· In a separate tweet thread, Do Kwon, the projects founder, said that the move to loan out $750 million of bitcoin shouldnt be seen as LFG trying to exit its BTC position but rather increasing the liquidity around the UST peg. LFG will buy more BTC if UST expands from here, which we think is the more likely outcome, Kwon said.　　· Over the weekend, the

2022-05-09Deep Dive

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