It took a few years, but government crackdowns on “insider trading” involving digital assets have finally arrived. It’s about time! Insider trading occurs often in our securities markets, so it was only a matter of time before crypto and other digital assets would be exploited improperly by miscreants for financial gain. Powers On… is a
Eight years ago, in 2014, the crypto world was rocked by the crippling hack of Mt. Gox, a popular Bitcoin (BTC) exchange, which was forced to shut down after miscreants were able to make away with approximately 850,000 BTC, worth more than $16 billion at today’s exchange rates. At the time of the incident, the
Samson Mow, a well-known Bitcoin proponent, recently took to social media to talk about the centralization aspects of the upcoming Merge, which he claimed isn’t widely known. Ethereum is in the countdown mode after the completion of the Bellatrix upgrade on Sept. 6 and is all set for the official transition between Sept.13-15, depending on
Sept. 7, 2022 marks exactly one year since El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender by enforcing the Bitcoin Law. Advocating for Bitcoin as legal tender last year, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele promised that Bitcoin adoption would benefit the 70% of the local population that
Russia is cooperating with friendly countries on the potential employment of stablecoins in international payments, a top government official unveiled. The news comes after key institutions in Moscow agreed that the Russian Federation needs to legalize cross-border crypto payments in the face of sanctions. Russia Looking to Build Stablecoin Platforms to Facilitate Trade With Partners
Guidelines for security tokens in South Korea will be announced by the end of 2022. Simultaneously, the pilot market with a regulatory sandbox will be launched before the formal institutionalization. Chief South Korean financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), published the report with the results of a joint policy seminar it held together with
Three federal agencies in the United States — the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center — jointly issued an advisory seeking information to curb ransomware attacks. As part of the #StopRansomware campaign, the joint cybersecurity advisory alerted citizens of Vice Society, a
A lawyer representing Russian IT specialist Alexander Vinnik has urged the government in Moscow to discuss a potential exchange of prisoners with the United States, where he was recently extradited. The French legal expert is convinced only a return to his homeland could save Vinnik who has deteriorating health after solitary confinement in France and
A Bitcoin (BTC) evangelist in Lebanon took their love for Bitcoin to the next level. Said Nassar, an international business engineer, themed his wedding day around Satoshi Nakamoto’s innovation, Bitcoin. Each and every wedding guest received Satoshis (the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin) as a wedding gift for attending the Nassar family’s special day, while
The Brazilian tax authority (RFB) has revealed its numbers corresponding to the month of July regarding cryptocurrency statements. More than one million Brazilians have declared cryptocurrencies in the month, which constitutes a record in statements for the organization. Also, there was a rise in the number of women holding crypto for this period. Tax Authority
The Bellatrix upgrade preparing Ethereum for the Merge was successfully completed on Sept. 6 – however concerns were raised over an almost one in ten missed block rate across the last 600 slots. The Bellatrix upgrade updated Ethereum consensus layer clients at epoch 144896 on the Beacon Chain prior to the upcoming Merge scheduled for
The growing number of speculators taking out Ether (ETH) loans to maximize their potential to earn forked Ether Proof-of-Work tokens (ETHPoW) has been causing headaches for decentralized finance protocols. The issue has been gaining traction over the past month or so, given that a significant number of Ether miners are expected to continue working on
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has reportedly asked four banks to pilot the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) ahead of its public launch. RBI to Pilot India’s CBDC With Public-Sector Banks The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, has reportedly asked four public-sector banks to trial India’s
The mythical merge is almost here. Ethereum’s transition from Proof-Of-Work to Proof-Of-Stake is the most talked about event in crypto at the moment, and money is flowing to that blockchain. That, in turn, translated into a decrease in bitcoin dominance. That metric measures the percentage of the whole crypto market that bitcoin represents, and it’s
Mainstream outlets are starting to pick up on the significance of next week’s Ethereum Merge, describing it as a “major overhaul” that could either accelerate crypto adoption or send disastrous shockwaves across the market should it fail. The Merge has been in the making since the original Ethereum white paper and involves moving from an
While the cryptocurrency community prepares for The Merge, the Nasdaq-listed, Hive Blockchain Technologies, revealed in the company’s August 2022 production update that it plans to re-distribute its hashpower dedicated to Ethereum toward “other GPU mineable coins.” Hive’s Technical Team Researches Other GPU Mineable Coins On September 6, Hive Blockchain Technologies (Nasdaq: HIVE) published the company’s
With the increased adoption and attention to non-fungible tokens, several platforms like OpenSea emerged as trading hubs. As a result, people needed suitable grounds to interact and transact with the numerous NFTs available in the space. Hence, some platforms have been trying to bridge the gap and serve potential investors of collectibles. OpenSea is an
Key government institutions have agreed that Russia needs to legalize crypto payments for international settlements. The proposal has been gaining support in the past few months since Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine was met with wave after wave of Western sanctions. Financial Authorities in Russia Consider Legalizing International Cryptocurrency Payments In the current conditions, “it
This week, the hardware wallet manufacturer Trezor, and the non-custodial bitcoin wallet with a built-in Coinjoin mixer, Wasabi, revealed the two teams are working together to introduce Coinjoin mixing into hardware wallets. On Sunday, Wasabi tweeted “hardware wallet Coinjoins are coming next year with our friends at [Trezor].” Trezor Says Company Is ‘Working on a
The road to the Ethereum groundbreaking upgrade has been fraught with diverse issues. Since the idea generation stage, the developers have put a lot of effort into the project. The journey is getting shorter since the team has reached the Bellatrix upgrade. Earlier, the Ethereum Foundation had already prepared the community for the upgrade. They