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Crypto Weekly Inflows Have Topped $500M for Six Consecutive Weeks: CoinShares

by Blockchain NewsAugust 9, 2022

Inflows into crypto investment products have been experiencing an uptick for six consecutive weeks, topping $500 million, according to a report by market insight provider CoinShares.

The study dubbed “Volume 92: Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report” highlighted:

“Digital asset investment products saw inflows totalling US$3m last week marking the 6th consecutive week of inflows that total US$529m, representing 1.7% of total assets under management (AuM).”

Source:CoinShares

CoinShares noted that constant inflows are happening despite the crash in the crypto market witnessed in the second quarter of 2022.

As the much-anticipated merge in the Ethereum network edges closer, more inflows have been trickling into the second-largest cryptocurrency. The report pointed out:

“Ethereum saw inflows totalling US$16m and is enjoying a near 7 consecutive week run of inflows totalling US$159m. We believe this turn-around in investor sentiment is due to greater clarity on the timing of The Merge.”

The merge, which is expected to happen on September 19, will change the current proof-of-work (PoW) framework to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Moreover, it’s speculated to be the biggest software upgrade in the Ethereum ecosystem.

American multinational investment bank Citi recently noted that the merge would make Ethereum a “yield-bearing asset,” Blockchain.News reported.

On the other hand, CoinShares noted that despite sentiment in the crypto market improving, trading volumes remained low the past week at $1.1 billion compared to the year-to-date weekly average of $2.4 billion.

“Bitcoin saw very minor outflows totalling US$8.5m while short-Bitcoin investment products saw a record outflow totalling US$7.5m, and for the second consecutive week suggesting investors believe Bitcoin prices have troughed,” CoinShares added.

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Blockchain in Fintech Sector Expected to Hit $31.4B by 2030

by Blockchain NewsAugust 9, 2022

Blockchain in the fintech market is anticipated to reach $31.4 billion by 2030, given that the penetration of this cutting-edge technology in the financial industry has boosted app-based operations.

The study by Market Research Future (MRFR) pointed out that a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 47.9% would be recorded in the forecast period between 2021 and 2030.

Open banking and the high adoption of international payment platforms are the key driving forces behind the market expansion.

Since blockchain technology aids transparency, transaction security, and detection of fraudulent activities, it has been a major catalyst in the fintech industry’s growth even during the pandemic.

Working capital has become fundamental in the current era where inflation and surging interest rates continue wreaking havoc. As a result, the fintech sector aims to fill the void as companies seek to attain greater economies in the mission-critical cash cycle.

Therefore, blockchain is expected to unlock more opportunities by automating supply chain finance.

North America takes the lion’s share in the fintech and blockchain market, followed by Europe and the Asia Pacific. Per the report:

“North America heads the global blockchain in the fintech market, witnessing the growing adoption of advanced technologies. Besides, the growing fintech industry and the rising demand for secure payment processes from online applications boost the region’s market shares.”

Moreover, market growth in Europe is anticipated to soar based on surging payment security and internet connectivity needs.

On the other hand, the increasing numbers of call centres, websites, and mobile applications in the Asia Pacific region are expected to foster more development in the blockchain in the fintech market.

Meanwhile, the fintech sector in Singapore made notable strides in 2021 by hitting $3.94 billion, with crypto and blockchain funding contributing nearly half at $1.48 billion, Blockchain.News reported.

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Tagged : Applications / Banking / Blockchain / Finance / FinTech / News / Payments / Research

Amber Group Expands Retail Trading Operations into Brazil Through WhaleFin

by Blockchain NewsAugust 9, 2022

Cryptocurrency financial services startup Amber Group has announced that it will expand its retail trading operations into Brazil through a retail platform called WhaleFin.

Amber Group, one of the fastest-growing digital currency management firms in Asia, was launched in 2017. As a leading global digital asset platform, Amber Group provides a full range of digital asset services spanning from investing to financing and trading to spending.

The company said that crypto investors in Brazil can buy and sell cryptocurrencies and take out loans through WhaleFin’s retail platform.

Amber Group’s flagship digital asset platform, WhaleFin, also recently launched an NFT service. The latest feature integrates NFTs as digital assets on WhaleFin.

Nicole Pabello, Latin America managing director at Amber Group said that:

“WhaleFin is our newest product interface that allows customers to connect to our app, web or API to trade, earn, and exchange tokens, among other products.”

The CEO of Amber Group stated that Brazil is a very active country for cryptocurrency trading, and cryptocurrency exchanges also favour its scale. He also predicted that if the country approves a special regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, the country’s cryptocurrency market will continue to grow.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced a partnership with Brazilian payments platform Latam Gateway to restore deposits in Brazilian reals in the region.

Global digital assets platform Amber Group has taken up ownership of Japan-based cryptocurrency trading platform, DeCurret in a concluded transaction with no monetary terms declared.

Through the acquisition, Amber Group said it will now be able to introduce regulated crypto exchange and custody services that are in compliance with Japan’s financial market regulations.

The group’s current main service targets are primarily institutional investors and wealthy people, providing products, including services such as algorithmic trading and lending products. In addition, the company is striving to gain individual investor customers.

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Tagged : AMBERGROUP / Bitcoin / Blockchain / Brazil / News

Marathon Digital Says Generated 707 BTC with YoY Increase of 8% in 2022 Q2

by Blockchain NewsAugust 9, 2022

Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. announced its July 2022 operational update on Aug 8, revealing that the cryptocurrency mining firm had mined 707 bitcoins, an increase of 8% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2022.

However, the amount was a decrease of 44% from the previous quarter’s 1,259 bitcoins.

The company further said that its revenue for the second quarter was $24.9 million, while it recorded revenue of $29.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2021. The decrease in revenue was attributable to an 8% increase in Bitcoin production activity that was partially offset by a decrease in revenue per Bitcoin.

Marathon’s chairman and CEO Fred Thiel stated: “Energization delays, maintenance and weather issues in Montana, and an approximately 56% decline in the price of bitcoin during the quarter, severely impacted our bitcoin production and financial results. These items reduced our revenues, caused us to record a $127.6 million impairment on our bitcoin holdings, and decreased the fair market value of our investment fund by $79.7 million.”

As of July 31, 2022, Argo said it held 10,127 bitcoins with a fair market cap of $236.3 million.

In July, Marathon announced that it had completed the installation of about 40,000 mining machines, with a total of 68,000 mining machines going into production at its Texas factory.

Marathon said the expanded partnership with Applied Blockchain and with Compute North had ensured sufficient hosting capacity to support all bitcoin mining at 23.3 EH/s.

The company now expects its mining machines to yield better performance, and bitcoin production may improve in the short term.

The major US Bitcoin mining firm also announced on Monday that it had secured another $100 million line of credit from Silvergate Bank backed by Bitcoin (BTC).

The company also revealed that it has currently deployed around 49,000 miners with a hash rate of 4.7 exhas per second (EH/s).

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / Crypto / MARATHONDIGITAL / Mining

Marathon Digital Releases Q2 Result, Generating 707 BTC with YoY Increase of 8%

by Blockchain NewsAugust 9, 2022

However, the amount was a decrease of 44% from the previous quarter’s 1,259 bitcoins.

As of July 31, 2022, Argo said it held 10,127 bitcoins with a fair market cap of $236.3 million.

In July, Marathon announced that it had completed the installation of about 40,000 mining machines, with a total of 68,000 mining machines going into production at its Texas factory.

Marathon said the expanded partnership with Applied Blockchain and with Compute North had ensured sufficient hosting capacity to support all bitcoin mining at 23.3 EH/s.

The company now expects its mining machines to yield better performance, and bitcoin production may improve in the short term.

The major US Bitcoin mining firm also announced on Monday that it had secured another $100 million line of credit from Silvergate Bank backed by Bitcoin (BTC).

The company also revealed that it has currently deployed around 49,000 miners with a hash rate of 4.7 exhas per second (EH/s).

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / Crypto / MARATHONDIGITAL / News

BitMEX’s Greg Dwyer Pleads Guilty for Role in Money Laundering Case

by Blockchain NewsAugust 9, 2022

The first employee of BitMEX cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Monday pleaded guilty to violating a U.S. federal anti-money laundering law by failing to put in place an anti-money laundering program. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York disclosed the announcement on Monday.

Gregory Dwyer, who previously served as the head of Business Development at BitMEX, pleaded guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act for failing to establish, implement, and maintain an anti-money laundering program at BitMEX.

Dwyer, a 39-year-old citizen of Australia and Bermuda, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan.

As per the plea agreement’s terms, Dwyer agreed to pay a fine worth $150,000 fine and is set to spend five years in prison as a penalty for his crime.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Today’s plea reflects that employees with management authority at cryptocurrency exchanges, no less than the founders of such exchanges, cannot willfully disregard their obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act.”

Dwyer accepting committed the above-mentioned crimes follows guilty pleas to the same charges by the crypto exchange’s three co-founders (Benjamin Delo, Arthur Hayes and Samuel Reed).

Prosecutors stated that from 2015 to 2020, Dwyer and BitMEX co-founders intentionally violated the federal Bank Secrecy Act by failing to adopt “know your customer” and anti-money laundering programs, thus turning the exchange into a money laundering platform.

In February, Delo, Reed, and Hayes admitted they had failed to “willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program.”

In May, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined the three BitMEX co-founders $10 million each for breaching anti-money laundering (AML) requirements and each was sentenced to probation.

Prosecutors alleged that the three failed to implement KYC processes for their U.S. customers, thus making their exchange an effective money laundering platform and processing up to $209 million in questionable transactions.

In August last year, BitMEX agreed to pay $100 million to settle civil allegations that it allowed illegal trades for years and violated rules requiring anti-money-laundering programs.

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Tagged : Bitmex / CRYPTO DERIVATIVES EXCHANGE / Greg Dwyer / Lawsuit / MONEY LAUNDERING CHARGES / News

Singapore Crypto Lender Hodlnaut Suspends Withdrawals, Citing Tough Market Conditions

by Blockchain NewsAugust 9, 2022

Singapore-based cryptocurrency lending and borrowing platform Hodlnaut announced on Monday that it had suspended customer withdrawals, swaps, and deposits. The firm cited “difficult market conditions” as the reason that triggered the move.

The crypto lender also withdrew its application for a license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to offer digital token payment services. Hodlnaut received in-principle approval from the Central Bank in March.

The Singapore-based company mentioned that it wants to focus on stabilizing liquidity and preserving customer assets while working on a long-term solution.

Hodlnaut stated it is working with Singapore law firm Damodara Ong LLC on a recovery plan.

In a statement, the firm said: “Halting withdrawals and token swaps were a necessary step for us to stabilize our liquidity and give us the time to work closely with our legal advisors to come up with the best possible restructuring and recovery plan for our users.”

Hodlnaut also added that it is restricting some of its official channels and stated it would shut down its social media accounts.

So far, the firm has removed its YouTube channel and CEO, and co-founder Juntao Zhu has made his Twitter account private.

The company’s team page (on Hodlnaut’s website), which previously mentioned its two founders, five employees, and an advisor, has also been pulled down.

The firm mentioned that it will issue further updates on August 19.

Hodlnaut, which was established in 2019, manages more than $500 million in assets, according to the company’s LinkedIn profile.

Are Customer Funds Safe?

The development by Hodlnaut puts the firm on a long list of other crypto lenders that recently paused customer withdrawals, citing financial difficulties triggered by the ongoing severe market volatility.

In the past two months, companies such as Celsius Networks, Three Arrows Capital, Voyager Digital, Vauld, and CoinFlex, among others, suspended withdrawals or declared bankruptcy.

Although crypto prices have trended down for the better part of this year, May and June were disastrous months for cryptocurrency.

In the past two months, Bitcoin prices plummeted to values not seen since 2020 while exchanges and lending firms were forced to do things which nobody had expected.

One after another, companies halted withdrawals, leaving customers uncertain whether they would ever see their hard-earned money again.

While some of these companies have resumed withdrawals, others have only offered notes of optimism without tangible promises. This means the worst may still lie ahead.

Earlier last month, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX exchange, stated that he was pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into struggling firms to keep them afloat but said there are others that he believes are already “secretly insolvent.”

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Tagged : Crypto / Hodlnaut / News / Singapore

MeebitsDAO Manager to Push Meebits Branding for Yuga Labs

by Blockchain NewsAugust 9, 2022

Yuga Labs has revealed plans to onboard MeebitsDAO general manager Danny Greene as the new brand lead for Meebits at Yuga Labs.

The transition is best considered as a move to integrate Danny as a Yuga Labs veteran further but basically occupying the same role and tasks, he has been overseeing for MeebitsDAO over the past 8 months.

Since Yuga Labs acquired the Intellectual Properties attached to CryptoPunks and the Meebits non-fungible token (NFT) collection in March, the team has been making several strategic decisions to reposition the two pioneering collectables as the pride of the NFT world they once were.

At Yuga Labs, Danny will help in building a dedicated community for Meebits while also carving out creative utilities for the NFT collection. As Meebits brand manager, Danny will also be tasked with the responsibility of acting as a liaison between the brand and the broader Web2.0 and Web3.0 worlds, respectively.

Danny’s wealth of experience as a former VP, in charge of global marketing for Curio NFT, and a consultant to Activision Blizzard on matters pertaining to the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops III, made him the ideal candidate to take up this challenge.

The entire Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ecosystem is all about branding with collections like BAYC and CryptoPunks naturally speaking for themselves. Despite this, The Yuga Labs team employed Guy Oseary, Madonna’s brand manager, as the NFTs’ spokesperson and representative.

With the collective work that has been done thus far, BAYC has gained tremendous traction amongst top fashion brands, with the likes of Gucci recently integrating ApeCoin into its payments rail. The branding that Danny Greene is coming to commence is bound to be a build-up on what the other Yuga Labs collections have been able to pull thus far.

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Tagged : BOREDAPE / Meebits / MEEBITSDAO / NFT / YUGALABS

PlayStation Surveying Players on NFTs at EVO 2022

by Blockchain NewsAugust 9, 2022

PlayStation may be eyeing a move into the non-fungible token (NFT) world as the gaming giant has been surveying its players about their interests in digital collectables.

As revealed by a Twitter user with the handle Snorlax Ownz, the gaming giant added a question bordering on the interests of EVO 2022 players with respect to digital collectables.

Per the screenshot shared above, PlayStation asked the EVO participants to give an insight into the digital collectables they collect the most. The listed options include Evo Branded, Favorite Music Artists, Favorite ESports Players/Teams, PlayStation Items, and Favorite Game Characters.

It is becoming commonplace amongst game developers and Guilds to integrate non-fungible tokens into their characters and merchandise build. In fact, there is a whole new push to integrate blockchain dynamics into decentralized finance, birthing Play-2-Earn (P2E) games such as Axie Infinity, The Sandbox, and other growing titles.

PlayStation provides the console that serves as the avenue by which most gaming enthusiasts access some of the most thrilling titles around. Should the speculations about the outfit consider adopting NFTs, it will mark a milestone that can arguably steer the new innovation to a whole new level.

While the likely disposition of PlayStation is yet to be determined, other gaming stakeholders are already making their stands known. Popular gaming studio Minecraft has openly said no to NFTs and blockchain technology in general.

Per the position of the gaming giant, NFTs, with their inherently uncertain price hikes, are billed to unsettle its ecosystem. The key feature it prides itself on, inclusivity, may be removed altogether.

While Minecraft said it will be keeping tabs on development in the setting of the digital collectable, other major platforms like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Magic Eden have launched dedicated funds to help bootstrap gaming protocols. This shows the growing level of importance being accorded to NFT and blockchain-powered games across the board.

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Tagged : EVO2022 / Minecraft / NFT / Playstation

Tornado Cash Now Placed Under US OFAC Sanctions

by Blockchain NewsAugust 9, 2022

The United States Treasury Department has sanctioned one of the world’s most popular crypto mixing platforms, Tornado Cash.

According to the sanctions, the crypto mixer has been barred by the government from offering any form of transactions to individuals in the United States.

The assets of the platform that may be resident in the US or under the control of American citizens are also expected to be reported to the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The sanctions became necessitated as the Treasury Department claimed that the platform has continued to facilitate money laundering for hacker groups like the North Korean government-sponsored Lazarus Group.

According to the Treasury Department, Tornado Cash has been used to process as much as $7 billion since it was first introduced in 2019. Of this amount, about $455 million belongs to the Lazarus Group.

“Today, Treasury is sanctioning Tornado Cash, a virtual currency mixer that launders the proceeds of cybercrimes, including those committed against victims in the United States,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “Despite public assurances otherwise, Tornado Cash has repeatedly failed to impose effective controls designed to stop it from laundering funds for malicious cyber actors on a regular basis and without basic measures to address its risks. Treasury will continue to aggressively pursue actions against mixers that launder virtual currency for criminals and those who assist them.”

Crypto Mixers have continued to be one of the most important avenues by which hackers launder their proceeds. The platforms take in the funds without verifying their origin and mix them in a way that obfuscates those who would be the final beneficiaries.

While the transaction money tools from intelligence outfits like Chainalysis are not yet sophisticated to catch such funds movement, the Treasury Department has resorted to sanctions. These sanctions have also been extended to Blender.io back in May this year.

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Tagged : BLENDERIO / News / Sanctions / TORNADOCASH / USTREASURY