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Users Panic as Nexo Withdraws 7,758.8 WBTC from MakerDAO

by Blockchain NewsOctober 2, 2022

There has been panic in the digital space amidst rumors of Nexo being insolvent due to the abrupt withdrawal of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) from MakerDAO with an address labeled as Nexo Ox8fd.

This comes just a few days after market analysts predicted a 50% drop in the price of Nexo.

According to reports gotten from sources, approximately $151 million worth of WBTC was withdrawn on Friday from MakerDAO from the Nexo wallet.

While many users believe the sudden withdrawal is a fraudulent move by the company, a Nexo spokesperson has highlighted that the withdrawn funds are still in the public space (Nexo wallet) adding that;

“the withdrawal was a routine transaction and represents a loan repayment according to the latest market dynamics and the company’s normal asset management.”

Nexo has continued to provide professional financial services to the digital economy since 2018. Nexo is among the world’s most trusted financial institutions that provides lending services in the digital finance industry. According to the firm, it has more than 5 million users around the world transacting with about 40 fiat currencies across more than 200 jurisdictions.

Crisis in the Digital Assets Economy

The recent uproar comes after a number of recent crypto bankruptcies have left investors without access to their funds this year. Nexo customers are seriously in dismay considering that Celsius Network which offers a similar offering to Nexo filed for bankruptcy after freezing customers’ accounts in June.

About eight states in the United States had earlier in September filed proceedings against Nexo as regards registration and cryptocurrency products yielding interests.

According to state regulators in New York, Kentucky, California, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Washington, and Vermont, Nexo offered users accounts earning interests without registering them as securities and without providing required information.

Investors, according to state regulators, cannot make informed investment decisions without access to these financial statements.

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Bitcoin ATMs Installation Growth Dropped Sharply in September

by Blockchain NewsOctober 2, 2022

The number of Bitcoin Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) installed globally is currently being affected by the current state of the crypto economy.

The number of ATMs that have been installed dropped from 38,776 in August to 37,980 ATMs in September according to data gotten from CoinATMRadar. 796 ATMs were removed from the global network which resulted in a drop of -2.05%.

The sudden drop in Bitcoin ATMs installations can be attributed to a variety of factors, including uncertainties in markets and tensions from different geopolitical regions.

Bitcoin ATMs allow a person to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with cash or a debit card. Some Bitcoin ATMs offer a two-way feature that allows you to both buy Bitcoin and sell Bitcoin for cash.

In some cases, Bitcoin ATM providers require users to have an existing account to make transactions on the machine. Bitcoin ATMs are one of the most visible benchmarks for measuring the growth of the digital currency ecosystem.

Bitcoin ATMs Installed in Different Regions

The data gotten from CoinATMRadar showed that as of May 18, 2020, there were 7,856 crypto ATMs in 72 countries and 5,888 locations in the United States alone, with 736 concentrated in the Los Angeles area and 946 present in Washington, DC. This amount is inclusive of other coins like Bitcoin Cash(BCH). Ethereum(ETH), Litecoin(LTC), and Dash (DASH).

Bitcoin ATMs were also introduced in the East and South of London with about 15 ATMs distributed across this region. Transactions have been constantly simplified through the ATM network of at least 150 machines across London.

The citizens of South Korea can now withdraw BCH, especially in areas that have not yet integrated peer-to-peer electronic cash payments with more than 13,000 ATMs present in South Korea as a result of the partnership between Bitcoin.com and Mecon Cash.

Despite the setback in market structure, data from 60 Days shows that almost 14 crypto ATMs are being installed worldwide per day, and Genesis Coin accounts for a 40.3% share of ATMs among other manufacturers.

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Tagged : Atm / Bitcoin / Coinatmradar / News

ACA Group Has Decided to Abandon its Acquisition of BitFlyer Holdings

by Blockchain NewsOctober 2, 2022

ACA Group, a leading financial advisor for institutions across the world has officially announced to the public that it is no longer interested in purchasing holdings of a Japanese-based cryptocurrency exchange, BitFlyer.

The ACA Group which is based in both Singapore and Japan announced the news on Saturday through Nikkei.com.

ACA Group had earlier in April agreed to purchase majority stake holdings of BitFlyer valued at up to $370 million (45 billion Yen).

The intention of ACA Group was to sell off the BitFlyer holdings after it has increased in corporate value. A coalition of shareholders independently negotiated the ACA agreement with the support of Minefumi Komiyama, the founder of bitFlyer, who owns about 13% of the company.

Not much information was given by ACA Group on their decision to back out from their initial agreement but the decision comes after a number of proposed collaboration has come to halt recently including Galaxy Digital, which terminated its planned acquisition of crypto manager BitGo in August.

All About BitFlyer

BitFlyer is a private company in Tokyo, Japan. The company is involved in buying, selling, and trading bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with more than 2.5 million users across its platform. BitFlyer was launched against the backdrop of Bitcoin’s permanent market cap of $14,000.

The Tokyo-based crypto exchange BitFlyer recorded a loss of about $6.9 million in profit for the company’s financial year ending in 2019. The loss in profit was a result of a drop in the value of Bitcoin (BTC) in the second half of 2019.

The Financial Service Agency also discovered a security mishap in BitFlyer’s business processes which eventually expose its customers’ investments to cyber theft in 2018.

BitFlyer responded to the issue by promising to stop receiving new businesses after regulators said they were not putting the needed efforts and structures to curb money laundering and the finance of terrorism.

The future is still bright for BitFlyer as it has continually shown resilience in the face of adversity over the years. The firm hopes that investors use their previous success to judge them while considering future investments with them.

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Tagged : ACA GROUP / Bitflyer / Bitgo / Galaxy Digital / News

Silk Road’s Ross Ulbricht Apologizes to the Public on the Eve of His 10th Year in Prison

by Blockchain NewsOctober 2, 2022

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht who is currently serving a double sentence in prison for his role in running a distribution network that allows buying and selling hard drugs through the use of Bitcoin made a statement on Friday describing his emotions on the eve of his 10th year in prison.

According to a Twitter post via his account run by a loved one, Ross shared that he regrets his actions as the mastermind of Silk Road. He admitted to having caused a lot of pain and ruined his life when he looked back at his many errors.

Ulbricht was arrested and sentenced to life in prison on seven charges in 2013; distribution of narcotics, distribution of narcotics over the Internet, conspiracy to distribute narcotics, furthering a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to hack a computer, conspiracy to smuggle using false identification, and money laundering.

Ulbricht received proceeds through Bitcoin from about 1,229,465 transactions over the two-year operation from his ‘darknet’ website as stated by court documents.

The Silk Road founder is still very much present in the crypto space despite his sentence. He introduced a decentralized social protocol (DSP) in 2021 stating how it will operate and the problems to solve.

Support for Ulbricht

Ulbricht has continued to receive support from crypto enthusiasts around the globe. Most of his supporters feel his sentence is unfair and therefore deserves a second chance.

The ‘ClemencyForRoss’ support group on Twitter made a Twitter post on Friday stating that Ulbricht doesn’t deserve to die in prison because he is a first-time offender, his charges were non-violent and he has shown an exemplary life by giving help to others in prison.

According to a news report by Blockchain.News, a billboard in Times Square was rented for several months in 2020 by Ulbricht’s supporters to campaign for his release.

Some of Ulbricht’s supporters believe that he only created a safe space for conducting business and the government is only after him because they didn’t get a share from his proceeds.

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Tagged : JAIL TIME / News / Ross Ulbricht / Silk Road

PwC Hong Kong and TerraZero Partner to Explore Metaverse Products

by Blockchain NewsOctober 2, 2022

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Hong Kong has partnered with Metaverse technology company TerraZero to explore Metaverse products and services.

According to a press release, PwC Hong Kong announced that it has signed a cooperation agreement with TerraZero Technologies Inc., a Metaverse technology company, to provide Metaverse products and services.

PwC will explore the public Metaverse experience for business-to-business (B2B), Business to Government (B2G), and Business to Customer(B2C) applications and build a Metaverse private hosting service that provides brands with enterprise-grade security, privacy, and security features to communicate with customers in a trust-based manner in the Metaverse Interact and trade.

PwC will also work with TerraZero to explore new ways companies can build privately hosted Metaverse experiences.

Peter Brewin, a partner at PwC Hong Kong, said TerraZero’s solution, combined with PwC’s digital expertise in a new way through an immersive 3D experience, can provide businesses with a toolkit to build users An experience you can trust.

He also added that:

“In addition to creating engaging experiences for customers and delivering sustained outcomes, it is important that companies can manage the risks around user privacy, data security, cyber, payments, tax, and financial crime.”

TerraZero CEO Dan Reitzik said that:

“TerraZero’s strengths are in creating engagement, community, and usability solutions that bridge the real world and the metaverse. We are particularly excited about both decentralized metaverse worlds and what TerraZero is creating for private environments: where companies, entrepreneurs, artists, and content creators of all kinds can safely conduct transactions and KYC processes, manage their brand IP, and more – all within an environment which brands can completely control themselves. This is the vision we will follow as the metaverse continues to grow and major entities enter the space.”

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / Metaverse / News / PWC / TERRAZERO

Stablecoin USDC Issuer Circle Launches Verit-based Institutional Digital Identity System

by Blockchain NewsOctober 2, 2022

On October 1, Circle, the US dollar stablecoin USDC issuer, announced the launch of an institutional digital identity system based on Verit, an open source framework for the issuance, custody, and verification of decentralized identity credentials.

Institutions with Circle accounts and MetaMask institutional wallets can apply for KYB (Know Your Business) credentials, enabling web and mobile applications and smart contracts to verify user permissions (including usage rights, time, location, etc.) for licensing on-chain activity.

Circle said eligible businesses will have direct control over how, when, and where their identity attributes are shared, and will not send or store any personally identifiable data on-chain.

Circle has partnered with TrueFi to support Verite KYB credentials to access TrueFi’s permission lending platform, which enables institutions to transact with authenticated counterparties they can trust.

USDT is one of the leading stablecoins with a market capitalization of $67.95 billion at the time of writing, and USDC comes second with a value of $47.25 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Last month, the USDC issuer announced it plans to expand USDC to five blockchains including Arbitrum, COSMOS, NEAR, Optimism, and Polkadot and will launch a new cross-chain transmission protocol. A subsidiary of digital payments company Block announced a partnership with Circle to provide USDC cross-border transfers and savings services to global investors.

FV Bank, a global digital bank, partnered with Circle to enable instant and automatic USD Coin (USDC) conversion into USD upon deposit last month.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / Circle / News / USDC

Uniswap Labs is Working to Secure over $100M in New Funding

by Blockchain NewsOctober 2, 2022

According to TechCrunch reports, Uniswap Labs is planning a new round of equity financing of 100 million to 200 million US dollars.

The decentralized exchange (DEX) has come a long way since its inception at the end of 2018.

Currently, the blockchain protocol running on Ethereum is the fourth largest one on DeFi Pulse, with a total value locked of $3.79 billion.

According to DeFi Llama, despite the market downturn, the exchange protocol’s token market cap is approaching $5 billion. and had a monopoly of 64% of all decentralized exchanges (DEXs) trading volume.

Uniswap Labs is reaching out to a number of investors, including Polychain and one of Singapore’s sovereign funds, to raise between $100 million and $200 million at a valuation of around $1 billion, laying the groundwork for a variety of upcoming products, according to those involved.

Mary-Catherine Lader, COO of Uniswap Labs, said one of the new products will allow customers to trade NFTs on Uniswap from multiple marketplaces. Another is a wallet, according to people familiar with the matter.

Uniswap is considered the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) operating on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform has been helping lead the decentralized finance (DeFi) movement and has proven itself as an advocate for the democratization and decentralization of the traditional financial system. Last September, the U.S. Securities, and Exchange Commission (SEC) began investigating Uniswap Labs, looking into how investors use Uniswap — the world’s largest decentralized exchange — and how the platform is marketed.

In April, Uniswap Labs, the largest decentralized exchange and automated market-making protocol on Ethereum, announced the launch of a new venture capital arm, Uniswap Labs Ventures, to invest in projects across Web3.

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Tagged : Bitcoin / Blockchain / Finance / Uni / Uniswap

19 of the World’s Largest Banks Hold Nearly $9B in Digital Assets: Basel Committee Survey

by Blockchain NewsOctober 2, 2022

According to a survey by the Basel Committee, 19 of the world’s largest banks hold nearly $9 billion in digital assets, and banks holding crypto assets may account for only 0.01% of total Bank for International Settlements (BIS) exposure.

The survey involved 19 banks, of which 10 are from the Americas, seven are from Europe and the remaining two are from the rest of the world.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision survey found that Bitcoin and Ethereum accounted for 0.14% of total exposure. The study also pointed to the need for capital markets to add new rules for lenders to hold digital assets.

Of the banks surveyed, two hold more than half of the assets, and four banks are earning the remaining 40% of assets. The uneven distribution of shareholdings among banks creates a market gap.

Cryptoasset exposure is dominated by 31% bitcoin, 22% ether, and a mix of bitcoin and ether at 25% and 10%, respectively.

The cryptocurrency market has liquidated billions of dollars this year. Exposure to cryptocurrencies has increased significantly.

The Committee’s Secretary, Renzo Corrias, highlighted the importance of study and said:

“The template [sent to banks] was specifically designed to support the Committee’s two consultative documents on the prudential treatment of banks’ crypto-asset exposures, which were published on 10 June 2021 and 30 June 2022.”

Corrias said the committee’s plan sets capital requirements for unsecured assets such as BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies. The new regulations mentioned in the report could limit lending and shut down banks’ access to the crypto market. In contrast, looser rules would apply to hedging exposures and other stablecoins.

However, the results of this study may be limited due to the small sample size.

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Tagged : Bank / Bitcoin / Blockchain / Crypto / Research / RISK EXPOSURE

19 of the World’s Largest Banks Hold Nearly $9 Billion in Digital Assets: Survey by the Basel Committee

by Blockchain NewsOctober 2, 2022

The survey involved 19 banks, of which 10 are from the Americas, seven are from Europe and the remaining two are from the rest of the world.

Of the banks surveyed, two hold more than half of the assets, and four banks are earning the remaining 40% of assets. The uneven distribution of shareholdings among banks creates a market gap.

Cryptoasset exposure is dominated by 31% bitcoin, 22% ether, and a mix of bitcoin and ether at 25% and 10%, respectively.

The cryptocurrency market has liquidated billions of dollars this year. Exposure to cryptocurrencies has increased significantly.

The Committee’s Secretary, Renzo Corrias, highlighted the importance of study and said:

However, the results of this study may be limited due to the small sample size.

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Tagged : Bank / Bitcoin / Blockchain / Crypto / Research / RISK EXPOSURE

India’s WazirX Lays Off 40% Of Workforce, Triggered by Market Hardship

by Blockchain NewsOctober 2, 2022

WazirX, a cryptocurrency platform based in India, has laid off several employees, a move that aims to make the exchange remain financially stable amid the ongoing market downturn. Three sources with knowledge disclosed the matter on Saturday.

According to the sources, WazirX laid off between 50 to 70 employees or 40% of the exchange’s workforce of 150 on Friday. The laid-off workers were told they would be paid for 45 days, they would not be required to report for work thereafter, and their access to work was blocked immediately.

One of the sources said the exchange cut the workforce from several departments including customer support, HR, and other departments. Managers, Analysts, and Associate Managers/Team leaders were among those who faced the axe.

Another source who lost his job stated that the entire public policy and communication team was fired. Another WazirX employee who lost his job “abruptly” on Friday narrated that the firm was never transparent with its financial position, either when it was doing well or in distress.

According to CoinGecko data, WazirX daily trading volumes have been steadily dropping from a high of 478 million on October 28, 2021, to 1.5 million on October 1, 2022. On some days, trading volumes have been lower than a million, and “this is not enough to support operations,” the sources said.

In a statement on Saturday, WazirX said: “The crypto market has been in the grip of a bear market because of the current global economic slowdown. The Indian crypto industry has had its unique problems with respect to taxes, regulations, and banking access. This has led to a dramatic fall in volumes in all Indian crypto exchanges.”

The decline in trading volumes started shortly after India’s implementation of harsh crypto tax laws in July 2022. On July 1, India’s government issued a harsh new crypto tax, imposing a 1% levy on all cryptocurrency transactions. Since then, trading on the country’s crypto exchanges has crumbled. Trading volume on the Indian exchange WazirX was down 68% since the law took effect. On other popular exchanges in the country like CoinDCX and ZebPay, trading volume was also down 83% and 16%, respectively.

In recent days, WazirX has faced a series of problems that further led to a significant decline of its trading volumes. Early last month, WazirX was in hot water after Binance claimed that it does not own any equity in Zanmai Labs’, the entity operating WazirX.

Binance issued the statement hours after India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) had frozen WazirX’s bank accounts and raided its premises due to concerns implicating India’s exchange with money laundering issues.

As per data from CoinGecko, WazirX daily trading volumes dropped to less than 2 million after the ownership row and regulatory crackdown took place – from a high of daily trading volumes of around 5 million.

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Tagged : Crypto Exchange / Exchanges / India / LAYOFFS / Wazirx