Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Investors from Pakistan have become victims of a massive fraud using cryptocurrency. The country’s main law enforcement agency has issued a notice to crypto exchange Binance in relation to the scam which resulted in the loss of $100 million dollars for Pakistanis, media reports revealed. Fraudsters Lure Pakistanis to Invest in Cryptocurrency Through Binance Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency ( FIA ) has uncovered a crypto investment scam that has allegedly cost Pakistani citizens some 17.7 billion rupees (around $100 million). Providing details on the case, Imran Riaz, director of the FIA cybercrime wing, said on Friday that the organizers used cryptocurrency. Quoted by local media, Riaz announced: We launched a probe after receiving complaints regarding a fraud involving billions of rupees being committed using nine online applications. The fraudsters employed mobile apps offering Pakistanis crypto investment opportunities and people sent between $100 and $80,000, or an av...

Members of the U.S. Federal Reserve are getting criticized this week after the central bank published its minutes report from the policy meeting on December 14-15. Following the update, the outgoing vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s trading activities has reignited ethics conversations. Richard Clarida’s Trades Under Scrutiny The U.S. central bank can shake up markets and this was seen earlier this week when the Federal Reserve published last month’s policy meeting update which indicated the Fed’s plans to raise rates and cut back quantitive easing (QE). Not too long after, the New York Times (NYT) published a new disclosure report concerning the outgoing vice chair of the Federal Reserve, Richard Clarida. NYT author Jeanna Smialek wrote that “corrected disclosures show that Vice Chair Richard H. Clarida sold a stock fund, then swiftly repurchased it before a big Fed announcement.” The reporter further added that “Clarida, the departing vice chair of the Federal Reserve, failed...

This week Google Trends shows that the acronym NFT, which stands for non-fungible token, has reached a score of 100, the highest score a search query can get from the data analytics aggregator. Meanwhile, statistics indicate that during the last 30 days across ten different blockchains, there’s been $2.73 billion in NFT sales. NFT Monthly Volume Sees Close to $3 Billion in Sales — Axie Infinity, Clonex, MAYC Sales Reign While the crypto economy has seen a downturn, it’s too early to say whether or not it’s affecting NFT sales. However, monthly statistics show that across ten different blockchain networks including Ethereum, Ronin, Solana, Flow, Polygon, and more, there’s been $2.73 billion in NFT sales. The collection with the most sales stemmed from the Ronin chain or the Axie Infinity blockchain video game NFT compilation. Over the last 30 days, metrics indicate Axie Infinity saw $219.5 million in sales. Month-over-month, Axie Infinity sales are down 66.51%. The NFT collection C...

Four days ago, the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) was coasting along at $255.84 billion and since then, the TVL has dropped ​​8.55% in value. During the last 24 hours, the TVL has slid 2.80%, and Curve’s $23 billion locked today represents 9.84% dominance. Value Locked in Defi Takes a Hit, TVL Down 2.8% in 24 Hours Since digital currency markets have been dropping in value during the last few days, the value locked in decentralized finance has slipped as well. In four days, the TVL in defi dropped 8.55% from $255.84 billion to today’s $233.95 billion. Curve Finance holds the largest TVL today and is dominant by more than 9.84% with $23 billion locked. This is followed by Convex Finance, Makerdao, Aave, WBTC, and Instadapp, respectively. The biggest seven-day drop in terms of a defi protocol’s TVL in the top ten protocols is Lido, which lost 14.03% this week. The decentralized exchange (dex) Uniswap lost 9.44% this week and WBTC shed 7.63% due to bitcoi...

A group of investors in Africrypt are reportedly pushing to have criminal charges pressed against directors of the now-defunct cryptocurrency investment platform. Opponents of the move have argued that this push is unlikely to succeed because many of the investors have already been reimbursed part of their funds. Mystery Investor Injects More Than $5 Million Into Africrypt In a new twist to the Africrypt saga, a group of investors in the collapsed cryptocurrency investment platform is reportedly taking steps to ensure criminal charges are leveled against the firm’s two missing directors. The move by these investors comes just a few weeks after a mystery investor paid more than $5 million to rescue Africrypt. According to a Bloomberg report , this group of investors wants the matter resolved quickly and has raised the possibility of pursuing the case via a private prosecution. These investors are being represented by Sean Pierce of Coast to Coast Special Investigations. In an interv...

Johann Steynberg, the wanted CEO of Mirror Trading International was recently arrested by Brazilian law enforcement after he was caught using a fake document. The arrest, which took place in the country’s Goiás province, was carried out by the Brazilian military police. Fake IDs, Laptops, and Credit Cards Seized Johann Steynberg, the CEO of Mirror Trading International (MTI), a bitcoin Ponzi scheme, was recently arrested by Brazilian law enforcement after he was caught using a false document, reports from the South American country have said. Following the arrest, credit cards, laptops, and fake identification were also seized. As per several Portuguese language reports, Steynberg, who is on Interpol’s wanted list, was apprehended in the Goiás province by members of an elite unit within Brazil’s military police. In a statement confirming the arrest, the Brazilian military police also shared details of the steps taken before the decision to capture Steynberg was made. The statemen...