Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The upcoming consensus change that Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is planning to execute in September has worried many users about the possibility of censorship happening at a protocol level. This means that, even by interacting directly with smart contracts, blacklisted addresses would not be able to transact or operate in the base layer . Incoming Merge Event Triggers Worries in Crypto Circles The Merge , Ethereum’s migration from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm has raised concerns about the future of the chain when it comes to censorship. After the addresses of the smart contracts of Tornado Cash , a privacy-centered mixing protocol, were sanctioned and blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the privacy and censorship-resistant character of Ethereum has been in the spotlight. Gabriel Shapiro, the general counselor at Delphi Digital, believes that big validators of Ethereum will try to...

Bluebenx, a Brazilian crypto company that recently stopped customer withdrawals, has changed its story regarding the causes which took it to take that measure. While the exchange issued an email statement informing customers it had been the victim of a vicious hack, now the company states the liquidity problems were the consequence of a listing scam. Bluebenx Switches Versions Regarding Liquidity Issues Brazilian crypto investment company Bluebenx changed the version on the recent liquidity issues it is facing, having stopped the withdrawals for some customers last week. The first explanation of this resolution included allegations of the exchange being the victim of an “ extremely aggressive hack ,” with the operations halt being part of the security protocol to handle the aftermath of the event. However, now it has backpedaled on this explanation, offering a very different take on the issue. Bluebenx explained that the incident was the consequence of a listing scam, in which the ...

On Sunday, August 21, 2022, the floor value of the Cryptopunks non-fungible token (NFT) collection briefly surpassed the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection’s floor value. While it’s not by a huge amount, at the time, Cryptopunks floor was ​​66.45 ether, while BAYC’s least expensive NFT was 64.99 ETH . Cryptopunks Reclaims the Throne It Held Last Year by Flipping BAYC’s Floor Value Non-fungible token (NFT) sales are not doing so well this week as sales are down 18.75% lower than the week prior’s sale volume, according to cryptoslam.io statistics. Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) holds the top sales this week with $15,087,189 million in sales, up 61.47% higher than last week. 👀 pic.twitter.com/NOprcn7Vja — Nick Tomaino (@NTmoney) August 20, 2022 While Cryptopunks is the sixth largest collection in terms of this week’s NFT sales with $4,517,133 in sales this week, sales are down 52.38% lower than the week prior. Despite the lower number of sales this past week, Cryptopunks ...

On August 20, 2022, Ethereum Classic’s hashrate reached an all-time high at block height 15,776,674 as it tapped 38.37 terahash per second (TH/s). The crypto asset has seen its hashrate surge since Wednesday, August 17, jumping 39.22% higher from 27.56 TH/s to the all-time high (ATH). Ethereum Classic’s Hashpower Skyrockets to 38.37 Terahash Roughly six years after ethereum classic (ETC) miners mined the first ETC block at block height 1,920,000, ETC ’s hashrate tapped an ATH on August 20, 2022. ETC ’s hashrate reached 38.37 TH/s at block height 15,776,674. The hashrate has been added to the ETC chain as Ethereum ( ETH ) approaches The Merge upgrade on or around September 15, 2022 . Four days ago, on August 17, ETC hashrate was 27.56 TH/s and its jumped 39.22% higher since that day. ETC ’s largest mining pool is Ethermine as it commands 8.05 TH/s, which is followed by Poolin’s 8.02 TH/s. Ethermine’s and Poolin’s combined hashrate of around 16 TH/s is more than 40% of...

Gold bug and economist Peter Schiff has warned that the seeming ease in inflation for the United States economy is nothing to get too excited about, as Shark Tank star billionaire Mark Cuban is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly promoting a “massive Ponzi scheme.” In other news, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon thinks “something worse” than a recession could be coming, and popular play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain game Axie Infinity hits $4B in sales and announces the removal of SLP rewards from classic mode. This is the Bitcoin.com News Week in Review. Peter Schiff Warns US Faces a ‘Massive Financial Crisis,’ Economist Expects Much Larger Problems Than 2008 ‘When the Defaults Start’ The economist and gold bug Peter Schiff usually has a lot to say, and this past week Schiff explained during an interview that he believes the U.S. will face a financial crisis worse than 2008’s ‘Great Recession.’ Schiff explains that the U.S. has a lot more debt than it did back then, and insists America...

According to reports on social media, a number of users have complained that FTX has blocked a transaction that was associated with the Aztec Network’s zkmoney privacy technology. Following the accusations, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried explained that transactions are monitored for AML compliance but it “does not mean any accounts were frozen.” Journalist Wu Blockchain Says an FTX User’s Account Was Frozen After the User Transacted With the Aztec Network’s Privacy Enhancing ZK-Rollups On August 18, the China-based journalist, Colin Wu ‘Blockchain,’ published a tweet that said a user who transacted with Aztec Network’s zkmoney tech , had their account frozen. Aztec Network is a privacy and scaling network, and similar to Optimism and Arbitrum it uses ZK-rollups, but Aztec Network’s zkmoney tech is privacy enhancing. Aztec’s technology uses a zk-SNARK scheme called “ Plonk ,” a general-purpose zero-knowledge proof mechanism. So while the average Ethereum network fee is 0.0014 ether or $2...

Russia’s largest market for equities, bonds, and derivatives, the Moscow Exchange, intends to launch a product based on digital financial assets by the end of the year, an executive has revealed. The trading platform is already working with a partner to organize the placement of digital tokens. Russia’s Top Exchange to Facilitate Trading of Financial Instruments Based on Digital Assets Releasing a product based on digital financial assets (DFAs) is in the plans for 2022, a high-ranking representative of the Moscow Exchange ( MOEX ) has indicated in a recent interview. The announcement comes after a turbulent period for Russia’s leading stock market when it had to deal with market volatility, sanctions pressure, and cyberattacks earlier this year. Alongside ‘digital rights,’ DFAs is currently the main legal term in Russian law that applies to various digital assets, including cryptocurrencies according to some statements by Russian officials, but primarily those that have a specific...