Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

A crypto investor has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple Inc. after she downloaded a malicious application from the company’s App Store that led to the theft of her cryptocurrencies. Apple Sued Over Theft of Cryptocurrency Due to Malicious App Hadona Diep, a resident of the U.S. state of Maryland and a full-time cyber-security IT professional, has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple Inc. She alleges that the company authorized and maintained “a malicious application” in its App Store despite knowledge of the criminal activity. In addition, the company failed to notify her and the class members that their financial information had been compromised. The lawsuit explains that “Because Plaintiff knew, or at least thought she knew, that Apple thoroughly vets applications before it allowed them on the App Store, Plaintiff downloaded the application known as Toast Plus from the Apple App Store on or about March of 2020 onto her iPhone.” The plaintiff believed that “Toast P

El Salvador, the country that made bitcoin legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar, has purchased more bitcoin. The Salvadoran government now holds 700 coins, according to President Nayib Bukele. El Salvador Buys the Dip El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, announced early Monday morning that his government has purchased 150 more bitcoins. The country’s bitcoin law went into effect on Sept. 7 making the cryptocurrency legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar. He tweeted: “We just bought the dip. 150 new coins! El Salvador now holds 700 coins.” “They can never beat you if you buy the dips … Presidential advice,” he further wrote. The price of bitcoin was hovering around $45K when he made the announcement. It has since dropped to $43,326 at the time of writing based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets . El Salvador started buying bitcoin on Sept. 6 ahead of the bitcoin law taking effect. On Sept. 7, Bukele announced that his country had bought a total of 550 bitcoins. According t

Crypto markets have dropped a great deal in value over the last 24 hours as crypto assets across the board have lost anywhere between 7-15% in value during this time period. The overall market valuation of all 10,000+ crypto-assets in existence has slid just below the $2 trillion handle, losing over 9% in value during the last 24 hours. Crypto Economy Slips by 9% During the Last 24 Hours Bitcoin ( BTC ) prices were above the $48K zone on Sunday, September 19, but the following day, BTC prices are much lower as the crypto asset dropped to a low of $42,660 per unit on Monday. BTC has shed 8.9% in value and the digital asset’s market valuation is around $815 billion today. At the time of writing, a single BTC is swapping for just above $43K per coin. The second-leading crypto asset, ethereum ( ETH ) has dropped 10.3% in value during the last day and each ether is exchanging hands for just above $3K per unit. ETH has an overall market valuation of around $355.4 billion on Monday.

In recent months NFT or as it coded, non-fungible tokens became a hot topic that everyone is talking about. NFT is a valuable model of digital ownership from which you could make money. If you have paper money or money in your bank accounts, you can buy, rent, sell, invest and be an active player of the world’s stock exchange game. Same thing could be said about NFT’s, which could be bought with the help of cryptocurrencies, in most instances within blockchain Ethereum. With so many word’s eyes being on the new and promising technology NFT’s value rises significantly on the word’s stock exchange market too as you could see investors making moves and prices going up and down. With NFT’s being digital assets and representing real-world objects from art, to game items, you could expect that everything you buy with them, will forever stay in the digital world. However, the upcoming new project – fantasy game “ Spellfire ” is willing and ready to be the wind of change in that matter. “

On September 17, the largest non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace in terms of volume, Opensea, announced the launch of the platform’s mobile application. Opensea marketplace users can now access a wide variety of NFT collections on their smartphones by downloading the application from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store. Opensea Launches Mobile App for iOS and Android Phones According to marketplace statistics from dappradar.com , Opensea is the largest NFT market in terms of global trade volume. All-time statistics indicate that Opensea has seen 625,620 traders and $6.53 billion in volume. Axie Infinity and the Cryptopunks NFT collection fall behind Opensea’s volume as Axie Infinity has seen $2.11 billion and Cryptopunks has gathered $1.31 billion. In recent times, Opensea has added Polygon (MATIC) support and toward the end of July, the leading marketplace announced a $100 million capital raise . Opensea has continued to see record sales but on September 15, the company a

Following threats from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the management of Abokifx, a website that tracks the Nigerian currency’s black market exchange rates, has announced the suspension of their daily updates. This suspension will remain in effect until Abokifx gets “better clarity of the situation,” management said on September 17, 2021. Tracking of Parallel Market Rates ‘Undermining’ Nigerian Economy Abokifx’s decision came shortly after the end of the CBN’s monetary policy committee meeting on the same day. In his remarks to journalists following the meeting, governor Godwin Emefiele accused the publisher of the tracking site, Oniwinde Adedotun, of carrying out an “illegal activity that undermines the economy.” In addition, Emefiele suggested that the CBN was now tracking down Adedotun whom it accuses of “publishing arbitrary rates without contacting Bureaux de Change.” However, in its own statement , Abokifx rejects the allegations the site is orchestrating the naira’s fal

Bitcoin.com, in line with its vision to support ‘economic freedom,’ is refocusing its efforts on non-custodial, or ‘self hosted,’ crypto products, including exchange. Therefore, the Bitcoin.com Wallet , which is fully non-custodial and provides users with direct access to public blockchains like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum will be the company’s flagship product going forward. What’s the non-custodial model? When you take possession of your assets, it means there’s no need to request approval from a middleman to send or receive your money, and no need to rely on third parties to hold your assets on your behalf. You also have full control over the fees you pay to miners and validators when sending crypto or interacting with smart contracts – and you are able to interact with smart contracts! That means (in the very near future via Bitcoin.com) you’ll have access to, for example, decentralized finance applications that enable you to earn passive income. What is

Cryptocurrency usage and trading are experiencing a boom in India, and most of this growth is coming from small cities. According to reports from local exchanges, the growth has been exponential. The profile of these new participants has also been interesting, as they are highly educated, not only focused just on bitcoin, and are open to diversifying their portfolios with more exotic offerings. Crypto Grows in India’s Small Cities Cryptocurrency usage and trading are being embraced by Indian citizens as a way of investing and gaining additional money after the Covid-19 pandemic, according to reports from regional media outlets. But what’s more interesting is that this growth is even bigger in small cities, where interest in cryptocurrency is reportedly peaking. A local exchange, Wazirx, reported amazing levels of new customers coming from these small cities, that are classified as tier-2 and tier-3 cities. The exchange reported users signups from these cities have grown by 2,648%.

A strategist at JPMorgan stated that ether’s fair value is way lower than its current price. According to a set of measurements based on network activity, he calculated ether’s value at $1,500, 55% lower than its market price. One of the reasons argued for this assessment, is that Ethereum is not so unique anymore, and it is facing tough competition from other chains like Solana and Avalanche. JPMorgan Strategist Thinks Ether Is Overvalued Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, Managing Director of JPMorgan, stated that he thinks ether ( ETH ), the native asset of the Ethereum network, is grossly overvalued. Panigirtzoglou took several measures of network activity and tried to translate them into a number that represented the fair value of the asset. He and his team estimated ether’s fair value at $1,500, which is currently 55% less than today’s market price. The JPMorgan strategist thinks the price has rallied as a result of the confidence the market has in the future developments of the proje

Tatarstan’s highest court has rejected appeals against arrest warrants issued for three co-founders of the notorious Finiko crypto pyramid. The top representatives of the Ponzi scheme, accused of large-scale fraud in Russia, are still hiding abroad, media reports reveal. Three Finiko Ponzi Scheme Members Still Wanted The Supreme Court of Tatarstan, a republic of the Russian Federation, has confirmed the arrest warrants issued in absentia for Zygmunt Zygmuntovich and Marat and Edward Sabirov. The three wanted men are close associates of Finiko’s founder Kirill Doronin. Doronin, an Instagram influencer whose name has been linked to other fraudulent schemes, was arrested in July. Then in September, authorities detained the pyramid’s vice president, Ilgiz Shakirov, as well as two women , Lilia Nurieva and Dina Gabdullina, who have allegedly lured thousands of investors with promises for high returns. Zygmuntovich and the Sabirov brothers, however, managed to leave the country and avo

During the last few months, cross-chain bridge technology has grown a great deal and users can now swap assets between a myriad of networks. Today, between eight different bridges there’s $7.6 billion total-value locked across these platforms. Cross-Chain Bridges There’s a decent quantity of cross-chain blockchain bridges these days and it has allowed users to do a variety of different decentralized finance (defi) techniques. Interestingly, a great deal of bridges connect to the Ethereum ( ETH ) network, as they have Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility. Since these connections have been made, a great deal of value has been flowing between a myriad of chains and the Ethereum blockchain. The following post mentions a number of bridges cryptocurrency participants can use to achieve cross-chain swaps. Tezos Wrap Protocol Bridge The Tezos (XTZ) blockchain is a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain network that leverages validating nodes often referred to as bakers. XTZ users have

Amid the ongoing lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ripple’s legal team reportedly said that they have no plans to settle with the securities watchdog. They are confident that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler will be convinced that pursuing the case is picking winners and losers in the crypto business to the detriment of innovation. No Plans to Settle With SEC, Says Ripple’s Legal Team Ripple’s legal team told Fox Business that it has no plans to settle the lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Charles Gasparino reported. He tweeted Friday: Ripple’s legal team tell Fox Business they have no plans to settle with SEC over lawsuit on XRP , confident they can show Gary Gensler in pursuing the case is picking winners and losers in the crypto business to the detriment of innovation. The SEC sued Ripple Labs, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder Chris Larsen in December last year over the sale of XRP . In January, Garlinghouse was

Dmitry Vasiliev, former chief executive of Russian cryptocurrency exchange Wex, has been detained in Warsaw, the Polish press reported. Vasiliev is wanted in Kazakhstan where he is accused of fraud related to the now defunct trading platform, successor of the infamous BTC-e exchange. Former Wex Executive in Polish Custody as Prosecutor’s Office Reviews Extradition Request Ex-owner and CEO of Wex Dmitry Vasiliev was detained at the Warsaw airport on Aug. 11, the leading Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza revealed this week. According to sources quoted by the publication, the 34-year-old native of Belarus has been placed under arrest for 40 days. Poland’s National Public Prosecutor’s Office is now considering his extradition to Kazakhstan. Authorities in the Central Asian country have been looking for Vasiliev through Interpol for several years as part of ongoing investigation on fraud charges. In its report on the case, the BBC Russian Service said Polish police had declined to c

Seven days ago, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces saw sales nosedive after reaching all-time highs during the month of August. A week later sales have rebounded to a degree and NFT marketplaces like Opensea, Rarible, and Superrare have seen improvements in terms of seven-day trade volumes. Opensea, Rarible, Hic et nunc, Makersplace, Superrare See NFT Weekly Volumes Improve On September 12, 2021, Bitcoin.com News reported on the fact that non-fungible token (NFT) sales had plummeted 86% on September 10 from a mid-August all-time sales high. The report noted that the top NFT marketplace by sales volume, Opensea, saw its seven-day sales slide 52.47%. A variety of NFT markets and popular collections had seen sales slow down dramatically between September 10th to the 13th. NFT marketplaces Aavegotchi, Superrare, and Foundation. However, a week later, NFT sales are rebounding to some degree and popular markets and collections are picking up steam. Statistics from dappradar.com

An AT&T customer filed a lawsuit against the company last week accusing it of failing to provide “reasonable and appropriate security to prevent unauthorized access to its customer wireless accounts.” This has led to the theft of cryptocurrency from the plaintiff’s crypto exchange account. AT&T Sued by Crypto Investor An AT&T customer, Jamarquis Etheridge, filed a lawsuit in the district court for the Southern District of Texas against AT&T Inc. and AT&T Mobility LLC Wednesday. Etheridge, a resident of the U.S. state of Texas, has been a customer of AT&T since 2009. He claims to be a victim of “SIM swapping,” also known as “SIM hijacking.” SIM swapping is a common scam that AT&T is no stranger to. The company was involved in a bigger case involving this scam last year with crypto investor Michael Terpin. The court document filed by Etheridge’s attorney, Richard E. Brown, states that on or about Sept. 10, 2020, AT&T “allowed wrongdoers access to pl

The founder of two cryptocurrency hedge funds in New York, Stefan Qin, has been sentenced to 7.5 years in prison and three years of supervised release. He is also ordered to forfeit about $55 million. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said that he “engaged in a scheme to steal assets” from his hedge funds and defraud investors. Crypto Hedge Fund Founder Gets 7.5 Years in Jail Stefan Qin, the founder of two cryptocurrency hedge funds in New York, has been sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced last week. Qin, a 24-year-old Australian national, founded the Virgil Sigma Fund and the VQR Multistrategy Fund, which claimed to have over $100 million dollars in investments. He pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud on Feb. 4 after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against him in December last year. According to the DOJ, Qin was sentenced Wednesday to 90 months in prison. The Department of Justice explained

Bitcoin’s hashrate has been climbing higher during the last two weeks, hitting 174 exahash per second (EH/s) on two occasions since June 28. Currently, Bitcoin’s network hashrate is coasting along at 158 EH/s, up 128% since the low 83 days ago when it hit 69 EH/s. Meanwhile, unknown hashrate has subsided a great deal as 96% of the mystery miners recorded at the end of June have disappeared. Bitcoin Hashrate Gathers Strength Since the End of June Approximately 83 days or over two months ago, Bitcoin’s hashrate had slid to a low of 69 exahash per second (EH/s) on June 28. The slide was initiated by the crackdown in China against Chinese mining operations and a great majority of facilities were forced to relocate. Even well before the Chinese government’s crackdown, Chinese miners were already relocating and the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) project’s research indicated that by April 2021, China’s hashrate dominance was down to 46%. Bitcoin ( BTC ) hashrat

ADALend is building a scalable and decentralized lending protocol on Cardano, governed by the community. Cardano is the market leader in PoS as a collection of protocols for economic support to billions of people. Over the last decade, the decentralized Finance (DeFi) space has been forced to evolve to keep pace with the development of the digital asset market. ADALend protocol will power foundational the new wave of flexible financial markets by providing a layer for instant loan approval, automated collateral, trustless custody, and liquidity. What is Cardano? Cardano aims to be the world’s financial operating system by establishing decentralized financial products. Cardano ADA is the market leader in PoS as a collection of protocols for economic support to billions of people. ADALend protocol will power foundational the new wave of flexible financial markets by providing a layer for instant loan approval, automated collateral, trust-less custody, and liquidity. What’s the b

Personal asset declarations filed by politicians and government officials in Ukraine have indicated that many have made significant investments in cryptocurrency. However, some of them have been unable to prove ownership or account for their digital holdings, local media reported. Lawmaker Loses Over 40 BTC With Stolen Vehicle in Ukraine Dmitry Gurin, a member of Ukrainian parliament from President Zelensky ’s Servant of the People party, has allegedly lost a serious amount of cryptocurrency to car thieves, according to an audit of his 2020 declaration quoted by the “Slovo i Dilo” portal. The deputy claims the digital money was stored on a hardware wallet that disappeared with his car which was stolen earlier this year. Data filed by the lawmaker revealed his wife, Maria Saltykova, had 42 BTC last year worth an estimated 22.5 million hryvnia (around $840,000 at current hryvnia rates or over $2 million at BTC prices at the time of writing), Forklog reported. Ukraine’s National

Ameer and Raees Cajee, the two directors of the South African crypto-investment platform, Africrypt, are set to participate in an inquest that seeks to seal the fate of the collapsed firm. The Death Threats According to an Itweb report , the Cajee brothers — who have agreed to testify on October 19 and 20 — will only do so virtually. The report confirms that both Ameer and Raees, who have already received several death threats, were initially scheduled to appear before the inquiry in the second week of September 2021. However, this was postponed after the lawyer for the Cajee brothers requested “an extension in order to consult further with their clients.” The report also reveals that other Africrypt executives like the former compliance officer, Daniel Opperman, Wayne Naidoo (director), and Steve Miller (manager) have already given their testimony via a virtual platform. For instance, in his testimony, Opperman is reported to have told the inquiry that he only became aware of the