Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Bitmart, a cryptocurrency exchange, suffered an attack yesterday that exploited some security vulnerabilities in order to gain access to the funds of the exchange. The attack targeted the hot wallets of the platform, specifically the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain-based wallets. The hackers managed to take almost $200 million in tokens from the platform. Bitmart Hot Wallets Exploited Bitmart has lost more than $200 million in a hack that involved its hot wallets yesterday. The issue was first identified by Peckshield, a blockchain security and auditing company, that raised the alarm about a possible hot wallet vulnerability on social media. The involved wallets were those that held ETH and BSC-based tokens. Bitmart representatives estimated the losses at $150 million initially, but PeckShield did an investigation of the funds taken, saying losses were around $200 million. The hack took significant amounts of SHIB, SAFEMOON, SAND, and MANA, among others. The event affected the

A bug in the token lending contract of the Solana Program Library (SPL) was recently found and fixed by Neodyme, a security auditing firm. The bug, that was discovered a couple of months back, could have affected several decentralized finance protocols holding more than $2 billion in total value locked (TVL). Their team identified the possible protocols using this contract (or derivatives of it) and disclosed the bug immediately. Solana SPL Rounding Bug Puts Funds at Risk A bug in one of the token lending contracts that is part of Solana’s Program Library (SPL), a group of on-chain programs targeting the Sealevel parallel runtime on Solana, put the funds of several protocols at risk. Neodyme, a security agency, had disclosed this vulnerability months ago and alerted about it, but the bug, due to its apparently innocuous effect, had not been resolved. The bug caused a rounding error that delivers more tokens than the ones being deposited by the users to the contract. However, the b

There are reports that the Indian government may impose restrictions on self-custodial cryptocurrency wallets and only allow Indian crypto exchanges. The CEO of a major cryptocurrency exchange in India has shared his thoughts on the possible restrictions. The Indian government has listed a cryptocurrency bill to be taken up in the current session of parliament. Possible Restrictions in Indian Crypto Regulation A cryptocurrency bill is waiting to be heard in the current session of parliament in India. The country’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has confirmed that the bill needed to be reworked from its original version that seeks to ban cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin in ether. However, she still has not revealed what’s actually in the bill, leading to much speculation. The CEO of local cryptocurrency exchange Wazirx discussed some of the speculations in a series of tweets Friday. “There have been unconfirmed reports” that “‘Self custodial wallets’ may not be allowed

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Phemex is celebrating its 2nd anniversary this November. It’s been an eventful couple of years for the derivatives platform, and with its Choose Your Reality event, this anniversary is going to be a memorable one. Phemex’s dedication to its users has created a thriving community, and to celebrate their impressive growth the exchange is inviting participants to wish them a happy birthday by talking about their own dreams and aspirations. They’re also giving away grand prizes to those participants who come up with the most creative wishes. Thus, a few special winners will see their dreams come to life. The firm’s dedication to its users is deep-routed. Phemex’s CEO and founder, Jack Tao, was a Wall Street veteran from Morgan Stanley. After over a decade of observing the inner workings of the traditional financial system, he realized just how underserved retail investors were compared to the more wealthy players. Jack and his team of ex-Morgan

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has revealed that his country holds 44,106 oz. of gold in its reserves that has lost some value over the past year. He told gold bug Peter Schiff that if El Salvador had sold its gold and bought bitcoin last year, it would now be worth $125 million more. Bitcoin vs. Gold: El Salvador Could’ve Made Millions More Switching Reserves From Gold to Bitcoin El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele has revealed some details of his country’s gold reserves in a conversation on Twitter with gold bug Peter Schiff. Schiff commented on El Salvador buying the dip Saturday morning after Bukele announced that his country bought 100 more BTC as the price of bitcoin fell from above $52K Friday night to below $44K. “There’s a lot more dips coming. How much taxpayer money do you intend to waste?” Schiff asked Bukele. The Salvadoran president replied, “None.” He emphasized, “We’re already in the green from our last purchase, in less than 24 hours.” Bukele conti

The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, has called for more investor protection in crypto markets. “This asset class is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications,” he said. “In many cases, investors aren’t able to get rigorous, balanced, and complete information on tokens or trading and lending platforms.” Gary Gensler Wants More Investor Protection in Crypto Markets SEC Chairman Gary Gensler raised concerns about the cryptocurrency markets at an Investor Advisory Committee meeting last week. The Investor Advisory Committee, established by Section 911 of the Dodd-Frank Act, advises the SEC on regulatory priorities, including “initiatives to protect investor interests and to promote investor confidence and the integrity of the securities marketplace.” During his speech, Gensler shared some concerns regarding the crypto markets. He began by acknowledging that “Satoshi Nakamoto’s ‘Bitcoin Whitepaper’ and the crypto markets tha

Since mid-November the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) has slid from $257 billion to $250.55 billion and during the last 24 hours it lost a touch more than 5%. Over the last seven days, defi tokens like uniswap, pancakeswap, curve dao token, 1inch and sushi have lost anywhere between 15% to 23.9% in value. Defi TVL Drops — Curve, Makerdao and Convex Finance Dominate At the time of writing, the TVL in defi protocols across a myriad of blockchains is $250.55 billion, according to metrics from defillama.com. The aggregate defi value locked has lost 5.08% during the last day, and the protocol Curve dominates most of the TVLs listed with 8.07% dominance. The automated market maker (AMM) Curve commands $20.23 billion TVL which is up 1.13% this past week. Makerdao is the second-largest defi protocol TVL with $18.56 billion at the time of writing. The third-largest defi protocol TVL belongs to Convex Finance with $15.14 billion today. Ethereum Defi TVL Dominanc

Editor’s Note: The following story was written by Neomi, an author from China with experience covering art, music, culture, tech, and travel. Bitcoin.com News sent her into the field of blockchain-based metaverse experiences to capture the feeling of a pioneer entering this new reality. Decentraland, Day One: I Need a Hat Upon entering Decentraland for the first time I wanted to lay low, so I created my avatar: a bald guy with a black suit and a pair of black sunglasses. Within just ten minutes of beginning my exploration, however, I came across ten other players that looked exactly like me. We probably had another thing in common, too — none of us could afford to buy a proper hat. I had heard people were investing millions into NFTs in the metaverse but had just been too afraid to check the prices. Suffice to say, I found out that things are expensive — even hats. In order to look slightly different from the other bald guys in the metaverse, I needed to grind for some assets. I en

A report says over 80% of African users on the Mineplex marketplace have shown an interest in the platform’s commodity staking program since launch. Zero Fee Alternative According to a recent study, over 80% of African users have taken part in the commodity staking program since its launch as a new product on the Mineplex marketplace. This figure by far dwarfs that of Asian users (23%), Europe (14%) and the U.S. (9%) users who find commodity staking interesting. As noted in a study report that was shared exclusively with Bitcoin.com News, Mineplex Banking said this commodity staking option serves as a zero-fee alternative to traditional loans and gives users the ability to buy products they cannot afford straight away. Explaining African users’ clear preference for staked crypto, the report suggested that this could be based on changing tastes and preferences. “The high level of interest by African users in the new financial instrument can be based on the need to change the syste

Tau, in development, is the world’s first fully user-controlled blockchain, capable of understanding and implementing users’ consensus in real-time. It allows you to understand and be understood by billions of people, on a platform so advanced that it changes and updates itself based on how you as its users collaboratively decide what its next version should be like. Ohad Asor and Prof. Enrico Franconi recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to explain the advanced technology behind Tau : By writing in languages that the Tau platform and its users can understand, it unlocks truly revolutionary features such as the ability to make your knowledge machine accessible, creating the world’s first knowledge economy to trade specific pieces of knowledge for cash (using the Agoras cryptocurrency (Ticker AGRS)) as well as the ability to host efficient discussions and collaboration of ideas of up to billions of people. As users are able to make themselves understood to Tau, the network

The global cryptocurrency market valuation has rebounded a great deal since the initial downturn after 12:00 a.m. EST on December 4, and on Sunday, the crypto economy is down 1.4% during the last 24 hours. Meanwhile the meme token market capitalization today is $47.2 billion down 12.6% during the last day. Dogecoin has suffered pretty badly losing 19.2% during the last seven days, while its rival shiba inu has shed 9.7% last week. Meme Token Economy Takes the Brunt of the Crypto Market Carnage — Dogecoin Drops 19% in a Week’s Time At the time of writing, the crypto meme token market economy is valued at $47.2 billion and has taken a deep hit from yesterday’s market carnage. Dogecoin (DOGE) is the largest meme token market cap with $21.5 billion as each DOGE is trading for $0.164 or 0.00000342 BTC per unit. DOGE is down 37.7% over the course of the last month, but dogecoin is still up 4,863% year-to-date. On Sunday, December 5, there’s $1.4 billion in global DOGE trades with Binan

Bitcoin’s hashrate has increased a great deal, even after the leading crypto asset’s price slipped below the $50K price zone. Eight days ago the network hashrate was coasting along at 168 exahash per second (EH/s), and this past week it increased 7.73% to today’s 181 EH/s. Bitcoin’s Hashrate Climbs Higher Following Difficulty Decrease Following the price drop under the $50K zone, Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) hashrate remains strong and has increased more than 7% higher during the last week. At the time of writing, BTC ’s hashrate on Sunday is 181.59 EH/s as the network’s processing power has been reaching daily highs. Three month statistics indicate BTC ’s hashpower tapped 190 EH/s on Friday, December 3. Metrics show that the network’s hashrate reached an all-time high on May 9, 2021 at 191.42 EH/s. One reason the hashrate remains high despite the recent price drop is because the network’s mining difficulty has dropped during the last difficulty change on November 28. The change that day sa

PRESS RELEASE. The next crypto conference lighting up the season is DeFiCon 2021, hosted on December 18-19 in Brooklyn, NYC. As a nonprofit conference, DeFiCon steers away from the typical corporate and for-profit conference model. All of DeFiCon’s net proceeds will be donated to charity. The event is also engages civic leaders and activists. Featured keynote speakers are Stani Kulechov, the Founder and CEO of AAVE, Jaz Gulati, the Co-Founder founder of Ren Labs, and Kieran Mesquita, Chief Scientist at RAILGUN. As a crypto native event, DeFiCon tickets are NFTs designed by the original artist of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Seneca ( www.allseeingseneca.com ). Mint now to own the Unbearable Bear, a collection of 1,218 Bears living on the Ethereum blockchain. Then join frens in Brooklyn at DeFiCon next month on December 18-19. To mint General Admission and VIP NFT tickets, visit: www.deficon.nyc – ALL net proceeds from the event will go directly to nonprofit. Mint now   FIND DEFICON

The province of Hainan in South China has taken steps aimed at curbing crypto mining activities. Besides blacklisting the industry, local authorities are also introducing higher electricity rates for the mining enterprises that continue to operate in the region. Hainan to Ensure Crypto Miners Pay More for Power The ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrency mining in China has reached the country’s smallest and southernmost province, Hainan. The coin minting business has been recently listed as an “eliminated industry” and the remaining miners in the region will soon face higher electricity bills. According to a document published this week by the provincial Development and Reform Commission, the differentiated tariffs for electrical energy will be imposed as part of a pricing mechanism designed to reduce carbon emissions. While China banned crypto-related activities such as trading back in 2017, authorities did not interfere with mining until this year. In May, the State Council in Be

Two days ago on December 2, the Ross Ulbricht Genesis Collection auction of non-fungible token (NFT) assets kicked off at Art Basel Miami via the Superrare platform. The Ulbricht NFT collection auction ends on December 8, and so far the auction has seen a bid of 666 ether or roughly $2.6 million. Additionally the project Pleasrdao aims to up the ante as the “Free Ross DAO” bidding on the collection has raised 1,042 ether or $4.2 million to date. Ross Ulbricht NFT Auction Eyes Millions in Ether During the third week of November, Bitcoin.com News reported on the Ross Ulbricht Genesis Collection auction taking place at the start of Art Basel in Miami . The auction was initiated on the Superrare NFT marketplace platform and the collection is an assortment of ten artworks by Ross Ulbricht. “Curated by Entoptic , this is the first and only NFT to include Ross Ulbricht’s personal work,” the announcement detailed. So far, the Ulbricht NFT collection has seen significant demand and to da

OVR launched its new Token Burning Program on 1 November to make its own tokens more rare and valuable. The results of this first month of November saw a total of 246 thousand OVR burned. OVR and the Numbers From the Token Burning Program’s First Month OVR’s updated token economics started on November 1, 2021, after the OVR team burned nearly 1 million of its tokens last May. By the end of last month, the platform had collected a total of 615,365 OVR from its sales of OVRLand NFTs, excluding GAS costs. As anticipated, the Token Burning Program foresees that 40% of the collected OVR are burned, while 10% is used to incentivize OVRLand sales with monthly draws among new OVRLand buyers using Chainlink VRF . And indeed, for this month of November 2021, the total tokens burned amount to 246,146 OVR , while exactly 61,536 OVR have been dedicated to the OVRLand draw on Chainlink . In general, the more OVRLands purchased on Chainlink, the higher the probability of winning the jackp

Authorities in Russia and Ukraine have closed down a number of illegal crypto mining facilities allegedly powered by stolen electricity. The underground farms have been discovered around the capital cities, Kyiv and Moscow, as well as in the Russian republic of Dagestan. Russia Busts Illegal Mining Farms in Moscow Region and Dagestan Russian law enforcement and customs agents have recently uncovered the theft of a large amount of electricity from the network operated by Rosseti in Moscow Oblast, the region adjacent to Russia’s capital. Tass broke the news about the operation this week, quoting Ekaterina Korotkova from the Moscow Interregional Transport Prosecutor’s Office. The official explained: An audit revealed an unauthorized connection to the power grid, theft of electricity and illegal seizure of land for the operation of equipment designed to perform cryptographic calculations related to the mining of digital currencies. The cost of the illegally consumed electricity use

Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, says China did the right thing to “ban” cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. He wishes that cryptocurrencies had never been invented, emphasizing that he will not participate in the crypto boom. He considers “this era even crazier than the dot-com era.” Warren Buffett’s Right Hand Man, Charlie Munger, Wishes Crypto Had Never Been Invented Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, often known as Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, talked about cryptocurrency Friday at the Sohn Hearts and Minds, Australia’s premier investor event. The 97-year-old previously called bitcoin “rat poison” and likened cryptocurrency trading to “trading turds.” Commenting on the current investing environment, he said: I think the dot-com boom was crazier in terms of valuations than even what we have now. But overall, I consider this era even crazier than the dot-com era. Discussing cryptocurrency, Munger said: “I just

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged a citizen of Latvia with defrauding investors in two crypto offerings. The fraudster “used fake names, fictitious entities, and fraudulent profiles to perpetrate his schemes, and misappropriated nearly all of the investor funds that were raised.” Two Fraudulent Crypto Schemes The SEC announced Thursday that it has “charged a Latvian citizen with defrauding hundreds of retail investors out of at least $7 million through two separate fraudulent digital asset securities offerings.” Noting that Ivars Auzins defrauded U.S. and foreign investors, the securities watchdog explained: Auzins allegedly used fake names, fictitious entities, and fraudulent profiles to perpetrate his schemes, and misappropriated nearly all of the investor funds that were raised. His first scheme ran from January through March 2018. “Auzins fraudulently offered and sold unregistered digital tokens as part of an ICO [initial coin offering] of Denaro

The popular American rapper Snoop Dogg revealed at the end of September that he acquired land in the blockchain-based virtual metaverse The Sandbox and had plans to recreate his mansion. On December 2, The Sandbox held a “Snoopverse Land Sale,” which allowed participants to purchase land adjacent to the famous hip hop star’s virtual estate. Plot of Land Next to Snoop’s Virtual Mansion in The Sandbox Metaverse Sells for Six-Digits Two days ago, The Sandbox disclosed it was selling virtual plots of land that are located next to Snoop Dogg’s virtual property. Snoop has been a cryptocurrency advocate for quite some time and in recent days, he revealed he was a non-fungible token (NFT) whale called “Cozomo de’ Medici.” Then at the end of September, Snoop partnered with The Sandbox, a gaming ecosystem where people can create, share and monetize NFTs and gaming experiences on the Ethereum ( ETH ) network. The Sandbox blog post published on Thursday, explains that plots of land in the

As the crypto market shed billions of dollars, El Salvador bought the dip, taking advantage of the falling price of bitcoin early Saturday morning. With the latest buy, El Salvador has purchased a total of 1,370 bitcoins altogether. According to Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele, the coins were bought seven minutes before the price of the cryptocurrency bottomed out. El Salvador Buys the Dip: 150 Bitcoins Added to Treasury The price of many cryptocurrencies began plummeting late Friday night, with bitcoin sliding almost 14% from slightly above $52K at 11:42 p.m. EDT to below $45K at 12:28 a.m. based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets. At the time of writing, the price of BTC is hovering around $48,040. Taking advantage of the falling price of bitcoin, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, tweeted at 12:19 a.m. about his country’s latest BTC purchase. “El Salvador just bought the dip! 150 coins at an average USD price of ~$48,670.” He followed up with another tweet a few minutes la

A great number of cryptocurrencies dropped considerably in value during the early morning hours (after 12:00 a.m. EST) on December 4. At the time of writing, the crypto economy is down more than 16% and the price of bitcoin slid below the $50K zone to a low of $43,972 per unit. Since then, bitcoin has managed to climb back to just above the $47K per unit position. Crypto Economy Value Dives Digital currency markets have lost significant value during the last 24 hours as billions have left the crypto economy in a matter of hours. Currently, the crypto economy and its 11,388 coins in existence have lost more than 16% in USD value. Bitcoin ( BTC ) slipped from the $53K per unit region to $43.9K during the first hour of Saturday morning. The downward slide took BTC down 17.16% but the crypto asset has since regained 7.28% following the market carnage. BTC has managed to rise above the $47K region and has an overall market valuation of around $895 billion. Seven-day statistics indicat

PRESS RELEASE. MetaGods, the world’s first play-to-earn 8-bit action role-playing game built on the blockchain, has raised $3 million USD in funding from supporting investors. Numerous investors and partners have partnered with the initiative to combine blockchain technology and the fast growing gaming sector to revolutionize the world of non-fungible tokens. MetaGods is the world’s first blockchain-based 8-bit action RPG. Players will be able to build their own avatars based on mythologies and acquire unique characters and skills. In addition to fighting dangerous monsters, the MetaGods blockchain will enable players to trade virtual goods for cryptocurrency – giving them a chance to earn something real from their adventures in a digital world. The project is grateful for its incredible investors: Hashed, Mr Beast, ABV, Cinchblock, BoxMining, Faculty Capital, Raptor Capital, CoinUnited, Magnus Capital, Banter Capital & Icetea Labs for their support. This remarkable group of i

The recent movements in the treasury of Terra, a decentralized financial payment network, which is now burning more than $4 billion worth of LUNA due to a governance proposal, have seemingly made the price of the asset rise to all-time high (ATH) levels. This rise has been also accompanied by new proposals to further cement the stability of its stablecoin, UST. Do Kwon, head of Terraform Labs, hinted at the inclusion of a bitcoin reserve to safeguard UST’s dollar peg. LUNA Booming The recent changes in the issuance model of Terra, which were brought by the recent Columbus 5 update, seem to have been successful in fostering the growth of the currency of the network, LUNA. The price of its native asset, LUNA, has grown significantly, reaching ATH levels at $69.59 yesterday, recording an increase in the price of more than 50% during the last week. One of the most interesting choices taken by the cryptocurrency project was the burn of more than $4 billion worth of LUNA that was held