Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

In a strange twist of fate, two companies named Polygon are the source of a storm of confusion on Twitter as a video game community gets a unique introduction to Polygon’s blockchain technology. Crypto Scammers Hit Game-Related Feed Polygon , the rebranded layer 2 blockchain solution (previously Matic Network), has been mixed up with another identically named organization. This case of mistaken identity has caused some perplexing activity on Twitter as spammers and scammers highlight a “coin drop” to an online American video gaming website named Polygon that is entirely unrelated to the blockchain network. In several posts published by the video game organization’s Twitter feed, which operates under the handle @Polygon , spam accounts with little to no history and activity mentioned coin drops for Polygon and Matic. Twitter users who scrolled past the normal responses to the “Might Be Offensive” content were quickly inundated with crudely written tweets that tagged @POLYGON_BONUS

Global cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Bitmex has settled charges with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The exchange has agreed to pay as much as $100 million to end investigations by the two agencies. Bitmex Settles With CFTC and FinCEN Bitmex confirmed Tuesday that “it has reached a resolution with both the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in relation to investigations by both agencies.” The company wrote: Bitmex agreed to pay as much as US$100 million to resolve the charges. “Today marks an important day in our company’s history, and we are very glad to put this behind us,” commented Bitmex CEO Alexander Höptner. “As crypto matures and enters a new era, we too have evolved into the largest crypto derivatives platform with a fully verified user base.” The CFTC separately announced Tuesday that “the U.S. District Court for th

The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, has written a letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren about crypto regulation. After outlining his concerns and priorities in the crypto sector, he said, “additional authorities” and “more resources to protect investors in this growing and volatile sector” are needed. SEC Chair Gensler Replies to Senator Warren About Crypto Regulation On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren released the letter she received from the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, in response to her July 7 letter about cryptocurrency regulation. Gensler’s letter, which mirrors his speech at the Aspen Security Forum last week, outlines numerous areas in crypto the chairman is concerned about. It is dated Aug. 5 even though Senator Warren demanded that he reply to her by July 28. The former crypto professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) explained that there are both centraliz

On Tuesday, the decentralized finance (defi) project Poly Network was hacked for over $600 million in digital assets. The attack was the largest defi hack to date eclipsing all of 2021’s defi hacks combined. The very next day, however, the hacker started to send funds back to the Poly Network team as the project’s official Twitter account says it received $4.7 million so far. White Hat Hacker Communicates With Poly Network Attacker The Poly Network hack will go down in history as one of the largest defi attacks since the inception of this technology. In fact, the hack is up there with some of the largest hacks in crypto as it surpassed the Coincheck hack in 2018 which saw a loss of $530 million. Following the hack on Poly Network, the team published a letter that asked the hacker to start communicating with the project’s team members. “Law enforcement in any country will regard this as a major crime and you will be pursued,” Poly Network’s letter detailed. The hacker allegedly wr

PRESS RELEASE. The Estonian based company SWAG celebrates the first 2 years of international activity by signing an important agreement with Coincover, a platform providing industry-leading technical protection and insurance-backed guarantees for cryptocurrency investors. This choice allows Swag to continue its careful and constant growth trend, increasing the number of top partners and offering its users a growing number of useful services to improve performance, system reliability and economic return. These are the main points of the deal signed between Swag and Coincover: The agreement reached with Coincover allows Swag to offer a new and important deposit protection guarantee for each specific customer, protecting them from the risk of their wallet being lost or that access to the cryptocurrency is limited in the event that the Swag platform is not available or accessible. A service of great importance and similar to the bank guarantee provided by the FDIC. In addition to the

Coinbase published the company’s shareholder letter on Tuesday which detailed it made over $2 billion in net revenue during the second quarter. The firm said “Q2 was a strong quarter” for Coinbase as it saw both “growth and diversification” this year. While netting in $2 billion, Coinbase said it has 68 million verified users and the company also noted it has been working with Spacex, Tesla, PNC Bank, Wisdomtree, and Elon Musk. Coinbase Q2 Results: Over $2 Billion in Revenue, Retail Users Rise, 9,000 Institutional Customers Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN ) has published data on the company’s second-quarter earnings and growth. The firm said that retail monthly transacting users (MTUs) rose to 8.8 million, spiking 44% since the first quarter. The company also noted that during the second quarter, digital currencies like bitcoin crossed all-time highs. This favorable landscape was “highly correlated” with the firm’s trading revenue. “The crypto market environment heavily influenced our Q2

Personal finance guru Suze Orman says she recommends dollar cost averaging into bitcoin. She sees several upsides to the cryptocurrency, noting that it could “turn into a payment structure.” Personal Finance Guru Bullish About Bitcoin, Advises Dollar Cost Averaging Into the Crypto Personal finance guru and best-selling author Suze Orman has shared her view of why she is bullish about the price of bitcoin. The Suze Orman Financial Group founder, whose show ran on CNBC from 2002 to 2015, has written 10 consecutive New York Times bestsellers about personal finance. She was named twice on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people and was appointed as a personal finance educator for the United States Army and Army Reserve in 2016. In addition, she won two Emmy Awards and eight Gracie Awards. In her recent Women & Money podcast, Orman advised her listeners how to invest in bitcoin and why she thought the cryptocurrency will perform well in the future. In terms of how

According to a report, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is planning to have its proposed digital currency designated “critical national infrastructure” in order to protect it from operational and cyber-security risks. In addition, the CBN will also apply regulatory and compliance mechanisms to prevent what it calls “disruptive competition for electronic money.” Cost Versus Benefit As a Thisdaylive report explains, the digital currency which will be known as the e-naira will initially co-exist with traditional payment systems. CBN hopes that this strategy will help it “address interoperability risks that might be associated with the implementation.” With respect to the costs and risks involved, Thisdaylive, whose report is ostensibly based on a leaked CBN document, says the central bank is hopeful that the increased efficiency in operations will offset the initial costs of deploying the digital currency. On the other hand, the CBN reckons the risk of financial disintermediation wi

Circle, a cryptocurrency fintech services company, announced it intends to become a full-reserve national commercial bank. This would bring a set of responsibilities and duties to the company equal to those of other mainstream banks: having to report to the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury, OCC, and the FDIC. However, it would also put the company in a unique position to link blockchain and traditional finance. Circle Aiming to Become Full-Reserve Bank Circle, a cryptocurrency fintech services company part of the Centre consortium, the issuer of USD Coin, has revealed in a blog post yesterday it intends to become a full-reserve national commercial bank. The announcement was made by its CEO Jeremy Allaire in a post where he explains the journey the company will have to undergo to reach that goal. Allaire stated that, since its inception, Circle has intended to become a financial institution. And now that its flagship stablecoin, USD Coin, has reached a critical issuance mass of more

Chainalysis, one of the leading blockchain intelligence companies in the world, has announced it will now cover the Dogecoin network in its reports. The company argues that dogecoin became one of the most known cryptocurrencies in the world after being promoted by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla during this year. This, consequently, has attracted criminals to the chain, that are now enticed to use it due to its popularity. Chainalysis Announces It Will Cover Dogecoin The blockchain intelligence company Chainalysis announced it will now include dogecoin (DOGE) , the infamous memecoin, in its upcoming reports. Dogecoin has gone from being a joke meme to becoming one of the most popular currencies in the market, moving big volumes after being promoted by Elon Musk , who has brought knowledge of it to the general audience. This has also put dogecoin in the eyes of criminals and regulators, like internet scammers that use the image of Musk and its relationship with dogecoin to steal cryptocur

PRESS RELEASE. BENQI , an algorithmic liquidity market protocol, and the Avalanche Foundation are collaborating on a joint liquidity mining program to celebrate the launch of the BENQI protocol on the 19th of August and the next phase of growth within Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem. $3MM of AVAX will be allocated as liquidity incentives for BENQI users, with additional incentive programs coming soon. The AVAX will be offered as rewards to users who are lending and borrowing AVAX, ETH , LINK, wBTC, USDT , and DAI on the protocol with BENQI. AVAX is the native token of Avalanche. It’s a hard-capped, scarce asset that is used to pay for fees, secure the platform through staking, and provide a basic unit of account between the multiple subnets created on Avalanche. BENQI recently closed a $6MM fundraising round backed by the Avalanche Foundation, Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, & the Spartan Group. BENQI and Avalanche Brings High-Performance Borrowing and

Afek Zard, a resident of Israel, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzling a large sum of cryptocurrency that belonged to a friend of his. The man, who refused to cooperate with the investigation, will have to pay a hefty fine as well. Israeli Resident Sentenced for Cryptocurrency Theft The 27-year-old Zard received the sentence from the Be’er Sheva District Court, Israeli news outlet Ynet reported this week. According to the website, Zard stole 75,000 DASH worth an estimated 22 million Israeli shekels ($6.8 million). The fiat equivalent dates back to the time the theft took place. The coins’ current value is almost twice as high. Zard, who has not returned a single dash to this day, has been convicted of theft in aggravating circumstances and other offenses. The court has also imposed a fine of five million shekels (approx. $1.55 million) and a maximum compensation of 258,000 shekels (almost $80,000). The crypto thief, a resident of Eilat in Southern Israel, t

A commissioner with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has criticized the securities watchdog for focusing on enforcement actions in its oversight of the crypto industry. SEC Commissioner Slams Agency for Focusing on Enforcement Actions in Regulating Crypto Assets SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce criticized her own agency Monday after it announced an enforcement action against cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex . She noted that the SEC’s action against the exchange “doubles down on the Commission’s enforcement-centric approach to crypto.” The securities watchdog alleges that Poloniex operated without being registered and planned internally to be “aggressive” in listing more assets in 2017 despite saying publicly that it would not list securities. The regulator said that in 2018 the exchange let users trade assets it deemed “medium risk” of being classified securities. Peirce, also known as “crypto mom,” argued that the SEC was taking its time in dealing with cryptocur

Today, we’re excited to announce that Global Money Express Co. Ltd (GME Remittance), one of the largest non-bank remittance service providers in South Korea has joined RippleNet. Through RippleNet, Ripple’s global financial network, GME Remittance has connected to Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), Thailand’s largest bank in terms of market capital.  This partnership, established through SBI … Continued The post GME Remittance Joins RippleNet to Accelerate and Scale Payments from South Korea into Thailand appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/S5Q528

The U.S. Senate has passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill with a crypto reporting requirement provision that has been described as “unworkable.” Senator Ted Cruz warned: “This infrastructure bill has in it a portion that is designed to obliterate crypto. That would be a tragic mistake.” Senate Passes Infrastructure Bill With ‘Unworkable’ Crypto Tax Provision The U.S. Senate voted 69-30 to approve the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill Tuesday without a crypto amendment. Many people have raised concerns about the cryptocurrency provision in the bill. Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania called it “ unworkable .” Two amendments were put forward to rectify the situation. On Monday, the senators who sponsored the two amendments reached an agreement with the Treasury Department and a compromise crypto amendment was born. The Senate voted on the compromise amendment Monday afternoon. However, it required a unanimous consent agreement and Senator Richard Shelby from Ala

Venmo, a Paypal service, has introduced the “Cash Back to Crypto” feature to allow credit card customers to automatically buy four types of cryptocurrencies with their cash back without incurring transaction fees. Cash Back to Crypto on Venmo Payments giant Paypal announced Tuesday a new feature on its Venmo platform called “Cash Back to Crypto” that enables Venmo credit card customers to “use monthly cash back in their Venmo account to auto-purchase cryptocurrency of choice, with no transaction fees.” The announcement details: Starting today, Cash Back to Crypto will be rolling out to Venmo Credit Cardholders, offering more ways to use cash back and expanding on Venmo’s crypto functionality, which launched earlier this year. Cash Back to Crypto will be available to all eligible Venmo Credit cardholders in the coming weeks, the company noted. Venmo launched crypto trading on its platform in April, allowing over 70 million users access to four types of cryptocurrencies: bitcoin

PRESS RELEASE. EQIFI, a regulated and licensed decentralized platform for pooled lending, borrowing and investing Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and select fiat currencies, has announced that its native token, EQX, has been enlisted on the Bloomberg Terminal under the EQX ticker symbol. Bloomberg’s influential audience of financial and business decision-makers will now enjoy access to the price data of EQIFI’s fungible ERC-20 EQX token, which bestows numerous benefits and rewards to users on the platform. Jason Blick, Chairman of EQIFI, said: “We are delighted to see institutional investors gain access to EQX data, and thus open up the world of decentralized finance to a wider audience that very few DeFi protocols have access to. Providing exposure to global financial hubs is just the next step in positioning EQIFI to become an industry leader.” EQIFI operates under a community-focused, decentralized standard through its native EQX token, which allows community member

Bitcoin’s hashrate has been steadily climbing after dropping to 69 exahash per second (EH/s) on June 28, as it reached a high of 117 EH/s on Tuesday morning (EDT). The rise in hashpower will likely lead to the highest difficulty expansion in 89 days as estimates currently show a 7.39% increase is due in two days. Bitcoin Block Rewards Expected to Be More Than 7% Harder to Find in 2 Days In a touch more than two days’ time, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is expected to jump over 7.3% as the crypto asset’s overall hashrate has improved a great deal. Since June 28, Bitcoin’s hashrate has jumped 69.56% and has been rising higher following the lift in market prices. Bitcoin hashrate over a 1-year zoom on August 10, 2021. On July 15, Bitcoin’s hashrate hit a high of 130 EH/s holding just below that zone for the last 25 days, and once in a while, it has tried to surpass the metric. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty makes it more difficult for miners to find blocks and during the last epoch, it

On August 10, the decentralized finance (defi) project Poly Network suffered a loss of over $600 million according to various reports. The hack follows a recent Ciphertrace report on how defi-related hacks and fraud in 2021 have already surpassed 2020. The Poly Network hack on Tuesday is well above the entire year’s worth of defi hacks. $600 Million Drained, Poly Network Defi Hack Eclipses 2021’s Defi Hacks This week, the blockchain analysis and intelligence company Ciphertrace published a report that shows $474 million was lost to defi-related hacks and fraud. The findings highlight how defi hacks have hit record highs but the Poly Network hack on Tuesday takes the cake. Around 9:00 a.m. (EDT) the Poly Network’s official Twitter account tweeted about the massive hack. “We are sorry to announce that Poly Network was attacked,” the Twitter account said and explained that the hacker was able to access funds on various chains. Poly Network hacked for over $600 million across Ether

In the history of every successful startup, there comes a ‘defining’ moment – a moment when the vision of its founders clashes with the impossible and, against all odds, triumphs by becoming a reality. ADAX , a decentralized exchange (DEX) within the Cardano ecosystem, has just experienced that moment. We are thrilled to demonstrate that, as promised, ADAX’s trustless protocol will enable censorship-resistant token swaps within the Cardano ecosystem, make full use of ‘social sentiment’-based trading tools, and ensure ample asset liquidity through unique liquidity pools. For the last three months, our team of seasoned developers and finance professionals have been working tirelessly to hit this milestone. We are now proud to say that we are on the right track. Welcome to the DeFi world powered by frictionless transactions on ADAX.   Platform Key Features Modern UI/UX Our UX team have spent countless hours making sure that ADAX DEX is built according to the industry’s b