Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

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

Central Bank of Russia is now working with commercial banks in order to delay payments made to digital asset exchanges. The move aims to limit “emotional” cryptocurrency purchases made by “unqualified” Russian investors, a CBR official revealed. The move is likely to affect peer-to-peer and over-the-counter trading platforms. Central Bank of Russia Skeptical of Cryptocurrency Investments Bank of Russia remains skeptical about the acquisition of cryptocurrencies and will not support increasing access to crypto markets for Russian investors, most of whom are not accredited, the bank’s Deputy Chairman Sergei Shvetsov stated this week, quoted by Prime business news agency. Speaking at the “Banks of Russia – XXI Century” international banking forum, the high-ranking official elaborated: When it comes to buying [cryptocurrency] for investment purposes, we are skeptical about this idea. We believe it’s different from traditional assets, it’s highly risky and has signs of a pyramid scheme

On September 17, 2021, Solana protocol fans were introduced to the launch of the Wormhole Network’s ethereum – solana bridge, which means assets between each chain can be intermingled. The launch announcement notes that Saber, the Solana-fueled protocol with more than $4 billion total-value locked (TVL), will support migration from Wormhole V1 to V2. Wormhole Launches Ethereum – Solana Bridge Solana has risen 5,504% in value during the last year and today, solana (SOL) is a top ten crypto-asset holding the seventh largest position in terms of market capitalization. At the time of writing, the overall solana (SOL) market valuation is $48.4 billion and there’s a circulating supply of 296,830,872 SOL, according to Coingecko data . On Friday, the Wormhole Network announced the launch of the Wormhole Token Bridge. “Today we’re incredibly excited to announce the launch of our Wormhole Token Bridge starting with Ethereum and Solana,” the Wormhole Network’s Twitter account said . “First u

Binance’s troubles with regulators grow as U.S. authorities are now reportedly investigating the exchange for possible insider trading and market manipulation. The investigation involves the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The Justice Department (DOJ) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have also been investigating Binance on a separate issue. Binance Probed for Possible Insider Trading, Market Manipulation U.S. authorities are now investigating Binance for possible insider trading and Market manipulation to ascertain whether the company or its staff profited by taking advantage of its customers, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Binance was quoted saying: At Binance, we have a zero-tolerance policy for insider trading and a strict ethical code related to any type of behavior that could have a negative impact on our customers or industry. The review involves the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) investigators, who have b

Paypal has completed the first international expansion of its cryptocurrency offering outside of the U.S. Paypal Crypto is now available to customers in the U.K. allowing them to buy, hold, and sell four kinds of cryptocurrencies. Paypal Crypto Now Available to All Eligible UK Customers Payments giant Paypal Inc. announced Friday that it has completed the rollout of its crypto offering in the U.K. The rollout began in late August when the company announced the launch of its crypto service in the U.K. The official account of Paypal U.K. tweeted: We are delighted to share that all eligible customers in the UK can now buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash & litecoin from their Paypal account. The company’s website explains that the crypto service in the U.K. is provided by Paypal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., a credit institution supervised by Luxembourg’s financial regulator, Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier. However, the cryp

While bitcoin continues to become more scarce every day, the most popular set of physical bitcoins, crafted by Mike Caldwell from 2011 to 2013, have become far scarcer than their digital counterparts. As of September 18, 2021, there are now less than 20,000 active bitcoins from the Casascius physical bitcoin collection. Casascius Physical Bitcoin Collection Grows Scarcer Bitcoin has become a well-known technology and in the early years a number of people and companies deployed concepts called “physical bitcoins.” Essentially, a group or individual would fabricate a coin with the bitcoin symbol etched on it and the coin would also hold digital BTC hidden within the coin’s body. It’s safe to say that the Casascius physical bitcoin collection created by Mike Caldwell is the most popular collection to date, and these rare physical bitcoins are sold for much more than the face value of the digital bitcoin they hold. Casascius bitcoins sport a holographic tamper-resistant sticker on o

PRESS RELEASE. Social media dream builder Charlie Rocket and Dreamr Labs announce 2nd nationwide tour with $1 million traveling giveaway kicking off at Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas, 9/17 Click to tweet : Hit the road with Charlie Rocket and @dreamr_app as they travel the country building dreams and giving away $1 million in DMR tokens! Download the Dreamr app at https://www.dreamr.app/ and declare your dream. No dream is too small. LAS VEGAS (SEPTEMBER 11, 2021) – Dreamr , the community-driven app platform and ecosystem created for users to declare their dreams that recently went viral (as seen with Oprah , TMZ, Entertainment Tonight, and more), and Dreamr social media sensation Charlie “Rocket” Jabaley announce the return of its nationwide Dream Machine Tour – a 45-day traveling tour that will make stops in multiple cities, kicking off locally in Las Vegas at Life is Beautiful Festival this weekend. Launching Friday, September 17th, Charlie Rocket and the “Dream Ma

In mid-September, the total-value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) continues to climb higher, as the value held on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Avalanche, Solana, and more blockchains has risen dramatically to $171 billion today. On the Ethereum network, there’s 270,783 bitcoin held in TVL worth more than $13 billion and $15 billion has been swapped across 14 different Ethereum-based decentralized exchange (dex) platforms. $23.8 billion has been swapped across a variety of blockchain protocols, according to a recently published defi weekly report. Defi Growth Remains Exponential A number of crypto assets like bitcoin ( BTC ) and ethereum ( ETH ) have increased in value during the last month, but for the most part, crypto-assets like solana (SOL) and avalanche (AVAX) stole the show during the last 30 days. Across 14 different Ethereum-based dex platforms, there’s been $15 billion in swaps during the last seven days. Data recorded by Dune Analytics. Decentralized fin