Ukraine will start teaching cryptocurrency literacy for free
The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, in partnership with the WhiteBIT exchange, the Filecoin Foundation and the Atlantis World social metaverse, will launch blockchain courses.
According to the head of the Ministry of Digital Development Mikhail Fedorov, the program is completely free and is designed for 100 hours of theory and practice.
The start of the project is scheduled for February 2023 on the basis of the state portal “Diya. Digital education".
Among the topics:
- the history of money and the development of blockchain and bitcoin;
- mining and Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithms;
- Ethereum and smart contracts;
- cold and hot crypto wallets;
- exchange of crypto assets;
- opportunities and risks of trading in the digital asset market;
- basics of cyber hygiene;
- decentralized protocols (IPFS and Filecoin and others).
Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang plead guilty to FTX-related charges
Former head of Alameda Research Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty to charges related to the collapse of Sam Bankman-Freed's business empire and agreed to cooperate with the investigation. This was stated by Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams.
ABC News, citing court documents, writes that Allison pleaded guilty to seven counts, including conspiracy to commit fraud against FTX customers. She faces up to 110 years in prison.
Wang pleaded guilty to four counts and could potentially spend 50 years in prison.
According to Williams, Bankman-Fried is now in the custody of the FBI and is on his way to the United States. Earlier, the authorities of the Bahamas reported that the ex-head of FTX was to be sent to America on the evening of December 21.
Fragment sold the most expensive anonymous number for 300,000 TON
On Tuesday, December 20, an unknown person purchased an anonymous number +888 8 888 on the Fragment blockchain platform for 300,000 TON (more than $730,000 at the exchange rate at the time of the transaction).
The lot has become the most expensive on the site since its launch on October 27. The previous record belonged to +888 0123 4567 — 30,211 TON (about $74,000).
Fragment was originally created to sell account IDs. In early November, the first Telegram username, @auto, was bought on the platform. Its cost was 900,000 TON (about $1.4 million).
Peter Schiff: “BTC will not recover even if other assets start to rise”
Cryptocurrency skeptic Peter Schiff took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the prospects for Bitcoin. He believes that the first cryptocurrency will no longer be able to return to its previous level. The economist also questioned the scarcity of bitcoin. He believes that despite the limited supply of BTC of 21 million coins, it cannot be called the most desirable asset in the world.
“Bitcoin is not a financial asset. This is a collectible digital token. As long as people are stupid enough to buy bitcoin, its value will rise. There are many fools in the world, but unfortunately there are few left for Bitcoin holders who want to buy this cryptocurrency. The bitcoin bubble has already burst, and collectors will sell it, no matter what happens in the financial market,” wrote Schiff.
Bitcoins connected to the bankrupt QuadrigaCX exchange came into motion
About 104 BTC (~$1.7 million) associated with the bankrupt Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX was transferred from cold wallets to new addresses. Assets have lain without movement for more than three years, the ZachXBT researcher said.
According to CoinDesk, QuadrigaCX's trustee, an EY auditor, did not initiate these transactions.
The exchange crashed in 2019 after the death of its co-founder Gerald Cotten. He turned out to be the only holder of private keys from cold wallets. The platform turned out to owe users $171.5 million.
Mazars Suspends Servicing of Crypto Companies
The auditing firm Mazars Group has suspended work with all clients from the crypto industry after checking Binance's bitcoin reserves. It is reported by Bloomberg with reference to the stock exchange.
“Mazars has made it clear that it is temporarily halting all crypto clients, including Crypto.com, KuCoin, and Binance. Unfortunately, this means that we are unable to work with the firm at the moment,” a spokesperson for the platform said.
Earlier, experts criticized the Mazars report on Binance verification published in early December. It concerned the volume of user deposits in bitcoin and the availability of corresponding reserves from the platform.
Insurers limited risk coverage for crypto firms after FTX collapse
Insurance companies are refusing to cooperate or reducing coverage to customers who have interacted with the FTX exchange going through bankruptcy. Reuters writes about it.
Fears of “infection” of crypto firms further weakened interest in working in the sector. Previously, this was not facilitated by the high volatility of digital assets and regulatory uncertainty.
Since the beginning of the year, scammers have launched almost 120,000 tokens
From the beginning of 2022 to December 1, 117,629 scam tokens related to rug pull schemes appeared on the market. This is about 15 scam projects every hour, according to Solidus Labs experts.
“Over the past five years, rug pull scams have grown from a minor problem to a major epidemic in which developers of fraudulent tokens have stolen billions of dollars from millions of retail investors,” the experts stressed.
The most popular type of fraudulent tokens turned out to be the so-called honeypot. In the smart contract of such a coin, the possibility of its resale by the buyer is closed. The most famous example was the Squid Game, in which investors lost $3.3 million.
Reuters: Sam Bankman-Fried won't challenge US extradition
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will not challenge extradition to the US, where he faces charges of fraud and money laundering. About this writes Reuters, citing its own sources.
Recall, on December 14, a court in the Bahamas rejected Bankman-Fried's application for bail of $ 250,000, explaining this by a high risk of escape. He was left in custody at Fox Hill Prison, which is known
OneCoin co-founder pleads guilty to fraud and money laundering
OneCoin co-founder Sebastian Greenwood has pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering.
“Greenwood and his accomplices, including the escaped Ruja Ignatova, swindled unsuspecting victims out of billions of dollars, claiming that OneCoin would be a “bitcoin killer.” In fact, OneCoins were absolutely worthless,” said Damian, Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Williams.
Donald Trump releases his own NFT collection
Called Collect Trump Cards, the collection will be a collection of images by illustrator Clark Mitchell that show the former US president in a variety of settings and clothing. There are also cards with a superhero theme. Each NFT will cost $99.
“This is a great Christmas present, so don't delay, they'll be sold out soon. I believe very soon!” Trump said on his Truth Social account.
Each NFT purchaser will be entered into a prize draw, including a dinner with Trump, an hour-long golf game, a direct phone call, and "other great prizes." In addition, each participant who purchases 45 NFTs will be invited to a "gala dinner". To participate in the draw, the buyer must be over 18 years old and live in one of the 50 US states.
Binance announced the delisting of four tokens
All trading pairs MITH/USDT, TRIBE/BUSD, REP/USDT and BTCST/BUSD will be terminated on Binance. After December 23, the entry of these tokens into user wallets should be stopped. It will be possible to withdraw them until March 23.
The Mithril Token (MITH) is used as a reward for content and to pay for various services in the Mithril decentralized social media ecosystem on Ethereum. The token exchange rate collapsed in price by 35%.
Tribe (TRIBE) is the governance token of the Fei decentralized platform that backs the FEI stablecoin. After the Binance delisting announcement, the token fell by 7.5%.
Augur (REP) is an Augur oracle and prediction token on Ethereum. The price of the token practically did not react to the announcement of Binance, over the past day its value has decreased by 3%.
The Bitcoin Standard Hashrate Token (BTCST) is the native utility token of the BEP-20 platform, previously launched by Binance.
Coinbase Licensed as Digital Asset Provider in Ireland
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been approved by the Central Bank of Ireland to operate as a service provider in the digital asset market.
The registration gave the trading platform Coinbase Europe and custodian Coinbase Custody International the right to continue to provide products and services to individuals and institutions in Europe as well as abroad from Ireland.
Companies are subject to the local Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Criminal Prosecution Act.
US senator questioned the need to ban cryptocurrencies
The cryptocurrency industry needs stricter rules, but it is hardly worth taking the position of a total ban on this issue. This opinion was expressed by Senator from Minnesota (USA) Tina Smith on NBC.
Smith, along with colleagues from the Democratic Party, led a campaign calling for tighter regulation. When asked whether crypto should be considered a commodity, she called providing consumer protection a real challenge and urged the SEC to use its experience to do this.
“We know how to protect consumers in this country from dubious financial transactions and from unethical players like, apparently, FTX […]. I'm not saying that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] doesn't play an important role. But I think the problem is how to make sure there are basic consumer protections in place so that people don't get ripped off,” Smith explained.
Celsius Network assets auction to take place in January
The Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has set an auction for the sale of Celsius assets on January 10. The company said it has already received more than 30 offers with various options for acquiring its assets or business structures, such as moving customers to a buyer's platform while reducing their assets.
More than 120 organizations showed varying degrees of interest in acquiring Celsius assets and participating in the auction. Some potential participants have already signed agreements and a legal non-disclosure agreement used to protect confidential information about the company or trading conditions.
Visa will explore the possibility of automatic payments in cryptocurrencies
US payment giant Visa sees promise in blockchain and related technologies. The company plans to partner with the Ethereum ecosystem to implement automatic payments in cryptocurrency.
“We intend to actively participate in the development of technical innovations that occur in the cryptocurrency industry. And the best way to do this is to practice by delving into Web3 infrastructure and blockchain protocols. We are confident that these areas will be extremely important for payments in the future,” said Catherine Gu, head of CBDC and protocols at Visa.
So far, these technologies are in their infancy, Gu noted, but something more could grow from them in the future. To do this, a lot of research needs to be done on the main aspects related to payments - security and scalability, which is what the Gu department is doing.
Boris Johnson's brother left Binance due to the crisis in the crypto market
Last week, former Secretary of State for Universities and Science Joseph Johnson stepped down as an advisor to Binance-founded payment company Bifinity. It is reported by The Telegraph.
According to the publication, the reason for this was the growing pressure over the transparency of Binance's finances and the deepening crisis in the cryptocurrency sector.
"I resigned from the advisory board last week and have no role in it [or] any organization associated with it."
The hero of the “Game for a fall” criticized the audit of bitcoin exchanges
Investor Michael Burry, who predicted the 2007 mortgage crisis, called audit firms' audits of cryptocurrency exchange balances pointless.
"This is problem. When I started using a new kind of credit default swap in 2005, our auditors were learning as they went. It's not very good. The same goes for FTX, Binance and others. The audit is essentially meaningless,” Burry wrote.
Edward Snowden has proposed his candidacy for the post of new CEO of Twitter
Former NSA and CIA officer Edward Snowden, in response to the publication of Twitter owner Elon Musk about the search for the CEO of the social network, proposed his candidacy for this post.
“I accept payment in bitcoin,” Snowden wrote.
Earlier, the billionaire in his profile conducted a survey about the need for his resignation from the post of head of the social network. 17.5 million users participated in it. Of these, 57.5% voted for Musk's resignation. He promised to follow the results of the poll.
A private investor under the nickname iamraisini said that Musk is trying to legitimize his resignation with the help of a poll. According to him, the Arab shareholders of Twitter have already asked the billionaire to leave the post of CEO.
CoinGecko: More than 40% of cryptocurrencies placed last year left the market
In 2021, over 8,000 cryptocurrencies were listed on the CoinGecko website. This was facilitated by the growth of their value. Since then, 3,300 cryptocurrencies have been deactivated or delisted, and the crypto world has experienced one of the biggest recessions in its history.
According to CoinGecko, the capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has decreased by almost 3.5 times: from $3 trillion to $866 billion. At the same time, such a rapid fall does not mean that the blockchain ecosystem has undergone any significant structural changes, analysts emphasize.
In accordance with the rules of CoinGecko, the cryptocurrency can be removed from the site due to a lack of activity for two months or if it is confirmed that the project is a fraudulent scheme.
Vitalik Buterin: Twitter is becoming an authoritarian social network
The situation escalated after the blocking of two accounts: ElonJets and CelebJets. These accounts tracked the planes of Elon Musk himself and several other famous personalities.
In the US, this is considered a completely legal activity: account holders used tracking robots that collected public data and simply relayed it. The personal account of Jack Sweeney, the developer of the ElonJets bot, was also blocked.
Musk soon released new Twitter rules that banned tweets or accounts that give away information about someone's current situation. The co-founder of Ethereum does not support “following bots”, but the new Twitter ban policy is not close to him either. Buterin makes it clear that in the politics of Elon Musk there is a desire for almost Soviet-style authoritarianism with its “central planning”.
OKX Reports Customer Service Difficulties Due to Alibaba Cloud Issues
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX has reported difficulties in customer service due to problems on the side of cloud service provider Alibaba Cloud. The company said that users' assets are safe.
“There is an intermittent connection error with our cloud provider that impacts user experience. We solve the problem together. Funds are safe,” the statement said.
Some users have reported that the exchange has suspended deposits and withdrawals. According to Etherscan, at the time of writing, the OKX address had not been involved in transactions for more than six hours.
Oleksandr Vinnik asked the American court to release him on bail
The defense of Russian citizen Alexander Vinnik, who is under arrest in the United States on charges of laundering up to $ 9 billion through the BTC-e exchange, has requested bail from the court.
The reason for such a request is the "delay" of the trial by the American side. Vinnik's lawyers emphasized that the accused extradited to the United States had been in an American prison for several months, but the documents necessary for the court had not been provided by the investigators.
“Understandably, he is very upset and believes that he should be released on bail or allowed to exercise the right to a speedy trial, because the government did not fulfill its obligations by promising to provide evidence in this case,” the defense said.
Changpeng Zhao: "Kevin O'Leary is a liar"
The CEO of the world's largest crypto exchange has responded to criticism from the Shark Tank host in Congress by calling the host a liar who makes irresponsible statements.
After the collapse of FTX, O'Leary, an investor in the FTX Group and its representative at the Senate Banking Committee hearing, claimed that Binance was to blame for the collapse of FTX. O'Leary told senators that Binance ruined FTX's business by forcing a rival exchange to spend about $3 billion to buy back its own shares, causing the marketplace to crash.
The head of Binance explained that he finds it hard to believe that O'Leary, as an experienced investor, invested in FTX without due diligence and did not know that Binance owns a stake in FTX.
“Kevin O'Leary makes a bunch of irresponsible statements. They have no meaning and no logic. That's why I think Kevin is a liar and he lies more
Gemini exchange suspended for prolonged maintenance
On December 16, the Winklevoss brothers' Gemini cryptocurrency exchange suspended operations due to scheduled maintenance. The completion date has been pushed back several times.
The platform closed services for users from 5:00 (Kyiv). Services were originally scheduled to resume at 7:00 a.m.
“Gemini will perform scheduled maintenance on Thursday, December 15 at approximately 10:00 pm to Friday, December 16 at 00:00 am (ET),” the statement said.
At the time of writing, the exchange team has postponed the deadline six times. The last specified end time for work is 11:30.
Microsoft bans cryptocurrency mining through its online services
Software and cloud giant Microsoft has included a ban on cryptocurrency mining in an update to its Universal Licensing Terms for Online Services that came into effect on December 1st.
This document applies to any "Microsoft-hosted service to which a customer subscribes under a Microsoft Volume Licensing Agreement." The section titled "Acceptable Use Policy" states:
"Neither the client, nor those accessing the web service through the client, may use the web service to mine cryptocurrency without Microsoft's prior written permission."
Microsoft has not commented on why the company has imposed the ban, nor under what circumstances, if any, it will issue written permission to mine cryptocurrency.