Autor Cointelegraph By Brayden Lindrea

Aid for Ukraine's $54M crypto fund buys vests, scopes, and UAVs

The crypto community has poured in an impressive $54 million worth of crypto funds through “Aid For Ukraine,” aimed at supporting the country’s military efforts against Russia, the Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister has revealed. The $54 million has been funneled in through the Ukrainian government-run initiative ‘Aid For Ukraine’, according to Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s Twitter post on Thursday, who thanked the crypto community for their support:“Every helmet, bulletproof vest, and night vision device save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers. Thus, we must continue to support our defenders. Thanks so much to everyone from the crypto community for supporting Ukraine!”According to the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Aid For Ukraine’s $54 million has mostly come in the form of 10,190 Ether (ETH), worth $18.7 million, 595 Bitcoin (BTC), worth $13.9 million, Tether (USDT) worth $10.4 million and USD Coin (USDC), worth $2.2 million.The crypto payments have gone towards military equipment, hardware, and munitions, including $11.8 million worth of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are typically used to spot enemy troops and direct attacks. A significant sum of the donations was also spent on armor vests at $6.9 million, along with $3.8 million on field rations, $5.2 million on anti-war media campaigns, and $5.0 million on “weapons of the [Ukraine] Ministry of Defense request”, among other military and medical accessories. With $54 M raised by @_AidForUkraine, we’ve supplied our defenders with military equipment, armor clothes, medicines and even vehicles. Thanks to the crypto community for support since the start of the full-scale invasion! Donation by donation to the big victory. Report below. pic.twitter.com/lifHAP8R4f— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) August 17, 2022“Crypto is playing a significant role in Ukraine’s defense”, said Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Alex Bornyakov on the government-tied donatiowebsite.Founder of Ukrainian-based crypto exchange KUNA Mike Chobanian added that the contributions from the crypto community have shown the impact that blockchain technology can have on nation-states, stating that it can serve as a “backbone of global security” in times of need. Aid For Ukraine works by transferring crypto into the crypto exchange FTX, which converts crypto into fiat, and is then withdrawn and transferred to the National Bank of Ukraine.Related: Ukraine has received $37M in tracked crypto donations so farBut Aid For Ukraine isn’t the only organization taking in funds to assist Ukrainian defense efforts. Reserve Fund of Ukraine, Come Back Alive, UkraineDAO and Unchain Fund have also contributed funds in the seven-figure range, although the amount of crypto-based funds they’ve taken in hasn’t been disclosed since March.

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Ontario crypto exchanges impose $30K annual limit on altcoin buys

Canada-based crypto exchanges Bitbuy and Newton are enforcing a $30,000 (CAD) annual “buy limit” for “restricted coins” for their users based in Ontario in order to “protect consumers” amid tightened regulations.Newton, a Toronto-based crypto exchange announced the new changes come after working on getting registered with the Ontario Securities Commission and the securities regulatory authorities in other provinces and territories of Canada, noting in an Aug. 16 post: “These changes are to protect crypto investors, like yourself, and to make sure investors are aware of the risks associated with investing in crypto assets.”Under the new changes, Ontario-based crypto traders on Newton and other Canadian crypto platforms will be subject to an annual $30,000 (CAD) “net buy limit” on all cryptocurrency coins excluding Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC). Newton further clarified that if a trader bought and then sold a restricted coin, the sell amount would be subtracted from the limit. The limit resets every 12 months from the first purchase of restricted coins. The buy limits come as the crypto platform announced on Wednesday that they’ve officially registered as a “restricted dealer” in the province of Ontario, which meant that they’re now subject to the regulations set out by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).We’re excited to finally announce our registration with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and the securities regulatory authorities in all Canadian provinces, Yukon, and Northwest Territories. pic.twitter.com/8zx8UJy2DE— Newton (@newton_crypto) August 16, 2022Other changes aimed at consumer protection include a “trading questionnaire,” in which the exchange is required to collect information from users about their past experience and knowledge of crypto investing, financial situation, and risk tolerance — which is required to be completed to continue funding the account and trading on the platform. The crypto exchange will also send traders a notification if the trader’s portfolio receives a loss level that they indicated in the questionnaire that they’re not comfortable with. Canadian crypto exchange Bitbuy also confirmed similar purchase limits earlier in the year, noting that similar restrictions also apply to users in the provinces of Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon.Similar to Newton, Bitbuy requires traders to fill out a questionnaire to determine whether the investor qualifies as a Retail Investor, Eligible Investor or Sophisticated Investor. However, while Retail Investors remain subject to the $30,000 buy limit, Eligible Investors’ buy limit is upped to $100,000 and no purchase limit exists for Accredited Investors.  Newton provided traders with a snapshot of what they should expect to see when the new rules take effect.Source: NewtonThe Ontario province alone accounts for nearly 40% of the Canadian population, with Toronto being the major metropolitan hub.Newton noted that each province and territory of Canada has its own securities regulatory authority, which combined, makes up the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA).Related: Cleaning up crypto: How much enforcement is too much?Consumer protection isn’t the only focus of Canadian regulators either. In Apr. 2021, the Canadian federal government announced that they’d undergo a legislative review on the financial sector, with a particular focus on improving the stability and security of digital currencies, and establishing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).Newton, who dubs themselves as “Canada’s trust low cost crypto trading platform” were founded in 2018 and are currently one of the most popular exchanges in Canada, having surpassed 100,000 users in Feb. 2021.

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Aave calls on members to commit to Ethereum PoS chain

Aave token holders have been asked to take part in an Aave Request for Comment (ARC) that would require them to “commit” to Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.The ARC, proposed on Aug. 16, comes in light of Ethereum’s upcoming transition to proof-of-stake. It calls for members to select the Ethereum Mainnet running under PoS consensus as the new “canonical” governance system, while also giving power to an authority to shut down any Aave deployments on any alternative Ethereum forks. ARC for the Aave DAO to signal support PoS ETH upon The Merge https://t.co/0A4YkpHLdq— stani.lens @ ETHLatam (,) (@StaniKulechov) August 16, 2022The proposal will soon be made on Aave’s DAO, which allows Aave token holders to vote on software developments and updates to the AAVE protocol. As outlined on Aave’s governance website, the proposal comes with two main specs. Firstly, members will formally signal that the Aave DAO deployed on Ethereum Mainnet’s PoS consensus is the “canonical governance [mechanism]” of the Aave DAO and Aave markets. Secondly, a signal will give the Community Guardian the authority to shut down any Aave deployments on any other forks that arise from the Ethereum Merge.Aave Companies have proposed this ARC that calls for the Aave DAO to commit to selecting the Ethereum Mainnet running under the Proof of Stake consensus https://t.co/eDGwjLFKz7— Aave (@AaveAave) August 16, 2022

The outcome of the governance vote should give a good indication as to where Aave members stand with respect to Ethereum’s transition to PoS.In the report, Aave also declared that its code was “fully functional” with Ethereum’s consensus change, which was done by deploying Aave V3 on the Ropsten and Goerli testnets during the Merge tests. The Ethereum Merge is set to take effect on Sep. 15, according to the latest tentative schedule set by Ethereum Core Developer Tim Beiko.Related: Aave DAO approving overcollateralized stablecoin splits crypto communityHaving first been deployed on the Ethereum Mainnet, Aave is now on Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Fantom, and Harmony. However, $5.44 billion, or 72.6% of Aave’s total value locked (TVL) resides on Ethereum, so any alternative Ethereum forking that stems from the Merge could impact the Aave market and token price.The price of the AAVE token is $109.95 at the time of writing. AAVE is currently the third largest DAO by market cap ($1.54 billion) after Uniswap (UNI) and ApeCoin (APE).

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Crypto scams fall 65% after gullible noobs exit the market: Chainalysis

Fewer people have fallen victim to cryptocurrency scams in 2022 so far due to falling asset prices and the exit of inexperienced crypto users from the market, a new crypto crime report reveals. According to an Aug. 16 report from Chainalysis, total crypto scam revenue year-to-date is currently sitting at $1.6 billion, equating to a 65% decline from the prior year period, which appears linked to the declining prices of cryptocurrencies. “Since January 2022, scam revenue has fallen more or less in line with Bitcoin pricing. […] it’s not just scam revenue falling — the cumulative number of individual transfers to scams so far in 2022 is the lowest it’s been in the past four years.”Chainalysis’ Cybercrimes Research Lead Eric Jardine, the author of the report, explains that crypto investors are more likely to fall for scams during bull markets when the investment opportunities and outsized returns are most enticing to victims.Source: ChainalysisJardine also hypothesized that bull markets also typically see a higher prevalence of new, inexperienced crypto users, who are more likely to fall victim to scams. The researcher said the results are also skewed due to the comparatively large PlusToken and Finiko scams in 2021 which netted $3.5 billion in total scam revenue. Conversely, Jardine notes the largest scam of 2022 so far has only netted $273 million, and is related to cannabis investing platform JuicyFields.io, which has reportedly locked investors out of their accounts on their cannabis-focused “e-growing” service. Hacks and stolen fundsWhile scam revenue has fallen in the year, Jardine notes that crypto-based hacking has bucked the trend, increasing 58.3% through July 2022 to $1.9 billion, a figure that does not include the $190 million Nomad bridge hack that began on Aug. 1.Source: ChainalysisJardine said that this increase is largely attributable to the rise of DeFi applications that skyrocketed in 2021:“DeFi protocols are uniquely vulnerable to hacking, as their open source code can be studied ad nauseum by cybercriminals looking for exploits.”But Jardine added that it’s not all bad, as smart contract programming languages like Solidity are relatively new and these exploits can “be helpful for security as it allows for auditing of the code.”The report also noted that a large concentration of these hackers came from North Korean elite hacking units such as Lazarus Group, with approximately half of crypto stolen in hacks coming from these groups alone.Jardine also noted that darknet market revenue is down 43% so far in 2022, due mainly to German law enforcement shutting down Russian darknet Hydra Marketplace’s servers on Apr. 5.Darknet markets are dark web black markets that offer illicit goods and services for sale, often using cryptocurrencies as a method of payment. 

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Google invested a whopping $1.5B into blockchain companies since September

Google parent company Alphabet poured the most amount of capital into the blockchain industry compared to any other public company, investing $1.5 billion between Sep. 2021 and Jun. 2022, a new report shows. In an updated blog published by Blockdata on Aug. 17, Alphabet (Google) was revealed as the investor with the deepest pockets compared to the top 40 public corporations investing in blockchain and crypto companies during the period. The company invested $1.5 billion into the space, concentrating on four blockchain companies including digital asset custody platform Fireblocks, Web3 gaming company Dapper Labs, Bitcoin infrastructure tool Voltage, and venture capital company Digital Currency Group.This is in stark contrast to last year, where Google diversified its much smaller $601.4 million funding effort across 17 blockchain-based companies, which again included Dapper Labs, along with Alchemy, Blockchain.com, Celo, Helium and Ripple. Google’s increased investment into the blockchain industry is consistent with the other top 40 publicly traded companies, with $6 billion in total being invested during this time, compared to $1.9 billion between Jan. 2021 to Sep. 2021 and $506 million in all of 2020.Source: BlockdataThe other big corporate investors include asset management company BlackRock, which invested $1.17 billion, investment banking corporation Morgan Stanley, investing $1.11 billion, and electronics company Samsung, with investments totaling $979.2 million. Like Google, Morgan Stanley and BlackRock adopted a more concentrated approach investing in only two to three companies during the period. However, Samsung was by far the most active investor having invested in 13 different companies.The data also found that companies offering some form of non-fungible token (NFT) solutions have been the most popular investment. “Many of these belong to industries such as gaming, arts & entertainment, and distributed ledger technology (DLT).”The remaining investments have been split between companies that provide Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS), infrastructure, smart contract platforms, scaling solutions and digital asset custody platforms. Related: Beyond the hype: NFTs can lead the way in transforming business experiencesThe data also found that banks have started to increase their exposure to crypto and blockchain companies, driven by an increase in client demand for crypto services. Among the banks finding themselves on the top list of crypto investors are United Overseas Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and BNY Mellon.

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