Autor Cointelegraph By Brian Newar

The number of countries banning crypto has doubled in three years

The number of countries banning crypto has doubled in three years

Uverejnil používateľ | jan 4, 2022 |

Although 2021 was a good year for the cryptocurrency industry in terms of market performance, the number of jurisdictions banning crypto has more than doubled since 2018.A report by the Library of Congress (LOC) details the nine jurisdictions that have now applied an absolute ban on crypto and the 42 with an implicit ban. This is up from eight and 15 respectively in 2018 when the report was first published.The LOC is the research library for the United States Senate, acting as the national library for the country.In the context of the LOC report, an absolute ban means any “transactions with or holding cryptocurrency is a criminal act”, whereas an implicit ban prohibits cryptocurrency exchanges, banks, and other financial institutions from “dealing in cryptocurrencies or offering services to individuals/businesses dealing in cryptocurrencies.”The nine new jurisdictions with an absolute ban include Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Oman, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Bangladesh, and China. China’s crypto ban received the most attention in 2021.The dramatic increase in jurisdictions banning or regulating cryptocurrency over the past three years is not showing signs of slowing as several governments are currently reviewing their options. Aside from the 51 jurisdictions with a crypto ban, 103 have applied anti-money laundering and combatting the funding of terrorism (AML/CFT) laws, a three-fold increase from the 33 jurisdictions with such laws in place in 2018.A Swedish financial watchdog and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency called for a ban on Proof of Work (PoW) mining in November due to the power demands and environmental costs of keeping networks running. This was met with harsh criticism from Paris-based Melanion Capital, which called the claims against mining “completely misinformed.”Sweden’s EU neighbor, Estonia, is set on implementing AML/CFT rules in February. These new rules are expected to change the definition of what a virtual asset service provider (VASP) is and apply an implicit ban on decentralized finance (DeFi) and Bitcoin (BTC).Related: Industry experts reveal a possible method for Bank of Russia to block cryptoIndia’s government created a scare when lawmakers there considered a crypto ban last year. The outcome was not an outright ban, but a push to regulate cryptocurrencies as crypto assets, with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) which oversees the regulation of local crypto exchanges. An outright ban, however, is not out of the question. 

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Cross chain DeFi hub Umee raises $32M with Coinlist token sale

Cross chain DeFi hub Umee raises $32M with Coinlist token sale

Uverejnil používateľ | dec 31, 2021 |

Cross chain DeFi hub Umee’s token sale on Coinlist has broken the record for user interest on the platform and concluded with nearly $32 million raised.Coinlist reported that more than 922,000 Coinlist accounts had registered for options 1 and 2 of the UMME token sale, which is the highest number ever for a token sale on the platform. In the end around 63,000 accounts contributed. A Medium post from the Umee team yesterday stated that funds will be used to expand the development and engineering teams. The Beta web app for the platform is set to launch “in the coming days,” and the mainnet is scheduled to ship by mid-February.The $32 million raise is reportedly the fifth largest public raise on Coinlist all year. This also puts it among the top public token sale rounds this year with BitDAO (BIT) which raised over $43 million, GuildFi (GF) which raised over $139 million, and others.It adds to the $6.3 million Umee raised in June in its first private funding round led by Polychain, Alameda Research, Coinbase, CMS Holdings, and others.Umee is a decentralized platform which allows cross chain leverage trading and yield staking. Its website claims it can help users “discover new yield opportunities and explore DeFi applications intersecting networks in a seamless and trustless manner.”It is led by Brent Xu, a contributor to Ethereum (ETH) and Cosmos (ATOM), who sees decentralized finance (DeFi) as “the most innovative concept in crypto.” The team wishes to expand on ideas and technology used by Tendermint on Cosmos that allow separate layer-one blockchains to become interoperable. Related: DAO treasuries surged 40X in 2021: DeepDAOAccording to Xu, Umee uses the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol from the Cosmos ecosystem so that assets from Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-based blockchains can be used interoperably on other layer-one blockchain networks in DeFi apps. This is a similar design to Cosmos but Umee focuses on cross chain interest rates, multi-chain staking, and interchain leverage.

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Bitcoin has risen 7% to 36% in the first week of January each year since 2018

Bitcoin has risen 7% to 36% in the first week of January each year since 2018

Uverejnil používateľ | dec 31, 2021 |

Some crypto market analysts are highlighting the potential for a green first week on the crypto markets in January as part of what economist and trader Alex Krüger calls the “first week of the year effect.”Krüger pointed out in a Dec. 29 tweet that for the past four years straight, Bitcoin (BTC) has enjoyed positive returns in the first week of January ranging from 7% to 36% between 2018 and 2021. In 2021, BTC grew from $28,653 to $41,441 in the first week of Jan. When asked what had happened in previous years, Krüger replied, “tbf only 2020 and 2021 matter, different markets, so do with those two data points as you will”.Still expect a strong crypto up market in early Jan driven by fund inflows. Then risk-off ahead of the next FOMC (Jan/26) if the next inflation print comes in too hot (Jan/12).— Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) December 28, 2021His optimistic outlook for early January comes from his expectation of strong “fund inflows,” which appears to be in line with the sentiments of Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal. Pal said in a Youtube interview on Dec. 27 that he believed the sell-offs on Bitcoin were finished, and that January would have a strong start as institutional capital gets reinvested in the market.ExoAlpha CEO David Lifchitz believes institutions are still selling even with less than 24 hours remaining in 2021 in order to lock in tax losses. It’s possible that a January first week rebound could be correlated with the phenomenon.Fintech and wealth management firm deVere Group CEO Nigel Green believes that December has shaped up as Bitcoin’s worst monthly showing since May of 2021 due to what he calls “panic sellers practically giving away their cryptocurrencies to wealthy buyers.” He is bullish on the largest cryptocurrency by market cap for the long term, however. Green feels that Bitcoin can protect investors from global inflation, and that “borderless, global, decentralized currencies are the future.”Not everyone is bullish on crypto in 2022 however. Professor of Finance at Sussex University Carol Alexander told CNBC that BTC could tank as far down as $10,000 in 2022. She is a skeptic however who believes that BTC has no fundamental value and that it has already reached its peak this cycle.Related: MicroStrategy purchases 1,914 Bitcoin, now holds almost $6B in cryptoA more informed take comes from Todd Lowenstein, chief equity strategist from Union Bank. His view is that “Goldilocks conditions,” such as the COVID financial stimulus packages and low interest rates that benefited high asset prices, are coming to an end which will have a significant negative impact on BTC and traditional markets in 2022. “Goldilocks conditions are ending and the liquidity tide is receding which will disproportionately harm overvalued asset classes and speculative areas of the market including cryptocurrencies.”

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OpenSea freezes $2.2M of stolen Bored Apes

OpenSea freezes $2.2M of stolen Bored Apes

Uverejnil používateľ | dec 31, 2021 |

NFT marketplace OpenSea has frozen 16 Bored Ape and Mutant Ape nonfungible tokens (NFT) after they were reportedly stolen yesterday from a New York art gallery operator.In total, one Clonex, seven Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and eight Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs currently valued at about 615 ETH ($2.28 million) were stolen and are now not able to be traded on OpenSea.The toddkramer.eth account, which links to the Ross+Kramer Art Gallery in New York, fired off a series of tweets detailing the 16 NFTs that were stolen from his hot wallet and pleading with OpenSea and the NFT community for help. While the NFT community was often unsympathetic to the trader’s plight, OpenSea froze trading on the stolen items.@gidwellsoon @Tob_Opensea @j1mmy I have been hacked. Please HelpApe 2771Ape 6416Ape 1623Ape 1708Ape 8214Ape 7528Ape 9988Ape 9410Mutants 25057Mutant 11177Mutant 28752Mutant 24718Mutant 2436Mutant 9278Mutant 2434Clonex 6801— toddkramer.eth (@toddkramer1) December 30, 2021The freeze on buying and selling the NFTs have some traders decrying a lack of decentralization, one of the cherished aspects of the crypto industry. One Twitter commenter kw.sol said, “Who was able to freeze the n? Feels pretty anti crypto to be asking third parties to do this and ideally they shouldn’t be able to.”Famed software engineer Grady Booch chimed in about the lack of decentralization in this case when he commented: “Silly me. And here I thought that the code is the law and that one of the very ideas of cryptocurrencies was the elimination of any possibility of centralized intervention. A hot wallet is a type of cryptocurrency software wallet that is connected to the internet — most commonly MetaMask — whenever the device it is installed on is connected.Kramer tweeted that he lost his collection through a phishing scam that gained access to his hot wallet after he clicked on a malicious link. He deleted the tweet following the harsh vitriol in the comments. Kramer most recently tweeted on Dec. 31 that he was surprised by the reaction:Twitter is ruuuuuuthlesssss— toddkramer.eth (@toddkramer1) December 30, 2021

While Kramer has little recourse in retrieving the stolen NFTs, his experience highlights the importance of sound operational security (opsec) as a cryptocurrency trader or NFT collector. He said that he has learned a lesson about opsec in handling valuable cryptocurrency when he tweeted yesterday:“Lessons learned. Use a hard wallet… “A hard wallet, otherwise known as a cold wallet, is a crypto wallet that does not connect to the internet until manually plugged into a computer and then each transaction needs to be approved using physical buttons. Hard wallets are a superior measure over hot wallets to secure crypto assets.Kramer’s ordeal is not a unique experience to NFT traders, especially those familiar with the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. On Dec. 26, NFT collector bergpay.eth said he suffered a similar fate to Kramer when 5 Jungle Freaks and 2 Sandbox NFTs were stolen from his Ethereum wallet and his ENS domain was transferred to a new address. On Nov. 30, Twitter account friesframe summed up the frustration that can overcome an NFT owner if they find that their favorite items have been stolen from their hot wallet. OpenSea has not frozen either bergpay’s or friesframe’s NFTs yet.

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South Korean crypto exchanges to follow Coinone in verifying private wallets

South Korean crypto exchanges to follow Coinone in verifying private wallets

Uverejnil používateľ | dec 30, 2021 |

Major South Korean crypto exchanges including Upbit, Bithumb and Korbit will follow Coinone’s lead in banning transfers to non-verified wallets, industry analysts say. Yesterday Coinone announced that it would reject deposits from unverified private wallets starting Jan. 24 to reduce the risk of money laundering. All Korean exchanges, including Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit and 20 others, are expected to implement similar or identical measures as Coinone by or before March 25. The Korean government set the deadline for exchanges to track coin transactions on and off their platforms accurately.Korean blockchain industry analyst Jun Hyuk Ahn told Cointelegraph, “Korean exchanges are creating their own Travel Rule solutions in order to meet the requirements to operate post-March.”“All the Korean exchanges are going to have to use some travel rule system by March because that’s when the government has set a deadline for them. Coinone just did it first.”The rule for exchanges will also help the far eastern nation come into compliance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) “travel rule.”According to anti-money laundering (AML) Compliance service Sygna, the travel rule stipulates that national governments must “ensure domestic exchanges share real-identity information with transmittal counterparties or face increased AML/CFT monitoring.”These compliance stipulations for exchanges are part of a long series of regulatory restrictions for crypto exchanges which started with the real-name bank account requirement for all users. Before that rule was implemented in 2018, crypto exchange accounts could be linked to a bank account owned by multiple individuals. By Sep. 2021, exchanges were required to have Internet Security Management System (ISMS) verification and a single domestic bank partner which would issue real-name accounts. All exchanges that could not meet the requirements were forced to remove KRW pairs from trading or suspend services altogether.Related: Binance Turkey fined 8M lira for non-compliance against money launderingThe country has grappled with global FATF compliance issues related to nonfungible tokens (NFT) as well. Financial regulators flip-flopped on their policy direction regarding NFTs until the latest statement from the Financial Services Commission stated on Nov. 24 that it would explore its options to regulate and tax NFTs.Globally, South Korea’s exchanges are the outliers in complying with the rule. As of now, there are no other major crypto spot exchanges that require users to verify their private wallets.

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