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Ethereum based Address holding $100,000 blacklisted by CENTRE

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For the first time in the digital asset industry, a crypto address was blacklisted on the basis of a law enforcement request. According to the reports, CENTRE, an organization that issues USDC stablecoin at the top of the Ethereum blockchain, blacklisted an address worth USDC $100,000.

The request for a law enforcement application has yet to be disclosed, but CENTRE, an organization launched under Circle-Coinbase, has issued a statement. It’s said,

“Centre can confirm it blacklisted an address in response to a request from law enforcement. While we cannot comment on the specifics of law enforcement requests, Centre complies with binding court orders that have appropriate jurisdiction over the organization.”

Josh Hawkins, Circle Spokesperson, speaking on behalf of the incident, said that the blacklisting had taken place back in mid-June, but the representative failed to give any further input on the incident.

According to Etherscan.io, on 16 June a blacklist function was called to that particular “blacklist” address by 0x5dB0115f3B72d19cEa34dD697cf412Ff86dc7E1b, which was an entity owned by the parent organization, that is CENTRE.

According to a policy document shared by the media outlet, it has been stated that a blacklisted address will no longer function as a free address for receiving and transacting USDC and that the crypto assets under the address can not be transferred on-chain. The document referred to,

“To ensure effective Centre oversight of this Policy, Centre will regularly report publicly, the most up-to-date list of blacklisted addresses, amount of USDC tokens frozen, and corresponding fiat reserves that have been segregated. In addition, this information will be verified and publicly reported by the monthly attestation of the Centre’s outside accounting firm.”

The above incident has now brought into question the decentralization standards adhered to by CENTRE and USDC if the organization is easily able to blacklist an address without user consent, and Circle ‘s website has also indicated that blacklisted addresses could possibly be “totally and permanently unrecoverable.”

Such censorship was the result of a short reaction from the user of Reddi,

“Central government control and censorship are just going to get worse.”

Crypto Mining Scam Creator Imprisoned after Pleading Guilty in U.S. Court

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A Romanian developer pleaded guilty to his role in the Bitclub Network, a crypto mining scam that hoodwinked investors off $722 million. The developer was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

According to a press release from the U.S. The Department of Justice, Silviu Balaci was arrested at his residence in Germany. In addition, the release notes that the Romanian pleaded guilty to a dual-object conspiracy to commit wired fraud through video conferencing.

Balaci was the mastermind behind crypto mining scam

Indeed, one of the key figures behind the Bitclub Network was the Romanian programmer, who duped investors off $722 million. Notably, the crypto mining scam has attracted U.S. investors to invest in alleged shares in a cryptocurrency block reward mining project. The crypto mining scam ran between April 2014 and December 2019.

Balaci, along with his colleagues Matthew Goettsche and Russ Albert Medlin, was reportedly in charge of the company’s technical areas. According to DoJ’s press release, Balaci referred to potential investors as “dumb” and said they were “building this whole model on the backs of fools.”

Bitclub Network co-founder indicted

In addition, Balaci’s sentence comes three weeks after the arrest of the other founder of Bitclub, Russ Albert Medlin. In addition, Medlin has been apprehended by the Indonesian law enforcement authorities and is facing charges against sexually assaulting minors.

The Indonesian police arrested him after he had been informed by his neighbours in Jakarta, who had seen some minors leaving his residence. In conclusion, if Medlin is sentenced in Indonesia, he may face up to 15 years behind bars for violating the law of land on the protection of minors. However, he is likely to be extradited to the United States for his role in the crypto-mining scam.

Ripple-Santander based One Pay FX payments app expands to 19 more countries

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Improving cross-border payments and remittances is one of the key objectives of the long-term expansion of Ripple. Major collaborations with organizations such as Moneygram and SBI Remit have been significant developments in the right direction. Now, according to Ripple, the Spanish multinational banking firm Banco Santander has introduced the expansion of its One Pay FX international payment systems to 19 other countries, including the United States, Chile and Portugal.

Initially launched in 2018, One Pay FX was developed in partnership with Ripple, which caters for and facilitates instant international transactions. With the above developments, Santander reported that it would improve its Ripple-powered payments.

Surprisingly, Metzger mentioned that the move towards a partnership with Ripple had proliferated after receiving constructive feedback from the customer.

Ed Metzger said,

“We want to be at the forefront of the merging of finance and technology but our innovation is always customer-led. Customers told us that the international payments process could be better so we partnered with Ripple to explore how blockchain could make transactions faster, cheaper, and more transparent.”

The CTO added that the customer of the organization raised concerns about the amount of the fee paid to the recipient and the lack of clarity regarding the exchange rate. In addition, transparency was another issue that Metzger believed was not exactly a solution to the conundrum.

The fact that customers were aware of Ripple ‘s functionality potentially indicates that its expansion has slowly attracted considerable interest from various users.

Previously, Santander launched the Ripple One Pay FX application in the United Kingdom, Poland, Brazil and Spain. Now, Ripple is mostly linked and bundled with the XRP utility, but the market is slowly gaining traction towards decentralized payment settlement solutions. XRP is currently ranked 4th in the cryptocurrency ranking, behind the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether.

Cityuptake Celebrates Second Anniversary on Back of Stellar Achievements; Mobile Application and ‘Member Lounge’ Come to Forefront

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The cryptocurrency industry has witnessed several participants over the course of its lifetime, but very few have actually had an impact on the users involved. Organizations such as Cityuptake have gone beyond and beyond the call of duty to ensure customer satisfaction while sticking to the ethos of the virtual asset world.

Established in 2018, Cityuptake has come a long way towards creating an ecosystem where users can participate in trading as well as access goods and services using the native CITYUPTAKE token. As we approach Cityuptake’s second anniversary, let ‘s look at some of the major changes that the organization has made.

Since Cityuptake commenced, the company has made rapid progress in pushing the boundaries of the trading ecosystem. According to Cityuptake, dealing with the TRON reward system has its own advantages, which have resulted in multiple users jumping onto the platform. Cityuptake launched its Trade Desk towards the end of September 2018 and paid more than 1 million TRX as reward to its users in less than two months.

It wasn’t long before Cityuptake ‘s popularity skyrocketed as the company’s trading desk grew to TRX 10 million by July 2019. Cityuptake’s meteoric rise could be attributed to the focus of the organization not only on the advancement of internal operations but also on additional peripherals. The second year of the life cycle of Cityuptake included the addition of the Members Lounge. The Lounge acts as a provision for users of the CU where they will be able to see all their wallet and reward information displayed for easy access.

One of the biggest developments in the last year was the launch of the Cityuptake app, which opened the door to a number of sectors of the mainstream user base. The application is based on MongoDB which complies with the provisions laid down by the United States regulatory authorities. With an application, Cityuptake users can track their total TRX rewards as well as see their total monthly rewards. Since the stablecoin is a large part of the TRON blockchain, the CU app also allows users to track total rewards in USDT.

The app did not take the focus from the rewards system within CU as the company crossed the milestone of providing 25 million TRX as a total payout to its users. In a bid to double customer and ecosystem safety, Cityuptake also introduced KYC on its platform. This goes hand in hand with other companies taking the same course of action as governments have taken a strong stance on customer safety. Apart from these developments, the CU community also rejoiced when the native token was listed on NOLEX.

The NOLEX listing gave Cityuptake a major boost as it provides additional liquidity options beyond the 1:1 redemption guarantee. This solid base is one of the many factors that make CU users continue to trust the platform through analysis, even showing that some of the customers who leave are returning to the platform. With all the updates and developments, Cityuptake still believes in the mantra ‘Teamwork makes a dream work.’

Speaking to TWJ about how the team has helped in the rise of the company, Cityuptake founder Jason Lavender said:

“The background of Agents foster professionalism. The resume of the group is a major part of what Cityuptake so successful. I cannot stress enough how each Agent was instrumental in building Cityuptake community awareness, and even having a roadmap to talk of.”

Did Bitcoin’s Current Bearish Rally Began During “Positive Q2 2020”?

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The second quarter of 2020 has been extremely tumultuous. Bitcoin  and the rest of the crypto market initially put their right foot on the gas and the market exploded. According to data provided by Binance Research, BTC USD was up by 42% in Q2 2020, making it one of the best quarters in recent coin history.

 

bitcoin 2020

Other altcoins were also able to take advantage of the rally, with the likes of Ethereum, Bitcoin , and Litecoin sustaining significant gains. Correlations between the various crypto assets had also remained high in the charts, but slightly lower compared to Q1. The 90-day rolling correlation between the S&P 500 and the BTC was positive. But its influence decreased dramatically after mid-June.

Despite major positive moves by BTC USD, Binance’s report noted that it was crucial to note that almost all of BTC USD’s gains came in the first 45 days of the quarter. Referring to it as a “Kangaroo market,” the market environment was divided between the period when prices were going up and the period when prices were falling.

Now, although many supporters have liked to believe that current market stagnation and decline is due to recent market inactivity, the above data may suggest that Q2 2020 was not entirely positive.

Did Bitcoin ‘s current bearish picture start after mid-May?

Let us have some of the facts right. BTC USD’s last high occurred at the end of May when Bitcoin reached $10,250. From here on, the asset’s inability to breach $10,000 was rightly questioned, but the reason is that Bitcoin cash was halved on 11 May. Casual viewers hoped for a bullish rally right after the halving, but it has historically been identified that the BTC usually follows a prolonged correction for the first 6 months after the halving.

It is therefore not inaccurate to state that Bitcoin’s 42 percent positive return in Q2 2020 was down to the hype of the pre-halving. After the halving has been completed, Bitcoin cash is now following its historic past, and the underlying bearish trail is something that was triggered in the midst of Bitcoin’s bullish Q2 period.

Ethereum performed better in Q2 than BTC USD

The report further added that amidst Bitcoin’s stronghold, Ethereum consistently out-marched BTC with a quarterly return of approximately 70 percent in the charts. Major factors behind ETH’s rally has been down to the growth of DeFi and the anticipation surrounding Ethereum 2.0.

Now, with the commencement of Q3 2020, it will be interesting to see the development of the crypto market over the next three months; whether the bearish grip is broken towards the end of the year or not.

Court Rejects Bitfinex-Tether Appeal over Lost $850 Million Client Funds

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Bitfinex, the popular digital currency trading platform, now faces state claims that it hid $850 million of corporate-client funds in a cover-up between itself and Tether. This comes after the exchange lost an appeal to the appellate divisions of the Supreme Court in New York arguing that tether (USDT) was not a traditional commodity or a security.

Last year in April, New York Attorney General Letitia James claimed that Bitfinex and other associated companies were involved in hiding the loss of the conflated funds and then using affiliated stablecoin Tether money to cover the loss. The charges were subsequently pressed, and the case was lately heard by the Appellate Division of the NY State Supreme Court.

iFinex, a company owned by both Bitfinex and Tether, argued that the state did not have the right to pursue the claims because the company was not based in US, and NY jurisdiction would also not apply.    However, the reminds it had all jurisdiction against Bitfinex since many of its employees work in NY and also considering the fact that several residents of the country use USDT.

Apparently, Bitfinex claims to have deposited the funds with a Panamanian firm-Crypto Capital. The firm is believed to have provided shadow banking services to digital asset exchanges prior to being seized by different authorities. The firm said the lost funds were under the control of the Polish, American and Portuguese Governments. Bitfinex said it was working to get the funds back.

Bitfinex-Tether Lawsuit Timeline

The lawsuit dates back to two years after New York Attorney General Letitia James initiated an investigation into the suspicion that Tether had inadequate funds and liquidity to allow users to redeem USDT at market value. The investigation would have cut across iFinex and several other trading companies.

In 2019, Letitia signed a subpoena seeking information on Tether ‘s operations. iFinex accepted the subpoena and submitted several documents at the request of the court. However, the court found that the company had not produced all the information within the scope of the lawsuit.

This move alarmed that the exchange might not have enough backing to support the supply of its stablecoin.

“Today’s decision validates our office’s ability to use its broad and comprehensive investigative powers to protect New Yorkers,” James said in a statement. “Not even virtual currencies are above the law. We are pleased with the court’s decision, and will continue to protect the interest of investors in the marketplace.”

Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 Launch in Limbo; Vitalik Buterin Disagrees with Developers

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In a May 2020 interview, Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin announced that the developments surrounding Ethereum 2.0 are “on track.” Hinting to the imminent implementation of Phase 0, many community members expected the launch to take place in the current month of July, but this does not seem to be the case any more.

During the recent Ethereum AMA on Reddit, ETH developer Justin Drake listed a few things in the checklist before phase 0 was launched. The developer conveyed that, prior to the genesis launch of ETH 2.0, a public testnet with 3 or more clients should operate smoothly, an incentivized “attack net” running for at least 2-3 months, a bug bounty program and a serious differential fuzzing across different clients.

The developer’s requirement was pretty daunting, to say the least, and Drake suggested that ticking off every box would not be possible within the current third quarter of 2020. He said,

“As such, I’m now inclined to say that the earliest practical date for genesis is something like January 3, 2021 (Bitcoin’s 12th anniversary).”

Vitalik Buterin refused to agree with Justin Drake

Interestingly, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin disagreed with the timeline for phase 0 launch. He believed that the launch of ETH2 phase 0 was “some ways simpler” than ETH1, but also complex in other aspects. h However, he favored the early launch of phase 0, “regardless of the level of readiness.”

Now, such contradictory views from the same developer’s camp will possibly concern various Ethereum supporters in space. Although Vitalik has received support from some Redditors, it is imperative to note that it is not the first time a developer has scrutinized the launch timeline.

Back in May, Ethereum 2.0 testnet coordinator Afri Schoedon had countered Buterins’ “on-track” remark with the following tweet,

https://twitter.com/q9fmz/status/1260140229496844288?s=20

Although the premature launch of Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 will not benefit any of the parties, consistent delays since 2019 may be identified as a lack of clarity on the part of ETH supporters.

Several projects, such as Cardano and his vocal founder Charles Hoskinson, have already opined that Ethereum is not moving in the right direction. With Ethereum ‘s current transaction fee concerns and lack of positive movement in the chart, the Ethereum killer narrative may take flight again in space.

It will be interesting to see the launch of ETH 2.0 phase 0 over the next few months. If the launch actually ends up moving towards the beginning of 2021, it will be very important for developers to avoid making any mistakes in the implementation. Otherwise, the positive feeling surrounding ETH 2.0 may begin to fade into space.

Coinbase Plans Debut as History’s First Public Traded Crypto Marketplace

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Reuters reported on July 9 that Coinbase, a prominent U.S.-based cryptocurrency trading platform, started planning a stock market debut later this year, or early next year.

Coinbase is looking forward to the approval of the US Securities Exchange Commission in order to obtain a direct listing on the stock exchange market. While the marketplace has not yet rolled out its submissions to SEC, plans have been addressed with leading financial and investment firms.

This move marks a major milestone in crypto space, as Coinbase will be the first crypto marketplace to have a stock market listing.

Coinbase CEO Grand Vision for the Exchange

Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s co-founder, and CEO was just an Airbnb software engineer when he read the Bitcoin manifesto published by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2010, which presented Bitcoin as an underground currency. Its transactions recorded on a ledger called the blockchain, and the arithmetic tasks of nodes and mining, etc., did not interest Armstrong. However, he saw an opportunity for businesses to protect the keys to coins and to set up transactions.

His employer at the time sent money to the Latin American landlord and used to describe the sending process as opaque, expensive, and time-consuming. As if this were to give birth to his aspirations in the financial system, Armstrong envisioned a global and open system that would drive growth, innovation, and freedom.

That year he bought Bitcoin for $1000, each selling at $9, and began his Coinbase project. Armstrong wrote code in Ruby and JavaScript for the buying and storing of digital coins on working on weekends and late evenings.

In January 2015, the startup received a major round of funding worth $75 million from the New York Stock Exchange, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, USAA and several other investment banks, its selling proposal being safety and secure storekeeping of private keys. Now the number of people using crypto has risen to about 100 million, and over 35 million of them trust Coinbase.

Going Public

Coinbase’s most recent funding was in 2018, putting the company at a valuation of $8 billion. The company is now planning a direct listing, which, unlike the traditional IPO, allows companies to go public without having to raise funds through stock sales. Apparently, shareholders will be able to trade their equity without having their stakes diluted by fresh issuances. 

Common Cryptocurrency Myths You Shouldn’t Believe

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Blockchain and crypto are concepts that are difficult for many people to understand. Because of this, there are many misunderstandings when it comes to their use and what they are. Let us debunk some of the most common cryptocurrency myths.

Common Crypto Myths

They Don’t Have Any Value

The first cryptocurrency myth is that cryptocurrencies are not physical objects, existing only on computers as lines of code. But that does not mean they have no value. There are plenty of services that accept Bitcoin and other coins.

The price of crypto is a different matter, as it is hard to establish a fixed value. Their prices are more volatile than that of traditional fiat currencies.

But as cryptocurrency users believe in their inherent value, this system will continue to exist.

Bitcoin and Blockchain Are the Same

Blockchain is the base on which all cryptocurrencies rely to function and it is distributed ledger that uses cryptography to record the ownership of an asset such as Bitcoin. Blockchain is basically the platform on which the cryptos are created.

While most cryptos work on a blockchain, the technology can be used for various other purposes, such as hosting dapps or smart contracts. There are also many different types of blockchains and coins, but the two terms are not interchangeable.

They Are Illegal Digital Money

In certain countries, such as Bolivia, Russia, Algeria, Ecuador, and Trinidad, the use of cryptos is illegal, but EU nations, G7 nations, and the USA have all recognized crypto as legal tender.

Cryptocurrencies Are All the Same

There are thousands of cryptos in the crypto space, and while some have the same role, there are plenty of differences between them. For example, Bitcoin was designed to serve the purpose of currency and be used as payment. Ripple was created to facilitate remittance transfers at a higher speed. BAT was launched to enable online advertising. Monero uses a number of privacy implementations to provide anonymity. There are many other coins that have different features and were designed to serve distinct roles either within or outside their blockchain.

They Are Not Secure

The structure of a blockchain prevents any entity from modifying the information in the blocks that have already been added to the chain. Any attempt of alteration would be detected by the network, which makes it harder to compromise.

They Are Only Used in Illegal Purposes

While there have been and still are many criminal cases in which cryptocurrency has been used to bypass authorities, more and more exchanges are using mandatory KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures when trading to decrease the possibility of illicit crypto use.

They Are Not Accepted as Payment

Since the first Bitcoins were made in 2009, cryptocurrencies have come a long way. More and more big companies, such as Microsoft, Dell, Newegg, and Expedia, have already integrated Bitcoin payments for their services. And not only that but other platforms are broadening their list of available cryptos.

A platform that accepts a wide variety of cryptos is the online crypto sportsbook and casino 1xBit. Here crypto owners can start gambling or betting by using any one of the over 20 different digital assets supported by this online casino.

The registration process is fully anonymous, as the crypto casino does not ask for any personal data, not even an email address. An account number and password are generated for you by the online sportsbook with just the click of a button, and that is it. You will then be able to fund your multi-currency account with any crypto you want. Payouts are fast, and there are no transaction fees to worry about.

What’s more, new users are eligible to claim a welcome bonus of up to 7 Bitcoin, which can be collected through 4 initial deposits where the bonus reward is between 1 and 3 BTC.

VIP members can benefit from a cashback reward that can be as high as 11% of any bets made, regardless if they win or not. The percentage of the cashback depends on how high your status is on the crypto casino.

Crypto owners can easily use their digital funds to bet and gamble anonymously on 1xBit, where plenty of bonuses and promotions are waiting for them.

Chinese Law Enforcement Seize $15M in BTC in Fraudulent Crypto Scheme

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Chinese law enforcement has confiscated $15 million in crypto and two supercars, a McLaren and a Ferrari worth around $2 million from a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme connected to the sale of fake Huobi tokens.

Perpetrators have used Telegram to lure investors

According to a local July 9 report, the Chinese law enforcement authorities apprehended ten suspects linked to a fake cryptocurrency scheme. While revealing the case, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, the country’s chief law enforcement, said that this case is the first in China where victims were reportedly scammed using smart contracts to create fake cryptocurrencies.
Through Telegram, the criminals approached victims and asked them for ETH, in return for the fake tokens at a bargain price. The cheap tokens led investors to fall into the fraudsters’ trap because they could make fast money by selling the tokens to the open market. More than 1,300 people were affected by the fraudulent crypto scheme the report says.

Moreover, the group apparently created several Telegram groups; the one called “Huobi Global Arbitrage HT Chinese Group,” in which they marketed a smart contract that could generate Huobi tokens; and offered an arbitrage plan to earn 8 percent returns.

A victim named Li, the first victim to report the scam explained to the police; “Simply put, you send one unit of ETH to a designated ETH address, you will receive 60 HT. And then you can sell it to gain the difference.”  To his surprise, when Li transferred 10 Eth to the designated address; the 600 Huobi tokens he received in exchange were false.

Li realized that he could not sell or deposit fake tokens anywhere, thus reporting the fraudulent crypto scheme to the Chinese law enforcement authorities. In conclusion, the assets of the seized crypto include Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether. Confiscated physical assets include two luxury cars and a villa owned by the perpetrators.