In recent days, users received the equivalent of USD 1,400 worth of the UNI token. All Ethereum addresses that have interacted with Uniswap received the token.

On September 16^th, Uniswap announced the launch of the UNI governance token and distributed it among the Ethereum addresses that belong to the users of this DeFi platform.

Due to the migration of the SUSHI token to the SushiSwap protocol, Uniswap lost 80% of its liquidity. That situation led it to stop being the main decentralized exchange website on September 11^th.

Through a 4-year plan, it aims to distribute 1 billion UNI tokens among its users to retake its place. The community members reported on their blog that they will get 60% of the total issuance, while the team’s members and future employees will receive 21.51%, investors 17.8%, and external consultants 0.69%.

Volume of Demand for the UNI Token Increase Ethereum Fees

The announcement that Uniswap released on September 16^th caused the cost of Ethereum fees to skyrocket. Many users complained about the congestion that the volume of transactions to demand the UNI token caused.

After the announcement, the price of Ethereum fees rose from 90 gwei to 272 gwei, according to data from the EthereumPrice.org portal. On September 17^th, the fees had an average of 150 gwei, according to the same portal. However, some users claim to have paid up to 600 gwei to demand their UNI tokens.

Uniswap has distributed 400 UNI among all the addresses that have interacted with the contract for this platform, which includes “around 12,000 addresses that have only submitted failed transactions.”

This amount (400 UNI) is equivalent to USD 1,400, which became a more than pleasant surprise for many users since it is a considerable amount of money anywhere in the world.

According to data from the Dune Analytics portal, users have demanded more than 60 million UNI tokens. Until now, about 93,821 of them have received their share.

The distribution of these governance tokens seems to seek the involvement of the community of users in protocol decisions. This is also an incentive as it provides liquidity, which seems to follow the path of other protocols such as SushiSwap and Yearn.Finance, which have also issued their governance tokens.

According to data from the DeFiPulse portal, both protocols are among the top liquidity providers in DeFi. SushiSwap ranks fifth with USD 679 million locked on its platform, while Uniswap ranks fourth with USD 787 million.

At the time of writing this article, the community expects Uniswap to launch a farming program with Ethereum and USDT, USDC, DAI, and wBTC, until November 17^th, 2020.

Binance, Poloniex, and Coinbase Pro, among other exchanges, have already listed UNI on their exchanges. This increases the enthusiasm of investors who want to take advantage of the opportunities that this popular DeFi platform offers them. The price of the token is USD 2.71, according to data from CoinGecko.

By Willmen Blanco

Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) should not apply to new requirements. The current regulations would already be a proven framework to combat money laundering.

International law firm Perkins Coie recently released a report that focuses on Monero (XMR), Zcash, Grin, and Dash. In the document, they state that the current regulations are enough to control possible money laundering with privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies.

The lawyers emphasize in the report, titled “Anti money laundering (AML) regulation on cryptocurrencies that allow privacy”, that the scrutiny should not focus on these cryptocurrencies. They believe that it should rather target virtual asset service providers (VASP) since these are the ones that must comply with regulations.

The analysts believe that current AML regulations cover risks “adequately and sufficiently,” creating an effective framework to combat money laundering and related crimes. Furthermore, they stressed that on-chain surveillance is not necessary.

In this regard, the report highlighted that, when these surveillance instruments are not on the chain, regulated companies may continue to “comply with their regulatory obligations through other means of information exchange off the chain.”

The lawyers’ discussions revolved around the user’s right to privacy, which is irrelevant or meaningless in other areas of traditional finance.

Privacy, Monero, and Money Laundering

The authors of the report acknowledge that it is possible to use this type of cryptocurrency for money laundering. However, they emphasize that virtual asset service providers (VASP) do not need to add new requirements for their control.

“Although the risks of money laundering with privacy-oriented currencies are real, they do not require specific and customized regulations that imply an unnecessary risk that would stifle the growth of privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies,” the report concludes.

The lawyers argue that private cryptocurrencies do not pose an inherent risk for money laundering. They explain that its possible use for this purpose is not greater than that of other products, which the operators themselves have supported in the past.

“There is no reason to impose new and excessive AML requirements that specifically target privacy currencies,” the analysts noted.

They advise providers of this type of services, such as exchanges and P2P platforms, to strike an appropriate balance between the prevention of money laundering and the permission to develop privacy-preserving technology.

The firm says that private cryptocurrencies are not in conflict with current laws, which goes against the decisions of various exchanges to remove these types of assets from their markets.

The analysis cites an interesting fact that the research firm RAND Corporation published in a report. According to the agency, Dash, Monero, and Zcash accounted for only 0.3% of the cryptocurrency addresses mentioned in the markets or forums on the dark web.

According to the study, this type of cryptocurrencies and other assets such as Bitcoin represent a lower risk than cash. For example, the analysts determined that cryptocurrencies pose “lower risk” when crossing borders.

The release of the Perkins Coie report comes a week after the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) offered USD 625,000 to track users of Monero and the Bitcoin Lightning network. The IRS is seeking a tool that allows tracking private transactions “without the need for any outside agent.”

By Willmen Blanco

Bitcoin’s hash rate exceeded 150 EH/s, thus reaching a new all-time high. This increase may be associated with the creation of new mining farms in the United States.

In recent days, Bitcoin recorded a new all-time high for its hash rate. New movements in the price of the main cryptocurrency, which could reach USD 11,000 in the coming days, accompanied this event.

The new high of Bitcoin’s hash rate was 151.24 EH/s last September 14^th, according to data from Glassnode. Concerning BitInfoCharts, it indicated that that figure was 150 EH/s on September 13^th and then fell.

According to data from Coinwarz, Bitcoin’s hash rate last September 13^th was at 163.88 EH/s. However, it had recorded the high on September 7^th when that value reached 175.90 EH/s. The discrepancy between these records has to do with the nature of distributed networks. In them, each node maintains its record with the information that it receives from the network.

The new high for computing power, which indicates the network’s security level, occurs after consecutive weeks of increases. It also suggests that September could be the start of a period of increased activity for Bitcoin miners.

The next difficulty adjustment (the periodic event that determines the level of difficulty to mine on the blockchain) will probably lead to a momentary decrease in equipment that does not have enough mining power. This would make it unprofitable for them to operate at such high levels of difficulty.

However, over time, there have been two determining factors regarding the increase in the network’s hash rate. These are the launch of new equipment to mine Bitcoin and the spread of mining as a business model.

Profitability of Bitcoin’s Hash Rate

According to data from the Hashrate Index, miners’ profits for each TH/s invested in the Bitcoin network decreased by 19.62% between August 18^th and September 15^th. This fact relates to the progressive increase in the hash rate in recent weeks since it suggests that more miners are competing with each other for the mining reward.

This value by itself is not enough to calculate the specific performance of each miner. To obtain a more precise calculation, it is possible to compare this average with other indices that allow calculating the profit based on the energy expenditure for each TH invested in the network.

In this way, the computers using fewer joules for each TH invested in the processing network, tend to perform better. Since September 6^th, the mining devices spending less than 38 J/TH have earned USD 27.87 per day, those spending between 38 J/TH and 60 J/TH have earned USD 27 a day, those spending between 80 J/TH and 100 J/TH have earned USD 10.94, and those spending more than 100 J/TH have only earned USD 2 per day.

Naturally, these values depend on the price of energy, so miners have always needed to calculate the benefits according to the price of electricity in the region where their facilities are located.

Bitcoin Mining Has Been Migrating

Mining groups from China could be migrating to Russia, Canada, and the United States, according to recent reports. This is due in part to new restrictions such as the elimination of the energy subsidy to mine cryptocurrencies in the north of the Asian country.

According to Jhonson Xu, an analyst at data rating agency Tokeninsight, there have been “waves of farms starting to build their infrastructure outside of China, especially in North America since 2019.”

US company Marathon Patent Group has been buying facilities in the United States and already has a capacity of 1,634 PH/s hash rate. They expect to increase their capacity from 15 MW to 45 MW in the coming months.

One of the leading manufacturers of ASIC equipment, Bitmain, has also started migrating its infrastructure to places like Texas. They plan to install a Bitcoin mining farm with 50 MW of energy consumption in that US state.

This company recently acquired a significant batch of 5-nm chips from TSMC, which provides processors to Intel and Apple. This could be a gateway to an increase in the number of devices connected to the network.

By Alexander Salazar

The laundered funds came from the hack of the Japanese exchange Zaif. In 2018, Binance allowed anonymous users to withdraw up to 2 BTC per day.

A Japanese exchange called Fisco sued renowned exchange Binance for allegedly allowing the laundering of more than USD 9 million hacked on Japanese exchange Zaif in 2018. It is important to mention that Fisco acquired Zaif after the hack.

The lawsuit that Fisco filed in a California court last September 14^th holds Binance responsible for 7 charges. These include fraud, conversion, aid in the conversion of illicit funds illicit competition, violation of the criminal code, illicit enrichment, and negligence.

Fisco expects to receive as compensation the recognition of all damages and losses to which the actions (or inaction) of Binance subjected them, as well as the reimbursement of the more than USD 9 million, with interest. Additionally, they await the allocation of part of the profits that Binance has obtained as a result of the operations with the illicit money generated, as well as compensation for the legal expenses resulting from the introduction of the lawsuit in the US courts.

Upon acquiring exchange Zaif after the hack, Fisco also acquired the responsibility of returning to the affected customers the more than USD 41 million that they lost. The Japanese exchange accuses Binance of “being a place where criminals go to convert stolen cryptocurrencies into other cryptocurrencies or into cash.”

“Binance Could Have Prevented the Laundering But Did Not Do It”

In the lawsuit, Fisco says that Binance “has extremely lax anti-money laundering policies” although it is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. For example, any anonymous user can mine up to 2 BTC a day on Binance, as they state.

According to Fisco, this capacity allowed the hackers to launder 1,451.7 BTC, which they sent to hundreds of Binance addresses and progressively withdrew. The Japanese exchange alleges that Zaif contacted Binance in 2018 to alert them about what was happening. However, Binance took no action and allowed the thieves to continue trading money from addresses that had stolen Bitcoin.

For this reason, Fisco says that the criminals used Binance as a receptacle and transmitter of the funds since they could trade the affected customers’ bitcoins for other cryptocurrencies or fiat money on its platform.

Fisco also wonders whether Binance acted intentionally or was just negligent. Also, they state that “Binance has significant monetary incentives to facilitate and allow as many transactions as possible through its exchange, including transactions with stolen cryptocurrencies.”

California-Based Binance Servers Are Something Similar to Physical Headquarters

Concerning Fisco’s decision to sue Binance in California, it shows several reasons. First, part of the affected customers (which Fisco redistributed later) are in California and they want to pursue their claim against Binance.

The second reason is that Binance stores its reserves in “cold wallets” of US providers such as Bitgo and Coinbase, which are in California. Besides, Binance has hired senior executives living in San Francisco, who directly report to the CEO of the exchange.

The most important reason seems to be that the hackers conducted “the money laundering through Binance servers” that Amazon Web Services host in California. For this reason, they believe that the AWS servers would be the “nervous brain” where the criminals conducted their operation, even though Binance does not have formal offices in the United States.

Binance has a daily trading volume of more than USD 8 billion, which makes it one of the main cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Concerning Zaif, it barely reaches a trading volume of USD 15 million per day, according to the same source.

By Alexander Salazar

The European Commission considers that crypto assets are the main application of blockchain. The new regulation for cryptocurrencies mainly focuses on stablecoins.

The European Commission (EC) prepared a draft regulation in which it classifies pegged cryptocurrencies or stablecoins as electronic money. The agency classifies Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as financial instruments.

The indications in the draft regulation state that one of the most prominent objectives is to supervise the issuance of stablecoins, “or any cryptocurrency that qualifies as electronic money.” Also, it seeks to standardize the rules on crypto-assets in all EU countries.

The draft regulation provides for the creation of a supervisory agency that will operate in all EU member countries. The European Banking Authority (EBA) will chair these supervisory teams and would assume a greater role in controlling the cryptocurrency sector in the region.

The document initially contemplated regulating most stablecoins within the e-money category, since “the goal of many of them is to create a means of payment.” When a reserve of assets backs them, “they could become a medium of exchange and store of value.”

However, some people believe that the existing legislation to regulate electronic money may not be entirely suitable for stablecoins. For that reason, issuers will have to meet a series of requirements that the new regulation establishes to launch these cryptocurrencies on the market.

The draft regulation also classifies Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as financial instruments. They would enter into the regulation of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II 2014/65/EU), which must undergo modification to make the inclusion.

Cryptocurrencies Are Necessarily Linked to Blockchain Technology

The fact that cryptocurrencies are the main application of blockchain has rushed the regulation of cryptocurrencies. Crypto assets “are inextricably linked to the promotion of blockchain technology throughout Europe.”

The document clarifies that the draft regulation is part of “a broader framework on crypto assets and distributed ledger technology (DLT).” “Proposals that ensure that the existing legislation does not pose obstacles to the adoption of new technologies” accompany it.

Besides, the EC states that its digital financial strategy aims to ensure adequate legislation of the European Union (EU) on financial services for the digital age. The EU has a declared and confirmed political interest in developing blockchain, which includes crypto-assets “as one of the main applications of DLT in finance.”

The agency considers that crypto assets are digital representations of value that can bring significant benefits, for both market participants and consumers. The EC thereby recognizes that “tokens can offer opportunities in terms of cheaper, faster and more efficient payments, especially cross-border ones, limiting the number of intermediaries.”

Given that the Commission sees cryptocurrencies as part of the “blockchain universe”, it considers their entry into the European regulatory framework essential. This would give greater impetus to the blockchain projects launched in recent years.

The draft regulation is also consistent with the policies of the European Union (EU) that aim to create the Capital Markets Union (CMU), which states the EC. It seeks to develop a single market for capital throughout the region, in which cryptocurrencies could enter as part of the financial system.

They expect to announce the final draft regulation of cryptocurrencies in the EU in the coming weeks. Upon approval, it would go into effect in late 2020.

By Alexander Salazar

Blockchain intelligence firm Messari estimates that nearly 50% of The Vault is made up of Land tokens, making Whale the second-largest holder after Binance.

The Whale tokens represent part of fractional ownership in “The Vault”, NFT’s private collection of prominent cryptocurrency investor and social media profile “WhaleShark Pro.” It has earned a market capitalization of $ 16 million despite having only $ 1 million in NFT, suggesting that many speculators believe that WhaleShark’s collection of rare tokens is likely to increase significantly in value.

Blockchain intelligence firm Messari estimates that nearly 50% of The Vault is built with Land tokens, this action makes Whale the second-largest holder after Binance. The exchange received a large number of tokens from Land’s $ 3 million initial exchange as an offering on Binance Launchpad and bought another 4,012 Land tokens recently.

The term “whale” is used to describe an individual or organization that holds a very large amount of a particular cryptocurrency. There is no exact cutoff threshold for this definition, but a Bitcoin whale should hold at least 1,000 BTC.  A Whale can also be a person with enough amounts of tokens and coins, with this kind of power a whale can cause serious impacts on the market prices by buying or selling large amounts according to his the whale’s interests.

The term mainly describes an organization that holds a large number of cryptocurrencies and has the power to make large transactions causing a significant impact on the market, making this one get high or low peaks depending on the interests of the whale. In the crypto space, examples of such whales include investment groups like Pantera Capital, Fortress Investment Group, and Falcon Global Capital.

In practice, however, most of those big players do not trade on conventional cryptocurrency markets, as their large orders could overwhelm the volume available on the order books. Instead, they buy and sell coins off the exchange books, in what is known as Over the Counter (OTC) trading.

When it comes to Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchains, whales have a considerable influence in on-chain governance processes (more funds at stake gives them more voting power). For these chains, the presence of whales can be both a good sign (in terms of stability) because they possess strong incentives to act honestly and show assistance to the network when a rise is at hand. On the other hand, Sebastien Borget, Chief Operations Officer and Co-founder of The Sandbox, said: “Whaleshark understands very well The Sandbox vision and has the right eyes for acquiring NFTs with high-value growth potential.”Borget notes that the Whale community is “mostly composed of builders and artists” who will create gaming experiences on WhaleShark’s virtual land to drive revenue streams in the form of The Sandbox’s in-game currency, Sand.

The project launched a liquidity mining program last month which may have boosted Whale’s market cap as yield farmers sought novel returns. 5,000 Whale tokens worth roughly $30,000 were distributed in August, offering a 22.5% annual percentage yield to liquidity providers.

By: Jenson Nuñez.