While the Bitcoin Price Closes a Week in the Green, WAVES and ADA Dominate

Alexander Salazar
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While the Bitcoin Price Closes a Week in the Green, WAVES and ADA Dominate

Although the price of WAVES is more than 80% below its all-time high, there seems to be a sign of recovery. ADA is worth around USD 0.6268 but may exceed one US dollar after the Vasil hard fork occurs.

The crypto market seems to be recovering after undergoing a long negative period. For the first time in over two months, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) closed a week in the green. That rise has boosted the rest of the cryptocurrencies.

This week, WAVES had a 50% rally and regained parity for its algorithmic stablecoin, more luckily than TerraUSD (UST).

Cardano (ADA), whose network will soon undergo a hard fork called Vasil soon, rose by almost 20% over the last week. On its part, the NEO token had a boost of more than 13% in that period.

Bitcoin closed in the green for the first time since the fourth week of March with a modest 1.53%. The price of other leading cryptocurrencies, like Ether (ETH) and the Ripple token XRP, also rose slightly.

Binance Coin (BNB), Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Polkadot (DOT) did not share the same luck. Although all are part of the top 10 of the crypto market, they closed in the red within a 7-day range.

Unlike TerraUSD, the Price of the Stablecoin WAVES Recovers

The collapse of LUNA and UST is still on the mind of people in the event of a cryptocurrency project. Moreover, the situation is even worse regarding a stablecoin losing its parity with the US dollar.

That happened to the Waves stablecoin Neutrino USD (USDN) last week after aggressive selling in the Curve Finance liquidity pool. However, the protocol stabilized the parity, which the market rewarded with the rise of the WAVES token.

The price of WAVES rose by 51.94% in 7 days to settle at USD 8.64 and even exceed USD 10 per unit. Although it is more than 80% below its all-time high, there seems to be a sign of recovery this week.

While the market capitalization of Waves is just below USD 1 billion, its trading volume has been 670 million over the last 24 hours.

The Cardano Price Rises as Investors Wait for the Vasil Fork

Enthusiasts of a project and the overall market always have expectations over a network upgrade. It is now the turn of Cardano (ADA), whose hard fork Vasil will occur soon.

There has been a 19.65% increase over the last seven days, as the market expects the improvements Vasil will bring to the Cardano network. The ADA token is trading at around USD 0.6268 but may even exceed one US dollar after the activation of the upgrade.

The market capitalization of Cardano is about USD 21.1 billion, occupying 6th place in the cryptocurrency ranking. However, ADA would be fourth if the stablecoins Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) were not on the top ten list.

The daily trading volume of ADA has exceeded USD 1 billion over the last 24 hours, rising by over 144%.

By Alexander Salazar

Bitcoin Mining Goes Four Weeks without Surpassing USD 30 Million in Rewards

Jenson Nunez
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Bitcoin Mining Goes Four Weeks without Surpassing USD 30 Million in Rewards

The market has wielded a considerable influence on the earnings of miners. The highest point of daily revenue created in the last year managed to surpass USD 70 million.

Daily Bitcoin mining earnings linked to mined block rewards have been stuck below $30 million for the last four weeks.

According to information delivered by the Braiins website, miners have received decaying profits in recent weeks. Even though the rewards in BTC for each mined block stood at 6.25 bitcoins since the last halving.

Over the last year, the most significant level approached by Bitcoin mining when it comes to profit generation in USD per day was fluctuating around 72.66 million at the end of October 2021. On the other hand, in 2022, the maximum that BTC mining as a profit in just one day fluctuated around USD 51 million.

The Most Prominent Reason Behind this Decay is the Market Crash

Unlike digital assets market fluctuations, values ​​like the mining capacity of the Bitcoin network and its mining difficulty did not play a vital part in the deterioration currently faced by BTC miners. However, both the hash rate and the difficulty of Bitcoin can intensify the impact of the market on the incomes generated by the miners.

There are theories reflecting that a massive influx of miners or a drastic increase in mining capacity by existing workers in the Bitcoin platform could temporarily help counterbalance the modest profits generated by this activity. However, as soon as the network automatically applies adjustments and sets up the difficulty, block production will get back to normal flow, as will average daily USD earnings.

As long as the price of Bitcoin keeps frozen in the market, it will hardly increase the profits in USD generated daily through the rewards of BTC mining.

One BTC is Equal to one BTC

Fortunately, for miners, the rewards for mining a block on the Bitcoin network continue to generate the equivalent amount of BTC, regardless of the substantial cost of this asset in the market.

A popular saying in the bitcoin community claims “one bitcoin is equal to one bitcoin”, and it refers to the fact that the true worth of Bitcoin does not rely on the price it has as a product of speculation in the exchange market, but in what it represents as technology and as a good alternative currency.

Given the non-stop attacks of the current bear market against the current cost of Bitcoin, miners currently would need to re-define their plans to remain their activities afloat and remain alive during this period.

The profitability of Bitcoin mining, despite being at a relatively limited point, approached a friendly level of stability. A few days ago, and coinciding with data brought by the Hashrate Index, the hash price in Bitcoin got back to USD 0.14 per Tera hash.

However, taking into account that the profitability of mining reached a balanced spot would not be entirely correct. According to Paulino Rossi, CEO of the Argentine company focused on crypto mining SouthMining.Capital, the hash price indicator remains below the stages that could get considered normal for the market.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Report Revealed that Lazarus Group Hackers Managed to Channel over $2.35 Billion between 2017 and 2021 through Binance

Jenson Nunez
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The report highlighted that the Lazarus group hackers conduct their illicit activities through various active accounts on Binance, passing through funds linked with illegal acts, including vulnerating the Eterbase exchange and the Ronin network.

Newly released reports highlight that North Korea-based hacker organization Lazarus Group managed to channel many crypto assets through the international exchange Binance.

Funds Collected by the Lazarus Group passed through Binance

A report revealed by the Reuters news agency highlighted this event. At least $2.35 billion in crypto funds connected to the Lazarus group went through Binance, with assets mainly related to hacking attacks, fraud, drug sales, and other criminal activities.

The investigation indicates that the Lazarus Group directed Binance funds from the hack of Eterebase, the Slovenia-based crypto exchange and that in 2020 it lost at least $5.4 million after a security flaw.

The report also indicates that the Lazarus Group employed encrypted email addresses and opened 20 accounts or more on the network led by Changpeng Zhao (CZ). They exchanged the extracted assets and eradicated every distinct trace linked to the stolen funds.

The Lazarus Group was also orchestrating the attack on the Ronin network by the Sky Mavis group, the main responsible for the famous Blockchain game Axie Infinity, from which they managed to extract more than USD 600 million through the bridge that connects with Ethereum.

Binance Gave Support and Co-operated with the Authorities

Regarding the malicious acts made by the Lazarus Group, Binance representatives expressed that they have been working in parallel with the authorities precisely to capture the hackers. Proof of these actions is the blocking of part of the funds extracted from the Ronin network, with which they managed to suspend at least USD 5.8 million connected to the malicious activity.

According to Binance spokesman Patrick Hillman, many members of the Binance team got involved in the investigation and they proactively share intelligence with authorities to generate a complete map of North Korea’s modus operandi.

Regarding the acts carried out against Eterbase, the Binance team explained once more that they have been operating simultaneously with officials to bring all the required information that helps capture those responsible.

Bad Times for Binance

The remarks made by the investigation come at an extremely stressful time for Binance, as recently revealed reports highlighted that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently investigating the exchange for the presale of the BNB token launched back in 2017.

In addition to the SEC investigation, Binance would be under the magnifying glass of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on the assumption that the exchange allowed US residents to negotiate digital assets through its network before the official launch of Binance in The United States of America.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The Number of Bitcoin ATMs Installed Worldwide Reaches an All-Time Low

Alexander Salazar
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The Number of Bitcoin ATMs Installed Worldwide Reaches an All-Time Low

The recent decline in ATM installations began in January, falling by nearly 90%, but 817 new ATMs are now available to users. The capacity of the Lightning Network has reached all-time highs of 3,920,813 BTC, further improving the speed of BTC transactions.

In 2022, the number of Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs installed worldwide has experienced a sharp drop. During May, the installations of only 202 new BTC ATMs occurred, a low since 2019.

The recent decline in the volume of ATM installations began in January when they fell by nearly 90% from 1,971 in December. However, they rebounded during the first five days of June with 817 new ATMs available to users.

It is relevant to know that the current geopolitical tensions have hit the cryptocurrency ATM sector heavily. Strict regulations and the commercial impact of the COVID-19 spikes also affected its growth negatively.

Data from Coin ATM Radar indicates that the United States has 33,245 Bitcoin ATMs, 87.9% of the 37,827 cryptocurrency ATMs worldwide. Besides, Europe is home to a network of 1,419 cryptocurrency ATMs, around 3.8% of the global total.

ATM manufacturer Genesis Coin leads the sector worldwide, representing 41% of all cryptocurrency ATMs. Other manufacturers with a significant market share are General Bytes (21.6%), BitAccess (16%), Coinsource (5.4%), and Bitstop (4.7%).

The Bitcoin Lightning Network Continues Improving the Speed of Transactions

The first Lightning Network (LN) implementation on the Bitcoin network occurred in 2018 to address scalability issues.

The geopolitical, economic, and COVID-19 circumstances have affected the physical expansion of Bitcoin through the installation of ATMs. However, the Bitcoin network continues to increase the security, decentralization, and speed of the peer-to-peer (P2P) network.

Data from Bitcoin Visuals and the latest Arcane Research report indicate that the capacity of the Lightning Network has reached all-time highs of 3,920,813 BTC. In that way, it further improved the speed of BTC transactions and reduced the fees over the layer-2 protocol.

The Arcane Research report also showed a duplication in unique channels and a 400% increase in payment volume in the Bitcoin LN.

Over the last year, unique channels on the platform have increased by 100% to over 88,000. Metrics like connectivity measurement and channels per node have also experienced similar increases.

According to Arcane Research, the implementation of the Lightning Network has fueled the growth and adoption of the pioneering cryptocurrency.

BTC is trading at around USD 31,233 and has accumulated a 4.3% gain over the last 24 hours. While its daily trading volume is above USD 26.49 billion, its market capitalization is about USD 597.12 billion, according to CoinGecko.

The many digital wallets that use the Lightning Network technology include BlueWallet, Zebedee, and Reez. In addition, the Salvadoran Chivo Wallet has adopted the LN, while the Cash App payment app has integrated it into its platform.

Bitcoin has become relevant in the world economy, evident in the growing number of ATMs installed. Despite the current circumstances affecting the crypto market, people still believe in BTC as a long-term store of value.

By Alexander Salazar

According to New York Attorney General, Investing in Cryptocurrencies Is Risky as they Can Collapse

Alexander Salazar
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According to New York Attorney General, Investing in Cryptocurrencies Is Risky as they Can Collapse

Letitia James stated that investors are losing billions in cryptocurrencies, which led her to believe that buying them creates pain. The New York Senate approved a bill to ban the PoW mining of cryptocurrencies, seeking to prevent the activity in the state.

New York is pursuing efforts to ban the proof-of-work (PoW) mining of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). The attorney general told investors that they are at risk when buying crypto assets.

In a recent investor alert, Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, stated that investors lose billions in cryptocurrencies. She stressed that even digital assets, which people know well and trade on renowned exchanges, can crash. For that reason, the lawyer believes that investments in crypto assets create more pain than benefit to investors.

The New York Attorney General also urged New Yorkers to exercise more caution when investing in cryptocurrencies. Given that those digital assets are volatile, she said they could become a source of anxiety rather than fortune.

The New York Senate Passes a Bitcoin Mining Moratorium

The New York Senate recently approved a controversial bill to ban the PoW mining of cryptocurrencies. In that way, they seek to prevent any new Bitcoin mining operations in the state.

In April, the state assembly first passed the bill to ban PoW cryptocurrency mining. Its goal is to prohibit new digital mining operations in the state within the next two years. The draft law goes to the governor to make New York the first US state to impose a moratorium on that activity.

The primary users of the PoW consensus are Bitcoin miners, as it is one of the most secure and decentralized forms of doing the activity. However, there is much controversy because it requires high consumption of energy.

South Korea Intensifies Investigations and Regulations on Cryptocurrencies

The South Korean Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) recently investigated cryptocurrency-powered payment gateway services. The FSS is the financial regulator operating under the Financial Services Commission (FSC), both government institutions from the Asian country.

A local media outlet reported that the FSS had required 157 payment gateways to inform about cryptocurrency-related services. Those platforms also have to reveal their plans for the future and the disclosure of digital assets. However, the FSS claimed that only 6 offered services with digital assets.

The FSS is the primary South Korean financial regulator, but the government announced the upcoming launch of the Digital Assets Committee. They said that it is a temporary solution to structure the virtual assets sector after the collapse of Terra (LUNA).

Following Uproar in the Community, Buterin Raises Optimism

Vitalik Buterin, the CEO of Ethereum, has defended the participation of smallholders in the governance of the protocol. The programmer recently supported the Optimism (OP) governance proposal on Twitter despite the latest backlash on the blockchain.

Buterin continued to thank Optimism for their efforts to use the OP token for gas fees. He believes that this can encourage explicit representation of the interests of token holders, which will eventually benefit the network.

The co-founder of Ethereum added links to two blog posts where he discussed why he opposes token holder-centric governance models. The publications also dealt with the new houses in the Optimism governance structure.

By Alexander Salazar

Lithuania Urges to get Ready with its Own Crypto Law before MiCA

Jenson Nunez
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0
Lithuania Urges to get Ready with its Own Crypto Law before MiCA

Lithuanian ministers do not wish a crypto catastrophe to take effect while they wait for Brussels lawmakers to sharpen the final details regarding the MiCA legislation.

Many nations are currently waiting for a policy to regulate digital assets correctly. Some have already achieved it; others are working hard to put it into circulation. Lithuania is the latest member of the European Union that does not desire to wait for a continental decision but instead intends to rush into funding its crypto licensing system.

Local ministers explained to CoinDesk that European laws could arrive too late to save the reputation of this damaged sector.

Although Lithuania is one of the countries waiting for the policy from Brussels, the Regulation of Markets in Cryptoassets (MiCA), which will potentially not get enacted until 2025, Lithuania has decided to go ahead and start modeling its crypto law.

This information went to CoinDesk from the country’s deputy finance minister. But strategies to bring the law to get discussed in the country’s parliament are making some Lithuania-based companies worry about their future.

MiCA and How it Faces Delay

The European Union reached new levels of negotiation regarding MiCA. The single authorization regime for the 27-nation bloc has faced years of the creation process. It could bring a fundamental change to the sector by allowing entities to tap into a market of hundreds of millions.

The European Commission, the governing entity of the EU, first sought advice on how existing procedures linked to regulation might apply to digital assets in March 2018. Since then, the digital market has reached an exponential evolution.

The MiCA decision process still moves too slowly. However, the EU has already made vital decisions, such as in March this year, which gave the green light to a controversial policy that undermines the anonymity of digital assets, which could limit the use of self-custody wallets throughout the bloc.

Coindesk highlighted that lawmakers need to resolve its final guidance in the policy, such as how to treat Libra-like stable coins, non-fungible tokens, and decentralized finance. There will be a period mainly led by transitions of up to two years before MiCA becomes an active policy.

MiCA a Huge Law

the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance told CoinDesk in an interview that MiCA is something like the most beautiful thing to come, it is a good decision, and they are working hard to back it up, but it comes in 2025, the end of 2024, so there is still plenty of time.

Liutvinskas expressed concern about whether she acts quickly or dishonest companies could bring down the industry’s reputation. For both the administration and those who play a crucial role in the market, the worst-case scenario would be to face a bad situation, like scandals linked to money laundering or sanctions evasion, because reputation means everything to a business.

Like regulators in Estonia, Liutvinskas highlighted that she welcomes consolidated entities, not empty shells that register in the country but carry out their activities elsewhere.

By: Jenson Nuñez

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