Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., called on New Yorkers to support the cryptocurrency market in a March op-ed in the New York Daily News titled, "A liberal case for cryptocurrency."

"With a multi-billion dollar market capitalization, crypto is here to stay. It's not going anywhere. New York City should and must embrace crypto if it is to remain the financial capital of the world," wrote Torres, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee.

Torres failed to mention two upcoming fundraisers industry backers were throwing for him in April. Crypto investors Ben Horowitz, Anthony Albanese and Chris Dixon leaders at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz hosted the "Ritchie Torres Ethereum Fundraiser" at the swanky private nightclub Zero Bond in New York City on April 13, according to invitations viewed by CNBC. One of the invites promised "cocktails and conversation" with Torres, asking donors to contribute between $500 and $5,800 to attend the event. Another invite suggested donors contribute in ether, a type of cryptocurrency that's trading at around $2,000.

Jtsorrell | Istock | Getty Images

Horowitz, Albanes and Dixon did not respond to requests for comment. An aide to Torres confirmed details of the fundraiser.

Torres' op-ed and his ongoing support in Congress point to the crypto industry's growing influence in Washington, D.C. Not only has the industry hired more than 200 officials and staff from the White House, Congress, Federal Reserve and political campaigns, according to the Tech Transparency Project, crypto executives have contributed more than $30 million toward federal candidates and campaigns since the start of the 2020 election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records. Those investments have begun paying dividends as crypto executives landed hearings on Capitol Hill and helped to secure backing for amendments to President Joe Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure bill, congressional aides say.

Crypto investors have established at least two new political action committees just this year, seeded with tens of millions of dollars, aimed at helping industry-friendly lawmakers get elected to Congress. Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of crypto exchange FTX, is the primary force behind the political action committee Protect Our Future, which hasraised more than $14 million and could tip the scales in House races in Ohio and Oregon.

The PAC has already endorsed Torres, who told NBC News last month that he's received "minimal" campaign contributions from the industry.

Fred Wilson, a partner at venture capital firm Union Square Ventures, which is also heavily invested in cryptocurrencies, co-hosted another fundraising event for Torres in April, the lawmaker's aide confirmed. The aide, who asked not to be named because the events were private, noted that the Wilson fundraiser had been rescheduled to April after originally being set to take place in December.

Bankman-Fried; SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, who was Trump's short-lived communications director; and brothers Bart and Bradford Stephens, co-founders of Blockchain Capital, have donated more than $20 million combined in the 2022 election cycle so far, according to FEC records. Bankman-Fried, for instance, contributed $5 million toward pro-Biden super PAC Future Forward during the president's successful 2020 run for the White House.

Members of the group of crypto financiers alsolaunched and financed GMI PACthis cycle, with aims to spend $20 million to boost congressional candidates. Ryan Salame, co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, a subsidiary of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, joined as one the super PAC's early backers, along with CMS Holdings co-founder Dan Matuszewski. SkyBridge Capital was one of the original backers of the committee.

Bankman-Fried donated $2 million to the super PAC in January.

Torres defended his crypto-backed events in a statement to CNBC, reiterating that he's received "minimal" contributions from those in the digital currency industry.

"During the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, I have raised well over $5 million, of which crypto represents a mere 1% hence the term 'minimal,'" Torres said in the statement. "Having said all that, there's nothing shocking about individuals supporting candidates who share their policy views. That is what voters and donors typically do."

Salame has emerged as a major campaign booster, courting lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. He launched the American Dream Federal ActionPAC in April with $4 million in seed money, according to Politico. It supports "forward-looking" Republicans "who want to protect America's long term economic and national security by advancing smart policy decisions now," according to the website and FEC filings.

Bankman-Fried, who declined to comment through FTX's spokesman Peter Padovano, testified Thursday before the House Agriculture Committee at a hearing titled, "Changing Market Roles: The FTX Proposal and Trends in New Clearinghouse Models." Scaramucci and the Stephens brothers did not respond to requests for comment. Padovano did not respond to emails requesting to speak to Salame.

Salame donated $500,000 in April to a super PAC closely aligned with Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., a member of the powerful Senate Banking Committee, FEC records show.

Tillis privately told allies "I love FTX" after he saw the donation pop up in FEC records earlier this month, according to people who overheard the remarks. They asked not to be identified because the conversation was private.

Daniel Keylin, a senior advisor to Tillis, told CNBC in an email that his boss has "voiced some concerns with the crypto industry and the need for Congress to focus on right-sizing regulations that focus on consumer protections while allowing the industry to continue innovating."

Bankman-Fried told members of the moderate New Democrat Coalition in an April meeting that the industry would back some regulation, but it's concerned about how some proposals will affect the larger crypto business.

"His message has been kind of consistent with what we've heard from a lot of different industry players which is, 'we need some clarity. We're not opposing regulation. We want regulation. We want investor protection regulation. We want some clarity,'" Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., who is a member of the House Financial Services Committee and was at the meeting, told CNBC in an interview.

For all its growing influence, the industry was unsuccessful in getting the Biden administration to drop a provision in its $1 trillion infrastructure law that requires crypto brokers to notify the IRS through a 1099 form of crypto transactions.

"Crypto folks started to freak out," and began flooding lawmakers' offices to get that provision altered after the details became public last year, according to one congressional aide.

Executives, however, seem to have been successful in convincing a bipartisan group of senators to spearhead efforts in Congress that could have impacted the measure.

Senate Finance Committee ChairmanRon Wyden, D-Ore. and Senate Banking Committee ranking Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania originally co-sponsored a crypto-related amendment. Sens. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Mark Warner, D-Va.; and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. also signed on to crypto-tied amendments.The White House backed the Warner, Portman, and Sinema amendment.

Lummis is also a industry investor; she owns between $100,001 and $250,000 in bitcoin holdings, according to her latest annual financial disclosure report.

One provision would have excluded miners and software developers from new tax requirements imposed on crypto brokers. The other would have specifically exempted cryptocurrency miners, who participate in "proof of work" systems such as bitcoin and ether, from within the bill's tax provisions.

The amendments never made it into the final bill that was later signed by Biden.

Still, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who also founded digital payments company Block, thanked the lawmakers for their efforts. Dorsey gave his own suggestions to the lawmakers through a string of tweets that also suggested how the legislation should be written.

"To @RonWyden, @SenLummis, @SenToomey, @MarkWarner, @SenRobPortman, @SenatorSinema, @TedCruz, respective staff & everyone who's worked on the Infrastructure Bill 'Crypto Tax Reporting' provision: thank you for your work to get this right. May we offer a workable simplification?" Dorsey tweeted.

Wyden said in a statement to CNBC that civil liberties groups, tech experts and "folks in Oregon" raised concerns that the provision could inadvertently regulate independent software developers.

"After studying the issue, I came to the judgement that a simple clarification of the language would give the tech community the certainty they needed, while still regulating brokers to ensure nobody can use crypto to avoid paying the taxes they owe," he said.

A representative for Toomey declined to comment. Representatives for Lummis, Warner, Portman and Sinema did not return requests for comment.

"There's a general awareness that the crypto market, unregulated, running wild, doing financial transactions can be a mechanism to scam, as well as to be used by criminal organizations," Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., said in an interview. The industry is lobbying against a bill he co-sponsored that would subject crypto trading platforms to similar regulations as federally insured banks in an effort to clamp down on Russians using digital currencies to evade Western sanctions.

The industry has at least one thing going in its favor: It can take years, even decades, for Congress to debate and adopt new rules regulating complex market issues.

House lawmakers need time to understand the intricacies of the crypto industry, Himes said. So there's little chance Congress will pass legislation that reins in the industry at least not in this congressional session, he said.

"I've told people we're not at a point where I think we're going to start passing legislation just because we're not kind of at a point where there's a critical mass of educated members," Himes said. "I don't think in this Congress we're going to pass legislation," he added, referring to crypto specific bills.

Congress, however, may be the least of the industry's worries.

The Biden administration appears to be taking the lead in the pushback against crypto. The president signed an executive order earlier this year calling on the government to examine the risks and benefits of cryptocurrencies.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced earlier this month that it's nearly doubling its staff responsible for protecting investors in cryptocurrency markets. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called for increased regulation to reduce the risk of fraud or illicit transactions.

Yellen told lawmakers Thursday that last week's cryptocurrency sell-off that erased more than $200 billion from the crypto market illustrated the need for federal regulation.

"This is among the most painful weeks in crypto history & one we'll reckon with for a long time to come," Jake Chervinsky, the head of policy at the crypto lobbying group Blockchain Association, tweeted Friday.

He then encouraged policymakers that the best way to handle stablecoins is to "follow the process called for by the [executive order], develop a bipartisan consensus in Congress, adopt new regulations that are fit for purpose."

A run on the Terra stablecoin, caused it to drop in value from roughly $8 to below 30 cents. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency pegged to a specific value, usually the dollar, another currency or gold. Its parity with the dollar is what, in theory, makes it stable. However, volatility in the cryptocurrency market last week challenged that premise.

"We've had a real life demonstration of the risks," Yellen said, referring to the meltdown of the TerraUSD beginning last Monday.

"We really need a regulatory framework to guard against the risks," Yellen said. "Really, we need a comprehensive framework so that there are no gaps in the regulation."

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Crypto industry wields its influence in Washington after pouring over $30 million into campaigns - CNBC

Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, the creator of Luna.Woohae Cho (Bloomberg)

Until just a few days ago, D.S. thought that investing in cryptocurrencies was one of the best decisions of his life. He had 80,000 ($84,300) worth in Luna double the 40,000 ($42,200) he had invested almost a year ago. Today, when he opens the application to see how much of that he has left, the vision is bleak: 4 ($4.22). It seemed like one of the safest bets. Even when bitcoin was losing value, luna was hitting all-time highs. They were going to launch lots of projects and they were backed by investment funds, says the 32-year-old Spaniard, who has seen most of his savings evaporate in just three days after the collapse of the digital currency.

His story is repeated across the world. Luna was created by Terraform Labs, which is owned by 30-year-old Do Kwon from South Korea. Up until just a few days ago, it was considered one of the sectors biggest success stories. Last week, before the collapse, one young Luna investor described Kwon as a visionary, the Elon Musk of the future. Tens of thousands of small-time investors around the world threw their money into Luna, which was once valued at $18 billion. But opinions about Kwon have changed now as investors come to terms with their losses. On forums such as Reddit, once-enthusiastic backers commiserate over their losses, with some users expressing suicidal thoughts. And now Kwon fears for his safety. After the Luna crash, a stranger broke into the premises of Kwons apartment rang the doorbell, and asked his spouse if her husband was at home before running away from the premises. Kwons wife has reportedly sought police protection.

It is a disturbing end to a period of untrammeled euphoria. When the value of Luna went from $4 in February 2021 to $60 in the same month of 2022 multiplying fifteen-fold in just one year questions were not raised about the sudden spike, instead, it was expected to rise even more. Few suspected that everything was about to fall apart. I invested because it was one of the top cryptocurrencies. It was among the top 10 by market capitalization. I was sold on the project and the profitability of its stablecoin was incredible, explains another young man from Madrid, under the age of 30, who lost 5,000 ($5,300).

The stablecoin he is referring to is TerraUSD or UST. Investors who deposited UST in Anchor Protocol, a lending and borrowing protocol built by Terraform Labs, were offered a stable yield rate of up to 19.%. In a context, in which few banks give more than 0% due to low-interest rates, this anomaly was not questioned by the winning investors, who were blinded by the power of a new technology that was promising to make them rich. But UST lost its peg to the US dollar, and this is what sent Luna, its sister currency, into a health spiral. Luna lost more than 90% of its value in three days, triggering one of the biggest shocks in the crypto sectors short history. But big losses do not always act as a deterrent. I still think that it can turn around and I have not sold anything. On the contrary, I have bought more. When a guy goes out partying and spends 50 [$53] on drinks on something that affects his health, no one asks him if he thinks its wrong to throw that money away. At least this doesnt harm my body, says the 30-year-old from Madrid.

Other Luna investors have completely lost hope in a comeback, which experts have also ruled out. One investor, a 41-year-old doctor, who like the rest of those affected by the crash only speaks on the condition of anonymity, says that from now on he will limit his investment in cryptocurrencies to the two largest ones: bitcoin and Ethereum. Ive lost two months of salary, about 8,000 [$8,500], so it hasnt changed anything for me. My investments are diversified and the percentage I have in cryptocurrencies is very low, but I think it is a blow to the future crypto adoption that is so much talked about. At the moment I am going to stay on the sidelines, and I am only going to reinvest the profits, he says in a message on Telegram, which has several groups of Luna investors.

Yuvraj Sharma from India is one of the few people who agreed to give their full name. There is little risk that his friends and family will read the news, and the $200 he lost in Luna has also not upended his life. But for the 19-year-old business student from Calcutta, it is more money than it might seem. It is a lot for me because it has cost me a lot of effort to get it. Its two months worth of wages. I still hope that something will be done to address this devastating crash and that I will be able to come out with at least what I invested, he says. The chances of that happening are close to nil. The price of Luna today is $0.0002.

Sharmas case highlights a growing trend: more and more young people are investing in cryptocurrencies, without any safety net. The fact that they do not large sums to invest is the only thing that is preventing them from losing bigger amounts of money in a sector that they do not completely understand. The question now is whether these young investors will persevere, and invest more when they start earning more, or if this is just a passing trend that will fade over time.

Edited by M.K.

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The dreams broken by Luna, the cryptocurrency that crashed in three days: It seemed like a safe bet - EL PAS in English

Cryptocurrency prices also dropped precipitously. The price of Bitcoin fell as low as $26,000 on Thursday, down 60 percent from its peak in November, before rising somewhat. Since the start of the year, Bitcoins price movement has closely mirrored that of the Nasdaq, a benchmark thats heavily weighted toward technology stocks, suggesting that investors are treating it like any other risk asset.

The price of Ether plunged, too, losing more than 30 percent of its value over the last week. Other cryptocurrencies, like Solana and Cardano, are also down.

Any panic might be overblown, some analysts said. A study by Mizuho showed that the average Bitcoin owner on Coinbase would not lose money until the digital currencys price sank below $21,000. That, according to Mr. Dolev, is where a true death spiral could occur.

Bitcoin was working as long as no one lost money, he said. Once it gets back to those levels, thats sort of the Oh, my God moment.

Professional investors who have weathered past crypto volatility also stayed calm. Hunter Horsley, chief executive of Bitwise Asset Management, which provides crypto investing services to 1,000 financial advisers, met with more than 70 of them this week to discuss the market. Many were not selling, he said, because every other asset was down, too. Some were even trying to capitalize on the drop.

Their standpoint is, This is no fun, but there is nowhere to hide, he said.

Still, the plummeting prices have rattled crypto traders. Just a few months ago, blockchain proponents were predicting that Bitcoins price could rise as high as $100,000 this year.

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Cryptocurrencies Melt Down in a Perfect Storm of Fear and Panic - The New York Times

For too long, the Hollywood system has been closed to outsiders; its challenging to get anything made without already making something successful. Thats why founders Ben Rosenblatt and Micho Rutare created$FLIXto solve that chicken-or-egg problem.

By leveraging the creativity of its community members and producing partners, $FLIX can generate revenue for film projects while at the same time increasing the token value for investors. And because $FLIX isnt beholden to the old system of gatekeepers, they have the freedom to take creative risks, ultimately making the kinds of movies Hollywood is too afraid to make.

So, how does it work?

$FLIX uses a percentage of every transaction to fund movie projects, then successful projects fuel interest in the coin, interest fuels volume, and volume funds the film wallet. Once a film, script, or concept is sold, money from that sale is used to buy back tokens and burn them. This makes the token deflationary: over time, there will be fewer and fewer tokens worth more and more.

At $FLIX, we believe that Web 3.0 is the meaning economy: community replaces clicks, and storytelling trumps algorithms. Co-Founder Micho Rutare continues, Crypto investors arent just looking at their bottom lines; in this era of the Great Resignation, people are looking to align their investments with their passions. So $FLIX is all about the story: the storytelling of the films, the story of the coin, and the story of how a community of film lovers, filmmakers, and crypto investors comes together to change the way.

$FLIX began as a meme coin, a hyped-up cryptocurrency. But while most meme coins are pump and dump schemes, Rutare and Rosenblatt intend to pump and not dump. Instead, they are building long-term value with our film projects and our community. And while they are prioritizing long-term value, they want to generate enough activity to make the coin an attractive short-term investment.

In the short run, $FLIX is focused on developing a slate of projects, building value with the product rather than hype. Secondly, they plan to produce and release films, with community involvement along the way. Lastly, they want $FLIX to become a real currency, both in the metaverse and at brick-and-mortar theater chains.

How does this change the landscape of crypto in general? With the recent contraction of the market, the speculative bubble of meme tokens and NFTs is coming to a close. As a result, investors are looking for real value and are more reluctant to throw money at whatever coin is mooning on a given day. We believe that this current contraction is a lot like the Dot Com Bubble of the early 00sit took the crash to clear the underbrush, paving the way for the FANG companies to define the Web2 era, said Rutare. $FLIX is well-positioned to be one of the giants of the Web3 economy, harnessing the power of the blockchain and using it to create real-world consumer experiences.

Rutare added, Ultimately, $FLIX will be a vertical filmmaking platform, generating revenue at every phase, from development through exhibition. For film finance, we want to do what Apple did for personal computingto create a user-friendly consumer brand that eventually builds its own walled garden ecosystem.

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The "Sharknado" Creator Developed a Cryptocurrency Token Revolutionizing Film Financing - Grit Daily

With privacy, its like, once its out, its out, Professor Meiklejohn said.

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, a physician and the director of Women on Waves, a nonprofit that provides resources for abortion seekers, found this to be the case when she tried setting up her own crypto wallet. It had exactly the same diligence requests as a normal bank account, where you have to provide IDs and other information, she said.

She could see how anonymous transactions might appeal to abortion providers, whose work could soon turn them into legal targets. But, she said, I havent found a cryptocurrency where you can do that.

Legal scholars are not convinced that cryptocurrencies would shield patients in most cases. Abortion bans will cover everything, whether you pay with cash or crypto, said Rachel Rebouch, the interim dean at the Temple University Beasley School of Law and an author of a forthcoming paper called The New Abortion Battleground.

If abortion is illegal in your state it doesnt matter whether you get a surgical abortion, a medication abortion, whether you self-manage your abortion if its illegal, its illegal, said Kimberly Mutcherson, a dean and professor of law at Rutgers Law School who has focused on reproductive rights. (In the first three months of this year, 22 states introduced more than 100 restrictions on abortion pills approved by the Food and Drug Administration, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research group that supports abortion rights.)

Still, organizations like Planned Parenthood are keeping an open mind about how they might raise and distribute funds.

Alexis McGill Johnson, the organizations president and chief executive, said Planned Parenthood was looking into a number of things in the realm of cryptocurrencies but would not divulge details.

The bottom line is all of the options are on the table, she said.

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Will Crypto Play a Role in Funding Abortion Access? - The New York Times

Zilliqa or ZIL is a cryptocurrency based in Singapore. Its value is pegged at 1:1 to the SGD or Singapore Dollar. Since its inception, it has garnered much attention since it incorporated three primary attributes: high scalability, eco-friendly, and low costs. These features made it on par with the other cryptocurrencies in the market. Learn more about cryptocurrencies here.

Many people have noticed that the value has surged over the months. The news in May 2022 said that it went up to 42%, so what exactly triggered ZILs value? Know that the developers and the ecosystem were busy forming partnerships with others, and there are a lot of announcements on social media platforms that have aided its traction. Most of the gaming gurus have participated in studio launches like Valentin and Tom, and more enthusiasts are expected to come up.

What is Zilliqa?

This is an ERC-20 token that originated in Southeast Asia, specifically in Singapore. The ecosystem is currently using the ZIL coin as one of its mediums of exchange for incentives and transaction fees. The rewards come from the cryptos service as one of the blockchain node validators through the process of staking.

Its powered by the ERC-20 public blockchain and Ethereum, and it can perform about 2,488 transactions per second. This is about a thousand times faster than the entire network of Ethereum. You may want to know more about this cryptocurrency through Zilliqa Wire, bringing you the most recent activities and news about this specific cryptocurrency. Other prominent features of the cryptocurrency include the developers building smart contract languages like Scilla that enabled them to develop services and applications on the entire network.

The project was first initiated by a former CEO, Xinshu Don, an expert on blockchain and cybersecurity technology. He has teamed up with various specialists and tech professionals in many fields to stabilize the ecosystem. Other partners are experts in the financial and fundraising sector, so it is no surprise that the coin has become popular in a short amount of time.

About the Sharding Process

The goal of creating another blockchain that is like Ethereum is to make improvements and enhance efficiency in the cryptocurrency niche. The Zilliqa was the first one to utilize sharding technology, which is the method of boosting the scalability of the transactions.

It distributes storage and computational burdens on various validator nodes, so it is easy to do a lot of transactions in a short amount of time. Bitcoin can only do 4.6 transactions per second, which is a scalability problem for many people. This is where the Zilliqa excelled since it also had many capabilities comparable to other blockchains like Solana, Cardano, and Ethereum.

The goal is to become the greatest digital asset that many large-scale companies will choose. Its developers are now looking into entertainment, advertising, gaming, and other technologies to improve the overall ecosystem of the ZIL. Further ambitious projects include being able to replace Mastercard and Visa for payments and be a valuable platform for big data research and machine learning development down the road.

How Does it Work?

The cryptocurrency is currently using sharding technology to improve its capability and scalability. Here are the other details that you need to know about:

The sharding happens by dividing a groups processing powers and sending them to various nodes on the network. When there is a new issuance of transactions, the information tends to be split into smaller pieces which are called shards.

After completing the transaction, it will be recorded on the database for verification. The sharding is a computational effort shared across computers, resulting in more transactions being processed every second. This will cut the overall transaction costs and result in more scalability.

Consensus

Validating the transactions will require leveraging the proof-of-work, which is also present in bitcoins. Another consensus algorithm used is the practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT) which offers a prominent level of cybersecurity. Get more info about the pBFT at this link: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/practical-byzantine-fault-tolerancepbft/.

Completing the nodes will give an individual a chance to earn ZIL coins. For the pBFT to work, there should be approved to the algorithm from every node for the new addition of the new blocks into the chain. This will be challenging for the hackers, who must need to control all the nodes before starting their attacks.

Other Things to Know

If you want to acquire or buy Zilliqa, you will have to buy the ZIL tokens, a native cryptocurrency token. You can use them to pay transaction fees when you are in the Zilliqa ecosystem, and most of the dApps that were developed by the founders were built on them.

There are also rewards and earnings when you stake your ZIL tokens. The process of staking includes pledging them to the blockchain network as collateral, and you become part of the thousands of users who are validating transaction processes every second. The return is that you will receive more tokens afterward.

As mentioned, Scilla was created as a native programming language to make it easier for the developers to add to the applications when the need arises. The word means Smart Contract Intermediate-Level Language, which was created by engineers.

The Scilla is essentially securing the smart contracts of the entire blockchain, and the language was developed in such a way that it helps minimize any security risks that may be present in the ecosystem. The creators and developers are always aiming to write bug-free codes and identify security vulnerabilities in their systems to ensure maximum security. Automated mathematical proofs also allow the demonstration of smart contracts, so it is pretty safe.

The value of the Zilliqa significantly increased in March when it launched into the Metapolis metaverse. This was powered by Zilliqa itself, but it still might not be available to the public at this time. Nevertheless, a VIP launch was made in April, and the metaverse tokens are the ones that are drawing a lot of investors in. So far, technological advancement has proven to be a hit and has been great news to the current investors.

CryptoMode produces high quality content for cryptocurrency companies. We have provided brand exposure for dozens of companies to date, and you can be one of them. All of our clients appreciate our value/pricing ratio.Contact us if you have any questions: [emailprotected] None of the information on this website is investment or financial advice. CryptoMode is not responsible for any financial losses sustained by acting on information provided on this website by its authors or clients. No reviews should be taken at face value, always conduct your research before making financial commitments.

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Zilliqa Crypto News and All You Need to Know About Cryptocurrency - Crypto Mode

Cryptocurrencies, according to their most ardent supporters, are supposed to supplant nations existing currencies and end central banks control over the money supply. Instead, individuals will be able to trade with each other in a decentralised, digital financial ecosystem. This is a good thing, they promise, because unlike states and their central banks, technology is incorruptible. Crypto-evangelists imagine technology as a replacement for social and political institutions.

But technology never replaces social and political behaviour; it merely alters the rules and norms we follow. To see this in action, one need only look at the plummeting value of Terra Luna, a crypto token that crashed by 98% in a day, causing some investors to lose their life savings; the plunging value of Bitcoin and Ethereum; or the countless scam victims whose non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been stolen. NFTs use the same blockchain technology as cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, to trade algorithmically generated illustrations that riff on a theme. On offer are cartoony Bored Apes, Lazy Lions and CryptoDickButts. Although NFTs are aesthetically uninspiring, they can sell for as much as $91.8m and as they have grown in value, scams involving stolen NFTs have abounded. Just last month the Bored Ape Yacht Clubs Instagram account was hacked, and the perpetrators stole about $3m worth of NFTs by directing followers to a fraudulent site.

When a scammer steals a CryptoDickButt, all the ecstatic manifestos about the decentralised power of the blockchain disappear, as scam victims plead with the handful of crypto exchanges to block the sale of their stolen NFT. The underlying technology and its tokens might be decentralised (and even that claim is questionable, given that cryptomarkets are wildly concentrated in the hands of a few hundred people), but where you can actually buy, use and sell these things is still limited to a few services and exchanges. This forces crypto fans to recognise a hard truth: currencies and contracts are only as valuable or enforceable as the people and institutions that recognise their legitimacy. Blockchain technology does not change this fact whatsoever.

In turn, states and institutions have begun to treat crypto as a potentially destabilising geopolitical force, capping and taxing the ravenous amounts of energy that crypto mines consume. The crypto mining industry already consumes 0.55% of global energy production about as much as a small country. Some have gone so far as to put the kibosh on blockchain technology altogether. China effectively banned the mining and use of cryptocurrencies in late 2021; prior to that, the country was far and away the largest bitcoin miner by volume, accounting for as much as 75% of global volume in September 2019. Its reasons for banning crypto are likely a combination of curbing the power consumption of crypto mines, protecting citizens from scams and controlling the flow of money both within the country and with Chinas trading partners. To date, China is the only government that has made an aggressive move towards ridding itself of this technology, but other nations face similar problems.

Russia has been learning this lesson in the last few months, starting in January when crypto miners set up shop in nearby Kazakhstan after getting kicked out of China. Their mining servers took a heavy toll on the central Asian nations electricity grid, using as much as 8% of its total energy-generating capacity as they swiftly became the second-biggest crypto producer behind the United States. Despite efforts to control the industry through energy taxation, citizens in Kazakhstan rioted over high fuel prices and unreliable electricity. Russian and neighbouring nations troops were called in to quell the violence in January, even as most of their attention was focused on Ukraine.

The war in Ukraine is proving to be different but an equally decisive moment for the geopolitics of crypto. The vice prime minister of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, announced on 3 March that his government would issue an NFT to raise money for the war effort. So far, the Ukrainian government has raised $50m-worth of crypto since the war began, though there has been little reporting on exactly who is raising money for arms in Ukraine this way. Alex Bornyakov, deputy minister of digital transformation of Ukraine, has only said that most donations come from people, while others come from companies.

Russia itself is a big player in crypto, supplying 11% of the worlds Bitcoin mining capacity. Oligarchs in the country must be grateful, given that trading between the Russian rouble and crypto assets has doubled since the assault on Ukraine began. Getting around sanctions by converting rouble to crypto assets seems to be working for now, but that might end soon. Just as scam victims are quick to request that NFT trading sites blacklist a stolen Ape, crypto exchanges are under pressure to bar Russians from their platforms. Theres been robust debate in the industry as to whether this is antithetical to the whole idea of the technology, but the point is this: crypto has not brought about a financial revolution, its just given states and scam artists a new piece to play on the grand chessboard.

This is only the beginning. Churning out inscrutable financial assets using coal-powered electrical grids is contributing to a rapidly warming planet that is already experiencing the worst droughts seen in more than 1,000 years in California and supercharged monsoon seasons in India. All the ethereal imagery associated with crypto obscures the fact that it is made up of millions of tons of coal, copper, rare earth metals and plastic. The servers that mine crypto exist on the planet in real countries with laws, wars and resource shortages which are governed by politicians that have real commitments and interests. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we are beginning to see an emerging geopolitics of crypto that looks very much like the old world of banking and finance.

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NFT scams, toxic mines and lost life savings: the cryptocurrency dream is fading fast - The Guardian

Algorand's ALGO/USD price has increased 5.8% over the past 24 hours to $0.48, which is in the opposite direction of its trend over the past week, where it has experienced a 21.0% loss, moving from $0.61 to its current price. As it stands right now, the coin's all-time high is $3.56.

The chart below compares the price movement and volatility for Algorand over the past 24 hours (left) to its price movement over the past week (right). The gray bands are Bollinger Bands, measuring the volatility for both the daily and weekly price movements. The wider the bands are, or the larger the gray area is at any given moment, the larger the volatility.

The trading volume for the coin has decreased 70.0% over the past week, while the overall circulating supply of the coin has decreased 0.75% to over 6.81 billion. This puts its current circulating supply at an estimated 68.12% of its max supply, which is 10.00 billion. The current market cap ranking for ALGO is #27 at $3.31 billion.

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This article was generated by Benzinga's automated content engine and reviewed by an editor.

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Cryptocurrency Algorand Up More Than 5% In 24 hours - Benzinga

Picture Credits: Local 10 News

In August, Miami marked an important day for the citizens of the city Miami and the crypto market, as the city mayor Francis Suarez rolled out a new cryptocurrency called MiamiCoin. Miamicoin was created by an organization called city coins. The step has come with the intension to portray cryptocurrencies as a community driven revenue stream. Not only Miami, multiple cities have come up with their cryptocurrency to empower the crypto market. Introduction of new cryptocurrencies in the market, will surely work as a fuel to run the market and take the market in the necessary direction.

Lets look at a tweet below.

Im so excited to announce that the @CityofMiami has received its first-ever disbursement from @mineCityCoins totaling $5.25M.

This is a historic moment for our city to collaborate with an innovative project that creates resources for our city through innovation not taxation.

Mayor Francis Suarez (@FrancisSuarez) February 2, 2022

From the tweet it is understood that Miamicoins worth $5.25 million was disbursed into the city funds. The mayor of Miami called it as a historic day. He also mentioned that, hes thrilled to know that, the city is marching towards development but by innovation and not by taxation.

Crypto crash and its effect on Miami Coin

Last week, on Thursday, the crypto market imploded in the most unexpected circumstances. After the crash all the cryptocurrencies from Bitcoins to Ethereum lost its value by at least 50%. Miamicoins was no different. Miamicoin lost almost 95% of its value from its September peak. The value of Miamicoins was around $0.0032 as of May 13. Miamicoins loss in value is surely turned out to be the worst news for the investors and has caused a lot of panic among the citizens of Miami.

Current status of Miamicoins

Miamicoins are now a speculative asset. The city and individual retailers do not appear to accept cryptocurrencies as payment for goods or services. However, Miamicoin has operated as a volatile asset that generates revenue for the government based on its valuation among cryptocurrency dealers.

Furture of Miamicoin.

Cryptocurrencies like Miamicoins require a lot of publicity and awareness creation. To aid this part, city mayor had taken a lot of steps to endorse Miamicoins in the right direction. There were a lot investors also interested in going with Miamicoins. But, the market crash has certainly brought in a lot of doubts in the minds of the investors. Moving forward, if Miamicoins had to stand a chance, endorsement, more and more awareness, stability in terms of usability and all other factors would play a quintessential role in bringing back Miamicoin to its peak and maybe achieve even greater heights.

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Cryptocurrency's revolution from the mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez Miamicoins! - Techstory

Cryptocurrency scam: Over 95 per cent of crypto-associated frauds reported on WazirX between October 2021 and March 2022 were based outside of the Blockchain ecosystem, the exchange said in a report today (May 17, 2022). Majority of these scams were traditional money market scams.

According to the second edition of its bi-annual WazirX Transparency Report, 40 percent of the frauds reported were ponzi schemes and social engineering scams. Twenty five percent frauds were related to impersonation and further 25 percent were phising/airdrop scams.

The report provides an overview of initiatives and partnerships that the company took in the last 6 months to safeguard investors.

The findings suggest an increase in the number of accounts getting locked due to legal action from the company in comparison to the last report.

Commenting on the report, WazirX CEO and founder Nischal Shetty said, The insights of the report indicate that even now the vast majority of scams are due to misinformation. They occur due to lack of awareness amongst users and indicate a requirement of large scale education and awareness programs to safeguard user interests.

ALSO READ | How to identify a dubious crypto project and protect your money, time

Aritra Sarkhel, Director of Public Policy at WazirX said, We are taking active steps to ensure smooth transitioning of our users to Web3.0 while providing user centric experience and data privacy. We have also been conducting trainings for law enforcement establishments across the country to make sure we support them to identify and track any such frauds.

(Crypto and other virtual digital assets are unregulated in India. Investing in them is risky. Please consult your financial advisor before investing in cryptocurrency)

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Trading crypto on WazirX? These are the most common cryptocurrency scams you should know to protect your money - The Financial Express