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350 Chinese companies surveyed still believe in the higher potential that blockchain technology could offer to their businesses.

 

A survey of 350 Chinese companies revealed that Blockchan’s pre-COVID-19 corporate bullishness remains alive in the region. According to Xinhua, the study, called “Blockchain in the Post-epidemic Age,” showed that 70% of the companies surveyed before the coronavirus outbreak remain optimistic about the potential of Blockchain technology. Up to 20% believe that they will invest even more to mitigate the effects of the crisis.

 

 

 

Data from Bitinfocharts show transaction fees average 71 cents. That’s a big drop from last month when they were as high as $6.65.

 

Bitcoin's transactions fees have dipped to fresh lows—the cost of sending the cryptocurrency now averages $0.711, data from Bitinfocharts shows. Bitcoin transaction fees have plummeted since a spike last month following May 11’s halving. The cost of sending Bitcoin reached a peak of $6.65 on May 20—the highest average transaction fee since July 2018. Data shows transaction fees have dropped by almost 90%—89.3% to be precise—in just 25 days.

 

 

 

A bug in latest code for Trezor hardware wallets could temporarily lock users out of their Bitcoin. To keep spending your digital gold using Wasabi, don’t update to the latest version.

 

Apersonal safety announcement from privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet Wasabi today: don’t update your Wasabi wallet if you use a Trezor device. If you do, you could temporarily lose access to your Bitcoin. While you’re at it, don’t update your Trezor devices if you’re using Wasabi. If you’re using a Trezor Model T, don’t update to version 2.3.1., and if you’re using a Trezor One, don’t update to 1.9.1.

 

 

 

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The chairman of the Federal Reserve sees no issues with the massive expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet and believes that inflation will struggle to stay above the target.

 

Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, reported on the state of the economy at a Senatorial hearing held on June 16. During the initial report on the state of the economy and the actions taken by the Fed in response to the Coronavirus crisis, the chairman listed all of the extraordinary measures adopted by the bank since March. Part of that included an unprecedented expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet, which purchased securities on the market with newly created money as part of the practice of Quantitative Easing. The remainder of the session largely focused on the perspective of employment after the crisis, as well as the recent decision to purchase corporate bonds, which some senators criticized as being unnecessary.

 

 

 

The Advertising Standards Authority and the Internet Advertising Office joined forces to launch a system to remove scam ads.

 

The United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Internet Advertising Office (IAB) launched a new system on June 16 to detect and remove online fraud ads. According to the Telegraph, the system will allow people to report fraudulent ads, especially those that appear in paid-for spaces. One of the main motivations behind the alert system is ongoing concerns about the rise in ad scams that are mainly related to crypto-related fraud, said both authorities. Cointelegraph reported in January that the FCA will be monitoring anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) for companies carrying out cryptocurrency-related activities.

 

 

 

The World Economic Forum has recognized six blockchain companies on its list of 100 Technology Pioneers for 2020.

 

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has recognized six blockchain firms on its list of 100 ‘early to growth-stage’ companies as Technology Pioneers for 2020. According to the WEF’s website, the blockchain and crypto startups recognized for pioneering new technologies and innovations in 2020 are Lightning Labs, Chainlink, MakerDAO, Bitcoin analytics firms Elliptic, Latin America-based cryptocurrency startup Ripio, and Veridium Labs. They’re among 100 companies from around the world chosen for their contributions to bleeding edge technology, from “artificial intelligence to diagnose cancers and quantum computing systems, to carbon capture and removing technologies, cell-grown meat production and use of microbiome to track goods”.

 

 

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Tether (USDT) makes a $10 million equity investment in the crypto lending platform Celsius Network (CEL) at a $120 million pre-money valuation, bringing the post-money valuation to $150 million.

 

The company has raised $30 million in its first equity round. In 2018, Celsius completed a $50 million ICO. Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky told Cointelgraph that his company has continued its policy of not fundraising from venture capital. Mashinsky also pointed out that the equity sold in this round does not come with voting rights. This ensures that the investors will not be able to force the company to change its core mission of sharing 80% of the profits with the community.

 

 

 

Morgan Creek’s Anthony Pompliano presses pension funds to allocate 1-5% of their portfolios to Bitcoin.

 

As pension funds struggle with their funding, Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano continues to press them into adding more Bitcoin into their portfolios. In a letter to investors, Pompliano said pension funds like the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) will do well to invest in Bitcoin instead of increasing their allocations of illiquid assets.

 

Morgan Creek has long pushed for more pension funds to take at least 1% allocation in Bitcoin. CEO Mark Yusko said in January that if foundations had a 1% allocation five years ago, they would’ve made 9.2% in alpha--or the performance of a portfolio relative to a benchmark--than the 7.2% they actually made in that time period. So far, there are two pension funds from Virginia that invested in Morgan Creek.

 

 

 

VeChain’s medical records blockchain platform in Cyprus lets people prove, and control, COVID-19 test results.

 

Blockchain tracking platform VeChain announced on Twitter on June 20 that its blockchain-based medical data management platform co-developed with digital healthcare solution firm I-Dante has gone live and will store COVID-19 testing results. The platform, dubbed E-NewHealthLife, was deployed in the Mediterranean Hospital in the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Cyprus citizens who go to the hospital’s COVID-19 laboratory to undergo real-time diagnostic and antibodies testing, will have their medical and test records on the blockchain. The records will be encrypted, hashed and uploaded onto the VeChainThor Blockchain. The results will also be available on the E-HCert application. Adoption of E-HCert, the company said, reduces the cost of data storage and sharing.

 

 

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A study by Scamwatch suggests cryptocurrency scams are a real threat in Australia.

 

Australians filed 1,810 reports of cryptocurrency-related scams in 2019, collectively totaling more than $21.6 million AU ($14.9 million USD). According to a study by Scamwatch, an arm of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, younger Australians aged 25 to 34 were those most heavily affected by crypto investment scams. Scamwatch’s study reveals a sharp increase in total losses related to scams over the past two years, from $234 million in 2017 to $437 million in 2019.

 

 

 

CBDCs Don’t Fix Broken Monetary Policy, Say Execs at Stablecoin Saga. CBDCs promise to speed up existing systems but are unlikely to change the direction central banks have already been taking.

 

As countries around the world dive into central bank digital currencies (CBDC), many in the crypto industry look forward to what that means for adoption and even lucrative partnerships to develop such tokens. However, at least some commentators have noted that national CBDCs will likely disappoint those looking to update monetary policy. Saga operates a stablecoin, SGA, that launched in December. It is pegged to special drawing rights. The SDR is a basket of currencies that the International Monetary Fund bases on a varying ratio of dollars, euro, yuan, yen and pounds sterling.

 

 

 

Nanjing, China is basically using the blockchain to drive a local economic stimulus program.

 

In order to reduce the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on business, Chinese governments at all levels have been coming up with different policies and solutions to help the economy survive. Nanjing, the capital of China eastern Jiangsu province, is one of the first cities in China to leverage blockchain technology and issue so-called “consumption vouchers” on the blockchain as a kind of crypto-driven stimulus package, according to a local news report on June 23. These vouchers are exchangeable for things like food, transportation and electronics.

 

 

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Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden's central bank, took a 98-page deep dive into central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, referencing the country's own such asset — the e-krona.

 

"The second issue of Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review in 2020 has a special theme, namely central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and the e-krona," Riksbank's June 18, 2020 report said in an initial note to readers. In December 2019, Sweden unveiled intentions for a pilot program around its e-krona, in collaboration with Fortune Global 500 company Accenture.

 

 

 

Australians can now pay for Bitcoin (BTC) at the country’s post offices, thanks to a new collaboration.

 

According to a June 24 announcement, customers of local cryptocurrency exchange Bitcoin.com.au will be able to pay for Bitcoin at more than 3,500 Australian Post offices. Bitcoin.com.au customers were already able to pay for Bitcoin at 1500 retail outlets in the Blueshyft payment network. Founded by Synthetix’s Kain Warwick, Blueshyft also services numerous other exchanges.

 

 

 

Lending platform Defi Money Market (DMM) — backed by Tim Draper’s Draper Venture Network — has had a difficult birth.

 

The Initial DEX Offering (IDO) has completed successfully, raising $6.5 million in 48 hours, but investors reported problems with completing transactions, a confusing interface or raised trust issues around the company’s background.Despite the issues, DMM’s DMG token is currently trading at $0.87, over double the initial sale price of $0.36. DMG has also had the highest trading volume on Uniswap in the past 24 hours with $4.8 million being traded against Ether (ETH).

 

 

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As central bank digital currencies continue to be researched and tested by countries across the globe, it becomes more apparent that the United States dollar’s reign might be challenged once the concept is implemented on a regional scale.

 

While most retail CBDCs focus on internal economic matters, some projects aim to facilitate trade relations within a specific region, forming a digital alternative to the greenback. The most eloquent example would be the East Asia cryptocurrency that was proposed earlier in June — a virtual asset backed by a basket of currencies including the Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, South Korean won and Hong Kong dollar.

 

The United States dollar remains the undisputed king when it comes to international trade. According to the International Monetary Fund, around 61% of all foreign exchange reserves are allocated in the dollar as of 2019. Similarly, the U.S. sovereign currency serves as the main medium for cross-border deals, even for deals not involving the U.S. itself. For instance, 86% of India’s imports are paid for in dollars, while only 5% of them actually originate in the U.S.

 

 

 

A group of researchers from SophosLabs state that hackers operating the cryptojacking malware, Glupteba, have been using the Bitcoin blockchain network to communicate in secret.

 

According to the report published on June 24, cybercriminals rely on a command and control center where they send encrypted secret messages that require a 256-bit AES decryption key. The purpose of the communication channel is for hackers to receive updated configuration information for the malware. This data is used by attackers to obtain precise instructions and thus update the malicious software. Glupteba is what’s known as a zombie or software robot that can be controlled remotely. It has various functions such as a rootkit, security suppressor, virus, router attack tool, browser stealer, and as a cryptojacking tool.

 

 

 

Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings, one of the major traditional Japanese financial institutions, has unveiled a plan to develop a security token exchange. Tokai Tokyo is already an investor in Huobi Japan.

 

According to Nikkei, as the first step in the journey, Tokai Tokyo is investing in blockchain company Hash Dash Holdings to leverage the company’s knowledge to develop the exchange. Hash Dash aims to apply blockchain technology to the financial industry for issuing digital securities and providing a trading service on smartphones. The planned exchange will trade in tokenized real estate, and Tokai Tokyo, Hash Dash and ICHX TECH will explore this sector by digitizing Japanese real estate and trade it at iSTOX, a digital security exchange in Singapore it has invested in. They are also exploring digitizing IPs and corporate bonds.

 

 

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Building Cities Beyond (BCB) Blockchain, a Singapore based tech solution company for smart cities, has launched an innovation grant, worth $15 million, to encourage development on its ecosystem, according to Fintech News Singapore.

 

The BCB Innovation Grant is said to target up to 1,000 projects within Asia. The $15 million grant will cater to technology startups in the region, with grant participants also gaining access to BCB workshops and facilities to assist and bolster their development capabilities. BCB will also set aside $2.8 million of its innovation grant to fund game development projects on the BCB platform, in order to attract developers to its platform.

 

 

 

The Australian Cyber Security Centre said a group of “state actors” hacked Australian networks on June 19 and one of the vulnerabilities they exploited is related to cryptojacking malware attacks.

 

According to the 48-page report released on June 24, the threat actors exploited four critical vulnerabilities in Telerik UI, including CVE-2019-18935, which was recently leveraged by the Blue Mockingbird malware gang to infect thousands of systems with XMRRig, a Monero (XMR) mining software.

 

 

 

While 80% of the world's central banks are exploring digital currency, China has been on this particular journey for a good six years. In 2014, Xiaochuan Zhou, then Governor of the People's Bank of China, established a Digital Currency Research Institute with the goal of exploring its potential use for the PBOC, which is the country’s central bank. The following few years saw the birth of a few research centers scattering across the country.

 

Now that 6 years have passed, DCEP—the abbreviation for “digital currency, electronic payment”— is China’s answer to a digital currency issued by the central bank. (It’s 数字货币 in Chinese, which means “digital currency” but plenty of people there actually use the English "word" DCEP.) Pilot projects have been ongoing in Shenzhen, Xiongan, Chengdu, and Suzhou, where it’s being used for things like transportation, education, healthcare, and other consumer goods and services. It's slowly gaining momentum, and from the outside, DCEP looks awfully like any other cashless payment solution.

 

 

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Japanese blockchain company Soramitsu announced it would start testing a new local digital currency for retailers at the University of Aizu.

 

According to a June 29 report in the Nikkei newspaper, Soramitsu will begin testing “White Tiger,” a digital currency sitting on the company’s native Hyperledger Iroha blockchain. The digital asset will be tested at cafeterias and shops at the University of Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture, 300 km north of Tokyo, starting on July 1 before gradually being utilized at locations off campus. Soramitsu, based in Tokyo, is one of the blockchain startups behind the development of a central bank digital currency in Cambodia.

 

 

 

Ethereum-based market-making protocol Balancer has announced that it will compensate users who lost their tokens in a protocol attack associated with two deflationary tokens.

 

The attack took advantage of the fact that deflationary tokens STONK and STA both charge transfer fees when trading. At the same time, their associated Balancer pools do not immediately account for those fees. It means that the pool balance will show more STONK or STA than the actual number, leaving attackers opportunities to respectively trade STONK and STA, incurring transfer fees and thus draining the two tokens. When there were very few tokens left in the pools, the attackers called a function to sync the displayed balance of the pools with the actual balance, resulting in a sharp drop in STONK and STA supplies and pushing up their prices against other assets they paired with.

 

Balancer is expected to announce details of its reimbursement process by the end of the week.

 

 

 

Last week’s release of Apple’s iOS 14 developer beta for iPhone has made it more obvious than ever that many popular iOS apps are reading your clipboard data even when they have no clear reason to—and they can do so from other nearby Apple devices, too.

 

The alarm was first sounded back in March when researchers Tommy Mysk and Talal Haj Bakry reported that social video sensation TikTok and dozens of other apps were regularly recalling data from the iOS and iPadOS clipboard, even when you’re not in a text input box. And as Ars Technica pointed out in a recent report, that data could potentially include Bitcoin addresses or other sensitive financial information.

 

 

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SBI Financial Services, a subsidiary of Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, has bought a $30 million minority stake in British crypto liquidity startup, B2C2.

 

The investment marks the beginning of a strategic partnership between the firms as B2C2 is set to become SBI’s main liquidity provider. As announced on July 1, the collaboration is aimed to expand SBI’s crypto offering to millions of customers. B2C2 is intended to benefit from SBI’s distribution network as the London-based startup launches an electronic prime brokerage. As reported, SBI’s new crypto fund will mostly operate XRP, which is planned to account for 50% of the fund’s portfolio. Other digital assets include Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), comprising 30% and 20%, respectively, based on a chart from SBI’s presentation.

 

 

 

Kazakhstan says it will double its digital currency mining investment at the end of this year, and is eyeing a CBDC.

 

Kazakhstan officials revealed the nation’s digital currency development plan to experts from Russia and China at "2020 Astana Online Financial Day". According to the China Ministry of Commerce on July 1, Kazakhstan plans to double its digital currency mining investment by the end of this year, and continues to develop its central bank digital currency. According to the report, Kazakhstan's digital currency mining project attracted 82.6 million Tenge, which is about 20 million USD. The scale of this investment will increase by 80 million Tenge in 2020.

 

 

 

OKCoin's COO said a PayPal crypto listing would give the industry vast exposure.

 

Rumors recently surfaced of mainstream payment giant PayPal adding crypto as an option on its platform. Although he had no additional information on the legitimacy of the rumors, OKCoin COO Jason Lau said digital assets on PayPal would further crypto adoption.

 

 

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Per a July 2 announcement, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are opening up virtual hours for industry players looking to discuss innovation and new technologies in banking.

 

The new meetings will be capped at one hour in length and are currently slated for just two days, July 29-30. Those interested need to register by July 17. Depending on the success of these meetings, they may become a more regular feature. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s FinHub recently announced virtual meetups to build on a longer tradition of peer-to-peer engagement. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission similarly held one-off meetings in February, before COVID-19 lockdowns took hold around the U.S.

 

 

 

Jeff Bezos, CEO of online shopping giant Amazon, recently tapped record wealth levels, holding more personal wealth than all the speculative capital currently invested in crypto's largest asset — Bitcoin (BTC).

 

“Amazon stock shares surged 4.4% to a record $2,878.70 Wednesday, boosting the founder’s world-leading fortune to $171.6 billion,” Bloomberg said in a July 1 article. “That tops his previous high of $167.7 billion, set on Sept. 4, 2018, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.” At press time, Bitcoin holds a market cap of approximately $166.4 billion, according to Coin360 data, showing the value of all BTC in circulation at the asset’s current price level.

 

 

 

The Commons Foundation, a South Korean non-governmental organization, revealed its plans to develop a blockchain-based platform that aims to handle health epidemics in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

 

According to Digital Today, the NGO will rely on blockchain public services to create an epidemiological research system to suit the coming post-coronavirus era. The article quotes a statement from Choi Yong-gwan, chairman of the Commons Foundation, who expressed concerns regarding the ongoing violation of personal information due to the pandemic emergency. Such a situation motivated the NGO to develop a solution. The NGO explained that a public blockchain network, called “MicroBitcoin”, will be the one that the Common Foundation relies on to develop the platform. They have chosen it for its solidity and security, and state the technology is robust enough to prevent the compromisation of hackers.

 

 

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In a special announcement made at the Unitize conference on July 6, Cosmos, Polkadot, and Terra revealed a new DeFi savings product called Anchor that aims to offer dependable interest rates on stablecoins deposits.

 

The companies involved in the creation of Anchor plan to launch it across their respective blockchains at the end of Q3 this year and scale across to other PoS blockchains in the future. Anchor’s smart contracts receive stablecoin deposits and use a portion of them to acquire staking positions on compatible Proof of Stake blockchains. Users will receive their passive income from these staking rewards.

 

 

 

 

Seven-day average hash rate passes 123.4 EH/s for the first time as network fundamentals defy bearish price action.

 

An essential Bitcoin (BTC) metric has hit a new all-time high as miners pledge ever more computing power to securing the network. Data from various resources including Blockchain confirms that on July 6, Bitcoin’s seven-day average hash rate reached a new peak.

 

 

 

One of India’s largest farmer producer organizations plans to use blockchain to help farmers receive higher pay.

 

One of India’s largest farm producer organizations (FPO), Sahyadri Farmers Producer Co, is integrating blockchain into its business process. FPOs are member-based institutions of farmers that are the result of a government-led initiative. The organizations help fars sell agricultural produce at the most advantageous prices.

 

 

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The world’s second-highest-valued unicorn startup has partnered with the Chinese central bank to work on the forthcoming digital yuan.

 

According to an announcement DiDi shared with Cointelegraph earlier today, the company has entered into “a strategic partnership” with the Digital Currency Research Institute of the PBoC. Together, DiDi and the PBoC’s think tank will reportedly work to bring the DC/EP solution to the former’s large-scale transportation network, which DiDi also refers to as “the world’s largest one-stop on-demand transportation platform.”

 

Primarily known as the Uber of China, DiDi claims to have 550 million users across Asia, Latin America and Australia. Its services mainly include public transportation and food delivery, while the company’s latest reported plans are to create an autonomous vehicles subsidiary and release more than one million self-driving cars by 2030.

 

 

 

The Japanese government will appoint Ryozo Himino as the next commissioner of Japan's Financial Services Agency.

 

iji Press reported on July 7 that the Japanese government has decided to appoint Ryozo Himino to the next commissioner of Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA). The official announcement will be made this month. Cointelegraph has reached out to FSA to confirm the news but has not received replies yet. Himino, currently the International Financial Deputy Counselor, is known on the international stage. Last September, he became the first Japanese Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Financial Stability Board (FSB). Himino is considered sympathetic to the crypto industry.

 

 

 

Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, believes other countries are much more open-minded in terms of crypto regulation and taxes than America.

 

Lawrence Zlatkin, chief tax officer at Coinbase, shared the exchange’s outlook on taxation and the global cryptocurrency market during a Unitize panel on July 7. He was joined on the panel by Fidelity’s senior tax counsel Jessica Reif-Caplan and Deloitte’s global tax leader, Rob Massey. During the discussion, the speakers highlighted the lack of clarity around cryptocurrency taxation in the U.S.. According to the tax experts at Coinbase and Fidelity, the uncertainty is a result of the complex nature of digital assets as well as a huge variety of different types and features of different coins.

 

 

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Development of China’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, continues to show signs of progress. On July 8, a major domestic e-commerce platform and a video sharing site both joined the CBDC project, according to local news.

 

Companies Meituan and Bilibilibili have apparently both begun to cooperate with a number of banks involved in the digital Yuan project. Meituan is a major service platform with over 240 million consumers and five million local merchants, and Bilibilibili is known as China’s largest video sharing website. In addition, Chinese multinational tech group, ByteDance, is also said to be in close discussion with the banks about CBDC collaboration.

 

 

 

BitFlyer, the biggest crypto exchange in Japan in terms of trading volume, has announced a partnership with Brave, the privacy-protecting browser.

 

No further details about the new crypto wallet have been made available. Japanese users of Brave browser are rewarded with Basic Attention Token Points (BAP), due to regulations that prevent them from earning the cryptocurrency BAT, or trading their points for money on exchanges. The announcement is likely to fuel speculation that the new crypto wallet could pave the way to enable Japanese users to earn BAT, instead of BAP, or somehow convert between the two.

 

 

 

The U.S. Department of Justice, or DoJ, indicted Andrey Turchin, known under the pseudonym "fxmsp," with various federal crimes. Turchin allegedly founded a cybercrime group that targeted the computer networks of several companies. After stealing each company’s data, Turchin’s group allegedly sold the data on the dark web.

 

Turchin, a 37 year old Kazakhstan national, is affectionately known on the dark web as "the invisible god of networks." He allegedly sold access to thousands of networks breached with his malware attacks, amassing a million dollar crypto fortune over the course of three years. The Western District of Washington is now conducting criminal indictment procedures against Turchin, who is accused of attacking companies based in over 40 countries.

 

 

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Central Bank Digital Currencies, or CBDCs, have been an increasingly popular topic in the cryptosphere and financial world as a whole, especially with the onset of the COVID-19 crisis. In the United States, the need for a universal electronic payment system for stimulus checks gave rise to a proposition for the creation of a digital dollar and its implementation.

 

While members of the U.S. government move to create a CBDC on the back of the pandemic, it doesn’t end there. A recent report by the Bank for International Settlements has also revealed that the development of CBDCs may be accelerated by the impact of the coronavirus on retail payments, which have seen a sharp decline in cash payments due to concerns over viral transmission. However, CBDCs have been in the works for many years in some countries, as there are many other benefits in the eyes of lawmakers that speak in favor of introducing them. In fact, the Chinese government has been working on its digital yuan since 2015, with few details about the project being known.

 

 

 

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is clear: The video games industry is thriving. As people around the world find themselves with more time on their hands thanks to government-mandated lockdowns and a partial economic shutdown, video game sales have skyrocketed.

 

Despite being overshadowed by some of the more glamorous uses for blockchain technology, the gaming industry may be poised for a generational leap forward with the advent of asset tokenization — a practice that could expose the gaming industry to a whole new wave of investors while simultaneously unlocking myriad benefits for the world’s 2.5 billion gamers.

 

 

 

Digital currency payments may become a reality for G20 members before the next summit in Saudi Arabia.

 

As reported by Kyodo News on July 11, officials revealed that the G20 summit compromising representatives from 19 countries and the European Union will be laying the groundwork to accept digital payments. The changes are expected to begin in October, presumably at the G20 Finance Ministerial and Deputies Meetings in Washington DC and before the next summit in Riyadh in November.

 

 

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The World Economic Forum believes that blockchain could contribute to a $365 billion savings by 2030 by reducing food loss and waste in the food supply chain.

 

A report published by the World Economic Forum, or WEF, highlighted the critical role of fourth industrial revolution technologies. New technologies like blockchain could help stimulate growth by implementing “nature-positive” solutions following the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the “Future of Nature and Business” study shared with Cointelegraph, nature-friendly solutions could have the capacity to create 395 million jobs and generate $10.1 trillion in business opportunities by 2030.

 

 

 

Xiao Gang, the former chair of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, says in his latest book on China capital market reforms that the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) will pave the way for digital stocks.

 

Stocks and currencies are separate entities in traditional finance, however blockchain-based digital currencies blur the boundaries between the two and raise new possibilities. Xiao adds that “digital stock is the natural product of digital currency in the future.” Before that can happen a number of challenges that need to be explored in theory and practice including: how to connect the CBDC with the digital capital market, how to prepare smart contracts to issue digital stocks, and how to use the digital currency to carry out digital stock trading and settlements.

 

 

 

The Japanese government is expected to include consideration of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in its official economic plan. The news comes 10 days after the Bank of Japan’s announcement that it will start experimenting with the digital yen to check its feasibility from a technical perspective.

 

According to Nikkei, the consideration of CBDC will be included in the Honebuto Plan for Economic and Fiscal Revitalization. The Honebuto Plan is the basis for Japan’s economic and fiscal policy and the report says the Japanese government “will consider a CBDC while coordinating with other countries”. After China began testing its CBDC or digital yuan, the Japanese government has accelerated preparations for its own CBDC.

 

 

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Elliptic says 22% of bitcoins from Twitter hack were likely sent to a Wasabi Wallet address for mixing

 

Blockchain analysis company Elliptic released a report today saying 2.89 bitcoins were sent to an address it believes to be a part of a Wasabi Wallet. According to the report, the funds, which account for 22% of the funds obtained by the Twitter hacker, were sent to a Wasabi Wallet address late Thursday night. Elliptic used a special feature to identify Wasabi Wallet addresses using what it called "distinctive transaction patterns." Blockchain data analyzed by The Block Research previously identified signs of mixing transactions.

 

 

 

The “Mekotio” trojan went from conventional banking malware one fine-tuned to steal crypto.

 

According to a report published by cybersecurity firm ESET, the malware is known as “Mekotio” and has been active since approximately March 2018. Since then, threat actors have been continuously upgrading the capabilities and range of attack, mostly known by targeting over 51 banks.

 

 

 

Bitcoin’s (BTC) consistent failure to break the $9,400 level over the past three weeks has led to some analysts becoming skeptical about the chance of a positive breakout.

 

Although the $9,000 support has been holding strong for the past 50 days, any slightly negative indicator tends to get more attention from media and pundits. Recently, crypto media has focused on Bitcoin’s 25 % skew as proof that options traders are turning bearish in the short-term, but in reality there’s more to it than just interpreting signals from one data point.

 

 

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News of the cryptocurrency market:

 

 

 

The former chief operating officer at disgraced payments firm Wirecard has reportedly transferred "significant sums" of bitcoin following his escape from Germany, according to reporting by a leading German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

 

Jan Marsalek was a key figure behind the breakdown of Germany-based Wirecard, which has made headlines for filing for insolvency and allegations of improper accounting tied to billions of dollars that went missing from its balance sheet. The transfer of bitcoin suggests Marsalek is now in Russia. As per German publication Handelsblatt, Marsalek has been missing for weeks and he "is said to have brought significant sums to Russia in the form of bitcoins from Dubai, where Wirecard had dubious operations" as per a translation of a Sunday evening report.

 

 

 

Payments giant PayPal is said to have partnered with Paxos Crypto Brokerage to launch its crypto service.

 

Paxos Crypto Brokerage was launched last week, with Revolut U.S. as its first client. The API-based brokerage service allows fintech firms to integrate crypto buying, selling, holding and sending capabilities into their own applications. Paxos handles all regulatory, technological, and liquidity aspects, while fintech firms take care of front-end experiences.

 

 

 

Barry Silbert, CEO of cryptocurrency investment firm Grayscale Investments and Digital Currency Group, believes the United States is past the point of no return for banning Bitcoin.

 

The CEO said relationships with regulators are much better off due to the effort made by groups including the Blockchain Association — a group speaking out in favor of many blockchain and crypto companies in front of the SEC — and Coin Center, a non-profit crypto advocacy group. Grayscale reported a substantial increase in the inflow of cryptocurrencies for Q2 2020, which totaled $905.8 million. This was up from $503.7 million in Q1.

 

 

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[Zak99]

News of the cryptocurrency market:

 

 

 

The government of South Korea has finalized its plan to charge a 20% tax on income generated from cryptocurrency transactions.

 

The country's Ministry of Economy and Finance amended its tax code on Wednesday, saying that an annual income of more than 2.5 million won (~$2,000) from crypto trading will be subject to a 20% tax for residents. Any income less than that amount will have no charge.

 

 

 

Bitbond, a Germany-based firm that provides blockchain enabled tokenization services, announced on Tuesday that it had become a member of the German bank association Bankenverband.

 

In an emailed announcement, the firm said that the bank association has already been working with initiatives like the digital euro, and BitBond would contribute its expertise in the tokenization and digital asset custody area through its membership. Bankenverband, or the Association of German Banks, represents about 200 commercial banks in the country. Back in February, BitBond said it had partnered with the Munich based bank, Bank von der Heydt, to help integrate blockchain technology with the bank’s established securitization services.

 

 

 

Leading NFT collectibles issuer Dapper Labs has announced a deal with Dr. Seuss Enterprises to launch tokenized collectibles depicting the firm’s iconic characters.

 

Dapper will sell digital packs of the crypto collectibles, allowing fans to assemble and curate NFT collections. Fans who assemble specific 'sets' of tokens will unlock exclusive content, and be able to access unique experiences beyond those offered by the purchasable packs.

 

 

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[Zak99]

News of the cryptocurrency market:

The CEO of a crypto firm that recently settled with the SEC over its 2017 ICO is suing T-Mobile over a series of SIM-swaps that resulted in the loss of $8.7 million worth of crypto.

According to filings published on July 22, the chief executive of crypto company Veritaseum, was first targeted by SIM-swappers during July 2017. Despite immediately reporting the incident to T-Mobile, Middleton claims to have been the victim of four successful SIM-swaps over the rest of 2017, and further attacks during 2018 and 2019.

Gibraltar Finance, the business development arm of Gibraltar’s government, will provide support to the forthcoming Post-COVID Hackathon.

Gibraltar Finance has been announced as an official partner of the upcoming Post-COVID Hackathon — a global, online initiative intended to create open-source solutions addressing the health, social and economic challenges posed by the post-COVID-19 era. The event is expected to see participation from hundreds of teams internationally building in the distributed ledger technology (DLT) sector, with over 200 industry experts slated to assist participants.

As real estate security tokens grow in popularity, tZERO has partnered with Aspen Digital to support trade in a five-star resort-backed token.

Leading security token exchange tZERO has partnered with Aspen Digital Inc. to enable trade for Aspen’s digital security. The ‘ASPEN’ token, previously dubbed ‘Aspen Coin’, represents $18 million worth of indirect ownership in the St. Regis Aspen Resort — a five-star, 179-room hotel situated in Colorado. ASPEN’s listing on tZERO comes as the popularity of real estate tokens continues to show steady growth.

Buy and sell bitcoin through Zank – earn quickly and easily!

[Zak99]

News of the cryptocurrency market:

 

 

 

Brave Browser takes the security and privacy of iPhones and iPads to the next level by partnering with Guardian, provider of VPN and Firewall services.

 

July 27, Brave Software partners with Guardian to bring greater levels of security and privacy to the iPhone and iPad users. This partnership will combine the privacy stack of the two companies — Brave’s privacy focused browser with Guardian’s VPN and firewall service. The iOS users of Brave Browser will be able with one click to turn on Brave Firewall + VPN that will protect the entire device from privacy intruding trackers.

 

 

 

China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) will be integrating with some of the most well-known public blockchains over the next 12 months.

 

He Yifan, CEO of Red Date Technology, the private company behind the BSN, told Cointelegraph that the network aims to integrate with 30–40 public blockchain networks by June 2021. In the following year, it will further integrate more blockchains to purportedly double that number. Launched in April, BSN is China’s first government-backed blockchain initiative that was initially positioned to help small to medium-size businesses and entrepreneurs build and deploy blockchain applications on permissioned blockchains. It has since registered 6,000 enterprises and individuals on the network.

 

 

 

Registered by Swiss crypto investment manager FiCAS, the new Bitcoin Capital Active ETP trades crypto without direct investor involvement.

 

Swiss SIX Exchange, one of the world’s largest stock exchanges, is listing a new cryptocurrency exchange-traded product, or ETP. Dubbed the “Bitcoin Capital Active ETP,” the new trading product represents an actively managed crypto ETP, trading Bitcoin (BTC) against 14 top altcoins like Ether (ETH) and exiting to fiat without active involvement from investors. Claimed to be the world’s first actively managed crypto ETP, the new product is now listed on SIX Exchange under index BTCA.

 

 

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