The Money Update

The data taken from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView revealed that BTC/USD was moving within a range the last week.

The pair was unable to come to terms when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell delivered economic policy information at an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival.

“I don’t know if financial conditions have tightened more than this in a very long time,” the economist stated to the paper’s chief economist reporter, Nick Timiraos, in an interview.

Powell confirmed that the key rate of 50 basis points increases would be continued in the subsequent sessions of the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) and could eventually reach “neutral” levels in Q4. However, the hikes following that may continue if needed to reduce inflation further.

Since traditional markets were already pricing in this scenario, the risk of volatility was a bit lower because Powell was able to avoid surprises.

The BTC/USD pair saw a short drop to $29,500 before regaining the value after Powell’s remarks. Risk assets are set for a difficult time as tightening in the financial sector continues, yet, crypto market experts were not able to provide very positive reports.

A growing number of traders are, as sources recent reports, prefer a move lower than the $23,800 lowest recorded this week during the peak of “terra” (LUNA) and TerraUSD (UST) implosions.

“Bottoms take time to form, so do not expect it within the next day or two,” trader Crypto Tony said to his followers on Twitter at the time:

“We’ll probably find support, bounce for some respite, catch late shorts, and keep the trend going.”

This seems to be a good season for Bitcoin miners. In an interesting development, another solo Bitcoin miner has solved a valid block. The solo miner has generated a reward of $240000, which is equivalent to around 6.25 BTC.

Administrator for CKPool, Con Kolivas, said that the odds were less than 20% in this situation and this happens to be the fourth blockfind since the beginning of 2022. Kolivas congratulated the solo miner who resolved the 264^th block, and an amazing 1.14PH was used for the operation. Heraldnet experts consider the miner as a whale due to the high Peta hash per second rate used for the mining operation.

Across the world, miners resolve a new Bitcoin block every 10 minutes, and the US miners Foundry is the largest contributor to the network hash rate. The regular miners have to compete against the entire Bitcoin network hash rate.

So far, CK’s solo miners have solved over 264 out of the total 721240 blocks. Even though this is a small number, the odds are often against the solo miners due to smaller infrastructure. In this regard, CKPool miners have surprised everyone with many achievements in a short duration of time.

In the second week of January, a miner from CKPool solved a valid block with just a small hash rate of 126 terahash per second. This was probably done on a single S19 machine. Similarly, another small miner also solved a valid block by using about 86 terahashes per second, which is a good development for individual miners.

Exciting news for the bitcoin Rakuten owners is waiting to be revealed! Are you curious to know about it? Thinking what’s a new surprise for the Rakuten bitcoin owners? No doubt, it’s a big surprise that’ll make you dance. Rakuten, one of the biggest giants in the retail sector in Japan has combined the wallet available for cryptocurrency with the payment application. With this integration, consumers can enjoy greater ease in using bitcoins. It benefits customers with the ease of loading bitcoins and easily converting them for everyday usage. So, it can be beneficial for consumers to shop every day using bitcoins.

Rakuten (a retailer in Japan) friendly to crypto usage is providing Rakuten wallet users a benefit of using a subsidiary cryptocurrency network for exchange for spending crypto holdings easily in daily life dealings and transactions.

As per the latest announcement released regarding the news, all the users get to enjoy the ease in using the Rakuten account for payment purposes with the wallets of BTC (Bitcoin), ETH (Ether), and BCH (Bitcoin Cash) holdings. If you’re not aware of Rakuten or a new user, you can learn from here. Rakuten payment is an application available for payment using mobile version connected nationwide and available at multiple medium or large-scale retailers. So, most of the retailers are aware of the app and are using it for payment purposes.

In the past 2019, the news was out related to Rakuten showing a confirmation on consumers able to use the points collected as a loyalty feature at the Rakuten group to transfer it in cryptos. There are not many restrictions about the transfer and it is easy to do it with the app itself. And in the current time, another news came out as a grand surprise for its users. Another integration is shown by the group that is not like the past but connected to it and it much deeper. In this step, a lot of efforts are focused on the Rakuten cash (e-money), Rakuten pay, and Rakuten wallet to start considering cryptocurrency as a payment option. With such an integration, it gives a chance to users to use cryptos in the spending transactions at stores like FamilyMart, McDonald, or Seiyu conveniently.

Also, one major eye-catching thing revealed in the middle of the integration is no charges on conversion or any additional fee will be levied by Rakuten. The no-charge action is applicable in the conversion of cryptocurrency, fiat, and e-money. Though a limit exists regarding the minimum amount that a user can spend, and that remains up to 1,000 yen or $9.40. Apart from the minimum limit, it holds a monthly limit to an upper amount of up to 100,000 yen or $940.

If you’re a Rakuten user and you want to avail the benefit of using it, it’s not a tough thing and one can do it easily. It’s a must for you to have a Rakuten wallet account available in a trading position. Also, a new bonus is introduced by the company for new integration service incentivization. In the bonus feature, users get hands over Rakuten points.

There have been headlines about a business company based in Lagos, Nigeria, and has branches in the United States, Ghana, and the United Kingdom. It basically started as an eCommerce startup that is now globally famous due to its services. It claims that an approximate number of 300,000 plus people use their services to meet their everyday needs and requirements.

The company utilizes the aspects and the power of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to create further solutions for their existing financial properties. This will enable the customers to basically buy and sell BTC at the best rates in Africa and, most importantly, with no hidden charges!

The digital assets can be stored in Patricia’s “safe, secure, and flexible wallet.” Users have the facility to convert their Bitcoin and fiat currencies as per their needs and requirements.

The founder, Fejiro Hanu Agbodje, was basically inspired by a childhood situation. He was given an iTunes gift card but had no iPhone to use that. So he basically went on searching for companies that could exchange those gift cards for real money but could end up finding none. And eventually, he ended up getting scammed, but that was the turning point in his life, and Patricia has evolved and is clearly thriving right now!

People usually see bitcoin just as a simple asset, but there is surely more to that. Patricia emphasizes on the fact that you can use your cryptocurrencies for essential bill payments, purchases, and many more.

The customizable debit card is one of the company’s flagship products that basically help people withdraw cash anytime from an ATM machine like regular money. Furthermore, purchases can be easily made without any hassle by countless merchants worldwide. Fascinating, right?

And the cherry on the top includes that your bank account can be opened at an instant just within minutes. It is that easy! Patricia even claims that they charge pretty low as their transfer fees in comparison to the others in the market. This is because many of the times, it is often seen that the transfer rates are so massive that this might count as a significant loss for the people. Their main focus is to protect the cash of the people and maintain better cash flow.

There are e a few other benefits of having an account in Patricia as well, like the ability to sell and buy gift cards. The top brand includes Amazon, Google Pay, and iTunes. Isn’t it great? Now you don’t need to think about that one gift card that you got long ago but have nowhere to spend them. This is the perfect place to sell those and exchange cash for them.

Thus, this company is taking all the necessary actions to make everything digital and make cryptocurrencies a fundamental option of spending. It is undoubtedly changing the future, which can impact the use of cryptocurrencies by expanding its uses. This is because the traditional people usually just considered this as an asset, but now it is more than that. This is pretty important considering the digitalization happening all around the world.

For decades, North Korea’s Kim dynasty is making billions of money through counterfeiting cash, drug trafficking, and more. But, in the past few years, North Korea is using far more sophisticated methods to make money. They have turned into cybercrimes to raise money for their country. It has been reported that they have thousands of hackers who conduct heists against cryptocurrency exchanges and even banks that result in billions of dollars from being stolen. One such attack was reported in 2018, which results in a $250 million worth of money being stolen in one swoop.  According to the United Nations, the regime uses a large amount of money received through it to develop its nuclear power further to ensure its long-term survival.

However, there is a huge difference between just hacking the cryptocurrency exchanges and getting the actual cash to do whatever they plan to do. Getting their hands on real money means that they have to launder the cryptocurrency somewhere without a trace and then exchange them for real currency to buy weapons, luxurious items, and anything else that is not possible with bitcoins.

According to a cryptocurrency case agent at the IRS, Christopher Janczewski, laundering cryptocurrency, is far more sophisticated than the actual hack. With the increase in these hacks, Janczewski has quite busy lately. He was the lead investigating officer in the recent hack involving two Twitter users and the largest darknet website funded through Bitcoin used for child sexual abuse. In the most recent cases, he also led the investigation on the $250 million in cryptocurrency that was carried out by a North Korean hacker team called Lazarus Group. He added that Lazarus Group is evolving quite fast.

Lazarus uses different tactics to hide their wrongdoing and to throw off any investigation. They transfer the cryptocurrencies to different accounts and wallets and may switch from ether to Bitcoin with ease. But, in the past few years, the gang has evolved immensely and are using a tactic called ‘peel chain.’ It involves money movement in quick and automated transactions from one Bitcoin wallet to new addresses using thousands of transactions. It allows them to minimize the risk of setting off any red flags and also hides the real source of money. Another approach called ‘chain hopping’ is used to move the money from one cryptocurrency to another to take it away from Bitcoin. It leads the trails to go cold and sometimes even raise false alarms for the investigation agents.

Janczewski revealed that the Lazarus runs a huge operation that involves the creation and maintenance of thousands of fake identities and accounts. The amount of effort and technology being spent on them is so huge that it shows just how important these operations are for the North Korean regime. While it is difficult to give it a real number, experts say that about 15% of the North Korean economy depends on criminal activity, with cyberattacks on the top.

Cryptocurrency hacking is far from the perfect crime, but investigators and the police have been clueless about how to track them for a while. But today, they have years of experience, and increased cooperation from exchanges and pressure from the government is making it easier for the investigators to track them. With improved technology, blockchain surveillance tools are becoming more advanced, leading to cryptocurrency from being less anonymous than before.

The hackers may use different hops and peels to cover their tracks; they need to use Bitcoins to exchange them for US dollars eventually. It is being possible using the over-the-counter markets that are more traceable. The US government is also taking proactive steps to take action against illegal accounts and exchanges, responding to their requests to freeze funds more easily.

Gemini, the crypto exchange, has started accepting deposits in PAX Gold, AMP, and Compound with trading effective 15th September 2020.

Gemini offers US dollars trading pairs for PAX Gold, AMP, and Compound via its active trader platform and API connections. The exchange is also offering trading and custody support for 12 cryptos (BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC, ZEC, BAT, DAI, LINK, OXT, PAXG, AMP, and COMP) and custody for 13 cryptos (ZRX, BRD, MANA, ENJ, GUSD, GNT, KNC, LOOM, MKR, NMR, OMG STORJ, and CSP).

Tyler Winklevos, the co-founder of Gemini Crypto exchange in his tweet, had announced the addition of PAXG, AMP, and COMP, through their ActiveTrader platform, API connections as well as trading pairs with all supported fiats (USD, AUD, CAD, and HKD) via the desktop and mobile platforms, reflecting the exchange’s commitment to DeFi.

In its statement, Gemini said that the addition of three assets, PAX Gold, AMP, and Compound expand the range of their platform and would help to continue with their mission of empowering individuals through crypto. In its statement, the exchange also said that it is working closely with the New York State Department of Financial Services to gain approval to offer services for new assets. The addition of the assets will provide a new way to interact with the crypto ecosystem.

Although Gemini lists DeFi tokens, Tyler Winklevos is still bullish on Bitcoin. He predicted that Bitcoin would reach $ 500,000.

Many major exchanges have started listing popular DeFi tokens; Poloniex, Houbi, Coinbase, OKEx, and Binance have all listed different DeFi projects.

What are PAX Gold (PAXG), AMP, and Compound (COMP)?

PAX Gold is a digital asset, where every token corresponds at a 1:1 ratio to one ounce of physical gold held in reserve. With PAXG, it now becomes easier to purchase gold. Each token supports one troy ounce (t oz.) of a 400 oz. London Good Delivery gold bar, stored in Brink’s vault. PAXG gives you the benefit of actual physical ownership with the mobility and speed of digital ownership. You can also have fractional ownership of the physical bars—both liquid and digital.

AMP is a digital collateral for Flexa Network, a payment system that allows you to spend some cryptocurrencies supported on the Gemini platform with select retailers at their physical locations. When you purchase from a retailer with a Gemini pay app through Flexa, that app pays Flexa from your account in cryptocurrency of your choice, and Flexa, in turn, pays the retailer in the currency of their choice. Flexa uses AMP as collateral from the time of purchase to the time of settlement with the merchant.

Compound (COMP) is an open-source platform that allows you to borrow and pay interest or lend and earn interest against your crypto. You either lend or borrow crypto on the platform, and receive a cToken in exchange, correlating to your lent or borrowed asset. The compound protocol algorithm determines the interest that you pay or earn, and it changes every day with the market. 

As said earlier, with the expansion of assets on the Gemini platform, the exchange intents to empower individuals through crypto.