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Coinbase Cancelled Its Lending Program After SEC Threatened To Sue

Mark Brennan
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Coinbase Cancelled Its Lending Program After SEC Threatened To Sue

Coinbase decided to cancel its cryptocurrency lending program shortly after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided to go after the digital asset firm.



Coinbase has announced that its USDC lending plan will not be available to customers despite previous launch plans. Coinbase wanted to make it possible to earn interest on some cryptocurrencies, starting with the stablecoin USC Coin, but the company revealed the cancellation by re-headlining and updating a blog post originally published in June.

Coinbase blog writes:

“we are not launching the USDC APY program. As we continue our work to seek regulatory clarity for the crypto industry as a whole, we’ve made the difficult decision not to launch the USDC APY program. We have also discontinued the waitlist for this program as we turn our work to what comes next.”

 

As reported by TheCryptoBasic, CEO Brian Armstrong publicly revealed that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had threatened the exchange with a lawsuit for the yet-to-launch lending product.

Coinbase criticized the SEC for refusing to disclose why it believed the yield program was a unregistered security.

Armstrong also noted that the lending products had been around for years, implying that Coinbase was subject to unnecessary scrutiny by the regulator.

However, those who expected to see a showdown between the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States and the securities watchdog will be disappointed as the Coinbase is no more launching a lending product.

 

Coinbase $1.36M Contract With U.S. Homeland Security

On the other side, The Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch of the US Department of Homeland Security awarded a $1.36 million contract to Coinbase for “business applications” and “application development software.” , according to the Federal Procurement Data System.

The new deal is Coinbase largest federal contract yet. The deal was signed on Thursday and is worth about forty times more than Coinbase last contract with the Homeland Security branch.

Satoshi-Era BTC Wallet Containing 616 Bitcoin Worth 29,470,042 USD Finally Woke Up After 8.8 Years Of Inactivity

Mark Brennan
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Satoshi-Era BTC Wallet Containing 616 Bitcoin Worth 29,470,042 USD Finally Woke Up After 8.8 Years Of Inactivity

Another Bitcoin wallet last used when Bitcoin was newly born is activated this year.



Data shared by the crypto-tracking service Whale Alert indicates that in the past 24 hours, another crypto wallet with Bitcoins purchased or mined 8.8 years ago has been woken up after a long period of inactivity.

 

The 1BamMXZBPLMwBT3UdyAAKy3ctGDbXNKoXk wallet contains 616 Bitcoins with a value of about $29,470,042. In 2012, 616 BTC were equivalent to just $6,667, which is an increase of 4,499 times.

This is not the first time that a dormant BTC wallet has been activated this year. Previously  TheCryptoBasic reported that a dormant wallet was activated in July containing 791 BTC.

 

Such an dormant wallet now activated could be seen as a bad sign, as the owners of these wallets most likely plan to sell their BTC now and then buy Bitcoin later at cheaper prices.

Ethereum 2.0 Deposit Contract Now Holds Above 7.7 Million Ethereum Worth More Than $25 Billion

Albert Brown
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Ethereum 2.0 Deposit Contract Now Holds Above 7.7 Million Ethereum Worth More Than $25 Billion

The ETH community is not worried about the recent decline in price of the world second-largest digital asset.

Read: $1.2B In Ethereum Withdrawn From Exchanges In Past 24 Hours Along With Over $1 Billion In ETH Burned Since EIP-1559 Release



The latest data from EtherScan, a leading block explorer and analytics platform for Ethereum, shows that the ETH community has significantly increased deposits under Ethereum 2.0 staking contract in the last few days.

 

The Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract now has 7.7 million ETHs, valued at approximately $25 billion. In August 2021, the total value of ETH 2.0 deposit contracts exceeded $20 billion for the first time in history. Over the past 5 weeks, the ETH community has staked more than 1.2 million on Ethereum under ETH2.0 deposit contract.

Ethereum’s network upgrade began on December 1, 2020, with the launch of Beacon Chain. The community staked about 900,000 ETHs under the deposit contract, and in the first three days of launch that number jumped to over 1 million.

 

Earlier this month, Arch Invest CEO Kathy Wood praised ETH’s network upgrade. “Our confidence in Ethereum has gone up dramatically as we have seen the beginning of the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake,” Wood said at a conference last week.

In addition to institutional interest, ETH’s Github activity has grown exponentially over the past few weeks.“Ethereum price has been volatile of late. Despite this, we’re seeing that the notable github submission activity for the number 2 market cap asset has grown back to May rates. It’s encouraging to see that the ETH team continues to innovate and improve,” Santiment said recently.

El Salvador Buys The Bitcoin Dip Again, According To President Najib Bukele “They Can Never Beat You If You Buy The Dips”

Jakkk
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El Salvador Buys The Bitcoin Dip Again, According To President Najib Bukele “They Can Never Beat You If You Buy The Dips”

Bitcoin price fell 5% from daily high of $48,234 to daily low of $45,394, liquidating hundreds of millions. The drop in the BTC price came as a buying opportunity for El Salvador, the first country to make BTC legal tender.

Read: According To El Salvador President, Nayib Bukele, 1.1 Million Salvadorans Now Using Chivo Bitcoin Wallet


 

President Najib Bukele took to Twitter to announce that the country bought an additional 150 bitcoins worth $6.8 million.

 

Bukele also shared a “presidential tip” on Twitter, about trading BTC.

Read: McDonald, Pizza Hut, Starbucks Started To Accept Bitcoin In El Salvador

 

El Salvador now has 700 BTC in total. The Central American country bought 400 coins on September 7, the day it adopted bitcoin as legal tender. Prior to that, El Salvador Congress approved the creation of a $150 million bitcoin fund.

 

 

El Salvador passed a Bitcoin bill in June this year and made it legal tender on September 12, however, the adoption of BTC has not been smooth in the country. First, the likes of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have warned the small Central American country of the disastrous impact on their economy due to the adoption of BTC and also refused to help the country with technical integration of BTC as legal tender. Later, several rating agencies including Fitch and Moody’s downgraded El Salvador’s credit rating.

Recently The President of El Salvador, Mr. Nayib Bukele share some positive news on how the adoption of bitcoin is growing in the country. According to Bukele 1.1 million citizens have downloaded the Chivo wallet.

 

This is 17 percent of the country’s population. This fast wallet download speed persists despite the fact that 65 percent of smartphone models here do not yet support Chivo. Each citizen receives $30 worth of bitcoins after downloading the wallet.

According To El Salvador President, Nayib Bukele, 1.1 Million Salvadorans Now Using Chivo Bitcoin Wallet

Mark Brennan
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According To El Salvador President, Nayib Bukele, 1.1 Million Salvadorans Now Using Chivo Bitcoin Wallet

The President of El Salvador, Mr. Nayib Bukele share some positive news on how the adoption of bitcoin is growing in the country. According to Bukele 1.1 million citizens have downloaded the Chivo wallet.

Read: Paypal Enables All Eligible Customers In The UK To Buy, Hold And Sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoincash & Litecoin From Their Paypal Account



According to a tweet from President Naib Bukele, roughly 1.1 million Salvadorans are now ready to use bitcoin as legal tender in the country and downloaded the Chivo bitcoin wallet created there in just ten days.

 

This is 17 percent of the country’s population. This fast wallet download speed persists despite the fact that 65 percent of smartphone models here do not yet support Chivo. Each citizen receives $30 worth of bitcoins after downloading the wallet.

Read: $1.2B In Ethereum Withdrawn From Exchanges In Past 24 Hours Along With Over $1 Billion In ETH Burned Since EIP-1559 Release

 

Undeniable is the fact that BTC payments actually lower the cost of cross-border payments. CNBC recently reported that Western union and other payment processors were taking whopping 400 million away from El Salvador in shape of remittances fees.

Read: Statue Of Bitcoin Inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto Unveiled In Hungary

More than 70 percent of the population receives remittances to El Salvador. In 2020 alone, local residents received a total of $6 billion from abroad. Now Naib Bukele is confident that Bitcoin will help Salvadorans avoid these gigantic fees.

Big names like McDonald, Pizza Hut, Starbucks all Started To Accept Bitcoin In El Salvador.

US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Probes Binance Over Allegations of Possible Insider Trading And Market Manipulation

Mark Brennan
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US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Probes Binance Over Allegations of Possible Insider Trading And Market Manipulation

Binance regulatory troubles have now spread to the US. A recent Bloomberg report highlighted that the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is now investigating the crypto exchange over allegations of possible insider trading and market manipulation.


 

People familiar with the matter and who preferred not to have their names and titles mentioned told Bloomberg that this new investigation is being conducted confidentially. The CFTC is investigating whether Binance or any of its employees have made any profit by leveraging their clients.

 

In a Binance statement mentioned by Bloomberg, a Binance representative said that the company does not tolerate insider trading and follows a strict code to avoid any misconduct that could harm the exchange’s customers and damage its reputation in the crypto market.

According to the representative, Binance’s security team always makes sure that no crime occurs or, if it does, the wrongdoers are held responsible for it.

So far no comment has been obtained from the CFTC in this regard.

$1.2B In Ethereum Withdrawn From Exchanges In Past 24 Hours Along With Over $1 Billion In ETH Burned Since EIP-1559 Release

Albert Brown
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0
$1.2B In Ethereum Withdrawn From Exchanges In Past 24 Hours Along With Over $1 Billion In ETH Burned Since EIP-1559 Release

More than $1 billion worth of ETH were pulled off from centralized exchanges within 24 hours. its the second time this year.



More than $1 billion worth of Ethereum has been removed from centralized exchanges in the past 24 hours, leading to speculation about an imminent rise in ether prices as supply declines on many marketplaces.

 

According to data provided by crypto analytics provider IntoTheBlock, $1.2 billion in ETH was withdrawn from centralized exchanges on Thursday, setting a new record for short-term churns from exchanges.

IntoTheBlock noted that the price of Ethereum rose 60% in 30 days after $1 billion was withdrawn from centralized trading platforms in April.

 

More than $ 1 Billion in ETH has been burned since EIP-1559 was released.

Data provided by the Watchtheburn website shows that 297,000 ETH has been burned on the ETH network since August 5. This is more than $1 billion worth of Dollars, the same amount was transferred by the whales from centralized exchanges to other wallets, mentioned in the first part of the article.

EthHub co-founder Anthony Sassano confirmed this on his Twitter page.

 

Paypal Enables All Eligible Customers In The UK To Buy, Hold And Sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoincash & Litecoin From Their Paypal Account

Jakkk
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0
Paypal Enables All Eligible Customers In The UK To Buy, Hold And Sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoincash & Litecoin From Their Paypal Account

PayPal has announced that all of its eligible customers can now buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies in the U.K.


 

Customers can choose from four crypto Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.

 

By accessing their PayPal account via the website or the mobile app, they can view real-time crypto prices, access educational content to help answer commonly asked questions, and learn more about cryptocurrencies, including the opportunities and risks.

This announcement marks the first international expansion of the company’s cryptocurrency offering outside of the United States. With a trusted brand like PayPal now making an entry, access, knowledge, and the exploration of cryptocurrency has the potential to become mainstream in the UK.

Vice President and General Manager, Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currencies at PayPal, Jose Fernandez da Ponte said:

“The pandemic has accelerated digital change and innovation across all aspects of our lives— including the digitisation of money and greater consumer adoption of digital financial services. 

Our global reach, digital payments expertise provides us the unique opportunity, and the responsibility, to help people in the UK to explore cryptocurrency. We are committed to continue working closely with regulators in the UK, to offer our support and meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”

 

Buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency with PayPal

The introduction of this service offers customers a new way to explore cryptocurrency in the PayPal. Customers can start by buying as little as £1 of cryptocurrency through PayPal. To purchase cryptocurrency, eligible customers can log into their PayPal account via the website or their mobile app, navigate to the new crypto tab to view the four cryptocurrencies available and view current pricing and trends.

Create greater understanding and enable access

As part of this offering, PayPal provides account holders with educational content to help them understand the cryptocurrency ecosystem, the volatility, risks, and opportunities related to purchasing crypto.

In the UK, PayPal’s new crypto offering which covers buying, holding and selling cryptocurrency is available for all eligible customers directly in their PayPal account via the website and their mobile app.

After Alonzo Hard Fork Over 40,000 Smart Contracts Are Deployed On Cardano

Mark Brennan
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After Alonzo Hard Fork Over 40,000 Smart Contracts Are Deployed On Cardano

Smart contracts became a reality on the Cardano network after September 12th. After the launch of Alonzo Hard Fork, developers could now start creating smart contracts on Cardano ecosystem. This would help developers create decentralized applications (DApps) to provide decentralized financial services (DeFi) to blockchain users.



With the number of smart contracts created on the Cardano, there is no doubt that we will see an influx of new decentralized apps on the network. Cardano team has said that they are helping developers bring their projects to life on the platform, by making the Cardano ecosystem as safe and developer-friendly as possible.

 

On the first day after the introduction of smart contracts on cardano, over 100 smart contracts were created in the first 24 hours. That number in itself was impressive. But the following days have shown an even accelerated schedule for creating these smart contracts. Thursday September 16 marks the fourth day after the Alonzo HFC and the current number of smart contracts on the network is now above 40,000 according to data provided by adapools.org.

 

While most of these smart contracts are not going into effect now, developers are creating them to lock their tokens before their decentralized applications are released. It shows the number of developers are already working on to bring their projects into the Cardano ecosystem. With the rise of decentralized finance, more and more people are moving away from other leading smart contracts platforms in favor of a cheaper and faster alternative like Cardano, it is expected that more protocols will adopt ADA smart contracts.

Currently, these smart contracts are in a timelock contract that locks them down for a specific period of time until developers are ready to use them. This gives the developers the time they need to develop their protocols while having their smart contracts secured in advance for their use.

Statue Of Bitcoin Inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto Unveiled In Hungary

Mark Brennan
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Statue Of Bitcoin Inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto Unveiled In Hungary

Hungarian bitcoin enthusiasts unveiled a statue in Budapest on Thursday that they say is the first in the world to honor Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic inventor of Bitcoin.



The life-size bronze monument shows a person wearing a hoodie. The choice of the garment, which features the Bitcoin logo on its left side, was intended to emphasize Satoshi’s anonymity. It was funded by four Hungarian cryptocurrency organizations.

The statue’s expressionless face has a mirror-like reflective surface due to the golden aluminum. It allow people to see their own reflection, and aims to send the message “We are all Satoshi”.

satoshi nakamoto sculpture in hungry

 

The sculpture was the brainchild of entrepreneur and bitcoin journalist, Andras Gyorfi.

Gyorfi told AFP:

“Back in March, I was researching the connection between digital art and blockchain.

And I thought: ‘why shouldn’t Satoshi have a statue in Budapest?

The basic concept of bitcoin is that it belongs to everyone, the people of the internet, that we are all Satoshi.

So anyone can recognize themselves when looking at the face,”

 

Created following the global financial crisis of 2008, bitcoin aspired to overthrow traditional monetary and financial institutions such as central banks.

The founding white paper, published on October 31, 2008 and written by Nakamoto, included the primary goal of processing online payments between two parties without going through a financial institution.

Since the creation of a first block of 50 bitcoins in January 2009, approximately 18.8 million BTC are currently in circulation.

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