Bitcoin Industry

2023-01-01 20:00:05 ​​Here’s what SBF’s fake electronics outlet ‘North Dimension’ looks like.

A shop with obscure brand partners and generic texts, where you can't really buy anything.

As the malpractices of the FTX continue to pop up and be uncovered by prosecutors, it turns out the disgraced crypto exchange’s customers were sending money to a fake electronic online shop, which was reportedly opened by Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried.

In a complaint filed on Dec. 13, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mentioned North Dimension Inc., an Alameda subsidiary that was a vital part of the FTX financial malpractice. According to the complaint, Bankman-Fried directed FTX to have customers send funds to North Dimension bank accounts in an effort to hide the fact that the funds were being sent to an account controlled by Alameda.

But the most peculiar fact about the company, which was registered at the same address in California as FTX US, was its fake website. Now only available through the Wayback Machine, the site appears to be an electronics outlet. However, there’s no evidence that one could actually buy anything from North Dimension.

Clicking on any item — for example, a $1,199 MacBook Pro with a 13-inch display — leads to a “Get a Quote” page where one can leave a message and contact information. As the text on the page reads, “We collaborate with ambitious brands and people; we’d love to build something great together.”

The site also claimed to be in collaboration with the “world’s premium brands,” but the logos displayed in the partner section are hardly familiar to anyon who’d like to buy a laptop or a smartphone.

The cherry on the cake is surely the website’s “About Us” section, whose texts look like they may have been written by a not-too-smart artificial intelligence.

After being released on a $250 million bail, SBF has reportedly been cashing out large amounts of cryptocurrency. According to an on-chain investigation by decentralized finance educator BowTiedIguana, SBF has cashed out $684,000 in crypto from an exchange in Seychelles. Open / Comment

2022-12-29 22:00:04 ​​BMW taps Coinweb and BNB chain for blockchain loyalty program.

BMW will integrate decentralized tech in two phases- first in its daily operations to eliminate complex paperwork, and the second phase would see the development of a customer loyalty program.

German car manufacturer BMW plans to integrate blockchain technology into its daily operations and create a blockchain loyalty program for its customers in Thailand. The popular carmaker has onboarded blockchain infrastructure firm Coinweb as its decentralized architecture provider and BNB Chain for settling transactions.

The integration of blockchain technology into BMW’s workflow will take place in two phases. First, the decentralized tech will be integrated into BMW’s daily operations with the goal of automating time-consuming manual processes and streamlining the company’s automobile financing services.

The second phase of the project would see Coinweb develop a customized Web3 application for BMW’s customer loyalty program. The program will use a blockchain-based rewards scheme to incentivize BMW Group customers. A customer’s tier and status in the ecosystem will be determined by the loyalty rewards they have acquired via various actions.

Owners will be able to use their rewards to purchase goods and services from BMW as well as from a linked ecosystem in the future. Binance’s native BNB chain will be used to settle transactions.

Talking about how customers will be rewarded under the upcoming loyalty program, Coinweb CEO Toby Gilbert, told Cointelegraph that customers will be rewarded every time they have touchpoints with the BMW ecosystem, be it “buying a new car or they go for a service,” he explained further:

“Customers will be rewarded with loyalty points and they will be able to spend within the ecosystem. Our hope is that there will be a future global rollout but currently our partnership is for Thailand.”

BMW Thailand’s leasing head Bjorn Antonsson said that the firm has been actively monitoring the progress of decentralized tech and its various use cases over the years. Antonsson hoped that the integration of blockchain tech in their daily operations would eliminate the manual paperwork and contribute toward the company’s efficiency and transparency. Open / Comment

2022-12-29 19:00:07 Trading tournament with a prize pool of 10,000 USDT from Lot.Trade & OKX is in full swing!

OKX Grand Cup 10000 started on December 15 and will last until January 31! It's time to join the competition .

Register on OKX with the link

Create API keys on OKX, bind them to Lot.Trade

Register in a tournament (Spot, Futures or both)

And then just trade as usual on OKX and get prizes.

There are 160 prizes in total. And the winner's reward is 2500 USDT.

But it's not enough! Except prize pool in 10000 USDT, gaming platform Lot.trade launches interesting and profitable contests. So you can additionally get from $10 to your wallet.

Join us and trade on the most famous exchanges with pleasure and profit.

>> Register on OKX and get a mystery box.

>> Register in the tournament on Lot.trade. Open / Comment

2022-12-29 15:00:12 AliumSwap launches Christmas Referral Program

AliumSwap is an all-in-one multi-chain DEX with hybrid liquidity feature, unique staking alternatives and the upcoming cross-chain feature operating on Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum Chain, Polygon Matic Chain, Huobi ECO Chain, Fantom Opera and 5 other chains.

AliumSwap invites you to participate in a Christmas Referral Program with a prize pool of $5,000. You have the opportunity to earn by performing simple tasks on the Alium platform, making multichain swaps and trying out the platform's feature-rich DEX.

You can earn in 2 ways:

By completing simple tasks: Join the community, make swaps, provide liquidity, etc.

And of course earning from referrals, invite as many friends as possible and earn unlimited.

Once you achieve 10 USDT balance you'll be able to withdraw your reward.

Go to the link below to Alium Referral bot and start earning
: https://t.me/Alium_Referral_Bot

Visit AliumSwap at: Website | Telegram Open / Comment

2022-12-26 20:00:12 ​​Crypto community expresses Christmas market sentiments: ‘No Santa rally’.

A community member pointed out that the lack of movements may be because of the controversies surrounding centralized exchanges.

Traders looking forward to a rally during Christmas were disappointed as the markets turned out to be steady as many celebrated the holidays. Crypto community members expressed their disappointment by sharing memes, with some even employing their creativity through poetry.

On Dec. 23, Data tracker Coinstats shared an image showing positive market movements and floating the idea of a potential “Santa Claus rally.”

However, with Bitcoin’s volatility index hitting record lows on Dec. 25, any thoughts of having a merry BTC rally on Christmas were put to a stop. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro showed that the top crypto hovered around $16,800 on holiday.

A community member pointed out that the lack of a rally this Christmas may be because of the controversies that surrounded centralized exchanges like FTX and Binance this year. Adding creativity to the mix, analytics tool CMM shared poetry inspired by the FTX collapse involving the firm’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Meanwhile, another community member hinted the lack of Christmas gifts may be because Santa was affected by the crypto dips as well. On the other hand, some Twitter users expressed frustration by sharing memes.

One shared a photo of a cat doing a thumbs-up while thanking Santa for the “Christmas pump” that didn’t happen. Another shared a photo of a psychologist supposedly treating a crypto trader for believing in a Santa rally.

While the crypto markets were at a standstill, bad actors within the space continued their work. In a recent exploit, around $8 million in assets were compromised because hackers hijacked an APK of the BitKeep wallet. The team urged its community members to transfer their funds to wallets downloaded from official sources like the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Apart from this, another exploit was conducted by hackers linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The attackers allegedly launched a wide phishing campaign that targeted nonfungible token (NFT) users. The hackers launched around 500 phishing domains to lure their victims and steal their NFTs. Open / Comment

2022-12-23 20:00:14 ​​Be ‘very wary’ of crypto proof-of-reserve audits: SEC official.

SEC’s acting chief accountant Paul Munter said that investors shouldn't place too much confidence in a company holding up a proof-of-reserves audit.

A senior official from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has warned investors to be “very wary” about relying on a crypto company’s “proof-of-reserves.”

“We’re warning investors to be very wary of some of the claims that are being made by crypto companies,” said SEC’s acting chief accountant Paul Munter in a Dec. 22 interview with The Wall Street Journal.

A number of crypto firms have commissioned proof-of-reserves audits since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, aiming to quell concerns over their own exchange’s financial soundness.

However, Munter said the results of these audits isn’t necessarily an indicator that the company is in a good financial position:

“Investors should not place too much confidence in the mere fact a company says it’s got a proof-of-reserves from an audit firm.”

He further added that these proof-of-reserve reports “lack” the sufficient information for stakeholders to determine whether the company has enough assets to meet its liabilities.

Munter also recently spoke at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants Conference in Washington, D.C. on Dec.12, where he reportedly expressed frustration about the constantly evolving structure of crypto firms.

Munter noted to WSJ that if the SEC uncovers “troublesome” fact patterns, it may refer the matter to the division of enforcement for further review.

Earlier this month, John Reed Stark, former chief of the SEC of Internet Enforcement, raised a “red flag” on Twitter over Binance’s proof-of-reserve report via Twitter on Dec. 11.

He said that Binance’s proof-of-reserve report didn’t address the effectiveness of internal financial controls, nor does it express an opinion or assurance conclusion, nor does it vouch for the numbers.

It was revealed on Dec. 16 that French auditing firm Mazars Group, discontinued its section on its website dedicated to crypto audits.

The firm had worked with several prominent crypto exchanges including Binance, KuCoin and Cryptocom. Open / Comment

2022-12-23 17:00:17 $TIME is the most oversold coin.

Located in the accumulation zone 53-57.
Could pump hard
I am buying some.

A few key points about the project:

1. Founded in 2016, Chrono.tech operates the biggest crypto freelance platfrom - LaborX. Seems like there're some special perks for TIME holders.
2. Token is already listed on tier-1 exchanges, including Coinbase and Kucoin.

3. In the near future the TIME token will be listed on two top exchanges.

4. TIME-30D Fixed Promotion on KuCoin, APR of 72%! WOW

The price stabilized at around 53-57, looks good for a medium term holding.

P.S: Not financial advice.
DYOR Open / Comment

2022-12-20 20:00:10 ​​Sango Coin listing postponed by Central African Republic.

As the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in Africa, the Central African Republic appears to be struggling with its investor-oriented token, Sango Coin.

The Central African Republic has announced it will delay the listing of cryptocurrency, Sango Coin, on crypto exchanges due to current market conditions and marketing reasons. The update was revealed in Sango’s Telegram group.

Sango Coin was launched in July with the aim of raising nearly $1 billion over the next year. So far, however, only $1.66 million worth of the coin has been sold, according to the Sango website.

In April of this year, the Central African Republic made Bitcoin legal tender, becoming the first African state to do so. The country had also previously announced a plan to allow foreign investors to buy citizenship for $60,000 worth of Sango Coins. However, this initiative was blocked as unconstitutional by the country's top court in August.

Cointelegraph recently sat down with Mamadou Moustapha Ly, the Central African technician who oversaw the development of Sango Coin while attending a conference in Senegal, West Africa. A payments expert, Ly also runs the Fintech startup Kete Cash. Ly shed light on the creation of what he called a “token–not a currency,” labeled Sango. Sango is the token that would accompany the country’s plans to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender.

First, Ly stressed that the Bitcoin as legal tender law clearly states that the country will adopt Bitcoin: There is no mention of other cryptocurrencies or even Sango Coin. He painted a clear divide between Sango and Bitcoin:

“The law states that the digital currency that is legal tender is bitcoin. We recognize this as our official currency. Sango coin is a project for the Central African Republic state.”

His comments are backed by the President of the CAR, Faustin-Archange Touadéra. The mathematician has been vocal in his support of Bitcoin, and Bitcoin only. However, the President showed solidarity with the creation of the Sango token, as the country would move toward a “Brighter Future” via blockchain technology. Open / Comment

2022-12-17 21:00:03 $50 Risk-Free Bets for the World Cup 2022 Final With Duelbits

World Cup Final - the most awaited football event is coming to its end and Duelbits is giving you a chance to get a $50 Risk-Free Live bet when you place a $50 bet pre-match.

How to get the Risk-Free Bet
• Just place a bet between $5 and $50 on any Pre-Match market on the World Cup Final on Sunday 18th December.

• When the match starts, place a risk-free Live bet to the equivalent of your Pre-Match stake.

The first Pre-Match bet placed will be eligible, any other bets after this are not considered. It’s that easy!

It's Argentina vs France, who is going to get the trophy?

Bet Now To Win Open / Comment

2022-12-17 20:00:07 ​​Hal Finney’s wife resumes activity on Bitcoin pioneer’s Twitter account to avoid potential purge.

Under Elon Musk’s leadership, Twitter suspended a number of accounts including those controlled by high-profile journalists and social networking platform Mastodon.

Fran Finney, the wife of computer scientist Hal Finney — the recipient of the first transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain from Satoshi Nakamoto — reactivated her late husband’s Twitter account amid concerns Twitter CEO Elon Musk might purge the content from the social media platform due to inactivity.

Many Crypto Twitter users reported on Dec. 16 that Finney’s account registered activity for the first time in more than 12 years. Some speculated that a hacker might have taken control of the Bitcoin pioneer’s account and its more than 71,000 followers, but Fran quickly stepped in to dispel rumors.

“I am tweeting for Hal to avoid his account being purged by Elon,” said Fran.

It’s unclear whether Fran Finney’s intervention may save the crypto pioneer’s social media presence. Amid Musk’s $44-billion purchase of Twitter which was completed in October, he claimed he backed free speech as “the bedrock of a functioning democracy.”

However, under Musk’s leadership, the social media platform on Dec. 15 purged a number of accounts controlled by high-profile journalists at institutions including CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Accounts tracking the movements of Musk’s private flights as well as promoting social networking platform Mastodon — which has attracted many Twitter users following the billionaire’s takeover — were also suspended. The Twitter CEO claimed the former “doxxed my exact location in real-time.”

Musk had a net worth of more than $300 billion in October 2021 before the acquisition of Twitter, and around the same time, the price of Tesla stock reached an all-time high of $407.36 in November 2021. In roughly a year, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed that the Tesla CEO had dropped to the second richest person on the planet, with a reported net worth of $169 billion at the time of publication.

As CEO, Musk oversaw a number of controversial decisions at Twitter that had many in the business world questioning his acumen. Open / Comment