Crypto Retro

2023-01-25 20:00:11 ​​Ripple, Binance impersonators target XRP holders via fake staking program.

Online fraudsters attempt to lure in XRP investors by offering fake staking services with an ROI of up to 31% for a token that is not based on proof-of-stake consensus.

The cryptocurrency community has raised flags about a new scam scheme targeting XRP investors through a fake staking program.

Online fraudsters are impersonating major cryptocurrency firms like Ripple and Binance by creating fake websites and email imposters pretending to provide staking services for XRP.

One such website, ripplecom-stakingtech, includes a blog post titled “XRP staking set to debut January 2023 for retail users,” inviting users to “stake” their XRP with unrealistic returns on investment (ROI), ranging from 12% to 27%. The fake scheme attempts to rush XRP investors’ decision by stating that only the first 10,000 accounts will receive a higher ROI.

The fake website provides a well-crafted clone of Ripple’s website, ripplecom, by copying the original layout, and fonts and linking some of its previous blog posts. The impersonators also attempted to add more credibility to their posts by adding information about the importance of self-custody using major hardware wallets like Ledger or Trezor.

The scam website has a lot of mirror domains like rippleorgth or ripplecomve, targeting XRP users from all over the world.

The XRP staking website scam is accompanied with imposter emails impersonating Binance and offering up to 31% ROI on XRP staking. One industry enthusiast, RipplePandaXRP, took to Twitter on Jan. 21 to warn the XRP community about the scam.

“Do not send your XRP to an unknown address and always check the address to see if it is a legit site,” RipplePandaXRP wrote.

That said, the real Binance exchange actually offers decentralized finance (DeFi) staking for XRP as part of its Binance Earn program. However, Binance’s XRP DeFi staking program only allows users to earn up to 1.4% per year.

It’s important to note that XRP cannot be staked because it doesn’t run with a proof-of-stake system like major PoS cryptocurrencies such as Ether. Instead, XRP transactions rely on a network of “unique nodes” that agree on which transactions can be processed in the network.

Investors are advised to conduct thorough research to ensure the legitimacy of a platform before making any investments. Open / Comment

2023-01-22 20:00:08 ​​Central African Republic eyes legal framework for crypto adoption.

A 15-member committee is tasked with working on a legal framework that will allow cryptocurrencies to operate in Central African Republic and expedite the development of the national economy.

Central African Republic (CAR), a developing country in Central Africa, set up a 15-member committee responsible for drafting a bill on the use of cryptocurrencies and tokenization in the region.

According to Faustin-Archange Touadéra, the president of CAR, cryptocurrencies can potentially help eradicate the country’s financial barriers. He believed in creating a business-friendly environment supported by a legal framework for cryptocurrency usage. A rough translation of the official press release reads:

“With access to cryptocurrencies, the monetary barriers existing until now will disappear, the main objective of the measures adopted by the government being the development of the national economy.”

The committee responsible for drafting the crypto bill comprises 15 experts from five ministries of CAR — Ministry of Mines and Geology, Ministry of Waters, Forest, Hunting and Fishing, Ministry of Agriculture ad Rural Development, Ministry of Town Planning, Land Reform, Towns and Housing and Ministry of Justice, Promotion of Human Rights and Good Governance.

Through collaboration, the members are tasked with working on a legal framework that will allow cryptocurrencies to operate in Central African Republic and expedite the development of the national economy.

Crypto initiatives from the African continent marked another milestone as Nigerian crypto exchange Roqqu bagged a virtual currency license for the European Economic Area after two years of waiting for permission from regulatory authorities.

Roqqu CEO Benjamin Onomor told Cointelegraph that off-shore Africans send back over $5 billion to their relatives, and the current remittance system slows the process.

“It makes a lot of sense to solve this problem by using crypto as the vehicle. Crypto is a faster and cheaper route that can bridge the gap and help reduce fees in moving money globally. This is the core of the problem we want to solve,” he added. Open / Comment

2023-01-19 20:00:14 ​Crypto Crowd Sentiment Surges as Bitcoin Bulls Bet the Bottom is In.

Prior to the recent DoJ FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) and US equity market weakness-induced pullback in Bitcoin and broader cryptocurrency markets on Wednesday, the crypto trading crowd was having its second most bullish week in terms of sentiment in the past 14 months, crypto analytics firm Santiment revealed in a chart shared on Twitter on Thursday.

As of the 17th of January, Santiment’s Bitcoin Weight Social Sentiment (BWSS) index, which is released on a weekly basis, had jumped to 1.219. The jump coincides with Bitcoin’s recent rally back to the north of the $21,000 level for the first time since prior to the abrupt collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX/Alameda crypto trading empire.

Santiment’s BWSS index will probably drop a little next week if Bitcoin is unable to recover back to the north of the $21,000 level. BTC/USD was last changing hands in the $20,700s. Prices are currently being held down by some much overdue profit-taking, with the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) having recently rocketed to its most overbought level since early 2021.

In 2022, Bitcoin bulls got caught out by a number of bear market traps – this is where, after a prolonged decline, the market teases bulls with a small rally, suckers them back in, and then proceeds to drop once again. Bitcoin bulls where caught wrongfooted as US and global inflation surged more than expected, prompting major central banks like the Fed to tighten financial conditions far more aggressively than expected.

Not only did 2022’s aggressive rate hikes force investors out of speculative assets like crypto and slam the breaks on global economic growth, but the shift in macro conditions triggered a painful deleveraging cycle within speculative corners of the crypto industry, beginning with the collapse of unsustainable ecosystems like Terra and highly levered hedge funds like Three Arrows Capital before culminating in November’s collapse of FTX. Open / Comment

2023-01-16 20:00:09 ​​Shiba Inu devs to launch Shibarium L2 network beta.

While the developers did not give an exact date for the release, the team reiterated that their answer to all questions relating to the time frame is “soon.”

The developers of the dog-themed token Shiba Inu posted an update to inform its community about its upcoming beta release of Shibarium — a layer-2 network that will run on top of the Ethereum mainnet.

In the announcement, SHIB developers shared information about layer-2 blockchains. They highlighted that Shibarium is being developed to provide a tool to allow the community to build and grow the project and fulfill its founder’s vision. While some believe creating Shibarium is a way to increase the memecoins price, the developers noted that this wasn’t the goal. They wrote:

“Patience is key, and some see Shibarium as a price-pumping tool, but that is not the project's focus and never has been.”

Instead, the developers mentioned that the goal of the new update in its infrastructure is to “revolutionize the Shiba ecosystem” by removing barriers to entry for small transactions, upgrading the speed, allowing the development of decentralized applications and integrating nonfungible tokens.

A key update in the new announcement is one of the most-requested features for the project, which is a burning mechanism for SHIB. According to the developers, “all transactions on the network will have an implicit burn amount for SHIB token.“ This mechanism will occur whenever a transaction is made within the network.

While the developers did not give an exact date for the release, the team reiterated that their answer to all questions relating to the time frame is “soon.”

Members of the Shiba Inu community expressed their excitement over the new development. Some believe there are many things to look forward to in the ecosystem’s future, while others are just glad to read a new update on the project.

On Nov. 22, 2022, SHIB developer Shytoshi Kusama reported on social media that the World Economic Forum (WEF) invited the project to collaborate on creating a global policy on the metaverse. The developer highlighted that if it comes to fruition, the project will work with other tech giants like Facebook and Decentraland in helping the WEF develop the policy. Open / Comment

2023-01-13 20:00:13 ​​Lawyer explains new federal virtual asset law in the United Arab Emirates.

Failure to comply with the new law could lead to a hefty fine of up to $2.7 million, ejection of profits and criminal investigation.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has passed a new law that governs virtual assets, setting up the country's initial regulatory regime for the cryptocurrency space at the federal level.

Before the federal-level regulation, the UAE already introduced several supervisory initiatives for digital assets in economic free zones like the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). Last year, Dubai also established its own crypto regulator called the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).

Irina Heaver, a UAE-based crypto and blockchain lawyer, explained that the move has several implications. According to Heaver, the new law ensures that entities that engage in crypto activities must secure a license and approval from the new regulator. Non-compliance could lead to a hefty fine. She explained:

“Failure to comply leads to heavy sanctions, such as a fine of up to 10 million AED ($2.7 million), disgorgement of profits and even criminal investigation by the public prosecutor.”

Heaver highlighted that the law is expected to come into force on Jan. 14 and would require crypto entrepreneurs operating in the country to conform. “Every crypto and Web3 project operating in the UAE will have to structure a way to comply with the new federal law and all of the existing laws,” she explained.

Meanwhile, despite the minimum requirements for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) being attainable, the lawyer thinks that many firms may have some difficulties. “Those are actually rather realistic. However, the practice shows that most crypto companies fall short of even basic requirements,” said Heaver.

The crypto lawyer also highlighted that the law has also set up minimum requirements for VASPs. According to Heaver, all VASPs are required to comply with the legislation in force on combating money laundering crimes, the financing of terrorism and the financing of unlawful organizations. In addition, all legal entities that fall into the VASP category will have three months to adapt and comply with the new law. Open / Comment

2023-01-11 15:00:15 I came across an interesting youtube channel, and was amazing at the professionalism of this trader

Made a review of the most useful cryptocurrency software

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Open / Comment

2023-01-10 20:00:17 ​​Bitcoin community not happy with Peter Zeihan’s criticisms on Joe Rogan podcast.

Joe Rogan podcast guest Peter Zeihan argued that Bitcoin has no intrinsic value and will go down by $17,000 more.

Bitcoin community members took to social media in response to the claims of Peter Zeihan, a recent guest on the Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) podcast.

In a recent JRE episode, Zeihan, an American geopolitical analyst and author, claimed that crypto was always a “hot dumpster fire” and that Bitcoin has no intrinsic value. The analyst claimed that the number one digital asset by market capitalization is now being priced “more appropriately.”

Additionally, Zeihan argued that Bitcoin, which is trading at around $17,000 at the time of writing, will go down by $17,000 more, saying that its appropriate price is within the negatives. He added:

“The craziest thing about Bitcoin is that there will never be more than X number of units of Bitcoin. By default, it means it can’t be used for trade.”

Zeihan also argued that the “whole idea of economic activity is that there’s expansion, which means you need more currency to lubricate and manage that expansion.” The analyst argued that if a currency’s supply is locked, there will be monetary inflation and this could “destroy an economic model.”

Because of Zeihan’s comments, Bitcoiners almost immediately offered their responses and provided counterarguments to Zeihan’s claims. Some community members instantly pointed out that the analyst has not read and understood the Bitcoin white paper.

Swan Bitcoin executive Alex Stanczyk also criticized the JRE guest and said his comments were ignorant. “Almost every single thing this ‘expert’ said in this short span of time is complete nonsense,” Stanczyk wrote.

Jeff Ross, the founder of the Vailshire Capital Management hedge fund, also pointed out the flaws in Zeihan's arguments. He tweeted:

Meanwhile, one community member proudly defended Bitcoin and argued that some of its characteristics give it intrinsic value. They include scarcity, deflation, divisibility into smaller amounts called satoshis and decentralization. Open / Comment

2023-01-07 20:00:08 ​​NFT project accepted $3M to move its collection to Polygon.

The team had previously announced the move, but had not revealed the cash deal.

The team behind y00ts and DeGods were paid $3m to move their collections off Solana and onto Polygon, according to a January 6 announcement from the company. The statement was made on Discord and copied to Twitter by Frank III, founder of the two projects.

The developers had previously announced on Dec. 27 that the projects would be moving to Polygon. This was widely seen as a possible death blow to the Solana network, as the network was already under pressure due to fallout from the collapsed FTX exchange. However, there was no evidence at the time that the y00ts team had received money in exchange for making the move

Vitalik Buterin has since argued that claims of the death of Solana may be exaggerated.

In this new statement from Frank III, the y00ts and DeGods founder claimed the team was offered even larger sums than it got from the Polygon deal, but decided to partner with Polygon anyway because it would be the best platform for the projects. Frank also attempted to preemptively respond to criticism that would arise from revealing the compensation received, stating:

"We didn’t take this deal for the money. That’s just a nice bonus and we will use it effectively. We did this because it’s the most exciting direction for y00ts as a project. Also, if you are really upset — all I ask is to just channel that energy into genuine questions before just automatically assuming the worst.”

Frank III also stated that he will “not be purchasing any lambo” with the money. In other words, the team will not be using the money for their own consumption. Instead, the funds will allegedly go into hiring new employees for “business development, graphic design, content creation, and events coordination,” which he said will allow the projects to gain more mainstream acceptance.

Meanwhile, Solana may have recovered from the exodus of y00ts and DeGods, at least for now, as meme coins like Bonk are attracting trading activity back onto the platform. Open / Comment

2023-01-04 20:00:11 ​​‘Binance is the crypto market:’ Arcane crowns the exchange 2022’s winner.

Following the fallout of FTX, implementing zero fee BTC trading and some notable global acquisitions Binance’s market dominance has surged throughout 2022.

During a year plagued by crises such as the collapse of FTX and Celsius, data shows that crypto exchange Binance has emerged as the clear “winner” of 2022 according to Arcane Research.

A Jan. 3 report from Arcane highlighted that Binance saw its market dominance soar throughout 2022. As of Dec. 28 last year, it had captured 92% of the Bitcoin spot market and 61% of the BTC derivatives market by volume:

“There are no other evident ‘winners’ of 2022 other than Binance when it comes to the crypto market structure and market dominance. No matter how you look at it in terms of trading activity, Binance is the crypto market.”

Binance’s BTC spot market dominance was 45% at the start of 2022 meaning that it more than doubled, while its share of the BTC derivatives market increased by almost one third.

The “spot trading volume” is an indicator that measures the total amount of Bitcoin being transacted on spot exchanges on any given day.

The report suggests the increase in Binance’s BTC spot market dominance predated the fallout of the second largest exchange by volume FTX, and began to surge after it removed fees for certain trading pairs on Jul. 7, 2022.

The exchange also made some notable acquisitions to boost its global coverage in 2022 such as the Japanese trading platform Sakura Exchange BitCoin and Indonesian digital currency brokerage firm Tokocrypto.

Binance has been one of the few exchanges to increase the number of staff it employs over the year while its peers such as Kraken and Coinbase have been forced to lay off staff during the current crypto winter.

Looking ahead to 2023, Arcane predicted in a Dec. 30 report that Binance would implement trading fees again in 2023 which would lead to a “normalization of the market dominance.”

As noted in a Jan. 3 report from digital asset data firm CryptoCompare, removing fees allows exchanges to attract customers but they “must be wary to remain profitable” and “cannot employ this strategy for long periods of time without hurting their bottom line.” Open / Comment

2023-01-01 20:00:05 ​​Ethereum founder says he hopes Solana gets a 'chance to thrive'.

Vitalik Buterin says that “smart people” have told him Solana has an “earnest” developer community.

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin showed sympathy for competitor Solana (SOL) in a Dec. 30 tweet. He said that “smart people” tell him that Solana has “an earnest smart developer community,” and suggested that the opportunists who were involved with the project in the past have been “washed out.”

Buterin also expressed hope that the Solana community “gets its fair chance to thrive.”

The price of SOL has fallen by over 90% since its peak, partially because of the coin’s association with the failed FTX exchange. But Solana developers have argued that FTX’s collapse did not harm the network itself.

Vitalik’s praise for Solana impressed many in the crypto Twitter community. Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital produced a tweet thread that argued more crypto companies should follow Vitalik’s lead, as he explained, “This is how someone behaves who is happy to ‘compete’ on merit, and thinks in positive sum terms. One fun test you can give anyone on almost anything (service providers, fund managers, devs, whatever)Ask them about the competition in positive form.”

Not everyone was happy with Buterin’s statement though. Former poker pro Mike McDonald saw the statement as “virtue signaling.”

Some critics also thought the timing of Buterin’s tweet was suspect. Would he have praised Solana if it was still doing well?

Solana was once dubbed an “Ethereum killer”, partially due to its high scalability. But it has also been criticized by some for being too centralized and unstable. Open / Comment