Mozilla pauses Crypto donations

Mozilla has stopped accepting crypto donations after backlash from scores of people including one of the founders of Mozilla. “Starting today, we are reviewing if and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals. And as we conduct our review, we will pause the ability to donate cryptocurrency,” Mozilla said in a tweet late on Thursday.

Crypto Exchanges are under ED scanner after WazirX tax evasion

After detecting a significant amount of Goods and Services Tax evasion by cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, other crypto exchanges and major investors in digital currencies are now under the lens of multiple agencies. Law enforcement agencies are analysing data pertaining to business activities of cryptocurrency exchanges and investors in crypto assets

UK Advertising Watchdog Bans Crypto Ads

The United Kingdom’s advertising watchdog, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has recently banned two crypto advertisements belonging to the crypto exchange, Crypto.com for misleading consumers. Meanwhile, the RBI governor expressed concerns regarding the growing crypto hype. Indian advertising watchdog may take measures soon.

GameStop shares surge on plan to enter NFT, crypto markets

GameStop Corp is launching a division to develop a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and establish cryptocurrency partnerships, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. The news boosted the video game retailer’s shares by 27% in extended trading. The company has reportedly hired more than 20 people to run the unit, which is building an online hub for buying, selling, and trading NFTs of virtual videogame goods such as avatar outfits and weapons.

Meme coins return to earth as gloom overtakes crypto fanatics

Cryptocurrency enthusiasts who piled into meme coins such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu amid the long-time industry rallying call of “to the moon” are finding this year’s journey back to earth pretty painful. Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and other tokens associated more with online jokes rather than actual software products have been hit harder than sector originals Bitcoin or Ethereum during the recent retreat from record price levels reached late 2021.

Crypto-related crime hit a record $14B in 2021: Chainalysis Report

Crime involving cryptocurrencies surged to a record high of $14 billion in 2021, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. This is an increase of 79% in value from the $7.8 billion figure from 2020. However, this activity represented just 0.15% of the total of $15.8 trillion in crypto transaction volumes recorded over the year— the lowest percentage ever. 

Crypto prices today: Bitcoin, Solana, Shiba Inu crashes

Bitcoin is currently trading lower by 7.85% at $42,969. Ethereum has crashed nearly 11% to $3,404. Meanwhile, Solana and Cardano have fallen by 12.28% and 9.9%, respectively, over yesterday. The global crypto market cap stands at $2.04 trillion, an 8.58% decline over the previous day. The crash can be attributed to the US Federal Reserve’s validation of a hike in interest rates by mid-March.

Solana, Terra and Polkadot are growing faster than Ethereum: Report

According to a report from early-stage crypto investment firm Electric Capital, several protocol ecosystems are outpacing the largest developer ecosystem Ethereum. “Polkadot, Solana, NEAR, [Binance Smart Chain], Avalanche, and Terra have faster initial ecosystem growth than Ethereum,” the report stated. Polkadot and Solana have more active development than Ethereum did at similar points in its history.

Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ NFTs will be auctioned despite lawsuit

Film director Quentin Tarantino made news in November when he announced the planned launch of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based on his acclaimed 1994 film “Pulp Fiction.” However, film studio Miramax filed a lawsuit against Tarantino, claiming that he did not hold the right to sell such digital items. Tarantino intends to sell the NFTs anyway, despite the legal challenge.

Mozilla co-founder blasts crypto donors as ‘Planet-Incinerating Ponzi Grifters’

Mozilla Foundation announced on Twitter that the non-profit now accept Dogecoin donations via Bitpay. The news received backlash from the open-source community, especially from Mozilla co-founder Jamie Zawinski. “Everyone involved in the project should be witheringly ashamed of this decision to partner with planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters,” he said.

Bitcoin market dominance hits lowest level since 2018

Bitcoin’s market dominance continues to sink as investors look to other cryptos. According to CoinGecko data, Bitcoin’s dominance currently stands at 37.28%— the lowest since 2018. Market dominance refers to a cryptocurrency’s share of the total crypto market cap.

India gets its first crypto index 

Mumbai-based financial content provider TickerPlant’s cryptocurrency app CryptoWire has launched India’s first index of global cryptocurrencies called IC15. The company said it is a rule-based broad market index by market capitalisation tracking the performance of the top 15 widely traded liquid cryptocurrencies that are listed on various crypto exchanges across the world.

GST probe may set precedent for crypto taxation

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) conducted searches and raids on several crypto exchanges and asked them to pay GST on their transaction fees or margins. Legal experts have long debated on the categorization – and tax treatment – of cryptocurrencies. They are yet to converge on whether a cryptocurrency is indeed a currency, a commodity, a service, or something else.

Crypto CEO Brian Armstrong buys Los Angeles home for $133 million

Coinbase Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong is the buyer of a $133 million Los Angeles estate, according to people familiar with the deal. The transaction, which closed in December, is one of the priciest single-family home sales ever completed in the L.A. area.

Binance Invests $12M in Liquidity Platform WOO Network

The venture capital arm of Binance announced a $12 million strategic investment in WOO Network, a liquidity platform that connects users to exchanges, institutions and decentralized finance (DeFi) networks.

Cryptocurrency Exchanges raided by DGGI

After the tax evasion of GST by WazirX, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence has raided the major cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. Around Rs 70 cr worth of tax evasion has been reported during the raid.

RBI says Crypto is prone to fraud

RBI has warned about multiple risks related to crypto. The Central Bank said that there are chances of fraud and it will be hard to protect consumer rights.

South Korean Presidential candidate to accept campaign contributions in crypto

Lee Jae-myung, the Presidential candidate in South Korea said that he will accept contributions from those who want to pay in crypto as well. This will be converted to cash with the help of local exchanges.

Crypto is a fine asset but will not be popular if taxed: Nikhil Kamath

Nikhil Kamath said that crypto is a fine asset but it will be less attractive once taxation kicks in.

25 Billion trades in 2021: OKx

Global crypto investment platform, OKEx, on Monday said it processed more than 25 billion trades worth a total trading volume of over $21 trillion during 2021.

Crypto exchange WazirX dodged Rs 40.5 crore in tax, says GST department

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) department has begun an investigation into the activities of cryptocurrency exchange WazirX for allegedly evading Rs 40.5 crore in tax. Late on Thursday evening, the tax department recovered Rs 49.2 crore from the company – the GST owed plus interest and penalties.

Coinone Crypto Exchange Ramps Up Security Around Token Withdrawals in Compliance With South Korean Law

Coinone, a South Korean crypto exchange, has decided to discontinue withdrawals of crypto tokens to unverified external wallets. The change will be executed in January, Coinone has said in a statement. The change is also in line with a South Korean law that instructs local crypto exchanges to ensure real-name accounts of users amid other requirements. 

South Korean Lawmaker says he will start accepting donations in cryptocurrency

Lee Kwang-jae, a South Korean lawmaker recently stated that he will be accepting cryptocurrency donations starting mid-January 2022. According to the politician, this plan represents his attempt to raise awareness about cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens among South Koreans.

India bags $638 million in cryptocurrency, blockchain funding in 2021

India attracted crypto funding and blockchain investments worth $638 million across 48 rounds in 2021, according to data by industry tracker Tracxn that was shared with ET. Globally, funding for crypto and blockchain investments stood at $24.86 billion across 930 funding rounds.

 

 

 

Santo Blockchain to deliver Bitcoin ATMs to Panama

Panama is doing its best to keep up with El Salvador’s Bitcoinization with the installation of 50 Bitcoin ATMs in 2022. 50 of the planned 300 ATMs will begin shipping to Latin America in early 2022.

Binance to finalize the acquisition of Swipe, paving for CEO exit

Binance acquired a majority stake in Swipe in July 2020 as part of a broader effort to advance mainstream adoption of crypto payments.

MicroStrategy purchases 1,914 Bitcoin, now holds almost $6B in crypto

Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy has added $94 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to its holdings after purchasing the crypto asset at an average price of $49,229. The company’s holdings are valued at roughly $5.9 billion, representing more than $2.1 billion in gains since its initial purchase in August 2020.

Russian bank Sber launches blockchain ETF 

Sber, the Russian government-backed company and the largest bank in the country, is launching a blockchain exchange-traded fund (ETF) to track the performance of major crypto companies, such as Coinbase and Galaxy Digital.

Bitcoin has risen 20% on an average in the first week of January each year since 2018

If you look at the first week of previous years, Bitcoin has risen 20% on average. This gives hope for the investors as we enter a fresh year.

Bitcoin, Ether continue to trade in red

The crypto market continues its bearish momentum as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, and others continue to trade in the red. Bitcoin is currently trading lower by 1.5% at $46,940, while Ethereum fell 2.37% to $3,699. Solana and Cardano have plunged 2% and 4.75%, respectively, over the previous day. The global crypto market cap stands at $2.20 trillion, a 1.48% decline over the last day.

Number of non-zero Ethereum addresses hits record high above 71M: Glassnode

The number of Ethereum addresses holding some amount of ETH has topped 71 million, 71,364,788 to be exact. This figure has steadily been increasing over the years. The explosion in the popularity of NFTs is playing a large part. Most NFTs are minted on the Ethereum blockchain, and you need an Ethereum address or wallet to buy or sell them. The data was released by blockchain data site Glassnode. 

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson lays out 2022 plans

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano and its development foundation, revealed some of the plans for the network’s growth in 2022. “My goal for the second half of 2022 is to figure out how to put all the pieces together to get an end-to-end microfinance transaction on Cardano,” he said. A structure that oversees the creation of decentralized products on the network would be introduced.

Sandbox COO views the Ethereum Metaverse game as a ‘Digital Nation’

Sebastien Borget, cofounder of The Sandbox (an Ethereum-based metaverse game based around virtual land and NFT collectibles) said it’s validating to see his team’s idea for a community-owned, user-customisable online world embraced by more people. While the game isn’t fully open to the public yet, people are buying and selling land parcels in anticipation of building upon them. 

Crypto expert Nick Szabo could be mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, says Elon Musk

Elon Musk seems to agree with many that the hypersecretive cryptocurrency expert Nick Szabo might be Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of the digital currency Bitcoin. The Tesla CEO said while he “obviously” didn’t know who created Bitcoin, Szabo’s theories seemed fundamental to the creation of the leading cryptocurrency. Nick Szabo or Nicholas Szabo is a computer scientist known for his work with digital currencies and smart contracts.

Robinhood to roll out beta version of digital wallet in January 2022

US-based crypto trading app Robinhood has revealed that thousands of its users are awaiting the launch of its digital wallet, which will be released in its beta version in January 2022. The Alpha testing program for its digital wallets has officially wrapped up. The upcoming wallet will support the deposit and withdrawal of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ether.

South Korea asks Apple, Google to remove crypto-based play-to-earn games from app stores

The South Korean government has moved to block the release of new play-to-earn (P2E) games and requested Google and Apple to remove existing games from their respective app stores. P2E games have tasted great popularity recently as crypto adoption has improved over the past year. It allows players to win exchangeable tokens which they can auction off at a higher price to earn money