Author: Donald Munn

In a covert operation, Ukraine manages to freeze and seize funds from a crypto wallet that was intended to finance the Russian war machine. Ukraine: seized cryptocurrencies belonging to Russian funds The war in Eastern Europe seems to be being fought on several fronts, and leaving aside, for the moment, the recent tensions in the former Yugoslavia between pro-Russian countries and those protected by the Atlantic pact, the new battleground is the cyber one. In a counterintelligence operation, in fact, Ukraine has succeeded in blocking a channel that has long been able to secretly finance the Moscow government and its…

iFinex Financial Technologies, which operates the Bitfinex Derivatives exchange, today launched Ethereum’s Chain Split Tokens (CSTs).  iFinex’s new tokens for betting on Ethereum’s new fork These are tokens that allow users to trade on Ethereum’s potential PoW fork that could result in the creation of new tokens.  In fact, with the mid-September Merge, Ethereum’s old PoW-based blockchain will eventually be de facto abandoned, while all transactions will be moved to the new PoS-based Beacon Chain.  Since the Ethereum protocol is decentralized, there are several initiatives underway to keep the PoW blockchain alive. These initiatives require a special fork of the…

The IMF said in recent days that the crypto market has begun to correlate with the stock market in India, Vietnam, and Thailand, and this may continue to spread to the global stock market. The cryptocurrency market increasingly correlated with the stock market The International Monetary Fund in a recent report pointed out that the correlation between cryptocurrency markets with Asian stock markets, especially the Indian, Vietnamese, and Thai stock markets, has significantly increased. In this regard, the IMF board indicated how this fact makes it even more urgent that we get our hands on precise regulation of cryptocurrency markets.…

Yesterday Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach revealed on his personal Linkedin profile that the company is working with Binance to enable purchases in more than 90 million stores.  JUST IN: Mastercard CEO says they’re working with #Binance to let people spend crypto at more than 90,000,000 stores. pic.twitter.com/G8etp94xkZ — Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) August 23, 2022 Mastercard has actually been working in the sector for some time now to enable cryptocurrency holders to use its network for fiat payments, but integration with the world’s leading crypto-exchange would still be a big step forward. The new partnership between Binance and Mastercard Miebach, in yesterday’s…

Recent research by Kaiko has revealed that bearish sentiment has returned to the cryptocurrency markets.  A wave of pessimism returns for cryptocurrency market sentiment In particular, as of August 19, it seems that the relatively good momentum that began in late July has come to an end, so much so that several liquidations in the markets have brought some pessimism back.  The price of BTC and ETH fell, along with that of the equity markets, after the release of the Fed’s reports indicating a still decidedly restrictive monetary policy. These difficult market conditions continue to put a strain on stablecoins,…

An IT specialist working for a medical institution in Russia’s Altai Republic was arrested three days ago for illegally mining crypto on the premises of a Covid-19 hospital. Russia: illegal crypto mining at a Covid-19 hospital IT technician arrested for illegally mining cryptocurrencies in a Covid-19 hospital In Putin’s Russia embroiled in conflict with Ukraine and wracked by international sanctions, a skilled IT employee was arrested in recent days because he was accused of installing cryptocurrency mining equipment in a Covid ward of the hospital where he worked. It happened at the hospital in Gorno-Altaisk, the capital of the Altai…

After the government in Iran decided a few days ago that imports can be paid for in cryptocurrencies, the importers’ association is pushing for a more precise and stringent cryptocurrency regulatory framework. These new rules are expected to arrive in late September 2022, according to an Iranian government official. Iran’s cryptocurrency regulation is expected to be quite friendly toward the sector, and the official Alireza Peymanpak, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, in fact, explained that the use of smart contracts and cryptocurrencies will become widely used in commerce. Peymanpak stated: “The use of cryptocurrencies and…

The on-chain social app Chingari today announced the launch of its Creator Cuts, the first marketplace dedicated to video in the form of NFT. Basically, the best videos posted on the social app Chingari will be minted as video NFTs on the new marketplace.  Creator Cuts has the goal to help creators have new sources of earnings but also a new way to be connected with their community. Buyers of these NFTs will get 10% reward of the daily income earned by the creator on the engagement they receive on their videos on the Chingari app.  The marketplace has fixed…

Timothy Massad, current CFTC Chairman, believes that closing the gap present in crypto regulation will require close cooperation with the SEC.  Massad: CFTC and SEC must work together to define clear crypto regulation According to Timothy Massad, CFTC and SEC will have to join forces to create an SRO For years now we heard about how to regulate the cryptocurrency market and something that immediately presented itself as a major challenge. The lack of a regulatory framework that is clear and common to all has created some confusion, especially in defining what a cryptocurrency is and, consequently, how to deal…

The ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) is down 54% from last year’s closing value.  Cathie Wood’s ETF is on the decline This is an actively managed ETF that also includes GBTC (Grayscale Bitcoin Trust), as well as Tesla, Coinbase, Block, Zoom, Shopify, and other stocks.  Its market price, after rising 300% between March 2020 and February 2021, lateralized until November 2021, then began a 68% descent that ended in late July.  Yesterday, for example, it lost 3% and is currently 7% lower than its value a month ago. It is, however, almost 3% higher than its value three months…