Binance Denies Improper Use of $1.8B of Users’ Funds

Binance was accused of moving almost $2Bn without permission. The exchange denied the rumors. Is it just FUD or damage control?

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, denied a report published by Forbes titled “Binance’s Asset Shuffling Eerily Similar To Maneuvers By FTX,” which argues that the crypto giant transferred $1.8 billion associated with its users’ funds.

According to Forbes, between August 17 and early December 2022, Binance moved “silently” $1.8 billion deposited “as collateral intended to support its customers’ stablecoins,” leaving many of its users with unbacked funds.

Spotify Runs Pilot for Token-Enabled Playlists with NFT Partners

 The Swedish music streaming giant confirmed the development in tweet reply.

Spotify is testing a new service – “token-enabled playlists” – with one of its partners to enable non-fungible token (NFT) holders to connect their wallets and access curated music. It is currently in the pilot phase.

The new service was designed in partnership with the Web3 gaming ecosystem, Overlord, and involves a token-enabled community-curated playlist that can be accessed via Web3 wallets of those who hold the Creepz NFTS on Spotify.

According to the official announcement, the service will be available to only Android users from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.

Apart from Overlord, the product is available to token holders within the Fluf, Moonbirds, and Kingship communities.

Universal Music Group’s NFT band Kingship revealed creating a token-gated playlist for NFT holders that will feature Queen, Missy Eliott, Snoop Dogg, and Led Zeppelin. Its tweet read,

Beware of Bing AI chat and ChatGPT pump-and-dump tokens — Watch The Market Report live

 On this week’s episode of The Market Report, Cointelegraph’s resident experts discuss ChatGPT pump-and-dump tokens and why you should be cautious.

This week on The Market Report, the resident experts at Cointelegraph discuss dozens of pump-and-dump tokens purporting to be related to ChatGPT and Bing AI chat.

We will be doing things a little differently this week since our handsome and charming host, Joe Hall, will be somewhere over the Atlantic during the livestream and will not be able to join us. Not to worry, though, as our resident experts Marcel Pechman and Sam Bourgi are here, as always, to break down the latest news in the markets.

Weekly Crypto Investment Product Outflows Hit $32M: CoinShares

 Rising crypto prices have pushed AuM to the highest level since August 2022. 

According to the latest edition of CoinShares’ weekly report, outflows in digital asset investment products reached $32 million last week, a level not seen since late December 2022.

The sentiment could be attributed to exchange-traded product (ETP) investors being less optimistic about recent regulatory pressures in the US relative to the wider market.

Bitcoin Bears the Brunt

Outflow figures surged to $62 million the mid-way through last week, even as the sentiment improved significantly by Friday. Bitcoin was the most affected crypto asset during the turmoil in the market, experiencing an outflow of $24.8 million over the past week.

Keanu Reeves amazed by idea of cryptocurrency

 Hollywood star Keanu Reeves has come out supporting cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the metaverse.

In a recent interview with Wired, Reeves suggested the idea behind crypto was tremendous and that it would come out of its current struggles to become better and stronger.

“I think the principles and ideas behind an independent currency are amazing. These are amazing tools for exchanges and the distribution of resources. To pooh-pooh crypto or the volatility of cryptocurrency, it’s only going to make it better in terms of how it’s safeguarded.”

Keanu Reeves, actor.

How changing rate of bitcoin from beginning till now

 Bitcoin, the world's first and most well-known cryptocurrency, has seen significant fluctuations in value since its creation in 2009. Here is a brief history of how the value of Bitcoin has changed over time:

2009-2010: Bitcoin was first created in 2009 by an anonymous individual or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. At the time, it had no value on any exchanges.

2010: The first Bitcoin transaction took place, in which 10,000 BTC were exchanged for two pizzas. The first known value of Bitcoin was established when a user on a Bitcoin forum offered to sell 10,000 BTC for $50.

2011-2012: Bitcoin began to gain popularity, and its value rose from a few cents to over $30 in 2011. However, the value dropped to around $2 in 2012 due to concerns about security and regulation.

Why Bitcoin? Nigeria Faces Violent Protests Amid Cash Scarcity

 The cash shortage in Nigeria has led to violent protests, leaving countless citizens injured and a few dead. 

The cash withdrawal restrictions imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have made a strong case for Bitcoin as a solid store of value and a censorship-resistant currency.

Nigeria is currently facing a shortage of physical cash after the CBN redesigned its banknotes, causing the old bills of the local naira currency to become useless. The policy prompted citizens to flood banks and ATMs to swap their old bills for new ones.

Bitcoin to soar by 2025 says Robert Kiyosaki

 Renowned financial expert Robert Kiyosaki predicts a financial crisis, gold at $5,000, silver at $500, and bitcoin at $500,000 by 2025.

Robert Kiyosaki, the renowned financial expert and author of the international bestseller “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” has recently tweeted about a potential financial crisis and the impact it could have on the global economy.

According to Kiyosaki, a giant crash is coming, and the possibility of a depression cannot be ruled out. The Federal Reserve may be forced to print billions in fake money, and by 2025, the value of gold is expected to reach $5,000, silver to reach $500, and bitcoin to reach $500,000.

US lawmakers want crypto miners to share energy and emissions data

 Core crypto critic Elizabeth Warren, alongside seven other democrat lawmakers, compelled the government to disclose the energy consumption data of crypto miners domiciled in the US.

The lawmakers stated that it is “essential” for a “disclosure regime” to be adopted quickly and “on a required basis” in the letter, which was addressed to key figures like Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and EPA Administrator Michael Regan.

Warren is leading the team, and they’re hoping that this latest intervention letter will give the basis for the full-scale scrutiny of the crypto mining impacts on the energy emission goals of the US. 

Bank of England Releases Paper on Digital Pound CBDC

 The central bank of Britain is pushing forward with its CBDC (central bank digital currency) plans with the release of a new consultation paper on the digital pound.

On Feb. 7, the Bank of England and the HM Treasury department published a consultation paper on the “digital pound,” a UK central bank digital currency.

It added that the CBDC would be subject to rigorous privacy and data protection standards.

“It would be privacy-enhancing by design and would allow users to make choices about their data,” the bank stated.

The Bank of England said that it was too early to decide on launching the digital pound but judged it likely that one would be needed in the future.

Shiba Inu’s burn rate drops by over 99% as the price plunges

 The second-largest dog-themed cryptocurrency by market cap, shiba inu (SHIB), has grown more than 18% over the last seven days, but its price has been dropping in the past 24 hours. Moreover, SHIB’s burn rate has also plunged significantly. 

At the time of writing, SHIB is down by roughly 4% and is trading at $0.000014. Over the past 30 days, the meme coin has risen by over 65% as the total crypto market cap surpassed the $1 trillion mark, according to CoinMarketCap (CMC) data.

WeTransfer Enters NFT Industry Via Minima Partnership:

 WeTransfer has been looking for ways to enter the Web3 ecosystem and has now decided to aid content creators.

WeTransfer, a freemium model file-sharing platform, has moved towards Web3 with a recently announced partnership with Minima that would allow users to create and send NFTs from their phones.

Creativity and Privacy

According to Damian Bradfield, the Chief Creative Officer at WeTransfer, the decision to partner with Minima came due to a closely-aligned vision and target market.

“WeTransfer is thrilled to work with Minima, whose vision is aligned strongly with ours to seamlessly connect people and facilitate innovation and creativity without sacrificing privacy.”

Luxury rehabs treat ‘crypto addiction’ for thousands of dollars

 Around 1% of cryptocurrency traders will eventually acquire an “extreme” addiction to trading cryptocurrencies. Due to this, rehabs in Switzerland, Spain, and other countries recently began offering treatment for an ‘addiction to crypto trading.’

What is crypto addiction?

Even if not everyone succumbs to the lure of cryptocurrency trading, it’s easy to understand how the combination of rapid price swings, a 24-hour market, more than 21,000 different tokens to gamble on, and a vibrant online community may be enticing.

A16z Exerts Control Over Uniswap by Downvoting BNB Chain Deployment

 The VC giant has used its overwhelming voting power in an attempt to quash a proposal by Uniswap governance.

Crypto venture firm a16z has used its 15 million UNI token voting block to vote against a proposal that would use the Wormhole bridge for Uniswap V3 deployment on BNB Chain.

According to the ongoing results of the proposal vote, a16z’s overwhelming token stash enabled it to control around half of the votes so far, pushing the decision its way.

The proposal to deploy the latest Uniswap iteration on the BNB Chain was submitted on Feb. 2. It was made by 0xPlasma Labs on behalf of the Uniswap Community, following a temperature check with 80% in favor of the proposal.

The voting period will conclude on Feb. 10, and only 3% or 30.5 million votes had been cast at the time of writing. For a vote to pass, it must achieve a quorum of 4% or 40 million UNI tokens. A16z has made every effort to make sure this doesn’t happen.

The Moons bridge to Arbitrum Nova has been deprecated

 The Moons bridge to Arbitrum Nova has been deprecated. Accordingly, admins are reportedly planning to burn 4.77m Moons next week.

Admins’ stand following the deprecation of Arbitrum bridge

The Moons’ admins plan to burn 4.77m moons next week.

This list represents the share of Moons that wasn’t bridged to Nova and lay in previous networks. 

About 4.1m Moons, which accounts for 90%, are locked on Rinkeby Ethereum. 

Texas BTC Miners Face More Problems After Another Storm Hit the State: Report

 The ice blizzard that passed through Texas caused domestic BTC miners to halt activities for a while.

Bitcoin miners located in Texas reportedly suffered severe disruption of their operations due to a blizzard that battered the region.

The extreme weather conditions prompted them to switch off their machines to preserve the local power grid. 

The Cold Winter in Texas Surprised Crypto Miners

As reported by Bloomberg, the ice storm that hit “the Lone Star State” damaged some of the equipment of the domestic bitcoin miners. Electricity consumption surged significantly due to the low temperatures, and those firms had to temporarily shut their businesses to protect the energy network. 

Bitcoin developer says network is not resistant to censorship, questions mining decentralization

 In a recent Twitter thread, a developer questioned the entire idea of Bitcoin’s censorship resistance.

Bitcoin’s censorship-resistance

Bitcoin was built on the idea of offering complete censorship resistance for transactions. However, according to a Bitcoin developer, this coin is far from censorship-resistant.

The developer Luke Dashjr posted a Twitter thread raising doubts about Bitcoin’s censorship resistance, saying the network’s ” hypothetical censorship-resistance is not based on some mere hope miners won’t censor.” 

As he laid down his case, Luke highlighted his problem with the Bitcoin network noting that miners can do whatever they want. For instance, he said, they (miners) cannot be expected to mine the assets or complete validations of transactions they don’t want to. Instead, miners can choose what to or not work on. Based on the developer, decentralization comes in where another miner can choose to work on what one has turned down. 

The developer highlighted that a party interested in a transaction could mine it for themselves in the worst-case scenario. He added that this can change and a transaction failed to be mined in the event of a spam attack.

Phishing attacker moves funds to a laundering address

 According to CertiK Alerts, crypto security tracker, a hacker account, “Fake_phishing7064”, recently sent funds to an Externally Owned Account(EOA) per Etherscan data. The EOA has moved over 100 ethereum (ETH) valued at $165k to Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer. 

Etherscan phishing attack

In a tweet on early Feb.4, 2023, CertiK Alert, the account appears to be moving funds, proceeds from various phishing attacks. As per the crypto security firm, the address moved 981 ETH in the last 97 days.

Lebanon Devalues its Currency by 90%, Snowden Believes Bitcoin Fixes This

 Lebanon’s paralyzing financial crisis highlights the need for a better and more reliable solution such as Bitcoin.

Lebanon is adopting a new official exchange rate, devaluing its local currency by nearly 90%. The new rate is set at 15,000 Lebanese pounds against the U.S. dollar, according to a January 31 report, which cited a statement from the country’s central bank governor, Riad Salameh.

This marks a significant shift from the old rate of 1,507 Lebanese pounds per dollar. The official Lebanese currency has been pegged to the dollar at that rate since 1997.

FTX Bankruptcy Filing Show Higher Cash Balance of $1.43B, Reduced Employees

The headcount declined by nearly 40% during the same period.

An interim financial update revealed that the FTX Group of companies undergoing bankruptcy proceedings held $1.43 billion in cash at the end of last year.

The court filing viewed by Bloomberg showed a higher cash balance on 31st December 2022 than a $1.24 billion tally as of 20th November.

Its now-defunct sister trading company, Alameda Research, recorded a cash balance of $876.6 million versus $401 million in November.

Toyota Taps Astar Network for Web3 Hackathon

Astar will develop the first Proof-of-Concept DAO tool for Toyota’s employees.

Japan’s largest conglomerate – Toyota Motor Corporation – will sponsor the world’s first global Web3 hackathon. Polkadot’s leading parachain, Astar Network, has been roped in to make Web3 use cases for Toyota’s employees.

According to the official press release shared with Crypto Beaver, the car giant is looking to embrace the Web3 space in a bid to improve the company’s operations. The latest online hackathon is expected to serve as an initial step in the process.

As part of the event, developers from around the world are invited. The theme will be to build an intra-company DAO support tool on the Astar Network to enable anyone to create teams, issue governance tokens, and vote without requiring them to understand the details of Web3.

While the multinational automotive manufacturer could use the tools developed during the hackathon for operational transparency and efficiency purposes. Astar Network, on the other hand, will offer the necessary environment for devs and will be tasked with product development support.