Cryptocurrency & Mining News - Page 13

A 20-year-old Ukrainian adolescent has fled his country following Russia's invasion with nearly half of his life savings on a USB stick.

According to a report from CNBC, a 20-year-old Ukrainian man that goes by the pseudonym "Fadey" has escaped Ukraine following Russia's now fifth week of pushing towards Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. The 20-year-old spoke to CNBC and said that he had managed to get to Poland with a USB drive that contains 40% of his life savings in Bitcoin.

Fadey said that he converted 40% of his life savings into Bitcoin (BTC) as he was unable to withdraw cash from ATMs "because the queues to ATMs were so long, and I couldn't wait that much time". According to reports, the USB stick contains around $2,000 USD in BTC, and the funds can only be accessed by the unique passcode. Fadey said, "I could just write my seed phrase on a piece of paper and take it with me".

A YouTube investigator has accused boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather of "scamming" his audience out of millions by promoting projects.

YouTube investigator Coffeezilla, known for exposing Lana Rhoades' NFT scam and many others, recently accused famous boxer Floyd Mayweather of "scamming" his audience with NFT projects that he promoted; Floyd NFT Mayweather, Floyd's World, and Bored Bunny. Each of the projects promoted by Mayweather has dramatically dropped in value, with Mayweather not following through on the roadmap published for the project.

Coffeezilla points out that in 2018 Mayweather was barred from selling securities by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for three years after scamming his fans with an ICO called Centra. Additionally, Mayweather is currently being sued for his promotion of EthereumMax alongside Kim Kardashian.

Reports indicate that the President of Ukraine has signed a new law that ushers in regulation for digital assets.

According to announcement the new law signed in by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy launches a legal market for virtual assets across Ukraine, and this new market will be regulated by the National Commission on Securities and Stock Market as well as the National Bank of Ukraine.

Mykhailo Fedorov, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine took to Twitter to write that Ukraine believes there is a bright new future with cryptocurrency, and that this legalization is a step towards bringing that future closer to reality. "We believe that crypto industry offers new economic opportunities. We will do our best to bring the bright new future closer as soon as possible," wrote Fedorov.

Meta, formerly Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that Instagram is preparing to integrate NFTs on its platform.

Zuckerberg reportedly revealed the coming update to Instagram at an appearance at South by Southwest conference held in Austin, Texas. Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook, revealed that in the "near term" Instagram will be bringing on NFTs, and "hopefully" in the coming months users will be able to mint their NFTs within Instagram.

The adoption of NFTs is a part of Zuckerberg's company-wide shift towards the metaverse, which is a reflection of Facebook's name change to Meta that happened in October, 2021. While nothing has been officially announced from Instagram, Casey Newton, a reporter for the Platformer website was at the conference and heard Zuckerberg tease the news.

A hacker that goes by the name Gummo has revealed that he owns more than $7 billion in Bitcoin in a recent interview.

Gummo first appeared on the Soft White Underbelly YouTube channel back in December 2020, where he discussed his life and how he became a hacker for more than 30 years. Gummo explains that he had a rough upbringing coming from a low-income household and the loss of his single parent but managed to find a love for computers, eventually developing a set of hacking skills that he used for nefarious actions to survive throughout his adolescent years.

In the 2020 interview, Gummo says that he was caught for selling code worth $10 million and was given an option to either sit in prison for the crimes he committed or to use his skills to improve the technology that he hacked by consulting to developers. Choosing the latter, Gummo proceeded to be a "good guy" hacker, where he explained in a recent interview that he does "threat hunts" where he tracks down people "that need to be tracked down", and consulting.

The cryptocurrency market has been in a slow decline since November 2021 when it peaked out at an all-time high of $69,000.

Despite the price of Bitcoin being in a decline since November some analysts are still predicting that the digital asset is still on track to be valued at $100,000 per coin sometime in 2023. With inflation being a major economic concern worldwide, with the additional strain on the financial system from Russia's war with Ukraine, the cryptocurrency market seems plagued with fear, uncertainty and doubt. A recent small glimmer of bullish hope surfaced when details of Biden's new executive order leaked

Cryptocurrency whales (individuals who own large quantities of various/singular digital assets), such as Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have been known to be big advocates for certain cryptocurrencies, and with the market being in an overall slump it raises the question "has Musk jumped out of the cryptocurrency game?".

Millions of dollars in the cryptocurrency have been donated to Ukraine, and now the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine has announced what it has spent the funds on.

The news comes from Alex Bornyakov, the Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, who took to Twitter to announce that Ukraine has spent $100 million in cryptocurrency donations, with the majority of the money being spent on bulletproof jackets, packed lunches and various military equipment. Bornyakov wrote that cryptocurrency donations are funding the armed forces of Ukraine and went on to thank everyone that has donated.

According to reports, the cryptocurrency donations were used to purchase the following military equipment: 5,500 bulletproof jackets, 410,000 packed lunches, 500 ballistic plates for bulletproof vests, 3,125 thermal imagers and optics, 500 helmets, 3,427 medicines, and 60 walkie-talkies.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates warned people during an interview late last month against investing in the biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.

Gates sat down with Bloomberg Technology for an interview on February 22, where he was asked his thoughts on Tesla's investment in Bitcoin, and the price volatility of the digital asset. Gates cautioned against investing in Bitcoin, saying his general thought would be "if you have less money than Elon, probably watch out". Gates was then asked why he isn't bullish on Bitcoin, which he then followed up by saying that Bitcoin uses "a lot of energy", promotes "anonymous transactions" that aren't reversible.

Gates then said that the Gates Foundation does do "a lot in terms of digital currency" but does it differently where transactions aren't anonymous and deals with other problems with Bitcoin, such as money laundering and nefarious activities. The Microsoft co-founder agrees that the push towards digital money is overall a "super positive thing" that will eventually be able to reach some of the poorest countries in the world.

Despite the price of Bitcoin declining since November 2021, the digital asset is still on track to reach $100,000 per coin, according to the CEO of Bitbull Capital.

Joe DiPasquale, the CEO of Bitbull Capital, which manages cryptocurrency hedge funds, has sat down with Cointelegraph for an interview where he discussed the impacts on the market from Russia's war with Ukraine, should Bitcoin be defined as digital gold, and what could happen throughout the market in 2022 leading into 2023.

According to DiPasquale, Bitcoin is still being observed as a hedge against global uncertainty and inflation, which directly correlates to both Russians and Ukrainians pulling their money out of traditional banking systems to store their value in Bitcoin instead. DiPasquale honed in on the last few months of Bitcoin's price movement, saying, "We are reaching higher lows and even higher highs". Adding, "This volatility is also still, this low is still higher than its low point during the summer. Yes, it's volatile, but yes, it's also up over the year."

The cryptocurrency market saw a short spike in value after details surfaced on President Joe Biden's new executive order aimed at adding a regulatory framework for digital assets.

The spike in value came after a statement from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was posted to The Treasury Department's website on Tuesday night. The statement from the Treasury Secretary revealed that the new executive order will strike the right balance between encouraging innovation in the space while also protecting investors. The statement from the website has since been removed, but not without publications such as Bloomberg picking it up and running the story, leading to the spike in Bitcoin's value.

It should be noted that Biden announced that the executive order doesn't lay out any specific positions the administration has taken on digital asset regulation but instead hands the task over to various agencies that will focus on creating a policy framework for six key areas: consumer protection, financial stability, illicit activity, US competitiveness, financial inclusion, and responsible innovation. Additionally, the Biden administration wants to explore "the technological infrastructure and capacity needs for a potential" digital version of the US dollar.