Cryptocurrency & Mining - Page 8

The United States has formally declared that Russia has committed war crimes after a "careful review" of the events taking place in Ukraine.

The announcement has come from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said on Wednesday that since Russia has attacked apartment buildings, schools, hospitals, shopping centers, and critical infrastructure, it has left thousands of innocent civilians dead. With the death of so many civilians, Blinken said Russia has committed war crimes and that the U.S. is "committed to pursuing accountability using every tool available, including criminal prosecutions."

According to the United Nations (UN), there have been 977 confirmed civilian deaths which include 81 children and another 1,594 injured individuals. However, the U.N. states that the actual figures are likely "considerably higher". The comments from Blinken come after President Joe Biden called Putin a "war criminal", which sparked a heated response from the Kremlin that revealed that relations between the U.S. and Russia are now "on the verge of rupture".

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.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has described the technology that he considers to be a "mathematical miracle".

The Apple co-founder sat down with Yahoo Finance to discuss various topics, and closer to the end of the interview, Wozniak was asked his thoughts of cryptocurrency as a whole and if Bitcoin (BTC) will be a big part of the future. The Apple co-founder said he is in the camp of cryptocurrencies such as BTC will change the way humans live in the future, which echos his statements from a tech conference last summer where Wozniak described the currency as "the most amazing mathematical miracle."

During the interview with Yahoo Finance, Wozniak said that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency "that's pure-gold mathematics", and also touched on the reliability of blockchain technology against the reliability of US dollars. The Apple co-founder says that Bitcoin has a fixed amount and that its underpinning technology is "mathematically pure." If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

A crowd-funded project by Russian art collective Pussy Riot created the one-of-one non-fungible token (NFT) of the Ukrainian flag.

The auction for the unique NFT was organized and orchestrated by UkraineDAO, which is led by Pussy Riot and the NFT studio Trippy Labs. The idea behind the creation of the NFT was to raise funds for the struggling people in Ukraine that are currently fleeing in droves from invading Russian forces. The winning bid for the Ukraine flag NFT was a pool of 3,271 donors that placed the bid through a service called PartyBid.

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Ukraine has asked for global support to fend off the invasion from Russian military forces that began last week.

Ukraine has asked for funding from any that are willing to give, and those that are willing to donate are able to do so in a variety of ways. One of those ways is donating cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, and so far, Ukraine has received tens of millions of donations in various coins. Recently, the founder of Polkadot, Gavin Wood, announced that if Ukraine were to post a Polkadot address, he would donate $5 million.

The official Ukraine Twitter account followed up with a post of a Polkadot wallet address, which then later received 298,367 DOT, with each priced at $19.33 it makes Woods' donation $5.8 million. So far, the Polkadot address has received more than $6 million in DOT donations and is continuing to grow. Recently the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, donated $10 million to Ukraine while also opening up a donation pool.

Russia began its invasion into Ukraine on February 24, and since then, residents of both countries have been moving their wealth into cryptocurrency.

According to a new report released by Arcane Research, Ukrainians are purchasing Bitcoin and Tether like they never have before via the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. According to the report, Ukrainians are purchasing Bitcoin and Tether with the hryvnia, Ukraine's native currency, currently worth about $0.033 USD. Right before the Russian invasion on February 24 the trading pair Tether/Hryvnia saw its 24-hour trading volume increase from $6 million to $8.5 million, when usually it doesn't exceed $3 million.

Additionally, Ukrainians are purchasing swaths of Bitcoin as data from the report indicates that the Bitcoin/hryvnia 24-hour trading volume increased from $1 million to $3 million. Ukrainians are purchasing cryptocurrency out of fear the traditional banking system will collapse under the pressure of the Russian invasion. Likewise, Russians are purchasing large amounts of cryptocurrency as a way to store their wealth that is safe from government seizure and the collapsing value of the Russian ruble. Cryptocurrency is a haven for both sides.

The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange has pledged $10 million towards assisting the affected residents of Ukraine.

Russia began a full-scale military invasion into Ukraine last week, and since then, there have been thousands of injuries, numerous deaths, and tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes. Neighboring countries are beginning to receive refugees fleeing Ukraine. Assisting these people is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance. The cryptocurrency exchange has announced it will give $10 million USD to major Intergovernmental Organizations and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Along with its donation, Binance has set up a public donations page to gather more funds for the cause. The page is called "Humanity First - Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund", and so far has accumulated 156.05 BTC worth around $6.8 million. The announcement of the donation page and the pledged comes after Binance said it won't be freezing the accounts of Russian users as it would undermine the fundamental ethos of cryptocurrency, moving away from centralized control.

Since its invasion into Ukraine, Russia has been hit with sanctions that are crippling its economy, and as a result, the value of the country's native currency is plummeting.

Over the weekend, Western nations implemented sanctions on Russia after it began its invasion into Ukraine. These sanctions caused investors to bail out of Russian assets, causing financial turmoil for the country, which is precisely what the sanctions were designed to do. Additionally, Russia has been removed from the SWIFT interbank messaging service, while also having its central bank assets seized. In order to keep things afloat, Russia more than doubled its interest rate, but that hasn't seemed to slow the crashing value of the ruble.

Since the sanctions and other economic impacts, the ruble has crashed by almost 30%, which makes Bitcoin's total value more than the ruble for the first time ever. Furthermore, Bitcoin has seen a spike in value by 20% compared to its trading price of around $35,000 USD last week. The spike in value for the digital asset can be attributed to the demand cryptocurrency is seeing in Ukraine and in Russia, as residents in both countries are deciding to store their wealth in digital assets that either government can't seize.

A study on Bitcoin's impact titled "Revisiting Bitcoin's carbon footprint" has been published in the journal Joule.

A research team from the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany has found that as Bitcoin miners have been forced out of China, the move to the United States and other countries has increased the amount of fossil-fuel-based electricity used for mining the cryptocurrency. Consequently, as the carbon emissions associated with Bitcoin mining increase, so too has its carbon footprint.

When they first began, China was initially receptive to Bitcoin mining operations, which took advantage of China's extensive hydroelectric facilities during warm months and somewhat reduced its climate impact. China has since restricted Chinese banks from using Bitcoin and shutting down mining operations. The researchers could see where the mining operations had relocated to by using IP addresses.

Ukraine recently called upon all major cryptocurrency exchanges to block Russian addresses, and now the world's largest exchange has responded.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has responded to the request made by Ukraine's vice prime minister and minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, by saying it will not "unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users' accounts", according to a spokesperson for Binance. Additionally, the spokesperson told CNBC that Binance "cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so."

The spokesperson explained that the sole purpose of cryptocurrency is to move away from centralized financial control, and that banning to "unilaterally decide to ban people's access to their crypto would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists." However, the spokesperson said that Binance will be working to ensure that action is taken against those who have had sanctions put on them, while also focussing efforts on protecting innocent users.

Ukraine has asked the world to donate to its government in various ways to contribute towards repelling the recent invasion by Russia.

The cryptocurrency community has rallied behind Ukraine's plea for funds for its military as reports from Cointelegraph reveal that more than $37 million in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT) have been sent to various Ukrainian charity wallet addresses. Reports from the publication reveal that the largest wallet address containing the most funds is the "Reserve fund of Ukraine," which is currently backed by the country's own cryptocurrency exchange called Kuna. The wallet contains more than $13 million in the aforementioned cryptocurrencies.

The wallet containing the second-largest amount of donations is the "Come Back Alive" wallet that is owned by a non-government organization that has pledged the funds will be used to assist the Ukrainian Armed Forces in any way they can. This wallet contains about $7.2 million in BTC. Following the Come Back Alive wallet is the UkraineDAO, which is controlled by Pussy Riot's Nadya Tolokonnikova, who is a part of a Russian feminist protest music group. This group intends to create a single NFT flag that would be used to fund civilian organizations in Ukraine.