Category: News

The global law enforcement agency the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), issued a notice for Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon just a few weeks after a warrant for his arrest was issued by South Korean authorities. The red notice enables South Korea to receive help from global law enforcement bodies in locating and “provisionally arresting a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.” Global Manhunt for Terraform Labs CEO Just a few weeks after South Korean authorities issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon and his associates, the global law enforcement agency the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has reportedly issued a red notice for the Terraform Labs co-founder. The issuing of the notice follows reports that Kwon is not residing in Singapore as Korean authorities initially thought. According to Interpol, red notices are “issued for fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence.” The red notice enables South Korea to receive help from global law enforcement bodies in locating and “provisionally arrest[ing] a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action.” Do Kwon’s Silence As reported by Bitcoin.com News, South Korean prosecutors accuse Kwon and five other Terraform Labs affiliates of violating the country’s capital markets law. Kwon also faces other charges that prosecutors have not divulged. In his initial response to reports that Korean authorities had issued an arrest warrant for him, Kwon insisted in a September 17 tweet that he was not on the run. Instead, he claimed that he was cooperating with “any government agency that has shown interest to communicate.” The Terraform Labs chief executive officer has not issued a response to the reports that show Interpol has issued a red notice. Earlier this afternoon at 1:05 p.m. (ET), Kwon responded to a tweet that said: “[Do Kwon] where [are] you hiding fam?” Kwon replied that he was “writing code” in his “living room” and further told the individual to come and visit, and that they should have a cigarette soon.

On Wednesday, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty jumped 9.26% higher, recording the second highest difficulty rise in 2022. The latest rise is Bitcoin’s third difficulty increase since August 4, 2022, and it’s now 11.63% harder to find bitcoin block reward. Bitcoin Difficulty Jumps 9.26% — Metric Prints the Second Largest Rise This Year Bitcoin (BTC) has experienced the third difficulty increase this month as the difficulty increased by 9.26% on August 31. The difficulty change took place at block height 751,968, and the 9.26% jump is the second biggest this year. The largest rise in 2022 took place 223 days ago on January 20, 2022, at block height 719,712. Currently, the difficulty is 30.98 trillion, which is only 0.27 below the network difficulty’s all-time high (ATH) at 31.25 trillion on May 10, 2022. With bitcoin’s lower USD value and a 9.26% difficulty increase, miners have been dealt a blow. In fact, the last three difficulty increases have made it 11.63% harder to find a bitcoin block reward prior to August 4. On August 4, at block height 747,936, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty rose by 1.74% and two weeks later, it increased again by 0.63%. Five days ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on the community discussing the possibility of the difficulty seeing a notable rise. On August 25, Blocksbridge Consulting tweeted that it was expecting “a notable difficulty jump.” Furthermore, during that same week, Bitcoin’s hashrate spiked to 282.21 exahash per second (EH/s). The hashrate was roughly 3.35% lower than the all-time high (ATH) recorded on June 8, 2022, at block height 739,928. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s hashrate is coasting along at 236.33 EH/s. The difficulty rise and the lower BTC value has not affected miners yet as the hashrate continues to run at elevated speeds. The difficulty increases when 2,016 bitcoin block rewards are discovered ‘too fast,’ and the metric decreases when the block discovery time or interval is ‘too slow.’ Average Block Interval and Current Hashrate Speed Show Another Increase Is Likely in the Cards Satoshi Nakamoto’s design makes it so roughly every ten minutes, a new BTC block is found as the DAA system is modeled by a Poisson distribution scheme. The average block interval at the time of writing is 7:59 minutes, which means if the next 2,016 bitcoin block rewards are discovered ‘too fast,’ the next difficulty is estimated to increase again. There are roughly 1,964 BTC block rewards left until the next difficulty shift and it is estimated to take place on September 12, 2022. If the rise is higher on that day, there’s a great possibility that the network’s difficulty could very well surpass the ATH recorded 113 days ago on May 10, 2022.

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, tweeted that he recently held meetings with the presidents of Senegal and Ivory Coast. The meetings are part of his initiative which is aimed at driving up the adoption of cryptocurrency in Africa and beyond. CZ’s Meeting With the Senegalese President The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), tweeted on July 6 that he’d met Senegalese president Macky Sall and the central bank. However, CZ neither shares details of the meeting nor does he identify officials from the central bank that were present at the meeting. Still, in the same Twitter thread, CZ spoke of how he and President Sall had exchanged gifts. He said: In Sénégal, meeting HE Mr President, Central Bank, and Binance Angels. Mr. President gave us a beautiful painting from a local artist, I haven’t opened it yet. Will share a photo later in this thread. We gave him a BNB challenger coin (much lower value ) he was holding in the pic. Zhao’s tweet about his meetings in Senegal came just a few hours after Binance Africa shared pictures of CZ attending another meeting in Ivory Coast. The Palace of the Presidency of the Republic of Ivory Coast also released a statement which summarized the discussions between President Alassane Ouattara and Zhao. The Financial Inclusion Cause Before sharing details and pictures of his meetings with the two Presidents, CZ explained in another tweet why the African continent, where millions of people are still financially excluded, is “primed for crypto adoption.” “Africa is primed for crypto adoption. 10-20% banked. Need financial access and inclusion. Blockchain provides that with a smartphone,” CZ tweeted. CZ, who has also held talks with the leaders of El Salvador and Kazakhstan, claimed in another tweet that he is “working on adoption all around the world.” While a majority of his Twitter followers commended CZ for his efforts, one Twitter user named e-king questioned the CEO’s belief that Africa is now ready for adoption. “Do you really think the unbanked in Africa have access to smartphones and the internet?” the user asked. TAGS IN THIS STORY Africa crypto adoption, Binance, bnb, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), Cryptocurrency Exchange, financial inclusion, President Alassane Ouattara, Senegalese President Macky Sall What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. Terence Zimwara Terence Zimwara is a Zimbabwe award-winning journalist, author and writer. He has written extensively about the economic troubles of some African countries as well as how digital currencies can provide Africans with an escape route.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns crypto is a “very risky investment,” adding that she would not recommend it to most people who are saving for retirement. However, Yellen noted that Congress could restrict the type of investments allowed in retirement accounts, including 401(k) plans. Janet Yellen on Investing in Cryptocurrencies for Retirement The topic of whether Americans should be able to put retirement savings in cryptocurrencies continues to be hotly debated. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was asked Thursday at an event organized by the New York Times about Fidelity’s announcement to allow bitcoin as an investment option in 401(k) plans. Yellen replied: It’s not something that I would recommend to most people who are saving for their retirement … To me it’s very risky investment. Fidelity’s announcement followed a guidance issued by the Labor Department (DOL) warning 401(k) plan administrators about allowing cryptocurrencies in retirement plans. Fidelity is one of the biggest 401(k) plan administrators. Ali Khawar, Acting Assistant Secretary of the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, said the Labor Department has “grave concerns with what Fidelity has done.” He stressed, “cryptocurrencies can present serious risks to retirement savings.” Treasury Secretary Yellen also noted Thursday that Congress could regulate what assets could be included in retirement plans like 401(k). Commenting on whether Congress should take action, Yellen clarified: I’m not saying I recommend it, but that to my mind would be a reasonable thing. The Labor Department’s efforts to restrict Americans from putting crypto in retirement accounts have upset some lawmakers. In response, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) introduced the Financial Freedom Act to prohibit the DOL “from issuing a regulation or guidance that limits the type of investments that self-directed 401(k) account investors can choose through a brokerage window.” Furthermore, the Labor Department has been sued over its crypto guidance.

The World Bank has warned of a possible global recession. “For many countries, recession will be hard to avoid,” said World Bank President David Malpass. “This is the sharpest slowdown in 80 years.” World Bank on Global Recession, Stagflation The World Bank warned about the rising risk of stagflation and global recession Tuesday. World Bank President David Malpass said: The war in Ukraine, lockdowns in China, supply-chain disruptions, and the risk of stagflation are hammering growth. For many countries, recession will be hard to avoid. “Markets look forward, so it is urgent to encourage production and avoid trade restrictions. Changes in fiscal, monetary, climate and debt policy are needed to counter capital misallocation and inequality,” he explained. The World Bank president clarified on Bloomberg Tuesday that we are not in a global recession yet. However, “The downside risk is that it could be a global recession,” he opined. “One of the key variables is whether supply comes back online in order to add growth and slow down the inflation rate,” Malpass continued. He emphasized: This is the sharpest slowdown in 80 years. “That’s from the 2021 rate which was high because of the recovery from Covid to what we are looking at now, 2.9%, in 2022,” he detailed. “That’s a very sharp slowdown and it’s really hitting the poorer countries hard.” In a report issued Tuesday, the Bank described: “Global growth is expected to slump from 5.7% in 2021 to 2.9% in 2022 — significantly lower than 4.1% that was anticipated in January.” The Bank also warned about stagflation, stating that the danger of stagflation is considerable. In addition, inflation and slow growth may persist for years, the World Bank noted. Commenting on the Bank’s stagflation warning, Malpass stressed: It’s global but it particularly hits the developing countries. “There’s a lot of inequality in the world so the advanced economies and particularly the people at the top in the advanced economies have done very well over the last decade,” he noted. Malpass elaborated: “The reason that this is a prolonged risk for the world is that we are coming off of a very exceptionally low period of interest rates. Last year, I called it uncharted territory on both fiscal policy … and monetary policy.”  

The Luna Foundation Guard, the entity in charge of safeguarding the peg of UST, the stablecoin of the Terra ecosystem, has revealed how it used the available Bitcoin reserve before the recent debacle involving the Terra ecosystem. The organization sold part of the bitcoins owned directly, while another part was traded on different dates to try and stabilize the value of UST. The reserve was comprised of more than 80,000 BTC. Luna Foundation Guard Clarifies Reserve Movements The Luna Foundation Guard (LFG), the organization tasked with safeguarding the dollar peg of UST, the algorithmic stablecoin of the Terra ecosystem, has broken its silence to explain the use of the assets it had under its custody. The institution had amassed more than 80K BTC, which was to be used in case of market imbalances affecting the value of terrausd (UST). According to reports on social media, the foundation spent almost all of its BTC reserves in a failed attempt to save UST. This was made in three different operations. In the first one, LFG sold 26,281,671 USDT & 23,555,590 USDC for an aggregate of 50,200,071 UST, in what was the first defensive transaction against the depeg incident. Also, the LFG stated it: Transferred 52,189 BTC to trade with a counterparty, net of an excess of 5,313 BTC that they have returned, for an aggregate of 1,515,689,462 $UST. However, the company did not identify the counterparty involved in this transaction. Last Measures Even with the intervention of the LFG, the peg was not restored. LFG declares that Terraform Labs exchanged the last of the BTC reserve on May 10, when UST’s market price had touched $0.75. This transaction involved the sale of 33,206 BTC for an aggregate of 1,164,018,521 UST. The Luna reserve is now comprised of only 313 BTC, meaning that most of the BTC owned by the organization were deployed in the defense effort. Other cryptocurrencies in the reserve, including 39,914 BNB and 1,973,554 AVAX were not used and still are in the possession of the organization. However, there is no clear answer as to how these will be used in the future. The statements from LFG help to clarify how the Terra depeg incident happened, and how these funds were used. An analysis of the transactions conducted earlier by Elliptic, a blockchain analytics and compliance company, found that the majority of the funds were sent to two exchanges: Binance and Gemini. However, the company declared that it was “not possible to trace the assets further or identify whether they were sold to support the UST price.” TAGS IN THIS STORY did you still believe in recover send to your admin your opinion at admin@bexdeal.com

During the last few days, the crypto economy has been tumultuous as billions have fled the market in search of safety. The issues with LUNA sparked a significant sell-off as Terra’s native digital asset dropped 97% in value against the U.S. dollar in 24 hours. Terrausd has slipped 67% lower than the $1 parity and was trading at a low of $0.299 per unit at 9:00 a.m. (ET). Terra’s Native Token LUNA Loses 97%, While UST Loses 67% in 24 Hours The Terra blockchain ecosystem has been ravaged by the events that took place over the last few days, when the network’s algorithmic stablecoin terrausd (UST) started to lose its U.S. dollar peg. Project founder Do Kwon and the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) also explained that the team was lending $1.5 billion in bitcoin (BTC) and terrausd (UST) to help defend the peg. The effort was a fruitless endeavor and UST slipped to $0.66 per coin but then, for most of the day on Tuesday, UST managed to climb back above the $0.90 region. On Tuesday evening, UST started to plummet again and it has continued to slide to its most recent lows at $0.299 per unit. The native token LUNA suffered even more than UST, as it has lost 97% in value during the past 24 hours. LUNA has had a 24-hour price range between $33.93 per unit and $0.810 per coin. Furthermore, after Do Kwon said to stay strong and a plan was on the way, the Terra co-founder addressed the public on Twitter. “Before anything else, the only path forward will be to absorb the stablecoin supply that wants to exit before UST can start to repeg,” Kwon said. “There is no way around it. We propose several remedial measures to aid the peg mechanism to absorb supply. First, we endorse the community proposal 1164 to Increase basepool from 50M to 100M SDR *) Decrease PoolRecoveryBlock from 36 to 18 This will increase minting capacity from $293M to ~$1200M,” the Terra co-founder added. Kwon also said that Terra could rebound from the collapse and noted that the project was not going anywhere. “Terra’s return to form will be a sight to behold,” Kwon tweeted. The Terra founder added: ""We’re here to stay. And we’re gonna keep making noise."" ‘Worse Than Bitconnect’ Of course, under the circumstances of many individuals losing money and some of them losing everything, many people criticized the response from the Terra founder. The podcast host Peter McCormack asked Kwon “What % chance to you give it that the same won’t happen again?” Bitcoin supporter Hasu said the UST event was “worse than Bitconnect.” “At least Bitconnect didn’t masquerade as a stablecoin,” Hasu added. “When your ponzi targets people’s savings (not investment) portfolio, there is a special place in hell reserved for you.” In addition to the criticism, people have been trying to buy the dip because they believe a strong comeback will happen. However, while doing so, many crypto traders are getting wrecked by the price volatility. Additionally, crypto Twitter (CT) influencers are deleting tweets that discuss UST and LUNA in a positive light. Furthermore, the crypto liquidity provided Genesis explained that the company has “no direct exposure to UST and LUNA.” Individuals are also claiming that the downfall of LUNA and UST was a “coordinated attack.” “Market manipulation at its finest,” one individual tweeted. Other Terra supporters have been watching bots on Twitter and have stated they are certain Terra’s issues were the result of a blatant attack. There have been odd sightings of bots or Twitter accounts repeating the same statement, which can be found here, here, here, here, and here. While LUNA and UST have not yet plummeted to zero, people are either betting that they will or they believe Do Kwon and think a massive reversal is in the cards. By 10:45 a.m. (ET), UST was trading for $0.504 per unit. CEO of Sator Says Luna Foundation and Do Kwon May Still Hold Bitcoin Reserves Isla Perfito, the CEO of Sator, a community-first Web3 content engagement platform, said that there may be a chance the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) still holds bitcoin. “People assume LFG already sold their BTC,” Perfito told Bitcoin.com News in a statement. “That’s why UST is pricing at .40 on the dollar. In the event that they have the BTC, their backing is better. Do Kwon should provide a balance snapshot of his BTC to save UST. The CPI numbers came in higher than expected today.” The CEO of Sator added: "In my opinion, inflation has peaked. Investors are now waiting for the stock market to bottom. With UST, 1 LUNA could be exchanged for 1 UST and vice versa. This is why we observed the Luna crash — when they decided to not keep the peg, they were selling Luna coins. With that said, there’s a chance that they have reserves to save UST." Alex Tapscott, the managing director of the digital asset group at Ninepoint Partners, explained to Bitcoin.com News on Wednesday that Terra’s issue is similar to a hedge fund exploding. “This is not unlike what happens when a large hedge fund ‘blows up’ and is forced to unwind its positions,” Tapscott explained in an email. “It becomes a price taker causing the assets its own to suffer (though often just temporarily).” Tapscott continued: "Long term the thesis on Bitcoin and crypto remains intact. Bitcoin is the first digitally native money for the internet and crypto assets as a whole represent a 2nd era of the internet – an internet of value- that will continue to transform and rethink many industries." if you need any help asking admin@bexdeal.com

This is a community post written by the Celer Network team and published on BNB Chain blog. A new era for inter-chain dApps has come! We are excited to announce that the Celer Inter-chain Message (Celer IM) framework has launched on mainnet. Through Celer IM, developers can build inter-chain dApps using the Celer Inter-chain Message SDK with efficient liquidity utilization, coherent application logic, and shared states across multiple blockchains. Users of Celer-enabled dApps will enjoy the benefits of a diverse multi-blockchain ecosystem with the simplicity of a single-transaction UX from a single chain. Celer IM has been celebrated and immediately adopted by multiple dApps. Many of the envisioned use cases are being built by our community developers. For example, ChainHop, a composable inter-chain liquidity protocol built using Celer IM, has also launched on mainnet today. Using ChainHop, users and developers can easily convert token X on chain A into token Y on chain B with just a single transaction. In addition to ChainHop, we have 8 other launch partners: SynFutures, Mystiko, Swing, FutureSwap, Ooki, Rubic,  Solace, and Aperture. They are building inter-chain native dApps in the spaces of cross-chain governance, cross-chain yield aggregators, cross-chain synthetic asset trading, cross-chain privacy and other innovative use cases. The Celer IM framework is very easy-to-use and allows a “plug’n’play” upgrade that often requires no modifications with already deployed code. Developers can easily try out Celer IM by going through the documentation, smart contract framework, and sample application code. If you are interested in building inter-chain dApps and participating in our upcoming ecosystem developer grant program, please reach out to us! A Wide Range Of Use Cases on Celer IM Since we announced Celer IM on testnet, we have received an overwhelming amount of interest from the developer community to build inter-chain dApps. A wide range of different use cases of the Celer IM framework is being adopted by prominent protocols to expand both their utilities and to enlarge their user bases. We want to introduce them as Celer IM’s launch partners! Click here for the Chainhop tutorial video. First of all, we want to highlight that ChainHop, a composable cross-chain liquidity protocol built on top of Celer Network, has also launched on mainnet today. ChainHop takes the complex multi-step process of swapping tokens across different chains and simplifies it into an easy single transaction user experience (UX). Using ChainHop, users can easily convert token X on chain A into token Y on chain B with just a single transaction. Additionally, ChainHop is highly composable with other dApps allowing developers to easily access the cross-chain liquidity protocol in order to build other inter-chain dApps. Similarly, Rubic, a multi-chain swap protocol, is also enabling this one-click functionality across multiple blockchains. Key cross-chain interoperability infrastructure, Swing, is simplifying the cross-chain transaction process by eliminating the need to make several manual commands on multiple networks when communicating with other Celer IM dApps with a single transaction. Celer IM is widely applicable to build inter-chain DeFi applications as well. The decentralized derivatives protocol SynFutures is using Celer’s IM framework to support multi-blockchain futures trading, allowing users to leverage liquidity from any blockchain. Ooki, a powerful and fully decentralized margin trading, borrowing, and lending platform, is leveraging Celer IM to enable fee bridging among all of Ooki’s different blockchain deployments. Aperture, a cross-chain, community-driven marketplace for DeFi strategies, is leveraging Celer IM to enable one-click access to supported strategies for users from any blockchain. Solace, a decentralized insurance protocol that allows users to insure positions for over 180 DeFi protocols with one policy, is also integrating Celer IM for cross-chain insurance functionality. Of course, Celer IM can be used in many other use cases besides DeFi applications. FutureSwap, the first decentralized, AMM-based trading protocol to offer leverage on any AMM-backed pair, is enabling cross-chain governance functionality; and to scale its non-custodial crypto margin trading. Mystiko Network, the base layer of web3 that provides both connectivity and confidentiality to all blockchain data, transactions and applications, uses Celer IM to enable privacy protection against unwanted cross-chain data tracking and exploits. With the Celer IM framework’s mainnet release, we look forward to more exciting use cases to be created by our amazing developer community such as cross-chain NFT marketplaces and omnichain NFT. How To Get Started With Celer IM Getting started with Celer IM is easy. To understand the kind of applications and design patterns made possible, you can read the Celer IM introduction or watch this presentation. To go through a hands-on integration process, you can either watch the above video tutorial or run through this integration guide with a simple batch transfer example. If you encounter any issues during integration, please feel free to go to the #celer-interchain-message channel in our discord and let our developer support team know! We will be more than happy to help! If you are interested in working on some use cases and would like to get our support, please fill out this form to get priority consideration for our upcoming developer grant program! With the Celer IM mainnet launch, we look forward to a vibrant inter-chain dApp ecosystem building on top of Celer and can’t wait to see what kinds of exciting use cases get built! What do you think is Celer Network good investment Chance let us know your opinion at admin@bexdeal.com

Bitcoin’s hashrate has once again reached an all-time high (ATH) this year, as the network’s processing power reached 275.01 exahash per second (EH/s) on May 2, 2022. The recent ATH follows a significant difficulty jump on April 27, and bitcoin’s value lost 6.2% against the U.S. dollar over the last two weeks. Bitcoin Hashrate Taps 275 Exahash Just recently, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty tapped an ATH at 29.79 trillion and it’s currently the most difficult it has ever been to find a BTC block reward. On April 27, after coasting along at 28.2 trillion for two weeks prior, the network’s difficulty jumped 5.56% higher. Bitcoin miners have continued to keep the high-speed tempo going despite the difficulty rising. Moreover, over the last two weeks, BTC has shed 6.2% in value against the U.S. dollar. The price drop has also made it less profitable for bitcoin miners during the two-week downturn. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s hashrate is coasting along at 238.22 EH/s. Two days ago, the network tapped an ATH on May 2, 2022, at block height 734,577. Despite those two setbacks, bitcoin miners have pushed the hashrate up to a new all-time high in terms of computational processing power. The hashrate reached the highest it’s ever been at 275.01 EH/s on May 2, 2022, at block height 734,577. The network previously reached an ATH 1,380 blocks prior to the 275 EH/s high at block height 733,197, on April 23. At that time, the ATH recorded was approximately 271.19 EH/s. Data shows that since block height 733,197, the overall hashrate increased 1.40% in seven days. Soon-to-Be Deployed Next-Generation Miners Seven-day statistics indicate that Foundry USA was the top mining pool after capturing 233 out of the 1,071 BTC blocks found last week. Foundry USA has 21.76% of the network hashpower with a 49.29 EH/s average over the last seven days. The second-largest mining pool this past week was Antpool, as it captured 145 block subsidy rewards last week. Antpool has held 13.54% of the global hashrate in the one-week timeframe with 30.68 EH/s. Today, 12 known pools are dedicating hashpower to the BTC network and 0.93% of the global hashrate, or 2.12 EH/s, is operated by unknown bitcoin miners. With Bitcoin’s hashrate reaching an all-time high before bitcoin mining rig manufacturers have shipped the latest next-generation machines, the hashrate could very well go much higher from here. Next-generation miners from Bitmain and Microbt, which pack a lot more hashrate, are due to ship next month. Moreover, Bitmain’s hydro bitcoin mining rig, the Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd., commands 198 TH/s and has been released this month. Depending on lead times, miners could be deploying these high powered, next-generation miners and upping the network’s overall hashrate a great deal. Your Opinion Should BTC Close high this year or will down.