Author: Staff

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Business

Crypto Leaks Unveils Platform To Expose Crypto Scams And Corruption.

Corruption and scams have existed for as long as we have had the concept of money. With the emergence of cryptocurrencies and Web3 as a whole, scammers have simply evolved with the times and upgraded their tactics leaving many people with losses. 

Crypto Leaks was created to protect the integrity of the crypto community by revealing large-scale corruption, attacks, and scams. The platform’s goal is to safeguard well-intentioned actors in the industry from ruthless entities intending to defraud the public. 

As self-described “diehard blockchain enthusiasts”, Crypto Leaks intends to make the public “think twice about everything you read and hear” by highlighting corruption and subtle backroom manipulations.  

While many unethical people may present themselves as being interested in crypto technology and its social impact, they can often mask their ulterior motives with tricks and insider information that can mislead the public. Crypto Leaks hopes to change this. 

Shady dealings and market manipulation are not uncommon in the crypto space but often happen behind closed doors undermining the principles of financial fairness. 

According to the company website, the platform intends to help drive the crypto industry towards a brighter and more honest future by exposing wrongdoings. 

The company was founded on the principle stating, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” As such, it calls on whistleblowers to approach it with compelling insider stories that shine a light on corruption in crypto companies. 

Crypto Leaks asserts that it can keep the identities of whistleblowers hidden as additional investigations are carried out to collect evidence and possibly have a case built around the story. 

The platform is up and running and has already highlighted two cases including the multi-billion-dollar attack on ICP token holders which resulted from market manipulation on the FTX crypto exchange. 

The New York Times is also under scrutiny following a story promoting Arkham Intelligence which Crypto Leaks has found to be questionable at best and untrustworthy at worst. 

More cases are expected to follow shortly and the platform calls for sponsorship (preferably from neutral parties) to help in its mission to clean up crypto and allow free-market conditions to reign.

Categories
Business

As the crypto winter descends, Coinbase cuts 1,100 jobs

Coinbase Global Inc. will cut about 1,100 jobs which are 18% of its workforce. The cryptocurrency exchange made this announcement yesterday as it gets ready to weather the slump in the industry.

Extreme volatility has affected the cryptocurrency market as investors liquidated risky investments out of concern that the rising inflation readings will push the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more aggressively and send the nation into recession.

“We appear to be entering a recession after a 10+ year economic boom. A recession could lead to another crypto winter, and could last for an extended period,” Chief Executive Officer, Brian Armstrong said in a blog post.

However, Armstrong declined to provide any information, only stating that staff members will receive an email telling them whether they had been impacted.

The largest cryptocurrency in the world, Bitcoin, fell as much as 14% on Monday when cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network stopped accepting withdrawals and transactions.

In order to address the present macroeconomic situation, Coinbase had earlier this month said it would extend a hiring freeze and revoke numerous accepted offers.

The company’s shares dropped by approximately 5% in early trading, adding to a year-to-date decline of about 80%.

Numerous notable organizations, like Meta Platforms and Intel Corp., have also put the brakes on hiring as a result of the collapse in the cryptocurrency market, including BlockFi and Crypto.com.

When the crypto market reached new highs during the pandemic, Coinbase accelerated employment, increasing headcount by roughly four times in just five quarters.

“This level of headcount growth over five quarters was too ambitious, especially given that the company has lived through a crypto winter and knows how regularly volatile this market can be,” KBW analyst Kyle Voigt said in a note to clients on Monday.

Coinbase anticipates to spend between $40 million and $45 million overall on restructuring costs, most of which are connected to employee severance and other termination payments.

Categories
Opinions

Are rich countries targeting nations adopting crypto through IMF?

Around the world in recent weeks, tensions have mounted over the future of money. Developing and developed countries have pursued new initiatives to move toward a digital currency. 

However, officials from the U.S., IMF, World Bank and the Bank for International Settlements argue that by adopting cryptocurrencies, countries risk facilitating money laundering and undermining capital controls while exposing their citizens to severe price volatility.

Critics, advocates and investors in cryptocurrency have come out on various platforms to question and condemn the standpoint taken by the world’s leading financial institutions arguing that these agencies only want to maintain the status quo that is beneficial to them. 

In Argentina for example, when the Central Bank issued a de facto ban on trading digital assets, the South American nation had just recently negotiated a bailout with the IMF that had a promise of a crackdown on crypto as part of the deal. Crypto investors were deeply enraged by this. 

The question is whether the issuance and flow of money will be dominated by developed-world Central Financial Institutions or by rules being shaped by the new and expanding blockchain technology invented about 13 years ago.

The Deputy Director of the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Dong He, is of the view that said the risk of a sudden drop in the price of Bitcoin makes it unsuitable as a national currency. Indeed, Bitcoin has lost more than half its value since November. 

Dong He spoke on the possibility of adopting Bitcoin saying, “What would happen to the tax revenue? What would happen to your obligations to spend on social services?” 

Dong He reportedly declined to speak on the anti-crypto provisions in Argentina’s letter to the fund adding, “This is a very risky proposition.”

Crypto supporters however insist that cryptocurrencies provide an escape from rapidly inflating currencies in places like Argentina and Nigeria.

Crypto enthusiasts also argue that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin allow poor countries to explore alternatives to the existing global financial framework that appears to be designed to benefit rich countries. 

They argue that the reservations of the world’s monetary stewards have less to do with protecting the well-being of developing-world citizens and more to do with preserving a system in which rich-country central banks and governments dominate the global monetary system. 

“Bitcoin stands against everything the IMF stands for.”

Alex Gladstein, Chieftrategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, an NGO that supports Bitcoin adoption. 

“It’s an outside money that’s beyond the control of these alphabet soup organizations,” Gladstein added.

These words have some truth in light of what is happening in the first country to adopt Bitcoin as a currency, El Salvador. The country’s popular and autocratic leader, Nayib Bukele has continued to use the Bitcoin project as a symbol of his defiance of international institutions.

The IMF has expressed concerns over the adoption of BItcoin in El Salvador and in November the U.S. put relations with the nation “on pause”. Despite this and more backlash, Bukele and his investors have pushed on with more investments into Bitcoin developments. 

In April, a Canadian entrepreneur called Samson Mow announced that he had raised $21 million to fund a new company involved in El Salvador’s Bitcoin experiment. Around the same time, tides were turning for the small country known as the Central African Republic. 

The Central African Republic became the second country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender much to the dismay of the IMF, World Bank and the region’s central bank known as the Bank of Central African States. 

CAR has ploughed ahead with its initiative, announcing plans to build the Sango “Crypto Island” to attract international investment. Ranked as one of the world’s poorest countries, it is no surprise that the nation would look to alternative systems to try and lift its citizens out of poverty. 

However, due to the existing poverty conditions, it remains to be seen how the country will effectively implement the Bitcoin changes. 

As more than 100 countries are currently exploring centralized digital currencies, it appears that it is not so much the message of digitization that is being opposed but rather the messenger as being decentralized and out of the control of existing organizations whose actions seem to be in fear of becoming obsolete.  

Categories
Business

Celsius halts transactions as digital assets continue to fall.

Due to “extreme market conditions,” leading crypto lender Celsius suspended withdrawals and transfers on Monday. Cryptocurrencies continued to fall sharply over the weekend, with bitcoin trading at its lowest level since December 2020.

Celsius Network is a decentralized finance platform that offers customers high yields for token deposits, which it lends to other crypto companies. As of May 17th, The Wall Street Journal reported that Celsius managed $11.8 billion in assets while serving 1.7 million users. 

Celsius said they were making the move for the benefit of their whole community in order to stabilize liquidity and operations. As digital assets tanked over the weekend, the major crypto lender banned all withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts.

Bitcoin plunged more than 22% from its late Friday high, while cryptocurrencies as a whole fell as investors pulled away from riskier assets. For the first time since February 2021, the crypto market has slipped below $1 trillion in market value.

In a blog post on Monday, Celsius said, “Due to extreme market conditions, today we are announcing that Celsius is pausing all withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts.” 

“We are taking this necessary action for the benefit of our entire community in order to stabilize liquidity and operations while we take steps to preserve and protect assets,” it added.

In April, Celsius came under regulatory pressure and stopped offering interest-bearing accounts to nonaccredited investors in the U.S. 

Some market observers claimed Celsius also played a role in the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoinTerraUSD and its sister token Luna last month, which Celsius disputes.

After the Luna and Terra collapse in May, this Celsius freeze reignites investor concerns about the safety of crypto markets since Celsius is used by many crypto investors for staking and liquidity.

According to CoinMarketCap data, Celsius’ token, CEL, dropped 49% in the wake of the news about the stoppage, trading at 20 cents on Monday.

The news weighed even more heavily on the broader crypto market, with Bitcoin, Ether, Cardano, Solana and Dogecoin all falling substantially over the weekend.

CoinMarketCap recorded that Bitcoin fell to its lowest level since December 2020 on Monday, trading below $25,000 at one time. Meanwhile, ether fell 15.8% to $1,234.93, marking the biggest one-day drop in a year.

According to GlobalBlock strategist, Marcus Sotiriou, the crypto sell-off is being fueled by investor concerns about the Federal Reserve’s projected interest-rate hikes to combat red-hot inflation. 

“I think this is a bigger contributor to the decline we have seen, as it results in a more hawkish Federal Reserve they are now forced to remove more liquidity from the market in order to bring down inflation. When liquidity is removed, risk-on assets are hit the hardest, which includes crypto,” Sotiriou said.

Inflation in the United States reached 8.6% in May, the highest level since December 1981, according to data released on Friday, which could prompt the US Federal Bank to act more aggressively.

Although Celsius did not give an exact timeframe, the company said it hopes to lift the freeze as soon as possible adding, “There is a lot of work ahead as we consider various options, this process will take time, and there may be delays.” 

Categories
Business

Binance temporarily halts Bitcoin withdrawals as it sinks to $23K

As the bears unleashed their full potential yesterday, Bitcoin [BTC] and the whole crypto market were painted red. Several crypto exchanges were experiencing difficulties as a result of the market’s high volatility. Binance, a well-known cryptocurrency exchange, chose to deal with the situation by temporarily suspending BTC withdrawals.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced on Twitter that the short suspension was imposed owing to a transaction that was stuck causing a backlog. He stated that the problem would be resolved in 30 minutes. However, it appeared to be taking longer than expected.

The exchange rolled out a blog post that read,

“This is due to an earlier batch of transactions getting stuck from low transaction fees submitted and hence, resulting in a backlog of Bitcoin (BTC) network withdrawals. The Binance team is working on a solution to resume Bitcoin (BTC) network withdrawals soon.”

“The reopening of Bitcoin withdrawals would likely happen after the system becomes stable,” the exchange added.

Binance halted Bitcoin withdrawals because Bitcoin has plummeted to its lowest levels in 18 months. BTC dropped to a low of $23,721 following its 13.33 percent drop over the last 24-hours.

The onset of the bull market has not only meddled with the funds of the crypto-verse but also cost a lot of people their jobs. An array of crypto exchanges have let go of numerous employees. Meanwhile, CZ has revealed that Binance is looking to expand and hire more people.

Speaking at the recent Consensus 2022 conference, Zhao said,

“We have a very healthy war chest, we in fact are expanding hiring right now.”

The market is certainly panicking following the arrival of the recent bears. However, the Binance CEO has noted that the market is more balanced during the crypto winter.

Additionally, one can still withdraw Bitcoin on other networks like BEP-20.

Categories
Business

Africa to honour promising startups at 1st Global Startup Awards Africa Summit.

Cape Town is to host the first-ever Global Startup Awards Africa Summit taking place on the 14th and 15th of June. The event is to be held by the Global Innovation Initiative Group (GIIG) as a culmination of 6 months of research into technological breakthroughs happening in Africa.

Various sectors of the value chain, from government and banks to corporations and educational institutions, will converge to discuss advancements including the rapid growth of blockchain across the continent, with the aim of finding Africa’s most promising innovators.

In the 6 months leading up to the event, there has been extensive and rigorous research, networking and collaborations across the globe to shine a light on African innovations that can accelerate the economic growth of the continent. 

African innovators, thought-leaders and decision-makers will have access to the most comprehensive network of key industry experts that will leapfrog African innovation in line with the UN’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs).

Industry leaders such as Ian Putter, Head of the Blockchain Centre of Excellence at Standard Bank Group and Regional Director of the Blockchain Research Institute Africa, will share their insights on unlocking Africa’s growth and opportunities through blockchain and digital assets.

The event is open to startups from all 55 countries and entrants will be divided by region i.e. North, East, West, South and Central regions to identify solutions in multiple categories with a focus on financial inclusion, HealthTech, AgriTech, Fintech, renewable energy, sustainability and women-in-tech. 

These startups will have the opportunity to present to and workshop with industry experts, corporates, policymakers, and institutions and universities. Stellenbosch University, for example, is seeking to collaborate and invest in SDG-aligned technologies from Africa. 

Professor Madelein Kleyn, Director of Technology Transfer at Stellenbosch University, will be at the event to discuss how policymakers across the continent are adapting Intellectual Property (IP) strategies to promote innovation and increase the competitiveness and sustainability of African businesses in the global market.

The Global Startup Awards Africa Summit aims to give all attendees access to a network of innovators, world-leading organizations and decision-makers involved in innovating for Africa’s sustainability. 

Through these discussions about blockchain, intellectual property, the future of funding and gender-lens investing, global market access and partnerships, and megatrends, the organizers hope to harness Africa’s potential and attract investment for the ecosystem to grow and scale. 

Visit the Global Startup Awards website here for more details. 

Categories
NFTs

How to make an NFT

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), are exploding in popularity these days. People are paying big money for these unique collectible cryptocurrency assets. Creative artists are catching up and making millions from them.

They have created opportunities for new business models that didn’t exist before. Artists can now attach stipulations to an NFT that ensures they get some of the proceeds every time it gets resold, meaning they benefit if their work increases in value. Admittedly football and basketball teams have been using similar contractual clauses when selling on players for a while.

Additionally, NFTs have also given musicians the potential to provide enhanced media and special perks to their fans. In Ugandan for example, Daddy Andre and Kohen Jaycee are some of the music artists that have adapted to this.

The potential for big money is leading more people to create NFTs in the hope of cashing in on the current craze. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can make or mint and finally sell an NFT.

1. Choose your item

Let’s begin with the basics. You’ll need to figure out the unique digital asset you’d like to turn into an NFT. It might be a customized painting, photograph, song, collectible video game, meme, GIF, or even a tweet. An NFT is a unique digital item with a sole owner.  The rarer it is, the more value it gets.

You must make sure that you own the intellectual property rights to the item you want to turn into an NFT. Creating an NFT for a digital asset you don’t own could get you into legal trouble.

2. Choose your blockchain

Once you’ve selected your unique digital asset, it’s time to start the process of minting it into an NFT. That begins by determining the blockchain technology you intend to use for your NFT. The most popular among NFT artists and creators is Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH). Other popular options include Tezos, Polkadot, Cosmos, and Binance Smart Chain.

3. Set up your digital wallet

If you don’t already have a digital wallet, you’ll want to set one up to create your NFT since you’ll need some cryptocurrency to fund your initial investment. The wallet will provide you with access to your digital assets. The top NFT wallets include Metamask, Math Wallet, AlphaWallet, Trust Wallet, and Coinbase Wallet.

You’ll want to buy some cryptocurrency once you’ve set up your digital wallet. Most NFT platforms accept Ether, the Ethereum blockchain platform’s money. If you already have cryptocurrency, you’ll want to link it to your digital wallet so that you can create and sell NFTs with it.

4. Select your NFT marketplace

To successfully create an NFT, you’ll need to choose an NFT marketplace. Some of the top NFT marketplaces include OpenSea, Axie Marketplace, Larva Labs/CryptoPunks, NBA Top Shot Marketplace, Rarible, SuperRare, Foundation, Nifty Gateway, Mintable, and ThetaDrop.

 It’s also important to note that some marketplaces require their own cryptocurrency. Rarible, for example, requires Rarible crypto.

OpenSea is usually a good place to start. It allows you to mint your own NFT, and it’s a leader in NFT sales. The NFT marketplace sold $3.4 billion worth of NFTs in August 2021 alone. 

After selecting your NFT marketplace, you’ll need to connect it to your digital wallet. That will allow you to pay the necessary fees to mint your NFT and hold any sales proceeds.

5. Upload your file

You’re now finally ready to mint your NFT. Your chosen NFT marketplace should have a step-by-step guide for uploading your digital file to their platform. That process will enable you to turn your digital file (a PNG, GIF, MP3, or another file type) into a marketable NFT.

6. Set up the sales process

The final stage in the NFT minting process is to decide how you want to monetize your NFT. Depending on the platform, you can;

Sell it at a fixed price. By setting a fixed price, you’ll allow the first person willing to meet that price to buy your NFT. 

You can set a timed auction that will give those interested in your NFT a time limit to submit their final bid.  Alternatively, you can start an unlimited auction that doesn’t set a time limit. Instead, you have control to end the auction whenever you want.

You’ll need to determine the minimum price (if you set up an auction), set your royalties to continue cashing in on your NFT if it resells on the secondary market, and how long to hold an auction (if timed). Keep fees in mind when setting the minimum price because you could lose money on your NFT sale if you set the price too low.

Unfortunately, the costs of minting and selling an NFT can be costly and confusing. You may have to pay a listing cost, an NFT minting fee, a commission on the sale, and a transaction fee to transfer money from the buyer’s wallet to yours, depending on the platform and price. Because of the volatility in cryptocurrency prices, fees may also change. As a result, you should carefully consider the costs of producing and selling your NFT to ensure that they are worthwhile.

Conclusively, the sale prices of NFTs are rising as they gain in popularity. Consequently, NFT creators can make a lot of money. However, not all NFTs will even sell, let alone make their creator any money, given all the fees involved with minting and selling NFTs. Due to the costs, you need to prepare for the possibility that you could lose money on your NFT creation. The best way to avoid a loss is to make sure you sell an NFT that others will find valuable and set a minimum price that will more than offset any associated fees.

Getting involved with any new frontier is, of course, a major decision, especially if it costs money right away. To be safe, you may begin by looking at some real NFT marketplaces and learning how they operate.

Categories
Business

Small Scale Crypto Crimes Hindering Adoption.

Police experts in the UK have contacted financial fraud lawyers to help get justice for victims of small-scale crypto fraud. Since civil court processes are usually very expensive, such offenders often walk free and the crime goes unprosecuted living victims with a bitter taste towards crypto in general. 

While blockchain analytics have grown around tracing cryptocurrency movements and can be used to trace dirty crypto, the problem in obtaining convictions stems from a “resourcing issue.” 

According to Vanessa Whitman, a finance disputes lawyer who specialises in crypto at the international law firm CMS, “The Criminal Prosecution Service [CPS] in the UK has limited resources and will only prosecute cases which it thinks have a very strong chance of success.” 

Many of the crypto complaints filed in the UK have striking similarities with those reported in Africa as seen with two of the biggest scams in South Africa in the Mirror Trading International scheme and the Africrypt scam that cost investors billions of South African Rands. 

The bigger scams tend to capture the headlines and attract more action from law enforcement at the cost of the smaller scams of amounts around $1,000 ( close to UGX. 4 million) making it easier to get away with these crimes leaving victims without compensation or justice. 

Whitman noted that victims who turn to civil lawyers to get some sort of justice are often frustrated by the cost of this civil action. 

“Instructing civil lawyers to go and get court orders to serve on exchanges is very expensive,” says Whitman, “and if you are a victim who has lost a couple of thousand pounds or dollars’ worth of crypto, that’s soon going to be eclipsed by the cost of any legal action.”

Charles Kerrigan, a crypto and digital assets lawyer at CMS pointed out that while losing a few thousand rands is not like losing R5 million or R5 billion, it does have an impact on crypto adoption. “So you just can’t have things like that happening,” Kerrigan said.

“We need to have tools that are available at a large scale and a small scale. There’s every incentive to chase down the big ones. We also need to ensure that we’ve got the incentives and the tools to chase down the small ones.”

Whitman and Kerrigan are collaborating with others in the crypto industry on a proposal to revolutionize the way crypto crime is prosecuted in the UK. If accepted, this proposal could also be exported to Africa where it would be very critical to protecting the millions looking to get into crypto on a small scale. 

The proposal aims to provide victims of crypto crime with quick access to justice through “self-management,” eliminating the need for expensive lawyers. 

Although the proposal is still in its early stages and details are still unclear, Whitman is optimistic that it will provide a much-needed solution for victims of crypto crime.

Categories
Business

MoneyGram Launches Crypto-to-Fiat Service on Stellar Blockchain

Global leader in the evolution of digital peer-to-peer (P2P) payments, MoneyGram, and nonprofit organization that supports the Stellar network, Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) have recently announced the initial rollout of an on-and-off-ramp service for crypto wallets on the Stellar network.

It will be initially rolled out in a few select markets including Canada, Kenya, the Philippines, and the US by the end of June, and is expected to launch in more countries by the end of the year.

The purpose of this is to increase the utility of digital assets by creating a bridge between cash and cryptocurrencies. With the support of Circle’s USDC stablecoin, one of the world’s fastest-growing dollar digital currencies, funds on digital wallets will be able to go from fiat to cryptocurrency to fiat again without the need for a bank account or credit card. This enables an accelerated collection of funds, improving efficiencies and reducing risks.

More custodial and non-custodial wallets will be added to the service in the near future, but for the time being, Stellar-based crypto wallets Vibrant and Lobstr can use it. To encourage adoption, MoneyGram is offering the service for free for the first 12 months.

“We’re thrilled to work alongside the Stellar Development Foundation on this important initiative to bring more opportunities to consumers around the world by making the worlds of crypto and local fiat currency compatible,” said Alex Holmes, MoneyGram Chairman, and CEO.

 “At MoneyGram, we’re on a mission to deliver innovative financial solutions that connect the world’s communities, and the initial launch of this service is another important milestone on our journey. It’s especially exciting to launch this service ahead of schedule due to the strong collaboration of our technology teams, and we look forward to further collaboration with SDF as we work on uncovering new ways to utilize the blockchain to further streamline cross-border payments.” He added.

The partnership focuses on delivering a service that revolutionizes the settlement process.

“A much-needed solution to the cash-to-crypto on/off-ramp problem is here,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation. 

He added saying, “Today, almost 2 billion people rely on cash for their livelihood, with no options to access the digital economy. At the same time, a persistent pain point for crypto-native users is off-ramping cryptocurrency quickly and reliably. The groundbreaking nature of this service is how it solves problems for a range of users with varying needs around the world.”

This service also creates a developer platform that will allow more businesses within the Stellar ecosystem and beyond, including wallets and service providers, to expand the functionality and reach of MoneyGram’s integration with the Stellar network. For example, Elliptic, a global leader in crypto asset risk management, will provide MoneyGram with robust blockchain analytics solutions, and Wyre, a leading provider of blockchain payments APIs, will help other wallets, starting with Airtm, a digital dollar account, integrate with the MoneyGram service.

Categories
Technology

Bored Ape Yacht Club Co-founder Warns Of A Potential Attack On Their Social media Accounts

Gordon Goner, the co-founder of Yuga Labs and the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has issued a warning on Twitter to users about a potential attack on the BAYC social media accounts. The warning was issued yesterday after Gordon claimed that the BAYC got credible information that a Twitter insider would be assisting a team of hackers that is carrying out the attack on their social media accounts.

Following that, Yuga Labs contacted Twitter to monitor the accounts and Twitter confirmed that they had reinforced the security.

Gorner warned the BAYC community twice that there wouldn’t be any surprise mints. Scammers and hackers are always trying to cash in on every possible opportunity. The fake mint news and the phishing links embedded in the fake news are one of the common ways how scammers loot the wallets of the users.

It is because of this that BAYC has been prone to several attacks recently.  For example, attackers exploited the discord group of the Otherside and looted over 145 ETH a week ago.

This warning acts as a caution for the BAYC community to stay vigilant so that they are not blindsided by the hackers.