Day: November 15, 2023

US House Financial Services subcommittee looks for answers on crypto and crime

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The United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion received an education in the uses of blockchain technology in a hearing titled “Crypto Crime in Context: Breaking Down the Illicit Activity in Digital Assets” on Nov. 15. The hearing was bipartisan in nature, chair French Hill stated at the outset.  Hill began the meeting by citing an article published by The Wall Street Journal on Oct. 10 on the use of crypto by Hamas for fundraising. The article was corrected on Oct. 27 to reflect…

Does Crypto Finance Hamas and Other Terrorists?

To obscure the money trail, the exchanges often changed the wallet addresses they used each day, and sent funds through mixers, Israeli officials said.”Intelligence chiefs say hawala networks – informal remittance systems – have funneled millions of dollars from Iran to Hamas’s military wing and that the wallets identified and targeted by Israel are probably just a fraction of those in existence. (Mixers combine currency transactions, making them harder to trace.) Source

Which Meme Coin Is More Profitable For Holders?

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DOGE and SHIB holders have had different things to talk about in the past month. As two of the most popular meme coins, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu seem pretty similar at first glance. Both digital assets have pushed themselves to the very best as they look to upgrade from the meme token status.  Everyone seems to have an opinion on which one will make holders more money, but on-chain metrics reveal different victors for different time frames. According to IntoTheBlock’s profitability metric, more DOGE holders are making money since the…

Disney launches NFT platform, eye issues at ApeFest and NFT sales rise: Nifty Newsletter

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In this week’s newsletter, check out Disney’s plans to release a nonfungible token (NFT) platform by the end of 2023 and find out why NFT sales volumes will likely continue their upward trend in the coming months. Read about China’s stance on NFT theft and why the CEO of Roblox “dreams” of interoperability. In other news, find out what caused eye-related complaints at the recent ApeFest event in Hong Kong.  Disney launches NFT platform with Dapper Labs Disney has partnered with NFT company Dapper Labs to launch a digital collectible…

46% of crypto lost from exploits is due to traditional Web2 flaws

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A new report from blockchain security platform Immunefi suggests that nearly half of all crypto lost from Web3 exploits is due to Web2 security issues such as leaked private keys. The report, released on November 15, looked back at the history of crypto exploits in 2022, categorizing them into different types of vulnerabilities. It concluded that a full 46.48% of the crypto lost from exploits in 2022 was not from smart contract flaws but was rather from “infrastructure weaknesses” or issues with the developing firm’s computer systems. Categories of Web3…

Bitcoin (BTC) Spot ETF Filing From Hashdex Delayed

The delays come amid heightened anticipation of a spot bitcoin ETF approval by the federal regulator, which has so far rejected every attempt to list such a product for the general investing public. Over a dozen companies have filed to launch spot bitcoin ETFs in 2023, with several others now applying for similar products exposed to ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Original Source BitcoinBTCDelayedETFFilingHashdexSpot CryptoX Portal

Exchange Inflows Hit $1.2 Billion In Past Month

On-chain data shows exchanges have registered Bitcoin deposits of about $1.2 billion in the past month. Bitcoin Exchange Supply Has Seen A Significant Increase In The Past Month As explained by analyst Ali in a new post on X, exchanges have seen hefty inflows recently. The relevant indicator here is the “balance on exchanges,” which keeps track of the total amount of Bitcoin in the wallets of all centralized exchanges. When this metric’s value rises, these platforms are receiving a net amount of deposits right now. Generally, one of the…

Ethereum’s Layer-2 Expansion, Rise of Zero-Knowledge Cryptography, and Bitcoin’s New Frontier in Tokenization, Smart Contracts, and File Hosting

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LAYER 2’S EVERYWHERE: In last week’s The Protocol, we dedicated a not-inconsiderable quantity of ink to the fast-growing list of new “layer 2” blockchains aiming to provide a venue for fast and speedy transactions atop Ethereum. Grab another well, cause there’s been plenty more announcements already this week. The most notable was inarguably Tuesday’s disclosure by the crypto exchange OKX that it plans to build a layer 2 using Polygon’s technology. Wednesday brought the news of Kinto, which has raised $5 million this year to develop a layer-2 network that’s…

Crypto-Friendly U.S. Lawmakers Ask Biden, Yellen to Quantify Hamas’ Digital Asset Fundraising

“Congress must understand the size, scope, and duration of Hamas’s digital asset operations, as well as whether the United States has had success in seizing illicit digital assets,” the letter said. “It is important to understand the scope of Hamas’s digital assets fundraising campaign in the context of its traditional funding activities. Not accounting for the funds Hamas receives from Iran or through donations, it is estimated that Hamas’s global investment portfolio generates hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. This could far exceed the amount Hamas has received through…