Bitcoin broke the $50.00 barrier per unit on Monday, while the value of CryptoPunks exceeds $250.000 per token. These and more news in this practical daily summary so that you are always informed with the most recent events that occur within the crypto world.
Cryptocurrencies and altcoins
📍Bitcoin briefly breaks the $50.000 barrier, its highest price since May. The price of the cryptocurrency Market leader Bitcoin reached $1000 $50.440 per unit on Monday, a new 3-month high. With this value, Bitcoin's market capitalization rose to $948.500 billion. Over the past month, Bitcoin has maintained a bullish behavior, showing a growth of more than 47%.
📍On Ethereum, commission fees continue to be high for many users. According to data According to BitInfoCharts, the average fee on Ethereum is $15,9 at the time of writing – a fairly high figure despite the activation of EIP-1559 on the network. As Ethereum developers explained, EIP-1559 would reform the network’s fee auction system for a base fee accompanied by a tipping mechanism. As reported Bit2Me News in March, analysts at blockchain intelligence firm Coin Metrics explained that the tipping mechanism could end up being the same as the auction system that developers wanted to eliminate; as it incentivizes miners to confirm transactions from users with higher tips first. Because of this possibility, EIP-1559 alone is unlikely to reduce fee rates significantly, the firm’s analysts explained.
As of August 5, commission fees on Ethereum were hovering around $14. Some experts believe that the high demand for NFTs at the moment is what is affecting the fees. Additionally, many users continue to pay high tips to miners in order to see their transactions confirmed in the shortest possible time.
Bitcoin and Blockchain Adoption
📍Substack, the subscription publishing infrastructure platform, enables Bitcoin payments. The platform says that to allow its customers greater control and freedom over their publications, it will integrate innovative solutions such as cryptocurrencies into its payment system. Now Substack customers and subscribers interested in the crypto industry will be able to make payments with Bitcoin (BTC), the company said. Payments can be made through Bitcoin's second layer network, Lightning Network, which facilitates the scalability of transactions to enable faster and cheaper payments.
📍El Salvador prepares to install 200 Bitcoin ATMs on September 7. The Latin American country continues to advance in the construction of an infrastructure suitable for the adoption of Bitcoin in the country. Its president, Nayik Bukele, reported that by September 7, the day the Bitcoin Law will come into effect, there will be 200 ATM units installed and operational in the country, to allow citizens to exchange the cryptocurrency for US dollars or vice versa.
In addition, Bukele recalled that citizens will be able to download the Chivo wallet to receive $30 in bitcoins on an optional and non-mandatory basis. Through the wallet, businesses and merchants will be able to receive payments in bitcoins, citizens will be able to send or receive remittances with the cryptocurrency and much more; or, if they prefer, they can continue using existing traditional methods and pay high commission fees, expressed.
NFT and DeFi Markets
📍The value of cryptopunks skyrockets after the announced purchase by Visa. The multinational electronic payments company invested 150.000 dollars to buy a cryptopunk, increasing the popularity of the project NFT within a few hours. Following its announcement, the average price of cryptopunks has risen to $257.000 per token, while the project has generated a volume of more than $70 million on Ethereum in the last few hours, according to data from Dune Analytics.
Cybersecurity
📍Poly Network hacker releases private keys to funds stolen from DeFi protocol. Known as “Mr. White Hat,” the hacker or hackers of the Poly Network DeFi protocol finally released the stolen funds on August 10. It’s worth remembering that Poly suffered a $613 million exploit that affected the protocol on Ethereum, BSC, and Polygon. A few days after the attack, the developers reached an agreement with the hacker to return the stolen funds, so they called him “Mr. White Hat,” in a friendly way. Although the hacker returned the funds to Poly, he did so to a multi-signature address for which he held a private key; one that he did not release until this week.
On Twitter, Poly Network developers confirmed the key and the successful release of the funds, thanking the hacker for his integrity in returning the money to the thousands of users affected by the exploit. The $33 million blocked by Tether Limited is still in the process of being recovered, the team reported.
📍8 fraudulent mobile apps on Play Store were removed by Google. Interest in cryptocurrencies has led cybercriminals to create fake apps to trick people who want to venture into the world of digital assets. In this case, Google removed 8 fraudulent mobile apps that tricked users with fake mining power to mine cryptocurrencies. The warning about these apps was made by the security software company Trend Micro, which reported to Google over apps that exploited users into believing they were cryptocurrency cloud mining apps.
Victims paid up to $15 for subscription services to the fraudulent apps, plus additional fees to supposedly increase their cloud mining capabilities and earn more cryptocurrency. Of course, the reality is that through these apps, users got nothing in return, because they were just a scam. “We have reported our findings to Google Play and the apps were immediately removed from the Play Store.”, the cybersecurity company reported. Trend Micro also warns that there are still around 120 fraudulent apps supposedly dedicated to cloud mining, and some of these have more than 100.000 downloads.
📍Liquid Exchange hacker moves 6.000 ethers to Tornado.cash. According to on-chain data, the cryptocurrency exchange hacker is moving some of the funds stolen from the platform to a non-custodial Ethereum mixer. Etherscan shows that the hacker has moved nearly 6.000 ethers from the theft to the Tornado.cash mixer, in an attempt to obfuscate the origin of the funds. The exchange's developers have already identified at least 9 addresses belonging to the hacker. Several cryptocurrency platforms have acted quickly to block part of the stolen funds in the identified addresses.
Rules and Regulations
📍CFTC Commissioner Dawn Stump says the regulator has full authority to enforce commodity laws in the crypto market. According to statements According to Stump, regulation of cryptocurrencies and digital assets falls to the CFTC, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The commissioner said the agency has authority over digital assets as well as their derivative products. The CFTC and the SEC have been debating for some time over who should regulate cryptocurrencies.
Continue reading: UK citizens will be able to buy cryptocurrencies through Paypal
