News updates January 16, 2022

1. Russia Busts Revil Ransomware Group on US Request, Arrests 14 Members

Russian law enforcement agencies have dismantled the notorious hacking group Revil, believed to be behind ransomware attacks in the U.S. involving cryptocurrency. Although Moscow is unlikely to hand over Russian citizens to Washington, the operation has been carried out on request from the United States, despite heightened geopolitical tensions between the two powers.

On Friday, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) announced it has conducted raids against Revil in the capital Moscow, St. Petersburg, Leningrad, and Lipetsk regions, together with the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). Law enforcement officers searched 25 addresses and detained 14 alleged members of the organized crime group.

Funds worth over 426 million rubles ($5.6 million) including cryptocurrency, $600,000 and €500,000, as well as crypto wallets, computer equipment used to commit crimes, and 20 high-end vehicles purchased with money obtained from criminal activities were seized, the FSB detailed in a press release, emphasizing:

As a result of the joint actions of the FSB and the MVD, the organized criminal community ceased to exist, the information infrastructure used for criminal purposes was neutralized.

2. Crypto Could Soon Pose Risks to Countries’ Financial Stability

Economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) say that “crypto assets are no longer on the fringe of the financial system.” In addition, they “could soon pose risks to financial stability especially in countries with widespread crypto adoption.”

Our Analysis Suggests Crypto Assets Are No Longer on the Fringe of the Financial System

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a blog post on Tuesday warning about the risks crypto assets pose to financial stability. The post is authored by three economists from the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department: Tobias Adrian, Tara Iyer, and Mahvash S. Qureshi.

Crypto assets such as bitcoin have matured from an obscure asset class with few users to an integral part of the digital asset revolution, raising financial stability concerns,” the IMF post describes.

The authors detailed:

Our analysis suggests that crypto assets are no longer on the fringe of the financial system. Given their relatively high volatility and valuations, their increased comovement could soon pose risks to financial stability especially in countries with widespread crypto adoption.

3. Bitcoin's Hashrate Taps New Lifetime High, BTC Price 20% Above Production Cost, Difficulty Nears ATH

Bitcoin’s hashrate has been riding high again as the processing power tapped another lifetime high on January 15, 2022, reaching 219.68 exahash per second (EH/s). The new record follows the previous all-time high (ATH) on the first day of the year, when the network’s hashrate tapped 219.5 EH/s.

Bitcoin’s Hashrate Hits a Milestone, Analyst Discusses Miner Capitulation, Estimated Bitcoin Production Cost

Bitcoin miners are dedicating a lot of SHA256 processing power to the BTC network on January 15, as the network quickly reached an ATH just after 12:00 a.m. (EST). The record was just a hair above the previous ATH on January 1, at 219.5 EH/s as today’s hashrate reached a high of 219.68 EH/s. At the time of writing, the network’s hashpower is coasting along at 199 EH/s.

4. Indonesian Man’s Selfie NFT Collection Now Worth Millions of Dollars

An Indonesian man has become an overnight star after his selfie non-fungible token (NFT) collection took off on Ethereum-powered NFT marketplace OpenSea. 

According to a report by The Block, Ghozali Ghozalu, 22, launched a selfie NFT collection dubbed “Ghozali Everyday“.

The collection consisted of selfies taken by Ghozalu every day from age 18 to 22, with each photo being sold for 0.001 ETH (~$3.25). Ghozalu described the project on OpenSea as really just “a picture of me standing in front of the computer day by day.” 

The report claims the collection caught the notice of several NFT collectors, who quickly saw the meme-potential of the photos. Despite taking several days to sell out, the Ghozali Everyday collection was catapulted into OpenSea’s Top 40 by trading volume rankings, generating more than 256 ETH (~$870K) in sales.

5. UK newspaper unveils record breaking number of crypto ads, amid CBDC pushback

If regulating crypto wasn’t hard enough, one particularly sticky area to navigate is the question of crypto ads and commercials. Across the Atlantic, this matter has been causing a row for quite some time. Now, new information has put the ethics of crypto advertisements under a brighter spotlight.

An investigation into crypto ads by the UK newspaper The Guardian showed that crypto companies both targeted Londoners and beat records with the number of ads they put up in public transportation zones.

The Guardian‘s report stated,

“Records obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act show that TfL services displayed 39,560 crypto adverts from 13 firms in the six months between April and September 2021.”

Some of these ads belonged to the crypto exchanges eToro, Crypto.com, and Luno, as well as a Musk-inspired meme coin.

Political leaders against the move stressed on the reckless investment choices that the ads might trigger. Some also wanted a ban on such advertisements, citing the appeal of unregulated crypto during a time of severe economic strain worldwide.

6. Changpeng Zhao The CEO Of Binance Reveals The Magic Behind Binance’s Huge Success In Recent Years

Binance is undoubtedly the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world but the road to the top has not been the smoothest of rides. The exchange’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao goes on to reveal the recipe for success.

He narrowed the factors for the exchange’s success into protecting users, retaining them with stellar service, and offering innovative products. 

Changpeng Zhao claims that prior to Binance, it took an average of two months for other exchanges to resolve customer issues. However, Binance flipped the script with the introduction of live chats that were responsive within minutes.

After that, speed was the next on the agenda. According to CZ, “Binance’s matching is faster than other exchanges” and the platform’s API is the fastest and the most stable on the platform. Prior to the launch of the exchange, CZ noted that the dominant exchanges could be best described as “bitcoin exchanges” and had a limited listing on coins. To fill the void, Binance provides support for a wide range of coins, and today it lists over 500 coins.

Changpeng Zhao asserts Binance is the lowest fee exchange in the world, unlike other platforms that spend a fortune on marketing. To attract an international market, Binance supported nine languages within the first 30 days of launch and increased the number to 31 global languages, surpassing any competing exchange.

“For something to succeed, you need to do 1,000 things well, plus a lot of luck,” CZ wrote. “For something to fail, you just need to do one thing poorly, even after you did the other 1000 things relatively well.”