Cryptocurrency & Mining News - Page 1

Russian security agencies have been targeted by a mysterious hacker that has used Bitcoin technologies to erase and send funds to Ukraine.

Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm that has worked with the US government, has reported that a rogue hacker has targeted cryptocurrency wallets that appear to be owned by Russian security agencies such as the Foreign Military Intelligence Agency (GRU), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and the Federal Security Service (FSB). Notably, the hacker even took the time to write in Russian that these identified wallets were involved in hacking activity.

Chainalysis was able to confirm at least three of the alleged Russian wallet addresses are linked to Russia, with two of them being used in the SolarWinds cyberattack in 2020 and one of them being used to pay for servers that were used in Russia's 2016 election disinformation campaign. Furthermore, the hacker appeared to both erase funds and send funds to Ukraine. The hacker destroyed more than $300,000 worth using the OP_RETURN function in the Bitcoin blockchain, which nulifies previous transactions of Bitcoin.

Computex 2023 is off to a racing start and while the showroom floor is inundated with PC gaming hardware we have spotted a pretty unique cryptocurrency mining rig.

While cryptocurrency has certainly taken a downward turn since the price of Bitcoin dropped, there are still some interesting products emerging from various companies. One of those companies is Engineered Fluids, which walked us through their custom cooling solution for a Bitmain Antminer S19 90T.

As showcased by the above image, the Antminer has been completely submerged in oil which is then filtered through a cooling unit. The cooled oil keeps the system running at lower temperatures, enabling better performance, and thus, a higher hashrate.

One of the biggest figures in the cryptocurrency space has said that Bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency, has said that Bitcoin has bottomed out and a new bull run has started.

Michael Saylor

Michael Saylor, the co-founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy, has become one of the few Bitcoin maximalists to publicly embrace Ordinals, a protocol that allows for arbitrary and non-financial information to be included on the Bitcoin blockchain. In an interview at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami, Saylor discussed his views on Ordinals, its potential use cases, and the ongoing debates within the Bitcoin community.

Saylor sees Ordinals as a positive development for Bitcoin, although he acknowledges that many of the early use cases are more speculative than serious. He stated, "What if I was using them to tokenize all of the stocks and ETFs trading on NASDAQ so that individuals can take personal custody of their shares of stock instead of leaving them locked up with a centralized custodian? If it was presented that way, then Bitcoiners would love it."

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the creator of the highly popular artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, is close to securing $100 million in funding for another one of his projects called Worlcoin.

Sam Altman

According to a new report by the Financial Times, which spoke to three people familiar with the deal, Sam Altman is on the verge of securing a new round of $100 million in funding from new and existing investors for Worldcoin, a project that aims at creating a global digital currency that is distributed equally and fairly to everyone. The project's foundations lay with Worldcoin's proof-of-personhood protocol that involves users participating in a biometric scan of their irises, which is then verified against a government-issued ID such as a driver's license.

Once the user is verified, Worldcoin is able to distribute the token out to the unique personhood address. Additionally, last week Worldcoin announced World App wallet and World ID, a new protocol that will enable users to sign in to websites, applications, and other cryptocurrency-related applications. The company was only founded in 2019 and has since reached a $3 billion valuation, attracting the attention of many investors around the world that are interested in the utility of iris scans.

Microsoft's Edge browser has been on a run of adding various bits and pieces of functionality of late, and the firm isn't letting up, with another new feature having been spotted: a crypto wallet.

The Edge team might be introducing a built-in way of managing your crypto assets right in the browser, as flagged up in a tweet by well-known leaker Albacore on Twitter (spotted by Bleeping Computer).

This feature consists of a 'non-custodial' crypto wallet (meaning you, not Microsoft, are in complete control of the funds within), supporting multiple Ethereum accounts (and maybe Bitcoin in the future).

According to new court records, the army of professional lawyers and advisors has billed a collective $38 million plus expenses for just the month of January.

FTX, the previous position holder for the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, filed for bankruptcy in November after it was discovered exchange officials were illegitimately managing customer funds. Since then, a widespread effort has been implemented to clean up the financial mess created by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), along with his other top-ranking officials from FTX and its sister company Alameda Research. Notably, some of these officials have turned on SBF and are cooperating with regulators and authorities.

Shortly after the collapse of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO of the company, and John Ray III was brought in as the new CEO. Notably, John Ray III was responsible for assisting in the clean-up process of the energy firm Enron. FTX bankruptcy administrators have Sullivan & Cromwell on retainer as counsel, as well as Quin Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Landis Rath & Cobb. All of the aforementioned firms contain approximately 180 lawyers and more than 50 staffers that are all working on the FTX case.

One of the key members in the downfall of what was the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, will plead guilty to fraud charges.

Sam Bankman Fried

A new report from Bloomberg has revealed that former FTX executive Nishad Singh is currently working on striking a plea deal with New York prosecutors that have filed charges of fraud against Singh. The report indicates the former FTX executive will plead guilty to the fraud charges and his involvement in the alleged scheme that resulted in the collapse of FTX. The publication cited its source as 'people familiar with the matter'.

Singh was the director of engineering at FTX and if a plea deal is struck, would be the newest member of Sam Bankman Fried's (SBF) inner circle to plead guilty, with FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, both entering into plea deals last year near the time of the collapse. If the plea deal is struck between Singh and authorities, it could involve working with prosecutors on their case, which was outlined in both Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang's plea deals.

The former Coinbase employee is Ishan Wahi, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in court on Tuesday, February 7.

The former product manager at Coinbase was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the Southern District of New York. Notably, Wahi pleaded not guilty to wire fraud back in August, which was based on an insider trading scheme that involved the former Coinbase employee informing his brother and his friend Sameer Ramani about coming token listings on the platform. Wahi's brother Nikhil pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in September and received a 10-month sentence.

According to reports, federal prosecutors are describing the Wahi case as the first insider trading case involving cryptocurrencies. Notably, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also coming after Wahi and charged him back in July last year, deeming 9 out of the 25 tokens involved in the case as "securities". However, lawyers representing Wahi filed to dismiss the SEC charges, claiming that tokens bought and sold on the secondary market aren't securities.

Ripple has announced a new president will take the helm at the company as the cryptocurrency coin reaches the end of its long lawsuit with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The company took to its blog to announce that Monica Long, Ripple's senior vice president, and general manager, will be taking up the position of president of the company. Long started her career at Ripple when the firm was in its infancy, counting just ten employees back in 2013. Sticking with Ripple long made her way up the ranks to eventually be given the position of general manager in 2020.

According to Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, "Even in the current challenging crypto environment, Monica has helped guide Ripple to a very unique place of growth and financial strength. She's been an instrumental adviser to me over the years, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to partner with her even more closely as she embarks on her role as president."

A blockchain investigator has revealed the hackers behind the Harmony Bridge attack that occurred in June 2022 are trying to move millions in stolen funds.

Reports indicate that blockchain investigator ZachXBT found evidence that the group of hackers behind the Harmony Bridge exploitation that cost the startup $100 million are trying to move the stolen funds to a few different wallets on various cryptocurrency exchanges. For those that don't know, Harmony is a US cryptocurrency startup that discovered in June 2022 that its Horizon blockchain bridge, which allows users to send/receive assets from one blockchain to another, had been hacked.

ZachXBT took to Twitter with on-chain data that backed up his claims that the hackers behind the Harmony attack transferred stolen assets to six different cryptocurrency exchanges. Notably, ZachXBT states that the appropriate cryptocurrency exchanges were notified of the transfer and at least partly froze the assets. Additionally, the movement of the stolen funds to the new addresses comes only days after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the culprits behind the $100 million Harmony hack. The FBI named the Lazarus Group and APT38 as responsible criminals.