Litecoin is one of the first open-source altcoins based on the original Bitcoin code. It was initially a strong competitor to the first cryptocurrency. However, as the cryptocurrency market expanded, Litecoin’s popularity gradually declined.
New blockages of crypto bloggers, problems on exchanges — the most interesting events of the week
The profiles of crypto bloggers @TheCryptoDog, @woonomic and @100trillionUSD on Twitter were blocked for 6 hours, the profile of @TheCryptoDog is still unavailable. The total number of their subscribers is 300 thousand. The reason for the blocking was noted as a "violation of the rules" of the social network, but what exactly was violated is not specified. Analyst Willy Wu said that he contacted the site's support service, after which the account was unblocked, citing an error in the algorithms that identified his blog as spam. Previously, a similar problem occurred on Facebook and Youtube, which suggests censorship.
The Chinese social network Weibo blocked the accounts of the cryptocurrency exchanges Huobi, OKEx and Binance for violations; reasons, as usual, are not specified. In 2019, the microblogging site already blocked Binance for violating the requirements of regulators, all account subscribers and content were deleted. The same fate befell TRON founder Justin Sun.
South Korean exchange Bithumb imposes restrictions on jurisdictions under the increased control of the FATF. Accounts of users from the Bahamas, Iceland, Pakistan, Syria and other high-risk countries will be blocked, and the creation of new accounts will be prohibited. For everyone else, stricter KYC (“know your customer”) procedures will apply. The financial regulator of the Seychelles said that the Huobi exchange does not have a license to operate in the country. Following the company's response on Twitter, the alert on the regulator's website disappeared.
Binance Smart Chain-backed DODO exchange was attacked due to a vulnerability, resulting in a loss of $3.8 million.
Ripple has lost one of its main advantages – cooperation with MoneyGram. This was announced personally by the founder of the startup, Brad Garlinghouse, and he also added that the conditions need to be reviewed due to obstacles from the regulation of cryptocurrencies. The head of MoneyGram, Alex Holmes, spoke positively about cooperation with Ripple, because in 18 months of collaboration, the number of transactions increased by more than 3 times.
Switzerland's largest department store chain, Manor, has begun selling cryptocurrency gift certificates. Bitcoin vouchers are available at 59 retail outlets of the network. Cryptonow cards were launched for sale thanks to cooperation with the Swiss payment provider Värdex Suisse AG. Certificates are available in denominations of 100 and 500 Swiss francs, and there are also cards that allow you to independently determine the balance from 50 to 500 francs. Cards can be returned to the exchange office or bitcoin can be sold directly through Värdex ATMs.
Processing service Wirex has released a Mastercard cryptocurrency debit card, which will be supported in the UK and the EU. Users will be able to convert eight cryptocurrencies into ten fiat currencies and cash out at ATMs.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine took up the promotion of digital currency – crypto. In Kyiv, at the beginning of the week, the first meeting of the Foresight of the Virtual Assets Market was held. After the meeting, it was decided that within 90 days the ministry would make a presentation on the development of digital mining for the period up to 2031. The main problem, according to the community, is incompetence and a general misunderstanding of what a cryptocurrency is. Therefore, in order to get officials to take the necessary actions, educational seminars will be required.
Testing of the digital ruble will begin in 2022. The Bank of Russia announced plans to present a prototype platform for a digital asset. After the finalization of the prototype, the testing stages will take place.
In Japan, for the first time, they were sentenced to a prison term for non-payment of taxes in operations with bitcoin. Hideji Matsuda, 56, hid income from trading cryptocurrencies, for which he received a year in prison and a fine of 22 million yen. The tax damage of the state amounted to 74 million yen, the defendant justified himself by saying that he did not know the law on the taxation of digital assets. This case became a precedent in the judicial practice of the country. By the way, in Japan, cryptocurrencies are fully legalized and taxes on them can reach 55%.
