Bitcoin mining difficulty fell by almost 3%, Binance saw the departure of its top managers for the Russian desk, a former FTX chief pleaded guilty, MetaMask added fiat withdrawal functionality, and other events of the week.
Bitcoin price enters a sideways range
On Friday, 8 September, the flagship cryptocurrency briefly topped $26,000 but soon fell back below the psychological level.
As of writing, the digital gold is trading at around $25,800.
All top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap closed the week in the red. The biggest losses were Solana (-5.6%) and Dogecoin (-2.4%).
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization was below $1.1 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index stood at 49.3%.
Bitcoin mining difficulty fell by almost 3%
As a result of another adjustment, the mining difficulty of Bitcoin fell by 2.65%. The metric reached 54.15 TH.
The average hash rate for the period since the previous adjustment was 387.57 EH/s. The block interval of 16 seconds exceeded the algorithm’s 10-minute target.
Binance will allow Russian clients to withdraw assets if the company leaves the country
Russian Binance users will be able to withdraw funds in the event of the company leaving the country, according to the support team, noting that such an option is not currently applicable.
On September 6, Gleb Kostarev, head of Eastern Europe, and Vladimir Smerkis, head of the CIS, announced their departure from Binance. Both were responsible for the company’s operations in Russia.
What to discuss with friends?
- Casio will release NFT watches based on Polygon.
- Yuri Dud explained the reason for rejecting his own NFTs.
- Hackers hacked Vitalik Buterin’s X account.
- A user sold 9 million SYN and dumped the token by 25%.
Former FTX top executive pleads guilty
On Thursday, 7 September, Ryan Salame, the former CEO of FTX’s Bahamian unit, pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.
The charges involve conspiracy to make illegal political donations and conspiracy to engage in unlicensed money-transfer business.
Salame made political donations in his own name “in support of initiatives advanced by others but backed by Sam Bankman-Fried.” He said the funds were provided by Alameda Research and “classified as loans.”
In addition to the forfeiture of more than $1.5 billion under the agreement, Salame must reimburse $5.6 million. He also agreed to pay $6 million before the verdict in March 2024. To cover this amount, the former executive will hand over a Porsche and several properties, including two houses in Massachusetts.
MetaMask added fiat withdrawal feature
The developers of the non-custodial crypto wallet MetaMask integrated the ability to “cash out” digital assets with withdrawals to a bank card or PayPal account.
The feature is available in the US, the UK and some European countries. For withdrawals, dollars, euros and pounds are supported. Cashing out cryptocurrency can be done in the MetaMask browser extension.
Initially, only Ethereum is supported.
Also on ForkLog:
- Experts identified 28 crypto billionaires.
- Media reports revealed Bitcoin on Bitfinex’s balance.
- Vitalik Buterin sold MakerDAO tokens for $580,000.
- Former Thodex head was sentenced to 11,196 years in prison.
Unknown attacker drained more than $40 million from Stake wallet
The wallet of the betting platform Stake was hacked. The project lost about $41 million as a result of the breach.
Co-founder Edward Craven said the platform’s private keys were not compromised, but the hacker withdrew funds from actively used hot wallets. He noted the attack was “sophisticated” and targeted the transaction-authorization service used by the company.
“The lost funds are by no means a trivial amount, but the incident did not have a material impact on Stake’s operations,” he said.
FBI accused Lazarus Group of the breach.
Expert predicts Bitcoin to reach $150,000
The founder of Edelman Financial Engines, Rick Edelman, predicted Bitcoin to rise to $150,000 by the summer of 2025. He said the crypto winter has lasted longer than most investors expected.
Drivers could include technological improvements and the likely approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF, Edelman explained. He also noted growing institutional interest in the first cryptocurrency and the upcoming halving in 2024.
What else to read?
This week ForkLog explored how businesses integrate digital assets, how the crypto-payments market is developing in post-Soviet countries, whether AI could overturn the “new feudalism,” and why the Czechs love Bitcoin.
In the traditional digest, ForkLog has gathered the main cybersecurity events of the week.
The decentralized finance sector continues to attract heightened attention from cryptocurrency investors. ForkLog has compiled the most important events and news from the past weeks in a digest.