Weekly roundup: Bitcoin holds at $26,000 level, and Binance restricts Russians’ P2P operations

Bitcoin remained volatile; the FBI arrested Tornado Cash co-founder, who was later released on bail; Binance restricted Russians’ P2P operations; mining difficulty of the first cryptocurrency reached a new all-time high; and other events from the past week.

Bitcoin Holds at $26,000

This week the leading cryptocurrency traded in a range from $25,400 to $26,800. As of writing, Bitcoin sits above $26,000.

Most assets in the top-10 by market capitalization finished the week in the red. The biggest losers were Solana (-5.6%) and XRP (-3.2%).

Total cryptocurrency market capitalization is below $1.1 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index stood at 49.1%.

The FBI Arrested Tornado Cash Co-founder. He Was Released on Bail

On August 23, the U.S. Department of Justice filed charges against two co-founders of the crypto mixer Tornado Cash — Roman Shtorm and Roman Semenov — for money laundering and sanctions violations.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation detained Shtorm. He was released on bail later. Semenov remains at large, but the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added him to the sanctions list.

Binance restricted Russians from P2P operations and cut ties with Visa and Mastercard

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance banned Russian citizens from conducting operations via its P2P platform with any currencies other than the ruble. It remains unclear whether this ban is temporary or permanent.

Against the backdrop of the DOJ investigation into possible sanctions violations against Russia, Binance replaced the names of cards “Sber” and “Tinkoff” with “green” and “yellow” on the P2P platform. The service later removed even those alternative names for Russian banks.

According to Bloomberg, Mastercard and Visa are refusing to issue cryptocurrency payment cards for Binance amid regulatory troubles facing the exchange. From September 21, the company will discontinue support for Binance Card in Latin American and Middle Eastern countries.

What to discuss with friends?

• Solo miner earned $160,000 for mining a Bitcoin block.
• A Chinese official was sentenced to life imprisonment for mining and corruption.
• One of the most expensive BAYC NFTs fell by 80%.
• CoinGecko compiled a ranking of popular cryptocurrencies on TikTok.

Bitcoin mining difficulty again hits a new historic high

As a result of another adjustment the mining difficulty of the first cryptocurrency rose by 6.17%, reaching a historic high at 55.6 T.

The average hash rate over the period since the previous adjustment was 399.36 EH/s. The block interval ranged 9.5 minutes.

Pantera Capital: after the halving, Bitcoin could reach $147,800

On the eve of the halving expected in April 2024, digital gold could rise to $35,448 and then rally to $147,843, according to analysts at Pantera Capital.

The mentioned figures are based on the Stock-to-Flow metric. The model forecasts Bitcoin’s price based on the stock-to-production ratio.

Also on ForkLog:

• Experts named the most favorable countries for solo mining Bitcoin.
• Crypto holders were warned about vulnerabilities in WinRAR.
• Analysts evaluated the “X” multiples of the most successful Binance Launchpad projects.
• The U.S. narcotics control authorities accidentally sent 55,000 USDT to a scammer.

Aptos Team Unveils ‘Flexible’ Token Standard

The Aptos (APT) team announced the launch of tokens under the Aptos Digital Asset (DA) standard, which offer ‘unparalleled flexibility, composability, and scalability’.

According to the statement, the new form of tokens enables seamless airdrops, individualized asset binding, and improved performance.

Thai Citizens to Receive $300 in Digital Currency

The Thai Parliament selected real estate magnate and crypto advocate Srettha Thavisin as prime minister. During his campaign he promised to distribute 10,000 baht (~$300) in digital assets to all citizens over 16 years old.

The initiative for a government airdrop is allocated about 500 billion baht (~$15 billion) in total. The payout will be in the national token, not in cryptocurrencies.

What else to read?

ForkLog published a chapter from the book “Blockchain for Everyone. How Cryptocurrencies, BaaS, NFT, DeFi and Other New Financial Technologies Work” by Doctor of Economic Sciences Artyom Genkin and digital-technology expert Aleksey Mikheev.

In the traditional digest we gathered the week’s main cybersecurity events.

The decentralized finance sector continues to attract heightened attention from crypto investors. ForkLog has compiled the most important events and news of the recent weeks in the digest.