cryptocurrency

20 Bitcoin Block Rewards from 2010 Moved Today, Mystery Miner Spent $400 Million in BTC Since Black Thursday

28/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

On Saturday, February 27, 2021, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the great number of 2010 and 2011 block rewards being spent this year. In that report, it was said that the mysterious whale entity we’ve been hunting “did not move a major string of bitcoin’s” since January 25. Following the publishing of that study, on Sunday, the old-school whale miner moved another 20 block rewards from 2010, as 1,000 bitcoins that sat idle for well over a decade were spent.

9,000 Decade-Old Bitcoins Spent Since March 11, 2020

Since mid-March, news.Bitcoin.com has been on the trail for an old-school bitcoin (BTC) miner that has been spending large strings of 2010 block rewards. A block reward is an incentive a bitcoin miner gets for finding a block on the Bitcoin blockchain and before 2012, all rewards were 50 BTC per block. Further, the technical term “spend” or “spent,” simply means the owner moved the coins, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the bitcoins were “sold” to another owner.

Our report on Saturday, had shown that there were 80 block rewards from 2010 that were spent this year. Interestingly, 40 block rewards from the 2011 days also got spent in 2021 as well. On Sunday, February 28, 2021, following our last report, the whale miner once again spent another 20 block rewards from 2010 at block height 672,501. It’s assumed the mystery miner is seeking attention.

Our last study also mentioned the mega-whale or group of whales that have been spending these 2010 blocks in strings of 20 blocks per transfer since mid-March. Our team alongside researchers from Btcparser.com and the Russian blockchain researcher, Issak Shvarts, have discovered a total of 9 spending strings from 2010.

All of the strings use the same exact pattern of spending in concessions of 20 consecutive decade-old blocks. 20 block reward string spends from 2010 happened on March 11, 2020, October 11, November 7, November 8, December 27, January 3, 2021 (Bitcoin’s anniversary), January 10, January 25, and today (Sunday, February 28, 2021) as well.

That’s a total of 180 block rewards and each and every one of them contained 50 BTC per block. The person(s) always consolidates the bitcoins into a single BTC address and then the coins are dispersed thereafter in fractions. Usually, all the strings of spent blocks stem from July 2010 up until November 2010, and the coinbase dates are always the same months.

The block explorer oxt.me also shows the 2010 whale’s pattern of spending habits are always the same. One researcher discussing the subject with our newsdesk yesterday said: “Maybe they have some special application, a script, which is not really flexible and may get only 20 private keys at a time, but a list of receiving addresses.”

Either Spending Solutions Are Not Flexible or the Whale Is Flexing and Wants Attention

Blockchair’s privacy-o-meter shows the mystery miner’s first spends are always susceptible to heuristics and transaction tracing tools. The 2010 string spends always have a “rare fingerprint,” “co-spending,” “same address in inputs,” and “sweep” techniques.

After the first consolidation, the transactions ‘go dark’ from here, and privacy is increased from 0 to 100 points according to Blockchair stats. Issak Shvarts believes that numerous 2010 strings that have followed this exact same spending pattern have likely been sold to the San Francisco-based exchange Coinbase.

Moreover, except for the one specific mid-March 2020 decade-old string spend, the mysterious miner or miners always spend the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) as well. Furthermore, the mining entity never moves the corresponding bitcoinsv (BSV), except for the one time on March 11.

Whatever the case may be, the old-school whale or whales spending the strings of 2010 block rewards seem to want attention. Unless the whale is forced to use a non-flexible spending script or weird spending habit, our deduction so far is that the whale is a show-off and definitely wants the public’s attention.

It is quite a coincidence that after our newsdesk writes: “So far, this particular entity or entities have not moved a major string of bitcoins since then” yesterday, and then the whale spends another string of 20 block rewards from 2010 (1,000 BTC). We also know on October 11, the entity or entities did send 9.99999943 BTC ($114k worth at the time) to the Free Software Foundation and another 9.999 BTC to the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER).

The whale has spent roughly 180 decade-old block rewards to-date, adding up to approximately 9,000 BTC. That’s over $400 million worth of bitcoin using exchange rates on Sunday, February 28, 2021.

What do you think about the 9,000 bitcoins from 2010 spent since March 11, 2020? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo Contradicts Central Bank, Says Cryptocurrencies Must Be Regulated and Not Prohibited

27/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

In an apparent rebuke of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Vice President of Nigeria Yemi Osinbajo says the country’s monetary authorities must consider regulating crypto assets. He adds that instead of “killing the goose that might lay the golden egg”, Nigerian monetary authorities must consider providing a “robust regulatory regime” that addresses their concerns.

The Importance of Disruptive Technologies

Still, in his address at a Bankers Committee meeting, Osinbajo says “he fully appreciates the position” that has been articulated by the CBN. Since the CBN prohibition went into effect, leaders at both the CBN and the Nigeria Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have defended this decision.

However, in his speech, the Nigerian Vice President suggests that the country’s regulators must consider embracing emerging and disruptive technologies. Pointing to the past impact of some disruptive innovations, the Vice President said:

“As seen in many other sectors, disruption makes room for efficiency and progress.”

Meanwhile, Osinbajo, who seemingly wants both the CBN and the SEC to take a cue from these other sectors, says “there is a role for regulation” even with cryptocurrencies. Still, concerning this regulation, Osinbajo says:

So it should be thoughtful and knowledge-based regulation, not prohibition. The point I am making is that some of the exciting developments we see call for prudence and care in adopting them. We must act with knowledge and not fear.

Confusion Reigns Supreme

In the meantime, on Twitter, reaction to the Vice President’s comments appears to have reignited the controversy that surrounds the CBN prohibition. On one hand, crypto opponents have attacked Osinbajo’s remarks while on the other hand, crypto players are lauding the Vice President’s comments. Still, others say the Vice President’s remarks laid bare the extent of confusion inside the Nigerian government.

A Twitter user known as Pedro Kalu said: “This shows lack of clear economic policy, The Vice-president is supposed to be the leader of the economic team and here he is speaking from one side of the mouth while the CBN Governor does another.”

Another user, Rancho remarks, “This should have been said to the CBN before they made that rash decision. A VP as sound [and] knowledgeable as Prof. Osinbajo should have been consulted. Right now, the govt doesn’t look or speak with one voice. Discordant tunes. Bad policies. Confusion everywhere!”

What are your thoughts on comments that were made by the Nigerian Vice President? You can share your views in the comments section below.

Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Defends Decision to Exclude Crypto Players, Says the Order Is ‘in the Best Interests of Nigerians’

26/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele has defended the apex bank’s decision to exclude cryptocurrency transactions from the banking ecosystem. In his testimony before the Nigerian Senate, Emefiele claimed that the February 5 directive is “in the best interests of Nigerians.”

Crypto Not Money

Immediately following the announcement of the CBN prohibition, Nigeria’s regulated financial institutions began to sever ties with crypto traders and exchanges. However, following an outcry over the move, some supportive members of the Nigerian Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance, and Other Financial Institutions requested Emefiele to brief the legislative body on the rationale behind the CBN prohibition.

In justifying the move, the CBN governor told the Nigerian legislators that “cryptocurrency is not legitimate money” since it is not issued by any central bank. Using this argument, Emefiele then added:

Cryptocurrency has no place in our monetary system at this time and cryptocurrency transactions should not be carried out through the Nigerian banking system.

As expected, the CBN governor also used his appearance before the legislative body to regurgitate the usual claims against cryptocurrencies. Further, in his bid to bolster the case against cryptocurrencies, a report reveals that Emefiele went on to share “instances of investigated criminal activities that had been linked to cryptocurrencies.” However, the report does not provide details on some of the “investigated cases.”

No Contradictions Between CBN and the SEC

However, notwithstanding the CBN’s hardline stance on cryptocurrencies, Emefiele still claims that the central bank’s “actions were not in any way, shape or form inimical to the development of Fintech or a technology-driven payment system.” The CBN chief also reiterated that the central bank will do “all within its regulatory powers to educate Nigerians on emerging financial risks.”

Meanwhile, in remarks made during the same meeting, Lamido Yuguda, the Director-General of the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) denied there had been policy contradictions between the two regulators. The report quotes Yuguda confirming that the SEC had “put on hold the admittance of all persons affected by CBN circular into its proposed regulatory incubatory framework.”

Do you agree with CBN’s claims that the exclusion of cryptocurrency transactions protects the banking ecosystem? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Coinbase Files for IPO via Direct Listing on Nasdaq — Valuation Soars Above $100 Billion

25/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company has chosen the direct listing route and has applied for its shares to be listed on Nasdaq.

Coinbase filed Form S-1 Registration Statement for its IPO with the SEC on Thursday. The company revealed in December that it had confidentially applied to go public.

The company explained that it is offering “Class A common stock for sale via a direct listing,” which means “any person or business with a brokerage account” can place an order for the shares in the opening order book.

The SEC filing explains that Coinbase has applied to list its Class A common stock “on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol COIN.”

Coinbase states that it currently has “approximately 43 million retail users, 7,000 institutions, and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries.” As of Dec. 31, 2020, the platform had executed $456 billion in trading volume since its inception and stored over $90 billion worth of assets. In May 2020, the company became “a remote-first company,” which means, “we do not maintain a headquarters.”

Moreover, Coinbase’s valuation jumped to more than $100 billion ahead of the IPO. According to Axios, “The most recent batch of 127,000 shares was sold [last] Friday at $373, which works out to a valuation of $100.23 billion.” On FTX exchange, Coinbase’s (CBSE) pre-IPO contract soared when the SEC filing news broke but has since retreated slightly.

As for revenue, Coinbase declared that “Since inception through December 31, 2020, we generated over $3.4 billion in total revenue, largely from transaction fees that we earn from volume-based trades on our platform by retail users and institutions. For the year ended December 31, 2020, transaction revenue represented over 96% of our net revenue.”

For its IPO, the company explained: “We will be treated as an ’emerging growth company’ as that term is used in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 for certain purposes until we complete this listing.”

What do you think about Coinbase’s IPO? Let us know in the comments section below.

Binance Suspends Ethereum and ERC-20 Token Withdrawals Before Quickly Reversing Course

23/02/2021 by Idelto Editor

The rollercoaster-ride in cryptocurrency prices on Monday was accompanied by Binance’s fresh restrictions for ethereum and ERC-20 tokens.

Ethereum Network Congestion Fingered as the Culprit for the Temporary Halt

Through the official Binance Twitter account, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges by volume, announced that it had “temporarily suspended withdrawals of $ETH and ethereum-based tokens” due to network congestion while underscoring that user funds were SAFU (Secure Asset Fund for Users).

#Binance has temporarily suspended withdrawals of $ETH and Ethereum-based tokens due to high network congestion.

Rest assured funds are #SAFU and we apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Updates to follow.

— Binance (@binance) February 22, 2021

Although Binance has since reversed its earlier decision and restored service in an announcement 37 minutes after its first tweet, traders were quick to pile on with the criticism. This latest move came amid a spike in Ethereum gas costs and a backlog that quickly escalated past 151,000 pending transactions. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao corroborated the stress on the system, noting that gas shot past “+1200” during the latest congestion.

ETH is super congested now, at 1200+ gas. @Binance have suspended withdrawals.

There was a conspiracy theory that Binance is deliberately making ETH gas fees high. 😂 Let’s see it come down a bit. pic.twitter.com/tNK9b3b9OK

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) February 22, 2021

Binance has already become a big target among the crypto community after being blamed for persistently high gas costs. Some claim that the congestion is a concerted effort on the part of Binance to attract more users to its Binance Smart Chain. However, given the tremendous transaction volumes and gas fees that Binance pays to the Ethereum network weekly, this claim is hard to corroborate

Binance Outage Underlines the Need to Scale

Yet, together with other recent events like the AWS problems that surfaced last week, this latest service outage begs the question as to whether centralized exchanges are capable of handling the latest torrent of investor flows. Moreover, the rollout of Ethereum 2.0 has brought to light similar scaling issues and whether already clogged blockchains can keep pace with advancing adoption.

For some market participants, the answer lies in liquidity aggregators. While service interruptions have dotted the cryptocurrency landscape for years and become commonplace during periods of serious volatility, aggregators that pool liquidity from centralized (CEX) and decentralized exchanges (DEX) have cobbled together a patchwork solution. Still, questions linger about the security of their custody along with blockchain interoperability.

Offerings like Orion Protocol have addressed many of these challenges by aggregating liquidity in a hybrid fashion from CEXs, DEXs, and now automated market-makers (AMMs). Aggregators are attempting to help decentralize the pressure and reverse the load issue strain felt by exchanges during peak periods while avoiding the custody question.

Still, for traders on centralized exchanges, load balancing issues and volatility remain a scourge for the ecosystem as the latest Binance outage underlines.

Do you think withdrawal suspensions will become the norm or a solution to network congestion will be found? Let us know in the comments section below.