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East Asia Dominates World’s Onchain Crypto Activity, Europe and North America Trail Behind

19/09/2020 by Idelto Editor

Crypto activity continues to flourish worldwide, according to a new cryptocurrency adoption index published by the blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis. The researchers compile onchain digital currency retail value transferred, onchain crypto deposits, peer-to-peer exchange volume, and other types of methodology.

Chainalysis recently published a new report called the “2020 Geography of Crypto,” a study that examines 154 countries and the flourishing cryptocurrency adoption in these areas. The company created a crypto adoption index from the large list of nation-states and only 12 countries had very little traction compared to the rest.

Nation-states that ranked the lowest in the adoption index include Afghanistan, Algeria, Cape Verde, Chad, Fiji, Laos, Libya, and Mongolia.

The top ten countries are ranked by four individual metrics that are combined to create the official ranking. The top country, as far as onchain value received, onchain retail value received, number of onchain deposits, and peer-to-peer trade volume is the Ukraine.

This country is followed by Russia, Venezuela, China, Kenya, U.S., South Africa, Nigeria, Colombia, and Vietnam respectively. “Cryptocurrency is truly global,” the Chainalysis report notes. “Developing countries have high grassroots cryptocurrency activity,” the study adds.

Chainalysis continues by adding:

Venezuela is an excellent example of what drives cryptocurrency adoption in developing countries and how citizens use [crypto] to mitigate economic instability— Venezuelans use cryptocurrency more when the country’s native fiat currency loses value to inflation.

The study emphasizes that the wealth preservation tactic is leveraged in Africa and East Asia as well. Moreover, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchanges are essential to digital currency adoption in developing nations, Chainalysis highlights.

In the section that covers Africa, the blockchain intelligence firm says both remittances and currency devaluation is what’s driving crypto adoption throughout the large continent. The study notes that major cryptocurrency trading platforms now look at Africa as an “opportunity.”

Chainalysis details that in Africa regions like Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa have been seeing more adoption than other areas throughout the continent. Central & Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) is also covered in the Chainalysis study and researchers say growth is “already strong.”

The CSAO area is seeing a number of cryptocurrency regulations adopted within a variety of countries. CSAO is the fifth-most active region worldwide when it comes to cryptocurrency activity and it’s seen over $41 billion sent and $40 billion received during the last 12 months.

East Asia is the world’s largest crypto market, in terms of crypto activity, capturing 31% of all the digital currency transactions in the last year. Crypto addresses stemming from East Asia accounted for $107 billion received.

East Asia’s cumulated data is 77% larger than the crypto activity in Northern and Western Europe. East Asia is dominated by “pro traders” and “stablecoins,” the Chainalysis report highlights. Stablecoin usage in East Asia is “off the charts” in comparison to other regions worldwide.

Eastern Europe has the fourth-largest crypto activity rating globally, and it also contains the top two countries represented in the Chainalysis’ crypto adoption index: Ukraine and Russia. “Eastern Europe shows a strong grassroots-level of cryptocurrency adoption,” Chainalysis notes.

One reason Russia and Ukraine take the cake, as far as cryptocurrency activity is concerned, is because adoption has come “amidst regulatory uncertainty.” For instance, Chainalysis says that Ukraine has zero crypto regulations, but the government just started monitoring crypto activity.

Latin America is smaller in terms of onchain activity, and cryptocurrency adoption is low in contrast to the aforementioned regions. Latin America saw $25 billion in crypto assets sent and $24 billion received in the one-year timeframe.

In any 30-day span, Latin America represents 5% to 9% of the crypto activity aggregate on any given month, Chainalysis emphasizes. Even though Chainalysis says the region is one of the “hottest markets,” it also holds the second-lowest growth rate from the regions the researchers studied.

The crypto forensics firm says the Middle East is a smaller digital currency ecosystem, and the region is the second-smallest worldwide. According to the “2020 Geography of Crypto” study, Turkey captures the most crypto activity in the Middle East. Out of the 154 countries Chainalysis studied, Turkey ranks 29th in the crypto adoption index.

Chainalysis mentions that Turkey is a strong crypto adopter due to the Turkish lira falling in value. The fiat currency crisis was sparked by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s authoritarianism and Turkey’s mountains of private foreign-currency-denominated debt.

Toward the end of the report, Chainalysis touches on North America (the United States & Canada), which captures “conservative buy-and-hold” investors, and institutional investors as well. North America accounted for $52 billion sent and the same value received during the course of the 12-month span.

“North America is the third most active region by cryptocurrency volume moved onchain, just behind Nothern & Western Europe (NWE) and well behind East Asia,” Chainalysis says. Addresses stemming from North America accounted for 14% of all the crypto activity studied during the company’s research.

Chainalysis further notes:

North America also hosts a growing class of institutional investors conducting even larger transfers of cryptocurrency.

Additionally, Chainalysis highlights that a number of the global regions have formed crypto alliances. “North America and Nothern & Western Europe (NWE) form a quasi-common market, plus heavy trade with East Asia,” the “2020 Geography of Crypto” findings detail.

NWE has a “strong professional market” but also a “surprising” amount of illicit activity. As far as crypto activity is concerned, NWE is the second-largest territory behind East Asia. The NWE region accounts for 17% of all the crypto transactions worldwide.

NWE exhibits similar characteristics to North America in terms of institutional and professional traders. However, NWE’s crypto activity is also “largely driven by ransomware and darknet markets.”

The 130-page study shows that crypto adoption and activity has grown exponentially in certain regions. A number of other countries and the regional bureaucrats are just becoming aware of cryptocurrency technology, and are falling behind the eight-ball in comparison.

Today in 2020, East Asia is the crowned king of crypto activity worldwide with NWE following behind the region. The report concludes with an interactive crypto index table that shows all 154 countries’ Chainalysis studied during the year.

What do you think about East Asia’s crypto dominance and the “2020 Geography of Crypto” study? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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Hydra’s ‘Complex Drug Delivery System’ in Russia Overshadows Western Darknet Markets

16/09/2020 by Idelto Editor

On September 14, the blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis reported on the infamous Russian darknet marketplace (DNM) known as Hydra and noted the DNM is Eastern Europe’s “sixth-largest service by volume in the region.” Moreover, the report also reveals that Hydra has created a “complex drug delivery system” inside Russia and throughout various countries in Europe as well.

Russia’s Hydra Market: The 6th Largest Crypto Service by Volume in Eastern Europe

At the end of August, the darknet marketplace (DNM) community said goodbye to the Empire Market, which unexpectedly decided to exit scam on August 22. News.Bitcoin.com reported on the aftermath and how DNM patrons scrambled to find alternatives.

On Monday, Chainalysis published a report about the cryptocurrency market action in Eastern Europe this year, and the company’s finding touched upon the Russian DNM called Hydra.

The darknet marketplace Hydra was launched in 2015 and it ran alongside the notorious Russian Anonymous Marketplace (RAMP). However, Hydra catered it’s main focus on drugs and RAMP disappeared in late 2017. Reports highlight that after RAMP’s departure, “Hydra witnessed an increase in user registrations and vendor activity.”

The long-standing darknet marketplace, Hydra, is the sixth most popular crypto service in terms of volume in Eastern Europe according to Chainalysis statistics.

Hydra’s Dropgangs and Dead Drops

Besides drugs, Hydra also allows vendors to sell other types of wares like digital goods, SIM cards, and other miscellaneous items.

Hydra grew extremely popular after the fall of the Russian darknet market RAMP. Hydra has a focus on drugs but also sells digital goods and SIM cards as well.

The Chainalysis report notes that these days, the DNM Hydra, is currently Eastern Europe’s “sixth-largest” crypto service by volume in the region. Moreover, Chainalysis details that Hydra uses a very involved scheme for deliveries.

“As one of the largest darknet markets in the world, Hydra has built out a complex drug delivery system in Russia and other Eastern European countries,” the Chainalysis report notes.

“Couriers receive delivery orders in a manner similar to Uber drivers and drop off packages in discrete locations broadcast to buyers later so that neither party ever has to see each other or make an in-person exchange. No other regions are comparable in terms of darknet market revenue or sophistication of operations,” the Chainalysis Eastern European study concluded.

Eastern Europe captures the most DNM value according to data stemming from the recent Chainalysis report.

In another study, Darkowl.com says Hydra has been operating since the Silk Road days and in 2016, the DNM “resurfaced” with a new onion URL. “Hydra prefers serious Russian drug vendors, only allowing sellers who are willing to pay ‘rent’ for their shops and requiring a monthly payment of over $100 USD for use of the service,” Darkowl.com writes. “This [method] reduces the likelihood of vendors who are actually scammers or law enforcement utilizing the site for entrapment and exploitation.”

On September 15, Filtermag.org published an article that interviewed a number of drug users from Russia to see how they were dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. A few of the individuals interviewed leveraged the thriving DNM economy in Russia, and specifically discussed Hydra’s involved delivery operations.

Russian speaking participants must pay a fee to be a customer but vendors also pay fees to administrators to join Hydra as well. A study written by the EMCDDA and Europol indicates that Hydra’s main operators rake in 6x the commission than DNM operators tending to English speaking residents.

One user named Sasha said that Hydra and the deep web was beneficial toward obtaining drugs during the pandemic. Sasha explains that a number of Hydra vendors are leveraging “geotagged” locations so people don’t even have to meet.

“During the epidemic, a very cool function of delivery appeared on Hydra,” Sasha said in her interview. “To use it, you need to pay five thousand rubles [$67], but the ‘treasure’ (drugs) is placed as close as possible to the place you indicated. The pleasure is not cheap, but perhaps such a trend is outlined in connection with the pandemic and lockdowns.”

Russian Darknet Towers Over Western Counterparts

In a 2019 research study of the Russian DNM Hydra, estimates show the marketplace caters to over 400,000 regular customers and has over 2 million registered users to-date. No one is exactly sure just how large Hydra is but it only allows Russian speaking participants. Despite this barrier to entry, Hydra still manages to eclipse the aggregate number of DNMs catering to Western users by a longshot.

In the Chainalysis study published this week, the research notes that Eastern Europe dominates with the most DNM activity, in terms of DNM value sent to a specific region. Eastern Europe is followed by Western Europe, Central & Southern Asia, East Asia, and Latin America. Estimates from a joint publication by the EMCDDA and Europol, indicates that Hydra’s main operators rake in 6x the commission, in contrast to DNM operators catering to the Western Hemisphere.

What do you think about the Russian darknet marketplace Hydra? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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Report: Russia Remains a ‘Key Market for Crypto,’ Commands the 3rd Largest Bitcoin Hashrate in the World

27/08/2020 by Idelto Editor

The fervor for cryptocurrency assets in Russia has grown wild over the last few years. This week Xangle Research published a comprehensive report about digital currencies and the Russian environment in 2020. The study’s findings show that Russia is one of the world’s key players when it comes to the crypto economy, but finding reliable information about the subject is “not very easy to find,” researchers stress.

It’s safe to say that Russia is one of the regions in the world where cryptocurrency adoption is booming, but it’s hard to verify the regulatory climate in the area.

A recently published study from Xangle Research explains that the country is a hotbed for crypto in 2020. The research also quotes Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) who has said: “Russia is our key market, one of the most active markets in the global blockchain space.”

The Xangle Research report is a comprehensive look at the crypto economy’s relationship with Russia this year, and the author also highlights that the region is a “key market for crypto.”

Two of the biggest sectors in Russia that currently fuels the crypto environment is mining and trading. Demand for crypto trading is high,” Xangle’s report notes.

“Russia [also] owns the [third] biggest BTC mining power (hashrate) in the world: 6.9% comes from Russia as of April 2020, according to Cbeci.org,” the study highlights.

Additionally, the 2020 crypto report covering the country says a “large portion of the traffic to major crypto exchanges come from Russia.” Xangle’s stats show that Binance captures most of the Russian traffic and the trading platform is followed by Coinbase, Bithumb, and Kraken respectively.

“Crypto derivatives exchanges are also very popular in Russia,” the study reveals, disclosing the two most popular platforms include Bitmex, and Bybit.

Digital currency exchanges that offer ruble fiat on-ramps have some of the highest Russian internet traffic.

Trading platforms such as Binance, Okex, and P2pb2b have RUB as a fiat-on-ramp, and some of the top sources of traffic as well. Despite the large internet traffic, the ruble is “not actively used in trading” as it only represents a market share of “less than 0.3%.”

The Xangle Research report also mentions some of the regulatory climate in Russia concerning digital currencies. The study discusses the recent law that will come into force on January 1, 2021 signed by Vladimir Putin, which gives legal status to cryptocurrency.

Further, the report also mentions how the largest bank in Russia, Sberbank, is considering the creation of a stablecoin.

“We probably may issue a stablecoin on the basis of the law that has been adopted recently. As we can peg this stablecoin to the ruble, this token could become a basis or an instrument for settlements involving other digital financial assets,” Sergey Popov, the director of transaction business at Sberbank told the media this year.

Despite the law’s crypto recognition, Xangle researchers highlight that the cryptocurrency law Putin signed still prohibits the use of crypto as a means of payment in Russia.

Among a number of luminaries, experts, and politicians quoted in Xangle’s 17-page study, the authors also quote Putin’s recent statements.

“The Central Bank of the Russian Federation considers cryptocurrency neither a means of payment nor a store of value,” the Russian President’s statement says at the end of Xangle’s Russian crypto study. “Cryptocurrency is not backed by anything. One should treat it cautiously, carefully,” Putin stressed.

What do you think about the Xangle Research report called “Crypto Asset Market: Russia in 2020?” Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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New Russian Law Bans Bitcoin Payments for Goods and Services

24/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

Russian lawmakers have passed a bill that gives legal status to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin – but bans them from being used to pay for goods and services.

Legislators approved the Digital Financial Assets (DFA) bill on July 22 after its third and final reading.

It had already won backing from senior lawmakers like Anatoly Aksakov, who heads parliament’s financial markets committee.

The new law recognizes digital assets “as an aggregate of electronic data capable of being accepted as the payment means… [but] cannot be used at the same time to pay for any goods and services,” according to a report by news agency Tass.

Russians retain the legal right to buy and hold bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto assets as an investment, but there’s a catch. “Possession of digital currency, its acquisition and transfer by legal means are allowed only if declared,” the law demands.

Per the Tass report, Russia’s central bank will assume an important role in the regulation of virtual currencies. “The central bank will have the right to determine features of digital assets accessible by qualified investors only,” the news agency reported.

Furthermore, virtual currencies “can be issued, purchased and sold and registered within the framework of special information systems” and “systems and their operators shall conform to Russian laws and stand filed in a relevant register kept by the Bank of Russia.”

In a country where BTC is held with so much skepticism, the approved bill on digital assets represents a significantly watered down version of the original. An earlier version of the law proposed to levy fines of up to $7,000 or seven years in jail for individuals buying bitcoin with cash.

It also planned to punish companies that issue or operate virtual currencies without approval from the Russian central bank, with fines of up to two million rubles or about $28,000.

What do you think about the new Russian cryptocurrency law? Let us know in the comments section below.

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142 Million Guests: Hackers Attempt to Sell MGM Grand Data Dump for Cryptocurrency

19/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

Last year the giant resort firm MGM Grand was hacked and the cybercriminals ostensibly obtained a massive dump of names, addresses, phone numbers, and dates of birth. Now according to vendors on the deep web, hackers have been trying to sell the data dump for monero or bitcoin. The hackers claim the dump has over 142 million MGM Grand guests’ information.

A recent report details that hackers have been trying to unload a large data dump with information on an alleged 142 million MGM Grand hotel guests.

The hackers have been attempting to sell the data on darknet markets for roughly $2,939 worth of bitcoin (BTC) or monero (XMR). The report initially stemmed from Zdnet and it was assumed last year that the hackers only obtained information concerning 10 million guests in 2019.

The sellers now claim there is data for approximately 142,479,937 MGM Grand hotel guests. However, the security group who monitored MGM Grand’s data say the hackers may be lying about how much information they actually stole.

Night Lion Security founder, Vinny Troia, told the columnist Catalin Cimpanu via email correspondence that the company did not own or manage MGM’s full database. A spokesperson from MGM Grand responded to an email from Cimpanu as well and stated:

MGM Resorts was aware of the scope of this previously reported incident from last summer and has already addressed the situation. The vast majority of data consisted of contact information like names, postal addresses, and email addresses.

The Empire Market advertisement for the MGM Grand data dump.

When the data leak was revealed to the public, it was also discovered that the list of guests included a number of high-profile people and celebrities like the pop singer Justin Bieber and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

The hackers did publish a free sample, so the public could see that the attacker’s claims were seemingly legitimate. MGM Grand maintains that hotel stay details, Social Security numbers, and other types of financial data were not taken.

This isn’t the first time the MGM Grand data has made waves on the web. Zdnet discussed the situation with the Head of Research at the intel firm KELA, Irina Nesterovsky, about the subject when the media discovered the leak in February 2019.

Nesterovsky claimed at the time that the data dump was previously sold to “private hacking circles since at least July 2019.” Moreover, the posts that surfaced in Russia allegedly assert there was data on over 200 million MGM Guests.

Nesterovsky’s claims suggest that the data dump might be being separated into parts and then sold for cryptocurrency.

What do you think about the MGM Grand data being sold on the deep web for monero and bitcoin? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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