Bahamian government hopes to allow residents to pay taxes with digital assets in 2022
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Residents of the archipelago nation, the Bahamas, may soon be able to use digital assets including the world’s first central bank digital currency, or CBDC, to pay for taxes.
In a white paper on the future of digital assets released on Wednesday, the Bahamas’ Office of the Prime Minister said the government will begin to “enable payment of taxes using digital assets” by working with the country’s central bank as well as the private sector. In addition, the government plans to work on giving citizens access to crypto with the Bahamian dollar and encourage greater use of the country’s CBDC, the Sand Dollar.
“The Government will endeavour to ensure that digital assets are not used for the evasion of taxes or sanctions, and will seek to ensure compliance with all applicable Tax information exchange agreements (TIEA) and domestic laws and agreed OECD standards,” said the white paper.
In an effort to establish consistency across the branches of government, the Bahamas said it will form a digital asset policy committee as well as a digital advisory panel, or DAP. The former will be chaired by the prime minister — Philip Davis, at the time of publication — with the Financial Secretary, the Central Bank of The Bahamas governor, the executive director of the country’s Securities Commission, and the DAP chair serving as members. The advisory panel will consist of experts from the digital asset space “to keep digital assets and related digital developments, emerging trends, and associated risks constantly under review.”
“We have a vision to transform The Bahamas into the leading digital assets hub in the Caribbean and a global leader in the progressive regulation of businesses in this profoundly innovative space,” said Davis, according to Eyewitness News Bahamas. “While we recognize the extraordinary opportunities afforded by digital assets, we also recognize the risks, and thus we emphasize the importance of effective regulation.”
FOLLOWING- Prime Minister Philip Davis today tabled a White Paper in Parliament outlining “a vision and a framework to guide digital asset policy in The Bahamas” (1/2). pic.twitter.com/Elun7BjkWT
— Eyewitness News Bahamas (@ewnewsbahamas) April 20, 2022
Related: Bahamas central bank prepares national Sand Dollar push for summer
In October 2020, the Bahamas became the first jurisdiction to fully roll out a CBDC. The digital currency, the Sand Dollar, was aimed at driving greater financial inclusion within the archipelago nation of more than 700 islands, roughly 30 of which are inhabited. Major crypto exchange FTX has expanded to the country by registering a Bahamian subsidiary in September 2021.
Next Earth and SEE Turtles Collaborate on a Metaverse Charity Game
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Next Earth, the third-largest metaverse, has already proved its commitment to support environmental initiatives by allocating 1 million USD to environmental issues, and now they are about to launch its first CSR campaign.
Together with its partner organization, SEE Turtles, Next Earth is going to launch a game in the metaverse: they are inviting their users to contribute to a good cause by purchasing land on certain territories in the metaverse with a chance to win $200,000 worth of NXTT or five unique NFTs. 20% of proceeds from each transaction will go to SEE Turtles to implement plastic removal projects on the same locations in the real world.
Collecting plastic waste from beaches and coasts doesn’t only cleans the ocean but can save the lives of endangered sea turtles and make a positive impact on the environment. Next Earth is leading the way among metaverses when it comes to social responsibility and takes it seriously to inform, educate, and make real impact together with its community and partner organizations.
How to Join
To take part in this campaign, Next Earth users simply need to purchase land on any of the territories involved in the campaign. These territories are the same locations where SEE Turtles will implement plastic waste collecting projects from the income of the campaign. After purchasing land, users will be able to start a treasure hunt, where they need to remove trash from their tiles to see if there are any prizes hiding under them.
Under many tiles, Next Earth has placed $200,000 worth of NXTT in different values and 5 unique NFTs made by TinyWasteland. So not only will participants be supporting a good cause, but they also have the chance to win some amazing prizes. The campaign will officially launch in May, but Next Earth will announce the exact date soon.
In their livestream on 21 April, Noemi Magyar Head of CSR at Next Earth and Brad Nahill, President of SEE Turtles discussed the impact of their ongoing partnership and how the donations are turning into real help. Peter Csakvari, the artist behind TinyWasteland has also joined the discussion to talk about his art and how unique NFTs can be used in such campaigns.
Metaverse For Good
This campaign is a great example of how a metaverse can use its platform to support a good cause and be socially responsible. By collaborating with SEE Turtles, Next Earth is making a positive impact on the environment and helping to save the lives of endangered species.
While Next Earth has always donated 10% of its transaction proceeds to charity, this is the first time it has launched a social responsibility campaign of this magnitude. This level of cooperation between a metaverse and its community is exciting and sets a precedent for how such platforms can be used to support environmental initiatives.
As the metaverse becomes more mainstream, it is important to remember that it can be used for more than just entertainment. Next Earth hopes that this campaign inspires other metaverses to use their platform to support causes and make a difference in the real world with the help of a virtual one.
Bitcoin LTHs Hold Significantly More Loss Now Compared To May-July 2021
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Data shows Bitcoin long-term holders hold significantly more supply in loss right now compared to May-July of 2021.
15% Of Bitcoin Long-Term Holder Supply Is In Loss Right Now
As per the latest weekly report from Glassnode, around 30% of the total BTC supply is being held at a loss at the moment.
The “long-term holder supply” is the part of the total Bitcoin supply that hasn’t shown any movement since more than at least 155 days ago.
The other part of the supply belongs to the “short-term holders.” This cohort doesn’t hold for too long and generally sells before 155 days are up. Active traders usually make up a significant portion of this supply.
Naturally, any coins in the Bitcoin STH supply that age beyond the 155-day mark are then counted under the LTH supply.
The relevant indicator here is the “supply in profit/loss,” which looks at each coin on the chain to see how many coins are in profit or loss right now.
Related Reading | Bitcoin Trading Volume Stabilizes At Lows Of July 2021 As Market Sleeps
The metric works by comparing the price a coin was last moved at, to the current value. If the last price was more than now, then the Bitcoin is being held in loss at the moment. Otherwise, it’s in profit.
Now, here is a chart that shows the loss distributions of both the LTHs and the STHs.
As you can see in the above graph, around 15.3% of the Bitcoin LTH supply is in loss currently, with STHs also having almost the same amount in the red at 15%.
During the 2018 and 2020 bear markets, about 35% of the LTHs were in loss at some points, much more than right now.
Related Reading | The CEO Of Ripple Says Bitcoin Tribalism Is Holding Back The Crypto Industry
However, the May-July mini-bear period of last year had only half as many long-term holders holding coins at a loss.
This means that the market profitability is in a much worse place at the moment. While LTHs are unlikely to sell with these losses as they are price insensitive usually, the STHs at 15% are more probable to capitulate if the Bitcoin price continues to struggle.
BTC Price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price floats around $42.5k, up 3% in the last week. Over the past month, the crypto has gained 3% in value.
The below chart shows the trend in the price of the coin over the last five days.
The price of BTC seems to have been climbing up over the past few days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, Glassnode.com
Here’s Why Floyd Mayweather is Selling Tickets as NFTs
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The adoption of NFTs is so massive that legends such as Floyd Mayweather are participating in events where fans must buy NFTs in order to attend. Dubai is hosting the world’s first NFT pay-per-view event that features Floyd Mayweather and Anderson Silva as part of The Global Titans Fight Series.
Floyd Mayweather is the undefeated boxing fighter that is also a prominent advocate of blockchain technology and NFTs, with his own NFT collection available on https://floydnft.com/. The legend will be participating in an exciting and thrilling match with Don Moore. Other participants of the event include Bruno Machado, Badou Jack, Hany Atiyo, Ryan Ford, Bilal Laggoune, Delfine Persoon, and more.
Being the first NFT pay-per-view event, all viewers must purchase tickets from Rarible. NFTs purchased for the event give the holder exclusive event access.
This event is a prime example for the potential use-cases for the NFT and blockchain industry.. Several NFT projects have been leveraging the exploding popularity as a means to give back to their community, curate interesting and exciting content for, and connect people with exclusive real life groups and events.
One of the projects that cater to high-profile clients in the NFT Space is Crypto Panther Club.
Crypto Panther Club – The Digital and Real-Life Community
Crypto Panther Club is a collection of 5,555 unique 2D animated Panther designs curated on the Ethereum network by Glod, an internationally recognized artist and one of the youngest and most popular modern artists from Austria.
They have even partnered with Chainlink to ensure a fair and verifiably random distribution for the NFTs when buyers come on the minting date.
Every NFT in this collection offers the holders real-life benefits such as physical artwork, access to parties, and street art with holder rewards. Crypto Panther Club offers truly decentralized NFTs where all metadata is stored on IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) making it tamper-proof. Every NFT is exclusive and unique based on hundreds of different traits with the goal to build the strongest community in the art space.
Crypto Panther Club has already amassed appreciation and was awarded NFT Project of the Year 2022 by AIBC Summit Asia. The NFT collection combines the real world and digital worlds as collectors no longer simply own NFTs but also artworks by Glod with access to community and lifetime benefits.
To find more information on the official launch of Crypto Panther Club which will happen in London, visit to learn more about the exciting opportunities that await and join their community for an exclusive experience.
On April 21, Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, announced the launch of a decentralized algorithmic stablecoin called USDD. Sun said on Thursday that the USDD Network will “provide custody service for the $10 [billion] worth of highly liquid assets raised from blockchain industry initiators and use them as an early-stage reserve.”
Tron to Launch a Native Stablecoin Called USDD
Justin Sun from the Tron network has revealed a new stablecoin issued on top of the blockchain Tron. The announcement was also published on hejustinsun.com in a blog post called “An Open Letter on the Issuance of USDD, a Decentralized Algorithmic Stablecoin on Tron.” The letter explains how stablecoins have evolved from the “Omni-USDT 1.0 era” to decentralized algorithmic stablecoins. The blog post details that the Tron DAO has partnered with “major blockchain players” in order to launch USDD. The blog post further claims USDD will be “the most decentralized stablecoin in human history.”
Tron’s USDD launch follows the exponential climb of a few decentralized stablecoins. First Makerdao’s DAI propelled to the top spot in terms of market capitalization among stablecoin as it offers an over-collateralization method in order to keep its dollar peg. In more recent times, Terra’s UST has surpassed DAI’s market valuation and it also offers an algorithmic reserve method in order to keep its dollar peg. Terra’s UST is now the third-largest stablecoin project, as it commands a $17.89 billion market capitalization.
In fact, USDD operates an awful lot like Terra’s UST and Sun explained on Thursday it will be backed by $10 billion in crypto reserves to start. “In the Stablecoin 3.0 era, USDD will not rely on any centralized institutions for redemption, management, and storage,” the blog post on hejustinsun.com notes. “In the Stablecoin 3.0 era, USDD will not rely on any centralized institutions for redemption, management, and storage. Instead, it will achieve full on-chain decentralization.” The blog post adds:
USDD will be pegged to the underlying asset, TRX, and issued in a decentralized manner. When USDD’s price is lower than 1 USD, users and arbitrageurs can send 1 USDD to the system and receive 1 USD worth of TRX.
Terra Founder Do Kwon congratulates Tron DAO and Justin Sun
While a number of individuals on Twitter called Justin Sun’s and Tron’s new stablecoin a “UST lookalike,” Terra’s founder Do Kwon spoke about the comments directed at USDD. “This should be obvious but – The more carmakers go electric, Tesla wins,” Do Kwon said. “Similarly, the more blockchains issue their own sovereign stablecoins, UST wins. The true moon will be found in helping as many communities become self sovereign as possible.”
In another tweet, Do Kwon congratulated the Tron DAO and Justin Sun. Terra’s founder said:
Tron DAO is launching an algorithmic stablecoin with mint-and-burn mechanics called USDD – mint and burn TRX, redeem against TRX. Decentralized economies deserve decentralized money – every blockchain will run on [decentralized] stables soon.
Tron’s new stablecoin has been a topical conversation on social media on Thursday. While USDD will allow people to mint and burn with TRX and hold billions in crypto reserves, some people suggested the project should hold bitcoin (BTC) as well. Moreover, Sun’s tweet on Thursday further noted that the Tron DAO reserve will “set its basic risk-free interest rate to 30% per annum.”
Tags in this story
30% APY, Algorithmic stablecoin, DAI, do kwon, justin sun, Justin Sun stablecoin, makerdao, Omni Layer, Omni-USDT 1.0 era, sovereign stablecoins, Terra’s Founder, Tether, tron, Tron (TRX), Tron DAO, Tron Stablecoin, trx, USDD, USDT, UST, UST lookalike
What do you think about Tron’s and Justin Sun’s new USDD stablecoin? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
CoinEx Charity｜Change the Lives of Poor Children With a Gift
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As Brazilians celebrated Easter on April 17, 2022, CoinEx Charity worked with the Brazilian singer Mc Lustosa and launched a charitable event for poor children at Jardim Brasil and Parque Edu Chaves in the north of Sao Paulo, Brazil. During the event, staff members sent chocolate-covered Easter eggs to children in these poor communities and celebrated the festival with them. Having sent over 200 Easter gifts, the event delivered both warmth and care to local poor kids.
Mc Lustosa’s Instagram post
Easter is just like spring: it is a time of rebirth, renewal, and hope. For poor children in this region who live on public assistance, however, toys and snacks available to the average kid are a luxury. Moreover, they can’t even get Easter eggs on such a major occasion as Easter. To help them taste the joy of receiving gifts, CoinEx Charity prepared Easter egg gifts for 500+ children in poor communities in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Seeing the big smiles on the face of children who received the gifts, CoinEx Charity hopes that the event could leave these children with happy memories.
Help the disadvantaged through good deeds
In 2022, CoinEx Charity launched a $10 million charity fund to help children and teenagers in poor areas around the world through charitable actions, ensuring their basic living conditions while giving them equal access to education. Following the principles of benevolence, mutual assistance, happiness, and sharing, CoinEx Charity strives to help more children in need grow up with good health and happy memories.
Since 2021, CoinEx Charity has launched a series of charitable events across the globe. In December 2021, CoinEx Charity visited children in Uniuyo Teaching Hospital and distributed care packages; on December 31, after Typhoon Rai hit the Philippines, CoinEx Charity immediately responded and offered full disaster assistance and a large donation; in February 2022, CoinEx Charity distributed living supplies to poor families in Iran; on February 15, after Brazil was hit by heavy rainstorms, CoinEx Charity immediately participated in local charitable events and made donations to the disaster-stricken areas; this April, upon learning that some poor children in remote areas of Brazil cannot receive the traditional chocolate gifts at Easter, CoinEx Charity prepared over 500 Easter gifts and delivered them to each child in person… In just a few months, CoinEx Charity has left its mark around the world.
Charity never stops
According to the 2021 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), about 644 million children worldwide are multidimensionally poor. Many children still suffer from hunger, dropout, and disease in many dark corners around the world. Charity should be pursued through real actions, and efforts of public welfare should never stop. CoinEx Charity suggests that the international community should examine the circumstances facing poor children around the world and join hands to care for them. We can only improve the lives of more poor kids and provide them with a comfortable growth environment by making charitable efforts on a greater scale.
As the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic gradually expands, the world has witnessed more conflicts, and more actions are urgently needed. Meanwhile, helping poor kids has become a pressing issue. Every child deserves a bright future. Always committed to the principles of charity, CoinEx Charity has called for the prioritization of children’s interests in countries across the globe. We should keep all children out of poverty, defend their rights, and protect their childhood. In the future, CoinEx Charity will launch more charitable events for children globally, encourage the general public to lend a helping hand to children in need, and jointly create a better world for children.
Moon.Art To Launch The First Phase of The NFT Marketplace
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Moon.Art, the world’s first fully regulated, eco-friendly and community driven NFT-Marketplace, is set to launch the first phase of its marketplace – the issuance of limited keycards with lifetime utilities. The highly anticipated NFT marketplace will be launched and fully ready to be indulged by enthusiasts, investors and traders alike at the end of the year as shown in the roadmap.
According to NFT stats, about $41 billion worth of crypto was spent on the NFT marketplaces in 2021. Over the years, the value of Non-Fungible Tokens have continued to skyrocket, thus sparking a wave of interest in these uniquely identifiable digital assets. However, existing marketplaces have presented quite a number of issues such as deep technical knowledge requirements, payments in volatile cryptocurrencies, no regulated environment, high network fees, no user-friendly multi-chain solution, bad carbon footprint and more.
Moon.Art proposes a new digital marketplace that’s welcoming for every user. Moon.Art intends to build the world’s first NFT marketplace that is community-driven, eco-friendly and complies with the highest regulatory standards.
The regulated NFT marketplace is offering 10,000 limited Keycards with upcoming utilities. To finance the technical development, marketing and legal compliance process for the Moon.Art marketplace, the team is on track to create an NFT-Keycard which guarantees special lifetime benefits to all holders. A maximum of 10,000 Keycards will be available for minting on the Ethereum Blockchain as an ERC721A token.
The Keycard is an investment in the future and ensures special lifetime benefits including 50% discount on trading fees on the Moon.Art marketplace, reduction of trading fees by 5% until it reaches zero for each additional Keycard in a user’s wallet, allocation of 50% of the income from trading fees on the platform to all Keycard holders, and also pre-access to the beta version of the Moon.Art marketplace.
The Moon.Art NFT space is not just a common NFT marketplace, it is the perfect infrastructure of the next generation of NFT trading for everyone – simple, compliant and eco-friendly.
The NFT marketplace will be the first fully regulated NFT marketplace inside the EEA. Every user will be required to do a complete KYC procedure in advance so as to prevent money laundering and illicit activities on the platform. Moon.Art will balance carbon dioxide emissions of the platform with carbon offsets, thus saving energy.
Likewise, the platform users do not have to be computer geeks to buy NFTs. They can easily make NFT purchases by paying in cryptocurrencies and FIAT currencies. Users can purchase NFTs on Moon.Art not only with Ethereum but also with different tokens and FIAT currencies.
On a similar note, the purchase of NFTs on Moon.Art will be possible through the Ethereum blockchain as well as via other blockchain networks like Cardano, Polygon or Binance Smart Chain. The NFT marketplace will be able to map all common blockchains.
Users can trade NFTs on Moon.Art by paying the fixed price offers or by rejecting and bidding on price lists. Purchases and sales are all made by users who either connect their crypto wallet to the platform or have created an account with an associated wallet on the platform – custodian service.
Moreover, Moon.Art does not charge a fee to list or mint an NFT. The NFT is not transferred to the blockchain until the initial purchase or transfer has been made.
MetaGods NFT Land Sale’s Resounding Success Attracts Traditional Investors – Press release Bitcoin News
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press release
PRESS RELEASE. MetaGods is showing tremendous strength after their highly successful, sold-out NFT land sale attracted large new investors from traditional finance.
MetaGods recently concluded an NFT land sale that received overwhelming investor support from traditional finance as the new gaming company onboarded some big players and family offices from mainstream markets into their stable of already-strong investors.
These businesses purchased sought-after land plots in the upcoming action RPG title over-the-counter (OTC) and have committed to holding their NFTs for at least three years to fully support the game’s development and see it flourish.
The MetaGods community and a few famous contributors, gaming guilds, and launchpad partners purchased land NFTs in private and public rounds over the last two weeks. Limited plots of land in the game’s infamous Boss Dungeons were listed daily and all available space was quickly sold out, at 5 BNB per plot.
This is another display of enormous investor and community support for MetaGods, which is flush with resources and building strong in anticipation of a huge game release in future.
The captivating action RPG title was initially backed by industry heavyweights and celebrity figures such as tech entrepreneur Alex Becker and YouTube star Mr Beast during a seed investment round that raised $3 million from the likes of Hashed, ABV, Boxmining, Magnus Capital, and Banter Capital (Crypto Banter).
Metaverse is set to explode this year – and for many years to come – and MetaGods is now in an enviable position with bags of trust from large investors and loads more room for growth. With the hefty resources raised to date – both pre-IDO and via NFT sales – the innovative team behind the project is expected to allocate more funds towards becoming a dominant player in blockchain gaming.
After launching a Game Preview Engine during the first month of 2022 to much fanfare and critical praise, development is continuously evolving in the build-up to a beta release. MetaGods looks well-positioned to achieve its goal of sweeping the play-to-earn gaming arena, just as the general crypto market shows signs of a bullish recovery.
About MetaGods
MetaGods is the world’s first play-to-earn 8-bit action RPG built on the blockchain. Trade and play with generative NFTs to vanquish dangerous monsters. Thrive in the biggest digital economy – and prepare for the most epic boss fight in the history of the metaverse.
This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.
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What are Bridges? Illicit use of bridges | by Coinbase | Apr, 2022
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By Heidi Wilder, Special Investigations Manager & Tammy Yang, Blockchain Researcher
Illicit actors are often attracted to the newest forms of technology, and bridges are unfortunately no exception to that rule. Illicit actors are defined as individuals or groups conducting illicit activity, such as scams, thefts, or other illegal activity, on the blockchain. In the previous section of this blogpost, we covered the Wormhole and Ronin bridge exploits.
Analyzing the use of Ethereum bridges by illicit actors in January 2021 through April 2022, we find that Ronin, Wormhole, followed by Polygon and Anyswap have the most volume flowing through them.
To date, Ronin bridge’s exploit that took place in late March is the largest hack in the DeFi space, totalling more than $540 million in funds stolen (as of the day of the bridging of funds). We discussed this exploit in more detail in our previous blockpost. Unsurprisingly, this hack makes up the largest illicit volume with the Ronin bridge.
Polygon’s bridge was primarily abused by Polynetwork’s exploiter (although funds were returned), the bZx hackers, and the AFK System rug pull. The bZx hackers appear to have literally gone back and forth between chains to decide which ones were best to consolidate funds. Ethereum won in the end.
Why would illicit actors want to bother bridging at all?
Illicit actors’ reasons for bridging funds between networks are both similar and different compared to the general population of bridge users. Possible reasons include:
Consolidation. Combining funds through bridging makes them easier to handle and to generally then launder onwards.
Obfuscation. Bridging over funds to other networks adds another layer of complexity to tracing funds on-chain. Tracing funds that travel through a bridge requires tracing capability on both networks and linking them through the bridge.
Faster and cheaper transactions and to use assets that are not native to the network. Bringing over funds to other faster and cheaper networks can aid illicit actors in transferring their funds more rapidly at a lower cost. The added ability to access assets that aren’t native to the network allow both licit and illicit actors to gain price exposure to a non native asset, while also enjoying the benefits of the other network.
To access a broader selection of dApps. As blockchain monitoring has become increasingly popular, so has scrutiny of illicit activity:
a) Instead of immediately cashing out, some illicit actors will choose to bridge over funds and then yield farm with them for a period of time, which has the benefit of passing time and earning interest on their proceeds.
b) Alternatively, illicit actors will also leverage certain DeFi protocols that help break the chain in order to obfuscate the true source of funds.
But how are illicit actors employing these methods in practice? What happens after someone has bridged over funds to another chain? Can you track through a bridge to the other side?
Because of the transparency of the blockchain and of many bridge protocols, we can trace through various bridges to identify the ultimate destination of funds.
Below are some recent examples of how illicit actors are employing bridges and how we can trace through bridges to identify the ultimate destination of funds.
Consolidation and obfuscation — as seen with an NFT phishing scheme
NFT phishing scams are nothing new, but the scale at which NFT phishing scams are occurring on social media is rampant. In this particular case, we observed several Murakami Flower phishing scams, among other popular impending NFT releases.
In this case, we observed that several of these scams bundled together their ill gotten ETH in a novel way.
Instead of pooling their ETH together on Ethereum, they bridged over the funds to the Secret Network, which was likely an attempt to obfuscate the source and destination of funds.
Although they may have bridged over funds to the Secret Network, they continued to bridge over to the same address over and over again. Consolidating funds from various phishing schemes allowed them to better get a grasp on their funds.
Accessing a broader set of dApps — an example of using bridges to then yield farm with ill gotten gains with the Squid Game rug pull
In November 2021, the Squid Game token rug pulled. Although the token was launched on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), funds were bridged over to Ethereum. While this was likely for obfuscation purposes, it was also to gain access to Ethereum-based dApps.
In particular, once the attackers bridged over funds to Ethereum, they opted for two yield farming strategies, which allowed them to earn interest on their ill gotten gains.
The first, was to swap funds to USDT and to supply liquidity to the ETH/USDT Uniswap pool (one of the deepest pools on Uniswap). The second was to take the ETH and to lend it on Compound.
While the attackers have begun to cash out, they have not only waited out the heat but have also made some interest while doing so.
Accessing a broader set of dApps — an example of using a bridge to access DeFi protocols to break the chain of traceability with a malware operation
A malware and ransomware operation primarily sourced funds from victims in Bitcoin over the years. However, in the latter half of 2021, the operation began to bridge over funds to ETH using Ren.
This allowed the attackers to mint renBTC. Using a particular protocol, Curve.Fi Adapter, the operators were able to immediately swap the newly minted renBTC for WBTC. Both renBTC and WBTC are BTC-backed tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. It’s important to note that the attackers specifically wanted WBTC though, which they could then deposit to Compound.
Compound is a DeFi protocol that allows users to earn interest on their deposits. When a user deposits funds into Compound, such as ETH, they are provided with cETH or Compound ETH in return, which can be exchanged through Compound for the original ETH amount deposited plus interest earned. Alternatively, users can also use the cETH as collateral to then borrow other tokens.
And that’s exactly what the malware operations did. They used cBTC as collateral to then borrow stablecoins from Compound, particularly USDT and DAI. And with those stablecoins they then cashed out at various exchanges.
The idea here is that the malware operators were attempting to obfuscate the true source of their funds and to make it seem like they received funds directly from Compound.
What can we do about this?
Because of how public, traceable and permanent the blockchain is, we can leverage it to not only identify illicit actors bridging funds across blockchains but also to stop them. The primary mechanism for this is blockchain analytics.
Here are some steps we can take as an industry to combat illicit actors’ bridging of funds:
Work with blockchain intelligence providers to identify cross-chain transactional flows to quickly identify when illicit funds have hopped from one network to another;
Block illicit actors addresses’ on both sides of a bridge;
Monitor inputs and outputs of protocols that are heavily abused by illicit actors who bridge over funds.
Using these and other tools we aim to preserve the integrity of the ecosystem while also encouraging innovative concepts, like bridges, to expand the crypto economy.
Bitcoin ETPs have been experiencing some immense outflows. These have not come as a surprise though given that the price of the digital asset had crumbled last week. It has followed the price of bitcoin falling below $40,000 once again, leading to bearish sentiment among investors. This in turn has put immense selling pressures on other investors who have gained exposure to the market using trading investment vehicles such as ETPs.
Outflows Rock Bitcoin ETPs
Before this month, Bitcoin ETPs had enjoyed a prosperous month of inflows as faith was renewed in the digital asset following its campaign above $40,000. It was the strongest month in the history of these ETPs since October last year with more than 10,000 BTC in inflow recorded.
However, the month of April would prove to be the complete opposite as outflows so far for the month have been almost as high as inflows for the month of March and the month is not even over yet. This constitutes one of the largest outflows recorded for any month since the inception of Bitcoin ETPs. The last being in July 2021 when outflows had touched 13,849 BTC,
Related Reading | How Bitcoin Futures Premiums Exhibit Signs Of Market Exhaustion
April has been following this trend hard with more than 9,871 BTC and counting so far. Although a reversal of this trend could very well take place in the remaining days of the month. This is the second-largest outflow ever recorded and the direct effect of this has been the increased sell pressure on investors.
ETPs outlfows second-largest in history | Source: Arcane Research
Nevertheless, this is not as bad of a bearish signal as some might be led to believe. A look at the July 2021 outflows shows that it coincided with the peak of the summer sell-offs, which was promptly followed by a recovery in the price of the digital asset.
If this is the case, then this might mark the sell-offs that have been rocking the market in recent times. A bounce back from a point like this would likely put bitcoin on a path towards $55,000.
BTC On The Charts
For the better part of last week, the price of bitcoin had nested in the $40,000 support. It had eventually lost hold of this point and slid down to the $39,000 level. This would prove to be short-lived, however, as the midweek trading activities had brought the digital asset back up to $42,000.
Even though the asset is doing well at this point, it is a long way from $45,000 where bears are mounting some of the strongest resistance ever seen in the market. This key resistance level had been the undoing of bitcoin in the past week.
Related Reading | Halfway To The Halving: What This Means For Bitcoin
The cryptocurrency has now moved to trade above the 50-day moving average, marking a bullish trend for the short term. A translation to a bullish trend for the long-term would see the digital asset bear the key resistance area of $45,000 and traveling all the way to $48,000. Below this point, BTC continues to stand on shaky ground.
Featured image from Medium, charts from Arcane Research and TradingView.com
