Tag: cryptocurrency

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Terra’s (un)stable coin crash is likely to expedite the need for regulations in crypto

The recent Terra Luna and its $UST stablecoin debacle has left a sour taste in the cryptocurrency market. Over $40 billion in market cap has been wiped out in a week. But what exactly happened? And what can we expect moving forward?

$UST is Terra’s algorithmic stablecoin that was poised to stay pegged (a fixed exchange rate) 1:1 to the value of $1 USD. Note: the keyword here is algorithmic. While other centralized stablecoins like Tether’s $USDT and Circle’s $USDC have real-world assets to back its 1:1 peg, UST operated under a constant contract-based mint/burn mechanism that helped keep the value of $UST stable and keep the asset decentralized.

In simple words, one $UST could always be redeemed for $1 worth of $Luna, regardless of $UST’s peg at that moment. In case the peg fell below the $1 mark, ‘arbitrage traders‘ would step in, buy a bunch of $UST for its cheaper de-peged price, and exchange it for $Luna. This would burn the $UST token, decrease its overall supply (deflate) and drive its price back up. For example, if one $UST is currently valued at $0.98, and I buy 100 of it, I have $UST worth $98 USD, but if I exchange this $UST for $Luna, I’d get $100 worth of $Luna, so I pocket the extra $2. When done at a larger scale, such arbitrage opportunities would help traders make quick ‘scalp profits,’ whereas the $UST 1:1 peg would be maintained due to the circulating supply of $UST decreasing.

As a backup, $Luna and $UST’s founders, the Luna Foundation Guard, and its CEO Do Kwon also established reserves of its own with more than $1.5 billion in Bitcoin ($BTC), with an overarching goal to stack over $10 billion in $BTC in the future. In a perfect world, if $UST would ever severely de-peg, Luna Foundation Guard would sell some of its $BTC holding to buyback $UST in an attempt to bring it back to its $1 peg value. Well, at least that’s what the foundation had planned.

Cryptocurrency markets are volatile, and people use stablecoins to maintain their purchasing power. For example, let’s say I bought one $BTC when it was valued at $10,000 USD, and it reaches the $40,000 mark. I could sell all my $BTC holdings and convert them into one of the stablecoins mentioned above, like $USDT, $USDC or $UST. Doing so is expected to be equal to holding real-world fiat currency where your capital doesn’t go up and down with the market swings. This was the case with $UST, until it collapsed, and in just a week, thousands of people globally lost whatever they put in, while some were able to salvage whatever was left.

Macro-economic outlook

For starters, the economic backdrop hasn’t been pretty lately. Inflation in Canada and the United States is the highest it has been in the past 30 years. And considering that the majority of the world conducts its trades, including supply chain, in USD, any monetary change that is ‘hawkish’ rings alarms globally. Inflated gas prices stemming from the Russia/Ukraine conflict work hand-in-hand to increase the cost of daily necessities, considering that everything from fruits and cereal to diapers and clothing need to be produced and shipped around globally.


source: tradingeconomics.com

The U.S. Federal Reserve (FED) has been vocal about the high inflation brought about by relentless money printing during the height of COVID-19. To bring inflation down, the FED has been increasing interest rates that discourage borrowing and encourage consumer saving. This, in turn, results in low economic growth, low consumer spending and low demand for services and goods.
Low demand for services and goods causes companies to decrease the prices of whatever service or commodity they offer, in a bid to attract consumers back. This, in turn, brings inflation down and keeps it in check.

That being said, historically, whenever the FED has increased interest rates, the traditional stock markets plummet, especially the growth and tech stocks and composites, most notably the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. $BTC, and the overall cryptocurrency market is tightly correlated with tech stocks (even though $BTC was created to act as a hedge against inflation), and hence, when composites like Nasdaq go down, $BTC follows suit. When $BTC goes down, the rest of the cryptocurrency market follows suit.

Due to this hawkish behaviour from the FED, markets globally have been uncertain since November 2021. Uncertainty leads people to go into risk-off mode, and that’s when reliable assets like gold flourish.

Pair that with the recent unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and we have a ‘Black Swan Event’ in the making.

What led to the collapse?

In short, an entity with billions of UST decided to market dump their stablecoin on Monday, May 9th, which triggered the UST peg, and it fell down to about $0.61 cents. Naturally, anyone holding UST thinking that their capital is safe just watched 39 percent of their stablecoin portfolio vanish in thin air, and it caused a ‘bank run.’

UST holders sprawled to salvage whatever was left of their portfolio, considering that Bitcoin has also experienced a 50 percent drawdown in price since all-time high, panic was in the air. Users started withdrawing their money with a minus 40 percent cut, and some used arbitrage to exchange UST for Luna, and then market selling Luna (as referenced above).

The Luna Foundation Guard rushed to sell billions of its $BTC holdings to secure funds to buy back $UST, in an attempt to re-peg it. This added further selling pressure on $BTC, resulting in a further drawdown in its price, which correlated with more people selling their $Luna and $UST in panic.

This caused hyperinflation for $Luna, which means, new $Luna tokens were being minted at record speed, and its overall supply was increasing. With increased supply, and people market selling $Luna (lack of demand), the digital asset entered what ‘crypto bros’ call the ‘death spiral.’ $Luna’s total supply went from roughly 725 million tokens on May 5th to roughly 6.9 trillion as of now. Since then, $Luna and $UST holders (the ones who didn’t panic sell when the assets started tanking) have been right out decimated.

$UST now sits at about eight cents apiece, whereas $Luna, which has been obliterated due to hyperinflation of its supply now sits at about 0.00018 per coin, after having reached its all-time high of $120 apiece just last month. Undoubtedly, people who invested in $Luna and didn’t withdraw when it started to crash have lost it all, whereas those who, for example, held $1 million in $UST last week would have about $80,000 left, as of writing.

In this case, the mechanism that goes behind maintaining the 1:1 peg worked perfectly, but also served as the death of the ecosystem.

Looking out for tomorrow

Governments around the world have been critical of cryptocurrencies, and the stablecoin subset has come under added scrutiny for a while now. The $UST disaster has now added fuel to the fire, and has given governments around the world a reason to act.

The U.S. Federal Reserve stability report from May 9th talks about stablecoins, and their vulnerability in detail. “Stablecoins typically aim to be convertible, at par, to dollars, but they are backed by assets that may lose value or become illiquid during stress; hence, they face redemption risks similar to those of prime and tax-exempt MMFs,” reads the report. “These vulnerabilities may be exacerbated by a lack of transparency regarding the riskiness and liquidity of assets backing stablecoins. Additionally, the increasing use of stablecoins to meet margin requirements for levered trading in other cryptocurrencies may amplify volatility in demand for stablecoins and heighten redemption risks. 19 The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have made recommendations to address prudential risks posed by stablecoins.”

Stablecoins, like in the rest of the world, are unregulated in Canada, though that is unlikely to continue after what has unfolded.

During her annual testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pushed for regulation of stablecoins, and the crypto sector in general, saying “With respect to digital assets, new products and technologies may present opportunities to promote innovation and increase efficiencies. However, digital assets may pose risks to the financial system, and increased and coordinated regulatory attention is necessary. On March 9, 2022, President Biden signed an Executive Order calling for comprehensive approach to digital asset policy. The Council is drafting a report that will identify financial stability risks and regulatory gaps. I look forward to working with you on the issues and opportunities posed by digital assets. We are also eager to work with you to ensure that payment stablecoins and their arrangements are subject to a federal prudential framework on a consistent and comprehensive basis.”

Undoubtedly, CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) are what’s coming next, and some banks in Canada, including the Bank of Canada, have already started exploring the idea. While ‘crypto bros’ deny the need for regulations, the truth is that the sector will only grow to its full potential with some kinds of regulations in place that protect investors, and large-scale adoption will only happen when uncertainty around these digital assets is gone for good.

Image credit: Shutterstock

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Cybersecurity experts warn of security issues tied to the metaverse

There’s no arguing the metaverse is here to stay.

Various industries, from restaurants to smartphones to art, are moving swiftly towards making gains.

But on the surface, a crucial aspect seems to be forgotten: safety.

Existing threats

Jaeson Schultz, technical leader at Cisco Talos, believes engineering scams are the most significant threats. These scams include phishing attacks, fake NFT minting sites and criminals impersonating moderators.

Schultz said there is a “promise” criminals are seeing through the metaverse. People use cryptocurrency, and criminals take note, monetizing their attacks efficiently.

Amin Lalji, national cloud security leader at EY Canada, says adding personal information in the metaverse, such as the cryptocurrency you own, is risky.

If a user wanted to acquire digital assets through the metaverse, most platforms would require you to get a crypto wallet, a place to store and use cryptocurrency. As it stands today, all it would take for a criminal to impersonate someone on the metaverse is to gain control of their crypto wallet, Lalji said, as non-sophisticated users likely haven’t added security features to their wallet, such as 2FA (two-factor authentication).

Most wallets have this feature and it’s something users should have activated at all times. It makes accounts more secure since a hacker would need both a password and a secondary authentication code that only the wallet owner has access to.

Schultz also agreed with this factor. “For most, this is their first experience with the metaverse, cryptocurrency wallets and NFTs. This absolutely plays into the hands of cybercriminals that prey on the naiveté of new users in the space, as these new users are more likely to fall for the many social engineering scams.”

A lack of monetization to blame

Part of the criminal nature is tied back to the metaverse not being monitored with rules and regulations ensuring safety. Schultz says security controls are necessary because criminals can do as they please without them. “The ability to monitor activity, identify cybercriminals and restrict criminal activities is essential to making the metaverse a safe place for everyone.”

But there isn’t a big push to change that at this time. Since metaverse is still in its infancy, Schultz said businesses are mainly focusing on developing new features over security. They often don’t realize the importance of security until a breach happens and it’s too late.

But all is not lost. While the metaverse is relatively new, people should remember that we’ve already been through web 2.0, and cybersecurity professionals believe users can learn lessons.

“Systems need to be hardened so they can continue to operate reliably even in the presence of miscreants who intentionally commit abuse,” Schultz said. “As we build out the metaverse, we can bring those lessons that we have learned along with us, and bake in security right from the start.”

Lalji believes distributed blockchain technologies utilize embedded security capabilities, but things like coding errors and backdoor options play a role in high-volume transactions going wrong.

“Some solutions are emerging to allow consensus-based reversal of fraudulent transactions, however, the landscape is fragmented, standards don’t fully exist, and adoption of these technologies is sporadic,” Lalji said.

Staying safe

Both experts say individuals and larger companies can take steps to keep safe.

Lalji says a complete understanding of the security issues and how to mitigate their need to be brought together for all parties to stay safe.

Big companies “will want to anticipate how the experience they create in the metaverse might possibly be abused and account for that,” Schultz’s added. This could include things like seeking the assistance of experts or locking down servers customers use to communicate.

Image credit: Shutterstock

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Step is a fitness app that rewards you with crypto

About two weeks ago, I received an email about a walk-to-earn smartphone app, and I quickly jumped on it.

Step is a free-to-use fitness-based app based on the Binance Smart Chain which its makers describe as an app to “Track fitness activity, earn crypto, and be the best version of yourself.”

The app’s model is simple. You walk a certain number of steps per day, and you are awarded BNB tokens once every week.

It’s worth noting that the concept of earning money/points (or anything else that can be redeemed for services or currency) while walking, running or doing other fitness activities is not a novel concept. Back in January, I talked about Montreal-based PlayFitt being a great app that helps you stay fit and earn gift cards in the process.

Step builds on the same concept but adds the blockchain, NFTs and a virtual reality metaverse to the mix. That is the broader vision of the app, though a lot of it is yet to materialize.

While the app is free to download and use, the ability to earn while walking only unlocks when you integrate the app with your Binance Smart Chain wallet, and add 20,000 Step tokens to it. When I started the process, 20,000 Step tokens were about $32 USD ($40 CAD).

Since then, the walk-to-earn narrative has gained some solid traction, and the same STEP tokens that I hold are now worth upwards of $250 USD ($312 CAD). That’s nice, though this isn’t an investment guide. Instead, I’m here to tell you that the app is a great tool to increase your exposure to crypto (if you’ve been wanting to) with minimal risk, talk about what the future holds for the app, and you can decide if you want to walk with it or not.

First off, the prerequisite of holding 20K STEP tokens is still the same, so while it was rather economical for someone to start using the app and earn through it up until last week (I bought in the red circle in the image above), the barrier to entry has been substantially raised now. As mentioned, 20K STEP tokens are about $250 now ($312 CAD), and I don’t think many would be interested to spend that much to join the app and earn rewards. The ROI (Return on Investment) would just be too low.

I would like to see the Step team lower this barrier to entry if they want to see more people using their app, otherwise, scalability will be a significant issue.

Interface-wise, the app doesn’t offer much, yet. It’s just one page that shows you your daily, weekly and monthly steps, along with the calories burnt and heart rate, which it most likely pulls from your phone’s health app — Apple Health in my case.

The daily minimum steps required to earn rewards are 4000 (28,000 weekly), and preferably outdoors. It seems like the app doesn’t register steps indoors or when you’re walking/running on a treadmill. This is another aspect of the app that I would like the Step team to improve upon, considering that Canadians wouldn’t be too enthusiastic to get their 4K steps in during peak winters.

A fast-growing userbase is also seemingly causing some problems for Step. Even though I completed all the minimum requirements to earn rewards, like holding 20K Step tokens and walking the daily minimum amount, I never received my reward. My issue is echoed on the app’s Twitter page with people having the same problem. A Step spokesperson told me that “The app had some issues with the database last week due to growing usage of the app.”

On the contrary, users also report receiving rewards, leaving me in limbo.

What I like is that the rewards for each week are distributed in BNB, an already established token with multiple use cases. If you’re bullish on BNB, this also might be a good way to accumulate more tokens by doing something you would regularly do for free — walking. On average, you can expect to earn about $5-$20 worth of BNB per week (depending on how much you walk), which isn’t all that bad, though from what I’ve read on the app’s Twitter is that these rewards used to be higher, and are continuously decreasing.

Developers behind the app are currently working on a “Step Fitness Metaverse,” where Step users would be able to walk together. From the information available so far, it looks like users would be able to own billboards in the virtual world, and rent them out to companies looking to advertise to Step users. The addition of the metaverse will also bring along with it different workout features and modes and different virtual terrains to walk or jog on. Said metaverse would likely use Step tokens as the in-game currency, so expect the price action on the charts to follow.

The Step app is free to download for free on Android and iOS.

Note: This story is not financial advice.

Image credit: Step

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Here’s a quick guide to filing crypto taxes in Canada

Cryptocurrencies have been around for most of the last decade but have seen significant adoption in the past three to four years, with hordes of retail and institutional investors ‘HODLing’ (holding on for dear life) and trading digital assets.

The cumulative ‘crypto market cap’ has increased from about $906 billion (roughly $1.150 trillion CAD) on January 1st, 2021, to about $1.876 trillion (roughly $2.381 trillion), as of writing.

According to a 2021 statistic, about 1.2 million Canadians, or 3.2 percent of Canada’s total population, currently own cryptocurrency. Other reports have shown that about one in four surveyed Canadians currently own cryptocurrencies, with the majority of those having entered the digital asset race in the last six to 12 months.

Similar to any other source of earning fiat money, gains made on cryptocurrencies, or any byproduct of it — including but not limited to NFTs, DAOs, staking, liquidity mining and Airdrops — are all subject to tax in Canada. Fiat money refers to any currency that is made legal tender by a government, with no significant backing for its value. For example, a $5 bill itself doesn’t hold any value as it’s just a piece of paper, but because the government says a $5 bill is worth $5, we can use it for purchasing commodities, goods and services.

Since this is a relatively new sector for many Canadians, several of whom will likely be filing their crypto taxes for the first time this year, let’s see what rules the feds have laid out and how to go about reporting your crypto income.

Taxes for the financial year 2021 must be paid by April 30th, 2022.

A general rule to remember is that you’ll only have to pay tax on your profits. For example, if you spend $1,000 to purchase a fraction of a bitcoin, you won’t have to pay any tax for the transaction because the amount of bitcoin you receive is equal to the fiat currency you deposited.

But let’s say you HODL’ed your bitcoin, it appreciates in value, and you sell it for $1,500 or convert it into a stable coin — you’ll have to pay tax on the gain.

Similarly, if you gift your appreciated asset, or use it to buy services, commodities or goods, you’ll be subject to paying crypto tax.

According to the CRA, transactions involving cryptocurrencies fall either under business income or capital gains and are taxed accordingly.

While there is no solid laid out criteria to determine where your trades fall, here are a few pointers from the CRA about business income that you should know:

  • You carry on the activity for commercial reasons and in a commercially viable way
  • You undertake activities in a business-like manner, which might include preparing a business plan and acquiring capital assets or inventory
  • You promote a product or service
  • You show that you intend to make a profit, even if you are unlikely to do so in the short term

According to the CRA, “Business activities normally involve some regularity or a repetitive process over time. Each situation has to be looked at separately.”

If you fall under the business income slab, you’ll have to report your crypto gains with the income tax from your regular job. So let’s say you make $70,000 from your regular job annually, and you make crypto gains of $10,000 during the year, you’ll fall under the 20.5 percent federal tax bracket with the total yearly income of $80,000.

It’s worth noting that mining crypto, getting staking rewards, liquidity providing rewards or getting paid in crypto are considered business activities and, hence, would fall under business income.

“If the sale of a cryptocurrency does not constitute carrying on a business, and the amount it sells for is more than the original purchase price or its adjusted cost base, then the taxpayer has realized a capital gain,” reads CRA’s crypto tax guide.

If your activity falls under capital gains (hobby), you only pay tax on 50 percent of the newly-acquired capital. For example, you started 2021 with $10,000 worth of crypto, and by the end of the year, that amount appreciates to $16,000, your capital gain for the year is $6,000. You pay tax on 50 percent of the gain, so $3,000 is your taxable capital gain for the year.

While the line to distinguish capital gains from business income is very thin, CRA’s example about capital gains might put things into perspective:

Image credit: Government of Canada

It’s worth noting that simply HODLing crypto assets or transferring them between your own wallets is not a taxable activity. You are liable to pay tax only when you convert said asset to a different digital asset, a stable coin, fiat currency, acquire a service or good with it or gift it to someone.

Since filing crypto taxes would be a new activity some Canadians would have to partake in this year, it would be prudent to have an expert assist you, file the taxes for you, or go through your file once you’ve put it together. Said experts can also help you determine whether your activity would be considered under capital gains or business income.

Additionally, some tools on the market can make it fairly easy for you to put together your transaction history and determine whether you are net positive or negative.

One of the most efficient and easy-to-use tools on the market right now is CRA-compliant Koinly.

While it is shrewd to maintain an Excel sheet with all your trades, from the moment you initiate them to the point of selling, you don’t need to worry too much if you haven’t been on top of your trade history.

Almost all centralized and decentralized exchanges have a history section, where you can procure the date, timing, cost and currencies exchanged from the trade. Koinly makes procuring the information even simpler.

The application has integration with numerous top exchanges in Canada and abroad, including, but not limited to Binance, KuCoin, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Kraken, FTX, ShakePay, Newton, BitBuy and many more.

Image credit: Koinly

In the app, you can choose to connect your wallet directly with your API and public address or you can download your transaction history from the exchange you use, and upload the file to Koinly.

The app is useful not just for taxes, but also to maintain an understanding of where your money is going, the number of transactions on your account and how much you’re spending on trading fees. Additionally, its website has numerous articles about how digital assets are taxed in Canada, which can help you understand the procedure better and determine whether your investments/trades fall under capital gain or business income.

What makes the app a one-stop-shop is that it also supports tax calculations for gains/income earned through flipping or holding NFTs, staking assets, rewards from liquidity pools and airdrops, and it does all that automatically and in real-time. Oh, and did I mention that Koinly’s Twitter page is full of crypto tax-related memes?

Jokes aside, I would advise that you manually go over all the transactions that Koinly pulls from your wallet to make sure there are no discrepancies. In case the CRA audits your file, and there are inconsistencies between what you reported and what you actually transacted, you might have to pay a penalty.

Koinly is free to use if you just want to keep track of your transaction history, net gain/loss, however, if you want to generate tax forms through the app, you’ll have to buy a plan. Koinly’s plans start at $49 (roughly $62 CAD) for a 100 transaction or less tax form, perfect if you’re someone who has dabbled around with digital assets in the past year.

It then has a $99 (roughly $125) plan that gives you access to tax reports with 1,000 or fewer transactions made in the last year. Following that are Koinly’s $179 (roughly $227 CAD) and $279 (roughly $353 CAD) plans, which give you access to tax forms with 3,000 and 10,000 transactions, respectively, perfect for those who are day trading digital assets.

Once you get the filled-out forms, you can proceed to file them yourself, or forward them to your tax adviser/agent/accountant.

As of right now, the only reliable way to use Koinly is on web. While the company has apps for iOS and Android, they are still in Beta, so I recommend that you avoid using them until a stable release.

Header image credit: Shutterstock

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Tesla’s merch store enables Dogecoin payments

A month after revealing that Tesla would soon start accepting meme crypto Dogecoin as payment for some of the company’s merchandise, Musk announced via his Twitter on January 14th that Dogecoin payments are live on the electric vehicle company’s website.

While the tweet didn’t necessarily send the meme-coin soaring, in crypto metrics at least, it did bump up the price of Dogecoin from about $0.1888 to $0.2142 USD momentarily. Unsurprisingly, the growth was unsustained, and the coin is currently trading at $0.1942 apiece.

 

From what it appears, only three products on Tesla’s merch shop are available to purchase with Doge, including the Cybetruck-shaped Cyberwhistle (300 DOGE — $71 CAD) which is currently sold out, Giga Texas Belt Buckle (835 DOGE — $198.64 CAD) and a Diecast 1:18 Scale Model 3 (970 DOGE — $230.76 CAD).

Musk has long been a proponent of cryptocurrencies and frequently mentions them in his tweets. Thanks in part to his over 70.1 million followers, Musk has demonstrated an ability to sway the crypto market. For example, Musk caused a spike in Bitcoin in March 2021 when he tweeted that Tesla would allow people to purchase its vehicles with the cryptocurrency. A few months later, Bitcoin dropped 14 percent after Musk backpedalled on accepting the crypto for Tesla vehicles.

Check out Tesla merch available in exchange for DOGE here.

At the time of writing, one DOGE equals $0.1957 ($0.2445 CAD).

Image credit: Tesla

Source: @elonmusk 

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Elon Musk says Tesla will accept Dogecoin for merch, Doge surges

Thanks to an Elon Musk tweet — it’s always a tweet — meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin leapt by over 20 percent on December 14th.

Musk tweeted that electric vehicle company Tesla would allow people to purchase some merchandise using Dogecoin. Although Musk didn’t specify what merchandise would be available, Reuters noted that Tesla sells merch ranging in price from $50 USD to $1,900 USD (about $64.29 to $2,443 CAD).

Tesla merch includes apparel, miniature models of its vehicles, the ‘Cyberwhistle‘ and more.

Musk has long been a vocal supporter of cryptocurrency and often comments on crypto via his Twitter account. Thanks in part to his over 66 million followers, Musk has demonstrated incredible sway over the crypto market. For example, Musk caused a spike in another cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, in March 2021 when he tweeted that Tesla would allow people to purchase its vehicles with the cryptocurrency. A few months later, Bitcoin dropped 14 percent after Musk backpedalled on accepting the crypto for Tesla vehicles.

Musk’s tweets have also caused spikes with Dogecoin — for example, in May, Musk tweeted that he was working with Dogecoin developers to improve the efficiency of the transaction system.

Dogecoin jump | Image credit: Binance

These are just a few examples of Musk’s impact on the cryptocurrency market. Recode has a much more detailed look at the crypto rollercoaster trailing Musk that you can check out here. Recode also notes that it’s unclear whether Musk himself buys or sells cryptocurrency after he tweets about it.

Cyrpto is not subject to the same level of regulation and oversight as fiat currency or stocks, leaving potential for manipulation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) previously fined Musk and Tesla $20 million USD (about $25.7 million CAD) each after Musk tweeted “funding secured” about taking Tesla private, leading the stock to climb.

Regardless, it looks like Tesla will accept Dogecoin for merch. At least, for now — that might change with the next tweet.

Source: @elonmusk Via: Reuters

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Hamilton teen charged in $46 million crypto theft

An arrest has been made in a $46 million crypto theft that occurred back in March of 2020. The accused? A teenager from Hamilton, Ontario.

The investigation, which involved the FBI, the United States Secret Service and Hamilton Police, found that the victim was targeted by a SIM swap attack, where the accused manipulated cellular network providers to intercept two-factor authorization requests.

According to Hamilton Police, “This is currently the biggest cryptocurrency theft reported from one person.” Further, investigators stated that the accused was apprehended after part of the digital currency was used to acquire a rare username in a gaming community. ‘Gamer42069?’ We don’t know. The feds didn’t release the username information.

The accused is charged with theft over $5,000 and possession of property (the rare username) obtained fraudulently.

Via: CTV News

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You can now ‘Tip’ using Bitcoin on Twitter, NFT ‘blue check’ in the works

Image source: Twitter press kit

Great news, crypto-enthusiasts: Twitter is expanding its “Tips” payment options to include Bitcoin, and is working on a new authentication system so users can show off their NFTs.

In a press release, the social media platform announced that as part of the global roll-out of its tipping feature, it was also expanding the list of third-party payment services users could tip through.

Notably, this list now includes Strike, a free application that lets people send and receive Bitcoin.

Twitter also teased an in-development NFT authentication system, which would let users connect crypto-wallets to Twitter accounts to track and display their NFTs.

Authenticated users would receive a visual symbol on their profile, which the company says could potentially be a badge — similar to Twitter’s iconic blue checkmark — or even a different avatar shape.

Twitter’s turn toward cryptocurrency is both unsurprising — given CEO Jack Dorsey’s personal investments and very public fascination with the stuff — and a stark reversal of its previous stance, such as its 2017 decision to ban cryptocurrency ads on the platform.

First announced in May 2021, the ‘Tips’ feature was previously only made available to English-language Twitter users.

However, despite today’s global roll-out, tipping is still only available on iOS, with Android compatibility reportedly coming soon.

‘Tips’ is one of several strategies from Twitter that aims to, in its own words, “turn followers into fans, and fans into funds.”

The funds are meant to support the platform’s “creators,” who Twitter defines as “people who are driving conversations and want to make a living on social media.”

Other recently announced monetization features include ‘Super Follows‘ and ‘Ticketed Spaces‘.

Image credit: Twitter

Source: Twitter