Reading through the coin desk's newsletter today I came across news about Robin Hood and it's holding analysis. Apparently the HOOD company has reached Top #3 in the list of who holds the most Bitcoin in the world.

Current stats:

Binance : ~ $6.3 billion
Bitfinex : ~ $4.3 billion
Hood     : ~ $ 3.0 billion

That's a lot of money under one roof of each entity mentioned above. It should make us think whether this is good or bad to Bitcoin economy? Since these much Bitcoin are under their custody they have full control of it and we have already seen what happens when such entities get hacked for their data leak. The case of FTX is the biggest lesson for us.

However, having that much significant amount can also be good for bitcoin economy since it is in holding for long terms. It is like having that much less Bitcoin in the circulation. It may or may not have an effect on the demand and supply but I wanna ask, does it have any?

Robinhood Revealed to be Third-Largest Bitcoin Holder With $3B in BTC
Robinhood transferred some 118,300 bitcoin to the wallet from several other smaller wallets over a three-month period.

Investing and trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) holds over $3 billion in bitcoin (BTC) in a single wallet that attracted the holdings over several months, wallet data from Arkham Intelligence shows. This makes it the third-largest bitcoin holder behind crypto exchanges Binance and Bitfinex, which hold $6.4 billion and $4.3 billion worth of tokens on single wallets respectively.
The wallet previously gained notoriety among market watchers in the past few months as the identity of its owners sparked conversations and concerns about who the mysterious owner of such a large amount of bitcoin could be.

As of Monday, Robinhood has not publically commented on these holdings.
The transfers sparked speculations ranging from the bitcoin holdings belonging to financial behemoth BlackRock, which filed for a Bitcoin ETF earlier this year, to crypto exchange Gemini shifting its users’ holdings to a wallet.
Robinhood transferred some 118,300 bitcoin to the wallet from several other smaller wallets over a three-month period, data shows. These tokens are custodied by crypto trading firm Jump Trading, Arkham representatives confirmed to CoinDesk in a Telegram message.
All of these holdings are held on the Bitcoin blockchain. The first transactions were made on March 8, after which huge amounts of bitcoin were transferred until July 14, data from BitInfoCharts show.
Meanwhile, the holdings shed light on the extent of Robinhood’s bitcoin exposure despite low crypto trading volumes on its platform.

Source: Robinhood Revealed to be Third-Largest Bitcoin Holder With $3B in BTC

[Rank]

I was watching a documentary associated with historical economies and the richest people.

You will be shocked to see how much money these people had during the period when having thousands of USD was worth millions to billions in todays conversion rate!

I am going to list them from the lowest to highest. If you love it, then do checkout the Top #1 richest man ever lived and it's definitely mind wobbling how he lived and how much his wealth was.

Rank	Name of the Person	Period	Wealth in $$
#10	Henry Ford	1863-1947	$199 billion
#09	Muammar Gaddafi	1942-2011	200 billion
#08	William The Conqueror	1027-1087	$229.5 billion
#07	Mir Osman Ali Khan	1886-1967	$230 billion
#06	Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov	1868-1918	$300 billion
#05	John D Rockefeller	1839-1937	$341 billion
#04	Andrew Carnegie	1835-1919	$372 billion
#03	Akbar I	1542-1605	Wealth incalculable
#02	Augustus Caesar	63 BC-AD 14	$4.6 trillion
#01	Mansa Musa	1280-1337	Wealth incalculable

The king Mansa Musa was the one with incalculable wealth while Akbar was the another person in line to be that much rich.

Musa seems to be popularly known because he was the only richest person who donated so much Gold that it caused the gold rates drop heavily and caused hyperinflation in the Egypt. It was so high that it took almost 10 years to recover from this inflation.

Guess how the inflation was controlled? Well, Musa himself bought back the Gold at higher interest rate and thus helped the Egyptians to control their inflations. Even with the help of higher interest rate and buying back the gold it took ten years so we can imagine how enormous this inflation was.

He was so rich that during his commute from the Mali kingdom to Haj, they carried 60,000 people along with them and every time they stopped on Friday they built mosques and stays everywhere.

They donated gold to every city they roamed through and finally it was Egypt where they stayed for long and caused the inflation just by donating the Gold bars.

This is one of the interesting fact that I learnt in the Economic section and hence wanted to share it as fun story. Crazy!!!!



References:
The history rich list: the 10 wealthiest people ever
Not Jeff Bezos Or Elon Musk, These 11 People Are The Richest People In Human History

[If Data Sharding is already on the blockchain then how do we know that it is already implemented? Is there any example of such implementation to relieve the Blockchain Burden?]

I was reading through a very interesting topic on Database Sharding that seems to be designed for handling huge datasets and distributing them to various channels so that single system doesn't have to overload itself.

What I understand from the concept is either you can distribute the data to various nodes in horizontal manner that is increasing the capacity of processing with more number of devices and also it has virtually no limit on how far you go.  Or one can simply start sharding vertically but in that you have to make the machine more powerful.

Will it help in blockchain scaling?
I think the concept is pretty straight. If we are already using huge data or collecting enormous data and perform the confirmations over blockchain then the nodes that are created getting filled quickly.
So if we do apply the horizontal sharding to the blockchain generated nodes then each node can further be divided into more data sets / nodes and thus processing could be accelerated based on more "machines" will be working on same problem.

If Data Sharding is already on the blockchain then how do we know that it is already implemented? Is there any example of such implementation to relieve the Blockchain Burden?

I initially thought that Lightening Network is working on the similar processing however it seems that if Database sharding is implemented then it would be Layer one technology while LN is Layer two blockchain and works "off-chain"

What is database sharding?
Sharding is a method for distributing a single dataset across multiple databases, which can then be stored on multiple machines. This allows for larger datasets to be split into smaller chunks and stored in multiple data nodes, increasing the total storage capacity of the system. See more on the basics of sharding here.

Similarly, by distributing the data across multiple machines, a sharded database can handle more requests than a single machine can.

Sharding is a form of scaling known as horizontal scaling or scale-out, as additional nodes are brought on to share the load. Horizontal scaling allows for near-limitless scalability to handle big data and intense workloads. In contrast, vertical scaling refers to increasing the power of a single machine or single server through a more powerful CPU, increased RAM, or increased storage capacity.

[If as per the Blockchain.com they were the first to build then what was before 2011 and after 2009?]

I am so confused after reading an About us text from the official website of Blockchain.com

As per their claim they stand out to be one of the first to build a blockchain explorer in the year 2011 and I wonder that is how they got hold of the Premium website domain name with Blockchain in it. If as per the Blockchain.com they were the first to build then what was before 2011 and after 2009?

Did we just transacted before that with peer to peer approach and waited for the Bitcoin to appear in our wallets?

Blockchain.com got its start as an early pioneer of key infrastructure for the bitcoin community. First, with a Blockchain Explorer that enabled anyone to not only examine transactions and study the blockchain, but an API that enabled companies to build on Bitcoin. We also have provided the most popular and widely used crypto wallet that enables anyone anywhere to control their own money.

I tried to search over the internet with key words
"worlds oldest blockchain explorer"
"first blockchain explorer"
"blockchain explorer beginning"

but all of them are just pointing me towards how blockchain started in the old days. All of them are referring me to how it started with Merkle who coined the whole concept as early as in 1979 through his "tree authentication" in his 1979 Ph.D. thesis for Stanford University.

After searching more there is evidence of Blockchain getting mentioned in the New York Times news paper published in the year 1995. But that was just regarding the talks about how we can cryptographically seal the digital documents.

A cool pic to look at from the old era:

I got a very simple query to ask. I am recently switching from the Mycelium wallet because it has many issues in it's iOS version. It's not much friendly and frustrating to operate on the regular basis. The android version is good but I am not fan of it. Perhaps mycelium is in existence since 2012 but they have not progressed much.

Now I want to ask whether there are Wallets that are secure, synchable in between the desktop app and mobile app together?

For example if I am going to set up the wallet on desktop then I will have to enter the Private key there. In similar ways when I will set the wallet on my phone then also I will have to set the private key there.

Is it going to be issue to insert my private keys on two different devices?

The reason why I added "fund will drive" is because Bernstein thinks that ETF has made things very easy for the investors. With the giant backings like blackRock and Ark 21Shares bitcoin ETF applications we have upper hand in thinking that Bitcoin is really gonna get safe place for the trading environment. This will also attract the customers who are always afraid  of the pure decentralization but always wanted to posses the Bitcoin. I think this will have positive flux on the investors and might just drive more funds in the time to come.

We are also on the verge of having halving event. This is well known and effective one to attract more people into Bitcoin economy as the volatility goes crazy during this period. The sudden drop in prices can make huge impact on true investors and they might start buying more and more.

New capital will enter the market from fresh stablecoin supply, tokenization of traditional assets, native crypto infrastructure tokenization and ETFs, the report said.

Crypto exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) add capital to the market not just by creating demand in the spot market, but the market signal of regulatory approval of these products produces a growth flywheel for retail and other institutional flows that are seeking legitimacy, broker Bernstein said in a report Monday.
“With the interest of leading global asset managers in bitcoin (BTC) spot ETFs and potential mechanisms to address the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) objections, the probability of approval has risen,” analysts led by Gautam Chhugani wrote.

Bernstein expects a spot bitcoin ETF market to be sizable, reaching 10% of bitcoin’s market cap in two to three years.
The SEC extended its review of the Ark 21Shares bitcoin ETF application on Friday, as the regulator continues to assess applications from traditional finance heavyweights such as BlackRock (BLK) and Fidelity Investments.
Cryptocurrency ETF’s will benefit from a “strong brand marketing push by leading global asset managers,” and a “distribution push from retail brokers and financial advisors,” the note said.
The broker says new capital to power up a new crypto cycle will come from fresh stablecoin supply, tokenization of traditional assets, native crypto infrastructure tokenization and ETFs.

Bitcoin Spot ETF Approval Could Help Power up a New Crypto Cycle: Bernstein

[****This is Not about online mining, cloud mining or stuff that spam us*****]

****This is Not about online mining, cloud mining or stuff that spam us*****

The question is about the concept of sharing our mining power to the pools using old miners. For example, over the period of time technology is getting outdated and new Bitcoin miners are continuously released on the market. This leaves us middle of no where thus making it hard to keep up the mining. All we do is heat up the miners, waste the electricity and get paid some bucks that never achieves the break even against the electricity cost and increasing difficulty.

The problems:
- Outdated miners can't be sold anymore
- They are burden to the mining farm
- No profits
- Waste of electricity

Pool Sharing:

The only way to earn from them could be sharing them with the pool. For example, pool should have different section or protocol where they will use the hashing power from such outdated miners that connected to them and use that power altogether. In return hoping that we will receive fixed returns for sharing that hash power.

Is there any system like this that pools are already following.

This is about the outdated miners and their pool sharing.

In the recent news a crypto influencer named Richard Heart was sued by the SEC because he found guilty using the investors crypto fund to buy personal leisure's. This includes luxury car, 555 karat Enigma Diamond, luxury watches etc. When the estimate is calculated it comes to be around ~12 million in USD.

The money trail is very simple. Heart published a brand new project under HEX business name that is unregistered and with the product PulseChain. This project is for the investors who wants to have wealthy lifestyle. As we know, crypto is full of interested people, and they ended up investing lot of money into the project.

Heart successfully raised $1 billion through the project mentioned above. From this money he started buying the mentioned assets that includes:
$534,916 McLaren sports car,
$314,125 Ferrari Roma,
$1.38 million Rolex watch,
$5 million The Enigma Diamond.


This is really bad news in the crypto sphere and influencers clearly seen very greedy in this case scenario. He literally did not even care that this is someone else money that was put into his business to grow it and have some returns for doing so.

This is what caused SEC to file the lawsuit against Richard Heart and that I think was the right decision whatsoever.

Crypto influencer Richard Heart is facing a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission over claims he used “at least” $12 million in proceeds from his crypto products to buy luxury products. That includes the purchase of sports cars, luxury watches, and a 555-carat black diamond called The Enigma — supposedly the largest in the world.

Heart was born in the US and currently lives in Finland. He has operated a YouTube channel since 2017, where he promotes his own crypto products, including the Hex token and its sister product PulseChain, which operates on the PulseX protocol.

In its lawsuit, the SEC alleges Heart raised over $1 billion through his unregistered Hex, PulseChain, and PulseX crypto securities. According to the SEC, Heart marketed his products as “a pathway to grandiose wealth for investors” and espoused claims that Hex “was built to be the highest appreciating asset that has ever existed in the history of man.”

While Heart said the investments in his products were for promoting “free speech,” the SEC claims he never revealed that he actually spent “millions of dollars of PulseChain investor funds to buy luxury goods for himself.” Some of those purchases include a $534,916 McLaren sports car, a $314,125 Ferrari Roma, and a $1.38 million Rolex watch. In February 2022, he allegedly spent $5 million of investors’ assets to purchase The Enigma.

Additionally, the lawsuit states that from December 2019 to November 2019, Heart accepted over 2.3 million Ethereum valued at around $678 million in exchange for Hex tokens. However, the SEC claims 94 to 97 percent of these ETH deposits were “recycling” transactions that allowed Heart and other insiders to control “a large number of Hex tokens” while also “creating the false impression of significant trading volume and organic demand.”

“Heart called on investors to buy crypto asset securities in offerings that he failed to register. He then defrauded those investors by spending some of their crypto assets on exorbitant luxury goods,” said Eric Werner, the director of the SEC’s Fort Worth regional office. “This action seeks to protect the investing public and hold Heart accountable for his actions.”

This follows a wave of lawsuits from the SEC that have unfolded over the past several months. In addition to a lawsuit against Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao, the SEC is also taking action against Coinbase and Tron founder Justin Sun. Out of all these lawsuits, though, this one stands out for the sheer amount of luxury items that Heart (allegedly) spent investors’ funds on.

SEC sues crypto influencer for allegedly buying sports cars and a rare black diamond with investor funds

In an interesting news today we have another winner who is going against the wild trading monopoly and applying for the ETF for the Bitcoin and Ether as well. This is happening in the Australia and Monochrome CEO Jeff Yew is the guy behind this success. Monochrome is also one of the highly reputed investment firm after the BlackRock. The partnering firm is Vasco.

Monochrome has initiated their application already with Australian Security Exchange and they have way to go for the License. CEO of Monochrome is highly confident that it will help the natives to trade these two assets with full confidence as they get protected status just like trading the Traditional way.

“Through a Bitcoin ETF, it makes it possible for them to buy and use the asset class in however they see fit with the investment choices [and] in a regulated manner, and also operating within the regular regulatory perimeter.”

With various financial institutes applying for the ETF, I think we have amazing days ahead in the future as many countries and regulatory bodies will finally accept the fate of Bitcoin ETF.

Australian-based crypto investment firm Monochrome Asset Management has updated its application to offer a spot Bitcoin  BTC $31,226 exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) through its partner Vasco Trustees.
The ETF — Monochrome Bitcoin ETF — will be able to offer retail Australian investors direct exposure to Bitcoin and Ether (ETH), according to the firm’s July 14 announcement.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Monochrome CEO Jeff Yew explained that by obtaining a license, Australian retail investors would be exposed to Bitcoin within a formidable regulatory landscape:
“So that is the benefit, I guess, compared to, say, unregulated exchanges where there’s no investor protection,” he added.

Yew believes that if a Bitcoin ETF goes live on ASX, it will send a “clear signal” to traditional investors that the “unregulated Wild West is coming to an end” because their investments will be backed by a “familiar,” “structured” and “protected environment.”

Vasco, its “Responsible Entity Partner,” is authorized under an Australian Financial Services Licence to offer retail investors regulated exposure to the cryptocurrency market, the firm stated.

Spot Bitcoin ETF applications have been a focus point for the industry lately, particularly in the United States. In recent weeks, the industry has seen spot Bitcoin ETF filings from major financial firms, including Fidelity, Invesco, Wisdom Tree, Valkyrie and the $10 trillion asset management firm BlackRock.

Reference: Monochrome revises filing for spot Bitcoin ETF at Aussie stock exchange

[1. Balance Screen:]

I am not sure what is happening but I have gone through the app multiple times. It happen to be complicated to find the import option anywhere within the app. Am I looking in the wrong direction or the option is not really available in the new version of the app?

After opening the App below are the options which I am seeing right now:
1. Balance Screen: It has the mycelium logo, show main account balance, send and receive option. One other option that can be visible is Cold Storage.

2. Account: This is second screen that is available. It has list of all active accounts. Shows main account and other accounts which I have made earlier. On the same screen as you know we can make new accounts by clicking the + sign. However, after clicking the + sign only new account can be generated there are no advance options or nothing which will take me to import previous wallet.
On Account creation page only these options are available:

• Label
• Public Key
• View transactions
• Make current
• Archive Account
• Delete Account

3. Transactions: Well this is basically third screen with all transaction history.

4. Settings: The last tab within the wallet which has various options to change the wallet features and also has About the app information.
The list of options goes like this:

• Currency
• Exchange Rate Provider
• Invite
• Back up
• About

P.S. One of the member told me to go through three dots on the right hand side but it seem there are no three dot option, neither such menu exists in the wallet.
   
I am definitely missing something. Please point me in the right direction, that would be appreciated. Thank you.

[Druk Holding & Investment]

In an astoundingly positive news today, small nation with only 800,000 total population is planning on using crypto currencies and calling for investors to fund their national projects. Bhutan is more or less well being centric country with no agenda for the economic growth. Obviously this is based on their strategic geo location which is mostly in the hills and mountains.

However, recently same geo location is about to change the face of their economic growth. They have multiple sites throughout their country where Hydropower set ups can be done easily.

Bhutan is willing to partner with BitDeer to set up 100 mega watt mining data center. That is definitely lot of investment in such small country and it will help Bhutan to bring institutional investors into their country for sure.

Druk Holding & Investment is state owned commercial company which looks after investment, digital projects, and basically money matters within the country. DHI chief is all set to bring up the nation on next level of Digitalization and thus Bhutan can soon see economic growth as well.

It is wonderful that various nations are opting for the Crypto Side of the world when it come down to the economic growth and funding sources. 

Bhutan is investing in everything from bitcoin mining to drone technology as the Himalayan kingdom turns to new-age businesses in search of fast growth and returns.

Druk Holding & Investments, the state-owned commercial holding company, will start pitching to investors this month to raise up to $500mn for a crypto mining business after partnering with Singaporean group Bitdeer, one of the world’s largest bitcoin miners.

Bhutan’s bet on crypto, which follows that of other countries such as El Salvador and the Central African Republic, comes despite the sell-offs, contagion and scandals that have rocked the sector. The isolated country of 800,000 only allowed television and internet in 1999 and is known for its gross national happiness metric, which prioritises wellbeing over economic growth.

Bhutan turns to crypto in search of fast growth
Himalayan kingdom teams up with Singapore’s Bitdeer as it seeks to raise cash to mine digital currency

Due to copyright, I am only adding reference link. You can read the detailed news on the linked article.

[SLIC: Single-phase, Liquid Immersion Cooling for Cryptocurrency & BlockChain]

SLIC: Single-phase, Liquid Immersion Cooling for Cryptocurrency & BlockChain

Just came across this special system called SLIC while researching about the "Coolant CPU" terminology. It is wondering how they have engineered this synthetic component and making it possible to mine with low heats, high efficiency of the miners and obviously reduced electricity paycheck!

Though it seems this system is only for the big farms and not the solo miners. The documentation clearly shows pictures of heavy duty pumps that will be sole system pumping Synthetic coolant from all the immersed miners and carrying away their heats.

However, everything comes at a cost too. Setting up this system and placing your miners in it is tedious work. What is more inconvenient in this system is, the space utilized by these heat sink tanks. They are huge and are placed apart from each other to run the fluid piping network around them.

I am not how feasible is this but number of advantages are also equally balanced.

Key Points:

• Coolant has more than 1,600x the heat density of air
• Safely overclock your miner’s hashrate
• Lack of noise (by cutting those fans)

By far the system looks way simplified with those segregated tanks. Properly wired channels, and removed fans make it way simpler. Obviously it entirely depends on the space and miners available and by far it seems for mega projects only.

The second image is holding tank and also pumping system which makes it giant project considering it will also add up lot of value to the mining operation as initial investment. Not sure about the maintainer cost, but this could end up as profitable only if system does fail in between.

Interesting read from Single-phase, Liquid Immersion Cooling for Cryptocurrency & BlockChain

Every single day news tab is flooded with US and its cracking down effects on the Bitcoin. I am not being very skeptical but US has gone far from its borders all the time. Bitcoin is getting crushed slowly under the burden of US government decisions. The problem has started since the start of this year and somehow they are responsible for shady workflows that made various exchangers and banks to go on the path of bankruptcy.

What is wrong with them?

Are they scared about bitcoin taking over their generations of work into fiat and losing the power with the time.

The quoted article also suggests how US is literally overstepping their legal boundaries and thus making it look like shit market. Imagine having every crypto currencies under SEC rule, it will make them securities and we will lose every bit of decentralization due to this.

Anyone understand the logic behind USA?

The cryptocurrency universe, ruled by Bitcoin and Ethereum, is facing a turbulent year due to a potential U.S. regulatory crackdown. A leaked memo to the Democrat House financial services committee sheds light on the lawmakers’ strategy to categorise almost all cryptocurrencies as securities.

The memo urges Democrat lawmakers to counter Republican claims about providing market clarity through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CTFC) involvement in crypto. The partisan divide over cryptocurrencies has become increasingly pronounced, with influential figures like Ted Cruz endorsing crypto, while Elizabeth Warren takes an anti-crypto stance.

Gary Gensler, the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has asserted the organisation’s authority over the crypto market, considering most cryptocurrencies as unregistered securities. However, this stance has drawn criticism for overstepping legal boundaries.

As the regulatory battle intensifies, the crypto industry has expressed its concerns over the leaked memo’s implications. The clash between regulators, politicians, and the crypto community adds drama to the evolving crypto landscape.

U.S. Regulators Target Bitcoin, Ethereum Amidst Regulatory Battle; PAT WARS Could Bring Balance to the Crypto Universe

This is good news for the investors of Quadriga and obviously sad to see another exchanger sinking itself in the ocean of regulatory burden. This time Quadriga which is Canada based exchanger went down the hill due to improper accounting from the period 2016-2018 and at the same time it's business went bankrupt. Both the reasons were valid while at the same time CEO claims the regulations were not suitable to keep the books clean and thus it impacted their business over the period of time.

However, with at most efforts. Claimants for bankruptcy are going to get 13% on a dollar rate for their claim backs. All the creditors will enjoy this benefit if all the conditions are mate for their pre-investment and holdings that were lost due to bankruptcy of exchanger.

Key Points:
Total Claims: 17,648 claims from creditors ($222.3 million)
Major Claims: 15 claims (CAD >$1 million)
Tax Liability (2016-18): 11.7 million dollars

Bitcoin Back Claim Ratio: $7,122.90 per BTC

Former users of the bankrupt Canadian crypto exchange Quadriga CX will soon get a check for 13% of their claim, according to a notice to creditors published late Friday by accounting giant EY.
Documents from EY shows Quadriga’s estate owes CAD $303.1 million ($222.3 million) across 17,648 claims from creditors, including Canada Post and the country’s tax authority, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
Filings show that there are 15 claims with a value greater than CAD $1 million, and 28 claims with a value between CAD $500,000 and $999,999. There are also 15,236 claims valued under CAD $10,000.
According to EY, CRA determined that Quadriga had not reported income during its 2016 – 2018 fiscal periods and subsequently owes $11.7 million in back taxes.
The value of the crypto will be paid out, according to values pegged at April 15, 2019 market prices.
EY says that users with bitcoin claims will get CAD $6,739.08 ($7,122.9) per BTC. For Ethereum, users will get CAD $223.45 ($299.45) per ether.

Quadriga CX Bankruptcy Claimants to Get 13% on the Dollar
NOTICE TO CREDITORS In the Matter of the Bankruptcy of 0984750 B.C. Ltd. of the City of Vancouver in the Province of British Columbia Second Interim Status Report May 12, 2023

I am not skeptical but now I have started to think that US is really looking at down side of the crypto currencies throughout the continent. Now if someone is really trying to convince me that congress had meet up regarding the bitcoin and have plans for proper infra structure then I would simply laugh on that.

This is a 5th case in the US alone where giant exchangers, banks, and other type of financial institutes have been strictly monitored, dug out for unreal information, had worst tax evasion complaints and finally making them go bankrupt as the investors lose faith due to such allegations. A similar case is now popping up and its well known exchanger Bittrex.

In Bittrex case, it was none other than SEC who sued them and months after trial and testing Bittrex goes for bankruptcy filing.

Key Points:

• Liabilities: $500 to $1 billion
• Lay off 80 employees in february
• SEC sues Bittrex CEO and Global CEO
• Lack of regulatory clarity in the U.S.
• They still posses 100% customer funds

Bittrex already announced its intention to exit the U.S., but also faces an SEC enforcement action.

Crypto exchange Bittrex has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. state of Delaware on Monday, months after announcing it would wind down operations in the country and weeks after being sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The exchange believes it has more than 100,000 creditors, with estimated liabilities and assets both within the $500 million to $1 billion range, according to a court filing shared by Randall Reese of Chapter 11 Dockets, a bankruptcy tracker.
Bittrex's U.S. branch has had a rough 2023 so far, laying off 80 people in February and announcing in March that it would end all operations by the end of April. These changes have not affected Bittrex Global, the non-U.S. crypto exchange.

Despite Bittrex's impending exit from the U.S., the SEC sued it in mid-April on allegations it operated a national securities exchange, broker and clearing agency. The SEC also sued former Bittrex CEO Bill Shihara and Bittrex Global. Bittrex Global CEO Oliver Linch said last month that the exchange intended to fight these charges in court, but a bankruptcy proceeding may make this more difficult.
Bittrex is the latest crypto entity to file for bankruptcy, joining fellow exchange FTX and a host of lenders like Celsius, Voyager and BlockFi.
In filings made at the Delaware Court, Evan Hengel, the company's Co-Chief Restructuring Officer of Bittrex, said that customers would get a "100 percent like-kind cryptocurrency distribution" under its liquidation plan, enabling them to access the Bittrex platform and withdraw their crypto.
The company "faced an untenable regulatory and economic environment" given "the lack of regulatory clarity in the U.S. [which] created a substantial negative economic impact on the digital asset industry and resulted in overlapping regulatory burdens and soaring regulatory costs," Hengel said.

Richie Lai, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the company, tweeted that the bankruptcy filing was the "cleanest way to bury the baby," but that Bittrex "still have 100% of all customer funds."

U.S. Crypto Exchange Bittrex Files for Bankruptcy in Delaware

I am not sure how they are connected or disconnected from each other but Hong Kong and China seems clearly on different end when it comes to the acceptance of Crypto related legalities. Though HK is part of China and has been titles the Administrative Region for Republic of China; it holds major importance in the country. History states that all of the rules and regulations are ideally similar in both regions but when it comes down to the crypto things are weird.

For example, various crypto companies are opening their bank accounts in the Hong Kong even though their basis is in the China and that's because they have more favorable conditions as compared to the China.

“The Hong Kong government tries very hard to promote Web3 and crypto, but it doesn’t imply any changes in mainland regulatory regulations or the Chinese government’s attitude toward crypto,” Zhou said in an interview with Cointelegraph on May 5.

On the other hand China has been very restrictive about the Crypto currencies since September 2021.
This is one of the major reason various companies are trying their expansion or even the shifting of offices to HK.

The lawyer also noted that the crypto market in mainland China is “still effectively shut down.” That raises enforcement concerns about Chinese clients getting a chance to use Hong Kong exchanges to get money out of China. “Certainly, the authorities will try to stop this leakage,” Lesperance noted.

Read More:
China’s crypto stance unchanged by moves in Hong Kong, says exec

Despite Hong Kong steadily progressing with cryptocurrency adoption, mainland China has not changed its anti-crypto stance in terms of local regulations. Some Chinese state-affiliated banks have increasingly opened bank accounts to serve crypto clients in Hong Kong. CPIC Investment Management — a China government-backed firm regulated as a Hong Kong entity — even launched two cryptocurrency funds in April.

All these developments don’t mean that China has softened or will soften its approach to regulating Bitcoin  BTC anytime soon, according to CPIC Investment Management CEO Chenggang Zhou.

“The Hong Kong government tries very hard to promote Web3 and crypto, but it doesn’t imply any changes in mainland regulatory regulations or the Chinese government’s attitude toward crypto,” Zhou said in an interview with Cointelegraph on May 5.

Zhou emphasized that despite China government’s backing, CPIC Investment Management operates as a Hong Kong entity regulated by the Securities and Futures Commission.

“Hong Kong regulations allow us to invest in different markets or asset classes or products like cryptocurrencies, so we’re not breaching any regulations or laws,” the CEO said. He added:

“We got involved in crypto because Hong Kong regulations allow us to do that. But it’s in no way any indication of the China government’s attitude or policy, or change of policy.”

The one question arise, how they are so different when it comes to the regulations. How are they keeping their regulatory framework so opposite if they are having geographical importance of administration on one another's land!

[Policy]

This article is associated with the Guidance that was published on the official website of the UK government under the Charity Commission tab. The article isn't about any negative talks or no acceptance of donations in Bitcoin form but it just outlines the proper guideline associated with Bitcoin donations.

In the current timeline, the highest donations that were or are being received are for the cause of Ukraine. Keep in mind how Bitcoin is fragile for money laundering, phishing private keys, scam/ponzi sites with fake addresses of donations, etc. They decided to have this guideline to understand the risks involved and ways to avoid them.

Helen Stephenson, the Commission’s chief executive officer openly stated the risks involved in such donations. It would be also wise to keep up the track records of all crypto donations and file the taxes for the same.

This being said, commission's director also thinks that the Ukraine donation was a grand success in the form of Bitcoins and NFT. This is also true when it comes to English and Wales donation portals. He thinks it may happen that these are some factors that can make investing, trading, and donating in the form of Bitcoin more prompt in the near future. Definitely UK has some spark since few weeks regarding its vision of becoming crypto Hub.

Policy
UK Charities Offered Guidance for Accepting Crypto Donations
Nonprofits need to weigh up the risk of volatility and hacks, and follow money laundering norms, the Charity Commission said.

English and Welsh charities accepting crypto donations should keep accurate records and comply with tax and money-laundering rules, the Charity Commission said in guidance published Wednesday.
The regulator warned charities that assets such as bitcoin (BTC) or non-fungible tokens (NFT) can be volatile, prone to hacks and hard to trace – and that they’ll need to weigh up whether it’s worth accepting them at all.
“Our guidance stresses the risks involved in the use of cryptocurrency, and advises trustees to exercise caution,” Helen Stephenson, the Commission’s chief executive officer, said in a speech also given Wednesday.

In a July 2022 blog, the Commission’s Assistant Director of Policy Sam Jackson said that crypto could become a “more mainstream route to investing, trading, and moving assets,” citing fundraising successes using digital assets in Ukraine, and the U.K.’s own goal to become a crypto hub.
The Commission, responsible for registering and monitoring nonprofits in England and Wales, in January said it was probing the Effective Ventures Foundation, which had received significant backing from Sam Bankman-Fried and his exchange, FTX, which filed for bankruptcy in November.

UK Charities Offered Guidance for Accepting Crypto Donations

[1. Construction of a synthetic position]

I am not sure how many of you heard about the Synthetic Trading Pair, but this has got to be my first occurrence with it, so I thought to share it here.

Solid Definition:
"a position, either long or short, on a pair that is not available for trading on the spot market. It can be created by buying or selling the underlying financial instruments and other derivatives."

The synthetic position is a combination of two things when booking the profits. That includes Base (B) Asset Price, Quote (Q) Asset Price and a combination of both gives the profitable trade if:

Code:

B increases in USD, Q increases in USD, with B increasing faster
B increases in USD, Q decreases in USD
B decreases in USD, Q decreases in USD, with Q decreasing faster

Surprisingly all you have to bear in mind is that when opening a position you need to carefully choose the B and Q and predict the outcomes in the future. If you are having above checklist and you tick any of the results mentioned then boom, you got your profitable trade right away.

However, there are always pros and cons to every type of investment that we make in general.

You have the option to choose or perform the above trade in the form of Margin trading OR Derivative trading. Now what I read through the case study seems to be way difficult for the new trader to get started. I am pretty sure anyone of you who has done this must have studied it for a very long to build a proper 3D image of such a trade.

For those who are reading about this for the first time, then check out the case study paper from Binance regarding the same.

They have detailed explanations and examples to understand this properly.

1. Construction of a synthetic position
In spot markets, individuals can take positions relative to the quote asset and the base asset.On a basic level, a trade turns profitable if the value of the purchased asset increases relatively to the value of the asset used to purchase it. Assuming B being the base asset and Q being the quote asset, there are three general scenarios that would lead to a profitable trade:
B increases in USD, Q increases in USD, with B increasing faster
B increases in USD, Q decreases in USD
B decreases in USD, Q decreases in USD, with Q decreasing faster

For instance, an individual who trades ONT/USDT can either go long relative to USDT or short relative to USDT (through the use of lending). The trader can also construct a similar position relative to BTC (on the ONT/BTC pair).However, it would not be possible for users to trade a spot pair such as ONT/NEO unless it was explicitly listed on the exchange.

Both margin trading and the use of derivatives allow all market participants to trade synthetic pairs.

1.1 Using margin trading
One of the primary solutions relies on the use of margin trading through the borrowing of assets. Specifically, a trader wishing to take a long exposure on ONT/NEO could go through the following steps.
Scenario 1: the trader owns USDT as the underlying collateral
Borrow the asset to short: borrow NEO with USDT.
Sell this asset to the quote currency: sell NEO to USDT.
Long the asset with the quote currency: buy ONT with USDT.

Scenario 2: the trader owns NEO as the underlying collateral
Borrow the quote currency: borrow USDT with NEO.
Long the asset with the quote currency: buy ONT with USDT.
To exit this position, traders would need to reverse the trades. For instance, the trader in scenario 2 would sell ONT to USDT and then would return USDT (minus interests) to unlock his collateral (i.e., NEO).In addition, borrowing interests would also impact the performance of the trade and require the rebalancing of the position.

1.2 Using derivatives
With crypto-derivatives, opportunities have arisen to trade synthetic pairs. Specifically, it has become possible to take positions, settled in a third asset (i.e., USDT), on pairs “that do not exist”.For instance, an individual who recognizes his PnL in USDT can trade the price of ONT relative to NEO.Typically, a synthetic position would be opened with the two simultaneous trades:
Sell NEO/USDT contracts
Buy ONT/USDT contracts worth the same USD size as the contracts sold.

However, the position would need to be actively monitored: owing to the funding rate paid or received every 8 hours; it would be required to keep the size of both legs of the trade equal.Finally, the trader wishing to exit from his synthetic position would need to reverse the original trades. In our example, he would simultaneously buy NEO/USDT contracts and sell ONT/USDT contracts.

2. Benefits, constraints, and risks
In general, the use of synthetic exposure is expected to bring new benefits, such as:
Greater price efficiency in the market: it makes it easier for traders to take positions based on their strategy, i.e., increases the efficiency of the market, through a combination of bearish/bullish views relative to a pair of two assets.
Additional trading opportunities: from the perspective of users, it becomes straight-forward that the combination of long & short positions allows traders to be market-neutral. As cryptoassets typically display high correlations, it prevents a single directional bet “against the market”.
Profit and loss can be realized in the settlement currency: traders can bet on the price change of two assets while realizing gains & losses in a quote currency (e.g., USDT).

However, synthetic positions also introduce additional risks and constraints like:
Additional fees (compared to regular spot trading):
With perpetual contracts: as the position involves twice the number of trades of a normal position, fees must be paid twice. Moreover, funding rates can potentially lead to additional (but could also be positive) fees.
With margin trading: the position can involve up to three times the number of trades. Furthermore, interest must be paid on the assets borrowed, which can greatly impact the strategy’s performance.
However, the trading of synthetic pairs prevents the creation of low liquidity markets, which would result in high spreads (potentially higher than explicit transaction fees).

Risk of liquidation:
With perpetual contracts: the short leg of the trade can lead to the liquidation of a user. This is explained by the use of a third currency (e.g., USDT), which is none of the two currencies involved in the synthetic pair.
With margin trading: unlike spot trading, there is a risk of being liquidated if the price moves strongly against the position’s bet.
Greater complexity to manage the position:
With perpetual contracts: the rebalancing at the payment of funding rates (~8 hours) must be appropriately handled.
With margin trading: there is an explicit cost to maintain positions in the long-run, i.e., the borrowing rate requires active monitoring of the synthetic position.

3. Conclusion
Perpetual swaps and margin trading have allowed traders to profit from new positions that were not available before.However, synthetic pair trading strategies require a thorough understanding of the various elements involved in the trade, such as liquidation risk, additional transaction fees, borrowing rate (for margin trading), and funding rate (for perpetual contracts).With the development of new platforms (e.g., Binance Futures, FTX), supplementary trading opportunities will likely continue being added to the crypto-market.

Case Study: Constructing Synthetic Trading Pairs

That's called a disturbing deal break when the government tries to take matters into its hands. If anyone reading this post has been following the news about what's happening in America then they would understand what this deal break-up is all about.

In a short para:
The American government is trying to enforce laws on crypto and mostly they look like harsh ones where any crypto institute, digital exchanger, holder, or even crypto bank for that matter can not survive properly. SEC and FED are the biggest rivals of cryptocurrency and they are going rogue about it. SEC's decision on regulating numerous tokens as security and FED's decision of going stringent on Binance.US made Binance change the way they are operating in the USA. Mostly they are going to leave the US and shift their offices elsewhere.

However, this has now initiated a serious chain reaction amongst other investors. Such as Voyager and Binance.US had a $1 billion dollar deal and their investors are actually ok with the break up because they think the US is not a viable land where crypto business can be done. It's far better to move and break this deal apart.

Though Voyager is jeopardized due to this deal, Binance said' it's not their fault.

The US is getting hard day by day, it could collapse the economic circle of exchangers and crypto for sure. Today one such deal is getting collapsed, who knows what would happen in the future?

Bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital said it received a letter from Binance.US, terminating the asset purchase deal.
"Today we received a letter from Binance.US terminating the asset purchase agreement," Voyager said in a tweet on Tuesday. "While this development is disappointing, our Chapter 11 plan allows for direct distribution of cash and crypto to customers via the Voyager platform," the tweet added.
In a tweet, Binance.US attributed the termination to the "hostile and uncertain regulatory climate in the United States" that has "introduced an unpredictable operating environment impacting the entire American business community."
A substantive part of the $1 billion deal was allowed to proceed by the U.S. government in an April 20 filing, despite concerns the fine print of the contract would pardon breaches of tax or securities law.
The deal had been approved by the vast majority of Voyager creditors who voted, and by bankruptcy judge Michael Wiles. A committee representing those creditors in bankruptcy proceedings tweeted that it was "incredibly disappointed" with the news and was "investigating potential claims" against Binance.US.
Lawyers for the U.S. government, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, had sought to block the deal, arguing that some of the assets involved in the transaction, including potentially Voyager's VGX token, could constitute unregistered securities. VGX fell about 11%, trading around $0.3144 on Tuesday.
Binance.US' offer, originally made in December, allowed it to back out if the deal wasn't consummated within four months. In a recent legal filing, attorneys for Voyager warned that the deal falling apart could cost the estate, and its over 1 million creditors, an extra $100 million.
Faced with Twitter speculation that abandonment of the deal was linked to an upcoming settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has sued parent exchange Binance over selling unregistered crypto derivative products, Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao responded with an emoji of a shrugging figure.

Voyager Digital Says Binance.US Sent Letter Terminating $1B Asset Buy Deal

[Be Prepared for the Price Swings]

Interesting article to keep up with the Crypto currency's behavioral changes as well as making the right choices every time.
Was reading through it, it's an old article from last year but it could point us in the right direction. It just shows cases of how every crypto is behaving these days and what action we should have so that we can make proper investments for life.

Considering the crypto volatility, prices are always swinging by and hence it always makes it difficult for us no matter how much we control our emotions while investing. If the amount of investment is very large then it could be hard to keep up with the market. Many times people end up with FOMO investments too.

The article also focuses on long-term investments. This one is my favorite because well, it rules out the possibility of heavy losses over the course of time. For example, we can easily perform DCA investment if it is long-term and bring down our average price. With time demand is gonna be up at least for the coins like Bitcoin and thus could make it a highly profitable investment.

The article does suggest the use of bots for trading. Now I am not sure if the writer is a keen investor and trader or not, but bot is something I dislike all the time. Considering the fact that trading itself is majorly risky due to its volatility, it's always better to make with our own research, technical and fundamental aspects shall always be studied before investing.

This is just to make you motivated with the crypto industry. Which one is your favorite?

Top 10 Cryptocurrency Secrets Unleashed
Be Prepared for the Price Swings
Every investment has its own set of features that keeps them afloat., Similarly, the cryptocurrency market is filled with volatility. When you are buying a cryptocurrency, it indirectly means that you are signing up for the ups and downs it leverages. Sometimes, short-term steep falls are rise might even shock the investors. However, these are very common in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and you might actually yield profits from this. If you keep a close track of the growth and follow experts who are accurate about predictions, then you can invest in certain digital tokens and get your hand on good profits.  

Keep a Constant Check on Its Performance
Even if you are not a full-time cryptocurrency investor and is doing it on the sidelines for profit, you need to keep a constant tab on the price swings. Although a 24/7 observation is not needed, checking them at constant intervals is a good thing. The more complicated your investing strategy becomes, the more you should review it. While this might seem to be a thing for short-term investors, long-run investors can also follow these criteria to keep a healthy investment.  

Do Your Own Research and Manage the Risk Factors
A global fact is that cryptocurrency trading is a high-risk business and more traders lose than not. Therefore, don’t get tempted to add more value to your investment portfolio once you see a profit. Most importantly, don’t take other investors’ advise on what cryptocurrencies to invest in. Every digital token has its day! Bitcoin was at an all-time high just last November and now it is down like crazy. Therefore, do your own research before investing.
  
Opt for the Long-Term Investment
Fear of Not Missing Out (FOMO) and panic selling is very common things in the cryptocurrency market. Currently, people are trying to get rid of their Bitcoin investments before they could fall further and eat up their potential money. Similarly, six months back, investors went crazy over the Shiba Inu rally and many beginners tried their hand on the memecoin. Although these are the factors by which the cryptocurrency market functions, opting for the long-term investment plan is the best way to yield profit.  

Choose the Right Platform to Trade
Even if you have picked a cryptocurrency in mind to trade, choosing the right platform also matters. While picking the platform, make sure it abides by all the regulations of the country you are living in. Other factors like exchange liquidity, asset liquidity, and fees need to be clarified before investment. Explore the other features in the platform while you are trading in it.  

Use Trading Bots
Trading bots are becoming a common thing in the cryptocurrency market. They are automated software tools investors use to buy and sell financial instruments at a preconfigured time or when predefined conditions are met to maximize profits. Generally, trading bots identify the market trends and suggest investors invest in cryptocurrencies that give increased profits and reduced loses and risks.
 
Cryptocurrencies Can’t be Completely Wiped Out
Although countries might try to bring regulations on cryptocurrencies and their trading, a complete ban is impossible because anybody can own a wallet. Even if the country bans digital tokens, people can still use foreign accounts to trade them. Tech-savvy investors are also in the top of following such tactics. However, major countries won’t even consider banning cryptocurrencies as they know how much people have invested in them.  

Digital Tokens can Come Under Taxation
When Bitcoin made its debut in 2009, the whole concept of cryptocurrency was new to even government agencies. But over the decade, central authorities have become more aware of digital tokens and the profit investors yield. Therefore, many countries are coming up with effective taxation regulations that could come into effect in the coming months or years.  

Keep the Asset Safe at the Right Place
Currently, there are two types of storage in the market. One is hot storage and the other is cold storage. While hot storage refers to an online digital wallet, cold is an offline wallet that is typically stored on a hard drive. According to experts, keeping your cryptocurrency in a cold wallet is the safest way to protect it from hacks and mishaps.
  
Try Out Technical Analysis
If you are a pro in investing, then try out technical analysis tools to choose the right cryptocurrency. Technical analysis involves using mathematical indicators and chart patterns to try and predict which way the process will move next.

Top 10 Cryptocurrency Secrets Unleashed! Follow the Tips for Profit