/ Square reports $4.57 billion in bitcoin sales for 2020 via Cash App

The Jack Dorsey-led payments company said that for the fourth quarter of 2020, it sold $1.76 billion worth of bitcoin to clients via its Cash App. Gross profits came in at $41 million for the quarter, per the earnings release. A review of a full years’ worth of data shows $4.57 billion in sales for 2020 and $97 million in gross profits for the year.

More on The Block2021-02-24

/ MoneyGram says it has 'suspended' use of Ripple's platform amid SEC lawsuit

Publicly-traded remittance firm MoneyGram announced Monday that it suspended its use of Ripple’s payments solution in light of the distributed ledger company’s ongoing legal fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). “Due to the uncertainty concerning their ongoing litigation with the SEC, the Company has suspended trading on Ripple's platform,” said MoneyGram. The Ripple-MoneyGram partnership began in June 2019 and was scheduled to expire in July 2023.

More on The Block2021-02-22

/ Bitcoin Is a Hedge Against U.S.-China Trade War: FalconX CEO

Bitcoin’s recent price rally and institutional interest in crypto are hot topics, and, with any luck, a virtuous circle. Raghu Yarlagadda, CEO of FalconX, a California-based cryptocurrency trading platform targeted at institutional customers, sat down with the Decrypt Daily podcast to explain why institutional investors keep flocking to Bitcoin and whether that's really pumping its price.

More on Decrypt2021-02-21

/ US shares info on North Korean malware used to steal cryptocurrency

The FBI, CISA, and US Department of Treasury shared detailed info on malicious and fake crypto-trading applications used by North Korean-backed state hackers to steal cryptocurrency from individuals and companies worldwide in a joint advisory published on Wednesday. These cryptocurrency trading apps were developed and injected with AppleJeus malware by a DPRK state-sponsored threat actor known as Lazarus Group (tracked by the U.S. as HIDDEN COBRA). "These cyber actors have targeted organizations for cryptocurrency theft in over 30 countries during the past year alone," the advisory reads.

More on Bleeping Computer2021-02-18

/ Bitcoin Firm Blockchain.com Raises $120 Million in Strategic Funding Round

Bitcoin wallet and data provider Blockchain.com has raised $120 million in a strategic funding round led by macro investors. They include investment firm Moore Strategic Ventures, hedge fund manager Kyle Bass, venture capital firms Access Industries and Lightspeed Ventures. Blockchain.com is a London-based company specialising in providing Bitcoin wallets and data. It was previously known as Blockchain.info and raised a Series A in 2014. The firm claims that 28% of all Bitcoin transactions since 2012 have occured via its wallets.

More on Decrypt2021-02-17

/ Leverage 101 – A Short Primer

Leverage is the use of buying power beyond the assets a trader or investor currently controls, allowing investors to bet larger with a smaller initial capital base. There are different ways to obtain leverage – the main three in the crypto world being lending desks, derivatives exchanges, and lending protocols. While this article focuses mostly on leverage obtained from derivatives exchanges, the high-level concepts are the same everywhere. In the context of trading specifically, leverage is the ratio of your position size and your account value (also called “margin”).

More on Deribit Insights2021-02-16

/ DDoS attack takes down EXMO cryptocurrency exchange servers

The servers of British cryptocurrency exchange EXMO were taken offline temporarily after being targeted in a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. "We are currently experiencing a DDoS attack on our platform," the exchange said in a notification published earlier today. "Please note that the EXMO exchange website is now under the DDoS attack. The servers are temporarily unavailable.

More on Bleeping Computer2021-02-16

/ Deutsche Bank Quietly Plans to Offer Crypto Custody, Prime Brokerage

Deutsche Bank has joined the growing ranks of large financial institutions exploring cryptocurrency custody, with aspirations to offer high-touch services to hedge funds that invest in the asset class. The Deutsche Bank Digital Asset Custody prototype aims to develop “a fully integrated custody platform for institutional clients and their digital assets providing seamless connectivity to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem,” according to a little-noticed report by the World Economic Forum, host of the annual gathering of muckety-mucks in Davos, Switzerland.

More on CoinDesk2021-02-13

/ Alpha Homora exploited for $37.5M

Leverage liquidity protocol Alpha Homora was the victim of a $37.5M exploit on Saturday. The exploit involved the use of CREAM Finance's Iron Bank service, which gives out uncollateralized loans to trusted smart contracts. In Saturday's hack, an exploiter coded a contract that tricked Alpha Homora into believing it is their own contract. The exploiter then used this privileged access to trick CREAM Finance into lending out $37.5M worth of ETH and stablecoins.

More on The Block2021-02-13

/ 1inch Exchange Airdrops $84 Million to Crypto Community

Just in time for Lunar New Year, decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch Exchange is once again distributing free crypto in another seasonal marketing drive. The latest drop will distribute 6 million 1INCH tokens to Uniswap users and $9 million to its community. At today’s prices of about $5.6, the airdrop is worth about $84 million. The 1inch Foundation, the nonprofit that oversees the project, said it will distribute 6 million 1INCH tokens to people to Uniswap traders—those who have neither used 1inch nor its decentralized exchange, Mooniswap.

More on Decrypt2021-02-12

/ Jack Dorsey and Jay Z Allocate $23.5 Million in Bitcoin to Fund Development

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay Z are creating an endowment to fund Bitcoin development initially in Africa and India, Dorsey announced today. They are putting 500 Bitcoin into the fund, which is worth $23.5 million at current prices. It will be set up as a blind irrevocable trust, Dorsey said, that won't take any direction from its founders once it is set up. They are hiring three board members to get the ball rolling.

More on Decrypt2021-02-12

/ BNY Mellon to offer bitcoin services, a validation of crypto from a key bank in the financial system

Bank of New York Mellon, the nation’s oldest bank, said Thursday that it will begin financing bitcoin and other digital currencies. The custody bank will eventually allow digital currencies to pass through the same financial network it currently uses for more traditional holdings like U.S. Treasury bonds and equities after months of analysis of its prototype digital asset framework. “BNY Mellon is proud to be the first global bank to announce plans to provide an integrated service for digital assets,” Roman Regelman, CEO of asset servicing and head of digital at BNY Mellon, said in a press release. “Growing client demand for digital assets, maturity of advanced solutions, and improving regulatory clarity present a tremendous opportunity for us to extend our current service offerings to this emerging field,” he added.

More on CNBC2021-02-11