Weekly Highlights: Crypto News

🗓Fridays are the best. You get to read our weekly highlights and learn all the latest news, which is great, isn’t it?

What’s new on WhiteBIT?

Htmlcoin listed!🔥

• Htmlcoin is joining our exchange!
• Htmlcoin was developed using a Bitcoin and Ethereum hybrid blockchain technology which integrates Bitcoin Core, Proof-of-Stake (PoS), and the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
• Htmlcoin strives to provide the world with an easy to use, meaningful cryptocurrency, and blockchain platform.
• HTML is paired against ETH. Enjoy trading!

FLAMA listed!⚡️

• FMA is joining our exchange!
• Flama is the first deflationary token on the market ready to build decentralized applications with enhanced features such as staking.
• Flama Token is deployed on its dedicated blockchain network which eliminates the risk of hacking as it offers no single point of control that can be breached.
• The token burns 3% of its supply against each transaction, reducing the total supply and thus adding the value of each token.
• FMA is paired against BTC. Have fun trading!

Trading Tournament: Weekly Results🏆

• DEMO Token Trading Tournament continues!
• The list of this week’s leaders can be found here.
• The leaders will receive their bonuses as WhiteBIT Codes via Email.
• You can still join and win one of 5 prizes worth of 1 BTC as well as one of 245 rewards from 100 000 MATIC prize pool.
• Hurry up, the tournament ends on the 10th of August.
• Good luck!

What’s new in the world of crypto?

📢Russian Lawmakers Finally Pass Country’s Major Crypto Bill

• Russia’s newly passed crypto bill finally provides legal status to crypto but does not allow it to be used as a payment method.
• The State Duma — Russia’s legislative body — has passed a bill titled “On Digital Financial Assets” in its final third reading, local news agency Regnum reports July 22.
• After initiating the bill back in 2018, Russian authorities have finally agreed to provide legal status to cryptocurrencies, preparing to adopt the first major part of legislation for the industry.
• Following the latest Duma’s decision, the bill “On Digital Financial Assets,” or DFA, is expected to be officially adopted in Russia on Jan. 1, 2021.
• As reported, the Duma expects to pass the DA bill during the autumn session, which ends in late December.
• Anatoly Aksakov, a member of the State Duma and a major figure behind Russia’s crypto legislation, reportedly said that the new law will allow local firms to issue stablecoins — a “stable” type of cryptocurrency that is often pegged to fiat currencies like USD.

📢South Korea Finalizes Cryptocurrency Income Tax of 20%

• The South Korean government has announced a 20% tax rate for income generated from cryptocurrency trading.
• Following a Tax Development Review Committee meeting on July 22, the Ministry of Economy and Finance published its revised tax code detailing the new rules.
• Under the new framework, gains made from virtual currencies and intangible assets will be classified as taxable income, calculated annually.
• Income from virtual assets below 2.5 million won per year ($2,000) falls below the minimum threshold and will not be taxed.
• Above the minimum threshold, the tax rate is set at 20%, on a par with the basic tax rate for most other taxable income and capital gains in South Korea.
• The rules provide guidance for calculating income derived from crypto trading, which should be reported and paid annually each May.

📢Twitter Hackers Saw DMs From 36 Accounts, Including CoinDesk’s

• The attackers who compromised Twitter in a massive breach last week might have accessed direct messages from up to 36 accounts, including CoinDesk’s.
• Twitter announced late Wednesday that it had completed its review of the 130 accounts targeted by the hack, which saw numerous verified accounts hijacked to post a link to a questionable website or directly shill a Bitcoin giveaway scam.
• The attackers were not able to see previous passwords, but were able to access email addresses, phone numbers, and possible “additional information,” the update said.
• Wednesday’s update comes a week after the platform suffered one of the biggest attacks in its 14-year history.
• The attackers made off with around $120,000 in bitcoin from the attack, which has since begun moving through privacy wallets and mixers.

📢Newly Discovered Botnet Infected Up to 5,000 Computers with a Monero Miner

• A highly sophisticated hacker has infiltrated thousands of computers and hijacked them to covertly mine the privacy coin Monero.
• Security intelligence firm Cisco Talos, part of U.S. tech giant Cisco Systems, said it discovered a botnet — a network of internet-connected devices — that had been active for months, in its report Wednesday.
• Dubbed “Prometei,” the botnet can disable security controls, copy across important files, and masquerade as other programs to set up covert mining operations in computer systems.
• Prometei may have earned its owner approximately $5,000 worth of Monero — around $1,250 per month, the report reads.
• They also found that the botnet had also stolen credentials, such as administrator passwords, possibly to sell on the black market.

📢Google, Twitter, and Facebook Face $600M Lawsuit Over Crypto Ad Bans

• According to a Sunday report from Daily Mail Australia, Australian crypto business owners, represented by Sydney-based law firm JPB Liberty, allege they were harmed by the banning of their advertisements and are seeking damages amounting to A$872 million (US$600 million).
• That amount could rise to A$300 billion in total as more litigants join the class action, according to the report.
• The ad bans were aimed to minimize harm to potential investors in initial coin offering (ICO) scams, but allegedly also had a sweeping effect on legitimate crypto businesses also.
• Facebook, Twitter, and Google all took action throughout 2018, including the bans in their terms of service.
• Twitter has yet to lift its ban relating to the advertising of ICOs, token sales, exchanges, and wallet services.

📢US Army Requests Information on Tools to Track Cryptocurrency Transactions

• The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army have requested information on web-based cryptocurrency tracking tools.
• The tools must enable U.S. government agencies worldwide to conduct in-depth investigations into the source of crypto transactions and provide multi-currency analysis from bitcoin to other top cryptocurrencies.
• The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army have posted a request for information (RFI) entitled “cryptocurrency investigative web-based application.”
• The request’s accompanying Statement of Work (SOW) describes that the contractor must provide “access to a reliable cryptocurrency investigation service, also referred to as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution required for use in criminal investigations and the other missions conducted by the US Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC).”

Stay tuned for more news!

WhiteBIT Team