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Dogecoin’s usecases have seemingly evolved over time. The meme coin was initially created as a joke in 2014, turned into one of the hottest cryptocurrencies in 2015, became Elon Musk’s favorite in 2018, and was part of a TikTok challenge in 2020.
But things have taken a darker turn for the currency; hackers are now utilizing the token to control crypto mining botnets, security firm Intezer Labs said in a report this week.
Such DOGE, much hack
Intezer Labs, a New York-based malware analysis and detection firm, found out hackers using the infamous “Doki” backdoor have been using Dogecoin wallets to mask their online presence.
The firm said it had been analyzing Doki, a trojan virus, since January 2020 but recently discovered its use in installing and maintaining crypto-mining malware later.
A hacker — who goes by Ngrok — had uncovered a method to use Dogecoin wallets for infiltrating web servers, the firm noted. The usage is a first such case for the meme coin, which is otherwise known for funnier purposes.
Intezer Labs found out Doki was using a previously undocumented method to contact its operator by abusing the Dogecoin blockchain in a unique way in order to dynamically generate its control and command (C&C) domain addresses.
Using Dogecoin transactions allowed the attackers to alter these C&C addresses on any affected computers, or servers, that ran Ngrok’s Monero mining bots. Doing so allowed the hacker/s to mask their online location, thus preventing detection by legal and cybercriminal authorities.
Intezer Labs explained in its report:
“While some malware strains connect to raw IP addresses or hardcoded URLs included in their source code, Doki used a dynamic algorithm to determine the control and command (C&C) address using the Dogecoin API.”
The firm added these steps meant security firms needed to access the hacker’s Dogecoin wallet to take down Doki, which was “impossible” without knowing the wallet’s private keys.
Using DOGE to control servers
Using Doki allowed Ngrok to control their newly-deployed Alpine Linux servers for running their crypto-mining operations. They used the Doki service to determine and change the URL of the control and command (C&C) server it needed to connect for new instructions.
Intezer researchers reverse-engineered the process, detailing the initial steps as shown in the image below:
When the above was fully executed, the Ngrok gang could change Doki’s command servers by making a single transaction from within a Dogecoin wallet they controlled.
However, this was just part of a larger attack. Once the Ngrok gang gained access to command servers, they deployed another botnet to mine Monero. Dogecoin and Doki only served as access bridge, as ZDNet researcher Catalin Cimpanu tweeted:
Intezer said Doki has been active since this January, but remained undetected on all 60 “VirusTotal” scanning software used on Linux servers.
As of today, the attack is still active as of today. Malware operators and “crypto-mining gangs” have been actively using the method, said Intezer.
But it’s not a big worry. The firm says preventing exposure to the virus is easy; one just needs to ensure that any critical application process interfaces (APIs) are fully offline and not connected to any application which interacts with the internet.
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Crypto exchange Huobi is among the largest players in the derivatives market.
Just a week after crypto exchange Binance started offering quarterly futures, rival exchange Huobi today introduced bi-quarterly futures. Touché!
A futures contract is a bet on whether the price of a cryptocurrency will rise or fall by a certain point, in Huobi’s case every six weeks. If the bet is correct, the person who made it wins. If not, they lose, and the money goes to the person they signed the contract with.
Huobi’s bi-quarterly futures product supports nine cryptocurrencies, among them Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin, along with 36 trading pairs. Huobi’s futures platform already supports weekly, bi-weekly and quarterly futures contracts.
Huobi’s offering goes live the day after Huobi Futures launched version 4.2.0 of its platform. It also adds a feature called “locked margin optimization,” which lets users make the most of their money by lowering trading costs and reducing lag.
Huobi offers 125x leverage
People can also leverage trades by up to 125 times—an extremely high number that comes with a considerable amount of risk. Huobi wants to “provide users with wider choices and lower principal cost to open a position.”
“The higher the leverage multiples they apply, the less principal cost is required to open the position, so as to potentially earn greater profits,” it wrote.
Huobi is one of the stalwarts in the crypto-derivatives industry. Last quarter, it traded $438 billion, according to coin metrics firm TokenInsight. In March, April and May, Huobi had the largest volumes for derivatives trading among top exchanges, followed by OKEx and Binance, according to crypto analytics firm CryptoCompare.
Binance, the newcomer that launched in late 2019, is hot on Huobi’s heels. Huobi has been solidifying its market share ever since it launched its derivatives platform in early 2018 (then called Huobi DM), but Binance is quickly gaining. Between April and May, Binance’s volume increased by 58%; Huobi increased by just 29%.
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Bitcoin has mounted a strong recovery since the lows seen last week. The leading cryptocurrency traded as high as $9,750 on Saturday, over 13% higher than last weekend’s lows.
Even still, there remain textbook technical indicators suggesting there is a “high chance” BTC sees a correction in the coming weeks. According to the analyst that made this observation, this may be the largest correction Bitcoin has seen since March’s capitulation event.
Watch Out: Bitcoin Could Fall in the Next 2 Weeks
BTC may have bounced strongly since last week’s correction lows, but the asset’s weekly chart is printing four textbook signals indicative of an impending correction. A top analyst recently shared these signals:
The Tom Demark Sequential has printed a “9” candle. The time-based indicator prints “9” or “13” candle near or at inflection points in an asset’s trend. This latest “9” suggests an end to the Bitcoin rally that has transpired over the past few months.
Hidden bearish divergences have formed between the Klinger indicator and the price.
The Stochastic Relative Strength Index (RSI) has seen a bearish cross for the first time since February.
Bitcoin formed a “Heikin-Ashi spinning top” pattern last week, which suggests a likely trend reversal.
Adding to the confluence, there remains sell-side resistance on Bitfinex’s BTC/USD order book.
Below is a chart of recent BTC price action alongside the Order Book Dominance Bands indicator, which shows there is resistance from investors to let the asset pass the low-$10,000s.
Long-Term Outlook Still Bullish
The case may be growing for Bitcoin to correct in the short term, but that’s not to say that the uptrend formed from the $3,700 lows is over. Far from, some analysts have said.
As reported by NewsBTC previously, BTC just closed the price candle for May above the crucial $9,360 level.
This is “incredibly significant for bulls” because the low-$9,000s acted as macro resistance for BTC on multiple occasions over the past year. As one analyst remarked in reference to the chart below:
“We’ve not had a Monthly close above 9360 in nearly 12 months. Rejections from this level have led to tests of $6k and eventually $3k.”
When Bitcoin failed to surmount this level in February, prices crashed to $3,700. Furthermore, when BTC rejected this level in 2018, there was a brutal bear market to $3,150 in the ten months that followed.
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Bitcoin buying dropped off more than half in March, but rebounded soundly in April, according to the fintech company.
In brief
Revolut analyzed trading data collected from its crypto trading app.
UK users bought, on average, 50% less crypto when lockdown restrictions kicked in mid-March, the data showed.
But by the end of April, Bitcoin trading saw a huge rebound, according to the challenger bank.
When the UK went into lockdown, financial trepidation spread into the Bitcoin world, according to a new study released Wednesday by “challenger bank” Revolut.
The London-based fintech analyzed data from 3 million UK customers who use its crypto trading service to buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC).
The UK went into full coronavirus lockdown with the British public ordered to stay at home on March 23.
In the second half of March, UK crypto traders bought nearly two-thirds (-58%) less crypto per week, Revolut said. That’s an average per week drop of approximately 540 pounds to 230 pounds ($663 to $280). Users of the Revolut app also did about 50% less trading, the company said.
April saw Bitcoin buyers return
Interest in the market began to pick up again on April 20, when users began to purchase more BTC, according to the report. This was accompanied by a rise in the price of BTC.
On April 20, BTC was about $7,000. Since then, it has gone up more than 30% to about $9,000.
In the two weeks following April 20, the number of users buying cryptocurrencies rose 68%. The average amount of cryptocurrency bought by users increased by 57% and the amount bought per trade increased 63%, the report showed.
Bitcoin domination
Throughout the lockdown period, Bitcoin (BTC) dominated purchasing habits, with a total 51% share of the cryptocurrency trading market, Revolut’s data showed. This was followed by XRP, ETH, and BCH, the company said.
Revolut’s data also highlighted how different age groups buy and sell cryptocurrency. Those in the 55-64 age group buy at the highest value (345 pounds per trade) whereas those in the 18-24 age group trade at the lowest value (109 pounds per trade), the firm said.
Launched in 2015, Revolut now boasts more than 10 million customers, mainly in the UK and Europe. Along with banking services, the company offers a currency exchange, insurance brokerage and equity trading platform. The fintech completed a $500 million Series D in February, valuing the company at $5.5 billion.
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The cost of using Bitcoin has fallen considerably over the past week while the transaction backlog has begun to subside.
In brief:
Bitcoin's average transaction fee has dropped 53% in the past five days.
The number of transactions waiting to be processed is falling.
But the number of Bitcoin transactions is going down too.
The cost of making a Bitcoin transaction has fallen by 50% in five days, with the backlog of transactions, which had been clogging the network, starting to lessen up.
That marks a swift reversal for Bitcoin, where transaction fees had skyrocketed by more than 2,000% in 2020 alone.
Seen below, the average fee incurred by users of the Bitcoin network fell by 53%—from $6.64 to $3.06, according to data from Bitinfocharts.
The sudden drop in fees follows a drastic reduction in the number of unconfirmed transactions clogging up the Bitcoin mempool. Bitcoin’s mempool is where Bitcoin transactions sit, waiting to be confirmed on the network. It can be measured in megabytes (MB) of data, or in raw numbers. Seen below, the number of transactions awaiting confirmation in Bitcoin’s mempool has fallen by 71% in the last five days.
While the sheer number of transactions have fallen hard and fast in the past five days, the size of its mempool in megabytes remains relatively high. Right now, Bitcoin has a congested mempool equalling just under 60MB in size—down 33% from its recent peak of 90MB on May 20—as per data from Blockchain.com. Given Bitcoin’s ten minute block times, which produces six blocks per minute, the 60MB backlog could subside in just over 10 hours.
This does assume a continued low transaction rate. But Bitcoin’s transaction count has been dropping recently. The overall number of Bitcoin transactions has fallen by 37.9% in the past two weeks since the block reward halving, according to data from Bitinfocharts. So while fees are coming down, transactions are too—and that’s not a good thing.
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Africa has seen an explosion of growth among peer-to-peer Bitcoin traders within the last month, even outpacing the regional P2P scene in Latin America.
In brief
Bitcoin volume on P2P platforms in Africa saw another record week.
More than $14 million in Bitcoin was traded across LocalBitcoins and Paxful combined.
Economic turmoil in the region could be partly responsible.
Bitcoin traders in Africa have their feet on the gas pedal, with no intention of slowing down any time soon.
Less than two weeks after registering all-time high, peer-to-peer trading volumes at the regional level, Africa has done it again. According to data from analytics site Useful Tulips, Bitcoin traders in Africa exchanged the equivalent of more than $14 million across P2P platforms, such as LocalBitcoins and Paxful.
Bitcoin reading volume in Africa is currently outpacing local trading in Latin America, a region often referenced when examining regional, peer-to-peer volumes.
This volume was higher than last week's figure for Latin America —a region often taken as a reference in terms of trading volume on p2p and OTC platforms. Just over $11 million worth of Bitcoin was trading through Latin America over the last seven days.
The growth in local trading appears to reflect increased interest in cryptocurrency within the African continent. As Decrypt recently reported, local inflation rates range between 4% to 7% year-on-year, and economic uncertainty stemming from the coronavirus outbreak combined with a widespread economic recession seems to be leading a growing number of African traders to view Bitcoin as a viable store of value
In Latin America, Venezuela is still the leading the Latin American BTC market. Despite having lost almost a million dollars in volume in the last week, its $4.3 million gives it a slight edge over Colombia, which reported $4.1 million in trades during the same period.
But on the other side of the globe, Nigeria saw considerable growth, registering more than $9.3 million in weekly trading volume, 400% more than South Africa, its closest competitor.
Although it is difficult to determine how local traders behave on centralized exchanges, volume on P2P platforms is likely much higher within African countries, according to Useful Tulips founder Matt Ahlborg.
In an interview with the On the Brink podcast, Ahlborg explained that Latin Americans and Africans prefer P2P trading because it reduces commissions and allows for a direct relationship with other customers.
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Binance is approaching an all-time high in new user registrations as it continues to expand around the world facilitating crypto trading in different jurisdictions as more countries ease their regulatory framework to adapt quickly to this new era.
Binance has seen an increase in its activity and user base in days before the bitcoin halving. Inactive users have started resetting their passwords and began trading again, the CEO & Founder of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, said during the Consensus: Distributed today.
Binance sees spike in trading volume
Binance registered the highest volume of transactions during the last 30 days before the Bitcoin halving, reporting movements of 184,921,277,939 USD, according to coinmarketcap, placing it at the top of a list with over 330 exchanges.
Similarly, Binance.US – the Binance subsidiary exchange for the United States – is still adapting to the national regulations in a process that CZ considers somewhat slow. “It’s just a lengthy process in the U.S. to go through all of the regulatory compliance work,” Zhao said. “Hopefully we will get there and continue to enrich the product.”
“Right now, we’ve got just the fundamentals – being able to provide people easy ways to buy crypto, easy ways to put market order in or limit orders.” according to Catherine Coley CEO of Binance.US.
Users can now buy crypto with South African Rand
On the other hand, the Asian Giant added support for deposits and withdrawals in South African Rand, on its platform. Users will be able to trade that currency against BTC, ETH, BNB, BUSD, and USDT.
In the same way, users of banks with support for “Faster Payments Service” will be able to deposit ZAR in a matter of minutes (approximately 30 minutes).
As part of its expansion, Binance recently added support for the Indian Rupee just after an Indian Court ruled crypto trading should not be banned. Also, today it announced an investment in Tokocrypto South East Asia’s fiat to crypto brokerage platform.
2020 seems to be a very promising year for Binance, which continues to grow both in adoption and volume, seeking to position itself as the number one exchange when it comes to the cryptocurrencies market.
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The banking giant’s move could signal a thaw in relations with the crypto industry. But will Jamie Dimon change his mind about Bitcoin?
In brief
JP Morgan has approved banking accounts for crypto exchanges Coinbase and Gemini.
The exchanges are the bank's first crypto customers.
The news will be encouraging for crypto businesses seeking banking services.
JPMorgan has extended its banking services to popular cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Gemini, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. The exchanges will be the bank’s first cryptocurrency clients.
Reported today, the landmark move is a sign that Wall Street is gaining confidence in the cryptocurrency industry, but banking requirements could still be overly exacting for many crypto businesses struggling to acquire accounts.
Coinbase and Gemini had to jump through multiple hoops to gain JPMorgan’s approval, the sources said, emphasising the degree to which the exchanges have become regulated entities.
“The fact that both are regulated by multiple parties played a big part in the approval process,” they told the WSJ.
Both exchanges hold money transmitter licenses in multiple states; Gemini won a trust charter in 2015 from the New York State Department of Financial Services. Meanwhile, Coinbase has a BitLicense, a specialized license for crypto businesses, and is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
As well as an extensive vetting process, JPMorgan’s decision may have been influenced by increased interest in Bitcoin by mainstream investors and traders.
Trading volumes saw record highs in March and April, as people sought a safe haven from volatile traditional markets; investment platforms geared towards institutional investors, such as Grayscale, have been thriving, and more funds are turning to Bitcoin as a viable alternative, in the face of quantitive easing.
Even Wall Street legend Paul Tudor Jones has recently come out in favor of Bitcoin, contrasting its monetary policy with that of the Fed's. Beyond recommending it to other institutional traders, he also said that 1-2% of his assets are in Bitcoin.
In the past, JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon has criticised Bitcoin. But, more recently, the bank has experimented with blockchain, and even its own digital currency, JPM Coin (for clients' digital payments.)
The bank approved the Coinbase and Gemini accounts in April, per the WSJ. Primarily, it will handle dollar-based transactions, and cash-management services for the exchanges.
No Bitcoin or crypto then—at least, not yet.
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In brief:
Stellar wants to become the global payments standard in the next 5 years.
While admitting it won't happen any time soon, the Stellar foundation wants governments to issue CBDCs on the network.
Several Stellar network upgrades are planned for June.
today the Stellar Development Foundation shared its lofty goal to become the next global payment standard. How it will get there, however, depends on whether governments choose to harness Stellar's permissionless network for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Since the talk, the price of Stellar has shot up 11%—beating the rest of the market.
Speaking during Consensus distributed, Stellar CEO, Denelle Dixon, kicked proceedings off with an applicable nod to the current financial crisis.
"The existing financial infrastructure is outdated, operating on models that have been unchanged for decades," said Dixon, "In the context of this pandemic, just look at how many people have waited weeks for paper stimulus checks.
This, she suggests, is forcing policymakers, governments, and central banks alike to recognize the need for innovation as well as equitable access to the financial system. In response, Stellar has been examining how to implement CBDCs.
"CBDCs was exactly the type of digital money Stellar was designed for, connecting today's real-world financial infrastructure with the digital blockchain world," Dixon explained.
When asked what this new normal might bring for Stellar, Dixon responded that it would likely create a huge opportunity with blockchain becoming the arbiter of innovation.
Talks inevitably turned to Facebook's Libra—a project that has had to drastically change direction from initial conception due to regulatory pressure. With Stellar attempting to achieve a similar goal, will regulation become a hindrance?
"The network layer is very much like the internet, it shouldn't be regulated," explains Dixon. "Stellar itself is the layer that everyone can build on top of, so I don't see regulation with respect to that."
No digital dollar on Stellar, yet
As for whether a government would opt to create a digital dollar on private sector initiatives such as Stellar or Libra, Stellar’s founder, Jed McCaleb, remained tactful.
"We've talked to a few governments around the world about CBDCs. I still think it's pretty early for that and especially early for them to issue these things on a public chain, most [governments] when they get into the nuts and bolts of it they want to control it," says McCaleb. "So, I still think the whole CBDC story is far away."
Nevertheless, he holds out hope that a government does choose a permissionless chain, Stellar's in particular. McCaleb argues that there is no benefit of a private chain as it technically already exists in the form of digitized dollars held in central bank reserves.
"It doesn't really get you anything unless you make it this more open system where it's flexible for people to send money around," he added.
Stellar's technical advancements
McCaleb ran through several technical upgrades to the Stellar ecosystem.
Rattling off the stats, McCaleb highlighted that since the network started in 2015, it has conducted over a billion operations, issued 7,000 assets, and onboarded 121 validators. This means that the network is now in a position to run without the support of the Stellar foundation.
"This is obviously a big step for decentralization," McCaleb said.
Stellar's next milestone is the Protocol 13 and Horizon 1.0 upgrades—expected to be voted on by validators in early June.
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The leading US-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, reportedly experienced issues again as Bitcoin’s price suddenly dropped, losing around 20% quickly. This isn’t the first time the exchange goes down amid sudden movements of the kind.
Coinbase Goes Down As Bitcoin Price Plummets
Bitcoin is known to be volatile. What is more, when there’s volatility, it usually takes place in sudden bursts rather than prolonged trading sessions. In March, the price lost around 40% in just a few hours.
Hours ago, Bitcoin suddenly crashed, and in a few minutes, it tanked from a little less than $10,000 to below $8,000 before recovering to its current trading levels.
At times of the kind, it’s essential for users to be in control of their positions and minimize the losses or maximize the profits, depending on their trading setup. When an exchange is down, however, that’s practically impossible.
Coinbase, the leading US-based cryptocurrency exchange, reportedly went offline again. Numerous users on Twitter complained about the problem, while data shows that there are more than 1,000 reports around the time of the crash. Many even joked that Coinbase is acting like the NYSE circuit breakers that halt trading when legacy markets experience a violent drop.
The Fed’s Interest Cut And Global Markets’ Crash Might Lead To Bitcoin & Crypto Surge, Says Coinbase CEO
According to the official website, Coinbase experienced connectivity issues yesterday and delayed sends for ETH and ERC20 tokens because of network congestion. Many of the reports, however, point out that the site was inaccessible.
It’s Not The First Time
Back in 2019 in June, Bitcoin lost about 15% in about 15 minutes, reducing its price with about $1,700. At the time, Coinbase experienced technical issues again, and traders were unable to access their funds.
On April 29th this year, the exchange was off again as Bitcoin soared to just below $9,000. These are far from being the only instances when Coinbase has been going offline during times of severe volatility.
Being one of the world’s leading exchanges, issues of the kind should be reduced to a minimum. The industry has come a long way in the last few years, and setbacks of the kind are questionable, to say the least.
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The cryptocurrency market has been going through some tough times in recent months as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the entire world. However, the prevailing conditions in the industry are far better than the conventional global financial markets.
While the entire world stares at an inevitable recession in the coming days, many investors have started investing in some of the leading digital currencies as a measure to minimize the impact on their finances. These decisions are based on the fact that Bitcoin and a significant number of altcoins exhibited a limited direct correlation with the traditional market instruments. Meaning, as the value of stocks continues to plummet, cryptocurrencies have held their ground registering a small percentage fall in their valuation.
Meanwhile, the crypto trading community hasn’t lost its hopes either, as one thing that has remained constant during these trying times is the volatile nature of these digital assets. As the interest in investing and trading in cryptocurrencies continues to increase, so does the search for the right platform that can satisfy all their trading requirements.
Changing Traffic Patterns on Crypto Platforms
A recent analysis of web traffic data shared by ICO Analytics shows that the number of users on a handful of crypto platforms has increased while the rest of them registered a decline. The comparison was made between the web traffic registered by these leading platforms in the months of March and April 2020
A quick glance at the numbers shows a list of 20 most popular cryptocurrency exchange platforms, out of which only three have witnessed increased activities compared to their peers. These three platforms include OKEx, CoinsBit, and ZBcom with 147%, 33% and 18% respectively. On the other hand, the highest drop in web traffic in the month of April as compared to March 2020 was experienced by BitMEX at 40%. The web traffic trend favoring just 3 out of 20 exchanges may indicate that new traders are perceiving these 3 exchanges to be more reliable, trustworthy, and maybe even easier to access compared to others. Another possibility involves some of the existing traders favoring them over the rest due to favorable trading terms, supported assets, or a lot of other reasons.
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Power Ledger has signed a deal with property developer Nicheliving to create a microgrid in Western Australia.
Microgrids enable residents to store and trade renewable energy.
The partnership will see over 100 properties using a blockchain-based microgrid platform.
Blockchain start-up Power Ledger has teamed up with property developer Nicheliving to roll out a microgrid energy trading platform across 100 properties in Western Australia.
The deal, announced Wednesday, will initially see Power Ledger's blockchain platform used across 62 apartments in Nicheliving’s Inglewood development, and 40 apartments in East Cannington, before being rolled out across further Nicheliving projects over the next three years.
What is a microgrid?
Microgrids are small local energy grids that typically draw power from sustainable energy sources such as wind or solar. The power generated is stored locally; Power Ledger enables residents to sell their excess energy to neighbors, tracking energy consumption and transactions on its blockchain platform. According to the press release, the firm aims to deliver 100% renewable energy via an "embedded electricity network and solar PV and storage microgrid."
"We're seeing an emerging trend of project developers considering more low cost and low carbon energy supplies during the design phase of their projects," explained Power Ledger co-founder and chairman Dr Jemma Green. "Power Ledger's platform incentivises homeowners to invest in solar energy infrastructure."
Microgrids bring power to the people
Power Ledger’s microgrid follows in the footsteps of other blockchain-based microgrids around the world, including the pioneering Brooklyn Microgrid in New York.
Large energy firms are also getting involved; in London, EDF Energy launched a trial microgrid, Project CommUNITY, which outfitted an apartment complex with solar panels. Residents used a blockchain-powered app to access and trade their energy allowance with peers, removing the need for an intermediary.
