Analysts estimate that the number of videos on YouTube offering quick money has increased by 500% since last year. But in fact it is Cryptoscammers who steal users’ cryptoassets. Crypto-Upvotes Experts Review

Cryptoscammers have posted six times more videos on YouTube aimed at stealing users’ assets than last year. That’s according to a report by Certik (a Web3 and blockchain security company).

Analysts investigated a popular type of scam where users are offered easy earnings on social networks. To do this, they should download a special bot program according to a video instruction on Youtube. This bot is supposed to bring profit, but in fact it deducts funds from victim’s cryptocurrency wallet.

In the course of their research Certik analyzed YouTube for videos mentioning the phrase “front running bot”. And they found that in a sample of 232 videos, 84% were scam videos. The selected videos started circulating last year. But this year their number increased by 500%: analysts found 28 such videos in 2021, and 168 in 2022.

According to the report, many of these videos are immediately identifiable as scams by their titles: “MAKE 10X A DAY!!!”, “Uniswap Front Running Bot 2022 – EASY TUTORIAL (Huge profits)”, “$15,000 Front Running Crypto Bot Leak! – 50X HUGE RETURNS!” and the like. Certik noted that all of these videos have common themes: free bot and huge profits.

Analysts warned that you should never run programs from unverified sources. As well as those whose action is not fully understood. Also, you should be careful with any trading strategies or techniques which promise inflated profitability.

The other type of scams on YouTube is fake videos with famous people. In September, scammers took advantage of the fact that Apple was holding a new phone presentation and launched parallel broadcasts promoting cryptocurrencies allegedly on behalf of their company.

Founder of Telegram announced plans to launch a decentralized platform for trading digital currencies. Our experts told us how successful this project could be. And whether its development will be hindered by regulators

The next step in development of Telegram is the creation of decentralized tools. Including cryptocurrencies, as well as decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges, Pavel Durov said on November 30.

“This is how we can correct the mistakes caused by excessive centralization, which has failed hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency users,” wrote the head of Telegram.

He explained that the blockchain industry was built on the principle of decentralization. But it turned out to be concentrated in the hands of a limited circle of individuals abusing their power.

“As a result, many people lost their money when one of major crypto exchanges FTX went bankrupt,” Durov recalled.

He said the solution to the problem is for blockchain projects to return to decentralization. And users should switch to transactions and wallets that do not depend on any third party.

The founder of Telegram said that he and four other people launched a decentralized domain name auction platform Fragment in five weeks. It is based on the blockchain platform TON, which Durov called fast and efficient enough to host popular apps. At the same time, Durov criticized Ethereum, calling it outdated and expensive, even after the latest global network upgrade.

“Fragment is amazingly successful. In less than a month the platform has sold $50 million worth of user names. This week Fragment will go beyond user names,” Durov said.

How will regulators treat Telegram cryptoexchange?

In terms of resources and the existing experience of Telegram team in developing TON project. Creation of such a project as a decentralized exchange and cryptocurrency wallets seems realistic, our experts believe. However, the current global trend in regulation of cryptoassets turnover is tightening and streamlining of control requirements.

Since details of this project and specifics of functioning of announced project are not disclosed. At the moment, it is difficult for our experts to assess how it will meet the requirements of the legislation of different countries.

What are the future prospects for this Telegram project?

Decentralized crypto exchanges are difficult to regulate because they are essentially not companies. Therefore, it is legally possible to prohibit such exchanges, but it is more difficult to limit their activities. Our expert stressed that liability in case of using such exchanges from the legal point of view does not apply to their creators. It extends more to ordinary users in each specific transaction.

Our experts admit the possibility that the launch of this site may be timed to the lifting of SEC ban. Which is imposed on Durov until July 2023 because of the attempted launch of the TON platform with the participation of investors from USA.

Most likely, the new DEX exchange will not be connected to Telegram in any way. Except for simplified authorization and a number of mechanics. Otherwise, they are definitely two different products.

What risks will ordinary users face when using a new DEX exchange from Telegram?

Most likely, DEX exchange will be created on TON blockchain. The main advantage of a decentralized platform is that it does not store users’ cryptocurrency. The exchange only brings together buyers and sellers of digital financial assets, without intermediaries. And users do not need to open an exchange account for such transactions – transactions are made from investors’ wallets.

That is, there is no risk of losing their funds if the exchange decides to block them. As, for example, happens now with the centralized exchanges, which go bankrupt.

The only risk of participation in transactions on the decentralized exchange is the risk of losses due to delays in price updates. And you will need to pay a commission for transactions on that DEX exchange.

Maersk and IBM will close their platform because it has not reached the level of commercial viability in 4 years since its creation

Global container shipping leader Maersk and IT corporation IBM announced the discontinuation of their blockchain platform TradeLens. Although the platform developed is viable. But the need for full global industry collaboration has not been achieved. Maersk will continue to digitize logistics and support industry innovation with other solutions.

One of the world’s most famous blockchain projects, the TradeLens platform was jointly developed by Maersk and IBM in 2018. And it is supported by major transportation companies, which account for more than 60% of global container shipments. TradeLens has made it possible to introduce digitized documentation flows into global logistics chains, which has simplified cargo clearance.

Many ports and terminals around the world are among the TradeLens customers. As well as customs authorities in Singapore, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

“TradeLens has not reached the level of commercial viability necessary to continue to operate and meet financial expectations as an independent business,” said Rotem Hershko, head of business platforms at Maersk.

Beginning Nov. 29, the TradeLens team will begin completing platform operations, which should occur by the end of the first quarter of 2023. During this process, all parties involved will ensure that customers are served without disruption to their business.

Huobi to issue Dominica Coin, approved by government of the island state of the Commonwealth of Dominica. Review by Crypto-Upvotes experts

Crypto exchange Huobi announced plans to launch the world’s first national token in honor of Commonwealth of Dominica. In cooperation with blockchain Tron Network and DMC Labs and with the approval of the island nation’s government. Dominica Coin will be launched on Tron Network.

The Commonwealth of Dominica is a state on the island of the same name in the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. The area of its territory is 751 km², and its population is about 75 thousand people. Official currency is the Eastern Caribbean dollar. It is used in 8 countries of Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

Project Huobi will also include the launch of the Dominica DID. Both Dominica DID and DMC will initially be issued on the Tron network. Because it has become Dominica’s national blockchain infrastructure. In the future, the developers plan to make the DMC token interoperable with Ethereum, BSC and other networks via the BitTorrent Chain protocol.

How to get DMC ?

DMC will be released on Huobi Prime. In addition, exchange will hold an airdrop of DMC tokens (giveaway). And it will also include a Dominica DID application for each registered user.

Users will be able to create Soul-Bound Tokens with Dominica DID on the Tron network. An SBT or non-transferable token is a type of NFT asset that is issued in a single instance and is tied to a specific blockchain address. In Metaverse Dominica, SBT holders will be entitled to digital citizenship of this metaverse. At the same time, they will be able to claim passports issued by the Dominica government. Which allow their holders visa-free access to more than 130 countries and regions around the world. Including EU, Switzerland, UK, Singapore, Russia, Brazil and Hong Kong.

Just like TRX and USDD tokens, DMC will have legal status in the Commonwealth of Dominica and can be used as a means of payment in that country. It will be used as a native token in the Dominica metaverse

Computing power of BTC mining equipment also began to decline. In addition to profits of miners, hashrate of network fell by 13% during one month

Bitcoin mining profits have fallen to their lowest in two years, with BTC mining profits totaling $11.6 million on Nov. 26, according to Blockchain.com. Miners last earned less than this amount on November 2, 2020, on that day they received $10.9 million at a BTC exchange rate of about $13,700.

Falling profits for miners come amid the steepest decline in bitcoin since 2018. On November 28, BTC is trading near $16,200, down 76.5% from its all-time high.

In the last 24 hours, 131 blocks of Bitcoin were mined, the reward of miners at the current rate was $13.2 million. Most of the blocks (34 units) were mined by miners connected to the Foundry USA pool. AntPool (25) and Binance (19) followed by F2pool (16) and ViaBTC (12).

Bitcoin network hashrate (the total capacity of all mining equipment connected to the network) declined. On November 2, it peaked at 273 Eh/s and fell by 13% to 237 Eh/s during the month. Decrease in computing power means that some of equipment was switched off by miners.

In addition to falling BTC price, a negative factor for mining cryptocurrency was also an increase in the complexity of its mining. On November 21, this indicator renewed its all-time high and rose to a record 36.95 T. Our experts note that next change in mining complexity should occur around December 5.

Crypto-Upvotes experts explained reason of the last fall of BTC price. And told how it can change in coming days

Last week from November 21 to 27, BTC updated its yearly low. High volatility on crypto market was observed at the beginning of this week. Bitcoin sales intensified on news of the possible bankruptcy of Genesis. Which had $175 million hanging in the collapsed FXT exchange. The BTC/USDt pair was down to $15,400.

BTC price did not go lower. The sales were stopped by a representative of Genesis. He said that company continues to negotiate with creditors and does not plan to declare bankruptcy in the near future. The Wall Street Journal reported that billionaire Justin Sun is considering options for the acquisition of certain FTX assets. This news backdrop formed a nice session bullish trend on the intraday charts. Also, the cryptocurrency market received support from the weakening U.S. dollar in forex. As well as the growth of stock indices in the U.S. before the release of the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting on November 1-2. Bitcoin rose 8.6% to $16,800 in 53 hours.

Buyer activity was halted by news that Genesis had hired a restructuring consultant to explore all options, including bankruptcy.

On Thursday low activity on all world exchanges can be explained by day off in the USA. Markets in the States did not work because of the national Thanksgiving holiday. On Friday, trading was at the level of $16.5 thousand.

As long as there is no negative news, Bitcoin is trying to climb out of the hole Sam Bankman-Fried sent it into. Fear of a possible collapse is keeping investors from active action. Buyers need to pass $17.15k and $18.5k for the FTX exchange collapse to recede into the background.

No factors for BTC growth

After shocks associated with the collapse of FTX, the crypto market is frozen, waiting for new factors for movement. Most likely, there will be no strong changes. Bitcoin now trades at $16.2k, the same dynamics is expected in the next (range $16-16.5k). In the absence of negative news, of course, because there is no positive news to expect.

Level of $18.5k is the key resistance level. Its overcoming will open the way for buyers to $22.5k. Also it will allow many miners to accumulate BTC and not to sell at low prices. Sellers are still set to bring the market down to the $10-12k zone.

The most important event this week is the report on the US labor market in November. As the cryptocurrency market has decoupled from the S&P500. Then it can ignore the price swings of the dollar and the S&P500 after the report is published. If Bitcoin reacts to U.S. statistics. Then again we can look at correlation and stronger correlation with other risky assets.

There will likely be more reports of problems in the crypto industry this week. Even if not as significant and large as with FTX. For example, it is now known that the ecosystem of decentralized finance and stable dUSD coin Ardana. Which is based on the blockchain Cardano, has announced the suspension of project development. Because there is now uncertainty about the funding and timing of this project.

The next negative report is that cryptocurrency lender Matrixport is looking for $100 million in funding. Lead investors have already committed $50 million to the company, but the deal has not yet been finalized. As Matrixport needs to find those who will close the other half of volume.

Conclusion

There are no factors for growth of digital financial assets. Main thing is that there are no new ” Black Swans ” – poorly predictable negative events. In this case, Bitcoin will remain at the level of about $16.5k. However, if there are new reports about difficulties on cryptocurrencies, it can fall to $14-15k.

Scotland Yard cybercrime unit has tracked down phone scam suspects after examining cryptocurrency payments. Review by Crypto-Upvotes experts

Analysis of Bitcoin transactions helped British police arrest more than 100 people, according to Metropolitan Police. In the largest scam operation in the country’s history. Which was conducted by Scotland Yard, was dismantled site iSpoof and caught the suspects of telephone scams.

iSpoof allowed scammers to impersonate tax officials and banks. This included Barclays, Santander, HSBC, Lloyds and others. Phone scammers tried to trick people into giving up money or providing confidential information. For example, disposable bank account access codes. iSpoof disguised phone numbers to make it appear that scammers were calling from a trusted source. With iSpoof, scammers paid in Bitcoin.

The average loss, among those who complained of fraud, was £10,000. It is believed that in total victims of scammers lost tens of millions of pounds. Whereas iSpoof scammers made almost £3.2 million in 20 months. According to police, more than 200 thousand potential victims in Britain alone were attacked through the site. In one year, iSpoof made about 10 million scam calls around the world.

Operation to identify this criminal group was carried out by the cybercrime unit of London Police with the assistance of Europol, FBI and other law enforcement agencies. Investigators began their investigation in June 2021. They collected information from the iSpoof website, and initially the circle of suspects was 59,000 people. So they began tracking only those UK residents on Bitcoin transactions. Who spent at least £100 in Bitcoin on this site.

A wave of arrests followed in the country, and information about other suspects was passed on to law enforcement colleagues in Netherlands, Australia, France and Ireland.

What to expect from Football Fan Token during FIFA World Cup 2022. Which platforms have joined the sporting event, what happens to the coins of the national teams. And which of the competition-related assets are most attractive for investment

On November 20, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar kicked off and will run until December 18. Cryptocurrency community actively participates in the event. Many platforms are sponsoring it, and cryptocurrency exchanges are adding new fan tokens for football teams and announcing promotions related to the World Cup.

The championship is sponsored by Algorand Blockchain (ALGO), which will continue to help FIFA with developments related to digital assets after this event. World Cup 2022 is also sponsored by Crypto com, a crypto platform. Users of this exchange were able to attend matches and win official paraphernalia.

Crypto exchange Binance launched a promotion for fans called Binance Football Fever 2022. It allows you to win rewards during the Championship by completing tasks. OKX platform launched the OKX Football Festival promotion on the occasion of this event. In which platform users can win participation in NFT airdrop.

Huobi raffled off tickets to the FIFA World Cup 2022 in October, while Poloniex held the “Poloniex FIFA World Cup Carnival” with a prize pool of $100k. Platform MEXC launched a referral program that could win $4.5k, and Gate.io runs the Gate.io World Cup NFT Collection, with a pool of $10k and other prizes.

At the same time, a lot of championship-themed tokens and NFT collections have popped up online due to sports hype. Which have unclear tokenomics and unknown developers. If you want to join the digital celebration of football, it is worth carefully studying the history of each project and its financial component.

Fan tokens from football teams

In September, crypto exchanges MEXC, Gate and OKX added tokens for teams from Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Portugal ahead of FIFA World Cup 2022. The first two coins have been issued on the Bitci platform, while the second two support the Socios and Chiliz platforms.

Argentina – Argentine Football Association Fan Token (ARG)

Despite the fact that the championship has just started. And Lionel Messi’s team token has already seen a drop of 24% after Argentina’s loss to Saudi Arabia 1:2.

The result of the match was unexpected, as the Saudi team was considered the outsider in the group. The coin has since recovered slightly in the 24 hours since then, rising 4.2% to $5.61. Argentina’s next game is on November 26, their opponent is Mexico.

Brazil – Brazil National Football Team Fan Token (BFT)

The token had been around $1 at the start of the tournament, but dropped 10% on November 23 and is hovering around $0.69. The first match of the team will be on November 24, the Latin American team will play against Serbian team.

Spain – Spain National Football Team Fan Token (SNFT)

The first game of the Spanish national team will be on November 23. It will be played against Costa Rica. The rate of SNFT token before the match is at $0.35 and shows a daily decline of 2.2%.

Portugal – Portugal National Team Fan Token (POR)

The cryptocurrency POR is worth about $4.92 on November 23 and is up 2.9% per day. The team will play their first match against rivals from Ghana on November 24.

France Fan Token (FRA)

The French team’s first game was on November 22. The French defeated Australia 4-1. The FRA token increased by 147% to $0.0013 during the day. Next game of team will be held on November 26, the opponent will be Denmark.

FAN token function has changed

Although Fan tokens were designed to address utilitarian issues. And to enable loyal fans to become more involved in life for their favourite teams. But today, these coins are not being used in the way the developers intended.

Paradoxically, they were originally intended for purely technical functions. Now fan tokens have instead become a kind of “shares” for clubs, according to our Crypto-Upvotes experts.

Because tokens have become priced not in terms of their value to a fan, but in terms of their success and public reputation. In this regard, the fan-token market has become a totalizator. And it has already been compromised by the ability to manipulate the price regardless of the actual success of teams.

Where to invest?

If you consider the investment component of this segment, first of all, you need to keep an eye on platforms and blockchains. Which ones are placing such tokens, not the fan tokens themselves. For example, it looks more strategic to buy a conventional Chiliz (CHZ) token than a coin from some promising sports club.

CHZ cryptocurrency was released back in the fall of 2018 on Ethereum as a control token for a fan token ecosystem that was being created. And a year later, Chiliz Chain of the Ethereum network was created to reduce commissions. This project brought most of its fan community together under the Socios.com aegis. They became the first blockchain project to start issuing tokens for sports fans.

Cryptocurrency Shiliz (CHZ) is quoted at $0.183 on November 23. Before the start of World Cup 2022 it was worth $0.26, but by the evening of November 22 it was down to $0.17. For the previous day the coin grew in price by 2.2%.

In addition to Chiliz and its Social.com platform, Turkish platform Bitci is gaining momentum. It has already issued tokens for football teams of Brazil, Peru and Spain, Turkish national basketball team and many other sports teams. Which are mostly from Turkey and Spanish-speaking countries.

Crypto exchange Huobi said it plans to increase investment in Southeast Asia, Europe and other regions to expand its user base

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global announced launching an updated branding strategy. This strategy includes changing the name to Huobi (without Global) and strengthening global development. These changes are related to the acquisition of the exchange by About Capital Buyout Fund in October 2022.

This new name consists of two Chinese characters, “火” and “必. First represents the eternal life force and its transmission to future generations in Chinese culture. The second symbol means determination to win, reflecting our desire to return to the top 3 exchanges of crypto industry.

Huobi also plans to increase investment in Southeast Asia, Europe and other regions. Which could potentially expand the platform’s user base. In addition, Huobi reported on possible strategic mergers and acquisitions. As well as plans to attract world-class talent in blockchain and virtual assets.

Huobi said it intends to establish a presence in the Caribbean region as part of its global development. It is a region with a regulatory stance favorable to crypto platforms, common law systems and the use of English.

In early November, the Chinese crypto exchange already announced that it would be moving its headquarters to the Caribbean. The Dominican Republic was the main candidate to locate this office.

Our experts note, while on CEX exchanges there is an outflow of liquidity. Other exchanges are trying to take higher places at the expense of this crisis.

Singaporeans suffered big losses from FTX collapse due to switching to it after Binance was banned in that country. MAS explained why there were restrictions on Binance and no restrictions on FTX

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued a statement explaining why crypto-exchange FTX – in advance of its collapse – was not included in the document. Which warns investors about the illegality of this company’s activities on state territory.

Singapore was the second hardest hit by the FTX crash. According to a CoinGecko report, Singapore accounted for 5% of global traffic to FTX.com. That is, on average, more than 241,000 unique users per month. Analysts attribute this to the fact that the ban of Binance exchange in 2021 in Singapore led to. That users of the exchange Binance moved to FTX.

The MAS, which serves as the country’s central bank, maintains an Investor Alert List (IAL). This list includes those companies that could be mistakenly perceived as licensed or permitted by the regulator. On September 2, 2021, Binance.com was included in this list.

In a November 21 statement, MAS explains why it treated Binance differently than FTX. And included Binance in the IAL list, while FTX did not. Despite the fact that both Binance and FTX are not licensed in Singapore. But Binance actively attracted users in Singapore and offered products in Singapore dollars. FTX did not, according to the MAS report.

In addition, Binance has received complaints about unlicensed customer referrals on its part. Binance was also investigated for possible violations of the Payment Services Act.

Regarding FTX, the regulator said there was no evidence that it attracted Singaporean users. And this platform did not offer products in Singapore dollars.

Conclusions from FTX fiasco

MAS also said that there are hundreds of such exchanges and thousands of other offshore organizations. Which accept investments. MAS does not have the ability to put them all on the IAL list. But that doesn’t mean it’s okay to deal with such organizations.

According to regulator, the most important lesson from the FTX fiasco is that transactions with any cryptocurrency on any platform are dangerous.

Our experts conclude that MAS was somehow interested in FTX. Because the blocking of Binance was done and the second top exchange, as if they did not notice. In any case, we agree with them that operations with any cryptocurrency on any platform are risks.