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The bear market will last until 2024 - The Huobi Global crypto exchange Director A significant increase in bitcoin prices will occur only in 2024. This was stated in an interview with CNBC by the Huobi Global crypto exchange co-founder, Du Jun. According to the businessman’s opinion, the BTC price always reacts to halving — a planned reduction in the reward for one block extracted by half. He noted that the first coin rate usually reached record levels the following year. The last reduction of the award occurred in May 2020. And in November 2021, the price updated the historical maximum, reaching $ 68 thousand. The situation was repeated after halving in July 2016. The exchange rate rose to a record $20 thousand a year later, in December 2017. It is impossible to accurately predict the state of the market in the long term because there are uncontrollable factors — war, the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, or a bad political situation.

Twitter Adds Ethereum Wallet Support to Tipping Feature Twitter added the ability to donate Ethereum to other users. The “Tips” service was launched in September 2021. But until today, it only supported fiat and bitcoin transfers. The donation function allows you to support the creativity of other users, make donations, interesting finance startups, or simply congratulate your friends on an important date. Twitter has integrated its own wallet, Strike, running on the Lightning Network to implement this project. This allows you to transfer money with minimal commissions and in a short time. Interestingly, Twitter itself does not receive any share of the tips. You can enable this feature in the settings. In addition, you need to connect to one of the supported payment services or provide a wallet address. Tips do not support literal ENS addresses. Also, this feature is only available to adults. Users under 18 cannot receive or send money to others.

Hackers actively use NFT to steal cryptocurrencies In 2021, collectible tokens were increasingly used in fraudulent schemes. With their help, hackers distribute malicious software, such as programs for crypto hacking and viruses that allow access to the victim's wallet. This was told by an ESET representative, an international computer security company. Cryptojacking software (a virus that allows remote mining of cryptocurrencies using captured capacities) began to be distributed through infected applications and games related to tokens and trading. It can be either something original or a copy of an existing project. Once on the device, the virus runs a mining program in the background. Many malware immediately adds themselves to the antivirus exceptions and therefore can remain unnoticed for a long time. Hackers are also taking advantage of the growing interest in NFT and "pay to earn" games. Images with a virus are uploaded under the guise of rare game tokens. When the user clicks on them, a window pops up asking them to connect to their wallet. If the victim logs in, all access to the wallet will go to the hacker. For example, in September 2021, due to bugs on the most significant marketplace NFT OpenSea, attackers were able to steal accounts and cryptocurrency from users. Under the guise of tokens airdrop, images with a virus were uploaded to the platform. When a person received an NFT and tried to open it, a message appeared asking them to log in to the wallet. When the victim entered his data, the hacker could get full access to her account and withdraw money. Earlier, the most frequent places for the spread of infected software were sites with torrents and resources with adult content.

The Russian government has presented the concept of cryptocurrency regulation: what to change Digital currencies will not be banned in Russia. The government supported the proposal of the Ministry of Finance and is going to allow the turnover of cryptocurrencies. The main conditions are strict market regulation and control of all transfers. This was reported in the press service of the government of the country. The official document with the concept states that the Russian crypto market is multiplying. According to experts, more than 12 million wallets have been opened, and the volume of coins stored there is about $ 26 million. Also, Russia accounts for 11% of all bitcoin mining capacity, making it the third in the world, after the USA and Kazakhstan. At the same time, the number of fraud and money laundering cases is growing. It is precise because of the lack of legislative regulation that it is impossible to effectively resist crime and protect the rights of investors and citizens. The law on the regulation of digital assets will allow you to receive income from taxes, control all cash flows and altogether remove the crypto market from the shadow. What does the Government offer? Briefly about the main changes: 1. Complete centralization of the process. Digital payment processing operators will be banks with universal licenses. Their responsibilities will include full or partial identification of participants' identities in the exchange of cryptocurrencies for fiat, AML-verification of transactions, transaction tracking, storage of transaction data. The bank becomes a vital participant in the exchange procedure — without its approval of the operation, it will be impossible to conduct a transaction. 2. Rules for Russian crypto companies. All exchange services must be registered as a Russian legal entity and entered into the corresponding register. All such companies must operate following the law “On Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism.” To make exchanges, they must have a wallet in one of the banks. 3. Two groups of clients. All individuals will be divided into qualified and unqualified investors. Limits on operations will be set for the latter. Today it is not completely clear by what criteria it will happen. But the concept text mentions some kind of customer testing that the bank will conduct. This restriction does not apply to legal entities. 4. Rules for foreign services. Foreign exchange services and exchanges must have a representative office on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as connect to the bank's systems so that their operations can be monitored. The function of services that do not disclose financial transaction data is prohibited. 5. Transactions of more than 600 thousand rubles will need to be declared. 6. Rules for clients. The client must open a bank account and pass identity verification to make an exchange. All financial transactions must be carried out exclusively between accounts or wallets opened in the bank. 7. State monitoring service. The concept of the "Transparent Blockchain" program was presented. It will monitor all financial flows, collect information about participants in the exchange procedure, detect illegal services and transactions, and register them in the appropriate database. 8. Revision of legislation. It is planned to adopt four laws. The changes relate to: — taxation and declaration of transactions with cryptocurrency — introduction of administrative responsibility for illegal trafficking and acceptance of cryptocurrencies — introduction of criminal liability for evasion of order and crimes involving the use of digital assets On February 18, the text of the law should be submitted to the government for consideration. But there are no exact dates for its final adoption yet.

Embedding a bitcoin wallet in the DNA of a mouse: a group of artists announced an unusual project A group of anonymous artists is going to put bitcoin in mouse genes. Animal's photo will be put up for auction in the form of an NFT. After the mouse's death, its corpse will be sent to the auction winner. The private key of a cold bitcoin wallet will be encoded in the DNA of a mouse and transferred to an animal using genetic engineering. Then, artificially inseminate the mouse. In an ideal scenario, it should give offspring whose genes the information about the key will be preserved. “BitMouseDAO is an art project that will unite the crypto industry, art, and biotechnology together. We are not going to create some kind of monster. We just want to explore the possibility of art reaching a completely new level,” the artists said. If the DNA editing plan fails, the key to the wallet can be planted through a safe virus. In this case, breeding this mouse will no longer give the desired results. The founders claim that this method is absolutely secure and will not affect the health of experimental mice in any way. The authors of the project were inspired by the works of the famous artist Edward Katz. He is one of the first bioart representatives. It is some kind of art that combines science and creativity. A well-known example of bioart is the work of Katz “Alba.” The artist placed a jellyfish gene in the egg of a rabbit. As a result, an animal was born that glowed bright green in the dark. Interestingly, the cost of the mouse will fluctuate depending on the bitcoin exchange rate. “Maybe in ten years, its price will exceed $100 million, or maybe it will drop to zero.” Now the project is at the stage of finding investors. At the time of writing this article, 1.25 ETH (about $4 thousand) was invested in BitMouseDAO.

A new virus that allows hackers to access browser wallets has appeared The new Mars Stealer Trojan collects saved passwords, private wallet keys, autofill, search and download history, bypassing two-factor authentication. A digital security specialist announced this in his blog under the nickname 3xp0rt. The virus targets open-source browsers: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera Neon, Chromium, Pale Moon, Vivaldi, and others. Malware is distributed through infected software and archives. You can find it on free file sharing sites, unprotected sites, and torrent clients. The main feature of this Trojan is that it was created specifically to steal the passwords of the crypto owners. Mars Stealer can receive data from more than forty popular plugins: Binance Chain Wallet, TronLink, MetaMask, Binance Chain Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, etc. Also, malware can infect browser wallets that store confidential data (address, private key, password, etc.) in internal files. Among them are Binance, Electrum, Ethereum, Electrum LTC, Exodus, Electron Cash, MultiDoge, Jaxx. Interestingly, the program does not harm devices from the CIS: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Belarus. After getting into the system, the Trojan first checks the setting of the country and region. If it coincides with these six countries, Mars Stealer will delete itself. The main danger lies in the fact that the virus is available to many attackers. They can freely purchase the full version of the program on the darknet forums for $140. Experts from CoinDesk gave a couple of tips that will help reduce the risk of infection. 1. Update the system safely of your operating system on time, as well as the antivirus. 2. Do not download anything from obscure sites, and also use an antivirus to scan all files before launching. 3. Avoid unsafe sites. Check the protocol (a secure page has HTTPS) and a domain. Attackers can create exact copies of official web pages. But since it is impossible to register a valid domain twice, there will be spelling differences in the address. 4. Do not remember passwords in the browser and, if possible, store them in password managers. 5. Do not keep many coins in the browser and hot wallets.

Lost $200 thousand in BTC: a British man became a victim of fraud on a dating site A resident of the UK lost 150 thousand pounds (about $200 thousand) after he transferred money to a fraudulent trading platform on the advice of a friend. Tom (fake name) started chatting with a girl on a dating site. The fraudster, who introduced herself as Jiao from Hong Kong, pretended to be a successful investor. Winning the victim's trust, she talked about her future move to the UK and her desire to earn money on cryptocurrency together with Tom. After a few days of communication, Jiao talked to the man about investments. The girl began to convince Tom that she had some insider information that would help them get rich quickly. She sent a link to the mobile application of a fraudulent trading platform. Tom made several small investments and made a profit each time. "This whole situation seemed suspicious to me. But over time, I really believed that I had met someone with insider information." Jiao encouraged Tom to keep investing. She said that if he doesn't act quickly, the profit will be lost. In the end, the man transferred 150 thousand pounds in bitcoins to the site. Immediately after that, all his money disappeared from the platform's wallet. When Tom turned to the girl for help, Jiao said she was leaving to take care of an ill relative in Australia. And after that, she stopped answering his messages. This situation is a vivid example of "romance fraud." The attacker registers a fake account on a dating site, after which he searches for the most vulnerable to manipulation victim. He does not disclose his intentions immediately, at first, without affecting the issue of finance or investment in any way. When the minimum trust is won, the fraudster will start begging for money for various reasons. This is not necessarily something related to investing or trading. He can put pressure on pity, begging for money for an operation or telling that he wants to pay a visit to the victim and ask to pay for his tickets. The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau urges us to be especially careful when dating online. Do not tell about your financial situation and never send money to the interlocutor in the dating apps. Remember that the funds sent cannot be returned. Do not believe the promises of "incredible" profits. Do not continue to communicate if someone is trying to force you to transfer money somewhere. The main sign of fraud is that the relationship develops too fast. Your friend may declare his love in a few days or even offer to marry. Scammers often create an account of a non-existent person. If the interlocutor makes you suspicious, it is worth checking his profile. Browse through the photos and verify their authenticity with a reverse search. If the image was taken from someone else's account or downloaded somewhere on the Internet, then using such a search, it will be possible to find its origin. Also, ask your friend to send a selfie or invite him to talk in a video chat. The fraudster will most likely refuse for fear of being revealed. Also, excessive interest in your personal information(employment, financial and marital status, investment experience, etc.) may be a bad sign. As a rule, the fraudster answers counter-questions about himself concisely or avoid the answer

More than 70% of all losses from crypto hacker attacks are accounted for by hidden mining programs - Chainalysis. Malware for hidden mining brought the most losses from 2021 to 2017, about 73% of the total. This is the conclusion reached by Chainalysis analysts in their new report. Program for hidden mining or cryptojacking is an infected script that allows attackers to remotely use someone else's power to mine coins. Usually, the virus gets to the victim's device unnoticed, adding itself to the exceptions of the antivirus and protection systems. Because of this, it can be noticed far from immediately. Due to uncontrolled mining, infected devices overheat and even fail. Also, the most unpleasant moment is the enormous financial losses due to the impressive costs of electricity. Experts from Chainalysis believe that such software is the most common cryptocurrency malware. Cryptojacking programs are pretty easy to use and do not require special technical training. Also, a big plus for attackers is that usually, such a script weighs little. Because of this, the virus is easily embedded in any torrent or open file library while remaining almost invisible. Most of the cryptojacking software is created for Monero(XMR) mining. It is believed that this is the high anonymity of this cryptocurrency. Unlike bitcoin, it is almost impossible to track who, when, to whom and how many coins were transferred. According to a report by Palo Alto Networks, 5% of all Monero was mined by cryptojackers. This amounts to more than $100 million. To protect your devices from infection with this malware, you should follow a few simple rules. First, update your operating system periodically and install a good antivirus. Also, it is worth downloading a particular extension to block cryptominers on the Internet. For example, MinerBlock, No Coin, or Anti Miner. Carefully download any files from unverified sources and carefully check file extensions. For example, you downloaded a movie whose extension should be .mp4 or .mkv. The torrent file .exe is typical for a program but not for a media file. Thus, the attackers play on the inattention of the user.

Uknown has hacked dozens of crypto bloggers' YouTube accounts to conduct fraudulent broadcasts. Unknown persons have gained access to several popular YouTube channels dedicated to cryptocurrency. On behalf of the bloggers, they posted a video with a fake distribution of coins. More than ten channels of analysts, investors, and traders were attacked. Among them: BitBoy Crypto – 1.4 million subscribers, The Moon – 553 thousand subscribers, and CryptoBanter - 538 thousand subscribers. Also, the attackers gained access to the account of the analytical platform CoinMarketCap. Videos with the name “ONE WORLD CRYPTOCURRENCY” appeared on hacked channels. Hackers urged users to send Ethereum, Binance Coin, USDT, and USDC stablecoins. In response, potential investors were promised to send an equivalent amount of a new, and in fact non-existent, OWCY cryptocurrency. It is known that as a result of the attack, hackers received a little more than two BNBs and less than $200 in tokens and stablecoins. This can only mean one thing — the crypto community is becoming more aware and is less likely to engage in such schemes. To not fall for this bait, you need to remember only one thing. During open cryptocurrency giveaways, the organizers never ask participants to transfer money to them. Do not participate in such airdrops. You will not be able to return the money sent. Interestingly, most of the hacked channels were protected using two-factor authentication. The owner of one of the attacked accounts reported that he found no traces of hacking or infection with viruses. And in the action log, I didn't notice any input from third-party addresses. Most likely, the scammers gained access to the channels by replacing the SIM. Since the account is linked to a mobile number in most cases, you can bypass authentication by changing your SIM card. The old number will be blocked, and all messages and login information will be sent to the new one.

New tarifs on the AnyExchange.best website We do not stand still and develop thanks to your feedback. Now, you can quickly buy and sell PureFi tokens on the website of our exchange service. You can find out more in our Telegram channel. There, we publish exciting news from the world of cryptocurrencies' current courses and talk about our upgrades. PureFi is an innovative cross-chain solution designed to serve the decentralized finance sector. It is a protocol with a built-in AML service. The project will allow to link companies providing KYC/AML services with users of DeFi platforms or services to provide them with a high level of security in the world of cryptocurrencies. PureFi will contain asset price information, AML/KYC and other metadata. This will serve as one hundred percent proof of the legal origin of the assets. It will be possible to use the protocol on the most popular blockchain platforms, including Ethereum, Binance, Polkadot, etc. PureFi will provide honest users of the DeFi market with a high level of protection against suspicious transactions and allow customers to remain anonymous. Clients can analyze crypto wallets and transactions using extensive AML databases thanks to this protocol. PureFi will be useful: 1. Users of the liquidity pool who want to put their coins in the pool and must prove that their funds are clean; 2. To the operators of the liquidity pool who control and manage the liquidity pools and want to be sure of the purity of all new assets; 3. Issuers - companies or enterprises that track cryptocurrencies and make decisions in the field of KYC and AML. Exchange PureFi on the AnyExchange.best website is worth it because we have: 1. Quick exchange procedure. You will be able to carry out the exchange as quickly as possible. Thanks to the intuitive interface, you will receive a token in your wallet in just a few minutes. 2. A large number of directions. PureFi exchange is available for Perfect Money, Tether TRC-20, as well as for cash dollars. 3. Available cash exchange. Our ticket offices are located in 30 cities of Ukraine. 4. High-speed technical support. If there is a problem during the exchange, our support service will answer all questions in clear language.

It will stay in the range of $42-46 thousand — experts predicted bitcoin price this week. The bull cycle continues in the market. The price will not fall below $42 thousand, but it will not exceed the resistance level of $45.7-46 thousand, according to Nikita Soshnikov, head of the Alfacash cryptocurrency exchange service. The middle of March may be a difficult period for bitcoin. That's when the US is going to raise the key rate. According to Soshnikov's forecasts, this will entail a sharp drop in the exchange rate. But the currency can recover quickly. This will be facilitated by investors' interest in bitcoin as an asset that protects against inflation. The founder of the EXMO cryptocurrency exchange, Ivan Petukhovsky, believes that the level of support for bitcoin will be at the level of $40-42.2 thousand. The rate may drop to $40 thousand. But the expert does not exclude the penetration of this mark. The price may drop to $33 thousand. External factors can facilitate this - negative statements of opinion leaders and disturbing news. Recall that last week, the bitcoin exchange rate jumped to $44.5 thousand. This happened after the US Department of Labor stated that consumer inflation broke the 40-year anti-record. According to the results of the report, in December 2021, it amounted to 7%

In Ukraine, hackers were detained who spread a cryptographic virus extorting cryptocurrency. The Ukrainian police, together with law enforcement officers from the United States and Great Britain, detained a group of attackers spreading the virus through mailing lists. Letters with infected links were sent to the victims' mail. A virus was automatically downloaded to the computer when clicking on it, which the cryptographer launched. As a ransom, the attackers demanded cryptocurrency. According to the police, more than 50 foreign companies were affected. The damage from the attacks exceeded $1 million. According to recent data, encryption viruses are the most popular type of malware. The police told us how you can protect yourself from them. Foremost, it is worth periodically creating backups of all data. This is the surest way to protect your essential files from a virus. It is also recommended to update the software and antivirus. This will significantly reduce the risk of infection because the program can detect a malicious cryptographer on time. Do not click on unknown links on websites or in emails. While downloading files — check their extension. For example, an attacker can slip a malicious program under the guise of a movie torrent. Do not use an administrator account unnecessarily. Users with traditionally restricted access cannot install third-party programs and change system files. This may prevent the virus from spreading.

About $12.1 billion of cryptocurrencies was stolen between 2011 and 2021 - Crystal Blockchain analysis The analytical company Crystal Blockchain has published a report analyzing the largest crypto fraud and hacker attacks cases over the past ten years. According to their calculations, about $12.1 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen during this time. A total of 226 incidents were recorded. From them, 120 cases of circumvention of security systems of exchanges, 73 hacking of De-Fi protocols, and 33 fraudulent schemes. About $5.9 was stolen by organizations of financial pyramids. The leader among them is the Chinese Plus Token project. Its organizers promised the participants huge returns for investments and attracting new people. About 4 million investors from Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan, and Germany were deceived. The attackers were able to launder almost $3 billion. The largest theft of cryptocurrency from the exchange occurred in 2014. At that time, the leading exchange Mt. Gox lost more than 850 thousand BTC due to the hack. Taking advantage of a security breach, the attackers gained access to users' private keys and withdrew money to third-party wallets. Turkey—$2 billion, Japan—$1.3 billion, and China—$1.1 billion became the anti-leaders for the total stolen amount. Most scam and hack cases occurred in the United States, Great Britain, and Japan.

On behalf of the Prime Minister of India, hackers wrote a tweet about the recognition of bitcoin in the country. Last Sunday, December 12, unknown persons hacked the Twitter account of the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. On his behalf, the scammers announced the recognition of bitcoin as a means of payment. The message said about the distribution of 500 BTC among the population. "India has officially recognized bitcoin as a means of payment. The government has purchased 500 bitcoins and is distributing them to the population. Hurry up! The future has come today!" - said in a tweet. The text was accompanied by a link to the supposedly official distribution site. A person had to register to qualify for free bitcoins. The message was deleted just a few hours after it appeared. It is not yet known whether anyone was injured due to the scam. But, in theory, a vast number of people could see the fake statement because Modi is one of the most popular politicians on Twitter. More than 73 million users have subscribed to his account.

The largest Croatian supermarket has started accepting cryptocurrency as payment The Croatian supermarket Konzum was the first in the country to accept cryptocurrency as payment. So far, you can pay for the goods in this way only in the online store. But in the future, this option will also be available in physical supermarkets. In total, nine cryptocurrencies are accepted for payment - Bitcoin, Etherium, USD, BCH, Ripple, Stellar, DAY, Tether and USDCHF. The company has provided a moment with the variability of the price of digital assets. The exchange rate will be fixed at the time of the transaction creation. The buyer will have enough time to complete the payment. To implement the project, a partnership was concluded with the Paypal payment system. She was the first in Croatia to start accepting cryptocurrency. Konzum is the largest retail chain in the Western Balkans. The supermarket has more than 700 outlets in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.