- Bitcoin (BTC) didn\u2019t perform very well this month<\/strong>. Its price decreased by over 10% [CoinMarketCap], probably due to the new mining restrictions in China<\/a>. However, MicroStrategy decided<\/a> to buy the dip with over $489 million. Now, they\u2019re holding around 105,085 BTC ($2.7+ billion).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"June-cryptocurrency-world-summary\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/bitcoin-5902666_1280-1024x756.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThere was some other good news too. Elon Musk declared<\/a> that Tesla will resume the BTC payments once \u201cthere\u2019s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend\u201d. Besides, in a historical event, El Salvador established Bitcoin as legal tender. They\u2019re also going to mine<\/a> Bitcoin with geothermal energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- XRP went down in June (-35%) as the lawsuit against Ripple extends<\/strong>. The court granted<\/a> the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) request for a 60-day extension of the discovery period in their case. Meanwhile, the former CTO and co-founder of Ripple, Jed McCaleb, keeps receiving<\/a> XRPs and slowly selling them.
<\/li>- Ethereum (ETH) lost around 22%, but it\u2019s already recovering<\/strong>. Last month, the developer team Matter Labs launched<\/a> their alpha version of the so-called \u201crollups\u201d on an Ethereum testnet, to make it faster and cheaper. Probably because of this, the gas fees on this network plunged to a yearly low<\/a> of around $0.15 per transaction.
<\/li>- Amid the bloodbath, some tokens managed to keep stable and even bullish.<\/strong> Shiba Inu (SHIB)<\/a> decreased by 16%, but its popularity and exchange listings are on the rise. Its DeFi platform, Shibaswap, is planned for summer.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Waves announced<\/a> a new game platform including NFTs<\/a>, and its price saw brief peaks through the month. For its part, Cardano (ADA) achieved a new record of staking addresses<\/a>, with over 673,887. Charles Hoskinson, its founder, is looking for a higher adoption<\/a> in El Salvador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/cardano-crypto-key-laptop-wo-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n- NFTs sales decreased by over 74% in June, compared to May<\/strong> [Non-Fungible<\/a>]. However, important creators, companies, and celebrities keep joining this market. So far, they include Jay Z, Twitter, Mattel, Marvel, Matt Furie (Pepe the Frog creator), the International Olympic Committee, and the Spanish poet Jorge Dot.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Worldwide cryptocurrency regulations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
- While El Salvador recognizes Bitcoin<\/a> as legal tender, Iran seized over 7,000 ASIC miners.<\/strong> They banned<\/a> Bitcoin mining last month for the time being, due to electrical issues in the country. However, at least 30 crypto-mining farms received<\/a> operation licenses more recently.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Not too far from there, the Indian authorities are still discussing<\/a> whether to ban cryptocurrencies or just regulate them. And Indonesia followed the steps of Turkey<\/a> and China, by banning<\/a> cryptocurrency payments inside their territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"China-ban-bitcoin-mining\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/traffic-signs-674623_1280-1024x681.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n- The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) from the United Kingdom extended its deadline for the crypto-asset firms to properly register.<\/strong> They should meet the requiring anti-money laundering standards before<\/a> March 2022 if they want to keep operating in this country.
\u00a0<\/li>- The exchange Binance is having trouble operating in, at least, six countries. <\/strong>Malaysia<\/a> was the first one to ban it (in 2020). More recently, by the end of June and barely starting July, the United Kingdom<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, Singapore<\/a>, Thailand<\/a>, and the Cayman Islands<\/a> joined the list. They assure that Binance doesn\u2019t have proper permissions to operate in their territories.\u00a0
<\/li>- The World Economic Forum (WEF) published a guide for the governments to regulate Decentralized Finance (DeFi)<\/strong>. Only if necessary, according to the guide<\/a>, they should consider the creation of customized frameworks, including warnings for the users and limited licenses for DeFi issuers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
In the same vein, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) postponed their new guide for international cryptocurrency regulation. Their first draft<\/a> was heavily criticized for attempting against privacy. That\u2019s maybe why they\u2019ll be discussing it until October<\/a>, instead of June, the original deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cryptocurrency hacks and scams<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
- The United States is about to treat ransomware attacks almost like terrorism. <\/strong>A recently-created<\/a> task force in Washington will be in charge of these attacks, and the affected companies must share every possible data about it. This is no wonder since a great hack against the Colonial Pipeline put the country in an emergency last month<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Not long after, the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan<\/a>, United Kingdom, and the United States) announced<\/a> that they\u2019ll take joint actions against ransomware. They\u2019re aiming \u201cto ensure that critical infrastructure is resilient against this threat\u201d and malicious digital activity is investigated and prosecuted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/justitia-3222265_1280-1024x648.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n- The DeFi hacks and scams weren\u2019t absent this month either. <\/strong>The Safedollar (SDO) team assured<\/a> that there was a hack of over $248,000, sending the token price to zero. Likewise, the Iron Finance<\/a> protocol and its stablecoin IRON suffered a destabilization by whales, sending its price to zero.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
For its part, the Polywhale<\/a> team ran away with over $1 million. Other victims include PancakeHunny<\/a> ($1+ million), Visor Finance<\/a> ($500k), and Impossible Finance<\/a> ($500k).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Some scammers are targeting Ledger users to send them fake devices through the mail. <\/strong>Along with a letter, they explain<\/a> to them that, supposedly, the company is changing the old devices to increase security. Therefore, they should insert their private key on the new fake hardware wallet<\/a>. If the victim does so, their credentials (and funds) will end up with the scammers.
<\/li>- A fake NFT Marvel Marketplace is around scamming people<\/strong>. Marvel is, indeed, offering<\/a> their own NFT collection now. However, the fake marketplace<\/a> appeared before the official announcement, and, instead of NFTs, they offered a shady presale of a new token.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"NFT-Marvel-Marketplace-scam\"](\"https:\/\/alfacash.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/comics-1239698_1280-1024x682.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n- Two African brothers disappeared with around $3.6 billion in cryptocurrencies<\/strong>, as indicated by some reports<\/a>. Ameer and Raees Cajee, co-founders of the investment platform Africrypt, closed the website and flee away with 69,000 BTC. They announced a supposed hack in April<\/a>, and they didn\u2019t respond to any messages until their previous customers hired lawyers.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
According to them<\/a>, the platform never managed such an amount of cryptocurrencies, and they\u2019re still hiding because they received death threats. However, they\u2019ll back in South Africa for a court date the next July 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Other news<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
- John McAfee was found dead on his cell in Spain<\/strong>. The famous creator of McAfee Antivirus and frequent crypto-promoter was about to be transferred to the United States. He was facing charges for millionaire tax evasion.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The official version states that he killed himself. Nevertheless, some suspicions have been raised, since, in previous weeks, he assured through Twitter that he\u2019d never do such a thing. His last autopsy<\/a> established the death as suicide, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- John McAfee was found dead on his cell in Spain<\/strong>. The famous creator of McAfee Antivirus and frequent crypto-promoter was about to be transferred to the United States. He was facing charges for millionaire tax evasion.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- A fake NFT Marvel Marketplace is around scamming people<\/strong>. Marvel is, indeed, offering<\/a> their own NFT collection now. However, the fake marketplace<\/a> appeared before the official announcement, and, instead of NFTs, they offered a shady presale of a new token.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Some scammers are targeting Ledger users to send them fake devices through the mail. <\/strong>Along with a letter, they explain<\/a> to them that, supposedly, the company is changing the old devices to increase security. Therefore, they should insert their private key on the new fake hardware wallet<\/a>. If the victim does so, their credentials (and funds) will end up with the scammers.
- The DeFi hacks and scams weren\u2019t absent this month either. <\/strong>The Safedollar (SDO) team assured<\/a> that there was a hack of over $248,000, sending the token price to zero. Likewise, the Iron Finance<\/a> protocol and its stablecoin IRON suffered a destabilization by whales, sending its price to zero.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- The exchange Binance is having trouble operating in, at least, six countries. <\/strong>Malaysia<\/a> was the first one to ban it (in 2020). More recently, by the end of June and barely starting July, the United Kingdom<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, Singapore<\/a>, Thailand<\/a>, and the Cayman Islands<\/a> joined the list. They assure that Binance doesn\u2019t have proper permissions to operate in their territories.\u00a0
- The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) from the United Kingdom extended its deadline for the crypto-asset firms to properly register.<\/strong> They should meet the requiring anti-money laundering standards before<\/a> March 2022 if they want to keep operating in this country.
- While El Salvador recognizes Bitcoin<\/a> as legal tender, Iran seized over 7,000 ASIC miners.<\/strong> They banned<\/a> Bitcoin mining last month for the time being, due to electrical issues in the country. However, at least 30 crypto-mining farms received<\/a> operation licenses more recently.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Ethereum (ETH) lost around 22%, but it\u2019s already recovering<\/strong>. Last month, the developer team Matter Labs launched<\/a> their alpha version of the so-called \u201crollups\u201d on an Ethereum testnet, to make it faster and cheaper. Probably because of this, the gas fees on this network plunged to a yearly low<\/a> of around $0.15 per transaction.
- XRP went down in June (-35%) as the lawsuit against Ripple extends<\/strong>. The court granted<\/a> the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) request for a 60-day extension of the discovery period in their case. Meanwhile, the former CTO and co-founder of Ripple, Jed McCaleb, keeps receiving<\/a> XRPs and slowly selling them.