This past week has been a big one for Cryptocurrencies - Walmart announced that it is entering into the industry, rumors swirl about another Binance hack and more. We caught up with Layah Heilpern from BloxLive TV to discuss this and more in our latest edition of The Weekly Show.
Here’s what we discussed:
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Binance denies KYC leak, offers reward for blackmailer info
A Telegram channel started to post Binance users’ KYC information this past week including photos, passports, and IDs. Because of this, rumors started swirling that Binance had been hacked and the information had been stolen.
As Finance Magnates reported, the exchange has denied claims of a KYC data leak, stating that the information made publicly available does not match its own records.
Nonetheless, Binance has shown that it is taking the matter seriously. According to a report from Bloomberg, the exchange is offering a reward of up to 25 BTC, which is around $290 thousand for information that can be used to help identify the blackmailer.
Walmart files patent for Libra-like Stablecoin
Retail giant Walmart has filed a patent for its own fiat-pegged digital currency in the United States. Filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on August 1, the application describes it as a process for “generating one digital currency unit by tying the one digital currency unit to a regular currency”.
As Finance Magnates highlighted, similar to Facebook’s Libra, Walmart is also targeting the financially excluded population, bringing them closer to the organized financial ecosystem. In addition, it will provide a zero or no-fee platform to allow the users to store the currency, similar to Calibra wallet.
California court dismisses fraud charges against Coinbase
This week saw a positive development for Coinbase as fraud charges in connection with the listing of Bitcoin Cash in December 2017 against the exchange were dropped by a California court.
In the case, the plaintiffs identified three potential laws for the ‘unlawful’ prong: the Commodities Exchange Act, the FinCEN rules, and New York state regulations.
However, the judge said that: “Even assuming Bitcoin Cash is a commodity subject to the Commodities Exchange Act, the complaint does not sufficiently explain how the launch manipulated the market for Bitcoin Cash or for Bitcoin. Nor does it plausibly or coherently describe Coinbase and Armstrong’s motive to manipulate the prices.”
Falling behind on your crypto news? Check out our previous edition of The Weekly Show to stay up to date.
