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Bitclub Crypto Ponzi Scheme Suspects Petition Court For Release Citing Coronavirus Fears

Two men accused of operating a crypto Ponzi scheme, the BitClub Network, which defrauded thousands of investors out of $722 million, have requested a New Jersey federal court to grant them a temporary release. The two prisoners have petitioned a New Jersey federal judge as they fear they could contract the coronavirus if they are not freed from the enclosed county jail environment.

New Jersey Jail Facing Safety and Health Concerns

Jobadiah Weeks and Matthew Goettsche filed separate motions on March 20 and 23, asking the court to consider releasing them from the Essex county correctional facility in Newark, New Jersey.

In their submissions, Weeks and Goettsche claim that they are in a poor health environment. They argue that they are not able to follow medical advice in the prison as hand sanitizers are inadequate, and inmates are mostly in close contact with each other in jail.

Weeks’ lawyer mention that the county jail had an extremely poor record of maintaining inmates’ health, and its measure to prevent the novel coronavirus outbreak does little to protect the health of innates. He referred to findings publicly announced last year by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, which highlighted concerns at the jail that showed major threats to the safety and health of its inmates.

The Inspector-General recognized roof leaks causing mildew and mold growth in all prison housing units where detainees are being held and food safety issues such as expired, spoiled, or raw meat, moldy and expired bread, foul-smelling and unrecognizable hamburgers, and raw chicken.

Weeks’ attorney argued: “Given the noted risk of illness through inadequate food service and environmental safety at the Essex County correctional facility, a swift outbreak of COVID-19 at the facility is virtually inevitable.”

The lawyers also claimed that such confinement within the facility would place greater restrictions on contact with their legal counsel that could severely interfere with the ability of Weeks and Goettsche to prepare their defense cases ahead of their fraud trials.

Weeks and Goettsche are accused of operating $722 million cryptocurrency fraud, which amounted to a high-tech Ponzi scheme. From 2014 to December 2019, the two men operated BitClub network that used promises of a huge return if investors joined the crypto investing club. The prosecution accused the men behind BitClub network of distributing misleading and false information to investors, a scheme that purported to demonstrate profit generated by the mining pool. U.S authorities charged them with committing wire fraud and conspiracy to sell unregistered securities.

PlusToken Ponzi Dumping BTC

Bitcoin’s recent price decline may have been prompted by another set of crypto scammers seeking to liquidate over 2 billion worth of cryptocurrency, which they acquired through the PlusToken Ponzi scheme.

The PlusToken scheme swindled thousands of investors out of their cryptocurrency in the promise of high returns. Liquidations of huge amounts of illicitly obtained funds are likely to cause crypto prices to fall in this nascent market. Huge amounts of Bitcoins sold by such scammers could have caused Bitcoin price drops as well as increased volatility in Bitcoin’s value. PlusToken dumps appear to coincide with whatever is affecting Bitcoin’s prices as the cryptocurrency falls soon after such occurrences.

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Binance Launches 'Crypto Against COVID' Charity Project To Fight Global Pandemic

On March 25, Binance in its blog post announced the launch of its new fundraising project titled ‘Crypto Against COVID’ which aims to raise $5 million in cryptocurrencies. The funds will be used to buy medical equipment for the countries worst affected by Coronavirus.

“Binance will be leading this effort with an initial donation of $1 million USD, and commits to donating up to $2 million USD through the #CryptoAgainstCOVID social media campaign,” according to the Binance blog.

At the time of the campaign launch the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases had exceeded 300,000 worldwide. The demographics of the virus have expanded across 175 countries and territories with more than 14,750 deaths reported so far. These numbers were reported on March 23, 2020, by WHO.

Some of the worst-hit countries by this deadly Coronavirus are Italy, Spain, China, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Iran, Turkey, the UK, and the USA. And these are the countries where Binance will be spending most of the charity funds to supply medical equipment. The platform has confirmed that they will be posting all the donation transaction details to ensure full transparency.

And this is not the first time when Binance has shown its philanthropic trait. In January 2020, Binance had launched another campaign with the title ‘Binance for Wuhan’ and donated $1.4 million worth of medical supplies to China.

“The crypto community is a growing force and we have an opportunity to strengthen this through philanthropy. We encourage the community to take part in this initiative as we unite against COVID-19, and together, we’ll drive impact,” said Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance.

According to the blog post, Binance Charity has delivered 56,800 masks, 366,000 pairs of gloves, 9 sterilizers, 5,280 bottles of hand sanitizers, 7,850 protective suits, 20,000 testing kits, 20,000 pairs of Goggles, 173 barrels of disinfectants and 388 oxygen concentrators.

These medical supplies have been delivered to more than 300 hospitals in China including Hubei, Guangxi, Shanghai, Sichuan, and other Chinese cities.

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Australian Securities Exchange Postpones Migration to Blockchain Settlement System Due to Coronavirus Concerns

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) has further delayed the launch of its new blockchain settlement system because of uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

Since December 2017, ASX has been working on its blockchain system that will replace the current CHESS (Clearing House Electronic Subregister System). The full transition to the new system was initially planned for April 2021. But due to various reasons, including the upheaval and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, the ASX will have to delay the deployment.

Coronavirus delays product development

Financial results, meet-ups, conferences, and new product launches have been affected by the coronavirus crisis since February 2020. The Australian Securities Exchange is the latest coronavirus victim, being forced to postpone the launch of its new blockchain-based post-trade solution. Powered by a permissioned blockchain, the post-trade system would enable fast and effective trade settlement and clearing.

Other reasons for delaying include requests for additional functionality, feedback on timing, and also the ASX requires more time for preparation and development.

Users already have full technical documentation necessary for integration. The first code was released nearly a year ago, with updates being initiated every eight weeks.

This is not the first delay for the project, which began in December 2017. ASX initially expected the new blockchain system to go live by the end of 2020. The exchange then delayed the launch of the system until April 2021. Now again, the launch has been pushed back to an unspecified time in the future. ASX will carry out user consultation in June and then come up with the new schedule.

ASX highlighted: “In recent days, ASX has received further comments on the ability of users to focus on the CHESS replacement project. Many companies in the sector, including ASX, are operating with a large part of their staff working from home. The possibility of participating in coordinated preparation activities later in the year is unclear.”

The full release of the new blockchain settlement system has now been put on hold and remains unknown. However, the product will go ahead with the testing, which is expected to take place in July 2020. The exchange is targeting to launch the ITE (industry test environment) in July to validate procedures, processes, and systems. The exchange stated that this would be a crucial milestone toward the deployment of the new system and would initially be provided only to back-office software developers. ASX is also aiming the ITE to be opened to all users in October 2020, depending on the feedback from the consultation event due to happen in June.

Peter Hiom, the deputy CEO of ASX, said: “ASX remains fully committed to CHESS replacement. We continue to progress the project, including system development and testing, supporting back-office software developers, and assisting users in their readiness activities. The investments we are making in the new system and in distributed ledger technology are for the long-term benefit of the financial services industry and the Australian economy.”

ASX confirmed to go blockchain in 2021

The Australian Securities Exchange has been working in partnership with blockchain company VMware and Digital asset holding to replace its existing CHESS system for a new blockchain system for the past three years. The blockchain-based settlement system has several benefits at hand. For example, the new system eliminates the need for every participant to send messages to a centralized CHESS system. Rather, participants have a better option to operate their own server or node, which will contain the same data as the other nodes. Furthermore, the new system comes with clear efficiencies like heightened security, decreasing costs, and quicker transactions.

However, the process of launching the blockchain system has encountered delays in terms of implementations as it needs lengthy periods for testing and user development. This time round, the process of product development has been affected by the coronavirus epidemic.

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COVID-19 Market Climate Perfect Catalyst for Bitcoin Demand Says Binance.US CEO

The coronavirus panic-driven frenzy to acquire assets of lasting bona-fide value has put the traditional gold market to the test and may be creating the perfect catalyst for Bitcoin according to Binance.US CEO Catherine Coley.

COVID Grounds Gold

Gold is the world’s traditional safe-haven asset but according to a report by Bloomberg on March 26, the commodity is struggling under the combined weight of coronavirus fears and central bank money printing.

As the coronavirus has grounded most airlines and continues to wreak havoc on logistics and supply chains, moving physical bars of gold has become the challenge.

In the report, Vincent Tie, Sales Manager, Silver Bullion Pte Ltd was quoted saying “Since last week, face masks, hand sanitizers, toilet rolls, and bullion have something new in common – they run out when everyone tries to buy them.”

Coronavirus may Create Perfect Climate for Bitcoin

After initially trading down heavily in correlation with equities and other risk-on assets, the price of gold has bounced back over 10% in the past week.

The price patterns of the traditional safe haven asset, since the markets began to crash, have resembled those of Bitcoin, which also fell precipitously before recovering.

Typically people buy gold futures due to the inconvenience of having gold bars physically delivered. But with a slowdown in the deliverability of gold bars due to airport disruption comes the risk that futures prices may rise excessively over gold prices.

The coronavirus pandemic is a black swan event and the entire global market is in new territory, but gold has not proven immune to that. However, many crypto industry insiders believe that cryptocurrency and Bitcoin have the potential to benefit.

The combination of the digital nature of Bitcoin, the search for value in the troubled markets and gold’s inability to effectively meet demand could be the catalyst that the original cryptocurrency needs, according to Catherine Coley the CEO of Binance.US.

Coley said, “Despite the market downturn, Binance.US is seeing unprecedented trading volumes, with especially active trading in Bitcoin. We are also seeing heightened interest in stablecoins as investors recognize the importance of hedging volatility during highly uncertain times.” She added, “ Bitcoin has always been built on the idea of a need to send and receive value in a safe and secure way and that’s not going anywhere.”

Coming Inflation Shock Will be Bitcoin’s Safe Haven Catalyst

While we will have to wait and see if the confusion in the gold market brings the Bitcoin safe have narrative to fruition, recent research by BitMEX see Bitcoin achieving its potential during the times of shock inflation they have predicted will follow the central banks’ stimulus packages and excessive currency creation.

The BitMEX Research published their analysis, Inflation is Coming, on March 17, outlining that the global response to the pandemic and disruption will, “mark a significant economic regime change from monetary policy to central bank funded fiscal expansion” from which intolerable market inflation will rise. It will be within this oncoming financial environment that Bitcoin’s true nature should finally be revealed.

The researchers claim that not only will inflation come, “it will be a shock” as inflation has been low and stable for 30 years and our collective memory does not nor recall the consequences of digging ourselves into such a financial hole. Although they do not specify exactly when the inflation will hit, BitMEX predicts it will be “similar to the 1970s where it went as high as 15%.”

The analysis by BitMEX’s research arm stated, “In our view, in this changed economic regime, where the economy and financial markets are set loose, with no significant anchor at all, not even inflation targeting, it could be the biggest opportunity Bitcoin has seen, in its short lifetime.”

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Algorand's Blockchain Based COVID-19 Global Survey Shares Real-Time Public Pandemic Data

Algorand, the first pure proof-of-stake (POS) blockchain created by cryptography pioneer and Turing award winner Silvio Micali, has launched a global Coronavirus (Covid-19) survey.

The company published a blog post on March 27 announcing its ‘IReportCovid’ survey app. The aim of the survey is to compile a public database to share information on the spread, status, and symptoms of the COVID-19 pandemic and give updates in “real-time.”

Global Blockchain database to fight COVID-19

According to Algorand, there is limited data coming directly from the general public about how COVID-19 is affecting them in real time, which could be useful data for studies on the pandemic as well as for public knowledge.

The survey is not invasive and asks for basic information that one would usually find on a doctor’s appointment card, such as age and gender, with the added a section to confirm if the respondent has been exposed, treated or tested for the coronavirus and their isolation status.

As the responses will be publicly posted on the Algorand blockchain, the information shared cannot be changed or tampered with, only updated by respondents if their situation changes. Algorand is encouraging everyone to take part in the survey, “even if you do not have symptoms and update when changes happen.”

Dr Tal Rabin, Head of Research, Algorand said that the IReport-Covid distinguishes itself from other applications and sources of information on coronavirus through “the combination of anonymous self-reporting and the constant retention of information on the blockchain.” She added, “Very little information is coming directly from the people in the community. I hope more people in the world will respond to the questionnaires in our app so that we can gather meaningful information.

After publishing aggregate statistics in the near future, Algorand plans to introduce tools for the community to build applications leveraging the collected data.

Algorand – First Blockchain to Defeat Trilemma

The blockchain trilemma was a term given to the pain points of trying to establish seamless transactions while maintaining all three critical properties—decentralization, security and scalability—which was originally believed to be impossible.

In an interview with Blockchain.News, Jing Chen, Chief Scientist of Algorand discussed how Algorand has solved the blockchain trilemma with its Byzantine agreement which would make it the first known platform to have all three critical properties optimised.

Chen said, “The alleged ‘trilemma’ says that among three important properties – decentralization, scalability and security, a public blockchain can hope to achieve just two of them, at most. This is not a mathematically-proven impossibility. Rather, it is used to emphasize the difficulty of achieving all three simultaneously. We believe it’s important for a public chain to achieve all three, and the Algorand blockchain does just that.”

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China's Pursuit of Digital Yuan "Unswerving" in Wake of COVID-19 Global Pandemic, says Central Bank

China’s central bank has further galvanized its public commitment to creating the first central bank digital currency (CBDC), a digital version of the Yuan, at an annual meeting hosted last Friday by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) vice-governor Yifei Fan.

A summary notice of the 2020 National Currency Gold Silver and Security Work Video and Telephone Conference released on April 4 outlined the People’s Bank of China priorities for the year ahead which reaffirmed its commitment to the digital Yuan which is also being called a Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP).

According to the summary, the PBoC’s continuous improvements to cash systems and securities will be guided by Chinese Leader Xi Jinping’s new era socialism with Chinese characteristics. Per the release, “One is to strengthen the top-level design, unswervingly advance the research and development of legal digital currency, systematically promote the reform of cash issuance and return systems, and accelerate the promotion of banknote processing business, issuance of bank guards and issuance funds.”

This marks the third time that the DCEP has been raised at the annual meeting and the intensity of the language used seems to signal a strengthened commitment by the PBoC.

The DCEP Top-Level Design

So how will China create its digital currency? First of all, we know that the digital currency will not be running on a blockchain. After a review of the 50 patent applications submitted by the PBoC, it will be powered by a two-tier operating system and will not be fully decentralized.

According to Binance, the central bank DCEP will be backed 1:1 by Renminbi fiat, following a two-tiered structured system involving the central bank, commercial banks, and the retail market. The first layer consists of the PBoC issuing and redeeming China’s digital Yuan via commercial banks. The second layer is responsible for connecting the commercial banks with the retail market. The plan is to replace notes and coins in circulation, known as the M0 supply.

China’s central bank mentioned that their digital currency would be issued to seven institutions in the coming months, but that was last September.

Paul Schulte, who worked as the global head of financial strategy for China Construction Bank up until 2012 says that the largest and second-largest banks of the world, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China as well as the Agricultural Bank of China, along with Alibaba, Tencent and Union Pay will be receiving the digital currency first.

COVID Incentives

Although China’s digital Yuan project has been in development for years, given the effect of the coronavirus outbreak and its spreadability through surface contact, there may be added motivation to move beyond physical bank notes. The PBoC previously announced that it would disinfect cash for up to two weeks before absorbing it into their vaults and put around 600 billion of new yuan into circulation on Feb. 15

Researchers at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) recently released its newest quarterly report on the changes in the payment industry, including the market impact of the recent coronavirus outbreak.

The report highlighted the ways the COVID-19 could be the catalyst to spark mainstream digital payments. Per the report, “The most transformative option for improving payments is a peer-to-peer arrangement that links payers and payees directly and minimizes the number of intermediaries. Many peer-to-peer arrangements use distributed ledger technology (DLT),”

Bitcoin and Libra have also caught the institution’s attention, while the BIS acknowledged that central banks are increasingly exploring the “desirability and feasibility of establishing their own peer-to-peer systems through digital currencies.”

COVID-19 Hits Canadian Crypto Mining Firm Bitfarms, Forced to Lay Off Staff to Maintain Cost Efficiency

Publicly-traded cryptocurrency mining company Bitfarms has reduced the number of its staff members because of the ongoing social and economic crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. The crypto mining company is listed on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange. The mining firm is based in Toronto, Canada and is one of the biggest crypto mining operations in North America.

Bitfarms’ Response to Coronavirus Effect

According to the announcement, Bitfarms is laying off some of its employees on a temporary basis in line with government guidance to assist in combating the spread of coronavirus. However, the cryptocurrency mining company is also implementing permanent cost-saving measures to minimize overhead costs so that to maintain long-term viability.

John Rim, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Bitfarms, stated that such cost-saving measures would help to reduce monthly general and administrative expenses. He said: “Once fully implemented over the next several weeks, we expect the cost-saving measures to reduce our monthly general and administrative expenses by approximately 20 to 25%.”

John Rim further mentioned that the cost-cutting measures would help the company to withstand volatility in business risks associated with crypto mining and to help the firm to remain profitable through the long-term, including potential challenges associated with the forthcoming halving. The much-anticipated Bitcoin halving event is expected to happen next month. During this significant event, Bitcoin will see its mining reward reduce from 12.5 BTCs to 6.25 BTCs.

It remained unclear how many employees have been let go and what is the present headcount of the crypto mining company. As per the report, the mining company currently operates five blockchain computing centers in Quebec, Canada, powered by competitively priced and clean hydroelectricity.

Maintaining the Hash Rate

Bitfarms stated that despite the havoc caused by COVID-19 crisis and the significant decline of Bitcoin prices from March 12th to March 19th, it has managed to maintain an average daily hash rate of 630 petahash per second (PH). During those dates, Bitcoin prices dropped by 50% to below $4,000 at particular days and were slowly recovering. After March 20th, Bitcoin price stood mostly above $6,000 and the crypto mining firm maintained an average daily hash rate of about 750 PH.

Emiliano Grodzki, Bitfarm’s interim CEO and Chief Strategy Officer, commented on the network difficulty. He stated that their quality and scale of operations has enabled them to continue generating positive cash flow in these difficult times.

Ripple Effects of Coronavirus on Bitcoin Miners

Where the COVID-19 crisis is affecting several other businesses, economies, and other financial markets, the field of crypto is not an exception. Several other businesses have closed their work due to this pandemic, and many others have taken safety measures to fight against the epidemic. Crypto mining operations is one area where the effect of the COVID-19 has proved to be dangerous. The virus outbreak has adversely hit the mining operations. Over 40 established crypto mining operations have been forced to close down their businesses because of the price decline of Bitcoin and unprofitable mining equipment business. Bitfarms joins the list of crypto mining companies that have recently laid off their employees. However, it remains to see how crypto mining firms will cope with the current situations.

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The End of Physical Cash is an Inevitable Reality and Not to be Feared Says Union Bank President

The Chief Executive and President of UnionBank of the Philippines, Edwin Bautista, has predicted that the coronavirus pandemic will drive banks to fast track the shift toward digital currencies, therefore abandoning the use of physical money. Bautista said that the outbreak has caused rising demand for online banking services, thus pushing banks to rethink and revise their digital strategy. Bautista mentioned that the pandemic has provoked the need for all banks to go digital now. The executive predicted the beginning of the end of physical cash. Will hard cash disappear? Many technology cheerleaders like Edwin Bautista believe so. But how will that be possible?

Cashless Societies Are Already A Reality

A cashless society may sound like a huge transition, but in many places across the globe it is already a reality. Several jurisdictions across the world encourage their citizens to conduct all financial transactions electronically. Governments are seeking to limit the use of cash to enable the authorities to mroe effectively prevent tax evasion and control over the economy.

Advancing technologies, especially smartphones, have driven the rapid growth of the digital economy and enabled non-traditional financial solutions to explode. Across Europe, account-to-account payment services are increasing rapidly. Singapore, Australia, and Canada are among the countries, which are licensing non-banks to initiate mobile and digital payments. In Asia, China’s Alipay and WeChat, which mix high functionality and low-cost transaction features with lifestyle and shopping features are already leading the way. In the United States, credit card transactions are increasingly being used (62.97%). In sub-Saharan Africa, the mobile money operator model – where customers transfer mobile phone credit – becomes increasingly strong, led by Kenya’s mobile telephone banking service (M-pesa) that has since expanded to India, Albania, South Africa, Romania, and Afghanistan. Furthermore, governments of Latin American countries encourage citizens to use electronic payments to eliminate corruption.

The coronavirus outbreak has had critical consequences that have led to the disruption of business activities in several economic sectors. The crisis is forcing various institutions across the globe to rethink of cash – the germy surface, which most consumers touch each day. The concern over cash amid the virus may drive adoption of contactless and mobile payments options range from Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and Apple Pay, where consumers use smartwatches or smartphones to credit cards with a NFC chip and to pay in stores.

The virus is wreaking havoc to the world’s economy, with central banks in Lebanon, the US, Egypt, and many other nations have imposed cash limits. South Korea’s central bank mentioned that it was taking all banknotes out of circulation for two weeks and even burning some to minimize the spread of the coronavirus. It follows China’s massive initiative involving deep cleaning of potentially infected cash notes with ultraviolet light and high temperatures and even destroying some. Besides that, the Louvre museum in Paris banned cash due to the virus outbreak. The world’s largest museum decided to accept only credit card payments to make employees feel more comfortable about returning to work.

Various governments already encourage citizens to adopt the use of electronic payments so that to control the spread of the coronavirus. New payment systems using technologies such as credit cards and cryptocurrencies already allow consumers to make even small purchases using ubiquitous smartphones and other portable devices. These have already brought the dream of a cashless society within reach.

The Future of The Financial Sector Relies on Blockchain

The future of the financial industry relies on the whole shift from a physical to the digital world. Banks and companies across the world are increasingly adopting blockchain technology on a large scale for payment settlements. They no longer require heavy clearing and settlement systems for international instant payments. The use of blockchain among companies and banks enable settlement of international payments in real-time. Blockchain technology enables both big and small businesses to improve short-term liquidity. Moreover, central banks across the globe are increasingly adopting blockchain for faster international payments and therefore manage liquidity far more effectively.

Blockchain has become a significant tool that provides particular insights into how the coronavirus spreads. Financial institutions and companies are keen on deploying blockchain to enable mobile payments, electronic payments, and cryptocurrency transactions through digital wallets. With the rise of transactions happening by digital payments methods, the number of cash transactions is constantly declining. A cashless society is becoming inevitable. At some point in the future, governments would have to eliminate reliance on cash.

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ConsenSys Reveals How the Ethereum Network Weathered the COVID-19 Pandemic Market's Flash Crash on Black Thursday

The world of traditional finance has been in a state of recovery since the shock market crashes that began on March 12 due to the economic disruption of the coronavirus pandemic which was further exacerbated by Saudi Arabia’s sudden attempt to seize a controlling share of the world’s oil market.

While much debate has raged about the state and action of crypto’s main player Bitcoin, new insights generated using ConsenSys’ analytics suite, Alethio have revealed how the Ethereum network has endured the evaporation of liquidity in the global markets.

In a blog released on April 6, ConsenSys reported that the crash that occurred on March 12, dubbed “Black Thursday”, was proof that crypto and DeFi markets are still correlated to traditional markets. The report further revealed how the Ethereum network performed as well as interesting insights about the resilience of the decentralised exchanges (DEX).

Ethereum Maintained Hash Power

In blockchain networks, maintaining a high hash rate is critical in sustaining security and staving off a 51% attack. If an entity gains control of more than 51% of the total computing (hashing) power within a blockchain network. The protocol of a blockchain system validates the record with the longest transactional history. If the attacker has more than 50% of the hash power, they will have the longest transactional history.

Hash rate is indicative of the speed at which miners operate, specifically with Ethereum the number of hashes guessed per second for solving the nonce of a block of transactions.

According to ConsenSys, during the most volatile market day, March 12, “The hashrate on the Ethereum mainnet remained stable at ~170TH/s.” The enterprise ethereum firm also reports that “During the week of March 12-18, the daily average hashing power was ~165TH/s, nearly identical to March’s daily average level of ~167TH/s.”

Source – ConsenSYS.net

What this really reveals is that on the darkest day for the market where the ether price fell over 40%, Ethereum’s miners did not abandon the network but maintained the hashrate throughout the price volatility which allowed the network to remain secure and speaks volumes to their belief in the network.

DEX Not Halted Like Traditional Markets

ConsenSys also highlighted that during the market drop on March 12, the Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) for Decentralized Finance (DEFI) protocols handled an “astronomical amount of trading volume without any major issues, attacks, or outages.” The DEX has appeared to pass this flash test with flying colours easily traversing the obstacles that halted traditional markets.

According to data from Alethio, the panic was intense but short lived. Per the report, “$70m USD was traded on March 12 alone, with Uniswap handling $42 million USD, nearly 6x the daily average trading volume in March. By March 17, daily volumes of ETH and the number of unique traders across DEXs returned to pre-crash levels.” By comparison, US stock exchanges were forced to halt trading four times in mid-March via the circuit breakers which are established safeguards to prevent flash crashes driven by high-frequency trading.

Robinhood, the commission-free trading platform also experienced technical outages at the beginning of March, ConsenSys notes but believed the outages were unrelated to the market circuit breakers, but rather due to stress on Robinhood’s infrastructure.

Facebook Sues Bangkok 'LeadCloak' Software Developer Over Alleged Crypto Scams and Bogus COVID-19 Data

Facebook Inc has taken legal action against a Bangkok-based Indian man for developing and selling software that helps bad actors to bypass Facebook’s automated advertising review systems and deliver prohibited ads to users.

Software Cloaked Bad Actors

Facebook announced that they were taking action against Basant Gajjar for allegedly selling his “LeadCloak software” to bad actors who have been hiding the true contents of ads and delivering deceptive information involving crypto investment scams and bogus data about COVID-19. The malicious cloaking software allowed users to present deceptive ads on the surface newsfeed of the Facebook platform and prevented the social media giant’s review process from identifying the fradulent or improper ads.

Advertisers used the “LeadCloak software” to conceal websites and promote links for cryptocurrency investment scams, deceptive diet pills, pharmaceuticals, fake news, and even misinformation regarding the COVID-19 outbreak through the “cloaking” technique. Such shady ads showed on both Instagram and Facebook.

Gajjar’s unregistered business is based in California. The business has been providing cloaking services since 2016, targeting other technology companies, including WordPress, Oath, Shopify Inc, and Alphabet Inc’s Google.

With the lawsuit filed in the US district court in California, Facebook also intends to uncover the identities of Gajjar’s customers and take further legal action against them. While Facebook is currently suing one individual, it appears that the firm is attempting to make an example of ad spoofers who have attempted to manipulate the market.

Facebook Relaxed Blockchain And Crypto Ads

Facebook lifted its ban on blockchain and crypto ads in May 2019. But most of them still have to be pre-approved by moderators before they can appear on the platform. The $491 billion firm has been trying to deal with crypto scams for years. Scammers are known to use fake pages and call-to-actions as distraction tactics to trick users into giving sensitive data such as their credit card information.

Last year, Dutch billionaire John de Mol won his lawsuit against Facebook after the social media giant failed to take down fake cryptocurrency ads, which used his name for promotion. Recently, billionaire Wissam al Mana filed a lawsuit against the social media company, demanding the firm to identify individuals behind ads selling Bitcoin scams using his image. However, Facebook announced that it remains committed to using filter technologies to get rid of fake ads linked to cryptocurrency scams carrying images of prominent personalities.

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