Kategorie: Crypto Markets

• Marathon Digital reports weaker-than-expected results for its fiscal Q2.
• CEO Fred Thiel was still positive in the press release on Tuesday.
• Marathon Digital stock is currently up more than 350% year-to-date.

Shares of Marathon Digital Holdings Inc showed resilience in extended hours even though the Bitcoin miner reported disappointed financial results for the second quarter.

CEO Fred Thiel was still positive in the press release

The digital asset technology company lost 13 cents a share on an adjusted basis in its recently concluded quarter on $81.8 million in revenue.

In comparison, analysts had called for a loss of 6 cents per share only and $83.4 million in revenue. Still, CEO Fred Thiel said in the press release today:

After a strong start to the year, we accelerated our progress in the second quarter by significantly growing our hash rate and improving our efficiency.

Shares of Marathon Digital Holdings are up more than 350% year-to-date at writing.

Marathon Digital sold 63% of produced Bitcoin in Q2

Marathon Digital produced 2,926 Bitcoin in total in its second quarter and gained $23.4 million as it sold 63% of them to fund operating costs. According to the Chief Executive:

We exited the quarter with $113.7 million in unrestricted cash and equivalents and 12,538 Bitcoin, the market value of which was approx. $380 million on June 30^th.

The miner also saw impairment charges narrow sharply to $8.4 million in its Q2.

On Tuesday, Marathon Digital also confirmed in an 8-K filing that it had to restate cash flow for Q1. Wall Street currently has a consensus “overweight” rating on the world’s largest listed Bitcoin miner.

The post Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital reports a disappointing second quarter appeared first on CoinJournal.

• The r/FortNiteBR Bricks (BRICK) token hit a high of $0.1792 after a 443% surge today.
• The r/CryptoCurrency Moons (MOON) token hit a high of $0.498 after a 48% surge today.
• The two Reddit community tokens are rising after Kraken announced it will list the two coins.

Kraken on August 7, announced the listing of the two Reddit community tokens, Moon and Brick, for spot trading and long-term futures. At press time, Kraken users could only deposit the two tokens through the Arbitrum Nova network.

The two tokens r/FortNiteBR Bricks (BRICK) and r/CryptoCurrency Moons (MOON) have been at the centre of the top cryptocurrency gainers in the recent past; which is the likely reason as why Kraken decided to list them.

Reddit community cryptocurrencies’ hype

Reddit launched its cryptocurrencies in 2021 after a beta test in 2020 as part of the Reddit Community Points (RCP) initiative to incentivize content production on the platform. Interestingly, when Reddit users exchange their community tokens for rewards, Reddit pays the gas fee needed for the transaction. In addition, community token holders can participate in governance proposals that seek to introduce new functionality to the tokens.

Currently, the two main Reddit Community tokens are r/FortNiteBR Bricks (BRICK) and r/CryptoCurrency Moons (MOON).

MOON is a community token developed for the Reddit subreddit r/CryptoCurrency. It is used to award Reddit users for comments and posts. In addition, users can trade Moon for emojis and badges to use inside the subReddit. The token also entitles holders to the right to vote in polls held by the r/CryptoCurrency community.

BRICK, on the other hand, is a community token developed for the Battle Royale Game subReddit r/FortNiteBR. Every four weeks, bricks are distributed to users based on their Karma, or reputation points, and stored in Reddit’s native cryptocurrency wallet, Reddit Vault. The bricks can then be traded in for exclusive memberships and unlocked features on r/FortNiteBR.

The post Kraken listing sends Reddit community tokens to the moon appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Binance has secured approval as both a Bitcoin Services Provider and the first non-provisional Digital Assets Services Provider.
• The licenses allow the exchange to offer tailor-made crypto products and services in El Salvador, according to a press release.

Binance has been granted two key licenses in El Salvador, becoming the first fully-licensed crypto exchange in the country. El Salvador recognised Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, the first country in the world to take the step.

CEO Changpeng Zhao tweeted (Xd) the news.

#Binance is pleased to announce that it has become the first fully licensed crypto exchange in El Salvador.🇸🇻

Let’s keep making crypto more accessible.https://t.co/kz91z2LAcL

— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) August 8, 2023

Binance acquires two licenses in El Salvador

According to an announcement the Binance team published on Tuesday, the exchange has received the Bitcoin Services Provider license (BSP) and the Digital Assets Services Provider license (DASP) – issued by El Salvador’s Central Reserve Bank (Banco Central de Reserva) and the National Commission of Digital Assets (Comisión Nacional de Activos Digitales) respectively. 

The DASP license sees Binance become the first non-provisional crypto services provider in the Central American country.

“We are honored to be granted this license, as Binance continues to work collaboratively with regulatory agencies around the world to support global standards for the crypto and blockchain industry,” Min Lin, Binance Head of Latin America, said in a statement.

The approvals and the official announcement come after regulators completed all the due diligence and is a pointer to Binance’s continued pursuit of regulatory compliance across the world, the exchange noted in a press release.

El Salvador is thus among several countries to license Binance or grant it registration status, including Italy, France, Spain, Sweden and Dubai.

Commenting on the latest approval, Daniel Acosta, the Binance General Manager for Colombia, Central America and Caribbean, noted:

“These licenses allow Binance to expand the products and services offered including options tailored to the needs of our customers in El Salvador. It is also a great opportunity to collaborate closely with government authorities to support the adoption of crypto assets in the country, foster financial inclusion, innovation and ensure customer protection.”

Binance was sued by the SEC in June and has exited a number of countries due to regulatory issues. However, it’s also been aggressive in its expansion efforts, including into Japan.

The post Binance becomes first fully-licensed crypto exchange in El Salvador appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Coinbase’s partial bonds buyback targets up to $150 million of the $1 billion bonds.
• City Global Managers will be the offer’s dealer manager.

Coinbase said on Monday that it is commencing a partial repurchase of its $1 billion bonds.

Per the company, whose Q2, 2023 financial report came in stronger than forecast, the plan is to buy back up to $150 million of the 3.265% bonds. The bonds are set to mature in 2031.

Offer expires on September 1

A press release from Coinbase indicated that investors who tender their Notes for the purchase program before August 18 will be eligible for an early buy offer that includes a $30 premium. This group of holders will receive $645 per $1,000 of the bond’s principal amount, translating to 64.5 cents on each dollar.

Meanwhile, participants who validly offer to sell their bonds after August 18 but before the offer’s expiry date of September 1 will get $615 per $1000 of the bond’s principal value. In any case, both sets of participants will see a premium return on unaffected, preannouncement bond price of 60 cents per dollars’ worth.

Coinbase reported $708 million in revenue for the second quarter, beating analyst estimates of $628 million by more than 13%. Adjusted earnings per share loss came in at $0.42, compared to forecasts of $0.76.

Citigroup Global Markets will be the buyback program’s Dealer Manager.

The post Coinbase to buy back up to $150M of its $1B bonds appeared first on CoinJournal.

• PayPal launched its stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain.
• Huobi has already announced it will launch the new stablecoin.
• The PYUSD has an “assetProtection” role that can wipe your balance in two transactions (first `freeze`, then `wipeFrozenAddress`).

The recently launched Paypal stablecoin, the Paypal USD (PYUSD), has been reviewed by Pashov, an expert in smart contracts security reviews. The PYUSD was announced on August 7 and a brief review has shown some unsettling revelations as posted by Pashov on X platform on the same day that the stablecoin was launched.

The new Paypal USD stablecoin has an „assetProtection“ role which can wipe your balance in two transactions (first `freeze`, then `wipeFrozenAddress`)

In smart contract security we call this a „centralisation attack vector“ pic.twitter.com/RsmqvsnKvi

— pashov (@pashovkrum) August 7, 2023

According to Pashov, selected development team members at PayPal will be able to execute delicate code functionalities like freezing accounts and cleaning frozen account balances using the “assetProtection” role.

USDT and USDC have similar attack vectors

While a majority of crypto enthusiasts expected PayPal’s stablecoin to stand out, Pashov’s revelation revealed that the new Paypal USD stablecoin is no different to USDT and USDC in terms of security.

The PayPal USD (PYUSD), the Tether (USDT), and the USD Coin ( USDC), all have “assetProtection” role, which in smart contract security is referred to as a ‘centralization attack vector.’”

Newsflash: USDT & USDC both have similar attack vectors as well. I thought this one might be different, but it’s really isn’t.

— pashov (@pashovkrum) August 7, 2023

The feature makes PayPal stablecoin a centralized stablecoin just like a majority of other popular stablecoins.

The post Concerning revelation: PayPal’s stablecoin can wipe out account balances appeared first on CoinJournal.