📣 US Lawmakers Ask DOJ to Consider Criminal Charges Against Binance and Tether

➡️ The office of U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) announced Thursday that the senator from Wyoming and U.S. Representative French Hill (R-AR) have sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) “to swiftly investigate Binance and Tether.” They alleged that the two cryptocurrency platforms have been used to fund Hamas and “have a history of allowing illegal activity to occur.”

⚫️ Lummis is a member of the Senate Banking Committee while Hill is the chair of the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Digital Assets. Senator Lummis highlighted “the need for federal investigators to crack down on bad actors in the crypto asset space after reports surfaced that showed Hamas used crypto assets to fund their war in Israel,” the announcement describes.

⚫️ The letter cites an article published by the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 10 stating that Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah have received crypto funding since Auguhttps://static.news.bitcoin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/binance-lummis-768x432.jpgst 2021. While acknowledging that the level of funding reported in the article is “likely not accurate,” the lawmakers said: “We believe it is nonetheless imperative that the Department of Justice hold bad actors accountable if they are shown to facilitate illicit activity.”

❕This week, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic clarified that there is no evidence to support the assertion that Hamas has received significant volumes of crypto donations. The firm added that the data it provided “has been misinterpreted.”

🔔 Robert Kiyosaki Shares Investment Allocation to Help You Survive ‘Greatest Crash in World History’

⚫️ The famous author wrote on social media platform X Sunday: “Ship of Fools. Forever and ever financial experts have promoted the idea ‘Smart Investors invest in 60/40.'” The common 60/40 portfolio invests 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds. Kiyosaki cautioned: “In 2024, 60/40 investors will be [the] biggest losers.” He proceeded to recommend:

🖥 Before going down with the ship, consider a shift to 75% gold, silver, bitcoin [and] 25% real estate/oil stocks. This mix may allow you to survive the greatest crash in world history.

➡️ Kiyosaki has been recommending gold, silver, and bitcoin for quite some time. However, this is the first time he shared a specific investment allocation for these assets with his 2.4 million followers on X.

⚫️ Kiyosaki used to be more into real estate. In October of last year, he explained on X that in his 2022 book Capitalist Manifesto, he stated that Marxists “took over the U.S. in the 2020 election,” warning that they would implement policies such as property tax increases and rent controls. In addition, property values would decrease due to rising interest rates. “I recommended investing in gold, silver, and bitcoin,” he concluded at the time.

⚫️ Last month, the renowned author advised investors to buy bitcoin immediately, noting that he foresees a rush to buy BTC as stock, bond, and real estate markets crash. He additionally expressed his belief in the future of cryptocurrency, asserting that fiat money is toast and describing it as “fake money.” In his view, gold and silver represent “God’s money” while bitcoin is “people’s money.” Besides issuing multiple warnings about the greatest crash in real estate, stocks, and bonds, he also cautioned that the Federal Reserve raising interest rates will crash the U.S. dollar.

🇧🇬 Bulgaria’s Oldest Soccer Club Botev Plovdiv Adds Bitcoin as a Payment Option

🔊 Bulgaria’s oldest soccer team, PFC Botev Plovdiv, has said fans and the general public can now pay for merchandise with BTC at the club’s fan shops and catering points in the central stand during matches. The club said it is planning to avail this payment option for fans who wish to buy tickets.

Remarking on the club’s acceptance of bitcoin as a payment option, club president Anton Zingarevich said:

❕ We are excited about this technology, which is creating new opportunities and has the potential to become an integral part of our lives, just as it happened with the Internet.

🖥 As per the report, PFC Botev Plovdiv has selected the self-hosted, open-source cryptocurrency payment processor BTCPay Server as its partner. BTCPay Server executive Nicolas Dorier said his firm’s focus in 2023 has been on the local adoption of bitcoin. Dorier added that BTCPay Server’s goal will “continue to support such transformative endeavours.”

✅ Elon Musk Confirms None of His Companies Will Ever Create a Crypto Token

❌ Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk confirmed on his social media platform X on Friday that his companies will never create a crypto token.

➡️ His clarification followed a post on X by user Dogedesigner warning his followers about a crypto token using the name XAI, which could be mistaken for Musk’s artificial intelligence company. Dogedesigner wrote: “Elon Musk & xAI is not associated with any such crypto token. Please be careful.” In response, Musk clarified that none of his companies will ever create a crypto token.

💲 Musk previously revealed that he personally owned bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and dogecoin (DOGE). His electric car company, Tesla, maintains $184 million in bitcoin on its balance sheet as of the third quarter. The company also holds a small amount of dogecoin (DOGE). The billionaire has been a supporter of the meme cryptocurrency, viewing it as the people’s crypto. In 2021, Musk stated that Spacex also owned BTC.

❕ Last month, the billionaire unveiled his plan to make X a powerful financial platform by the end of next year. “When I say payments, I actually mean someone’s entire financial life … If it involves money. It’ll be on our platform. Money or securities or whatever,” he detailed, adding that “you won’t need a bank account.”

🪙Bitcoin Flips Ethereum for the First Time in 24-Hour NFT Sales Shift

⚡️ The trend for Bitcoin NFT transactions has seen an upward trajectory lately, and just three days ago highlighted that Bitcoin had secured the runner-up spot for NFT sales across a week. In a significant first, Bitcoin’s Ordinal innoscriptions, its unique brand of NFTs, exceeded Ethereum’s sales over a 24-hour time frame on Wednesday.

⚡️ NFT connoisseur Leonidas, the founder of Ord, documented this unprecedented event onchain, marking the occasion when Bitcoin-based NFTs leaped ahead of their Ethereum counterparts for the first time in history. Leonidas said:

🗣 Breaking – Ordinals just flipped Ethereum NFTs for the first time. So of course I had to inscribe it into Bitcoin forever.

➡️ Looking at a week’s performance in NFT sales, Ethereum has seen an increase, netting $79.61 million since Wednesday, November 1, 2023, which represents a 45.66% rise from the previous week, as reported by cryptoslam. In comparison, Bitcoin’s weekly NFT sales also enjoyed a rise, boasting a 661.60% increase from the prior week with sales hitting $55.52 million.

⚡️ US Lawmaker: Crypto Is Not the Problem, Bad Actors That Exist in Every Industry Are

➡️ U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) defended crypto in response to an article on Forbes about how misinformation on Hamas and crypto fooled nearly 20% of Congress.

❕ “Crypto accounts for < 1% of all illicit finance activity and would be even less if we created a regulatory structure to allow the crypto industry to operate in America instead of unregulated foreign markets,” the senator from Wyoming wrote on social media platform X Friday. She stressed:

❕ Recently, several news outlets reported that Hamas had raised millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. However, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has debunked the reports, stating: “There is no evidence to suggest that crypto fundraising has raised anything close to this amount, and data provided by Elliptic and others has been misinterpreted.”

📣 Despite Elliptic’s efforts to set the record straight, these reports prompted 100 U.S. lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), to push the Biden administration to address crypto-financed terrorism.

🔊 Robert Kiyosaki: Fiat Money Isn’t Safe, Investors Must Protect Themselves From Central Bankers

The famous author wrote on X Saturday:

❕ Central banks like Fed are buying gold. Does this mean fiat money is safe? Hell no!

➡️ bankers are saving themselves from their own incompetence, that’s why they buy gold. Their job is to protect the banks not you. Get smart. Protect yourself from central bankers: Save gold, silver, bitcoin,” Kiyosaki advised.

⏺ Central banks around the world maintained their appetite for gold in the third quarter, with purchases totaling 337 metric tons, according to the World Gold Council. This surge in buying has propelled year-to-date purchases to a record high of 800 metric tons.

❕ Kiyosaki has consistently issued warnings regarding fiat currencies, referring to them as “fake money.” In contrast, he calls gold and silver “God’s money” and considers bitcoin as “people’s money.” In September, he said “crypto is the future,” noting that fiat money is “toast.” He has urged investors to get into gold, silver, and bitcoin as soon as possible.

👉 The renowned author has also repeatedly warned about the demise of the U.S. dollar. He blames the Federal Reserve for causing inflation and collapsing the U.S. economy. In July, he predicted that the end of the USD is near. In April, he said America is dying, warning of the impending death of the U.S. dollar. Moreover, he expects BTC to become priceless when the Fed starts issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

🇷🇺 Report: US Crypto Exchange Coinbase Fined for Refusing to Localize Russian Users’ Data

➡️ A court in Russia recently imposed a fine of just over $11,000 on the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. The court said the fine relates to Coinbase’s alleged refusal to localize data on Russian nationals who use the crypto exchange platform.

📝 According to a report from one online media outlet, Coinbase’s non-adherence with Russia’s data regulations means the crypto exchange is guilty of an administrative offense under Part 8 of Art. 13.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

💩 Since the end of May, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media or the Roskomnadzor (RZN) has required foreign companies to “localize databases of Russian users.” Already, representatives of more than 600 foreign companies are believed to have complied with the requirement.

❕ A few global corporate giants including Spotify, Apple, Whatsapp, Match Group (which owns Tinder), and Airbnb have been penalized for defying the requirement. Passed in 2014, the data localization law is seen by some opponents of President Vladimir Putin as a weapon being used by Russia against mainly Western organizations.

🪙 Bitcoin Achieves Lifetime Record With Over 710,000 Daily Transactions Confirmed on Sunday

👑 This recent weekend marked a record-breaking moment for the Bitcoin network. Operating at a robust hashrate of 480 exahash per second (EH/s), the network verified an unprecedented total of 710,579 transactions – a new peak in Bitcoin’s storied history. This surpassed the previous high set on September 15, 2023, when bitcoin (BTC) miners verified 703,692 transactions.

📈 Furthermore, on November 12, 2023, the daily transaction volume (703,327) nearly eclipsed the former record, now ranking as the third highest in history. All of these days featured unparalleled levels of innoscription-based transactions, with the most recent record established on Sunday accounting for 475,249 innoscriptions.

➡️ Sunday emerged as the second most prolific day for innoscription-based transactions, slightly trailing the record set on November 12, which saw 505,345 innoscriptions. As of 2:40 p.m. Eastern Time on November 20, 2023, the day’s data remains incomplete, yet 411,723 transfers have already been processed by bitcoin miners, with 300,452 being innoscriptions.

⚡️ Innoscriptions have surged recently after a brief dip, sparking a rise in miners’ fees due to a backlog of more than 200,000 transactions, which has driven up the cost of block space. Concurrently, as miners set new benchmarks in transaction processing, the network’s hashrate has soared to an unparalleled peak of 480 EH/s, based on the seven-day moving average.

🪙 Bitcoin User Unwittingly Pays $3.1 Million in Single Transaction Fee

➡️ Block 818,087 stands out in Bitcoin’s ledger for recording the largest fee for a single transaction in its history. This block encapsulated around 4,179 transactions. Besides the standard reward of 6.25 newly created BTC, Antpool earned an additional 85.216 BTC in fees from this block.

💲 The extraordinary transaction fee amounted to 83.65 BTC, transferring 55.77 BTC, valued at approximately $2 million based on current exchange rates. This incident surpasses the previous record, where an excessive fee of about 19.8 BTC – worth $738,639 today but approximately $500K at that time – was paid.

❕This earlier record was set in block 807,057, mined by F2pool, which earned 20.0127 BTC in total fees from the block. The 19.8 BTC transfer was later identified as a transaction by Paxos. In a gesture of goodwill, F2pool chose to refund the company, demonstrating that miners have the discretion to reimburse addresses in cases of apparent errors.

🇳🇬 Nigeria Law Enforcement Nab Politician Who Laundered Funds Stolen From Crypto Exchange

🔗 The Nigerian police have arrested a politician who is accused of seeking to launder digital assets that were stolen from the crypto exchange platform Patricia Technologies earlier this year. According to the police, Wilfred Bonse had fraudulently transferred more than $60,000 from the $750,000 in stolen funds to his bank account.

❗️Patricia lost digital assets worth more than $2 million after hackers breached its platform. The theft left the crypto platform with a financial hole which forced Patricia to seek funds to refund affected users.

❕ In his remarks after announcing the politician’s arrest, Prince Olumuyiwa Adejobi, the spokesperson for the Nigerian police, said:

❕ Having registered his involvement in the complex crime. Wilfred Bonse, conspired in laundering the sum of Fifty Million Naira (N50,000,000) originating from the fraudulent diversion of Six Hundred and Seven Million Naira (N607,000,000) from Patricia Technology company’s account to his bank account through a cryptocurrency wallet.

➡️ The spokesperson, however, said investigations are still ongoing and vowed to bring those behind the hacking to justice.

❌ In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Patricia praised Nigerian law enforcement agencies behind Bonse’s arrest. The CEO Hanu Fejiro said the recovered funds will “go a long way to soothe Patricia users.”

🆕 BNB’s Tech Roadmap for Opbnb Targets 10,000 Transactions per Second

🖥 On Nov. 29 the BNB chain unveiled what it called a tech roadmap for Opbnb, a layer two (L2) solution within its ecosystem. The goal of the roadmap is to make “blockchain more accessible, with the design principles based on making the Opbnb network more efficient for users and developers.” To achieve this, the roadmap is targeting 10,000 TPS (transactions per second) for transfers as well as “a price reduction of ten times on Opbnb.”

➡️ The unveiling of the six-month roadmap came just days after the transaction count on Opbnb tapped a new all-time high of 5.47 million. This milestone was achieved when “the network handled the full capacity of 100M gas per second smoothly in a single block.” This is said to have resulted in the network processing 645 minting transactions per second.

➡️ Meanwhile, in a statement, the BNB Chain core development team praised the Opbnb community for being instrumental in the L2’s success so far. The team also noted that the community’s efforts can prove to be potentially vital in the development of decentralized applications.

💵 As explained in the statement, Opbnb is also aiming to reduce transacting fees from $0.005 to $0.001 in the last quarter of 2023. In the first quarter of 2024, the objective is to increase capacity from 100M to 150M. Between Q2 and Q3 of 2024, the goal is to lower the gas limit per block increase from 100M to 200M and achieve a transaction per second milestone of 10,000.

🚀Dogecoin (DOGE) And Pepe (PEPE) Blast Off: Embark On The Bullish Journey 🌙

🔥DOGE and PEPE Making Waves
Dogecoin (DOGE) and Pepe (PEPE) are capturing the market's attention with their latest developments. DOGE is on a mission to the moon, funded by the DOGE community, while Pepe is transferring tokens to Binance for future campaigns. Both tokens are experiencing price fluctuations as a result of their strategies.

💰 Scapes Mania (MANIA) Gains Attention
Scapes Mania (MANIA) is gaining attention as a promising project in the crypto space, adding to the excitement in the market.

📈 Analyzing DOGE and PEPE Prices
Analysis of Dogecoin (DOGE) prices suggests a positive trend with caution, while signals for Pepe (PEPE) are ambiguous. Traders should be mindful of support and resistance levels for their trading strategies and manage risks wisely in the crypto market.

Are you ready to embark on this bullish journey with DOGE and PEPE? Stay tuned for more updates and ride the wave of excitement in the crypto market! 🚀🌙

🐳 Mystery Bitcoin Whale Resurfaces, Transfers 1,000 BTC Worth 41M From String of 2010 Era Addresses 🐳

⚡️ The famous Bitcoin whale has struck again, transferring 20 block rewards equivalent to 1000 bitcoins (41.87 million). This isn't the first time this whale has made such a move - similar transactions were made at the beginning of the bull market in late 2020 and in 2021.

🪙 The whale's activity involved 20 addresses that stored block rewards from as far back as 2010, with each wallet spending 50 BTC at block height 819,796. The addresses were created in August, September, October, and November of 2010.

💰The total value of the 1000 BTC transferred amounts to 41.87 million, all of which was moved to another wallet. There's a high likelihood that this whale is the same early adopter identified by Bitcoin News back in 2020. From late 2020 to March 2021, Bitcoin tracked this same whale as they spent over 10,000 BTC using identical spending methods.

📊 It's always intriguing when a Bitcoin whale resurfaces, especially one with such a significant amount of BTC from the early days. The mystery surrounding their identity and the reasons behind these large transactions adds an air of excitement to the crypto space.

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⚫️In conclusion, the resurgence of this mystery Bitcoin whale and their hefty transactions from decade-old addresses has once again captured the attention of the crypto community. Stay tuned for more updates on this fascinating story!

📉 Crypto Exchange Binance Drops Abu Dhabi License Application as Global Needs Shift

🌐 Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has reportedly withdrawn its application with Abu Dhabi’s financial regulator. A spokesperson for Binance said on Thursday: "When assessing our global licensing needs, we decided this application was not necessary."

📝 According to Binance’s website, Abu Dhabi-based Binance (AD) Ltd. received conditional financial services permission from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) on Nov. 15 last year to provide crypto custody services. The regulator’s website details: “Binance (AD) Limited is not permitted to deal with retail clients, as defined in the FSRA’s Conduct of Business Rulebook (COBS).”

💼 Last month, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) resigned as CEO after pleading guilty to violating U.S. anti-money laundering laws, and the crypto exchange agreed to pay over 4.3 billion as part of the settlement with U.S. authorities.

🌍 This year, Binance withdrew from a licensing process in Germany, retracted from Cyprus, and announced its exit from the Netherlands. The decision to withdraw from Cyprus was explained as a strategic move to concentrate on fewer regulated entities in the EU, with a focus on France, Italy, and Spain, in anticipation of the European Union’s crypto asset regulations rollout.

🔍 Moreover, regulators in Australia revoked the financial services license of Binance’s derivatives business. In the Philippines, the securities regulator initiated the process of blocking Binance last week.

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🚀The Binance spokesperson emphasized on Thursday that the crypto exchange would continue to work with regulators “to provide world-class services and offerings in the Middle East and beyond.”

⭐️ Palau Declares First Phase of Stablecoin Pilot a Success

📊 Results and Popularity of PSC

The pilot, which launched in June 2023 with the involvement of 200 volunteers, used Ripple Ledger technology as a backbone for controlling wallet transactions. The Ministry of Finance (MOF) of Palau informed that more than 700 transactions were completed during this phase, with more than 400 being payments to retail merchants.

👍Positive Feedback from Participants and Retailers

The report states both participants and retailers had good experiences during the pilot and that PSC was positively received as a digital payment system, even after facing opposition from some government officials.

🚀 Plans for Future Phases

While there is no explicit mention of a second phase for the PSC pilot, the MOF stated that “the long-term objective is to implement PSC nationally as a convenient and cost-effective way of payment,” hinting at the continuation of the project in the short term.

🎯 Improving Reach and Compliance

For this objective, the pilot will aim to improve its reach, allowing more financial institutions, retail businesses, and individuals to participate in the payments network. The report also calls for the organization of educational campaigns to show the general public the benefits of using this digital cash alternative. Further, the MOF declares that subsequent phases of the pilot will focus on compliance, given that the PSC is a dollar-pegged digitized token.

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The first phase of Palau's stablecoin pilot has shown promising results, with positive feedback from participants and retailers. As the project moves forward, the focus on improving reach and compliance, as well as establishing a legal framework for security and transparency, will be crucial for the successful implementation of PSC nationally.