CoinDesk Crypto

Ethereum transaction fees have soared to new all-time highs for the second time in three weeks, according to on-chain data analyzed by CoinDesk.

• As of Tuesday, average and median transaction fees have skyrocketed to record highs of $10.33 and $5.68, respectively.
• Average fees reached record highs of $6.04 on Aug. 13, as CoinDesk previously reported, while median fees stayed just below their all-time highs of $3.03.

• Steep network fees are a “double-edged sword” for Ethereum, said Wilson Withiam, Ethereum analyst at Messari, in a private message with CoinDesk. “They can ward off potential users,” he noted. But rising fees also signify “an increase in network utilization and demand for block space.”
• As fees increase, entities responsible for large on-chain transaction volume are searching for techniques to reduce pressure on the network.
• For example, leading stablecoin Tether (USDT), the second largest consumer of Ethereum gas fees, will “investigate” the addition of an Ethereum-scaling technique called zk-rollups that allows transactions to be batched off-chain and reduce transaction pressure on the network.
• “The idea behind zk-rollups is aggregating multiple operations (transfers, smart contract calls, …) into one single L1 transaction that ‘compress’ all the underlying transactions,” Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said in an email to CoinDesk. “Zk-rollups are at the moment the most comprehensive L2 solution for the Ethereum scalability problem.”
• As transaction fees continue to increase, largely caused by the continued explosion of decentralized finance (DeFi), this is causing DeFi to “slowly become a game reserved for the wealthy,” Withiam said.

Read more: High Ethereum Fees Push Tether to Its Eighth Blockchain, OMG Network

Related Stories

• First Mover: Rookie YFI Token Jumped 8-Fold in August as DeFi Dominated
• BitMEX Launches Mobile Trading App in 140 Countries
• Five CoinMarketCap Executives Depart Binance-Owned Firm
• Someone Just Lost $16M in Bitcoin by Using a Malicious Install of the Electrum Wallet

Bitcoin miners enjoyed a 23% increase in revenue during August, driven by higher network fees from increased on-chain transaction volume as bitcoin (BTC) avoided a daily close below $11,000 throughout the entire month.

• Bitcoin miners generated an estimated $368 million in revenue in August, up from $300 million in July, and the third consecutive monthly increase in miner revenue, according to Coin Metrics data analyzed by CoinDesk.
• Revenue estimates assume miners sell their bitcoins immediately.

• Network fees brought in $39 million in August, or 10.7% of total revenue, setting the highest percentage of fee-generated revenue in over 18 months.
• Correspondingly, average daily fees continued July’s upward trend, staying above $2 for the entire month of August, according to Coin Metrics data.

• July’s revenue increase coincided with rallies of the shares of publicly traded mining companies, several of which continue to outperform bitcoin.
• In addition, Riot Blockchain, Marathon Patent Group have reported significant revenue increases and mining capacity growth over the past quarter. Even troubled Hangzhou, China-based Canaan Creative reported a 160% revenue increase over the June period.

Related Stories

• Protection Over Profit: What Early Mining Patterns Suggest About Bitcoin’s Inventor
• Canaan’s Q2 Loss Narrows to $2.4M From Q1 on 160% Revenue Increase
• Energy Giant Equinor to Cut Gas Flaring With Bitcoin Mining: Report
• Bitmain, Ebang Among 21 Bitcoin Mining Farms Stripped of Energy Perks in Inner Mongolia

August trading volume on decentralized exchanges set its third consecutive monthly record high after climbing 160% from July, according to Dune Analytics.

• Aggregate trading volume on decentralized exchanges reached $11.6 billion in August, up from $4.5 billion in July as the intense enthusiasm for decentralized finance (DeFi) applications continued to spread.
• Leading decentralized exchange platform Uniswap reported a 283% volume increase in August, reaching $6.7 billion after topping its July record less than two weeks into the month, as CoinDesk previously reported.
• Only two decentralized trading platforms – Loopring and Oasis – reported a drop in volume over the past month, falling 5% and 3%, respectively.

• Along with aggressive volume growth, Uniswap reported an almost 100% increase in the total trading pairs listed on the platform, totaling 6867 as of Monday.
• By design the platform allows any user to create and list a token. Currently 6,020 assets are available for trading.

• The effects of decentralized exchanges’ exponential growth is seen in traditional cryptocurrency exchanges listing a variety of tokens that originated on platforms like Uniswap.
• For example, there is Binance-listed Balancer’s token, Poloniex-listed Tendies Token and FTX-listed yearn.finance in addition to a perpetual futures index of the top 100 coins on Uniswap.

Related Stories

• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Over $11.7K; Uniswap Passes $500M in Daily Volume
• FTX Launches Uniswap Index Futures to Meet Surging Demand for DeFi Access
• Market Wrap: Bitcoin Slides to $11.8K; Uniswap at $7M in Monthly ETH Fees
• Uniswap’s August Volume Topples July $1.76B Record in Less Than Two Weeks

You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team and edited by Bradley Keoun, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You can subscribe here.

Price Point

Bitcoin (BTC) was up 2.2% early Tuesday, starting off September on a strong note after an anemic performance last month. The dollar dropped to a two-year low against major trading partners’ currencies. 

The largest cryptocurrency climbed 2.6% in August, underperforming the 25% gain notched by the second-biggest cryptocurrency, ether (ETH).

Related: Bitcoin Nears $12K as Dollar Declines to 29-Month Low

For a comparison with traditional markets, the Standard & Poor’s 500 climbed 7% during the month, the best August since 1986. And gold, which garnered headlines when it pushed to a new record price above $2,000 an ounce, ended the month down 0.4%. 

Market Moves

Bitcoin? Yawn. In August, the hottest returns for crypto traders came from the fast-expanding and often brain-exploding realm of decentralized finance, known as DeFi. 

Among digital assets with a market capitalization of at least $1 billion, the just-released-last-month yearn.finance (YFI) token jumped eight-fold to claim the top spot. UMA (UMA), a trustless financial-contracts platform, rose five-fold, according to the data firm Messari.

Chainlink, an “oracle” protocol that provides price feeds for DeFi platforms, saw its LINK tokens double during the month. Ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, upon which most DeFi applications are built atop, surged 87% in August, leaving prices more than triple where they started the year. 

Related: How the Bitcoin Blockchain Is Being Used to Safeguard Nuclear Power Stations

Obscure Ethereum-oriented tokens are overtaking “competitors which dominated the leaderboard a few years ago,” the data firm Glassnode wrote Monday in a report. “The innovation network around DeFi means that there is a constant source of new and lucrative financial games to play, while Bitcoin has seen little growth in terms of its value proposition or ecosystem.”

John Willock, CEO of digital-asset liquidity firm Tritum, told CoinDesk’s Daniel Cawrey on Monday that “this looks like a perfect storm of high optimism for these protocols and recent innovations introduced that are proving they have long-term value.” The decentralized exchange Uniswap boasted a trading volume of $560 million on Sunday, exceeding that of the big cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Cawrey reported. 

“There is no denying that DeFi is a thing,” said George Clayton, managing partner at Cryptanalysis Capital.

Some of the DeFi projects, with names like Yam and Spaghetti, might be dismissed as flukes or gimmicks if there weren’t so many millions, hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars flowing in and out of them. 

In July, when the YFI token went live, Yearn.Finance’s creator, Andre Cronje, described it as “completely valueless.”  

In the words of CoinDesk’s Brady Dale in an article Monday: “DeFi has made a pivot to what might be called Weird DeFi: a set of difficult-to-parse projects whose larger value to the ecosystem is suspect at best and whose community is at least 20% driven by inside jokes.”

None other than BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes acknowledged in a monthly newsletter on Aug. 27 that he was “yield-farming” — using DeFi projects to earn token rewards — since the local nightclubs are currently closed. 

“While I deride many of these projects as activity resulting in economic waste, there is an underlying proto-banking infrastructure that is being built on the rails of Ethereum and other protocols,” Hayes wrote. “Crypto capital markets are the best place to earn serious positive yields if you are willing to take some modicum of risk.”

Hayes added that he fully expects to “lose most of all the money I `invest’ into any of these projects,” but that he views the “destruction” of his own capital as the “only way to learn.”

When he figures it out, maybe he can explain to everyone else why YFI octupled in August. 

Bitcoin Watch

Bitcoin is closing on a breakout above $12,000 amid ether’s price rally to fresh two-year highs. 

The top cryptocurrency’s options market shows increased demand for call options (bullish bets) at $12,000 strike. This signifies a more bullish move in the short-term, according to Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack, a provider of cryptocurrency trackers and index funds.

“From a macro level, the U.S. dollar has continued to fall since Jackson Hole, creating further buying pressure on bitcoin and broader safe haven commodities such as gold,” Dibb told CoinDesk in a WhatsApp chat. 

Meanwhile, ether’s price rally looks to have legs as exchange deposits have declined to the lowest level since March, a sign of investors shifting to long-term holding strategies. 

– Omkar Godbole

Token Watch

Ether (ETH): Price hits two-year high as exchange deposits decline, seen as a bullish sign. 

Tezos (XTZ): Foundation and founders agree to pay $25 million to settle case over 2017 initial coin offering. 

SushiSwap (SUSHI): Decentralized exchange aims to take liquidity from rival Uniswap by introducing a token that entitles holders to a share of trading fees. The token is also getting a listing on Binance, the world’s biggest (centralized) cryptocurrency exchange. 

Cardano (ADA): The Daedalus wallet upgrade sees staking and delegation improvements among other enhancements.

What’s Hot

BitMEX Launches Mobile Trading App in 140 Countries (CoinDesk)

Researcher unlocks secret of “Patoshi’s” $12.65B bitcoin hoard (CoinDesk)

Yearn, YAM and the Rise of Crypto’s ‘Weird DeFi’ Moment (CoinDesk)

Interest on stablecoin deposits could help offset dollar inflation (CoinDesk)

Vitalik Buterin says DeFi yield farming is unsustainable (Decrypt)

Five CoinMarketCap Executives Depart Binance-Owned Firm (CoinDesk)

U.S. Internal Revenue Service says crypto transactions down to $1 are taxable (CoinDesk)

Analogs The latest on the economy and traditional finance

Debt-strapped Seattle electrician, 29, makes thousands of dollars rolling dice on stock options in bankrupt Hertz (WSJ) 

U.S. increases support for Taiwan, says to counter rising China pressure​​​​​​ (Reuters)​

South Korean regulators using artificial intelligence to detect illegal use of algorithmic trading in financial markets (Bloomberg News)

Global stocks dip but clinch fifth month of gains; dollar soft (Reuters)

India’s GDP shrinks 23.9% in worst quarter on record (Nikkei Asian Review) ; residents of the country are hocking their gold (WSJ).  

Tweet of the Day Related Stories

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Bitcoin is drawing bids amid a sell-off in the U.S dollar, with new signs emerging that the largest cryptocurrency is maturing as a global asset class.

• At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading near $11,900 – up 2% on the day. Prices reached a high of $11,964 early Tuesday, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index.
• The dollar index, which gauges the greenback’s value against major currencies, is currently trading 0.4% lower at 91.75, the lowest level since April 2018. The greenback is down more than 10% from highs seen in Mach.
• “From a macro level, the U.S. dollar has continued to fall since Jackson Hole, creating a further buying pressure on bitcoin and broader safe-haven commodities such as gold,” Matthew Dibb, co-founder of Stack, a provider of cryptocurrency trackers and index funds, told CoinDesk in a WhatsApp chat.

• Investors are selling dollars, possibly on bets that interest rates in the U.S. would remain low for a long time.
• The Federal Reserve now has the room to hold rates low for a prolonged period, having signaled tolerance for high inflation last week.
• U.S. inflation expectations have continued to strengthen since Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s inflation speech at Jackson Hole last week.
• The 10-year breakeven inflation rate, or the bond market’s expectation of price pressures over the next ten years, rose to 1.8% on Monday, the highest level since Jan. 2, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
• Long-term inflation expectations have more than tripled in the past 5.5 months to 1.8%.
• Additional bullish pressure for bitcoin may be stemming from ether’s rise to two-year highs near $470.
• “Bitcoin is showing significant strength today on the back of recent gains in ethereum and the broader alternative cryptocurrencies,” Dibb said, citing increased buying in the $12,000 call option expiring in September as evidence of the market’s short-term bullish mood.
• The Singapore-based QCP Capital noted in its Telegram channel that “there was a flurry of put buying on Monday and more of such hedging flows may be seen in the next weeks if bitcon is held below $12,500.”

Also read: Ether Price Hits 2-Year High

Related Stories

• First Mover: Rookie YFI Token Jumped 8-Fold in August as DeFi Dominated
• How the Bitcoin Blockchain Is Being Used to Safeguard Nuclear Power Stations
• Ether Price Hits 2-Year High
• Protection Over Profit: What Early Mining Patterns Suggest About Bitcoin’s Inventor

Bermuda wants to use a digital token to stimulate its economy.

The government of Bermuda announced Tuesday it has started a pilot program for a digital stimulus token in partnership with local private payments platform Stablehouse, which is expected to provide initial feedback on the viability of digital tokens in facilitating the purchase of essential products and services.

In 2019, Bermuda began developing a blockchain-based digital ID system and announced the public could pay their taxes with USDC stablecoins. The development of the stimulus token kicked off later in the year as part of the government’s larger initiative to create a comprehensive crypto ecosystem on the island that supports the adoption of digital currencies. According to a statement, the plans for the token were accelerated as the COVID-19 pandemic created the need to quickly distribute financial aid to the population.

Related: A New Attempt to Tokenize Real Estate Projects in Mexico and Canada

National governments around the world are evaluating the potential benefits or drawbacks of a blockchain-based payments system, whether that looks like a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or a similar payment rail. China has proceeded the furthest with launching its own blockchain-based currency, going so far as to softly launch a wallet service over the past weekend (though it was quickly taken down).

“Our ultimate goal is to get a wallet on every phone in Bermuda,” Denis Pitcher, chief fintech adviser to the Premier of Bermuda, told CoinDesk. 

The perfect model

According to Pitcher, Bermuda’s government saw the challenges in trying to distribute unemployment checks to people when the island went into rapid lockdown, and highlighted the need to get funds to the unbanked population quickly. 

Bermuda’s high technology penetration (with around 99% of the population being active internet users, and 87% of the total population using mobile internet in 2019) combined with its small population (of just over 71,000 people) makes it an ideal small-scale testing ground for digital payments, Pitcher said. 

Related: Unconfiscatable? Using Bitcoin to Resist Police Extortion in Nigeria

Read more: Banking the Unbanked: How the Crypto Community Can Make a Big Impact

In Pitcher’s view, Bermuda also has the infrastructure to back it up. After World War II, British and U.S. militaries had bases on the island, and they built key infrastructure from airports and hospitals to power infrastructure, Pitcher said. 

“So you really have the perfect environment to say, how do you get real-world interactions with grocery stores, utility companies, governments and the average citizen for mainstream adoption and improve user experiences so that you can then repeat it in a city with millions or a country with hundreds of millions,” Pitcher said. 

The pilot token is based on Blockstream’s Liquid blockchain protocol while the Greenwallet app will enable payments via a point-of-sale terminal provided by Stablehouse. The token is being tested in three locations with a select group of consumers and merchants, and there are plans to expand testing, Pitcher said.

No to CBDCs

When the pandemic drove interest in exploring the digitization of the U.S. dollar as a faster method of delivering stimulus funds to the public, Bermuda was inspired to be among the first in the world to offer financial aid to its citizens in the form of tokens. 

However, since then the discussion around the tokenization of the U.S. dollar has become synonymous with the creation of a CBDC, but Bermuda is not interested, according to Pitcher. 

Read more: CFTC Seeks Industry Advice on Blockchain Applications

“We’re not particularly interested in creating a unifying technical solution that’s going to solve all problems at digitizing money for a country, because it’s hard to see how that really can exist,” Pitcher said. 

Instead, the Bermudan government is engaging private licensed entities such as Stablehouse to issue tokens on its behalf. 

“The private sector is the best place to create solutions for these problems, because they’re moving fastest with the technology,” Pitcher said. 

Banks are out (for now)

According to Pitcher, local banks will not play a critical role in the stimulus pilot, mainly because they are beholden to correspondent banking relationships that dictate what they can do.

“We do have some challenges with local banking at the moment in terms of a willingness to bank the digital asset industry,” Pitcher said. 

In his view, banks struggle to stay on top of tech innovation partly because of regulation requirements. But the sector is in transition, Pitcher said, with stablecoins like USDC backed by fiat deposits creating a new role for banks. 

Read more: Following OCC Letter Some US Banks Appear Open to Providing Crypto Services

“We see banks playing a role in acting as kind of core depository institutions, but allowing them to open source the tech components,” Pitcher said. 

For now, the pilot is well underway, with the Premier David Burt participating in the test run, making mobile purchases with the stimulus token. 

“Bermuda is keen to establish itself as a leader in supporting innovative private-sector digital asset solutions and to work with locally licensed companies to drive digital asset adoption. A key part of that is not just creating regulatory frameworks but also actually working with and using the products created by companies that choose Bermuda as their home,” Premier Burt said, in a statement to the press.  

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Bermuda wants to use a digital token to stimulate its economy.

The government of Bermuda announced Tuesday that it has commenced a pilot program for a digital stimulus token in partnership with local private payments platform Stablehouse, which is expected to provide initial feedback on the viability of digital tokens in facilitating the purchase of essential products and services.

In 2019, Bermuda began developing a blockchain-based digital ID system and announced that the public could pay their taxes with USDC stablecoins. The development of the stimulus token kicked off later in the year as part of the government’s larger initiative to create a comprehensive crypto ecosystem on the island that supports the adoption of digital currencies. According to a statement, the plans for the token were accelerated as the COVID-19 pandemic created the need to quickly distribute financial aid to the population.

Related: A New Attempt to Tokenize Real Estate Projects in Mexico and Canada

National governments around the world are evaluating the potential benefits or drawbacks of a blockchain-based payments system, whether that looks like a central bank digital currency (CBDC) or a similar payment rail. China has proceeded the furthest with launching its own blockchain-based currency, going so far as to softly launch a wallet service over the past weekend (though it was quickly taken down).

“Our ultimate goal is to get a wallet on every phone in Bermuda,” Denis Pitcher, chief fintech advisor to the Premier of Bermuda, told CoinDesk. 

The perfect model

According to Pitcher, Bermuda’s government saw the challenges in trying to distribute unemployment checks to people when the island went into rapid lockdown, and highlighted the need to get funds to the unbanked population quickly. 

Bermuda’s high technology penetration (with around 99% of the population being active internet users, and 87% of the total population using mobile internet in 2019) combined with its small population (of just over 71,000 people) makes it an ideal small-scale testing ground for digital payments, Pitcher said. 

Related: Unconfiscatable? Using Bitcoin to Resist Police Extortion in Nigeria

Read more: Banking the Unbanked: How the Crypto Community Can Make a Big Impact

In Pitcher’s view, Bermuda also has the infrastructure to back it up. After World War II, British and U.S. militaries had bases on the island, and they built key infrastructure from airports and hospitals to power infrastructure, Pitcher said. 

“So you really have the perfect environment to say, how do you get real world interactions with grocery stores, utility companies, governments and the average citizen for mainstream adoption and improve user experiences so that you can then repeat it in a city with millions or a country with hundreds of millions,” Pitcher said. 

The pilot token is based on Blockstream’s Liquid blockchain protocol while the Greenwallet app will enable payments via a point-of-sale terminal provided by Stablehouse. The token is being tested in three locations with a select group of consumers and merchants, and there are plans to expand testing, Pitcher said.

No to CBDCs

When the pandemic drove interest in exploring the digitization of the U.S. dollar as a faster method of delivering stimulus funds to the public, Bermuda was inspired to be among the first in the world to offer financial aid to its citizens in the form of tokens. 

However, since then, the discussion around the tokenization of the U.S. dollar has become synonymous with the creation of a CBDC, something Bermuda is not interested in, according to Pitcher. 

Read more: CFTC Seeks Industry Advice on Blockchain Applications

“We’re not particularly interested in creating a unifying technical solution that’s going to solve all problems at digitizing money for a country, because it’s hard to see how that really can exist,” Pitcher said. 

Instead, the Bermudan government is engaging private licensed entities like Stablehouse to issue tokens on its behalf. 

“The private sector is the best place to create solutions for these problems, because they’re moving fastest with the technology,” Pitcher said. 

Banks are out (for now)

According to Pitcher, local banks will not play a critical role in the stimulus pilot, mainly because they are beholden to correspondent banking relationships that dictate what they can do.

“We do have some challenges with local banking at the moment in terms of a willingness to bank the digital asset industry,” Pitcher said. 

In his view, banks struggle to stay on top of tech innovation partly because of regulation requirements. But the sector is in transition, Pitcher said, with stablecoins like the U.S. Dollar Coin (USDC) backed by fiat deposits creating a new role for banks. 

Read more: Following OCC Letter Some US Banks Appear Open to Providing Crypto Services

“We see banks playing a role in acting as kind of core depository institutions, but allowing them to open source the tech components,” Pitcher said. 

For now, the pilot is well underway, with the Premier of Bermuda David Burt himself participating in the test run, making mobile purchases with the stimulus token. 

“Bermuda is keen to establish itself as a leader in supporting innovative private sector digital asset solutions and to work with locally licensed companies to drive digital asset adoption. A key part of that is not just creating regulatory frameworks but also actually working with and using the products created by companies that choose Bermuda as their home,” Premier Burt said, in a statement to the press.  

Related Stories

• Lending Protocol Aave Eyes Tokenized Mortgages With Launch of V2
• Why It’s Time to Pay Attention to Mexico’s Booming Crypto Market

Nuclearis, a manufacturer of precision mechanical components for the nuclear industry, is using the Bitcoin blockchain to verify the manufacturing blueprints of parts that make up nuclear power reactors.

Announced Tuesday, Nuclearis, which is headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and has offices in the U.S. and China, is using the Bitcoin-powered RSK blockchain as an immutable anchor, keeping tabs on critical documents. The firm has open-sourced the framework so other players in the nuclear industry can use it.

It’s not the first time blockchain tech has been leveraged within the nuclear industry. Estonia’s Guardtime has been using its own version of DLT for some time to distribute data as a way to prevent cyberattacks on nuclear infrastructure. There have also been projects using blockchain to track the uranium fuel supply chain and also track what happens to nuclear waste.

Related: First Mover: Rookie YFI Token Jumped 8-Fold in August as DeFi Dominated

Read more: No More Nuclear: Japan’s Biggest Utility Turns to Blockchain in Power Pivot

Safety is everything when it comes to nuclear. The track and trace use case for manufacturing documents is important because there have been forgeries in the past, where antiquated nuclear reactors have opted for shortcuts to revamp equipment (a high-profile case of this sort went through the courts in France in 2016.)  

Some 150 new reactors are set to be built over the next 30 years and the “NuclearTech” space is all about instilling trust within the operators of nuclear power plants, said Nuclearis CTO Sebastian Martinez.

“Part of the problem is that there are many intermediaries in this supply chain and parts of it are still paper-based,” said Martinez. “We hash the manufacturing documents and upload to the blockchain at the point of creation of the steel part. Months or even years later, when we deliver the part, the power plant can check if everything digitally matches.”

Nuclear in Argentina

Related: Bitcoin Nears $12K as Dollar Declines to 29-Month Low

Nuclearis, which is working with Argentina’s three power plants – Atucha I, Atucha II and Embalse – said the Argentine government and the country’s main operator of nuclear power plants, Nucleoeléctrica Argentina, are looking to adopt its blockchain system.

Read more: California Agency Backs Green-Energy Pilot Using RSK’s Bitcoin Smart Contracts

The RSK blockchain developed with consultancy IOV Labs uses a process called “merged mining” to run a sidechain on the Bitcoin blockchain and harvest the hash power of the largest cryptocurrency.

“The immutability and security that blockchain provides are of the most importance for the nuclear industry,” IOV Labs CEO Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar said in a statement. “We are very excited about Nuclearis’ solution in that industry and thrilled they have chosen RSK blockchain and RSK Infrastructure Framework (RIF) technologies for its development.”

The RSK-based platform now in use is only for tracking the provenance of new parts, but there are lots of interesting use cases going forward around areas like decommissioning of parts, Nuclearis said.

“If you replace something like a pump from a primary circuit that has been radioactive for the last 50 years, you have to decommission it, get it out of the reactor and dismantle it,” said Martinez. “Traceability of that stuff is very important so it doesn’t turn up on some black market, or worse, finds its way into a dirty bomb.”

Related Stories

• Protection Over Profit: What Early Mining Patterns Suggest About Bitcoin’s Inventor
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Dapper Labs, the team behind popular non-fungible token (NFT) game CryptoKitties, announced Tuesday it will release two cat characters inspired by the rock band Muse under its partnership with the Warner Music Group. 

According to a press statement emailed to CoinDesk, the two digital cats, one of which will be signed by band members, are inspired by Muse’s album “Simulation Theory,” which was released in November 2018. 

• “For some, the concept of a purely digital item is still unusual, but for many fans who love engaging with stickers and filters, these items are just another tool for self-expression,” said Tiago Correia, senior manager of Global Digital Business Development at Warner Music, in the emailed statement. 
  
• According to Dapper Labs CEO Roham Gharegozlou, “It’s like buying a T-shirt at a concert.” He added that while he likes collecting album covers, that experience is hard to recreate when everything is digital; these collectibles could be a possible way to re-capture it.
  
• Dapper Labs also recently announced it has raised $12 million in a funding round led by National Baskedball Association stars including Spencer Dinwiddie and Andre Iguodala. While all of the firm’s cryptokitties were built and “live” on Ethereum, Gharegozlu said the firm is currently building a bridge to bring them over to its own blockchain called Flow. 

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Digital asset management firm CoinShares said Tuesday it is adding a real-time audit feature to the crypto exchange traded products issued by subsidiary XBT Provider. 

According to a press statement emailed to CoinDesk, investors will be able to access audit reports for XBT’s bitcoin, ether, litecoin and XRP products. CoinShares said it has partnered with U.S. based accounting firm Armanino to provide these reports and be the “first asset manager to offer real-time audit capacity,” on its crypto ETPs.

• The entirety of CoinShares’ assets will be “independently verified 48 times a day,” or every 30 minutes, said Richard Nash, the firm’s chief operating officer, in the emailed statement. 
  
• According to Nash, one of the remarkable things about integrating the real-time audits is it will “utilize the technology that also underpins the assets,” he said.
  
• Noah Buxton, director of Armanino’s blockchain and digital asset practice, explained the real-time audits depend on a set of agreed-on procedure’s being hardcoded into the system which when executed allow the generation of said audit reports every 30 minutes. 

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One of Asia’s first digital bonds has been piloted in Singapore – opening the door for more such issuances using distributed ledger technology (DLT).

• International bank HSBC, Singapore Exchange (SGX), and Singapore government-owned investment firm Temasek said Tuesday their pilot for the DLT-based bond – first mooted last November – had been successful.
• Per an announcement, S$400 million (around $294 million) worth of 5.5-year corporate bonds from Olam International – one of the world’s largest coffee bean, rice and cotton suppliers – were issued on SGX’s digital asset platform.
• SGX said the pilot showed DLT could streamline issuances and minimize settlement risk in the Asian bond market.
• The Asian Development Bank estimated in March that the region’s local currency bond market was worth approximately $16 trillion last December, up 12.5% on the year before.
• The digital bond used smart contracts to codify rights and obligations, as well as its maturity, into the bond itself.
• An on-chain payments solution from HSBC was also used to facilitate settlement in multiple currencies, as well as to transfer funds to Olam International.
• Olam, which is listed on SGX, has held back a further S$100 million (roughly US$74 million) in the digital bonds for issuance at a later date.
• SGX plays host to one of Asia’s largest bond markets and says it has issued over a $1 trillion in debt securities so far.
• Lee Beng Hong, the SGX senior managing director responsible for the pilot, said the exchange is now moving to fully digitalize corporate bond issuances on its platform.
• It’s unclear whether other issuances are already in the pipeline.

See also: South Korea’s Central Bank Is Building a New Blockchain System for the Bond Market

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• Singapore May Extend Crypto Regulation to Include Overseas Activities
• Accenture, HSBC, Seba Bank Among Bank of France’s Eight CBDC Finalists

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, jumped to two-year highs on Tuesday, taking its year-to-date gains to 260%.

• The native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, ETH was trading at $470 at press time – a level last seen in July 2018.
• Prices are up more than 100% this quarter alone, according to CoinDesk’s ether price index.
• As ether rose by 10% in the past 24 hours, bitcoin added 3% and is currently trading near $11,940.
• Other prominent coins from the CoinDesk 20, like XRP, Stellar XLM, litecoin, bitcoin cash, and Chainlink’s LINK token, have all rallied by 2%-5% in the past 24 hours.

• “Ethereum’s price increase shows it is one of the main altcoins leading the market,” Simon Peters, an analyst at multi-asset investment platform eToro, told CoinDesk in an email.
• Investors may be entering the crypto market via ether and decentralized finance protocols rather than bitcoin, which served as a gateway to crypto markets during the 2017 bull run, Peters said.
• On-chain metrics suggest ether’s price rally has legs.
• To start with, exchange deposits – the number of coins held in exchange addresses – declined to 17.99 million ETH on Monday, the lowest level since March 11, according to data source Glassnode.

• Exchange balances have also reduced by over 5% in the past four weeks.
• “Investors are holding onto ether as a value holder during times when inflation is on the rise,” Glassnode tweeted. 
• Investors typically move coins off exchanges to their own wallets when they expect prices to rally.
• Additionally, the recent price gains look to have been fueled by strong hands.
• “The top 100 non-exchange addresses have increased bags by +8.2% in just 35 days – a bullish sign,” blockchain analytics firm Santiment tweeted Monday.
• The options market, too, is biased bullish on ether with the one-, three- and six-month put-call skews hovering below zero, according to data provided by the crypto derivatives research firm Skew.
• That’s a sign of call options, or bullish bets, drawing higher prices than puts, or bearish bets.

• Put-call skews have declined sharply today with ether’s rise to fresh two-year highs above $450.
• Markets now expect ether to face increased volatility over the next four weeks, with one-month implied volatility increasing from 77% to 91% early Tuesday.

Also read: First Mover: Ether Price Swings Make Bitcoin Look Tame as DeFi Speculation Spreads

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A long-running lawsuit alleging the Tezos initial coin offering (ICO) – that raised $232 million in 2017 – was an unregistered securities sale has been settled.

• The Swiss-based Tezos Foundation, as well as the project’s founders, Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, agreed Friday to pay $25 million in cash to settle the case.
• The presiding judge ratified the settlement agreement – which was first proposed in March – the same day.
• The complaint, a class action for those who invested in the Tezos ICO, alleged defendants violated U.S. securities law by hosting an unregistered sale.
• Allegations were first brought against the Tezos Foundation in late 2017 – months after the ICO concluded.
• Crucially, the settlement means the court has not ruled on whether the Tezos ICO was an unregistered securities sale.
• In a separate filing, lead plaintiff Trigon Trading argued settlement actually saved both parties, and the court, much work determining the regulatory status of token offerings, like Tezos, and whether they counted as securities sales.
• Per Friday’s order, the plaintiff’s attorneys will take more than $8.5 million, a third of the total settlement, in fees and expenses.
• Save small awards to the lead plaintiff, Trigon Trading, and other key figures, the remaining $16.5 million will be divided between those who invested in the Tezos ICO and made a monetary loss.
• Those who gained from their investment, through selling at a profit or staking (dubbed “baking”) their XTZ tokens will not be able to claim damages.
• Trigon described the $25 million settlement as an “excellent result” for Tezos investors.

See also: Tezos Foundation Offloaded Millions of Dollars Worth of Bitcoin in 2019: Report

Read the order here:

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The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is forging ahead with a long-in-the-works plan to offer national banking charters to payment firms that don’t take deposits, but not everybody is happy.

• According to a Tuesday report by Politico, Acting Comptroller of Currency Brian Brooks is spearheading the move that would empower payment firms to operate across state lines with a single set of consolidated rules.
• The charter would simultaneously enable such firms to expand their financial service offerings and avoid having to apply for licencing in each state individually.
• Brooks told Politico the OCC would be ready by Tuesday to begin processing applications for the charters, which could potentially include companies like Paypal and Coinbase.
• Brooks is a former executive of the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, having served as chief legal officer from September 2018 until his departure to the OCC – a position he has held for three months.
• “I can supervise the payments activities of JPMorgan, but I can’t supervise the payments activity of Square,” Brooks said in Politico’s report, referring to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s payments platform. “That seems really weird to me.”
• A spokesperson from the OCC told CoinDesk all charter applications would be made public with a comment period, but said they were not yet aware of any specific applications from payment firms.
• The role of the OCC is to regulate, supervise, and provide a charter for national banks and federal savings associations operating in the U.S.
• Brooks said the OCC was “satisfied” it doesn’t need a new regulation or statute to move ahead with its decision.
• However, the news has sparked outrage among traditional banks, credit unions and elsewhere, per Politico’s report.
• “A few months into his service in an acting capacity, a bank regulator (and former cryptocurrency lawyer) pushes ahead with a legally dubious plan to give tech companies banking charters,” tweeted Graham Steele, director of the Corporations and Society Initiative at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
• The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has previously won the backing of a judge in blocking the OCC’s plan for the “Fintech Charter” (first proposed in 2016) in the state.
• Linda Lacewell, superintendent of the NYDFS, retweeted Steele’s comment and pointed out that OCC’s appeal of the ruling is still to take place.
• U.S. states believe the OCC is stepping outside its remit in offering the new charter, according to Margaret Liu, deputy general counsel at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors.
• Such issues haven’t put off Brooks, who told Politico he saw the OCC’s role more as a regulator of services than entities.

See also: Following OCC Letter, Some US Banks Appear Open to Providing Crypto Services

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Leading cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX has launched a mobile trading app in 140 countries, the exchange told CoinDesk.

• Announced Tuesday morning, the product launch comes two weeks after BitMEX’s first-ever identity verification requirement was announced earlier in August.
• Built completely in-house, the mobile trading product closely matches the desktop experience and is already up and running.
• Analytics show some accounts are already trading exclusively on the app, according to Ben Radclyffe, commercial director for the exchange’s parent organization, 100x Group.
• The legendary “trollbox” chat widget is not included in the current version of the mobile app, however, according to Radclyffe.
• He assured CoinDesk that its inclusion is planned for future updates.
• BitMEX is the largest bitcoin derivatives exchange by open interest, according to Skew, with $1.01 billion in open contracts at last check.

Also read: BitMEX to Mandate ID Verification for All Traders as Maverick Exchange Ends Wild Ways

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The Tor Project, the nonprofit group behind the privacy-focused Tor browser, launched the Tor Project Membership Program Monday in a bid to increase the diversity of funds in their budget. The nonprofit laid off a third of its staff in April amid the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

• Members can join at a variety of tiers. Founding members include Avast, DuckDuckGo, Insurgo, Inc., Mullvad VPN and Team Cymru, all companies focused on privacy or cybersecurity.

• “For a while, we have been thinking about how to continue to increase the diversity of funds in the Tor Project’s budget and, more importantly, how to increase unrestricted funds,” said Tor Project Executive Director Isabela Bagueros. “This is a type of funding that allows us to be more agile with software development of Tor and other tools.”

• Members of the program gain access to the Tor Project’s “Onion Advisors” group, who can help integrate Tor into their products as well as answer questions about the Tor Project’s areas of expertise, such as privacy or circumventing censorship. 

• Whether it’s creating an .onion address for a member’s site, setting up the Onion-Location feature for an .onion site (which lets users navigate domains more easily) or integrating applications into the Tor network, these Onion Advisors can help, according to Bagueros.

• “We decided to create a program inspired by what Tor is based on, community,” said Bagueros. “Our goal is to build a supportive relationship between our nonprofit and private sector organizations that use our technology or want to support our mission.”

Read More: Start9 Labs Pitches a Private At-Home Server. And It Works

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MountX Real Estate Capital has licensed transfer agent Vertalo to design and launch tokens for at least 15 digital real estate projects in Mexico and Canada through 2020 and early 2021, the firms announced last week. 

According to a press statement, this is the third of four planned deals by Vertalo’s real estate division (VRE), launched this past June, that focuses on the tokenization of real estate assets. Vertalo is one of the few transfer agents – Securities and Exchange Commission-registered record keepers – in the crypto industry.

Real estate tokenization once looked like an extremely popular blockchain use case that promised to disrupt the global real estate market, with crypto firms like AlphaPoint and Harbor launching initiatives to put real estate assets on a blockchain. However, investors didn’t immediately take to the new promise of trading tokenized pieces of properties on a public ledger.

Related: Canadian Exchange Shakepay Gets Cold Wallet Insurance to Protect Customer Funds

See also: tZERO Plans to Support Trading of Aspencoin Ski Resort Digital Security 

One problem was that issuers had to get tokens out to increase liquidity, while institutions wanted to see liquidity before they changed their operations. Multiple deals have fallen apart as a result, including Harbor’s partnership with the real estate division of Chicago-based DRW Holdings.  

Vertalo co-founder and CEO Dave Hendricks told CoinDesk the 2018 “hype cycle” for real estate tokenization was about two years ahead of the implementation of the technologies needed to make it a reality. 

According to Hendricks, although tokenization of real estate had been possible for three years, the alternative trading systems (ATS) and exchanges that could trade these digital debt instruments had not received regulatory approval. 

Related: Crypto Derivatives Exchange BitMEX to Block Ontario Traders

“Another missing piece was the digital transfer agent – like Vertalo – that could manage the shareholder data for proper record keeping purposes,” Hendricks said. 

Now, 2020 has seen a rekindled interest in the sector. In February, commercial real estate platform Red Swan partnered with token platform Polymath to tokenize $2.2 billion in real estate assets. In April, Vertalo signed a deal with trading platform tZERO to tokenize a real estate portfolio worth $300 million.  

See also: Tokensoft Teams With Signature Bank to Launch Real Estate Security Token Platform

VRE’s new partnership with MountX will facilitate direct investments in Class-A residential properties located in Canada. MountX will be conducting multiple issuances: initial deals will only be promoted to Latin American investors, and eventually expand to include U.S. and Canadian markets. According to the statement, through the digital tokens, investors will be able to directly access their equity and asset information. 

“The international aspect of this deal highlights the limitless potential of issuing digital equity of real estate assets,” the statement said.

Traditionally, many real estate offerings are marketed quietly to insiders, but MountX’s work with Vertalo broadens access and improves the chances that a retail investor can invest in or offer their properties on the MountX platform, Alec Beckman, director of business development at Vertalo told CoinDesk.

“Real estate is something that not many people have been able to invest in before. You have to know or get connected with a real estate general partner, or understand how to build a portfolio yourself,” Beckman said.

Currently 99% of private real estate capital is raised under the Reg D exemption, which means it is only available to accredited investors, Beckman said, adding that digital assets will give accredited investors a chance to participate in real estate investment opportunities.

Beckman also said Vertalo is working on a digitization project that would allow overseas and non-accredited investors the opportunity to invest in real estate assets. 

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Mining equipment manufacturer Canaan Creative reported a 2Q net loss of $2.38 million, or 10 cents a share, less than half the size of Q1’s $5.64 million loss, or 24 cents

• Revenue rose more than 160% to $25.2 million from $9.6 million in Q1.
• The largest expenses during Q2 were general and administrative, accounting for $4.19 million, or 48% of the firm’s $8.8 million quarterly operating expenses.
• Shares of the company, currently worth $314 million, jumped nearly 15% during morning hours to set a daily high of $2.29 on Monday. Overall August, however, shares have dropped 23 percent.
• On Friday, Canaan closed only its second weekly gain during the third quarter, closing less than 1% above its open on Aug. 24. In mid June, Canaan shares plummeted to all-time lows of $1.76 one month after the third bitcoin halving.
• Monday’s filing also shows that as of June 30, Canaan had cash and cash equivalents worth $22.2 million, down 40% from $37.3 million at the end of Q1. The company cited an increase in short-term investments for the lower cash on hand.
• Canaan declined to issue guidance for the coming quarter due to the uncertainty caused by the economic downturn.
• The Hangzhou, China-based company has only traded on the Nasdaq since November 2019 after abandoning plans to IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Since its listing, Canaan shares have dropped nearly 85 percent.

A replay of the company’s conference call will be accessible through Sept. 8 by dialing the following numbers:

International: +61-2-8199-0299
United States: +1-646-254-3697
Hong Kong, China: +852-3051-2780
Replay PIN: 3977618

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Bitcoin is trending upward and volume on decentralized exchange Uniswap is soaring to an astounding new high.

• Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $11,724 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 0.61% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $11,575-$11,784
• BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.

Read More: Huobi and OKEx Battle for Supremacy in China

Bitcoin jumped as high as $11,784 on spot exchanges like Coinbase on Monday. Adding fuel to the fire was the derivatives market; short sellers were liquidated on BitMEX during bitcoin’s rise Monday. In one hour, $6.6 million in buy positions were automatically triggered, the crypto equivalent of a margin call for traders going short.

Related: Protection Over Profit: What Early Mining Patterns Suggest About Bitcoin’s Inventor

The Federal Reserve’s decision to let inflation run while keeping interest rates low is helping boost crypto, Darius Sit, managing partner of QCP Capital, told CoinDesk. 

“The market was looking to the Powell speech to see if there’d be any hawkish indications – clear plans to end liquidity injection and cheap money,” Sit said. “There was no sign of hawkishness so the party has resumed.” 
Sit noted the continued decline of the U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the greenback versus a basket of global currencies. The index continues to drop, down 0.12% Monday and hitting fresh lows for 2020.

Crypto stakeholders are watching the equities market. Rather than a hedge, some still consider bitcoin a “risk-off” asset whereby traders will unload BTC if the broader stock market dumps. 

Read More: US Stocks Closing on Bigger August Gain Than Bitcoin

Related: Huobi Futures to Launch Options Trading This Week, Joining Throng Challenging Deribit

“The S&P has been up almost 8% in the month of August so it will be interesting to see what bitcoin does when the market pulls back,” said Michael Rabkin, head of institutional sales at crypto liquidity provider DV Chain. “With bitcoin still being a fairly newer asset, there is a risk that it can sell off when the market does,“ he said. 

Read More: Someone Lost $16M in Bitcoin by Using a Malicious Install of Electrum Wallet

Traders continue to have a plethora of opportunities in the crypto market, and decentralized finance, or DeFi, continues to captivate many, said John Willock, CEO of digital asset liquidity firm Tritum. 

“The big run over the weekend was highly concentrated in DeFI assets built on top of the Ethereum network, such as YFI and COMP,” Willock said. “This looks like a perfect storm of high optimism for these protocols and recent innovations introduced that are proving they have long-term value.” 

Uniswap crosses $500M in daily trading

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Monday, trading around $437 and climbing 3% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). 

Read More: DeFi Is a ‘Complete Scam,’ Says Controversial Entrepreneur Craig Wright

The daily volume of decentralized exchange Uniswap hit $560 million Sunday. Uniswap’s daily trading volume is surpassing centralized exchanges such as Coinbase, which had $433 million the past 24 hours. Uniswap has over $10 billion total volume traded, according to Dune Analytics. 

“I think there is no denying that DeFi is a thing,” said George Clayton, managing partner at Cryptanalysis Capital. “Traders are spending over $400,000 per day in gas fees on Uniswap alone,” he added.

However, there continues to be a caveat with all of this DeFi frenzy, added Clayton – the Ethereum network needs to scale in order to successfully meet this increasing demand. “Maybe centralized exchanges’ days really are numbered,” he said. “But not until the scaling issue is solved. Maybe Cosmos can do it with an Ethereum bridge.”

Read More: Ethereum Classic Hit by Third 51% Attack in a Month

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed on Monday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

• cardano (ADA) + 7.6%
• tron (TRX) + 5.4%
• nem (XEM) + 4.8%

Read More: Five CoinMarketCap Executives Depart Binance in Mass Exodus

Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

• zcash (ZEC) – 5%
• chainlink (LINK) – 3.8%
• tezos (XTZ) – 2.6%

Read More: Coinbase Adds Marc Andreessen as Board Observer, Replacing Chris Dixon

Equities:

• In Asia the Nikkei 225 ended the day up 1.1% as Warren Buffett announced Berkshire Hathaway purchased 5% of each of the top five Japanese conglomerates.
• In Europe, U.K. trading was on holiday. Germany’s DAX index closed in the red 0.61% as investors were cautious due to coronavirus surpassing 25 million cases globally.
• The United States’ S&P 500 lost 0.22% as bank stocks dragged the index lower due to lower yields in the Treasury market.

Read More: What Changes at the Fed and the SEC Mean for Crypto

Commodities:

• Oil is down 0.26%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $42.80.
• Gold was in the green 0.28% and at $1,969 as of press time.

Read More: Someone Lost $16M in Bitcoin by Using a Malicious Install of Electrum Wallet

Treasurys:

• U.S. Treasury bond yields slipped Monday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the two-year, in the red 3%.

Read More: Cryptocurrency Earned From Microtasks Is Taxable, Says IRS Memo

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The whistleblower from defunct cryptocurrency firm Bitsonar has reappeared after going missing for three days in Kyiv, Ukraine, saying law enforcement faked his kidnapping – and murder – to foil a genuine attempt on his life.

Yaroslav Shtadchenko went missing last Thursday, with video evidence suggesting he had been abducted. He contacted CoinDesk on Monday afternoon local time, saying that he was safe. He said that the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) had staged the event after his murder had been ordered. 

SSU reported Monday that it had used such tactics to foil an attempted contract killing, with an agent posing as a hitman to fool the would-be client, though the law enforcement agency did not name anyone involved.

Related: Whistleblower Kidnapped in Ukraine After Accusing Crypto Firm of Exit Scam

Read more: Whistleblower Kidnapped in Ukraine After Accusing Crypto Firm of Exit Scam

The announcement is the latest bizarre twist in a cautionary tale about crypto investment schemes. Investors in Bitsonar have been trying to recoup millions of dollars worth of digital currency from the platform since February.

“It was not a kidnapping, but a special operation, as it turned out. I didn’t know about it,” Shtadchenko told CoinDesk. He said he was taken into a minivan on his way home by a group of men, who explained once they were in the car it was an elaborate ruse. (In the video, he appears to be genuinely terrified as men push him into the vehicle.)

His lawyer, Yuriy Demchenko, confirmed his client was safe and that the SSU staged the crime to arrest a man who ordered the killing. The SSU did not share his name, Demchenko said.

Elaborate setup

Related: South Korean Crypto Exchange Coinbit Seized Over Allegations of Massive Wash Trading

Shtadchenko’s “kidnapping” occurred just days after he announced he would be contacting law enforcement agencies in different countries to report his allegation that the founder of Bitsonar, Alexander Tovstenko, absconded with some $2.5 million of investor money. Shtadchenko gave interviews, published information about the firm and called for investors to unite and pursue legal action. 

The SSU issued a press release (warning: link contains disturbing content) on Monday saying it “prevented the contract killing of an IT businessman.” The details of the case are consistent with Shtadchenko’s account:

“The officers of the special service established that a resident of Kyiv was looking for a killer to kill a business partner. The client had a conflict with the victim due to joint transactions in a well-known company that dealt with cryptocurrencies and has some features of the so-called Ponzi scheme. The attacker priced the life of the partner at five thousand U.S. dollars.

Law enforcement officers imitated the disappearance and then murder of the victim in the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv, after which they reported his execution.”

The press release contains a photo of Shtadchenko with a simulated bullet hole in his head. The photo was provided to the fake hitman’s would-be client in exchange for the second part of the reward, the SSU wrote.

The agency also published a video of agents detaining the man who allegedly ordered the killing. The man’s face is blurred in the video, which shows a pile of cash he was about to pay to the “hitman.” The operation took place in Odessa, a seaside resort in Ukraine.

According to Demchenko, staging a killing allows the SSU to charge the suspect with a more serious crime: a completed contract killing instead of an assassination attempt. 

The SSU has done this in the past: in 2018, Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko was reportedly killed in Kyiv, but later the SSU said it staged the shooting and prevented an assasination attempt. 

Bitsonar attracted investors from the U.S., Canada, U.K., Denmark, Norway, Netherland, Finland and other countries, reaching them in part via YouTube influencer videos. In February, the firm froze withdrawals, and on Aug. 6, Bitsonar’s website went down.

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