[the_ad id=”36860″]
From a notorious crypto hacker on the move to new partnerships at Stellar and Tron, here’s a look at some of the stories breaking in the world of crypto.
Bitcoin
A hacker who became an infamous crypto whale after stealing more than 100,000 Bitcoin from the crypto exchange Bitfinex in 2016 has apparently started transferring 550 of the BTC that was never recovered.
Reddit user Jankeldidi spotted the stolen crypto worth nearly $3 million in motion. The BTC has been transferred to 15 separate, new addresses, as shown by the data aggregator Blockchair.
With so many eyes on the stolen crypto, it would be hard to sell on an exchange without it getting flagged and locked.
However, the hacker could use a number of methods to try to turn the crypto into cash, including an attempt to mask the origin of the BTC through a mixing service.
[the_ad id=”36860″]
Ethereum
Ethereum scaling solution developer Prysmatic Labs just released a new update on Ethereum 2.0.
Prysmatic says development on its Ethereum 2.0 Phase 0 testnet is moving forward at a rapid pace.
“The past two weeks have had our best development velocity ever, merging in dozens of critical bug fixes and efficiency improvements. We improved the efficiency of our state transition function by 400x from the naive implementation, leading to massive improvements in our runtime and our cloud testnet.”
Ripple and XRP
Ripple says the CEO of Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, Yoshitaka Kitao, will be joining Ripple’s Board of Directors.
SBI first invested in Ripple back in 2016, and Kitao has been a steadfast Ripple and XRP enthusiast ever since.
“Mr. Kitao is also a pivotal player in the joint venture between SBI Holdings and Ripple, SBI Ripple Asia. The joint venture established a next-generation payments platform on RippleNet, Ripple’s robust network of 200+ financial institutions worldwide, along with Japanese banks. In particular, the company provides the revolutionary MoneyTap mobile app that allows banks’ customers to settle transactions instantly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
[the_ad id=”36860″]
Litecoin
Bonus content from Litecoin creator Charlie Lee’s recent interview on the Unchained podcast is now online.
Some of the questions initially left on the cutting room floor cover Litecoin’s market cap, the amount of daily transactions on the network, and how much technical knowledge tomorrow’s crypto users will really need to have.
“Cryptocurrency is both a store of value and a means of exchange. I think people will know which assets they store their money in.
But when they use it, they will not need to know what happens to that asset to get it to the recipient. Could be Lightning. Could be atomic swapped for other assets like Litecoin. Or it it could be something totally new.”
You can check out the extended interview here.
Stellar
The crypto payment startup Wirex is launching 26 stablecoins on the Stellar network.
The crypto assets will be pegged to a variety of fiat currencies, including the euro, US dollar, British pound, Hong Kong dollar, Singapore dollar and more.
“Currently, most stablecoins on the market are USD-backed tokens. Providing stablecoins in an array of local currencies allows for swift, international remittance without the need for local liquidity providers – and converting back into local currency is quick and cheap.”
[the_ad id=”36860″]
Tron
The crypto startup Swarm, which offers an open, full-stack solution for the life-