ETHICAL BITCOIN: Experts say Hamas is now using bitcoin for cross-border fundraising at an unprecedented rate. Still, even the largest estimates of terror financing in the region are apparently dwarfed by ethical bitcoin usage by civilians in the Gaza Strip, local experts tell CoinDesk. General awareness in Palestine of bitcoin and ethereum has increased since 2018, while freelance payments and remittances are reportedly the leading use-cases for bitcoin transactions in the Palestinian territories. Full story
CEO STEPS DOWN: Patrick Byrne, a rare champion of cryptocurrencies among the heads of public U.S. companies, has stepped down from his roles at Overstock.com on Thursday. Byrne wrote in a letter to shareholders that he was stepping down from the company both as CEO and as a member of its board due to insurability among other reasons after admitting to a three-year relationship with Maria Butina, a Russian agent currently serving 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of acting as a foreign agent. Full story
CHINA PLAY: Tether is planning to issue a stablecoin pegged to the Chinese renminbi, according to a trader with ties to the company. Zhao Dong, an over-the-counter (OTC) trader in China and a shareholder of crypto exchange Bitfinex – which shares managers and owners with Tether – revealed the move on WeChat on Wednesday, saying Tether plans call the stablecoin CNHT. His peer-to-peer crypto lending business, RenrenBit, will support trading and deposits for CNHT when it is launched, he said. Full story
NUCLEAR POWERED: Ukraine’s top law-enforcement and counterintelligence agency has uncovered crypto mining equipment at a nuclear power plant operated by state-owned Energoatom. According to local media, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) confiscated six Radeon RX 470 GPU video cards, a motherboard, power supplies and more in an office at the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant on July 10. The power plant is registered as a state secret and outside computer equipment is not authorized to enter the property. Full story
OPEN DOOR: Merchant payments startup Flexa will soon allow any other app to run payments in crypto just like its own SPEDN app has since May. Staking with the company’s Flexacoin (FXC) will enable apps to trustlessly provide payments to merchants without any danger of malicious apps reversing a transaction after Flexa has transferred funds. The company raised $14.1 million in a private sale of FXC tokens in April. Full story |
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| BITCOIN BOUNCE? Bitcoin's price drop seems to have stalled at the key 100-day price average support at $9,900 and minor price bounce back above $10,000 may be seen. The bias, however, will remain bearish as long as the lower high of $10,956 created earlier this week is intact. Full story |
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