In today's newsletter: - Attackers hacked several high-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Barack Obama and Elon Musk, to spread a cryptocurrency scam.
- Two 17-year-olds arrested after paying Bitcoin to watch children being murdered.
- Bank of Thailand enters the third stage of its CBDC development with companies.
- Crypto Masterclass, featuring Sky Guo, founder of the Cypherium blockchain, who thinks that central bank digital currency (CBDC) payments will happen "in the next couple of years."
A reminder: If you subscribe to premium, you'll receive Inside Cryptocurrency ad-free five days a week, along with features like our daily Masterclass, interviews with crypto experts, and the latest studies and reports on crypto. Sign up now for a 14-day free trial! Best, | |  Rebecca |  | | |
Market Watch Crypto prices are mostly in the red during Thursday trading. Bitcoin has slipped into the $9,100 range but remains relatively stable in value. | Bitcoin | $9,114 | -1.09% | | Ethereum | $232 | -2.72% | | Tether | $1.00 | +0.18% | | XRP | $0.191 | -3.17% | | Top 100 Winner: Flexacoin | $0.004 | +32.24% | | Top 100 Loser: Bytom | $0.098 | -10.26% | Prices are as of 2:00 p.m. ET.
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 Attackers hacked several high-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Barack Obama and Elon Musk, to spread a cryptocurrency scam. According to the AP, the hackers sent tweets offering to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to a Bitcoin address, but the tweets were subsequently deleted. Twitter said attackers gained access to the accounts by targeting employees that had access to Twitter's internal systems. According to The Verge, by Wednesday afternoon, the scammers appeared to have earned nearly $120,000. After the attack, Twitter blocked holders of verified accounts from tweeting for several hours. More: - The accounts of Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Kanye West were also hacked.
- The accounts of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange and the wallet app Coinbase were also compromised.
- Twitter shares dropped more than 4% in pre-market trading on Thursday.
This story was first published in the Inside Daily Brief. TECHCRUNCH 
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Two Italian teenagers have been arrested after they paid Bitcoin to see a live stream of children being sexually abused and murdered. According to a report from Il Messaggero, a dark web website allowed the teenagers – a boy and a girl, both 17 – to pay extra to decide how the children would be tortured next. The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation, known as Delirium, which started in October. Investigators have accused 25 people – 19 minors and six adults – living in 13 Italian regions of disseminating child pornography. IL MESSAGGERO
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Thailand's central bank has entered the third stage of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) and is planning to expand its use out to companies. The Bank of Thailand (BoT) is already using the CBDC for financial transactions with some organizations, said deputy governor Vachira Arromdee. The BoT plans to start using the CBDC for digital transactions with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in September. Arromdee said that the BoT wants to carry out a comprehensive study before allowing the general public to use the CBDC. THE NATION THAILAND
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Our Crypto Masterclass features a well-known thought leader or expert in the crypto space. Today, I focus on Sky Guo, founder of the Cypherium blockchain, who thinks that central bank digital currency (CBDC) payments will happen "in the next couple of years." | |
 A message from LOHIKA Join us for Lohika Rethink, a series of thought-provoking live webinars with visionary leaders in tech and culture. On July 30, our host Raman Frey welcomes guest Jordan Burton, advisor to Bay Area VCs and tech companies including Matrix, Sequoia and Twilio. Webinar includes breakout rooms for all our participants – fellow founders, executives, and developers like you. REQUEST AN INVITE
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded software company InfoBeyond Technology LLC a $1m contract to improve the national power grid's security. The goal of the project is to use gridchain, a blockchain-based technology, to protect the power grid from cyberattacks. The idea is to merge blockchain with the Open Field Message Bus (OpenFMB) architecture – a grid framework adopted by the North American Energy Standards Board – said InfoBeyond founder Bin Xie. THE BLOCK
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 Crypto asset Stellar has been added to the Samsung Blockchain Keystore. Stellar is the fifth crypto asset to be integrated, joining Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, and Klaytn. The addition of Stellar was a "significant step for our network," Denelle Dixon, CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation. The Samsung Blockchain Keystore is only supported by Samsung Galaxy devices, such as the Galaxy S10 series, the Galaxy Note 10 series, and the Galaxy S20 Series. DECRYPT
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Quick Hits *This is a sponsored post.
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 |  | This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. | | | | Editor | Edited by Eduardo Garcia in New York. Eduardo is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School M.A. Science program and writes regularly for the New York Times Climate Fwd: newsletter. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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