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 Ethereum 2.0 launch dates announced

Raoul Jordan, Prysmatic Labs developer who is involved in testing of Ethereum 2.0, said preparations for the network's launch go as planned. All necessary features will be added by mid-October, he said, allowing developers to focus on improving security and user interface. “If all goes well, November is still looking good for a launch from our perspective, Jordan wrote. Earlier, a representative of the Ethereum #DevelopmentTeam , Afri Shedon, also announced that the network will begin work in November this year.

 Ethereum Miners' Profit surges by 98%

In August, Ethereum miners received $285.1 million in revenue, the highest in two years. Compared to last month, profit increased by 98.2%, the resource The Block notes. This happened amid a record increase in online transfer fees. For more than a month, their average level has been above $2, and in early September it peaked at $15. The reason lies in the growth in the activity of applications from the field of decentralized finance. All transactions made by application participants are recorded on the Ethereum blockchain, which increases the load on the network and creates a queue of transfers. To send their transaction faster, users are willing to pay higher fees.

 The digital yuan will become a complete analogue of paper money

The digital yuan is legally fully consistent with fiat currency, says Fan Yifei, deputy chairman of the People's Bank of China. In an article written for Financial News, the official outlined the basic principles for regulating the digital yuan. According to him, digital currency is part of the supply of paper notes and coins, and therefore "must comply with laws and regulations related to money management." Fan emphasized that the digital currency will be accepted throughout the country and "no company or individual can refuse to accept it." The official also added that the digital yuan should be regulated by anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws.

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 Bitcoin has risen in price to $11,000 again

On the morning of September 16, the price of the first cryptocurrency returned to the $11,000 on a number of exchanges. Over the week, BTC rose in price by 11% - at the beginning of September, the asset rate tested monthly lows at $9,900. The rise in the price of bitcoin is taking place against the backdrop of several fundamental positive factors. Thus, the network hash rate has once again updated its historical maximum, reaching 150 EH/s. The number of coins sent per day, expressed in dollars, broke the annual record of $30.69 billion. At the same time, the dollar index is declining for the fourth day in a row, which also supports the BTC/USD pair.

 Draft law on the regulation of cryptocurrency in the EU has been published

Politico has published a preliminary version of the Cryptocurrency Assets Markets Act (MiCA), created by the European Commission. The document proposes to regulate cryptocurrencies, security tokens and stablecoins in the same way as traditional financial instruments, which will ensure their legal purity. The bill gives broad definitions to cryptoassets and also describes a set of rules and requirements for asset issuers and service providers. The former will be obliged to register a legal entity, and service providers will be obliged to establish an official office in a member state of the European Union. Special attention is paid to stablecoins, which are divided into two categories: tokens linked to real assets and digital tokens. It is expected that the bill will be submitted for consideration in September, and will be able to enter into force no earlier than 2022.

 Bakkt Exchange Records Record Bitcoin Futures Trading Volume

The Bakkt cryptocurrency platform has reported a new all-time record for daily trading volume in bitcoin futures. On September 15, the indicator reached 15,955 BTC (more than $ 200 million), which is 36% higher than the previous maximum. At the same time, the activity of BTC futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) dropped to the lowest levels - about $ 262 million. Unlike CME, Bakkt allows customers to receive instrument settlements in Bitcoin. The site was launched in 2018 by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) operator, which owns the New York Stock Exchange.

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 Tether capitalization reaches $15 billion

USDT market cap has exceeded $15 billion. As of September 18, capitalization increased by another $200 million and reached $15.284 billion. Over the past 20 days, the indicator has grown by 50%, and since the beginning of the year - by 3.7 times. Analysts attribute this to the rapid rise in popularity of the decentralized financial applications sector. Tether developers have previously noted that many investors enter the crypto market precisely through USDT. For example, Asian traders most often buy bitcoin and altcoins using Tether tokens. Most of the coins ($10 billion) are issued on the Ethereum blockchain, another $4 billion operates on the Tron network.

 Police summoned the head of Bithumb for questioning

Seoul police have summoned Lee Jong Hoon, chairman of the South Korean exchange Bithumb, for questioning. A fraud case is pending against him, local media reported. Lee Jong Hoon is accused of manipulating the presale of Bithumb BXA tokens, as a result of which investors lost about $25 million. On the second charge, he did not pay taxes on foreign real estate. Bithumb's offices were searched three times in September. During the latter, law enforcement officers seized shares in Bithumb Holdings owned by the company's director Kim Ben-gen. The bank plans to add new types of cards, improve the loyalty program, and add new functions for businesses and users.

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 BTC price is in a "steady upward trend"

As pointed by Delphi Digital analysts. Bitcoin's surge is now more robust than last year, as traders prefer to hold coins rather than speculate on exchanges. The current rise in bitcoin price to $12,500 in August differs from strengthening to $13,800 in 2019. Back then, the wallet balances of crypto exchanges were increasing, and this year they continue to fall, despite the rise in prices. This suggests that the selling pressure is now much lower. “This suggests a more sustainable move upwards for BTC, in comparison to that of 2019 as data indicates a holder base with longer time horizons,” analysts say. The balance of bitcoins on exchanges fell from an all-time high of 2.96 million coins in February to 2.59 million BTC today.

 Institutions want to increase Investments in bitcoin

Cryptocurrency insurance company Evertas conducted a survey among institutional investors from the US and the UK, who manage assets totalling $78.4 billion. It turned out that 90% of respondents expect an increase in investments in crypto assets. 64% of those surveyed said they expect a small increase in investment from pension funds, family managers, insurers and sovereign wealth funds. Another 26% of respondents believe that institutions will "dramatically" increase investment in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the next five years. #bestchange 84% of respondents attributed improved regulation to the reasons, and 80% named liquidity, which will grow along with the expansion of the crypto market.

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 Visa plans to create a payment system on the blockchain
 
Visa is exploring the possibility of creating an offline payment system based on the blockchain. According to the head of the cryptocurrency division of the company, Kai Sheffield, more details will become known during the year. “So we are continuing to advance research on that front and we'll hopefully have more to talk about in the coming year.” Sheffield said. He also added that the company is actively helping central banks develop government digital currencies. ““We think that if a central bank is going to issue a CBDC, they will need to consider a number of the same factors that are facing private companies building tokenized stablecoins,” the specialist said.
                                                                                 
 European Commission to launch sandbox blockchain by 2022
 
The European Commission, in an alliance with 30 countries called the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP), plans to launch a pan-European regulatory sandbox blockchain. This will happen by 2022. The agency is going to test the blockchain and digital currencies usage cases in the European infrastructure of EBSI blockchain services. EBSI is a joint initiative of the European Commission and EBP that aims to create a cross-border blockchain platform to deliver digital government services across the EU. The sandbox will also test smart contracts and digital identity. The Commission will pay special attention to the development of a regulatory framework in the field of asset tokenization and the operation of smart contracts.

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 Hackers Hacked KuCoin Exchange

On Saturday, September 26, the KuCoin cryptocurrency exchange reported it had been hacked. Attackers stole about $150 million worth of bitcoins, ERC-20 tokens and other crypto assets from hot wallets. Funds in cold wallets are safe, according to KuCoin representatives. They also promised their clients to recover all losses from the insurance fund. The company contacted law enforcement and launched an internal investigation. The site plans to resume deposit and withdrawal of funds within a week, said the head of KuCoin Johnny Liu.

 Miners left to mine 2.5 million BTC

At the moment, miners have mined about 18.5 million bitcoins, which is more than 86% of the maximum emission level. There are 2.5 million coins left to mine, and half of them will be mined in the next four years, says an analyst at ChartsBTC. The total number of bitcoins is limited to 21 million coins. The last of them, according to the idea of the creator of the cryptocurrency Satoshi Nakamoto, will be found by 2140. Once every four years, the reward for mining a block is halved, which slows down the issue of new bitcoins. Since the network was established in 2009, there have been three halves. The latter happened in May of this year, as a result of which the block reward decreased from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC.

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 Ethereum 2.0 final testnet launched

On September 29, the developers launched the Spadina test network, which will become a general test before the start of ETH 2.0. Spadina test network will work for three days, with its help the developers will test the depository contract and the process of launching the network. Testnet will work together with the already functioning Medalla network. At the moment, 41% of validators have joined Spadina. 2955 network participants contributed 94,560 test ETH. Earlier, the developers reported that if the Medalla and Spadina testnets work successfully, Ethereum 2.0 will be launched in November.

 93% of TOP-250 cryptocurrencies fell in price in September

Over the past few months, DeFi token prices have skyrocketed, sparking talk of a bull market. The boom in decentralized financial projects triggered an increase in the Ethereum price, which rose from $100 in March to $470 in August. However, in recent weeks, the euphoria in the DeFi sphere has faded, and with it the rest of the crypto market has subsided. According to CoinMetrics, 72% of the 250 largest crypto assets have lost in value over the past week, while 93% of top cryptocurrencies have seen a decline over the month. Most DeFi tokens fell by 15-85% in September. However, specialists from the DeFiWorld portal note that corrections are normal in a growing market, and the current year reminds them of 2016. “We move in bubbles and 4-year cycles. While everyone is just thinking about what happens today, this week, or this month, you should zoom out and reflect where we are really heading. The long term trend is clear: It’s upwards,”analysts point out.

 Users withdrew $5 billion in bitcoins from exchanges

Over the year, the balance of wallets of crypto-exchange clients decreased by 400 thousand BTC (about $5 billion). In October 2019, the figure was 2.8 million coins, and today it has dropped to 2.4 million. The inflow of bitcoins is considered a bearish signal, as traders bring coins to exchanges for sale. Consequently, the outflow of bitcoins from exchange wallets indicates that investors' appetite for selling is declining, according to Cointelegraph analyst Joseph Young. Another possible reason lies in recent exchange hacks. In September, hackers stole $150 million in cryptocurrency from the KuCoin exchange, and a little earlier - $4 million from the Eterbase platform.

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 BTC price will be rising until the end of the year

Analyst Willie Wu thinks. He draws attention to the fact that the number of new participants in the bitcoin network has grown significantly since mid-September, and the cryptocurrency price has not reacted to this. In the last year and a half, the price of bitcoin in all cases has increased following an increase in the characteristic. Therefore, BTC is currently undervalued, the analyst points out. He also notes that in September, market participants accumulated coins while the price moved sideways. This is indicated by the On Balance Volume indicator. Another important metric of the beginning of growth is the ribbons of complexity. The indicator has left the "compression" zone, which previously always indicated an increase in the value of bitcoin. “Overall: bullish the next 3 weeks, also bullish over next 3 months,” concludes Willie Wu.

 Bitcoin will rise in price to six-digit numbers

If one condition is met, said Michael van de Poppe, an analyst at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. He notes that previous bullish runs of the BTC price took place amid a falling dollar index. This was the case in 2014 and 2017. Since March this year, the index has also significantly lost in value, which contributed to the rise in the price of bitcoin to $12,400. The price of BTC may temporarily sink due to the second wave of coronavirus, but in the long term, the cryptocurrency will win as a safe-haven asset. “Of course, a potential drop by 25-35% could occur in the first stage of the crisis just like in March. But Bitcoin and gold would benefit significantly afterwards as safe havens against a weakening dollar, which is precisely what happened in December 2017 as BTC hit its all-time high of nearly $20,000,” writes van de Poppe. If the weakness of the dollar persists in 2021, then bitcoin may rise in price to six-digit numbers, the analyst said.

 New US stimulus measures will strengthen bitcoin

The BTC rate will continue to rise this week amid falling dollar index, Cointelegraph analyst William Suberg writes. The index declines for the fourth day in a row as negotiations continue in Washington on new stimulus measures due to the coronavirus epidemic. The amount of support can reach $2.5 trillion. US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin confirmed that the measures will include a new round of payments in the amount of $1,200 for a number of categories of US citizens. Past payments took place this spring during the first wave of coronavirus. Then the crypto-exchanges recorded a sharp jump in deposits for exactly the amount of incentive checks. Trader Ton Weiss recommends buying bitcoin as he believes the authorities will continue to issue dollars. “No matter who wins they will keep printing, so buy bitcoin,” Weiss wrote during a debate between US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

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 John McAfee arrested in Spain on tax evasion charges

John McAfee was arrested in Spain on tax evasion charges, according to the US Department of Justice. He will be extradited to the United States. The businessman faces more than five years in prison on the charges brought against him. On the same day that McAfee was detained, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued him for promoting initial coin offerings (ICOs). The businessman allegedly misled investors by not saying that he was receiving money for advertising projects. According to the SEC, McAfee received over $11.6 million worth of BTC and ETH for promoting seven ICOs in 2017 and 2018. He also raised $11.5 million in promotions. John McAfee got a lot of fame in the cryptosphere after promising to "eat his own dick" if bitcoin does not rise to $ 1 million by 2021. Later, the founder of the McAfee antivirus said that "only an idiot would believe" in this prediction. At the moment, McAfee's Twitter has more than 1 million subscribers.

 75 crypto exchanges closed in 2020

Analytical portal Cryptowisser reports. Basically, the list includes centralized sites. Compared to last year, the figure is up 56% and "there are no signs of decline." While the crypto industry continues to show impressive growth, the cryptocurrency exchange industry is facing high competition and regulatory requirements, analysts write. According to the report, exchanges are most often closed on their own, due to hacks or at the request of the authorities. The positions of centralized exchangers have also been hit hard by the development of decentralized exchanges. “For a new centralized exchange to flourish, it will likely need to have some form of unique edge that is not already on the market today,” notes Cryptowisser.

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 BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes steps down after accusations

BitMEX has announced a complete change of leadership. Earlier, the US authorities charged the founders of the exchange with illegal use of an unregistered trading platform and failure to comply with anti-money laundering requirements. BitMEX operator 100x Group announced that exchange co-founders Arthur Hayes, Samuel Reed and Ben Delo will step down from senior positions in the company. Business Development Manager Greg Dwyer is taking a vacation. Vivienne Khu will be the interim CEO. Previously she held the position of Chief Operating Officer of 100x Group. “These changes to our executive leadership mean we can focus on our core business of offering superior trading opportunities for all our clients through the BitMEX platform, whilst maintaining the highest standards of corporate governance,” said David Wong, chairman of 100x Group, in the post,” commented David Wong, Chairman of 100x Group.

 The value of tokenized bitcoins WBTC reaches $1 billion

The recent DeFi boom has resulted in a 900% increase in the total locked value (TVL) of tokenized Wrapped BTC. At the moment, the figure exceeds $1 billion. The current TVL of all tokenized bitcoins is almost $1.5 billion, of which one third falls on WBTC. Wrapped Bitcoin is now the fifth-largest DeFi protocol in terms of TVL, accounting for nearly 10% of the sector-wide locked capital. Wrapped Bitcoin allows users to block BTC in exchange for WBTC, an ERC-20 token pegged to Bitcoin. This enables BTC holders to access the Ethereum-based decentralized finance ecosystem, using bitcoins as collateral.

 Capitalization of the DeFi sector falls by 25% in a day

The DeFi market experienced a sharp decline: on October 7, the total capitalization of assets fell by 25%. Santiment analysts estimate that daily trading volumes for DeFi tokens fell 30%, while recent market leaders Sushi (SUSHI), Uniswap (UNI) and Yearn Finance (YFI) lost 51%, 38% and 31% in value over the week. respectively. “The crypto market has been engulfed in a sea of red this week, with most DeFi blue chips recording double digit losses over the past 7 days,” analysts wrote. They also noticed that large players began to accumulate some of the assets.alytical portal Cryptowisser reports. Basically, the list includes centralized sites. Compared to last year, the figure is up 56% and "there are no signs of decline." While the crypto industry continues to show impressive growth, the cryptocurrency exchange industry is facing high competition and regulatory requirements, analysts write. According to the report, exchanges are most often closed on their own, due to hacks or at the request of the authorities. The positions of centralized exchangers have also been hit hard by the development of decentralized exchanges. “For a new centralized exchange to flourish, it will likely need to have some form of unique edge that is not already on the market today,” notes Cryptowisser.

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 BTC rate sets a maximum of 5 weeks

At the weekend, the price of the first cryptocurrency continued to grow and exceeded the $11'500 mark. Bitcoin was last trading this high on September 2. Sunday was the fifth trading day in a row that BTC closed with a profit. The cryptocurrency has gained 7.3% since last Wednesday. At the same time, bitcoin trading volumes have been falling for the third day in a row - during this time they have decreased by 71% to $19 billion. The cryptocurrency market capitalization is $360 billion.

 1,000 BTC moved for the first time since 2010

An unknown sender transferred 1,000 bitcoins, which had not been moved since 2010. The coins were withdrawn to one address and then split into transactions of 10 BTC each, according to the Goldfoundinshit resource. Tracking the history of transactions, the authors of the portal came to the conclusion that all the coins belong to one owner. A similar transfer took place on March 11, right before the collapse of the BTC price from $7,900 to $4,000. Then, too, 1,000 bitcoins, which had been “sleeping” since 2010, came into motion. In both cases, the sender first withdrew the coins to a P2SH address and then split them into multiple bech32 addresses.

 Tether will displace Ethereum from the second place in terms of capitalization

According to Bloomberg analysts. Moreover, this will happen next year. Today Ethereum ranks second in the cryptocurrency capitalization rating with $41.48 billion. Tether (USDT) lags almost three times behind with a value of $15.73 billion. Since the end of August, the capitalization of the USDT token has grown by more than 50%, which allowed the stablecoin to displace XRP from the third place. The Bloomberg report notes that if the current trend continues, Tether would be able to bypass ETH as early as 2021. “Increasing adoption of stable coins is likely a precursor for central bank digital currencies and promises to be more enduring than alt-coin speculative excesses. The rapid rise in the market cap of stable coins indicates that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are a matter of time, in our view,” analysts say.

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 Fidelity Investment: BTC capitalization will reach $1 trillion

Fidelity Investment, one of the world's largest asset management companies, has published a report on investments in Bitcoin. It demonstrates how much profit managers could get if they invested part of their portfolio in bitcoin. The company also noted that in the near future, interest from institutional investors could increase the market capitalization of BTC by hundreds of billions of dollars. The bond market is valued at about $50.3 trillion. If bitcoin captures just 1% of this market, its capitalization will grow by $500 billion. The report argues that steadily declining bond yields could prompt financial managers to seek alternative assets. According to the most optimistic forecasts of Fidelity analysts, the capitalization of bitcoin could grow to $2 trillion. With the current supply of 18.5 million coins and an average market price of $11,415, this will send the rate to $108,000.

 Binance CEO: Chinese and US Presidents Could Spur Bitcoin Rally

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the crypto exchange Binance, , commented on the tweet of the US President, in which he hinted at the imminent adoption of stimulus measures to support the economy. According to Zhao, in the coming days this could provoke an increase in the bitcoin price. In addition, Chinese President Xi Jinping may issue a statement on the blockchain on October 14. Last year, this caused the price of BTC to rise by 30% in a day, and a number of altcoins grew in price by 50-100%. “We will likely have two of the world's most powerful presidents pump crypto for us in 2 consecutive days. Rumor has it that a blockchain related announcement is coming out of China tomorrow, ”Zhao said on October 13.

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 OKEx has suspended the withdrawal of cryptocurrencies

OKEx, the world's second largest crypto exchange, has suspended the withdrawal of all cryptocurrencies for an indefinite period. The platform representatives said that one of the private key holders " currently cooperating with a public security bureau in investigations/" OKEx plans to resume withdrawals of digital assets "immediately" as soon as the key holder "can authorize the transaction." OKEx said it decided to suspend withdrawals under the terms of service, but added that these events "will not affect" the security of customers' assets. The head of the exchange, Jay Hao, noted that the cooperation of the key holder with officials is associated with a "personal problem" and the investigation will not affect the business. Chinese media Caixin reported that OKEx co-founder Star Xu was detained by the police at least a week ago and has not been seen since.

 Institutions can cause Bitcoin shortages in the market

In recent months, there has been a significant surge in demand for bitcoin from institutional investors. 10T Holdings co-founder Dan Tapiero believes this could lead to a BTC shortage over time. Along with investments in bitcoin from Square, MicroStrategy and Stone Ridge, the investment fund Grayscale reported record inflows. In the third quarter of 2020, the company's bitcoin trust received $1.05 billion in investments. This marked the first quarter with over $1 billion in investments, which indicates record high demand from institutional traders. Based on these data, the fund buys about 77% of all coins mined by miners. “Shortages of Bitcoin possible. Barry's Grayscale Trust is eating up BTC like there is no tomorrow. If 77% of all newly mined turns into 110%, it's lights out. Non-miner supply will get held off market in squeeze. Shorts will be dead. Price can go to any number, ” said the businessman.

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 ETH 2.0 deposit contract may be launched this week

ConsenSys developer Ben Edgington announced that the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract will be launched "in the coming days." It will allow transferring coins between Ethereum and Ethereum 2.0. This is one of the few remaining updates required to launch the second version of the web. Genesis block ETH 2.0 will appear within 6-8 weeks, according to the developer who clarifies that this is "not an official statement." "Meanwhile, be careful out there. Many fake deposit contracts and Launchpad front-ends will erupt in the coming days. Look out for the official announcements: do not send Eth to random contracts; this is not DeFi,” Edgington warned.

 The BTC rate has come close to $12,000

On October 20, the bitcoin price rose to $11,930, which became the highest value since the beginning of September. In 24 hours, the first cryptocurrency went up by 2.8%, and in two weeks it added more than 11% in price. The bitcoin dominance index in the cryptocurrency market rose to 59%. Earlier, the BTC hashrate once again updated its historical maximum. In addition, the trading volume of the first cryptocurrency jumped sharply in relation to altcoins - to a three-year peak. At the same time, the altcoin market capitalization decreased by 4.8% over the week.

 Large investors withdraw ethereum from exchanges

Santiment analysts noticed that Ethereum whales are withdrawing coins from exchanges. Over the past two months, the amount of ETH on the largest exchangers' wallets has decreased by 20.5%. This indicates "price confidence on the part of leaders," Santiment writes. A similar trend is noted by the Glassnode service, according to which the volume of ethereum on the exchanges fell to a minimum of nine months. At the same time, the number of addresses with a balance of more than 32 ETH has reached a historic peak - this is how many coins are needed for staking on the Ethereum 2.0 network.

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 Bitcoin price updated a 15-months maximum

On Wednesday night, the first cryptocurrency rose in price to $13,200, which became a record value since July 2019. Over the past 24 hours, bitcoin has gained 5.90% in price, and has strengthened by 14.50% over the week. The active stage of growth began after the announcement that PayPal would support cryptocurrency. The share of bitcoin in the cryptocurrency market has also increased, at the moment reaching 61.67%. At the same time, market capitalization exceeded $394 billion, having updated a maximum of two and a half years.

 10% of bitcoins haven't moved in over 10 years

According to the Glassnode service, 1.8 million BTC have not moved in over 10 years. At the moment, the bitcoin supply is about 18.5 million BTC, which makes almost 10% of the mined coins inactive. Today, the total value of sleeping bitcoins exceeds $23 billion. Most of these coins may belong to the creator of the cryptocurrency Satoshi Nakamoto, who has remained silent since 2011. It is estimated that Nakamoto owns 1 million coins that have been inactive since mining. In May, coins minted in February 2009 suddenly began to move. The owner sent 50 BTC to two different addresses without giving any reason.

 State Duma representative predicts the timing for testing of the digital rouble

Anatoly Aksakov, head of the Russian State Duma Committee on the financial market, expressed the opinion that testing of the digital rouble will begin next year. “I know that many serious businessmen are preparing to issue digital assets. The Central Bank took a big step forward by announcing that it is starting consultations on digital assets. I am sure that there will be testing of the digital rouble, perhaps as early as next year,” the official said during his speech at the Blockchain Life 2020 forum. He emphasized that he is in dialogue with cryptocurrency companies that offer their solutions in the field of market regulation. According to Aksakov, in power structures "everyone understands how important it is to develop blockchain technology, but there are different points of view."