Crypto Market Overview January 19th | Dex-Trade
How Cryptocurrencies Helped Ukraine: the Main Topic of the 3rd Day at the WEF
The main topic of the third day of the World Economic Forum in Davos will be the actual assistance that the crypto community has provided to Ukrainian refugees since the start of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. On the agenda is a discussion of how exactly blockchain technology and, in particular, stablecoins, helped in the fight against the largest humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. The panelists also plan to consider other cases of crypto assistance to various population groups. According to the announcement, Stellar, a blockchain solutions company partnering with the Ukrainian government to develop a digital hryvnia, will host two sessions today on cryptography and blockchain technologies. From 13:30 to 14:30 CET there will be a session titled "Breaking Barriers with Blockchain: How do we drive responsible and sustainable innovation." The CEO and CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation, Denel Dixon, will be among the speakers for this session, along with Julien Courbet, Director of Accounts and PwC's Managing Partner for Global Advisory. The second session, titled “Crypto’s Last-Mile Solution, A Discussion and Happy Hour with Circle, Stellar Development Foundation, and UNHCR” will be held from 17:00 to 19:00. This session will be moderated by Teana Baker-Taylor, VP of Policies and Rules for Circle. Read about the results of the events in our next digests.
US Authorities Arrested Anatoly Legkodymov from Bitzlato
On Wednesday, U.S. federal officials announced the arrest of Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national and 40-year-old Chinese resident who ran Bitzlato, a Hong Kong-listed cryptocurrency exchange that has become a haven for proceeds from illegal activities. The crypto trading platform processed hundreds of millions of dollars in dirty money, according to the authorities' indictment. Bitzlato, either directly or through third-party channels, has processed more than $700 million worth of cryptocurrency transactions initiated by users of the Hydra Market, a darknet marketplace for drugs, fake identities and other illegal goods. Last April, the German Ministry of Justice and law enforcement authorities took action against Hydra Market, which led to its closure. In turn, the US Department of Justice stated that Bitzlato was disabled as part of an “international cryptocurrency enforcement operation” on Wednesday, January 18, 2023. Legkodymov is also accused of conducting transactions in Bitzlato from Miami between 2022 and this year, as well as a suspiciously high volume of used traffic to his website from IP addresses located in the United States. That's over 250 million visitors in July 2022, according to the Department of Justice, and those visitors are US citizens who are now also losing their money due to the suspension of withdrawals from Bitzlato.
Charles Hoskinson Accuses YouTuber Ran Neuner of Misrepresenting Cardano
In a recent tweet, the founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, was “offended” by YouTuber Ran Neuner because he “shilling for Solana and Luna,” but does not represent Cardano in a positive and profitable way. Hoskinson accused the blogger of being dishonest and promoting a venture capital report that misrepresents developer activity on Cardano. The point is that while Cardano consistently ranks among the top blockchains in terms of Github commits, critics claim that this chain of code is “vaporware” software with little to no developer activity. The skirmish naturally sparked discussions about the integrity issues associated with the Neuner reports and provoked a backlash in the wider crypto space of developers and investors. At the same time, Hoskinson continues to insist that Neuner is simply trying to “sell his book.” In his latest address at the time of writing, the Cardano founder wrote to Neuner: “You are lucky you’re not in the US. We prosecute financial crimes here.”
