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Nigeria seems to be winning at all fronts recently. From the Commonwealth Games to the international music scene. And now, a win has been recorded in the crypto space too as the country is leading the pack for a growing curiosity in cryptocurrencies, according to a Coingecko research.
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Here is our weekly newsletter roundup. Now get a bucket of popcorn and follow through. First, a brief summary….
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Summary of the news
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- Nigerians are very interested in crypto
- Binance recovers $450k stolen funds
- Report says criminals have laundered $540 million through RenBridge
- Barca and Real Madrid file joint application for crypto and metaverse
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Nigeria is the most interested country in crypto
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According to a published study by CoinGecko, Google Trend search statistics indicate that Nigeria ranks top as the most crypto-obsessed country since the market crash began in April with an overall score of 371.
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The score is based on a total search score of a combination of specific keywords, including ‘cryptocurrency’, ‘invest in crypto’, ‘buy crypto’, ‘Bitcoin (BTC)’, ‘Ethereum (ETH)’, and ‘Solana (SOL)’.
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Among the surveyed countries, only Nigeria recorded a peak popularity score of 100 for keywords of ‘cryptocurrency’, ‘invest in crypto’, and ‘buy crypto’.
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The United Arab Emirates ranked a distant second with a score of 271, followed by Singapore at 261, with Australia emerging fourth at 218. The United Kingdom ranked fifth overall with a score of 198.
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Other surveyed countries include Canada (192), Georgia (187), Lebanon (168), New Zealand (167), Trinidad & Tobago (164), Pakistan (158), United States (157), Ireland (154), Cyprus (151), and Kenya (143).
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The findings corroborate a previous April research that indicated about 35% of Nigeria’s population are crypto investors. The West African country’s obsession with crypto is driven by factors like a struggling economy. Citizens have turned to crypto as a store of value to beat the rising inflation and the devaluation of the local currency(naira).
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Binance recovers $450k stolen funds
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Technext reported on Friday the Curve Finance exploit in which $570,000 was stolen. But now, Binance has seized over $450,000 worth of crypto assets from the stolen funds.
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Binance’s founder/CEO Changpeng Zhao made the announcement on Twitter on Friday afternoon. According to him, the frozen proceeds represent about 83% of the total sum stolen in the incident.
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“The hacker kept on sending the funds to Binance in different ways, thinking we can’t catch it,” he said, adding that the exchange was already working with law enforcement to return the funds to users.
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Previously, the Lightning Network-based cryptocurrency exchange Fixed Float froze about 112 ETH, currently worth around $212,000. “Our security department has frozen part of the funds in the amount of 112 ETH,” Fixed Float tweeted Tuesday.
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The two seizures, in aggregate, bring the asset recovery up to 100%, meaning all victims that lost money in the front-end attack on Curve can be fully compensated.
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As of now, the hackers might have lost just about all of the funds stolen from Curve as they were immediately traced and frozen. Curve is however yet to speak on the recovery of the stolen funds.
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Criminals laundered $540m through RenBridge in two years
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According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, the cross-chain bridge RenBridge has been used to launder over $540 million over the past two years.
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In a Wednesday CNBC interview, Elliptic’s vice president of policy and regulatory affairs, David Carlisle, said that the cross-chain bridge has been used to launder at least $540 million in illicit crypto proceeds over the last two years, including over $153 million that allegedly originated from ransomware payments.
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Furthermore, Carlisle said that he thinks regulators will begin zeroing in on cross-chain bridges in the next six to 12 months. “One major question is whether bridges will become subject to regulation since they act a lot like crypto exchanges, which are already regulated,” he said.
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Elliptic has claimed that RenBridge has been used by notorious cybercrime syndicates, including the North Korean state-sponsored Lazarus Group and the suspected Russia-based cybercrime group behind the Conti ransomware. According to the firm, the latter group allegedly has laundered more than $53 million through RenBridge.
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Barca and Real Madrid file joint application for Metaverse
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Despite the hype around metaverse deflating and the trading volume of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) going down since January 2022, organizations, brands, and celebrities worldwide are still flocking to apply for related trademarks.
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The newest additions to the space are Spanish football clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. They filed for a joint cryptocurrency and metaverse trademark application, according to the metaverse trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis who posted the news on Twitter on Thursday.
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The El Clásico rivals filed the trademarks on August 5, covering virtual reality gaming, non-downloadable virtual clothing, footwear, and headwear, downloadable blockchain transaction management software, e-wallet software, and more.
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Recall that earlier in June, the English Premier League (EPL) applied for two trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) – for its name and ‘lion head’ logo, as well as the ‘loving cup trophy’ logo.
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Other stories we are following
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