🌐 Ziggy virus operators shut down and release decryption keys
The hacker group behind the Ziggy ransomware virus has announced it has ceased activity and has released the keys to decrypt files.
“We decided to publish all the decryption keys. We are very sorry for what we did. The keys will be published in the near future, ”the Ziggy administrator said in a Telegram group.
After that, an SQL file appeared in the channel, which contains 922 keys for decrypting encrypted files. It contains three keys for each Ziggy victim - one authentication key and two decryption keys.
As the reason for the creation and spread of the virus, the administrator named the desire to earn money because of living in a "third world country." Most likely, the hackers decided to publish decryption keys in connection with the arrest of one of the operators of the NetWalker ransomware virus, as well as the arrests of the Emotet virus operators.
“It looks like the arrest of people associated with the Emotet and Netwalker viruses scared some criminals. If so, it is possible that other hacker groups will publish the keys. Let's hope, ”said Emsisoft employee Brett Callow.
As a reminder, at the end of January, the Asian retail chain Dairy Farm Group, known for its 7-Eleven and Rose Pharmacy stores, was attacked by the REvil ransomware virus.
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🌐 Ban on "private" cryptocurrencies in India may be introduced in March this year
The Indian government can accelerate the adoption and consideration of the bill, which provides for strict regulation of cryptocurrencies in the country through a special presidential decree.
According to CNBC-TV18 , the Indian government may take the "ruling path" and prohibit the use of "private" cryptocurrencies in the country, as well as create a regulatory framework for the digital rupee, a government cryptocurrency developed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Taking action under the proposed bill using this method would require Indian President Ram Nath Kovind to issue a decree.
The preparation of the draft resolution has already begun with the aim of the entry into force of the law on cryptocurrencies "within a month" after its release. Unlike bills approved by parliament, the ordinances allow the Indian government to take immediate legislative action. As CNBC-TV18 reporter Timsy Jaipuria noted, "The government wants this bill to be approved as soon as possible."
At the end of January, it was revealed that the 2021 Cryptocurrency and Official Digital Currency Regulation Bill under consideration by legislators bans the use of cryptocurrencies in India and provides the basis for the creation of an official digital currency to be issued by RBI. Now the bill is being considered in the upper house of the Indian Parliament as part of its budget session, which will last until April 8, with a break from February 16 to March 7.
The president is empowered to issue decrees during parliamentary hiatuses, which means India could ban cryptocurrencies as early as March. While the bill talks about banning all "private" cryptocurrencies, it also introduces "certain exemptions to promote the underlying cryptocurrency technology and its use." Last week, the Indian government said it was leaning towards regulating cryptocurrencies rather than banning them altogether.
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🌐 Protego Trust Bank Receives OCC License for US Banking
Protego Trust Bank became the second cryptocurrency company to receive approval from the United States Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to conduct banking activities in the country.
Protego secured conditional approval from the OCC, following custodian service Anchorage, which received a similar banking license in January. According to the press release , the newly established trust bank will also offer a trading platform for clients, new digital asset issuance services and a P2P lending platform.
“Protego's integrated offering will be of great benefit to organizations that want to be able to keep their assets in a federally regulated bank,” said Jonathan Silverman, chief strategist at Protego.
According to an OCC press release , Protego has 18 months to comply with all regulatory requirements before being transformed into a national bank under conditional approval. Protego's head of business development, Chris Hunter, said the company was committed to custodianship of more than $ 1.5 billion of assets.
“OCC has made tremendous strides in a short period of time regarding digital banking approvals, and we are very pleased to have received one of the first licenses issued by OCC,” said Protego founder Greg Gilman.
As a reminder, Avanti cryptocurrency bank received a license from the Wyoming regulator last fall .
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🌐 Mexican Billionaire Raises BTC Rate To $ 40,960 With Twitter Mention
Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego added the hashtag "bitcoin" to his Twitter profile. As a result, on some exchanges, the price of BTC reached $ 40,960.
Pliego ranks second among Mexican billionaires. In January, his fortune was estimated at more than $ 13 billion. Pliego is the founder and chairman of Grupo Salinas, a Mexican media conglomerate that includes the television company TV Elektra and consumer electronics firm Grupo Elektra.
In the past few months, Pliego has started to show great interest in the first cryptocurrency, considering it an alternative to paper money. This weekend, Pliego changed his Twitter profile to include the hashtag "Bitcoin." This was one of the reasons for the growth in the rate of the first cryptocurrency, which reached $ 40,960 over the weekend.
Pliego said that he first bought Bitcoin at $ 200 in 2013. The billionaire then sold it in 2017 during a bullish trend, when the cryptocurrency was worth about $ 17,000. Pliego called Bitcoin his "best investment of all time." In November, he announced that he had invested 10% of his "liquid portfolio" in bitcoin and the rest in precious metals. According to Pliego, he plans to hold the cryptocurrency for at least five years.
Recall that recently the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk also published several tweets about bitcoin, as a result of which the BTC rate rose by almost $ 5,000. Later, Musk began to write about Dogecoin, and in a week the price of this cryptocurrency rose by more than by 300%. Additionally, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey launched his own node on the Bitcoin network last week, confirming his confidence in the cryptocurrency.
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🌐 Acala Developers Launch Ethereum Compatible Polkadot Virtual Machine
DeFi platform developers Acala announced the launch of Acala EVM, an Ethereum-compatible Polkadot virtual machine that will improve blockchain interconnection.
Smart contracts deployed on the new EVM can use all assets based on Polkadot - DOT, ACA, aUSD, renBTC, etc. Additionally, Ethereum-based assets can be listed on the Acala-based Decentralized Exchange (DEX) and used to pay for gas.
For example, if a WETH owner sends a token to Acala, fees can be paid in ETH, without having to buy ACA tokens. In addition, Acala EVM supports its own network of oracles for broadcasting price streams in real time and supports different types of protocols: DEX, stablecoins, lending and borrowing tools, and others.
Acala is a decentralized financial protocol platform that leverages the power of the Polkadot blockchain. It is based on its main stablecoin aUSD and offers a variety of use cases, including "profitable farming", trading synthetic assets, earning interest, etc. All Acala processes are decentralized: the protocol is controlled through intra-network voting.
Polkadot is becoming an increasingly visible project and continues to attract the attention of industry participants. As a reminder, on February 4, 21Shares launched the world's first exchange-traded product (ETP) on Polkadot on the SIX Swiss Stock Exchange.
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🌐 The Block: cryptocurrency exchange sites attracted over 300 million visitors in January
The Block, citing data from SimilarWeb, reported that in January the number of visitors to the sites of cryptocurrency exchanges amounted to more than 300 million people.
If a month earlier this figure was only 196 million, then in January it increased to 344 million. Thus, the growth was 75% per month. Earlier, a record number of visitors to cryptocurrency exchanges was recorded in January 2018 - then 531 million people visited the sites of trading platforms.
The leader in terms of the number of visits is the Binance exchange - the site of the site accounts for 28.8% of visits, while the figure has been quite stable in recent months. But the American exchange Coinbase is aggressively increasing its share - if in October 2020 the indicator was 20.9%, then in January 2021 it increased to 25.11%. In third place in terms of attendance was another American site Kraken with a share of 6.19%.
Note that the growth in traffic to sites of cryptocurrency exchanges in January is not surprising, because it was at the beginning of the month that the rate of the first cryptocurrency exceeded $ 41,000 for the first time in history.
