Important PredictIt news: The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued an order to shut down one of the most popular blockchain-based prediction markets, PredictIt.

The PredictIt marketplace, operated by Victoria University of New Zealand, had been operating in the U.S. since October 2014, when the company received a no-action letter from the CFTC. However, the regulator has now stated that the prediction marketplace does not follow the requirements listed in the letter, so the Commission has decided to ban the service in the U.S.

What is PredictIt 2022? 

The PredictIt prediction market is called a “stock market for politics.” Essentially, traders buy and sell stocks that rate the outcome of an event. If the community agrees with the trader, the stock price goes up and the trader makes a profit. Many call such prediction markets the most accurate measure of public opinion because users risk their money.

However, regulators believe that prediction markets are too similar to gambling or unregistered futures sales. Especially since it is illegal in the U.S. to bet on the outcome of presidential elections, and many prediction markets have markets on politics.

CFTC officials did not say exactly what regulatory requirements the site has violated, but it must cease operations in the U.S. by February 15, 2023. Until then, PredictIt can accept deposits and calculate bets on existing predictions, but adding new markets is prohibited.

Earlier this year, prediction marketplace Polymarket blocked US users from accessing the platform. The blocking was part of an agreement to settle claims against Polymarket by the CFTC.

Is bitcoin mining profitable? The difficulty of mining bitcoin began to drop precipitously as the largest-capitalization cryptocurrency’s price fell below $20,000

The Bitcoin Blockchain Network (BTC) is recording a decline in the number of active miners, which is reflected in a gradual drop in complexity. According to btc.com, bitcoin’s complexity has been dropping with each recalculation since May 10, and in late July the values dropped to the level of March this year.

Despite the decline, the situation so far does not look as dramatic as during the move of miners from China in the summer of 2021. Then it took only a little more than a month to zero out the semiannual capacity. However, it is worth noting that the current decline was the first systematic drop in bitcoin mining complexity since the “cryptocurrency winter” of 2018.

The drop in bitcoin mining algorithm complexity may be the result of a capacity outage from the network. As a reminder, the media has previously repeatedly reported on large sales of bitcoin reserves by miners to cover loans.

In June, the editorial board wrote that mining centers were in danger of closing as cryptocurrency miners were having difficulty meeting their credit obligations. Luxor Technologies co-founder Ethan Vera told Bloomberg that many lenders (Bable Finance, Galaxy Digital, bankrupt Celsius Network, BlockFi, Foundry Networks) are concerned that they have made too many loans to secure the mining devices themselves. He estimates that the firms have issued $4 billion in loans in total.

It remains unclear whether the miners could reach a consensus with their lenders. However, the weekly drop in complexity may signal that bitcoin miners still seem to have to cut back on processing capacity.

WazirX news: India’s economic intelligence agency froze assets of Binance-bought WazirX after allegations of money laundering

Indian authorities have seized $8.1 million that belongs to WazirX. This is reported by Reuters citing economic intelligence in India. The reason for the sanctions is cited as a violation of the currency regime.

Intelligence says the arrest was made as part of an investigation into helping instant loan companies, laundering proceeds and converting criminal money into cryptocurrency. In addition to WazirX, the investigation also includes several fintech companies that were actively sponsored by Chinese hedge funds, the intelligence agency said. However, it is not clear which hedge funds are in question.

Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, commented almost immediately on the news of the connection with WazirX. According to him, Binance “never completed” the takeover of WazirX. He acknowledged that the company had announced the purchase of WazirX, but had not completed the purchase. What exactly was the reason for freezing the deal remains unclear. At the same time, it is worth noting that WazirX does not exist as such. 

At the same time, Zhao admitted that WazirX did use Binance wallets. Moreover, the parties even set up a system of “offchain transactions to reduce fees.”

Earlier, the media reported that about $350 million may have been laundered through WazirX. According to Indian Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary, the investigation found that the cryptocurrency storage system in WazirX is entirely tied to Binance wallets. Also, in fact, no transactions were recorded between the two exchanges via the blockchain.

This is not the first time WazirX has come under scrutiny by local authorities. For example, in January 2021, Tax India found that WazirX had evaded taxes totaling nearly $5.5 million. Because of the violations found, the exchange was fined $6.6 million.

Moreover, in the summer of 2021, WazirX was also accused of money laundering. Then India’s economic intelligence agency suspected the company of helping to launder about $7.9 million. Indian rupees were first converted into tether (USDT), and later they were transferred to Binance. Accusations of violations of Indian law became active in the media after the company was taken over by another trading platform, Binance, in 2019.