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1. Putin: “No One Can Ban Bitcoin, Everyone Strives to Lower Costs and Enhance Reliability” link Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Russia Calling Investment Forum, stated, “Who can ban Bitcoin? No one can. Who can prohibit the use of other electronic payment methods? No one can, either. These are new technologies. Regardless of the future of the dollar, these tools will evolve in one way or another, as everyone strives to reduce costs and increase reliability.” 2. WikiLeaks Founder Assange Mints Afghanistan War Logs as Bitcoin Ordinals Inscriptions link Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, and his supporters have launched “Project Spartacus,” minting 76,911 Afghan War Log files as inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain using the Ordinals protocol. This initiative aims to ensure the permanent preservation of these records, which document classified details of U.S. military operations, including civilian casualties and interrogation methods. The project is seen as a sign...

Top Korean paper knew its award went to $3B crypto scam, victims say On the first day of a dramatic National Assembly audit in Seoul, lawmakers demanded a special investigation into the KOK cryptocurrency scam that may have been promoted by South Korea’s right-wing top daily paper, the Chosun Ilbo. According to Aju Press, a coalition of victims is accusing two subsidiaries of Chosun Ilbo of promoting the crypto despite knowing that it was fraudulent. Jin Eun-ja, the coalition’s leader, believes these positive promotions were then used by scammers to reassure concerned investors that KOK was legitimate — and that the newspaper contributed to a delay in prosecution. It’s estimated that KOK has caused 4 trillion won ($2.97 billion) in damages in South Korea alone. South Korea’s investigation into the KOK crypto fraud is led by the Ulsan District Prosecutor’s Office and has been ongoing for several years. No significant breakthroughs have been mad...

A recent report revealed that altcoin trading in the South Korean crypto currency market was high, in contrast to majors like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) where trading activity has declined in comparison.  The number of South Korean investors was estimated to reach about six million in the first six months of 2023, a figure accounting for 10 percent of the South Korean population, according to a survey carried out by the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit, as reported by DeSpread Research. Meanwhile, most of these investors use centralized exchanges (CEXes) for their trading activities, which explains the popularity of CEXes as against their decentralized counterparts.  In South Korea, there are four major cryptocurrency exchanges — Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit — with Upbit being the country’s largest player at 80 percent, while Korbit’s market share is below one percent.  You might also like: Upbit receives license from Singapore’s financial r...