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Crypto Exchange Okx Blocked by Russia’s Telecom Watchdog

Crypto Exchange Okx Blocked by Russia’s Telecom WatchdogRussian media and communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, has restricted access to the website of a major cryptocurrency exchange, Okx. The trading platform was one of those that did not restrict access for Russians amid sanctions that affected the industry’s business in Russia. Okx Blacklisted on Request From Russian Prosecutor’s Office for Disseminating Banned Information Russia’s Federal […]

Coinbase Says There Are Five Key Areas of the Crypto Market To Watch in 2025

FTX, Bybit rise in web traffic despite overall traffic drop on CEXs

Web traffic on FTX surged 123% YoY, while major exchanges like Coinbase and Binance were down 46% and 40% traffic-wise, respectively.

The ongoing cryptocurrency winter has triggered an overall decline in interest in centralized crypto exchanges (CEX), but some crypto trading platforms have seen a rise in website traffic.

A few major global crypto exchanges, including Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, have experienced a significant increase in web traffic despite the bear market of 2022, according to the website analytics platform SimilarWeb.

According to data shared with Cointelegraph, web traffic on the FTX crypto exchange has surged as much as 123% year-over-year (YoY) by June 2022.

Trading platforms like WhiteBIT and Bybit have seen even bigger growth in interest, with traffic surging 244% and 160% over the past year, respectively. KuCoin crypto exchange has also seen an increase in interest over the past year, with its website’s traffic edging up 50% YoY.

The traffic growth of FTX and Bybit came against the backdrop of the majority of CEXs experiencing a massive drop in interest in their websites.

The major United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase saw its web traffic plummet 46% YoY, experiencing one of the biggest losses among U.S. crypto exchanges. Rival exchanges like Kraken and Bittrex have also posted traffic losses, with visits dropping 38% and 54%, respectively.

The traffic on the global Binance exchange tumbled about 40%, according to data from SimilarWeb. The major blockchain browser and crypto wallet Blockchain.com also saw its traffic dropping 30%.

Crypto-friendly stock trading app Robinhood has also plummeted traffic-wise, with website visits dipping 65% YoY.

Despite a significant drop in website visits on many CEXs, the traffic on most crypto exchanges has still been up over the past three years. As such, web traffic on Coinbase, Kraken and Binance is up 36%, 105% and 263% over the period, respectively. Growing-traffic exchanges like Bybit and FTX have seen their visits skyrocket 1,600% and 9,400% over the period, respectively.

In contrast, some platforms like Bittrex.com and Blockchain.com have seen some traffic decline even over a longer period of time, with visits dropping 67% and 54% over the past three years, respectively.

The discrepancy between traffic movements on different crypto exchanges might be a reason for how different companies position themselves during tough times on the market.

Related: Coinbase partners with BlackRock to create new access points for institutional crypto investing

According to David Carr, senior insights manager at Similarweb, some exchanges like FTX have demonstrated more courage than other firms by forcing acquisitions and helping bankrupt platforms.

“More recently, FTX has been in the news as an acquirer or potential acquirer of other companies, such as some of the crypto lending and DeFi companies that were struggling but that FTX and its CEO thought had value,” Carr said. In the meantime, Coinbase might have suffered from "unfortunate headlines" about disclosing what would happen to customer funds if the company went bankrupt, he said, adding:

"Not that Coinbase is necessarily on the verge of bankruptcy, but just having the company name and bankruptcy in the same sentence was not a good thing.”

Coinbase is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the United States and is a publicly traded company since April 2021. The exchange has been involved in a number of regulatory conflicts recently, with U.S. authorities arresting a former Coinbase manager on allegations of insider trading in July. Already being investigated by the Securities and Exchanges Commission, Coinbase was slapped with two fresh legal claims last week.

Coinbase Says There Are Five Key Areas of the Crypto Market To Watch in 2025

TON Foundation launches Ethereum Name Service-like domain names

After launching the TON DNS, the TON Foundation will conduct an auction of the first “.ton” domain names on July 30.

The Open Network (TON) Foundation is the latest cryptocurrency company to upgrade its ecosystem with Ethereum Name Service (ENS)-like domain names.

The TON Foundation on Thursday announced the launch of TON DNS, a new service to allow users to assign human-readable names to crypto wallets, smart contracts and websites.

Similar to other popular crypto-related domain names like “.eth” or “.crypto” the domain zone for TON DNS is “.ton” and will enable users to access decentralized applications in a simple way.

With TON DNS, users will be able to use simple and short domain names instead of typing in a long string of letters and numbers.

A domain name created using TON DNS will not only function as a nickname but will also unlock a wallet address. The TON Foundation also plans to integrate its TON DNS technology into TON Sites and TON Proxy tools that are expected to launch in Q3 2022.

“A .ton domain name, therefore, will be a welcome alternative to centralized domain registries, which have the ability to block a website’s domain arbitrarily,” the announcement notes.

In conjunction with the TON DNS launch, the foundation announced that it will conduct an auction of the first “.ton” domain names on July 30. The auction has been “designed to be as decentralized as possible, with equal conditions” for all participants, the TON Foundation said, adding that it will be run on smart contracts for a period of seven days.

“Notably, coins from the sale of each domain will be removed from circulation — these tokens will be sent to a smart contract from which they will not be able to be withdrawn,” the announcement notes.

Related: 4-digit ENS domains spike in demand this week and continue soaring

The TON DNS launch closely follows the TON Blockchain’s integration with mobile and wallet Telegram bots earlier this year. “The launch of TON DNS will simplify how users engage with the TON blockchain and will continue to make TON even more accessible,” the Foundation said.

According to an announcement on June 30, TON DNS support has also been integrated into services like The Tonkeeper, TON Web Wallet and Tonscan.

The news comes shortly after the TON Foundation announced the completion of mining Toncoin’s entire issuance of 5 billion tokens on June 28. The end of Toncoin mining marked a major milestone in TON's distribution, starting its new era as a fully proof-of-stake blockchain.

Coinbase Says There Are Five Key Areas of the Crypto Market To Watch in 2025

Russian Appellate Court Cancels Decision to Block Tor Project’s Website

Russian Appellate Court Cancels Decision to Block Tor Project’s WebsiteA court of appeals in Russia has overturned a ruling by a regional court which allowed the blocking of the Tor Project’s website in the country. Due to violations during the initial proceedings, the case has been returned to the court of the first instance for another review. Roskomsvoboda Helps Cancel the Blocking of Tor […]

Coinbase Says There Are Five Key Areas of the Crypto Market To Watch in 2025

Russia Takes Down 4 Carding Sites With Over $260 Million in Crypto Turnover

Russia Takes Down 4 Carding Sites With Over 0 Million in Crypto TurnoverLaw enforcement in Russia has blocked major sites on the dark web, including a carding market leader. The platforms have been seized amid ongoing investigations into hacking groups, with Russian authorities ramping up efforts to dismantle the cybercrime rings and detain their members. Interior Ministry of Russia Hits Stolen Credit Cards Market The Ministry of […]

Coinbase Says There Are Five Key Areas of the Crypto Market To Watch in 2025

Bitcoin briefly dethroned by unknown altcoin due to CoinGecko glitch

The list of top-valued coins on CoinGecko briefly went somewhat irrelevant, with BTC falling behind the “Relevant” token.

CoinGecko, one of the largest cryptocurrency tracking websites in the world, suffered a major glitch on Friday morning, with Bitcoin (BTC) mistakenly losing its position as the largest digital currency by market capitalization to a lesser-known altcoin.

The list of top-valued cryptocurrencies on CoinGecko briefly went somewhat irrelevant, with BTC’s market cap temporarily falling behind a token known as Relevant (REL).

As of 7:20 am UTC, REL was mistakenly placed at the top of the most-valued cryptocurrencies on CoinGecko, with its market cap going insane at $6.5 septillion, or way more than all other assets in the world combined.

Source: CoinGecko

The glitch also affected the total crypto market capitalization on CoinGecko, with the market cap temporarily growing as big as $7 septillion. The issue was quickly fixed as the website data appeared to be back to normal as of 8:20 am UTC.

CoinGecko co-founder and CEO Bobby Ong told Cointelegraph that the website’s errors were due to a major glitch, stating:

“We are facing an internal glitch over here affecting the market cap of some coins and are fixing this issue now. Things are stabilizing, so hopefully, no more cases like this happening again.”

According to CoinGecko’s major competitor website, CoinMarketCap, the REL token subsequently surged following the glitch, with its price increasing to $0.9, or over 20% over the past 24 hours at the time of writing. The coin’s fully diluted market cap is now worth $24.7 million, ranked as the 5,378th token by market cap, according to the website.

The REL token was launched by crypto developer Slava Balasanov in 2018. After hitting the all-time high above $8 in April 2021, the REL token subsequently plummeted below $1 in a couple of months.

Some enthusiasts in the crypto community chuckled about CoinGecko’s latest glitch as it came shortly after CoinMarketCap’s owner, Binance, announced a $200-million investment in Forbes on Thursday.

Related: CoinMarketCap removes allegedly fake SHIB wormhole addresses

CoinGecko is not alone in facing glitches like this, though. CoinMarketCap experienced a similar issue in January 2021, with Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) suddenly gaining quadrillions of dollars in value, briefly and mistakenly becoming the website’s most-valued cryptocurrency.

Coinbase Says There Are Five Key Areas of the Crypto Market To Watch in 2025

Court Ruling Threatens 17 Crypto Exchanges in Russia

Court Ruling Threatens 17 Crypto Exchanges in RussiaAnother batch of Russian online crypto exchanges in Russia face closure following a recent decision by a regional court. Information published on their websites has been deemed illegal meaning the country’s telecom watchdog can block access to their platforms. Roskomnadzor May Take Down Blacklisted Crypto Exchanges A number of websites providing options to exchange, cash […]

Coinbase Says There Are Five Key Areas of the Crypto Market To Watch in 2025

Abkhazia Extends Internet Restrictions for Cryptocurrency Miners

Abkhazia Extends Internet Restrictions for Cryptocurrency MinersThe government in Abkhazia has extended an order prohibiting access to internet sites used by cryptocurrency miners. The measure is part of a wider ban on activities related to the extraction of digital coins that also limits the use of electricity and imports of mining equipment in the breakaway Georgian republic. Authorities in Abkhazia Confirm […]

Coinbase Says There Are Five Key Areas of the Crypto Market To Watch in 2025

Bitcoin.org goes offline after suffering scam attack

Bitcoin.org previously fell victim to a DDoS attack in July, with hackers demanding a Bitcoin ransom.

Bitcoin.org, one of the first websites about Bitcoin (BTC), has been hacked by online scammers and down as of the time of writing. 

Cobra, Bitcoin.org’s anonymous curator, announced on Sept. 23 that Bitcoin.org was compromised, with hackers managing to put up a scam notice on the site.

“Looks like Bitcoin.org got hacked and the entire site replaced with a scam asking for free Bitcoin. Do not send funds to that address,” Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo reported on Twitter.

Following a query from Corallo, Namecheap temporarily disabled the website. According to Cobra, the Bitcoin.org website “may be down for a few days.”

Prior to Bitcoin.org going offline, users reported that Bitcoin.org was showing a classic fake giveaway announcement, with scammers reportedly managing to collect about $17,000 to their addresses.

After disabling the website, Cobra suggested that the hackers exploited a flaw in the DNS, stating that Bitcoin.org’s Cloudflare accounts and servers were not compromised.

Related: Bitcoin.org blocks access to Bitcoin software download in the UK

The latest attack comes after Bitcoin.org fell victim of a DDoS attack in early July, alongside a ransom demand for an undisclosed amount of Bitcoin. The attack came just one week after a court in the United Kingdom ordered the website to stop hosting the Bitcoin white paper, ruling in favor of self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin SV proponent Craig Wright.

Coinbase Says There Are Five Key Areas of the Crypto Market To Watch in 2025

Blockchain.com introduces username-based crypto transactions

The new integration enables Blockchain.com users to send funds to major wallets by typing a readable domain.

Major crypto wallet provider Blockchain.com is integrating with Unstoppable Domains to simplify sending crypto funds for its customers.

Unstoppable Domains announced Thursday that it had integrated native support for Blockchain.com, enabling that latter's 32 million verified users to send funds with a username instead of a full-length crypto wallet address.

The initiative aims to remove the risk of human error when sending funds, simplifying transactions between Blockchain.com users and more than 50 other wallets and exchanges supported by Unstoppable Domains, including Coinbase wallet, MyEtherWallet and others.

The integration allows users to send cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) using a readable recipient’s domain instead of a 25-to-42-digit alphanumeric wallet address. This way, users will be protected from associated typos or miscopies.

“With our integration with Blockchain.com, an 'invalid address' message will pop up if the address is not linked to a wallet,” Unstoppable Domains founder and CEO Matthew Gould told Cointelegraph.

Gould said that there is no specific character length for a domain wallet address. “We only recommend you pick a domain that’s easy to read and remember. It could be your first and last name, your nickname, the name of your business,” he noted.

Related: Unstoppable Domains’ .crypto websites now available via Brave browser

The news comes amid Unstoppable Domains hitting a major milestone, with the company selling more than one million domain names that are minted as nonfungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain. Alongside sending and receiving funds, these NFT domains with a .crypto extension are used to create decentralized websites to publish content and access Web3.

Coinbase Says There Are Five Key Areas of the Crypto Market To Watch in 2025