Welcome to another week and another Moonday Mornings. It’s Hard Fork’s wrap-up of the weekend’s top cryptocurrency and blockchain headlines.
Let’s get to it.
1. Facebook has removed a number of fake adverts that falsely claim Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates has set up a Bitcoin trading platform. Scammers tricked thousands into investing into the get-rich-quick scheme using imagery of the Crown Prince, local news reports. It’s unclear how much money scammers were able to generate.
2. Redditors that use the Brave browser will reportedly be able to tip each other in cryptocurrency in the near future, according to Decrypt. Brave will be adding a “tip button” on Reddit that lets users send each other denominations of the basic attention token (BAT). It’s the same token used by the browser to let Twitter users tip their favorite tweeters.
3. Messaging app Kik has handed over control of the Defend Crypto fund to the Blockchain Association, according to an announcement on the fund’s website. Defend Crypto was originally setup to crowdfund Kik’s legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission over its, “not-a-security,” security token Kin.
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4. Even though Bitcoin’s price is over double what it was at the start of the year (at the time of writing) cryptocurrency apps have not seen the same growth, Bloomberg reports. In the first six months of 2018 there were 65.8 million downloads of cryptocurrency-related apps, compared to 67 million downloads in the same period of 2019.
5. According to a survey conducted by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, 58 percent of Americans say they’ve heard of Bitcoin. What’s more, over the past year more Americans searched Google for “Bitcoin” than for “royal wedding” or “election results.”
Well there you have it, now go and get on with your week of hodling.
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