Moonday Mornings: North Korea denies earning $2B by hacking cryptocurrency exchanges and banks

If you’re reading this, that means we successfully lured you into clicking our Bitcoin-related headline. Sucked in.

What it really means, though, is that you and I have now entered into a (rather loose) social contract. It demands you are provided with enough interesting cryptocurrency tidbits so that you don’t complain to us on Twitter about being baited into reading another shitty blockchain article.

Let’s see if we hold up our end of the bargain.

1. Manny Pacquaio, the renowned Filipino boxing champion, launched his own cryptocurrency at a free concert in Manila on Sunday, Reuters reports. The use-cases for his PAC token, however unnecessary, will be buying merchandise and interacting with Pacquaio on social media. So lame. 

2. North Korea has denied allegations that it earned $2 billion via hacking cryptocurrency exchanges and the like, The Korea Times reports. “The United States and other hostile forces are now spreading ill-hearted rumors,” said local (state-run) news agency KCNA. “Such a fabrication by the hostile forces is nothing but a sort of a nasty game aimed at tarnishing the image of our Republic and finding justification for sanctions and pressure campaign against the DPRK.”

3. According to ABI Research published Aug 28, the total global revenue generated by blockchain tech is on track to hit $10 billion by 2023— despite 2018’s cold as fuck ‘crypto winter.’ Venture capitalists have been a positive influence, with ABI detecting 620 funding rounds totalling $3.1 billion last year.

4. In India, the supposed ringleader of a Bitcoin scam that generated Rs 485-crore ($67.4 million) in ill-gotten gains has been murdered, with his body dumped by five men at the emergency ward of a nearby private hospital. The Times of India reports that since then, those five men have been arrested. The accused were reportedly in on the scam, and local police are hunting for five more associates.

5. Electric Coin Co., the blockchain startup behind budding alternative cryptocurrency Zcash, has revealed it operated at a loss during the first quarter of this year, CoinDesk reports. The for-profit company posted an average monthly deficit of 30 percent in those months, taking in $449,000 while simultaneously spending $635,000 per month.

How did we do? Not that it matters, we’re going to do this again next week, whether you rated it or not.