WazirX Recovers Balances After Hack, No Withdrawal Timeline Determined.

Cointelegraph reported that the delay in withdrawals has impacted individual investors and raised concerns about the overall security and reliability of cryptocurrency exchanges.

Almost a month after a massive hack at WazirX that resulted in the loss of $234 million in investor funds at the Indian cryptocurrency exchange’s Safe Multisig wallet, the platform has restored investor accounts.

Despite this progress, there is still no clarity on when users will be able to withdraw their funds, leaving many frustrated and worried.

In an update on August 16, WazirX said it was working on two main issues: finding a solution for Indian rupee (INR) balances and fixing issues related to cryptocurrency balances.

According to the company, these solutions require further legal analysis, and they are awaiting confirmation from partners who can help resolve these issues.

 

DOGS listing has been postponed again.

Since the day DOGS withdrawal opened, some new options have been added. The TGE date has been postponed: now the listing will take place at 15:00 (Moscow time) on August 26. The option to receive on exchanges and in Telegram Wallet will be open until 19:00, August 23, and on non-custodial wallets - from 11:00, August 26.

 

The Solana network has launched a prediction market.

The Solana Futures Trading Protocol team called Drift has launched a BET prediction platform.

According to the developers, BET, short for Bullish on Everything, uses the Drift stack and offers features such as cross-margin trading and structured betting. The platform attracts the liquidity pool of the related protocol.

BET supports more than 30 crypto assets as collateral.

Two live contracts related to the presidential race are currently running in BET's alpha, with a total pool of more than $300,000.

Drift intends to expand its scope of activities, including sports, cryptocurrency and economics, according to the project's website.

The team incentivizes adoption by paying out FUEL tokens to traders who stake and lock in staking DRIFT tokens.

According to Dune Analytics, the volume of transactions on Polymarket, a popular prediction platform on the Ethereum network, reached $387 million in July, more than in any other month in its history. For the incomplete month of August, the figure has already reached $295.9 million.
 

Suisse Gold has started accepting XRP tokens for purchasing precious metals.

Swiss company Suisse Gold, which specializes in trading precious metals, has started accepting XRP tokens as payment. The company's representatives note that customers can purchase gold, silver, platinum, and other valuable products using the asset.

To purchase precious metals using the crypto asset, you need to register in your personal account on the company's website. Then users can select the appropriate form of payment, after which all prices for goods will be displayed in XRP.

 

HashKey and Catizen join forces to expand the TON ecosystem.

HashKey Group, a digital asset financial services provider in Asia, has announced a partnership with Telegram Mini App, Catizen, becoming the group’s first Web3 partner.

A joint press release said that HashKey Global, a licensed exchange, will provide Catizen users with “compliant and trusted digital asset services.”

The collaboration, which “will focus on the Ton ecosystem,” marks a major milestone for both organizations as they work together to develop game finance (GameFi) and “global digital entertainment infrastructure” products.
 

American Express Partners with Ripple to Integrate $XRP for Faster Cross-Border Payments.

American Express has officially announced a partnership with Ripple to integrate $XRP into its cross-border payment solutions. This collaboration highlights the growing impact of blockchain technology on traditional financial services and marks a major milestone for both companies.

The primary goal of this partnership is to improve the speed and efficiency of transactions. This will dramatically reduce the time it takes to make cross-border payments from days to seconds. This shift will provide businesses and individuals with a faster, more reliable way to transfer money across borders and solve long-standing problems in the financial industry.

As blockchain technology gains traction, more financial institutions are likely to recognize the benefits of digital currencies like $XRP in streamlining financial transactions. By adopting Ripple’s innovative technology, the company is not only expanding its service offerings but also signalling a shift toward modern digital solutions in global finance.

 

Magic Eden Unveils ME Ecosystem Token.

The team behind the NFT marketplace Magic Eden has announced the launch of a new token, ME. It is said to be designed to facilitate transactions across multiple networks, including Ethereum and Polygon.

According to the release, the ME Foundation's mission is to develop leading cross-chain protocols under the leadership of the community. Magic Eden leverages these protocols and will be the first platform to support ME as an ecosystem token.

ME tokens will reportedly be available through the company's own open-source multi-chain wallet, Magic Eden Wallet. According to the developers, the number of active users of Magic Eden Wallet exceeds 250,000 per month. The application allows storing and trading non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as well as cross-chain swaps.

 

The average transaction fee on the Bitcoin network jumped 10.4 times.

On August 22, the average transaction fee on the Bitcoin blockchain jumped by 937.7% compared to the previous day — from $0.74 to $7.68.

Since July, average network fees have remained relatively stable, staying below the $2 mark. On August 18, the fee reached a historical minimum of $0.56.

The current growth has forced network participants to incur large expenses when conducting transactions.

In particular, a Bitcoin developer nicknamed Mononaut paid 0.5 BTC to consolidate 0.55 BTC. On August 23, the average transaction fee dropped to $0.34, according to Mempool.

 

Organiser of $4 Billion Crypto Scam Detained in Turkey.

Turkish law enforcement has detained Swedish citizen Andreas Szakacs for involvement in organising the OmegaPro cryptocurrency pyramid, in which investors lost $4 billion. This was reported by Turkiye Today.

The scam was structured as a Ponzi scheme: newly attracted funds were used to pay income to early users, creating the illusion of profitability.

OmegaPro's capital is allegedly linked to OneCoin, one of the largest crypto scams in history with similar losses of $4 billion.

OmegaPro stopped withdrawing funds in November 2022. The company finally closed by July 2023.