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Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency network whose coin, BTC, is the most valuable, seems to have been invaded by an unknown miner. And the community has the new guest on their radar. Unknown Miner Dominates  In the last few hours, the entity has not only plugged into the network but has proceeded to mine several blocks, getting rewarded with the precious 6.25 BTC.  What’s intriguing is that trackers cannot pick out the true identity of the miner who has usurped the established pools such as Binance Pool, AntPool, and even giant mining farms like Foundry USA.  Related Reading: Ethereum Staking Hits Over $40 Billion After Shanghai Upgrade: What It Means For ETH For the last day, the miner has verified over 10 Bitcoin blocks, earning over 65 BTC worth over $1.7 million at spot rates. While there is a chance that a “big” player is new to Bitcoin and has plugged in possibly thousands of mining rigs to stay competitive and verify blocks successfully, it is almost likely that the “unknown” entity is a mining pool. In proof-of-work networks like Bitcoin, a group of miners, that is, retail individuals operating mining nodes, can join hands and merge their computing power called hash rate in “pools.” Whenever they do this, they stand a chance of verifying a block of BTC transactions.  In return, the network automatically rewards them with not only the block rewards of 6.25 BTC but also fees associated with the block. Although rare, fees accumulated in a block may be over 50% of the block reward distributed from the protocol level.  With the Bitcoin hash rate constantly rising and more miners pouring in, mining pools dominate. However, several pools are tailored to meet the needs of various miners. Applicable fees, reliability, and the size of their hash rate are some considerations that may also affect reputation. However, over the years, some of the biggest include AntPool and ViaBTC. Is This F2Pool? It is speculated that the “unknown” entity is F2Pool. The error is displayed on trackers because “Mempool’s attribution logic is just missing them.”  Whether this will also turn out to be true or false will later be verified.  This is because attribution “depends on who the miner says they are. It’d be easy to impersonate another pool and not guaranteed that that pool would notice and deny it was them”. Related Reading: Crypto Market Alert: Tether Market Cap Fuel Hopes For Major Rally F2Pool is one of the oldest and largest mining pools in the world.  According to data from mempool.space, the pool controls 8.19% of the total Bitcoin hash rate.  While it is popular, recent data shows there could have been a hitch in the attribution logic. Trackers show that the last time F2Pool mined was in late May 24. Feature Image From Canva, Chart From TradingView

A United States District Judge, Amos Mazzant, has ruled that Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by client count, is not liable for the loss incurred by a Texan woman named Divya Gadasalli who lost $8 million in a pig butchering scheme. Binance Is Not Liable In a ruling on May 22, Judge Amos dismissed the lawsuit that Gadasalli had brought forward in which she claimed that Binance aided the scammer steal $8 million in a scheme hatched on Tinder, a dating app. Binance filed for the case to be dismissed at the United States Easter District Court of Texas, saying the plaintiff had failed to state a claim. Moreover, Binance lawyers say there was a lack of personal jurisdiction and this request was made in June 2022. Related Reading: Ripple CTO Labels BEN Coin As Scam, Bitboy Reacts The ruling on May 22, Judge Amos said, complied with Federal rules that require a court to dismiss a claim should there be no personal jurisdiction over the defendant, in this case, Binance.  In law, personal jurisdiction empowers the court to hear a case, regardless of the subject matter. And afterward, they can make a ruling.  Despite Binance’s position that there is no personal jurisdiction, Gadasalli’s lawyers wanted the court to investigate the relationship between Binance and Binance US. Court filings show that Gadasalli had been scammed off $8 million after being “promised romance and financial prosperity” in a pig butchering scam. In a pig butchering scam, the victim engages in a well-orchestrated fraud where romance is used as bait for active investment in non-existent cryptocurrency schemes. Court data shows that the fraudulent scheme was devised by three defendants, Jerry Bulasa, Dong Lian, and Danyun Lin. Gadasalli met Bulasa on Tinder and believed she had struck a romantic connection. Eventually, the victim ended up “investing in the direction of Bulasa,” whom she thought was a “successful cryptocurrency investor.” Bulasa later informed Gadasalli that their crypto investment stood at $10 million, but she couldn’t withdraw any assets. This frustration and realization that she was down $8 million made her file a lawsuit against Bulasa and Binance. Lawsuits And Investigations, BNB Firm Binance has been a target of United States regulators in recent months. In March, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued the exchange for allegedly operating a derivatives trading platform without registration, violating existing trading laws.  Related Reading: Uniswap Founder Says Banks Are Massive Scams Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly investigating whether the exchange violates securities law. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is also investigating possible tax evasion claims. Still, BNB, the native currency of the Binance ecosystem, is steady when writing. Although it is under pressure, the coin is trading above $300 and bullish, aligning with gains from March 2023. And BNB is currently up 15% from March 2023 lows. Feature Image From Canva, Chart From TradingView