Romance is butchering these pigs 🐷💕

Good morning with creamy scrambled eggs and toast with a side of bacon,

‘cause that’s how we greet here at Switch Daily! 😉

After the mid-week celebrations for Ganesh Chathurthi we have decided to religiously make you guys giggle while we do our crypto news routine. Oh, and you bet it is better than Ross and Monica’s dance routine (only haters will oppose this scientifically proven fact)...

Here’s what we have for you today:

• Market pulse

• Think twice before falling in love online

• More news

• Thursday, taste the thunder Meme

Market pulse 📈

The market is moody…😬

The tumultuous August for the crypto market ended in a mixed session yesterday. Bitcoin ended the month on a positive note. Ethereum (ETH) led the way rising by 1.91%, supported by investor sentiment towards the merge. Among the top ten cryptos by market cap, SOL followed ETH with a 0.02% hike and XRP with 0.36% showing support. After moving up and down the charts yesterday, the total crypto market cap ended the day at $956.5 billion. In August, the market cap slid by $105.2 billion.

Pig Butchering, but you’re the bacon! 🐷

Remember that Ranveer Singh movie where he cons pretty women by making them fall in love with him, after which he steals from them and just ups and leaves? Yeah that’s happening online across the globe now and we are petrified because we are all hopeless romantics here. 🙀

So recently the FBI published a report highlighting the new cryptocurrency scam: Pig Butchering. However, in reality, Pig Butchering is the oldest trick in the book that scammers are reusing now. It is also referred to as ‘romance scam’ because scammers target lonely web users, further persuading them to invest in fraudulent crypto schemes.

It starts with the right text from the wrong number, where the scammer pretends to be this interesting stranger, striking up a friendly conversation with a victim. It almost feels like a modern KJo movie where you end up finding the love of your life because of one wrong text.

Wake up! It’s an Anurag Kashyap story and you are about to cuss the feces (PG13 content only) out of your so-called lover.

Pig Butchering started in China in late 2019, and was called “Shāzhūpán”, which after translation meant — the act of a farmer fattening up the pig with food before butchering it.

Now, it's also becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States. In 2021, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 4,300 complaints related to crypto-romance scams, resulting in over $429 million worth of losses.

The FBI report stated that “victims have very similar stories: Meeting someone on a dating app, the scammer gains the confidence and trust of the victim, and then claims to have knowledge of cryptocurrency investment or trading opportunities that will result in substantial profits. The victim is then directed to transfer large amounts of cryptocurrency from the exchange account to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by fraudsters, ultimately losing it all”.

Moral of the story: Listen to your mom and don’t talk to strangers. Or just don’t invest because you’re in love with Jessica from Ohio who wants to create wealth for you without ever meeting you.

What's else is brewing? ☕

🐒Meta users can now post NFTs on Facebook and Instagram

Meta announced that it now allows users to post their NFTs across both their Facebook and Instagram feeds. The social media giant said that users will need to connect their wallet to post NFTs minted on Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow. Read more.

📃Iran passes bill legalizing the use of crypto for imports

Iran passed a new law, allowing regulations on trade transactions with crypto. The act authorizes the use of crypto to finance imports from abroad. Read more.

🇧🇷Brazil: central bank picks largest private bank to develop DeFi liquidity pool

Brazil’s central bank has selected Itaú Unibanco, the country’s largest private bank, to help develop a DeFi liquidity pool. The choice was made under the government’s Financial and Technological Innovation and Technology Laboratory (LIFT) public program. Read more.

🇸🇬Singapore may establish tougher rules for retail crypto market

Singapore’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), may roll out stricter rules for retail crypto trading, according to a top official. If this happens, the move could deal a blow to the growth of the retail crypto market in Singapore. Read more. 

Thursday, taste the thunder Meme:

Well, that's a wrap for today!

See you, tomorrow folks, 👋