Bitcoin Daily: ShapeShift Crypto Exchange Alleges $900,000 Employee Bitcoin Theft; Line Debuts Blockchain Platform, Digital Wallet Services

Crypto exchange ShapeShift is suing former engineer Azamat Mukhiddinov for allegedly stealing $900,000 in bitcoin via programs he installed on their servers, CoinDesk reported.

Executives said on Thursday (Aug. 27), in a request for a jury trial, that Mukhiddinov’s reported theft was discovered May 21 as a hole in the balance sheet, traced back to him in a matter of days, the report stated.

While Mukhiddinov has made the company whole already, ShapeShift is also now seeking damages for the time and effort employees put in as they fixed the damage he did to their system, according to CoinDesk.

In other news, LVC Corporation, which operates LINE, is announcing the launch of two new products: LINE Blockchain Developers, a developer platform for blockchain services; and the BITMAX Wallet, for managing digital assets, a press release stated.

Some examples of what LINE Blockchain Developers can do include issuing a company’s own tokens, tokenizing in-game assets and monetizing data, according to the release. The blockchain is secure and the use of RESTful application programming interface (API) can help manage things easily.

BITMAX Wallet, meanwhile, allows users to centrally manage all digital tokens, items and other items they’ve obtained from a blockchain platform, the release stated.

On another note, Roskomnadzor, Russia’s telecom regulator, blocked Russia’s top crypto exchange aggregator, BestChange.ru, on Wednesday (Aug. 26), for promoting purchasing opportunities and information about bitcoin and other such products, according to a report from Cointelegraph.

The aggregator was banned other times, including in 2017. Bitcoin and any other cryptocurrencies are illegal to use for payment in Russia, the report stated. Other sites, including cryptowikipedia.ru and coinpost.ru, were also banned for the same reason.

And, Yellow Card, a Nigeria-based crypto exchange, has raised $1.5 million from several players in the crypto scene, including venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, according to Cointelegraph.

Polychain and Celo, among others, were also among the investors, according to CEO Chris Maurice, per the report.

Maurice noted that crypto usage has been surging in Africa, in a similar volume to how popular it has become in the U.S., Cointelegraph reported. The bulk of the crypto transactions on the continent happen via over-the-counter methods, but Yellow Card will also offer to hold as well.