Sebastian Sinclair

Jonathan Toebbe, an engineer assigned to the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, held an active national security clearance through the U.S. Department of Defense, which afforded him access to sensitive information. The charge alleges the pair violated the Atomic Energy Act. The act prohibits the communication, transmission, or disclosure of restricted nuclear data with the intent to injure the U.S. or to secure an advantage to any foreign nation. Source link

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet approved the formation of committee that will study the rules and regulations governing digital banking, blockchain, and crypto mining in other nations, as well as methods to prevent money laundering, terrorism financing and other criminal activities related to those technologies. The body will also study Know-Your-Customer processes. Source link

The senator previously served eight years as Wyoming’s state treasurer and told CoinDesk last year that during her time as treasurer she had always been looking for “something that was a good store-of-value.” Her son-in-law and his friends helped educate the senator about bitcoin’s potential as a store-of-value, she said, prompting her to jump on the bandwagon when the crypto was trading for around $320. Source link

Jersey, Channel Islands-based digital-asset investment firm CoinShares is planning to integrate its crypto technology stack for a new Swiss digital bank following an $11.8 million strategic investment. CoinShares bought 110,000 shares of FlowBank, a financial institution established in 2020 and licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. Total shares purchased represent 9.02% of the bank’s enlarged share capital, according to a press release on Thursday. Beginning next year, the bank said it plans to offer customers the ability to directly buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies, as well as other tokenized assets, directly from their FlowBank account. “This further reinforces FlowBank’s […]

The move follows mounting pressure from regulators against the Binance brand including in countries such as Australia, the U.S., and the U.K. Oct 6, 2021 at 4:15 a.m. UTC Updated Oct 6, 2021 at 4:15 a.m. UTC

Specifically, a16z’s consumer protections proposal, filed in response to a call from U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) of the Senate Banking Committee, recommended creating a simple disclosure-based supervision regime under the Consumer Financial Protection Act. DAOs, meanwhile, are to be given similar legal rights to that of a standard incorporated entity including tax requirements, being allowed to open bank accounts and sign legal agreements. Source link

Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority, its de facto central bank, has released a whitepaper on retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) while it continues to explore the potential of a digital Hong Kong dollar (e-HKD) for its domestic and cross-border markets. The white paper was published Monday by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), which is the de-facto central bank of the city who’s official title is the Hong Kong Special Administration of the People’s Republic of China.“ Under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework under which Hong Kong is governed, Hong Kong maintains its own financial and judicial systems, among others, […]

Liquid, a sidechain-based settlement network operated by bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream, is currently facing issues processing transactions. The network’s mempool – a chamber where all valid transactions wait to be confirmed by the Bitcoin network – is beginning to fill as each transaction awaits processing. The last transaction occurred over four hours ago, according to Liquid’s webpage. Since the Liquid Network functionaries aren't able to sign blocks right now, this is a rare opportunity to view a queue of transactions in the Liquid mempool https://t.co/rgWqmn6u9K pic.twitter.com/xyoFrOZaRC — mempool (@mempool) October 4, 2021 Liquid said it was aware of an issue on […]

DBS Bank’s brokerage arm, DBS Vickers (DBSV), has been granted a license to operate as a Major Payment Institution from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The broker says its license enables it to provide its services in the city-state through its DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx), according to a press release on Thursday. The move follows on from a previous “in-principle” approval granted by the regulator in August. Under the Payment Services Act, applicants applying for a license are subject to a review of their policies, customer protection procedures, compliance structures, among other areas. “We believe that DBSV’s license… could add […]

Under Singapore’s licensing regime, applicants applying for a license are subject to a review of their policies, customer protection procedures, compliance structures, market manipulation safeguards, and Know-Your-Customer requirements, among other stringent measures. Source link

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is seeking public input over how it should assess the use case for the country’s digital dollar. Two discussion papers titled “The Future of Money – Stewardship” and “The Future of Money – Central Bank Digital Currency,” released Thursday, are aiming to solicit public feedback before a Dec. 6 deadline. The bank announced it would begin discussions with the public earlier this year. “Trends in cash use and availability along with digital innovation create opportunities to innovate,” RBNZ Assistant Governor Christian Hawkesby said in a press release Thursday. “We believe these should be discussed widely […]

A new Singapore-based venture capital fund has been set up by three major financial services firms that will pour $75 million into crypto startups across the EU and Asia. Japan’s SBI Group, Switzerland’s Sygnum Bank, and Italy’s Azimut Group have incorporated the fund as a Variable Capital Company in a bid to “accelerate the growth of promising companies” within the industry. SBI’s Ven Capital will act as the fund’s primary fund manager, while the fund’s investment strategy will mainly focus on pre-Series A and Series A companies developing blockchain, according to a press release on Wednesday. Companies involved in distributed ledger […]

“While we are willing, ready, and organized for cryptocurrency regulation in Australia, until it is brought into effect, we aim to set the benchmark for best-practice in self-regulation by adhering to the spirit of the FCA obligations on home soil,” Tan added. Source link

If developed, the token’s utility could facilitate the transfer of vouchers into TAT Coin, boosting liquidity among tourism operators. Sep 29, 2021 at 2:26 a.m. UTC Updated Sep 29, 2021 at 2:26 a.m. UTC

The main webpage for Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) has gone live earlier than next month’s planned rollout date for the digital naira. According to the site, the eNaira is a “unique form of money” denominated in the national currency serving as both a medium of exchange and store of value. The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) information technology director, Rakiya Mohammed, had announced the bank’s intention to roll out the country’s CBDC by Oct. 1. Nigeria’s digital currency will be issued and regulated by the CBN. Financial officials in Nigeria have been struggling with crypto’s rise in the African […]

Funding has come via major players Arrington Capital, GBV Capital, HashKey Capital, Hex Trust, Sequoia Capital India, Sino Global Capital and Wintermute. Ascendex, BCW Group, FBG Capital, Folkvang, Huobi Ventures and Kenetic Capital also participated. Source link

Emurgo, the commercial and venture arm of Cardano, is investing $100 million to boost decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible token solutions and blockchain education efforts for the world’s fourth-largest blockchain. Announced during the Cardano Summit 2021 on Sunday, Emurgo CEO Ken Kodama said the investment would “accelerate the development of the Cardano ecosystem.” “We will create a dedicated operation from 2022,” said Kodama in a tweet following the announcement on Sunday. Emurgo is one of the founding entities of Cardano and provides solutions for developers, companies, and government. The investment arm also announced Sunday it would be pouring additional funding into African […]

The university said in a statement last week that the center will drive a “new way” of doing math by creating “collaborative digital libraries” for mathematical tools. CMU said it will make the technology widely accessible and advance discoveries across a broad range of disciplines, including computer science, physics and economics, among others. Source link

In July, the ECB said it would move to the exploration phase of its plans to develop a digital euro. Earlier this month, advisor to the senior management of the Market Infrastructure and Payments business area of the ECB, Jurgen Schaaf, said the two-year investigation period was not a confirmation that the plans would go ahead. Source link

Funding for the Ph.D. fellowship provides up to $40,000 a year for five years (with the possibility of extensions), and will cover tuition fees and a stipend. An additional $10,000 will be provided for research-related expenses including travel and computing, according to the announcement. Source link

The Senate still has to vote on its own version of the bill before the two legislative groups conference to reconcile their respective versions. All of Congress will have to vote on the final bill. The provision, inserted by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), seeks to promote U.S. international competitiveness by clarifying how cryptocurrencies are regulated. Source link

The regulator takes issue with the startup’s language regarding interest earned on certain crypto accounts that Celsius dubs “rewards” or a “financing fee.” The regulator is alleging Celsius’ interest-bearing accounts violate state securities law and fail to disclose to customers what occurs with their deposits, nor are the customers protected under state securities protections. Source link

Binance’s global platform this week announced it would be ending its derivatives offerings to Australian crypto traders by year’s end. Binance is a separate entity from Binance Australia, which, in turn, is operated by InvestbyBit. The latest moves can be viewed as an attempt to stimy the fallout from regulatory ire which has recently focused on the Binance brand worldwide, in a bid to bring the exchange in line with other crypto providers. Source link

“The integration of payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay is key to making our platform more accessible to everyone,” said Miller. “This simplifies the purchasing process and brings the payment methods that people are used to using in their everyday life to the crypto experience.” Source link

A regional court in Cape Town oversaw charges against Spagni that included fraud but did not hear his testimony as he failed to appear in court, despite previously pleading not guilty. It was alleged Spagni had stolen roughly $100,000 from his former employer, Cape Cookies. Source link

“We proactively review our product offerings and activities on an ongoing basis, against user demand, evolving regulatory requirements and future opportunities, to determine changes and improvements,” a spokesperson for Binance told CoinDesk via Telegram on Tuesday. Source link

Online brokerage app Robinhood says it plans to enable withdrawals and deposits of cryptocurrencies including dogecoin. In a tweet Wednesday, the app provider said it “fully intends” to provide the extra functionality, though not date is provided for when it might be activated. Currently, traders can only buy and sell crypto assets within the app, according to its support page. The tweet came an hour before Bloomberg published an article alleging Robinhood was the owner of the world’s largest dogecoin wallet. Robinhood stated in the tweet that it “does not currently invest in cryptocurrency or use any customer cryptocurrency” for its […]

The world’s oldest central bank, Sweden’s Riksbank, is to extend its pilot project for a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC) for another 12 months. According to a press release on Friday, the project, which is being carried out with assistance from professional services firm Accenture, will run until February 2022. The Riksbank said it would continue developing a technical solution for a central bank-issued e-krona “as a complement to cash,” with the primary objective being for the bank to increase its knowledge around the technology. For 2021, the institution will continue developing its potential digital currency offering with a focus […]

The head of the St. Louis Federal Reserve believes bitcoin does not pose a threat to the U.S. dollar’s status as the global reserve currency. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, James Bullard said the Fed’s policy focus will remain fixed on a global dollar economy “as far as the eye could see.” “Whether the gold price goes up or down or the bitcoin price goes up or down doesn’t really affect that,” said Bullard. Instead, the Fed’s president flagged “privately issued” cryptocurrencies, not sanctioned by the government, as being the primary issue. Bullard then drew comparisons to a time […]

Australia’s blockchain and cryptocurrency companies need more support from the federal government and regulators to boost confidence within the country’s business sector, according to Steve Vallas, CEO of advocacy body Blockchain Australia. Speaking at the Senate Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology on Thursday, Vallas said Australia has a blockchain “base” from which it can accelerate development and that his organization is now “signaling” that the technology is something people “should be investing in.” Vallas pointed to Australia’s lack of blockchain innovation in the last few years, saying it hadn’t harmed the country’s ecosystem. However, “I think we need […]

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will conduct a public hearing this month to gauge what qualifications should be imposed on retail investors opening new cryptocurrency trading accounts. According to a report by the Bangkok Post on Sunday, the regulator is concerned for investor safety amid the recent meteoric rise in cryptocurrency prices and the resulting flood of sign-ups to local exchanges. The regulator aims to determine if new crypto investors have enough experience and are in a financial position to absorb the risks associated with cryptocurrency trading and volatile price swings. “We should set some screening criteria such as age, […]

SBI Holdings, a major Japanese financial services firm, is currently in discussions with foreign financial firms to establish a cryptocurrency joint venture. SBI’s founder and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said his firm would “definitely” turn the venture into a core earner for SBI, while adding his firm is considering large scale mergers and acquisitions (MA). While Kitao noted at least two deals were on the table for discussion with possible joint-venture partners, he declined to disclose further details. The plans were apparently prompted by cryptocurrency’s entrance into the financial mainstream. “Institutional investors – mainly hedge funds – have recently started investing in […]

Policymakers in India will provide a transition period if a proposed ban on cryptocurrency usage is passed as expected. According to a report by Bloomberg on Thursday, a senior Financial Ministry official – speaking under condition of anonymity – told Bloomberg cryptocurrency holders were likely to be given a three-to-six month period to close their positions. Those still holding digital assets after the window closes will likely see their investments liquidated, per the report. After that, cryptocurrency usage in all aspects will be banned via a new law set to be introduced in the current parliamentary session via the Cryptocurrency and […]

The first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in North America has been given the go-ahead by Canada’s financial regulator. According to a decision document on Thursday, the receipt of approval from the Ontario Securities Commission was filed under a Multilateral Instrument passport system in multiple Canadian jurisdictions. Those territories include British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut. This story is developing and will be added to accordingly. Source link

Rows of latest-model laptops, highly sought after by the gaming community, have been spotted in China being used to mine cryptocurrency. In tweets posted on Wednesday, images show a room filled with “several hundred” gaming laptops said to be kitted out with Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics processing units (GPUs). WCCTech, a computer and gaming publication, said the laptops shown in the tweets come from the Chinese manufacturer Hasse and are being used to mine crypto using the in-demand Nvidia cards. Like something from a gamer’s nightmare, some laptops appear to be stripped of their housing to offer optimal cooling for the […]

Mobile-focused blockchain payments startup Celo has raised $20 million from the likes of Andreesen Horowitz (a16z), Greenfield One and Electric Capital. According to a press release on Wednesday, the funding will go towards fleshing out its suite of offerings. Celo is a proof-of-stake blockchain built on Ethereum, designed to support stablecoins and tokenized assets, while utilizing cellphone numbers to secure a user’s public keys. To date, the startup says it has raised more than $65 million from high-profile industry backers including Polychain Capital, Reid Hoffman, Jack Dorsey, Coinbase Ventures, among others. “We now have the technology to create a better financial system, a […]

A website imitating the defunct cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has been posted online as of Tuesday, hoping to lure unsuspecting victims. A warning notification was sent out on Tuesday from both the exchange’s law firm Miller Thomson, which represents the now-former users of Quadriga, and Ernst and Young (EY), a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee for the exchange. The website can be accessed at the same URL that the actual exchange used during its operations and which in 2019 and 2020 directed visitors to visit a portal on EY. “The Trustee has advised that a new website has been posted to www.quadrigacx.com which is […]

A piece of virtual land on blockchain marketplace and gaming platform Axie Infinity has just sold for a record-breaking sum in cryptocurrency. At around 23:00 UTC on Monday, one of the platform’s newest community members, “Flying Falcon,” purchased the digital estate of nine adjacent Genesis blocks for 888.25 ether, roughly $1.5 million at the time. The transaction marks the largest non-fungible token (NFT) transaction of all time, as tracked on-chain by crypto collectibles data site NonFungible. Formerly, the “Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2020 1A” NFT from F1 Delta Time held the record at $224,111 in ETH, the site told […]

A Wisconsin woman has been charged for trying to solicit a murder over the dark web paid for with bitcoin. According to a report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday, Kelly Harper, 37, used a dark web site to pay the administrator to have a man tracked down and then killed. Harper has admitted to authorities she paid in bitcoin for the planned crime. Three journalists investigating a story into the site’s dealings discovered the Wisconsin woman had been in communication with the admin, according to the report. Upon request, Harper allegedly presented a sum of $5,633.87 in bitcoin to the […]

The additional funding will go towards the acquisition of more miners, expanding infrastructure and boosting working capital. Source link

Cryptocurrency hedge fund founder Stefan Qin pleaded guilty Thursday to deceiving investors out of more than $90 million. According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, Qin, a 24-year-old Australian national and founder of Virgil Capital, had been charged with a single count of securities fraud in Manhattan’s federal court. Between 2017 and 2020, Qin operated two funds, Virgil Sigma Fund LP of New York and VQR Multistrategy Fund LP of the Cayman Islands. During that time Qin lied to investors and siphoned off the roughly $90 million from Sigma to fund a lavish lifestyle, per […]

A demonic digital artwork on the Ethereum blockchain has been sold for a small fortune via peer-to-peer marketplace OpenSea. Selling for 420 ETH (roughly $650,000 at the time of purchase on Wednesday), the collectible non-fungible token (NFT)-based artwork is known as a Hashmask. The buyer, @seedphrase on Twitter, posted: The Hashmask platform, from Switzerland-based Suum Cuique Labs, hosts a collection of 16,384 unique digital portraits created by a collective of over 70 artists, according to the its website. “The mask itself is a unique, one-of-a-kind design, and the mystical attributes – character, eye color and skin color -are present in only […]

Bluford Putnam, chief economist and managing director of CME Group, believes bitcoin is an “emerging competitor” to gold. In a CME-presented explainer video posted by Bloomberg on Wednesday, Putnam said the yellow metal’s ongoing production, likely to increase in 2021, contrasts with bitcoin‘s fixed supply. The World Gold Council estimates roughly 197,576 metric tonnes (217,790 tons) of the shiny metal have been mined throughout history with an additional 2,500-3,000 tonnes (2,756-3,306 tons) added to stock levels each year. By contrast, bitcoin is designed to have a fixed supply of 21 million units – the maximum that can ever be created as […]

Two Malaysians accused of running a scam involving bitcoin could soon face physical punishment as dictated under the country’s stiff penal code. According to a report by the Malay Mail on Tuesday, Reduan Ismail and Adan Ibrahim are alleged to have defrauded three women of more than 150,000 Malaysian ringgits (around $37,000). If convicted the pair face a maximum of 10 years in prison, caning and fines. Touting their purported bitcoin investment scheme “Actionmode,” it is alleged the pair met with one of the women on May 8, 2020, and two others on July 26 promising a 20% return on investment […]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) is already set to make a movie telling the week-old story of a group of retail investors from social media platform Reddit who took on the financial might of Wall Street. According to a report from Deadline on Sunday, MGM acquired the movie rights to a book proposal known as “The Antisocial Network” on Friday from New York Times best-selling author Ben Mezrich. Winklevoss Pictures, founded by entrepreneurs and bitcoin billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, will executive produce the film, according to the report. Aaron Ryder – who produced “Arrival” and “Donnie Darko” among others – has been selected […]

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX has listed a WallStreetBets (WSB) index quarterly futures contract in a bid to capitalize on the retail trading fervor that exploded in recent days. Announced Thursday via blog post, the basket of markets that make up the contract include stocks being targeted by the Reddit trading group – Nokia (NOK), Blackberry (BB), EMC Entertainment (AMC), GameStop (GME), iShares Silver Trust (SLV) – as well as the dogecoin (DOGE) cryptocurrency and FTX’s native token FTT. The stocks and DOGE comprise 99% of the index, while FTT accounts for just 1%. Apparently also caught up in the everyday trading […]

Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of the multi-billion dollar investment firm Guggenheim Partners, believes bitcoin may struggle to stay above $30,000. In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Wednesday, Minerd said he didn’t think bitcoin‘s institutional investor base was “big enough” or “deep enough” to justify its current valuation. The comments come weeks after he publicly declared bitcoin’s price should be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. “Right now, the reality of the institutional demand that would support a $35,000 price or even a $30,000 price is just not there,” he said. Recently, a JPMorgan analyst said a bearish outlook […]

A San Francisco man is heading to prison after a U.S. court sentenced him for conducting a multi-million-dollar cryptocurrency fraud, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release on Tuesday. Jerry Ji Guo, 33, was handed a six-month sentence by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman and ordered to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution after he had pleaded guilty to initial coin offering (ICO) fraud. During the height of the ICO craze in 2018, Guo represented himself to clients as an ICO consultant, offering to perform marketing and consultancy services on behalf of cryptocurrency startups. Instead of performing his […]

While many respondents saw bitcoin as a major bubble, 25% believed it could double its price tag to north of $70,000 by the start of 2022. Source link

Ernst and Young (EY), the bankruptcy trustee for the defunct exchange QuadrigaCX, is trying to resolve a dispute over how to value the firm’s cryptocurrency assets before disbursement to creditors. EY will head to court on Jan. 26 to argue the valuation date for cryptocurrency claims should be considered from the date of the exchange’s bankruptcy on April 15, 2019. The firm is taking a different stance from affected user, crypto startup BlockCAT, which wants the digital assets to be valued as of Feb. 5, 2019, when Quadriga received court protection to restructure under Canadian federal law. The date used will […]

India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, CoinDCX, has launched a new app aimed to make it easy to buy and sell bitcoin and other top digital assets in a bid to capture 50 million new users. According to a press release on Tuesday, the exchange’s app offering, CoinDCX Go, provides newcomers to the cryptocurrency space a “quick check-in check-out trading experience.” The app is said to be backed by artificial intelligence-based anti-money laundering algorithms, while users’ funds are secured and insured by global custodian BitGo, a company spokesperson told CoinDesk via email. “The focus is to make users see merits in the industry […]

The publisher of the upcoming online space strategy game “Infinite Fleet” is providing a chance to buy into equity and share in future profits through the launch of a public security token offering (STO). Announced Monday, Luxembourg-based Exordium has just launched the token-based funding round in select European countries. The tokens are priced at $0.50 per EXOeu token and are being issued by tokenization platform Blockstream AMP. Tether International Limited, an arm of the stablecoin issuer, is leading the round, having already invested $1 million in Exordium’s tokens. The funding model is aimed to democratize venture capital by making the investment […]

The mostly ASIC devices used to mine bitcoin are said to have been consuming 95 megawatts per hour of electricity at a reduced rate. Source link

An offline mobile map for travelers has raised $50 million in a seed-funding round led by Alameda Research. Announced Monday, the funding will go toward the launch of a multi-currency wallet on Maps.me and enable a decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem on the offline mobile map platform. Cryptocurrency lender Genesis Capital and institutional cryptocurrency firm CMS Holdings also participated in the round. According to a press statement shared with CoinDesk, the platform’s wallet is expected to “unlock DeFi tools” for its 140 million users by allowing them to access a range of payment and investment tools in the Maps.me ecosystem. “By embedding […]

Ripple has inked a deal with a Malaysian money transfer business and Bangladesh’s largest mobile financial services provider to enable a remittance corridor between the two countries. According to an announcement Tuesday, Malaysia’s Mobile Money and Bangladesh’s bKash will leverage Ripple’s global payments network, RippleNet, for wallet-to-wallet transactions. “This partnership will … contribute further to our national economy by encouraging inward foreign remittance flow through legal channels,” said bKash CEO Kamal Quadir. Under the purview of Bangladesh’s central bank, Mutual Trust Bank (MTB) will function as the domestic banking partner to undertake remittance settlements. While MobileMoney represents a small fraction of Malaysia’s […]

A petition to the European Parliament hopes to persuade the bloc to provide financial support to victims of cryptocurrency crime. The petition, filed Wednesday by lawyer Jonathan Levy, seeks the implementation of a “regulatory scheme to compensate victims” who were fleeced of digital assets by fraud, hacks and extortion. To date, 44 supporters have signed the petition. Levy wants the EU to implement a .0001 cent per euro fee on cryptocurrency transactions that would be pooled into a “victim superfund,” according to a press release sent to CoinDesk. The lawyer represents clients who have suffered losses exceeding €50 million (US$60.7 million) […]

The eye-watering strike option supplants the company’s previous $300,000 maximum offering listed on Jan. 9. Source link

Multi-asset brokerage eToro has issued a warning to users looking to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies over the coming weekend. According to an email sent to customers and as reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, the Israel-based company said customers could face “possible limitations” due to “challenges” in the platform’s ability to support buy orders. The company said they may impose limitations on customers looking to purchase cryptocurrency assets due to complications arising from a lack of market liquidity. The brokerage may set a temporary maximum exposure amount per cryptocurrency asset per client, as well as temporarily suspending the ability to place […]

An executive at multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs believes an increase in the participation from institutional investors is the “key” to stabilizing nascent markets such as cryptocurrencies. Speaking on CNBC’s The Coin Rush on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs’ global head of commodities research, Jeff Currie, said the cryptocurrency market “is becoming more mature” but still has a way to go. “Right now they’re [institutional investors] small … about $700 billion dollars of money in bitcoin right now, of that roughly one percent of it is institutional money,” said Currie. Currie, who is the global head of commodities and research, also said bitcoin […]

The World Economic Forum (WEF) and seven major mining companies have completed the initial stage of a blockchain platform that tracks carbon emissions along the mining value chain. In a press statement on Monday, the Mining and Metals Blockchain Initiative (MMBI) from the WEF said its proof-of-concept carbon tracing platform COT was in development for over a year. The finalized platform will track embedded greenhouse gas emissions from the mine to the final product using distributed ledger technology. The seven mining firms – Anglo American, Antofagasta Minerals, Eurasian Resources Group, Glencore, Klöckner & Co, Minsur and Tata Steel – launched the […]

The liquidator of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia has told former customers they can now begin making claims for the return of their funds. In a blog post Wednesday, the New Zealand branch of accountancy firm Grant Thornton said it has opened a claims portal allowing affected users to register for the repatriation of property still held by the exchange. All accounts were frozen after over US$17 million in in ether and ERC-20 tokens was stolen during a hack in early 2019. Grant Thornton said the “sheer volume” of emails means it is informing users about the portal in batches throughout […]

Two U.S. government agencies are taking action against the founder of a cryptocurrency project who allegedly pulled an exit scam and avoided taxes while spending the proceeds on a lavish lifestyle. According to an indictment filed in the U.S. Southern District Court of New York and unsealed on Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has charged Amir Bruno Elmaani, a.k.a. “Bruno Brock,” on two counts of tax evasion. Elmaani, who created a blockchain protocol called Oyster Pearl, is alleged to have made “millions of dollars” from an initial coin offering of its pearl (PRL) cryptocurrency in 2017. Those tokens were purportedly […]

Ray Dalio, the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, has offered a more positive stance on bitcoin than in comments that made headlines last month. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Tuesday, Dalio said he thought bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies had “established themselves” over the last 10 years and were interesting “gold-like asset alternatives.” The billionaire hedge-fund manager also noted that cryptocurrencies share similarities and differences to gold and various “limited-supply, mobile (unlike real estate) storeholds of wealth.” Bitcoin “could serve as a diversifier to gold and other such storehold of wealth assets,” said Dalio. “The […]

Bitcoin has fallen precipitously in the past few hours and is testing a key level of psychological support near $18,000. At around 06:00 UTC on Dec. 8, the price of the world’s first cryptocurrency fell to around $18,031 from $18,770. It subsequently retraced slightly to $18,200 by press time, according to CoinDesk’s bitcoin price index. The last time bitcoin experienced a similar drop was on Dec. 1 after the bellwether cryptocurrency reached an all-time high of around $19,920, per the BPI. According to Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, the availability of sizable amounts of bitcoin on exchanges provided by large […]

Last week, as bitcoin broke its all-time price high, institutional investors poured the second highest amount on record into cryptocurrency funds. According to a Reuters report citing data from digital asset manager CoinShares on Monday, large scale cryptocurrency funds saw an inflow of $429 million last week alone. The largest-ever weekly inflow was $468 million seen three weeks ago. The data showed the sector jumped to an all-time high of $15 billion in assets under management (AUM) for the year so far. By comparison, there was $2.57 billion in AUM at the close of 2019. So far, bitcoin has attracted $4 […]

A Singapore government research department has launched a new program intended to advance commercial applications of blockchain within the city-state. According to a report by The Strait Times on Monday, the S$12 million (US$8.99 million) program from the National Research Foundation (NRF) will support research and development of real-world use cases for the technology. The Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme is expected to interact with up to 75 companies ranging from multinational corporations, large enterprises and IT firms to come up with 17 blockchain-based projects. The initiative will see those projects established over a three-year period across sectors including trade, logistics and […]

A Japanese city is turning to blockchain technology to allow residents to vote online in local elections. According to an announcement on Thursday, Tokyo-based blockchain firm LayerX and digital ID solutions provider xID have teamed up to build a “safe and convenient” voting platform for the city of Kaga in Ishikawa Prefecture. The city hopes the initiative will address some concerns with voting online and make it more convenient for elderly people living in more remote parts of the jurisdiction to vote on city policies. LayerX has developed an e-voting protocol that “that balances the transparency of the voting process and […]

The U.S. Department of the Treasury wants state and federal regulators to keep a vigilant watch on digital asset innovation. According to a report released on Thursday by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, digital assets are a “particularly good example” of both benefits and potential risks associated with innovation. The report highlighted the ambitions by nations around the world in their experiments with central bank digital currencies (CBDC) as a way to “enhance the global standing of their own currencies and enable faster payments.” “Financial Innovation offers considerable benefits to consumers,” the report reads. However, the report also noted should stablecoins […]

The world’s largest music streaming service is on the hunt for a new associate director to lead its activity within the Libra stablecoin project, recently rebranded to Diem. According to an announcement, Spotify is looking for an associate director to join its Payment Strategy and Innovation team. The successful candidate will be responsible for defining the streaming giant’s global payment strategy where they will “assess the payments landscape” and “lead its day-to-day engagement with the Libra Association,” per the announcement. The candidate will also drive “new opportunities and innovation” in distributed ledger technology, blockchains, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies and […]

One of the world’s largest ridesharing companies, Cabify, is moving to offset its carbon emissions with the help of blockchain technology. Announced last week, the Latin American ridesharing business has tapped Valencia, Spain-based blockchain fintech firm ClimateTrade to digitize and track its carbon emissions. ClimateTrade’s chief marketing officer, Ana Karen, told CoinDesk via email that Cabify selected her firm’s platform as a way to compensate for the ridesharing giant’s carbon footprint. The system works by tracking users’ rides and offsetting the carbon dioxide generated by distributing credits on ClimateTrade’s blockchain marketplace. The marketplace acts as an intermediary between those seeking to […]

Security token platform Dusk Network has become a shareholder of a Dutch stock exchange for small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Announced Tuesday, Dusk Network’s share acquisition in Nederlandsche Participatie Exchange (NPEX) follows a partnership period where both companies developed pilot projects to further financial product innovation. A representative of Dusk told CoinDesk the stake was “around 10%.” As reported previously, Dusk has plans to tokenize shares for thousands of SMEs in the Netherlands and the Benelux region. NPEX said in the announcement that it brought Dusk into the fold to help digitize and grow its platform. “We want to accelerate our […]

The head of the world’s largest asset manager has provided a somewhat bullish take on the world’s first cryptocurrency. According to a report by CNBC on Tuesday, CEO of BlackRock Larry Fink said bitcoin has “caught the attention” of many people and that the cryptocurrency market was still relatively small compared to others. Speaking to the former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney at the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday, Fink said the nascent cryptocurrency asset class can possibly “evolve” into a global market asset, CNBC said. According to the report, Fink also said having a digital currency has a […]

Ethereum Classic (ETC) has undergone a hard fork that ushers in a new upgrade aimed to increase miner participation and increase security. According to the ETC explorer by Blockscout, at around 3:45 UTC on Sunday, the ETC mainnet reached a block height of 11,700,000, automatically triggering the anticipated Thanos upgrade. Terry Culver, CEO at ETCLabs, told CoinDesk Thanos is an “important milestone” as the network moves to improve support for existing miners and draw in new ones. Specifically, the Thanos (ECIP-1099) protocol upgrade will bring the size of the DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) file well below 4GB, meaning 3GB and 4GB […]

The Venezuelan arm of the restaurant chain now accepts dash and bitcoin through CryptoBuyer. Source link

Libra, the Facebook-linked stablecoin targeted continuously by lawmakers, might get off the ground as early as January 2021, albeit in a more limited format than the original multi-currency basket envisioned. According to a report by the Financial Times on Friday, the Libra stablecoin project might actually see the light of day, according to “three people involved in the initiative,” though it may only launch a single dollar-pegged stablecoin. The global stablecoin project was initially proposed to be pegged to a basket composed of multiple fiat currencies, but was walked back by project leaders in April as a result of regulatory pressure from lawmakers in the […]

Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has reopened withdrawals five weeks after an abrupt suspension. In a short blog post on Thursday, the exchange announced that it was lifting the freeze at 08:00 UTC and pointed users to a compensation and loyalty program in an attempt to appease disgruntled users. As reported by CoinDesk on Wednesday, OKEx had been preparing its platform functionality ahead of the reopening by testing its withdrawal system, as 0.02 BTC was moved out from an OKEx wallet. On Oct. 16, OKEx had been forced to suspend all account withdrawals when an unnamed holder of the keys to the cryptocurrency assets was […]

Bitcoin fell more than $1000 dollars before rebounding, in the leading cryptocurrency’s sharpest decline in almost three weeks. At around 2:15 UTC, BTC began to tumble significantly as its value dropped below a previous area of support at around $18,474. Spot volume across major exchanges also rose sharply as bitcoin’s 24-hour range fell to between $19,474 and $17,284 – its sharpest decline in since Nov. 7, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Bitcoin has since regained some lost ground and is changing hands for around $18,012. While the reason for the drop isn’t entirely clear, the sell-off move comes at a time […]

The Australian Border Force (ABF), the country’s customs and border protection agency, wants to simplify cross-border trade with Singapore using blockchain technology. In collaboration with Singapore Customs and the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the blockchain trial aims to reduce administration costs and increase trade efficiency. Specifically, it will test digital verification platforms across both the ABF’s intergovernmental ledger and IMDA’s TradeTrust platform for sharing electronic documents, primarily certificates of origin. “This initiative will incorporate paperless trading and secure digital exchange of trade information as part of the future architecture and design of an Australian Trade Single Window,” said ABF […]

Gazprombank (Switzerland), an arm of the bank owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom, has carried out the first client transactions as part of its new bitcoin services. Announced Tuesday, the bank’s launch of institutional cryptocurrency services comes after approval was granted by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. “Digital assets will become increasingly important for our clients and the global economy,” said the bank’s CEO, Roman Abdulin. The cryptocurrency services, including cryptocurrency accounts, investment management and asset custody, were developed in partnership with fintech firm Avaloq and digital security infrastructure provider METACO. Gazprombank (Switzerland) said it has also become a member […]

Pendal Group, an Australian Securities Exchange-listed investment manager with over A$100 billion (US$73.6 billion) in assets under management, is getting into bitcoin. As reported by the Australian Financial Review on Monday, Vimal Gor, Pendal’s head of bond, income and defensive strategies, said with the cryptocurrency “entering the realm of mainstream,” the company is now investing in bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. “All the big hitters in the hedge fund world are coming out to endorse bitcoin,” said Gor, alluding to Paul Tudor Jones II and Stan Druckenmiller, billionaires who’ve both this year disclosed owning some of the premier cryptocurrency […]

Australia-based West Coast Aquaculture (WCA) has completed an A$5 million (US$3.65 million) initial public offering, becoming the first firm in the nation to use cryptocurrency for its capital raise. In an announcement provided to CoinDesk on Monday, fintech firm STAX said it had assisted WCA in raising just over 89%, or just over A$4.4 million (US$3.2 million), of the total raise via the stablecoin tether (USDT), a cryptocurrency with its price linked to the U.S. dollar on a 1:1 basis. The remaining funds were raised in Australian dollars. “We are proud to be part of this historic moment in Australian investment […]

Blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace has filed two patent applications it claims will assist authorities in tracking transactions made with the monero (XMR) cryptocurrency. According to an announcement on Friday, the firm most recently filed a document titled “Techniques and Probabilistic Methods for Tracing Monero” as a follow up to the earlier “Systems and Methods for Investigating Monero” patent application – both arising from the firm’s work with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that began in 2019. The filings provide technical concepts for forensic tools allowing exploration of XMR transaction flows in financial investigations. While monero, the 16th largest cryptocurrency on […]

Mingxing “Star” Xu, founder of OKCoin and CEO of OK Group, has resurfaced after being detained by Chinese police. According to a report by Bloomberg Thursday, Xu appeared on a private social media platform to post that he had been cooperating with an investigation relating to an equity merger that OK Group had finalized years prior. The equity investee was the target of a “complicated” legal case, Xu said, choosing not to go into further detail. It remains unclear as to precisely to which deal he was referring. “The authorities have clarified the matter and proved me innocent,” Xu wrote Friday […]

One of the world’s largest poker networks has said its players currently prefer bitcoin to fiat money for payouts. Winning Poker Network, which operates a number of online poker sites, said it has been forced to buy millions in bitcoin a day to meet the demands of exiting players. As reported by Bloomberg on Thursday, 90%–95% of Winning Poker’s payouts are in bitcoin because of the recent price rise, said the company’s CEO, Phil Nagy. “We are constantly having to go out and buy bitcoin, lots. Lots. More than we’ve even had to before.”  According to Nagy, the business is clocking […]

The U.S. Federal Reserve and the rise of “zombie companies” is prompting investors scramble to hedge against inflation using bitcoin and gold. That’s according to Mark Yusko, founder and CEO of investment firm Morgan Creek Capital Management, who spoke with CNBC’s Fast Money host Melissa Lee on Thursday. Yusko took aim at zombie companies (those that need bailouts at times of financial stress to stay in operation), calling them a “ponzi finance scheme” and saying their inability to repay debt, default or restructure meant the “only choice” left for the Fed and other authorities is to devalue the currency. That it […]

A Dublin man involved in the theft of more than $2 million in cryptocurrency through SIM-swap attacks has been sentenced to almost three years in prison. Conor Freeman, 21, was handed down a two-year and 11-month sentence in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday. He had pleaded guilty to several charges involving “guile and deception,” according to Judge Martin Nolan. As reported by The Irish Times, Freeman was found guilty of engaging in the possession of proceeds of crime, theft and dishonestly operating a computer. He had 142.7 bitcoin in his possession when arrested, an amount worth $2,502,790 at time […]

Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego just declared 10% of his portfolio is now tied up in bitcoin. Announced in a tweet on Wednesday, Mexico’s second-wealthiest man responded to questions that “many people” ask him about bitcoin, saying: “YES. I have 10% of my liquid portfolio invested.” “Bitcoin protects the citizen from government expropriation,” Pliego added as he recommended “El Patron Bitcoin” – a book that is “the best and most important to understand #Bitcoin.” The other 90% of Pliego’s investments are tied up “in precious metals miners,” the billionaire explained in a reply to Dan Held, the Kraken crypto exchange’s growth […]

Bitcoin’s price broke through $18,000 in what some experts are attributing to global events and bullish fundamentals in crypto. The world’s top cryptocurrency by market capitalization reached a high of $18,062 at 03:01 UTC, a price point not seen since Dec. 16, 2017. Over the past 24-hours, bitcoin has ranged between $16,560 and $18,062. Bitcoin is now up 146% on a year-to-date basis and has gained nearly 70% so far this quarter, according to CoinDesk 20 data. “A few recent events have undoubtedly had an impact,” said Antoni Trenchev, co-founder and managing partner at crypto lender Nexo. “Institutional investment by the likes of […]

Price appreciation in all cryptocurrencies this month is a factor behind the growth, but so are inflows. Source link

A senior executive at U.S.-based financial giant Citibank has penned a report drawing on similarities between the 1970s gold market and bitcoin. The whole of bitcoin‘s existence has been characterized by major price swings, “exactly the kind of thing that sustains a long-term trend,” said Thomas Fitzpatrick, a managing director at Citibank, in his report solely intended for the bank’s institutional clients. The report was first leaked to the cryptocurrency community by Twitter user “ClassicMacro” in a tweet on Saturday, noting Fitzpatrick is “a big fan of moon targets.” Fitzpatrick pointed to bitcoin’s weekly chart and used technical analysis (TA) of […]

With the launch, BitPay now provides an alternative to crypto payroll services such as BitWage. Source link

Axelar, a decentralized protocol designed by the founding members of Algorand to allow cross-blockchain communication, has raised $3.75 million in seed funding. Announced Thursday, the round saw participation from investors including Binance X, the investment arm and accelerator of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, as well as San Fransisco-based venture capital firm DCVC (Data Collective). Other participants included crypto operator fund Divergence Ventures, serial entrepreneur Waikit Lau and AngelList founder Naval Ravikant. “This [seed funding] will be crucial to help us accelerate our roadmap and to scale cross-chain communication,” said Sergey Gorbunov, co-founder and CEO at Axelar. “Today, we are seeing more and […]

The U.S. dollar value of the cryptocurrency liquidity locked up in decentralized finance is surging, buoyed by big gains for some lesser known projects. Source link

Blockchain platform ShareRing is integrating with Rakuten Travel Xchange, an online travel booking subsidiary of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten. The integration will mean Rakuten Travel Xchange customers can opt to use ShareRing’s self-sovereign identity app to access bookings at over 600,000 hotels and 200,000 rentals, according to an announcement Wednesday ShareRing said the blockchain-powered product allows passports and other travel documents, bank cards, accommodation, flights and vehicle information to be securely stored in one location, being accessible exclusively by the user. Rakuten Travel Xchange customers will further have the option to pay for bookings with cryptocurrencies, the firm said. ShareRing said […]

China Construction Bank (CCB) has tapped Hong Kong-based digital asset exchange Fusang for the issuance of $3 billion-worth of debt securities over a blockchain. According to a Wednesday report by the South China Morning Post, tokenized bond certificates will be issued through the state-owned bank’s Labuan, Malaysia, branch over a period of three months. Notably, the digital securities will be exchangeable for bitcoin on the Fusang exchange, as well as U.S. dollars. Trading is slated to commence this Friday. If successful, Fusang intends to work with the “Big Four” Chinese bank on the issuance of certificates in other currencies, including the […]

Lawyers of embattled former NFL player and investor Reginald Fowler have filed a motion to withdraw as his representative counsel. Source link

A former software engineer at Microsoft received a nine-year prison sentence Monday for an elaborate multi-million dollar criminal scheme involving bitcoin and digital gift cards. Ukrainian citizen Volodymyr Kvashuk, 26, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court in Seattle for 18 federal felonies related to his scheme to defraud Microsoft of more than $10 million. This marks the first case of its kind in the U.S., according to a press release by the Department of Justice. Kvashuk was involved in the testing of an online retail sales platform for Microsoft from August 2016 until he was fired in June 2018. He […]

New Jersey has inched closer to implementing its own “BitLicense.” Source link

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) is seeking legal amendments that would make it mandatory for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) within the country to report the names of their customers. According to a press release from the financial watchdog on Wednesday, a proposed update to the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information is aimed to help guard against money laundering. The act defines VASPs as “business entities that engage in the purchase and sale of virtual assets, exchanges between virtual assets,” as well as custodians, digital wallet service providers and brokerages. The changes will mean that VASPs […]

Taurus Group, a Swiss fintech firm, has taken on Sygnum Bank as the latest client for its digital asset custody services. Sygnum, which is one of two B2B players that hold banking licenses from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), will utilize Taurus’s Protect secure storage infrastructure, as well as leverage Taurus’ cluster of blockchain nodes, known as Taurus Explorer. Taurus Explorer provides unified APIs and broadcasting algorithms to interface with multiple blockchain networks. With the move, Sygnum joins Taurus’ other notable clients including banking and investment group Vontobel, Arab Bank Switzerland, SEBA Bank (the other B2B institution to hold […]