This week saw more exchange drama rock the crypto markets. OKEx, one of the industry’s largest crypto-fiat exchanges, suspended all cryptocurrency withdrawals, saying one of the exchange’s key holders has “been out of touch” with the exchange because they are “currently cooperating with a public security bureau in investigations.” Coming hard on the heels of the BitMEX indictments from a couple of weeks ago, this surely will focus the market’s attention on the security of the withdrawal protocols of large exchanges. At the time, concerns surfaced that withdrawals might be halted from BitMEX, one of the largest derivatives exchanges in the […]
Crypto
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OKEx has frozen withdrawals, audit firms are experiencing a backlog of DeFi projects and the Trump administration is examining DLT for national defense. Top shelf Audit (back)logsCrypto code audit firms say they are swamped with decentralized finance (DeFi) projects. Three of the most well-regarded auditors in the space – OpenZeppelin, Quantstamp and Trail of Bits – told CoinDesk’s William Foxley they are all booked until at least Q1 2021. For example, Quantstamp’s Juliano Martinez said the “high volume” of applicants has led to his company “rejecting lots of projects.” The months-long backlog comes amid a sharp pullback across the $11 billion DeFi market, […]
When will we ever learn? Not your keys? Not your coins. On Friday morning as the OKEx withdrawal-freeze story twisted and turned, CoinDesk’s editors had an off-the-cuff discussion about the fundamental realities and unique challenges of security for even the largest exchanges. Source link
The Huobi cryptocurrency exchange assured users its trading platform is “currently operating normally” after one of its biggest competitors, OKEx, announced it suspended all cryptocurrency withdrawals indefinitely. “Huobi’s cold wallet uses multi-signature and threshold signature technology to ensure the security of the private key signature process,” Ciara Sun, vice president of Huobi Global Markets, told CoinDesk in a Wechat message. “Multiple people and multiple backups ensure the availability of the private key.” While one would expect exchanges like Huobi would benefit from OKEx’s news – as in the BitMex case, where large bitcoin outflows from the exchange went to its competitors […]
The U.S. Department of Justice charged the six individuals for alleged involvement in laundering funds from Mexican drug cartels after an investigation spanning years. Source link
Between bitcoin treasury holdings growing and crypto-focused SPACs, private crypto markets and public equities markets are closer than ever. Today on the Brief: Initial jobless claims rise to highest level since August BTC as a DeFi reserve asset Twitter reactions as Filecoin goes live Our main discussion focuses on the convergence of the crypto and public markets. NLW looks at: Narratives of bitcoin’s correlations to stocks Growing overlap of retail and institutional traders SPACs and public crypto companies Bitcoin treasuries Geopolitical intrigue around ANT Financial Source link
As well as making cryptocurrency transactions, the man is alleged to have bought luxury cars and property to launder funds. Source link
COVID has not slowed crypto M&A. To wit, the value of industry acquisitions in the first half of 2020 has already surpassed that of full year 2019, according to a report released Thursday by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Around $597 million was spent in 60 deals in the first half of 2020, compared to $481 million spent in all of 2019 for 125 deals, according to data that PwC aggregated from M&A data firms MergerMarket, Capital IQ, Crunchbase and Pitchbook. That said, the acquisition of CoinMarketCap by Binance for a reported $400 million was one of the largest buys ever recorded in the […]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) just fired a warning to crypto exchanges worldwide: Comply with U.S. law or face the potential wrath of the federal government. Last week, the DOJ published an 83-page cryptocurrency enforcement framework detailing its approach to the nascent space and discussing potential crimes. The document also suggested the U.S. government would enforce its laws regardless of where exchanges – referred to as virtual asset service providers, or VASPs – are based. In other words, these exchanges should comply with U.S. laws – even for their non-U.S. customers: “The Department also has robust authority to prosecute VASPs and […]
The planned bill comes as part of broader legislation aimed at cracking down on tax fraud, a government spokesperson said. Source link
Peer-to-peer crypto marketplace Paxful said it’s partnering with BiLira, the group behind the Turkish lira-backed stablecoin bilira (TYRB), and crypto trading platform Cointral as part of a push to trade cryptocurrencies in Eastern Europe. Paxful said the move follows strong growth in trading registrations by Turkish users over the past year. Both BiLira and Cointral are based in Turkey. In an emailed statement, Paxful said it recorded an average monthly trading volume of over $65,000 in Turkey. Source link
For Coinbase users who don’t want to keep their funds on an exchange, the buying and storing crypto just became a lot easier. On Monday afternoon, the company announced that Coinbase Wallet users would now have a fiat on-ramp within the wallet itself. Previously, users holding their crypto in the non-custodial wallet would have to buy crypto on the Coinbase app (or elsewhere) and then send funds to Coinbase Wallet. This meant users trying to use, say, a DeFi dapp would have to install two separate apps to get started, the company said in an emailed statement. For decentralized app creators, […]
In the seven months since India’s top court allowed banks to legally service crypto platforms, users and trade volumes at local exchanges have increased. But regulators have said little about the rules for crypto trading. Confusion can be detrimental to market growth. So to introduce more clarity, some in the Indian crypto community are pitching a way to let platforms stay active but in a cordoned part of the market, supervised by the regulators – otherwise known as a sandbox approach. Initiated by crypto exchange BuyUCoin, the sandbox proposes a regulatory framework to bring crypto assets under existing regulations while also […]
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s decision to ban individual investors from speculating on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is likely to have a minimal impact, partly because the market is so small, according to analysts and industry executives who track the trading business. Some U.K.-based brokerages that had offered the crypto derivative products to retail traders could see a drop-off in revenue, though big cryptocurrency exchanges including Kraken say the impact is likely to be minimal. While U.K. individuals can still trade the actual cryptocurrencies, there may be some traders who will seek to skirt the rules by trading on offshore exchanges. […]
This week the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which regulates the country’s financial services, issued a ban on the sale of crypto derivatives and ETNs to retail investors. While this may not seem particularly material to crypto asset markets overall – U.K. retail investors weren’t that much into crypto derivatives anyway, and the market hardly reacted at all – it is worth paying attention to for the alarming message contained within. This message loudly says: “We don’t like crypto assets.” In case you think I’m exaggerating, the policy statement opens with the sentence: “There is growing evidence that cryptoassets are causing […]
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner (SEC) Hester Peirce, well known for her pro-cryptocurrencies views, said increased interest in the space will necessarily force the regulatory body to shift toward a more accommodating stance, according to a recent interview with Cointelegraph. Source link
Between BitMEX action, the U.K.’s derivative ban and the new U.S. Department of Justice enforcement framework, regulations are coming for crypto. On this week’s Breakdown weekly recap, NLW looks at a cross-section of regulatory news, including: NLW discusses why these might reflect a new moment in crypto history, what it means for current builders in bitcoin and DeFi, and why recruiting corporate allies like Square will become more important than ever. Source link
So, you’re trying to get a job in crypto. Do you need a degree to showcase your mastery of blockchain technology? “No,” said Columbia University adjunct professor Omid Malekan, “because that almost doesn’t exist.” This story is part of the CoinDesk U series about blockchain at universities. See our ranking of U.S. universities here. Blockchain was expected to be the top-demanded hard skill in the job market in 2020, according to a LinkedIn annual report in January. Malekan, a blockchain consultant for clients like Citi who teaches an MBA course on blockchain and cryptocurrencies, says demand far outstrips supply in job […]
Ethereum’s success drives imitation. Just take a look at the latest report from the crypto-industry publication DappRadar: In the third quarter of 2020, Ethereum accounted for 96% of the total transaction volume over decentralized applications, including the blockchain-based trading and lending networks that have exploded in popularity in recent months. Prices for ether (ETH), the Ethereum blockchain’s native token, have nearly tripled in 2020 to about $350. Such returns make better-known bitcoin’s 52% year-to-date gain look paltry. CoinDesk is preparing for the invest: ethereum economy virtual event on Oct. 14 with a special series of newsletters focused on Ethereum’s past, present and future. Every day until […]
The largest U.S. regulated market for bitcoin futures has been sounding out cryptocurrency traders to gauge their interest in a listing of futures and options on the Ethereum blockchain’s native tokens. Source link
Residents of the southern Chinese city will have access to 10m yuan ($1.47m USD) of the country’s sovereign digital currency in a weekend lottery in a bid to trial and boost the emerging technology, media reported on Friday. 50,000 “red packets” of a state blockchain-based currency are set to be dispersed to lottery participants in Shenzhen’s Luohu district via the public services application iShenzhen, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday. Winners will receive their prizes on Sunday via the official Digital Renmenbi e-wallet app, a Shenzhen government official said in a statement on Thursday night. Winners can use the […]
U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s Department of Justice (DOJ) believes cryptocurrencies pose an emerging challenge to law enforcement activities, according to a new publication filed Thursday. The DOJ’s “Cryptocurrency: An Enforcement Framework” document, published by the Attorney General’s Cyber-Digital Task Force, outlines what cryptocurrencies are and their potential use cases, including sections on both legitimate and illicit uses (though the “legitimate uses” section was shorter and more skeptical). Crypto has been used to support terrorism, purchase illicit items, conduct blackmail and extortion, cryptojacking and launder funds, according to the document, and the DOJ has spent the last two years determining how […]
Draper Associates is backing the round for the Bangalore-based cryptocurrency exchange, with $3.5 million raised so far. Source link
Eosfinex has launched a beta version of its mainnet, saying it brings liquidity from the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange to the EOS community. Source link
LVC, the crypto exchange operator and blockchain business unit of LINE, is launching a service that allows users to lend crypto assets like bitcoin and ethereum to its exchange BITMAX. In return lenders will receive a rental fee, which is like the interest on a bank loan. Source link
In such a fast-growing industry as crypto asset markets, it can be overwhelming to try to extract the main themes driving liquidity and investor interest. Yet, doing so helps to understand how relatively new markets evolve, and what the catalysts will be for the next big steps forward. The latest CoinDesk Research Quarterly Review focuses on three features that have exhibited astonishing growth in Q3 and are playing a significant role in the evolving maturity of the digital asset markets. In 24 charts, we look at stablecoins, decentralized finance (DeFi) and derivatives, and tease out some intriguing findings. It is a […]
CoinDesk is preparing for the invest: ethereum economy virtual event on. Oct. 14 with a special series of newsletters focused on Ethereum’s past, present and future. Every day until the event the team behind Blockchain Bites will dive into an aspect of Ethereum that excites or confuses us. The Top Shelf news you subscribed to is down below. Now, a few words from CoinDesk tech reporter Will Foxley. Making consensus Scaling for censorship-resistanceThe shakedown of bitcoin derivatives exchange BitMEX last week is a healthy reminder of what motivates many DeFi developers: building censorship-resistant financial markets. The meaningful comparison between BitMEX and decentralized finance, of course, is the […]
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published final rules banning the sale of derivatives and exchange traded notes (ETNs) that reference certain types of crypto assets to retail consumers. The U.K. financial regulator said it considers these products to be ill-suited for retail consumers due to the harm they pose, asserting they cannot be reliably valued by retail consumers because of the: Specifically, the ban will affect “the sale, marketing and distribution” to retail investors of any derivatives contract or ETNs that linked to “unregulated transferable cryptoassets” issued by entities in or outside the UK. The FCA classifies unregulated transferable cryptoassets […]
Three of the largest asset managers are diversifying their funds to hold blockchain stocks, throwing more establishment financial might behind bitcoin’s technology. Charles Schwab has begun purchasing shares of Riot Blockchain, joining Fidelity and Vanguard – already investors in Riot, HIVE Blockchain Technologies, Hut 8 and BC Group – in allocating mutual fund holdings to a cryptocurrency company, according to financial filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Filings for the first half of this year show Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc. purchased 22,977 Riot shares for $52,000. Two Vanguard funds – the Vanguard Index Fund and Vanguard Valley Forge […]
A potential partnership between Binance and TaoTao fell through, 10 months after first being revealed. Source link
Former software guru and one-time presidential candidate John McAfee has been nabbed in Spain on tax evasion and cryptocurrency fraud, ending his year long stint as a globetrotting fugitive. He now faces extradition to the US. The US Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission both announced charges for McAfee on Monday, hitting the security software founder with 10 counts linked to dodging the IRS and another series of charges for promoting investments in cryptocurrencies without disclosing that he was paid some $23 million to do so. “John McAfee earned millions in income from promoting cryptocurrencies, consulting work, speaking engagements, […]
As if the ructions of the year aren’t giving us enough cause to re-examine things we thought we understood, now we find ourselves questioning what a company is for, and what role it should occupy in society and in employees’ lives. Earlier this week, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong published a post in which he stressed the company’s focus on the mission of creating “an open financial system for the world,” and asked that political issues be left out of workplace discourse. The questions this raises are huge, and the timing fits right into tectonic shifts already underway in the […]
A bunch of my friends from high school back in Kansas were getting together for a birthday at a hometown bar a little while back and I, now a New Yorker, couldn’t be there. So I told one of my buddies to buy everyone a round and Venmo me for whatever it cost. His response: “What’s Venmo?” It was one of about a billion times life has told me that you can’t go home again, but this story would come as no surprise to Lana Swartz, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia. She’s the author of the book […]
The head of bitcoin escrow company Volantis pleaded guilty in New York on Thursday to bilking an investor of over $3 million. He also settled parallel commodities fraud charges. Jon Barry Thompson, 49, admitted in Manhattan federal district court that his crypto companies – Volantis Market Making LCC and Volantis Escrow Platform LLC – never followed through with a promised $3.25 million bitcoin buy for one unnamed customer in the summer of 2018. Thompson also settled charges brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday. A newly filed consent order requires him to pay $7.4 million in restitution to […]
For Democrats, it was a moment of truth. For Republicans, it was “fake news.” Among some members of the crypto commentariat, there was a very different reaction to The New York Times’ recent scoop on Donald Trump’s tax returns – a bombshell story to kick off a week of even bigger bombshells about the now COVID-afflicted U.S. President. Rather than challenge the story, they challenged the response to it. The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, Jesse Powell, said it was “fake outrage” and defended citizens’ rights to minimize the state’s incursions into their private property with “legit deductions.” National Football League […]
As demand for bitcoin surges in India, especially in urban tech hubs, smart-contract platforms like Ethereum and others are also gaining momentum. Cosmos, promoted by the Switzerland-based Interchain Foundation, is especially finding traction with students like Aditya Nalini at the Vellore Institute of Technology in southern India. He’s one of four “ambassadors” trained by the community organization Cosmos India, founded in November 2019. The Cosmos India community grew from a handful people in 2019 to more than 1,000 participants in less than nine months, local organizers say, despite the pandemic. Nalini now holds the majority of his modest wealth in cryptocurrency, […]
Arbitly’s crypto licensure and registration claims are bogus, according to Malta’s financial regulator. Source link
A Florida crypto trader has been charged with duping $6.8 million from investors in his purported digital asset day trading shop. The case is a reminder that investors in cryptocurrency should watch out for promises too good to be true. Crypto, just like all asset classes, has its share of charlatans preying on the aura of a little-understood but much-hyped investment vehicle. Source link
Hundreds of thousands of euros may have been supplied through a secret network benefiting al-Qaida-linked extremists in northwestern Syria. Source link
A Chinese video site copycat raised $2.1 million via an initial exchange offering in August 2019 – but it appears this last resort wasn’t enough to save the company from falling apart. On Sept. 24, the Shanghai Yangpu District Court disclosed an Aug. 31 ruling that video streaming company Dilidili has infringed the trademark of Nasdaq-listed Bilibili and must pay a fine of nearly $500,000. The ruling followed a separate notice by the Shanghai Minhang District Prosecutor in July, which ordered the arrest of Dilidili’s founder for copyright infringement. The years-long case has drawn widespread attention among Chinese mainstream media given […]
If the internet was a person, ARPANET was its first tooth, Facebook was the pubescent rage of middle school and Bitcoin was the key to its first car. Today, we find ourselves riding shotgun, unsure of what direction the internet will take next. There are those who feel we’re about to careen off a cliff, and others who write off the internet’s dangers as inevitable growing pains of innovation. The internet allows us to work together while simultaneously incentivizing us to tear each other apart. That dynamic isn’t sustainable for long. Perhaps over the next 10 years the internet will go […]
In the beginning, there was bitcoin. And with bitcoin, a new asset was invented. And with that new asset, the way we interact with capital was redefined. Bitcoin achieved both of these things. It created a new form of money: one that needed neither central banks nor collateralization. One that was provably scarce and governed only by code and those who wrote and ran it. It also created a new model for ownership, trading and transacting. This new model required no third parties or middlemen. It meant that anyone could directly control their assets and could transfer them in a purely […]
Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong dropped a bombshell on corporate America and the culture wars when he told employees, firmly, to keep activism out of the workplace. In a blog post on Monday, Armstrong said Coinbase employees should be “laser focused” on the company’s mission: to create an open financial system for the world. The message is clear: Coinbase won’t touch topics unrelated to its business and it expects employees to pursue social activism in their own time. Armstrong predicted his blog might stir up some controversy. He was right. Twelve hours after publication, the post has split the crypto industry straight down […]
A Caribbean-based firm is in hot water with the CFTC for allegedly allowing U.S. retail investors to partake in leveraged trading of cryptocurrencies and precious metals. Source link
Crypto has many problems of its own making. Bad user experiences, unsustainable transaction fees, an inability to assess risks in the face of unyielding innovation. But until this year, I doubt anyone would have suggested that an interdependence on the U.S. dollar was one of them. The introduction of easily tradable, even decentralized, stablecoins has been a godsend for millions of ordinary people. They can now hedge against the constant fluctuations in price of ETH and BTC. And price stability means global commerce need no longer be obviously deterred in integrating programmable money into their digital operations. And yet, the land […]
A boom in decentralized finance (DeFi) has turbo-charged returns for Pantera Capital’s bitcoin and mixed cryptocurrency hedge funds this year. From Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, Pantera’s bitcoin (BTC) fund gained 61%, its digital asset fund 168%, its initial coin offering (ICO) fund 323% and its long-term ICO fund 270%, thanks in large part to Yearn Finance’s YFI, Terra’s LUNA, Polkadot’s DOT, Flexa’s AMP and Ampleforth’s AMPL DeFi-related tokens, according to an investor letter sent out last week. Year-to-date, the funds have outperformed the S&P 500 stock index, as well as index and hedge funds. The returns also tipped the ICO […]
An Asian cryptocurrency exchange’s funds have been compromised in a security breach. The Singapore-headquartered digital asset exchange KuCoin said in a statement that it detected large withdrawals of bitcoin and ethereum tokens to an unknown wallet beginning at 19:05 UTC time on Friday. In a live stream on 4:30 UTC time Saturday, KuCoin CEO Johnny Lyu said that one or more hackers obtained the private keys to the exchange’s hot wallets. Kucoin transferred what was left in them to new hot wallets, abandoned the old ones and froze customer deposits and withdrawals, Lyu said. KuCoin’s cold wallets were unaffected, Lyu claimed. […]
Fintech giant Plaid has quietly added support for two DeFi applications, the IRS wants to know about your crypto holdings and data shows the total value of stablecoins has surpassed the $20 billion milestone. Plaid <3 DeFiVisa-owned fintech company Plaid, which connects traditional bank accounts to thousands of digital platforms has quietly added support for Dharma’s DeFi wallet and Teller Finance, a DeFi startup bringing unsecured lending to the Ethereum blockchain. CoinDesk’s Ian Allison got the scoop that Plaid’s head of UK, Keith Grose, is a believer in decentralized and open applications, even if it’s a cynical attempt for fintech to manage its […]
Bitcoin’s price woes this month likely put investors off from purchasing crypto ETPs, pushing volumes into a nosedive. Source link
Several Chinese state-owned media have made unusual coordinated reports describing cryptocurrencies as the year’s top performing investment. Source link
A new bill could bring cryptocurrency exchanges under a single federal framework. The Digital Commodity Exchange Act of 2020, introduced Thursday by Rep. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), seeks to create a federal definition of “digital commodity exchanges,” putting them in their own legal category and charging the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) with oversight. The bill outlines a new framework for digital currencies, treating them similarly to commodities under the Commodities Exchange Act, which governs that asset class. Under the framework, crypto exchanges would enjoy a federal jurisdiction, allowing them to operate in the entire U.S. rather than applying for 49 different […]
A new cryptocurrency trading platform is gearing up to offer zero-fee trades to users in six countries in the Gulf Region. Announced on Thursday, the platform Fasset Exchange (FEX) has started sign-ups for its private beta and is planning a public rollout later this year. Source link
A growing force in the crypto space, Visa says it’s getting more and more industry firms interested in payments partnerships. Source link
Uniswap’s week-old governance token is outperforming more established cryptocurrencies Wednesday. Source link
The Venezuelan agency responsible for regulating cryptos has legalized the mining industry, but in the process mandated it be centralized under government control. Source link
The upcoming U.S. presidential election has become one of the most contentious in history, fraught with searing divisions over everything from the economy to race to the continued health of democracy itself. So it’s not surprising that Wall Street options traders are now pricing in expectations of elevated market volatility around the November election. Analysts for the investment banking giant Goldman Sachs noted earlier this month that price swings of nearly 3% are implied around election day in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of U.S. stocks. What’s surprising is that options trading on notoriously volatile bitcoin prices, which often trade in sync with stocks, […]
The new ETF product will track an index currently being designed by Nasdaq that will provide broad exposure to the digital asset market. Source link
In seeking to explain Monday’s sell-off across traditional markets and cryptocurrencies, the digital-asset firm QCP Capital rattled off a list of seven major market events that occurred in Septembers past, from the 1929 stock-market crash to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008. There might be some deep human connection with the fall equinox — when the days turn shorter than nights in the northern hemisphere and summer turns to fall, according to the firm. “The human nervous system typically undergoes major measurable perturbations” during this period, QCP wrote Monday in its daily market update. The outlook is cloudy but there’s a risk of a steep […]
CARACAS, Venezuela — At first blush, it looked like cryptocurrency adoption was poised to make a huge stride in Venezuela. Late last month, Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó announced he would use the digital currency exchange Airtm to redistribute some $19 million to Venezuelan health care workers. The money would come from funds that the U.S. government seized from the incumbent Maduro government. The “health heroes” funds would be delivered via Airtm’s stablecoin, AirUSD. But after speaking to various medical personnel here, I came away with the impression that the health heroes campaign has been somewhat chaotic. One health care worker […]
Some say that meaningful change happens gradually. Others insist it erupts unexpectedly. This week, we saw that both are true. Earlier this week, the Wyoming Banking Board voted to approve the application from San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken for a Special Purpose Depositary Institution (SPDI) banking charter. Yes, one of the crypto industry’s oldest exchanges has become a bank. This is a big deal, one that heralds a coming transformation of the crypto asset industry. Market participants and commentators understandably reacted with glee and surprise. Both are warranted, yet both overlook the bigger shift that has been building up for some […]
This week Kraken Financial became the first crypto company to receive a banking charter under Wyoming’s Special Purpose Depository Institution statute. Join CEO David Kinitsky for a look at what it all means and how it’ll work with hosts Adam B. Levine, Andreas M. Antonopoulos and Stephanie Murphy. In the early days of Bitcoin, there were no rules, or at least none that people understood. The first batch of companies were focused entirely on functionality; Simply making things possible that before crypto had been impossible. In the aftermath of the collapse of first MTGox and then later TheDAO, it became obvious […]
Kraken became the first crypto exchange to win a U.S. banking license this week. Here’s why that matters. On this edition of The Breakdown weekly recap, NLW looks at: DEXetition – Uniswap’s battle with SushiSwap heats up as the former dropped the UNI governance token in what some likened to a crypto stimulus check The Fed has no clothes – After another FOMC meeting of “nothing new,” the mirage of Federal Reserve omnipotence is fading TikTok and WeChat banned from U.S. app stores – Is it just a negotiating technique? Whatever the case, people are not happy Kraken becomes a bank […]
Haunting red skies, a mounting death toll and a giant swath of smoldering devastation across 12 western U.S. states compels us to talk this week about climate change and what it means for the cryptocurrency industry. Because, whether you like it or not, both of those things are not going away. Sadly, the overlap between people working in crypto and people working to contain climate change is small. But the reality is that the future of cryptocurrencies and the future of our planet’s climate are closely intertwined. Climate change is a global problem that transcends borders, yet as Californians and Oregonians […]
The cryptocurrency and security token exchange’s blockchain IPO is the first of its kind and gives observers and issuers a ground-level view of what’s going on through the Etherscan block explorer. The public can see roughly the number of investors receiving INX tokens after putting money into the sale by watching the number of holders on the token tracker. (Some of these are internal operational transactions, however, such as when Tokensoft loads the distribution smart contract.) Traditionally, to get information on who beneficially owns an interest in shares held at central securities depositories like the Depository Trust Company, investors or issuers […]
Investors accuse NVIDIA of bungling the chipmaker’s response to 2017’s mining hardware boom. Source link
You’re going to have to wait a little longer for the liquidity mining–powered savings account from Korean stablecoin maker Terra. The savings account’s returns will be based on various proof-of-stake currencies, plus additional yield over the first five years in the form of its growth token. The system is called Anchor and was originally expected to go live in October; the latest update from the company has pushed that back to late November. That said, the project is riding forward on a wave of momentum. The firm’s Chai payments app, in which the Terra stablecoin is prominently featured, now has over […]
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), an organization of state financial regulators, will make it easier for financial technology payment firms and cryptocurrency exchanges to prove they’re in compliance with U.S. state laws. The CSBS announced a “One Company, One Exam” plan Tuesday whereby states will coordinate their supervisory exams for the nation’s largest payment firms in an effort to reduce the costs on both state regulators and the companies they oversee. Essentially, the exam is how these regulators will make sure regulated entities are still in compliance. What this means for cryptocurrency companies – such as Coinbase – is […]
A former contractor for Australian science agency CSIRO was found to have mined around $7,000 in cryptocurrency. Source link
The two Russians who were sanctioned earlier this week by the U.S. Treasury Department on accusations of being crypto thieves allegedly got their millions through market manipulation and phishing. Prosecutors detailed Danil Potekhin and Dimitrii Karasavidi’s alleged heists, victims and target exchanges in a 30-page forfeiture complaint filed Wednesday against the pair’s previously seized crypto funds. In late October 2017, hackers pumped $5 million of one victim’s crypto into NEO’s Gas market, skyrocketing the usually sleepy token’s value 13,000% before ordering their personal gas-holding Poloniex accounts to cash out into ETH. The victim “lost virtually all of his $5 million in […]
ParaSwap has raised $2.7 million in seed funding from 32 investors including Blockchain Capital, Alameda Research, CoinGecko and more. Source link
A slew of regulatory happenings are in the works. First, the Bahamian central bank plans to issue the first CBDC this October while the Indian legislative body is considering a ban on crypto trading. Further, the latest SEC injunction into an allegedly unregistered token sale could set a grave precedent, argues Commissioner Hester “Crypto Mom” Peirce. Top shelf CBDC firstThe Central Bank of the Bahamas has confirmed it is moving ahead with the nationwide launch of its digital currency, called the “Sand Dollar,” sometime in October. Approximately $48,000 worth of the new central bank digital currency (CBDC) – pegged to the U.S. dollar-tracking Bahamian […]
The pair is accused of having stolen $16.8 million from customers of three different crypto exchanges, including two in the US. Source link
Kraken is the first cryptocurrency firm to become a bank. On Wednesday, the Wyoming Banking Board voted to approve the San Francisco-based crypto exchange’s application for a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) charter. Kraken is the first SPDI bank in Wyoming and according to the Wyoming Division of Banking’s general counsel, Chris Land, Kraken will also be the first newly chartered (de novo) bank in the state since 2006. “By becoming a bank we get direct access to federal payments infrastructure, and we can more seamlessly integrate banking and funding options for customers,” said David Kinitsky, a managing director at Kraken […]
A leaked version of rules to be issued later this month by the European Commission proposes an all-encompassing set of regulations covering the trading or issuance of digital assets across the 27-nation bloc. Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) draft legislation provides legal certainty around crypto assets – cryptocurrencies, security tokens and stablecoins – along the same lines as Europe’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), a legal framework for securities markets, investment intermediaries and trading venues. The takeaway is that Europe intends to treat crypto the same as any other regulated financial instrument, which will doubtless provide legal clarity. The unknown […]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) settled unregistered securities offering charges against online gaming and gambling platform Unikrn for conducting an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. Commissioner Hester M. Peirce, an outspoken advocate for cryptocurrencies, dissented. According to a press release Tuesday, the SEC alleged that between June and October 2017, Unikrn Inc. raised approximately $31 million through the UnikoinGold (UKG) token sale in violation of registration requirements. The SEC’s press release said that while the firm promised to use its funds to add more features to the platform and develop additional applications, it failed to register the sale […]
Our industry seeks to revolutionize many of the most important and regulated functions of our society. Due to that ambition, no other industry of comparable size and age has so quickly captured the focus of policymakers and regulators. This attention creates unique challenges and opportunities. Policies enacted in the coming years related to securities laws, anti-money laundering and know-your-customer requirements, market integrity and taxes could smother our nascent industry, or they could lay the foundation for a flourishing and vibrant cryptocurrency and blockchain economy. Kristin Smith is the executive director of the Blockchain Association, which celebrates its two- year anniversary this […]
Filecoin might be the most complex thing the blockchain industry has ever brought to market. The Web 3.0 data-storage project, funded by a $257 million initial coin offering that closed in September 2017, has been building out its technology ever since. While Filecoin has been quieter than most over that time, Filecoin is currently wrapping up a very active incentivized testnet called Space Race. There are 1.5 million FIL tokens allocated to testnet participants, though it’s hard to assess the value of that offer when the company has refused to discuss details that might inform FIL’s underlying price. Nonetheless, this testnet […]
The folks building the next generation of digital money in Switzerland understand the need to collaborate. Stablecoins, digital tokens pegged one-to-one to the Swiss franc (CHF) in this case, are a prime example. SEBA Bank and Sygnum Bank, the two B2B players that hold banking licenses from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority and that specialize in digital assets, are both involved in stablecoin explorations, as is the country’s respected crypto conglomerate, Bitcoin Suisse. “Within the Crypto Valley and here in Switzerland, there’s a very good collaboration going on, where everyone’s working together to try to design a Swiss franc stablecoin […]
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) has added three Russian nationals and a host of cryptocurrency addresses to its sanctions list on allegations of election interference. OFAC alleges the three individuals, Artem Lifshits, Anton Andreyev and Darya Aslanova, are employees of the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian company and “troll farm” that tries to influence events. The IRA attempted to influence the 2018 midterm elections in the U.S., and OFAC alleged Thursday this work has continued. “The IRA uses cryptocurrency to fund activities in furtherance of [its] ongoing malign influence operations around the world,” a press […]
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. Source link
Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken will operate in Japan for the first time in two years. The company said Tuesday its Japanese subsidiary, Payward Asia Ltd., completed the regulatory registration process and has been granted a permit to operate as a crypto asset exchange business in the country. Source link
Huobi, the third-largest crypto exchange by derivatives trading volume, is now giving users a way to earn relatively attractive interest rates on a bitcoin or USDT savings account. The product, launched Sept. 7, is the exchange’s latest bid to beat its competitors as it boosts its assets under management. Huobi’s addition targets retail traders less interested or involved in day-to-day trading activities but still willing to receive a certain amount of returns from their digital assets, said Ciara Sun, the vice president of Huobi Global Markets, during an exclusive interview with CoinDesk on Sept. 8. “Huobi has millions of users but […]
AT&T has won a motion to dismiss a $200 million punitive damages claim from Mike Terpin, who lost $24 million in crypto via SIM hack Source link
Blockchain investment firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) has acquired Luno, a retail-focused cryptocurrency exchange with over five million customers spanning over 40 countries. Luno will continue to operate as an independent, wholly-owned subsidiary of DCG, the companies said. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed in an announcement Wednesday. The deal marks another shift in strategy for DCG (which also wholly owns CoinDesk) as it makes a full acquisition of a solidly retail-focused business. “We have invested in many retail businesses all over the world – including nearly two dozen exchanges,” said Mark Murphy, DCG’s chief operating officer. “But […]
Frances Coppola, a CoinDesk columnist, is a freelance writer and speaker on banking, finance and economics. Her book “The Case for People’s Quantitative Easing” explains how modern money creation and quantitative easing work, and advocates “helicopter money” to help economies out of recession. The 2008 financial crisis created an extraordinary financial melting pot. Into the soup went the legacy system, now shown to be unfit for this purpose: new ways of transacting in old currencies and new types of money. This witches’ brew has now been stewing for over a decade, but the type of potion it will eventually produce is […]
Despite three “51% attacks” in a month, Ethereum Classic’s price has demonstrated strong resilience. Though down a bit for the past month, its persistence may indicate that security is not a top priority for investors rushing to join a bull run in the crypto market. However, some warn that unless it improves its blockchain and makes it safer, additional attacks on Ethereum Classic could trigger a market sell-off and lead to a collapse of its digital asset. For a blockchain network’s security, a “51% attack” is pretty much as bad as it gets. That’s when a single entity gains control of […]
The firms will leverage privacy enhancing zero-knowledge proof technology to enable institutional trading firms to cross margin and bilaterally trade derivatives from a single pool of collateral. Source link
You’re reading First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team and edited by Bradley Keoun, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. Price Point Bitcoin was down early Tuesday, barely holding above the important psychological threshold of $10,000. Prices for the cryptocurrency, up 40% year-to-date, have held above $10,000 for more than six weeks. The digital-asset firm Diginex wrote in a newsletter post that “prices will need to […]
CryptoCompare’s latest report shows crypto derivative volumes were up 54% in August – likely a result of the rally in bitcoin’s price. Source link
Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency payments are now live on Ziglu, a week after the app-based platform got its EMI license from a U.K. watchdog. Source link
Users of the new Launchpool will be able to stake Binance’s tokens, as well as the ARPA token, for rewards in Bella (BEL). Source link
In a week in which we are yet again reminded how sharply sentiment can shift in crypto asset markets, it’s appropriate to look at the role volatility plays in our narratives, our portfolios and our psyches. I also want to examine what volatility is not, as its specter takes on a disproportionate influence in times of turmoil. This confusion is not unique to crypto markets – volatility is misunderstood across all asset groups. As with virtually all market metrics, however, it has particular nuances when applied to our industry. Setting the table First, let’s review what we mean by volatility. Technically, it […]
Bitcoin is in bear territory for the third straight day and investors are still looking to DeFi to capture gains during the dump. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $10,606 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 0.90% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $9,894-$10,081 BTC below its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bearish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin trading on Coinbase since September 2.Source: TradingView Bitcoin’s price dropped below $10,000 Friday, sliding as low as $9,894 on spot exchanges such as Coinbase. “It’s not the best look for BTC from a momentum and positive volume standpoint, to be […]
Pornhub will accept BTC and LTC payments, a nonprofit is calling upon Coinbase to be more transparent and credit default swaps are coming to the Ethereum blockchain. You’re reading Blockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here. Top shelf Porn paymentsPornhub, the popular adult entertainment site, has added bitcoin (BTC) and litecoin (LTC) payment options for its Pornhub Premium product. The company is an example of legal, though untraditional, online businesses struggling with centralized payment processors: PayPal has blocked payments to the site without explanation, CoinDesk’s EU […]
The Russian Ministry of Finance has drawn up a new draft bill that echoes a previous attempt to outlaw cryptocurrency use and, if passed, would have a major impact on the nation’s crypto miners. The document, sent by the ministry to other government branches for feedback, states that miners located in Russia and using Russia-based infrastructure may not be rewarded for their work in cryptocurrency, according to the Russian newspaper Izvestia, which first reported the bill. The draft is intended to amend a new law on digital assets signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of July. If the […]
BitMEX is adding chainlink and tezos futures, the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange said. Source link
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. Source link
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the latest victim of a Twitter hack undertaken to trick social media users into sending cryptocurrency to the attackers. The Modi incident is another sobering reminder to always think twice before sending crypto to strangers on the internet, even if there’s a blue check and the portrait of a head of state in the profile. Source link
A hypothetical man-in-the-middle attack would have allowed an attacker to hold users’ crypto for ransom on Trezor and KeepKey hardware wallets. Source link