Month: January 2018

Facebook users will no longer be bombarded by cryptocurrency, initial coin offering and Bitcoin adverts on the social media platform. The company has instituted an all-out ban on cryptocurrency, ICO or Bitcoin adverts – citing “financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.” Unfortunately, legitimate financial service providers will also be painted with the same brush- which effectively rules out any advertising of cryptocurrencies or related products on Facebook. Adverts failing to comply will be banned Read more …

Cryptojackers have been hijacking YouTube ads to harness viewers computer processing power in order to mine digital currencies, in this case, Monero. The issue was reported by technology publication and science Ars Technica after people took to social media to report that antivirus programs had detected cryptocurrency malware on YouTube.  Attackers abused Google’s DoubleClick, which develops and provides internet ad serving services for traffic distribution. According to data from the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network, affected countries include Japan, France, Read more …

Sberbank, the largest state bank of Russia, is planning to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in its Swiss branch, Sberbank Switzerland AG, local media group RBC reported on Tuesday Jan. 30. The bank’s Head of Global Markets Andrey Shemetov told RBC that the Russian bank chose Switzerland for the exchange location because Russian authorities do not currently allow cryptocurrency operations, while cryptocurrency exchange is legal in Switzerland. “We wish to serve our customers’ interests, that’s why we think that we need Read more …

The heads of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (SEC) are set to testify on cryptocurrencies during a U.S. Senate hearing next week. The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will meet on Feb 6. at 10 a.m. EST, with SEC chief Jay Clayton and CFTC chief J. Christopher Giancarlo set to appear as witnesses. The hearing and the appearances by Clayton and Giancarlo were previously reported by the Washington-based publication The Hill Read more …

Get Trading Recommendations and Read Analysis on Hacked.com for just $39 per month. Recently, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein shot down longstanding rumors that the investment bank was launching a cryptocurrency trading desk. Now, we know the reason why: the bank already owns one. Goldman Sachs ‘Not’ Launching Bitcoin Trading Desk As early as October last year, there were rumors that Goldman Sachs was considering opening the first major Wall Street cryptocurrency trading desk. By the end of the Read more …

Featured A South Korean court has ruled that bitcoin has an economic value for the first time. This overturned an earlier court ruling which did not recognize the digital currency. The case involves the confiscation of 191 bitcoins. Also read: Japan’s DMM Bitcoin Exchange Opens for Business With 7 Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin’s Status Re-Examined The Suwon District Court in South Korea has, for the first time, recognized that bitcoin has an economic value and can be confiscated, local media Read more …

The UK’s Royal Mint, the institution responsible for producing all the physical money the country has for circulation, has announced the launch of its own gold-backed cryptocurrency. The Blockchain-based coin, called Royal Mint Gold (RMG), is a digital representation of gold stored in The Royal Mint vault. The Royal Mint Bullion, the Royal Mint company that sells physical gold, is the first company to allow customers to hold gold-backed assets on Blockchain, Tom Coghill, RMG’s Commercial Lead, stated in an Read more …

The Korea Customs Service (KCS) published a press release on Jan. 31 on the status of illegal foreign currency exchanges using digital currency, which reportedly totals 637.5 bln won (about $600 mln). The report gave examples of the largest cases when digital currency was illegally exchanged, citing 416.9 bln won ($391,886,000) illegally exchanged and 21.5 bln ($20,113,250) remitted due to insufficient funds between Australia and South Korea. Another example involves Japan, where reportedly 53.7 bln won ($50,478,000) was illegally remitted Read more …

Leo Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, refuted the Bloomberg report that Goldman Sachs will be opening a crypto trading desk in an interview with CNBC, although the New York bank has owned a stake in a crypto trading desk since 2015. In 2015, Goldman Sachs’ principal investment strategy group, which invests specifically in technology companies, participated in a $50 mln funding round with Bitcoin-startup Circle Internet Financial. The deal closed on April 29, 2015, when Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at Read more …

Get Trading Recommendations and Read Analysis on Hacked.com for just $39 per month. It’s perhaps what one might expect from the infamous ICO that was Tezos. Tezos is one of those blockchain startups that gripped the crypto community, first for its ability to raise $230 million in an ICO and then for how quickly they let it all slip away. Now Johann Gevers, the head of the startup’s Swiss Foundation who is also at the center of the battle with Tezos Read more …