Month: December 2018

Just weeks ago, as Bitcoin (BTC) walked the fine line between a breakout and lower lows, Amun, a London-based fintech firm, suddenly divulged that it was slated to launch its “HODL5″ exchange-traded product (ETP) on Switzerland’s SIX exchange. Amun’s announcement instantaneously garnered attention from the bulk of the cryptosphere’s eyes and ears, with everyone and their mother discussing the”game-changing” vehicle, which put a spotlight on BTC, Ethereum (ETH), and XRP. Speaking with Financial Times regarding the product, Amun CEO and co-founder Read more …

Investigations are underway in Australia and New Zealand following reports of bomb threats where the sender is demanding a payment in bitcoin failure to which they will detonate an explosive device. The emails are believed to be similar to the ones that had earlier been received by various institutions and facilities in the United States and Canada including schools, government buildings, and media outlets. However, there are some slight differences in the name of the explosive devices as well as Read more …

The Daily In Friday’s installment of The Daily, we update a story we first reported on yesterday – the closure of stablecoin project Basis. Its team have now given the official reason for its cessation. We’ll begin, though, by covering a slice of crypto crime concerning “bitcoin bandit” Nicholas Truglia. Also read: Digital Currency Platform Revolut Receives European Banking License Bitcoin Bandit Faces Justice Truglia maintains his innocence On Dec. 13, so-called “bitcoin bandit” Nicholas Truglia was extradited to California to Read more …

Having traded cryptocurrency with his own money since 2014, software engineer Alex Wachli made a difficult choice when he joined the institutional crypto startup Seed CX. He had to give up trading. Seed CX forbids cryptocurrency trading by its roughly 40 employees. So Walchli effectively locked up his crypto holdings by handing the compliance team a list of all his wallet addresses, so they could monitor them and confirm his holdings stayed put. The engineer says he understands how personal investments Read more …

This week the crypto-sphere has been awash with talk about Samsung and its next generation flagship phone coming loaded with crypto goodies. While the company itself has dismissed the story according to reports, rivals are shipping out products that will no doubt keep Samsung on its toes. Samsung Rumors Aplenty The hype was instigated by a Samsung community website which ran a story on crypto cold storage functionality being included on the Galaxy S10. According to SamMobile which ran an Read more …

The U.S. government has confirmed the existence of bomb threat emails that demand bitcoin from organizations and suggested steps to take. The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), part of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, announced Thursday that it is aware of such an email campaign worldwide. “The emails claim that a device will detonate unless a ransom in bitcoin is paid,” the NCCIC said. There have been several media reports stating that scammers are demanding hefty bitcoin ransom Read more …

Cryptocurrency markets in predictable pain as the week ends; Bitcoin Cash, SV, getting killed, Stellar not far behind. As if scripted by some kind of delirious director, crypto markets are dumping again this Friday. The same thing happened last Friday and the one before that and the end of week selloff is getting a little tedious. Bitcoin fell to its yearly low again a few hours ago when it dumped 5% from over $3,400 to below $3,290. This marks a Read more …

Payments platform PayPal has so far avoided Bitcoin acceptance and, at least visibly, not considered blockchain for its platform. Now, it has launched an internal blockchain-based employee incentive program. A production of PayPal’s innovation lab, in San Jose, California, the platform took 25 strong team six-months to build and went live this November, according to reports by Cheddar and the lab’s director of innovation Michael Todasco. He says the platform is a: “Venmo-like feed people can like and comment on Read more …

News In today’s Chatter Report, Erik Voorhees criticizes cryptocurrency-focused venture capital firms for reneging on their signed term sheet deals. Also, Steve Patterson calls out Amaury Sechet over Chris Pacia’s comment that miners don’t vote. Lastly, imaginary_username contemplates on the different roles of miners and users in Bitcoin.  Also read: BCH Devs Discuss Securing Instant Transactions With the Avalanche Protocol Crypto Venture Capital Firms Renege on Term Sheets Founder of Digital Currency Group Barry Silbert revealed on Twitter recently that Read more …

A few hours ago Bitcoin revisited its lowest level in 2018. After a week of down trending and failure to break key resistance levels this latest plunge comes as no surprise. Bitcoin Revisits 2018 Low With a 5% slide Bitcoin dumped from $3,450 down to $3,284 during intraday trading. This repeats the yearly low it made almost a week ago on December 8. According to Coinmarketcap BTC fell sharply around 19.00 UTC after spending most of the week above $3,400. Read more …

The Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Maxim Akimov believes the current downturn in the market justifies caution in enforcing cryptocurrency regulation, Russian Finmarket reports. This statement comes after Mr. Akimov announced that the authors of Russia’s current daft cryptocurrency legislation to make amendments to the bill. The bills “On Digital Financial Assets”- which was adopted by the State Duma, Russia’s parliament, back in May 2018, has been the subject of widespread discussions within the Russian legal landscape since it was Read more …