July 7, 2019 @ 6:01 pm By Cali Haan  |  

African technology journalist Andile Masuku has written that corruption around remittances in Africa is so bad, “I have become numb to the daylight robbery that ensues whenever I receive money from abroad or send cash to my family back home.” Masuku cites figures from the World… Read More

July 5, 2019 @ 3:11 pm By Cali Haan  |  

David Marcus, the CEO presiding over Facebook’s recently announced Libra cryptocurrency project, has issued a blog post on Facebook to address controversy roiling since the project was announced two weeks ago. Regulators around the world have been issuing stern warnings about how Facebook’s Libra payment… Read More

July 5, 2019 @ 10:02 am By Cali Haan  |  

Jessie Powell, the CEO of the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency trading platform Kraken told TD Ameritraid Monday that real money pouring onto crypto exchanges fuelled Bitcoin’s recent price rise, not controversial synthetic USDs called tethers. Tether printing comes after fiat and not before, said Powell: “Recently,… Read More

July 5, 2019 @ 7:21 am By Cali Haan  |  

Outspoken Bitcoin and cryptocurrency critic and economist Dr Andy Xie, renowned for predicting the 1997-8 Asian currency crisis, told The Korea Times this week that Bitcoin is “a gambling instrument” primarily exploiting Asian investors and that it can never function properly as a currency. “Bitcoin… Read More

July 5, 2019 @ 6:30 am By Cali Haan  |  

Cuban Economy Minister Alejandro Gil Fernandez has told the Cuban public that, together with academics, his ministry is, “studying the potential use of cryptocurrency…in our national and international commercial transactions.” Fernandez made the comments in a recent roundtable discussion of intended economic reforms broadcast on… Read More

July 4, 2019 @ 7:04 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Three parties accused of soliciting Texas investors with fraudulent cryptocurrency offerings have received emergency cease and desist orders as part of Texas’ “second regulatory sweep of cryptocurrency investment offerings.” Like the first sweep, which began in December 2017, the second sweep has been launched, “in… Read More

July 4, 2019 @ 9:28 am By Cali Haan  |  

ErisX, a Chicago-based derivatives dealer licensed to sell cash-settled SWAP futures since 2011, has announced it has been granted a derivatives clearing organization (DCO) license for digital assets futures under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) in the USA. ErisX said they worked collaboratively with the Commodity… Read More

July 4, 2019 @ 3:24 am By Cali Haan  |  

Bitsane, a Dublin-based cryptocurrency exchange with 246 000 registered users, went suddenly offline last week, and users say they cannot access funds they were keeping on the exchange. “I was trying to transfer XRP out to bitcoin or cash or anything, and it kept saying… Read More

July 4, 2019 @ 2:18 am By Cali Haan  |  

The Dutch Finance Ministry and Ministry of Justice have vowed to regulate cryptocurrencies as part of the Netherland’s comprehensive new plan to combat money-laundering in the region. “Our goal is to guarantee an honest and safe financial system,” co-authors Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra and Minister… Read More

July 4, 2019 @ 1:13 am By Cali Haan  |  

Officials at the Bank of Japan, Japan’s central bank, are reportedly concerned that Facebook’s new “difficult to regulate” cryptocurrency could have a calamitous effect on global financial systems, all while exploiting those very systems without paying the costs, Nikkei Asian Review (NAR) reports. Legislators in… Read More

July 3, 2019 @ 9:12 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Prime Factor Capital, “an asset manager that specialises in cryptocurrencies,” has been licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the region’s financial regulator, to operate as a “full-scope” Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM). The London-based firm believes it is the first cryptocurrency fund to be so authorized…. Read More

July 3, 2019 @ 9:04 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Five US House Representatives have submitted a letter to Facebook asking the company to, “immediately agree to a moratorium on any movement forward on Libra- its proposed cryptocurrency and Calibra- its proposed digital wallet.” The letter was forwarded by the powerful House Financial Services Committee… Read More

July 3, 2019 @ 5:16 am By Cali Haan  |  

A judge in the state of New York has sentenced Blake Kantor (also known as “Bill Gordon”), 44, to 86 months’ (~7 years’) imprisonment and three years’ supervised release for defrauding 700 people in a binary options and cryptocurrency scheme. Kantor pleaded guilty to charges… Read More

July 3, 2019 @ 4:29 am By Cali Haan  |  

Bitcoin’s recent diagonal tear to $13K USD has now relented as the currency’s price has settled back down to around $10k, and as the froth clears, information from two polls shows that the general public may be feeling tepid about Facebook’s proposed new cryptocurrency. Some… Read More

July 3, 2019 @ 4:23 am By Cali Haan  |  

Gemini, a New York-licensed cryptocurrency exchange owned by the Winklevoss twins, is seeking a broker-dealer license to sell tokenized securities from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), an unnamed source has told CoinDesk. In doing so, Gemini is seeking to go beyond providing regulated cryptocurrency trades… Read More

July 2, 2019 @ 11:14 am By Cali Haan  |  

FinCEN Director Kenneth A. Blanco told an audience at the  NYU Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement earlier this month that his agency is receiving 1500 reports of suspicious transactions involving cryptocurrencies per month- 500 more than it receives regarding regular transactions. Blanco has… Read More

July 2, 2019 @ 2:30 am By Cali Haan  |  

Citing ongoing pressure from unfavourable government actions, Indian cryptocurrency trading platform Koinex has announced it will “permanently disable” trading services on June 27th, 2019. “A snapshot of the wallet balances at this time will be taken for record, and the effort to disburse INR balances… Read More

July 2, 2019 @ 1:30 am By Cali Haan  |  

Cryptomines across the globe have been running into trouble for the large volumes of power they consume while producing relatively few jobs. According to Bloomberg, Iranian media have reported that authorities in Iran recently cut power to and seized mining equipment from several cryptomining facilities… Read More

July 1, 2019 @ 2:42 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A trader at Maple Leaf Capital has taken to Twitter to present an unflattering analysis of the Bitfinex crypto trading platform’s 1st IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) token “Ampleforth” (AMPL). (0) This will be a thread about Bitfinex’s 1st ieo – Ampleforth $AMPL. Whilst with a… Read More

July 1, 2019 @ 11:36 am By Cali Haan  |  

San Francisco-based crypto exchange Coinbase is tooting it’s sector’s horn in a recent blog post regarding “awareness and adoption trends related to crypto in America, such as which US States have the highest rates of participation and where enthusiasm is highest.” The results are gleaned from,… Read More