May 30, 2019 @ 7:56 am By Cali Haan  |  

Stating that they plan to “closely monitor market condition(s)… (and) strictly control…illegal acts such as fraud and (multilevel marketing),” officials from the Korean Department of Justice and the Financial Supervisory Commission held an emergency meeting May 28th to “examine…virtual currency market trend(s)” in the wake of price… Read More

May 30, 2019 @ 4:46 am By Cali Haan  |  

A series of legal troubles experienced by well-known Bitcoin evangelist and lifestyler Morgan Rockcoons, 31, have concluded in California with Rockcoons being sentenced to 21 months in prison. In two separate indictments, Rockcoons was charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and wire fraud. He… Read More

May 29, 2019 @ 7:56 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Citing concerns about “…anonymity, speed and cross-border nature of DPT (cryptocurrency or digital payment tokens) transactions,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has stated it does not want to hasten regulation of cryptocurrencies because of the potentially “legitimizing” and popularizing effect doing so could have…. Read More

May 29, 2019 @ 7:17 am By Cali Haan  |  

A court in the Southern District of New York has granted provisional relief to defunct New Zealand cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia as it attempts to maintain access to customers’ trading balance data managed by an Arizona firm claiming the exchange owes it $2 million USD. Cryptopia… Read More

May 28, 2019 @ 5:04 pm By Cali Haan  |  

For the past few years, cryptocurrency businesses have been flocking to Estonia, attracted by the relaxed regulatory climate the country provided as it vied to be a leader in digital banking in the Baltics. According to ERR News: “The rapidity and ease with which foreign… Read More

May 28, 2019 @ 9:08 am By Cali Haan  |  

Seoul’s blockchain-enthused mayor, Park Won-soon, has announced at the Korean Future Forum his administration’s plans to turn Seoul into a data-accumulating “smart city” using a network of 50 ooo censors, blockchain databases and AI (artificial intelligence), Korean media outlet Queen reports. A cadre of business,… Read More

May 28, 2019 @ 7:23 am By Cali Haan  |  

The development team behind the “privacy coin” Monero has taken exception to a Reuters report profiling the coin and highlighting its use by criminals. “For a story that ‘examines the features and characteristics of some of the alternatives to Bitcoin that have grabbed the attention… Read More

May 27, 2019 @ 9:52 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Ex parte orders filed against the Binance crypto trading platforms by a leg of the VC firm Sequoia Capital have backfired as a judge’s staying of the orders have ushered in a countersuit against Sequoia brought by Binance CEO Changing Zhao, also known as “CZ,”… Read More

May 27, 2019 @ 9:48 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A 61-year-old woman in China has been sentenced to 4 months in prison and fined 10 000 Yuan ($1450 USD) for allegedly “stealing the national power resources” to mine Bitcoins, Chinese news outlet The Paper reports. The Kaiping District People’s Court of Tangshan City, Hebei… Read More

May 27, 2019 @ 1:59 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading service LocalBitcoins has shut down trading among users in Iran, likely in order to comply with US sanctions, Coindesk reports. Iranian LocalBitcoins customers are still allowed to withdraw bitcoins but reportedly cannot conduct new trades or update previous ones. According to reporter… Read More

May 24, 2019 @ 2:54 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A spokesperson for Switzerland’s largest stock exchange, the Zurich-based SIX Exchange, has confirmed in an email to Coindesk that SIX is developing a “stablecoin” pegged to the Swiss franc for use on the company’s forthcoming digital asset exchange: “Yes, we are currently working on a… Read More

May 24, 2019 @ 2:23 am By Cali Haan  |  

The Central Bank of Laos’ Transaction System Management Department is reminding businesses and the public that the buying, selling and/or use of cryptocurrencies is banned in the country, English-language Laotian newspaper The Vientiane Times (VT) reports. The warning has reportedly been issued after the department noticed ads… Read More

May 23, 2019 @ 8:39 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Former SEC Office of Internet Enforcement Chief John Reed Stark has used his latest blog post at LinkedIn (“The Bitcoin Plague Spreads to Retail”) to strongly advise American retailers not accept cryptocurrency payments: “Given its complete and utter lack of oversight and meaningful licensure, the… Read More

May 23, 2019 @ 3:53 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The SEC has filed a civil suit against Daniel Pacheco, 45, of San Clemente, California, alleging he pervaded a cryptocurrency-based pyramid scheme called “IPro” that collected more than $26.5 million USD from investors: “The SEC’s complaint, filed Wednesday, alleges that from January 2017 through March… Read More

May 23, 2019 @ 2:06 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has once again delayed Van Eck/Solid X’s application (for a rule change) to sell shares for a Bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Cboe’s BZX exchange. The request for a rule change to enable the Van Eck Bitcoin… Read More

May 23, 2019 @ 8:26 am By Cali Haan  |  

Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency trading platform dogged for years by controversy, is launching a platform for the issuing of IEOs (initial exchange offerings). IEOs are essentially a revamped version of the ICO (initial coin offering) except that rather than being sold directly to investors by issuers… Read More

May 22, 2019 @ 10:35 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Adam Clark, a self-taught programmer who founded the now liquidating “decentralized” cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia, already has a new exchange in the works, Decrypt Media has found. Clark’s LinkedIn profile lists him as “Platform Architect / Lead Developer at Assetylene.co,” a company in September of last year… Read More

May 22, 2019 @ 10:25 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. (TSXV: GLXY; Frankfurt: 7LX), Mike Novogratz’s crypto merchant bank, has sold, “a majority of the Company’s position” in Block.one back to Block.One itself. Block.one is the company that launched the EOS blockchain last year. Galaxy’s remaining shares in Block.one, “…will no longer represent a… Read More

May 22, 2019 @ 5:23 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Police in the Netherlands and Luxembourg have seized six servers hosting Bestmixer.io, “one of the three largest mixing services for cryptocurrencies.” The seizures, cooperatively executed by the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), Europol and the authorities in Luxembourg, have resulted in the complete shutdown… Read More

May 22, 2019 @ 7:22 am By Cali Haan  |  

A 33-year-old man in the central-Netherlands city of Apeldoorn has been arrested for allegedly using a fake cryptocurrency mining scheme to defraud 100 investors out of €100 million ($112 million USD), de Gederlander reports. Officers from The Tax Information and Investigation Service of the tax authorities (FIOD)… Read More