May 21, 2019 @ 10:25 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Blockstream, builder of Bitcoin satellites and financial contributor to Bitcoin Core, the project committing the majority of support for Bitcoin, announced at Consensus last week that it is launching a digital securities platform on the company’s “Liquid” sidechain. According to a company press release, “The… Read More

May 21, 2019 @ 9:03 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A 33-year-old IT worker has been charged for using computer systems at an unnamed Australian government agency to mine cryptocurrencies. Police say the accused, “abused his position as an IT contractor to manipulate programs to use the processing power of the agency’s computer network for… Read More

May 21, 2019 @ 8:16 am By Cali Haan  |  

As Bitcoin noses the $8000 USD mark and fans and crypto-dedicated media praise the end of “Crypto Winter,” investors and fiduciaries are well advised to have another look at articles circumspect about “blockchain,” the technology undergirding Bitcoin that has been praised as the “foundation of… Read More

May 20, 2019 @ 11:08 pm By Cali Haan  |  

IEO (initial exchange offering) “fever” is proving more short-lived than the ICO (initial coin offering) version, and that is probably a good thing. By promoting “IEOs” –crypto tokens of a slightly different stripe– exchanges and pundits have hoped to revive some of the excitement, action,… Read More

May 18, 2019 @ 4:05 pm By Cali Haan  |  

During the ICO (initial coin offering) heyday of 2016 and 2017, no less than 28 “identity protection projects” raised money from investors through ICOs hosted on Ethereum. Token sellers promised to build systems that would allow individuals to control access to identifying information cached about… Read More

May 18, 2019 @ 9:39 am By Cali Haan  |  

A civil case brought by investors against former heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Mayweather and celebrity DJ Khaled alleging they induced their social media followers to buy into a fraudulent ICO (initial coin offering) has been dismissed. Allegations of touting unregistered securities were also dismissed against… Read More

May 18, 2019 @ 9:30 am By Cali Haan  |  

Liquidating New Zealand crypto exchange Cryptopia has announced that it has halted trading and frozen customer assets and balances, “In order to… get an accurate picture of the current situation.” Accordingly, no withdrawals of fiat or crypto will be permitted by the exchange until, “…an… Read More

May 17, 2019 @ 12:58 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Anti-phishing company Area 1 says that email “sextortionists” have collected $1 million in Bitcoins (about $593 USD per victim) by convincing targets that their webcams and porn-search habits have been compromised, Fortune reports.  But your webcam and any porn consumption likely haven’t been breached, says Area… Read More

May 17, 2019 @ 9:12 am By Cali Haan  |  

Hackers demanding an $80,000 USD ransom in Bitcoins have disabled 21 Baltimore City agencies, and many systems are still down despite several weeks of efforts by technicians to abate the hacks, The Baltimore Sun reports. New Baltimore Mayor Bernard Young has remained steadfast on his… Read More

May 17, 2019 @ 4:13 am By Cali Haan  |  

Asia Business Law Journal (ABLJ) has published a comprehensive article on the current state of crypto law in Asia. Here, we provide a summary of the most salient point presented by ABLJ from each region. Philippines According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Global growth… Read More

May 17, 2019 @ 3:08 am By Cali Haan  |  

Facebook has picked up two former employees from Coinbase, the San Francisco-based crypto trading platform, Coindesk reports. In all likelihood, the two may have been hired to contribute to Facebook’s top-secret go at creating a price-stabilized cryptocurrency for use in a Facebook-linked payments system the… Read More

May 16, 2019 @ 4:01 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Officials in the city of Sherbrooke, Quebec, think cryptocurrency mining could boost economies in small Quebec cities, The Vancouver Sun reports. Christian Laprise, director of Sherbrooke’s municipal power utility, for example, has been working with companies like Bitfarms to make sure their power-thirsty facilities don’t… Read More

May 16, 2019 @ 7:32 am By Cali Haan  |  

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has granted itself more time to consider a request for a rule change that would allow Bitwise Asset Management to list a Bitcoin ETF product. Bitwise is a subsidiary of ICE, owners of the New York Stock exchange… Read More

May 16, 2019 @ 7:18 am By Cali Haan  |  

Cryptopia, a New Zealand-based cryptocurrency trading platform that, in February, watched helplessly for days as hackers drained an estimated $16 million USD in cryptocurrency tokens from exchange coffers, has gone into liquidation. According to business advisory firm Grant Thornton New Zealand, which is overseeing the liquidation:… Read More

May 15, 2019 @ 1:17 am By Cali Haan  |  

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, told crypto-interested attendees at the Consensus conference in New York this week that exchanges must do their “duty” and prevent terrorist and illicit use of cryptocurrencies. She began by stating that she,… Read More

May 14, 2019 @ 1:35 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Trustees from Ernst and Young Inc. (EYI) have submitted a preliminary report assessing the assets remaining at QuadrigaCX, a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange that lost access to an estimated $240 million CAD in exchange funds last winter after the untimely death of CEO and sole Director,… Read More

May 13, 2019 @ 9:52 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Police from the Tel Aviv Police Cybercrime Unit have arrested two Israeli citizens accused of running a Dark Net media site called “Deepdotweb.” Several other French, German, Dutch and Brazilian nationals have also been arrested in an operation coordinated between local authorities and the US… Read More

May 13, 2019 @ 5:46 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), operator of several major financial and commodity exchanges including the NYSE, has once again announced that it plans to offer physically-backed Bitcoin futures in the near term through Bakkt: “As detailed in the ICE Futures U.S. filing with the CFTC today, bitcoin… Read More

May 12, 2019 @ 3:17 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is stuffing its ranks with former PayPal staff, and an announcement regarding the company’s much-anticipated stab at creating a cryptocurrency may come as early as next quarter, though the company is still far from a viable product, unnamed sources tell Bloomberg. Facebook has… Read More

May 12, 2019 @ 2:17 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Six members of a transnational hacking group known as “The Community” have been indicted in the Eastern District of Michigan and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in relation to SWIM-swap hacks they allegedly conducted to steal cryptocurrencies by… Read More