April 11, 2019 @ 3:27 pm By Cali Haan  |  

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has reportedly added cryptocurrency mining to, “a revised list of industries it wants to encourage, restrict or eliminate,” Reuters reports. Cryptocurrency mining appears on the list along with 450 other industrial activities the NDRC says should be, “phased out… Read More

April 11, 2019 @ 3:14 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Two unnamed individuals were charged with fraud April 10th for their involvement with OneCoin, a multibillion-dollar global cryptocurrency pyramid scheme of  started by a brother and sister team in Bulgaria. Business Times reports that an investigation by the Singapore Commercial Affairs Department and the Singapore Police… Read More

April 11, 2019 @ 2:16 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has denied Seattle-based cryptocurrency trading platform Bittrex’s application for a BitLicense to offer the trading of cryptocurrencies and tokens in the state. The decision was provided in a letter to Bittrex CEO Bill Shihara dated April… Read More

April 11, 2019 @ 2:08 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The IMF’s Christine Lagarde hosted a panel discussion on “Payments in the Digital Age” at the IMF’s Spring Meetings held this week in Washington, DC. A video of the panel is provided by CNBC international TV and can be viewed here. Panelists included the ECB’s… Read More

April 11, 2019 @ 1:42 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Julian Assange, the controversial founder of the transparency group Wikileaks, was arrested by British police and removed from the Ecuadorian embassy early this morning. A statement from London’s Metropolitan Police reported by the Washington Post indicates that Assange was, “arrested on behalf of the United… Read More

April 11, 2019 @ 11:26 am By Cali Haan  |  

A man who formerly managed institutional sales and trading for the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange is suing the firm for more than $900 000 USD in commissions he claims are outstanding, Bloomberg reports. The suit filed in New York on April 4th by the Silver-Miller Law… Read More

April 11, 2019 @ 8:23 am By Cali Haan  |  

A 24-year-old hacker who used malware-disseminating ads on porn sites to lock millions of computers and extort cryptocurrency ransoms received a six-year prison sentence this week in London, The Register reports. According to The Birmingham Mail, the accused, Zain Qaiser, “worked for an international Russian… Read More

April 10, 2019 @ 2:59 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) has issued an emergency cease and desist order against FxBitGlobe, a company the Board claims is “trading mostly in falsehoods” for pervading an unlikely cryptocurrency investment program that has pyramid-scheme features. According to the TSSB, FxBitGlobe, “claims to be… Read More

April 10, 2019 @ 10:49 am By Cali Haan  |  

Careful record-keeping is essential for users and traders of cryptocurrencies and digital tokens. This is the main takeaway from an informational article published recently by digital security-token (DSO) issuance platform Securitize. Digital securities offerings (DSOs) are also commonly referred to as security tokens offerings (STOs) in… Read More

April 9, 2019 @ 12:17 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga CX has been placed in bankruptcy this week, CBC reports. The exchange had been undergoing restructuring following the sudden death of founder Gerald Cotten and the loss of $260 million CAD in exchange funds. Cotten’s wife, Jennifer Robertson, filed for credit protection in… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 11:07 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Sarah John, Chief Cashier at the Bank of England told Currency Conference 2019 attendees in Dubai this week that use of cash is declining in the UK but that bank notes are not yet passé. John cited statistics showing that cash use dropped from 61%… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 11:02 pm By Cali Haan  |  

North Korea has added to its standard program of hacking banks in the developing world by launching computer-borne attacks against cryptocurrency exchanges, Wired reports. To further complicate matters, at least part of the billions of dollars so far garnered in these hacks is being used… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 10:58 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Lithuania has been moving for some time to establish itself as a Fintech leader in the Baltics. According to the previous reporting at Crowdfund Insider, the country registered 35 new Fintechs in 2017, and in early 2018, Invest Lithuania Managing Director Mantas Katinas promoted the… Read More

April 8, 2019 @ 3:38 am By Cali Haan  |  

Hackers are selling and using a potentially devastating “new generation of (Trojan) malware” called Gustuff to hijack bank, cryptocurrency, remittance, and payment details and accounts of Android users, cybersecurity firm Group IB reports. Notably, the malware exploits Android Accessibility Service features designed to help  disabled… Read More

April 7, 2019 @ 8:13 pm By Cali Haan  |  

An on-the-ground investigation by London news outlet Financial Times has shown that several payment referral partnerships maintained by German payments giant Wirecard in the Philippines are either insubstantial or dubious. On Friday, it was revealed that a top accounting executive with the firm had departed…. Read More

April 7, 2019 @ 11:51 am By Cali Haan  |  

Two recent ransomware attacks on real estate companies may exemplify recent claims from cybersecurity experts that hackers are increasingly targeting medium-sized and smaller companies as larger entities tighten their online security. In January of this year, cybersecurity staff from BoostIT and workers at a real… Read More

April 7, 2019 @ 11:31 am By Cali Haan  |  

The price of Bitcoins made a newsworthy jump of 20% last Monday morning, and that gain is still holding, but the lean early months of 2018 saw a second round of layoffs at Hut 8, “Canada’s largest cryptocurrency miner,” CBC reports. Hut 8 runs 85… Read More

April 6, 2019 @ 8:51 am By Cali Haan  |  

Though Bitcoin’s much-reported recent reawakening from its 15-month slumber may entice certain investors into the fray, wealth manager Peter Mallouk warns that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies remain poor investments, CNBC Make It reports.  “What we’re going to see, most likely, is, we’re going to see… Read More

April 5, 2019 @ 3:45 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Missoula County Board of County Commissioners has unanimously passed interim zoning overlay regulations that, effective immediately, require all new cryptocurrency mines in the region to be 100% powered by renewable energy. Existing firms can continue more or less as usual, despite the fact that… Read More

April 5, 2019 @ 11:15 am By Cali Haan  |  

A new batch of “sextortion” emails are making the rounds, says cybersecurity firm Trustwave, and the latest scam has two unique features. Sextortion spam may be randomly distributed or sent deliberately to high net worth individuals or people known to have or likely to have… Read More