October 22, 2018 @ 6:05 pm By Cali Haan  |  

By decree of the town council, for the next twelve months, no new cryptocurrency mines will be permitted to open in the town of Ephrata, Washington, Columbia Basin Herald reports. Existing cryptomines will also face higher electricity rates that come into effect next April. Council… Read More

October 22, 2018 @ 3:32 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume and registered customers fired “at least” 20 employees at the start of last week, Portal do Bitcoin reports. Four employees spoke to the publication on the condition of anonymity. They said executives were fired on Monday, and… Read More

October 22, 2018 @ 9:15 am By Cali Haan  |  

Gal Vallerius, a dual French-Israeli citizen from the Brittany region of France, was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this month after pleading guilty to, “conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to launder money,” court documents indicate. Mr Vallerius,… Read More

October 19, 2018 @ 3:34 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Florida law firm Silver Miller has combined six class action cases against BitConnect into one case, and the case will be pursued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Coindesk reports. Silver-Miller has asked for a jury trial. The case not… Read More

October 19, 2018 @ 12:19 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Rwandan government minister and CEO of the Rwandan Mining, Petroleum and Gas Board, Francis Gatare, says he has struck a deal with enterprise-blockchain developer Circulor to start tracking the country’s tantalum supply using Circulor’s version of Hyperledger Fabric. According to Gatare: “Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas… Read More

October 19, 2018 @ 7:16 am By Cali Haan  |  

US Marshals have announced that they will sell 660 bitcoins in two online sealed-bid auctions November 5th between 8 AM to 2 PM EST. A deposit of $200 000 USD per series is required by October 31st, 2018 to participate. The bitcoins on auction were… Read More

October 18, 2018 @ 12:01 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Developers that write predictive smart contracts could be subject to various types of enforcement action and liability, CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz told an audience in Dubai yesterday. Quintenz, whose agency regulates derivatives markets in the US, singled out both securities-preformance predictive software (“It could look… Read More

October 18, 2018 @ 10:35 am By Cali Haan  |  

New tariffs in the US that raise taxes on imports of crypto-mining machines from 2.6% to 27.6% may significantly impact revenues at Chinese companies like Bitmain, South China Morning News (SCMP) reports. The tariffs have come into place after American trade overseers in August reclassified, for… Read More

October 17, 2018 @ 12:21 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Former CFTC Chairperson and Current MIT Lecturer Gary Gensler told reporters at Bloomberg Monday that cryptocurrency markets need more protection than commodities: “The pure cash cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin need more protection, and probably more protection, than, frankly, even the oil markets and corn and wheat.”… Read More

October 17, 2018 @ 9:00 am By Cali Haan  |  

The Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) has, “caution(ed) the general public on the use of crypto currency and other virtual currencies,” in the small archipelago nation lying southwest of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean, though the overall status of cryptocurrencies there remains grey. The press release… Read More

October 16, 2018 @ 1:31 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A Stanford-trained Brazilian professor of computer science has left several of the sacred cows of Bitcoin wounded in the field after submitting a systematic take down of several of the coin’s tropes to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In early July, the SEC… Read More

October 16, 2018 @ 7:15 am By Cali Haan  |  

Councillor Patrick McFarlin of the Common Council of the city of Plattsburgh, New York tabled a proposed law last Friday that would impose strict safety requirements on all commercial cryptocurrency mining farms operating within the city’s perimeter. “LOCAL LAW P-7 OF 2018” offers provisions covering… Read More

October 15, 2018 @ 10:46 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, announced this morning that it has begun accepting registrations at its Binance Uganda exchange. “Users are now able to complete full account verification in the User Center after logging in,” says a company announcement regarding the launch…. Read More

October 15, 2018 @ 8:32 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The Central Bank of Zambia has issued a press release warning locals that it is the only body with the legal right to issue currency in the country. Cryptocurrencies in Zambia, therefore, are neither, “overseen, supervised nor regulated,” by the bank and should only be… Read More

October 15, 2018 @ 2:29 pm By Cali Haan  |  

International banking and investment conglomerate Barclays has suspended its internal study into the possible creation of a cryptocurrency trading desk within the organization, according to a story in Financial News London. Earlier this year, rumours surfaced that Barclays had assembled a team of four executives tasked… Read More

October 15, 2018 @ 11:58 am By Cali Haan  |  

Properly regulating the cryptocurrency sector is a complex affair, says outgoing Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) chairperson Carlson Tong, but a complete ban is futile: “We do not think imposing a total ban on these platforms is necessarily the right approach, and it will… Read More

October 15, 2018 @ 10:59 am By Cali Haan  |  

Starting in December, all payments sent by Visa users to forex, binary, crypto and ICO brokers will be designated “high risk,” Finance Magnates reports. Mastercard has already been imposing a similar designation since last April, when they extended the chargeback period for payments sent to “high-risk… Read More

October 14, 2018 @ 11:06 am By Cali Haan  |  

Until recently, fake Flash Player updates designed to spread malware have typically been rather clunky and lacking in “stealth,” says Brad Duncan, a threat intelligence analyst and writer for the cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks. “In recent years, such imposters have often been poorly-disguised malware… Read More

October 13, 2018 @ 6:53 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Telephone scammers pretending to be representatives from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recently used threats of deportation and a bitcoin ATM to defraud a recent immigrant in Charlottetown PEI out of $65 000, CBC reports. Now a Charlottetown court has ruled that the Bitcoin ATM… Read More

October 12, 2018 @ 7:08 pm By Cali Haan  |  

The American Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued an advisory warning that Iranian state actors may escalate their attempts to move money in and out of the country through “illicit” channels (including cryptocurrencies) once the US completes its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action… Read More