November 14, 2019 @ 12:58 am By Cali Haan  |  

Executives who allegedly ran a fraudulent $342 million USD (400 billion won) cryptocurrency scam called Coin Up in Korea from August of last year until this past February have received significant prison sentences, Yonhap News reports. 53-year-old Coin Up executive Kang-mo, who allegedly displayed a… Read More

November 13, 2019 @ 11:01 pm By Cali Haan  |  

More than 200 delegates representing police forces and regulatory bodies in Australia, the US, Singapore, and New Zealand are convening Nov 13-15 in Brisbane at the 2019 National Proceeds of Crime Conference. Present in force will be staff from Australia’s Taxation Office, Securities and Investment Commission,… Read More

November 13, 2019 @ 10:33 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Officials at the People’s Bank of China have issued an official statement disclaiming rumours that China has begun issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). “Recently, the net news said that the People’s Bank of China has issued (a) legal digital currency,” the communiqué states,… Read More

November 13, 2019 @ 7:32 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A poster on Reddit is warning that “Asian Girls” on Tinder are engaging in sometimes month-long seductions to lure marks and their money to unreliable cryptocurrency projects. In the post titled, “PSA: Watch out for girls from Tinder who like fashion, hiking, investing and other… Read More

November 13, 2019 @ 2:07 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Lawyers for Telegram have responded to the SEC complaint that led a judge in October to temporarily forbid the sale of GRAM tokens to retail investors in the US. Telegram, provider of a popular encrypted messaging app (Messenger) that permits anonymous communicating, was started by… Read More

November 12, 2019 @ 9:31 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A spokesperson for the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has confirmed that the top 5 Canadian bank has filed patents for crypto trading platform technology. The spokesperson would not confirm plans to launch, however. “(L)ike many other organizations,” Jean Francois Thibault told The Logic Monday, “(RBC) files patent… Read More

November 12, 2019 @ 7:41 pm By Cali Haan  |  

A Dutch court has determined that Facebook has the means at its disposal to restrict Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ads featuring celebrities who did not consent to the use of their name or image, Dutch News reports. Judges in Amsterdam have also threatened to fine Facebook… Read More

November 12, 2019 @ 2:15 am By Cali Haan  |  

Anti-Malware and anti-virus company Emsisoft posed as a potential customer to conduct an informal “sting” on a company “guaranteeing” it can decrypt data locked by Dharma ransomware for a fee of about $7000 USD. The problem is, Emsisoft claims, no known party has ever decrypted… Read More

November 12, 2019 @ 1:55 am By Cali Haan  |  

CEO Patrick Collison of Stripe told Wired magazine last Friday that he’s, “very skeptical of anyone who’s adamant that crypto’s gonna work,” but said he thinks companies should experiment even if the chance of success seems slight. Collison reportedly made the comments while doing on… Read More

November 11, 2019 @ 11:14 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Bittrex, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Seattle, has sent a letter to customers who had funds frozen in 2017 because they were trading from sanctioned regions stating that affected parties may now withdraw their funds to another exchange. “It’s been a few years that @BittrexExchange disabled… Read More

November 11, 2019 @ 8:26 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Martin Walker, director of banking and finance at the Center for Evidence-Based Management, says Ripple officials’ repeated claims that SWIFT has a a 6% error rate are false. “In May 2019, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of a San Francisco based (but Delaware registered) fintech firm called… Read More

November 9, 2019 @ 3:57 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Prolific Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz is offering a free seven-week program starting in late February 2020 called the “a16z Crypto Startup School.” Famous for being one of the early backers of Facebook and Instagram, Andreessen Horowitz has added a number of cryptocurrency/ “blockchain”… Read More

November 9, 2019 @ 2:55 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Elvira Nabiullina, governor at the Bank of Russia since 2013, told the Russian parliament this week that she supports Fintech innovations but opposes private currencies like Facebook’s Libra because they pose a threat to financial stability. She also said she and the bank are monitoring… Read More

November 9, 2019 @ 10:11 am By Cali Haan  |  

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has granted Toronto-based Mavennet Systems $182,700 USD to modify its oil and gas industry blockchain so it can be used by US Customs Border Protection (CBP) to cross-border oil imports. Once adapted, the tech will be used in… Read More

November 8, 2019 @ 3:31 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Tether Inc. is calling an academic paper claiming the company’s cryptocurrency tether (USDt) was used to induce the bitcoin bull run of 2017 “flawed” and “embarrassing.” The company is responding to an updated version of a 2018 paper by American finance professors John Griffin and… Read More

November 8, 2019 @ 1:02 am By Cali Haan  |  

Ashley Alder, CEO of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission told attendees at Hong Kong Fintech Week on Wednesday that Facebook’s Libra has forced, “the international regulatory community…to get its act together very rapidly,” regarding the financial stability risks of stablecoin cryptocurrencies. He also said… Read More

November 7, 2019 @ 9:32 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Micree Ketuan Zhan, co-founder of Bitmain, the world’s largest manufacturer of cryptocurrency mining hardware, has promised in an open letter to take legal action against colleagues who “dismissed” him suddenly at the end of October. According to a translation of the letter obtained by The… Read More

November 7, 2019 @ 9:01 pm By Cali Haan  |  

In comments likely designed to assuage regulator concerns, Kevin Weil, VP Product for Facebook’s Calibra cryptocurrency wallet program, told people attending the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon November 5th that Facebok’s proposed cryptocurrency network will take decades to implement: “This is not going to… Read More

November 7, 2019 @ 4:56 pm By Cali Haan  |  

Five virtual currency service providers (VASPS) have now been authorized by Finland’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) to provide cryptocurrency services in the region. The five firms must also comply with EU anti-money laundering laws and will be subject to inspection. As well, in announcing the registered… Read More

November 7, 2019 @ 2:13 am By Cali Haan  |  

The UN Security Council’s Sanctions Committee on North Korea has identified a Hong Kong business using a “blockchain platform” to launder money on behalf of the Pyongyang regime, Chosunilbo reports. The business, Marine China, reportedly, “set up a shipping and logistics firm run on a blockchain… Read More