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US independent rating agency, Weiss Ratings, has published its complete list of 93 cryptocurrency ratings. The company has upgraded its BTC rating to B-. The list shows 14 coins with B ratings including ETH, IOTA, NEO, XRP, STEEM, TRX, and XLM. Fifty-four of the rated cryptocurrencies carry C ratings. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Complete List of 93 Crypto Ratings On Tuesday, May 29, Weiss Ratings made public its complete list of 93 cryptocurrencies rated by the company. The American independent rating agency, founded in 1971, has been rating approximately 55,000 institutions and investments such as stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, insurance companies, banks, credit unions, and cryptocurrencies. Compiled on Friday, the list shows an overall rating of B- for BTC and C- for BCH. It can be obtained by signing up with an email address on the company’s website until June 4. No cryptocurrency on the list has received an A or a B+ rating. Overall, fourteen coins were rated B or B-. ADA, DCR, EOS were rated B, whereas BTC, ETH, BTS, IOTA, ONT, NEO, XRP, STEEM, TRX, XLM, and ZIL were rated B-. 54 cryptocurrencies were rated either C, C+ or C-. They include BCH, DASH, DOGE, ETC, LSK, LTC, XMR, XEM, QTUM, SC, STRAT, UBQ, VEN, WAVES, and ZEC. Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings The company started publishing crypto ratings on January 24 with the launch of “Weiss Cryptocurrency Ratings” that are “based on a groundbreaking model that analyzes thousands of data points on each coin’s technology, usage, and trading patterns,” the company described. At launch, Weiss Ratings gave BTC a C+, citing that “Bitcoin (rated C+) gets excellent scores for security and widespread adoption. But it is encountering major network bottlenecks, causing delays and high transactions costs. Despite intense ongoing efforts that are achieving some initial success, Bitcoin has no immediate mechanism for promptly upgrading its software code.” “Investors should interpret the Weiss Cryptocurrency grade scale with these terms,” the company explained. “A = excellent; B = good; C = fair; D = weak; [and] E = very weak.” In addition, Weiss Ratings wrote, “A plus or minus sign indicates the upper third or lower third of a grade range, respectively. In addition, an F grade is assigned to cryptocurrencies that have failed or are subject to credible allegations of fraud.” The company’s list of 93 crypto ratings does not contain any coin with an F rating. Under its system, Weiss Ratings elaborated: Cryptocurrencies do not have to achieve an A grade to merit interest by investors. A ‘B’ or even ‘B-‘ also qualify as the investment rating equivalent to ‘buy.’ At the same time, investors should not be overly alarmed by a ‘C’ rating. It is a passing grade; and for investors, implies the equivalent of ‘hold.’ What do you think of Weiss’ crypto ratings? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Weiss Ratings. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Weiss Ratings Publishes Complete List of 93 Cryptocurrency Ratings appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief we feature news from all over the world. These stories include a new multi-GPU mining motherboard from Taiwan’s Asu; a Singaporean businessman acquiring a Japanese exchange; some ripple-loving alleged Russian hackers shaking down Canadian banks; and a Colombian soccer star launching his own coin. Also Read: Austrian Financial Market Authority Stops ‘Active Managed Mining’ Operation H370 Mining Master Asus (TWSE: 2357), the Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer, has announced a new motherboard that increases density with support for up to 20 graphics cards, designed specifically for crypto miners. The H370 Mining Master greatly replaces its predecessor’s x1 slots with banks of vertical PCIe-over-USB ports that let riser cables plug directly into the motherboard. The company explains that: “Mining is a numbers game; it’s only worthwhile if the value of the cryptocurrency you generate exceeds the cost of producing it. Increasing the number of graphics cards per node is a great way to stack the deck in your favor.” The motherboard includes several more mining-enhancing features including a suite of diagnostic features designed to make a rig easier to manage. Chief among them is GPU State Detection, which scans the system at boot and indicates whether each riser port is empty, connected to a functional graphics card, or whether it’s experiencing problems. It will be unveiled at Computex 2018 in Taipei, June 5-9. Real Estate Entrepreneur Buys Bittrade Singaporean property entrepreneur Eric Cheng has announced the acquisition of two Japanese companies for S$67 million, giving him a 100% controlling stake in FX Trade Financial and its affiliate Bittrade. Bittrade is one of only sixteen Japanese FSA-regulated cryptocurrency trading platforms. Speaking on the acquisition, Cheng commented: “The cryptocurrency industry is growing exponentially. Against this backdrop, the key to capturing the rising demand is having a well-regulated and licensed outfit. With this Japanese FSA-licensed platform, I will work closely with the regulators to scale this platform globally.” Ripple Loving Bank Hackers Hackers and ransomware cyber criminals usually prefer privacy coins such as monero, or just BTC to avoid having to explain too much about the crypto markets to their victims. But a new group, possibly from Russia, has been more successful with Ripple’s XRP. According to a report from Canada, an address with about $5 million in XRP is controlled by hackers who recently attacked two banks. Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Simplii Financial revealed personal information about 90,000 clients of the two banks was being held hostage for $1 million, to be paid in XRP. The hackers, using a Russian email service, explained that the banks’ lack of education security has enabled the situation. “They were giving too much permission to half-authenticated accounts which enabled us to grab all this information,” they said, adding that the system “was not checking if a password was valid until the security questions were input correctly.”  $30 Million Gumi Cryptos Gumi Cryptos is a new $30 million investment fund meant to help crypto ventures crack the Japanese market. It is led by Hironao Kunimitsu, founder and CEO of Tokyo-based mobile gamer publisher Gumi, and Miko Matsumura, founder of U.S.-based exchange Evercoin. “We’ll be bringing startups from outside of Japan to the Japanese market,” Matsumura told Gamesbeat. “We like early stage. We invest in equity or tokens. We like financial services. We like game technologies, and we believe there is a strong connection between gaming and crypto.” He added that “Having advised top global cryptocurrency startups alongside some of the best investors in the world, I’ve come to realize that all of them struggle to break into Japan, the largest cryptocurrency market in the world. I’m excited to join Gumi and their well-respected network in Japan.” James Rodriguez Coin Colombian soccer star James Rodriguez, currently attacking midfielder for Bayern Munich Football Club, has announced he decided to create a new coin for fans to capitalize on his brand. The JR10 token, developed in collaboration with Selfsell, is planned to be used for exchange of match tickets, souvenirs, and exclusive merchandise as well as the opportunities to participate in Rodriguez’s fan club activities. Previous crypto collaborations by soccer stars include Leo Messi promoting an ultra secure mobile phone for paranoid cryptocurrency users. What do you think about today’s news updates? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Asus. Now live, Satoshi Pulse. A comprehensive, real-time listing of the cryptocurrency market. View prices, charts, transaction volumes, and more for the top 500 cryptocurrencies trading today. The post Bitcoin in Brief Thursday: Asus Creates 20-GPU Mining Motherboard appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Averaging more than a million onboardings per year, Philippines’ Coins.ph announced it reached a whopping five million users this week for its mobile payments application (app) and hot crypto wallet. Not content with merely adding numbers for their own sake, the company also revealed it would add two new popular coins: bitcoin cash (BCH) and ether (ETH). Also read: Bitgrail Exchange Ordered Down Indefinitely as Italian Court Upholds Halt Philippines’ Coins.ph Hits 5mil User Milestone Founder Ron Hose enthusiastically explained, “We are excited and proud to provide 5 million customers with access to financial services. Our focus on creating financial inclusion to all Filipinos has propelled our growth to date.” Many of the southeast Asian archipelago’s inhabitants struggle with inadequate economic opportunities and poor financial services. Nearly half of the Philippines is living on close to $2 a day, and its central bank, Bagko Sentral ng Pilipinas, estimated early last year that 86% of Philippines’ citizens are unbanked – bereft of basic banking services used by folks in the West every day. Those factors just might be features rather than bugs when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption. Indeed, for relatively smooth economies in the West, money is already digitized for all intents and purposes. Crypto adoption, as a result, in the West has been a bit of struggle: the immediate argument gets lost in money that ‘works,’ and works well. For Filipinos to become one’s own bank, in effect, relying less on financial legacy permission and trust, a peer-to-peer currency out of view of its notoriously corrupt government seems to be proving very attractive if Coins.ph numbers are any indication. Coins.ph Adds Bitcoin Cash (BCH) “Millions of our customers have already used Coins.ph’s web and mobile apps to access a wide array of financial services,” CEO Ron Hose continued, “including buying load, paying bills, topping up their beep card, and purchasing digital currencies, all without needing a bank account.” Five million users has come in only four years for the company. It was founded by Runar Petursson and Mr. Hose, both Silicon Valley veterans. Their services are a way for Filipinos to become banked, a potential market of over 300,000 people. In the past two years, it has raised a total of $10mil in venture capital funding, indicating investors believe the company to be “on” to something. Users of the company’s platform can take advantage of ever-important remittance services, card top-ups, wallet transfers, paying bills, and even online shopping. Just the mere notion of a friction-filled economy (as is the case within the Philippines), flattening and becoming more streamline would seem to forecast wonderful economic advancements for the nation, at least theoretically. “Responding to consumer demand for additional blockchain-based services,” the company notes it has already rolled out ether (ETH) acceptance in addition to its existing bitcoin core (BTC) offering, “with an eye for future smart contract based financial services, and will also begin supporting Bitcoin Cash (BCH) next month, in an effort to support lower cost blockchain based payments.” Do you think more emerging economies will embrace crypto? Let us know in the comments. Images via the Pixabay, Coins.ph. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com The post Philippines’ Crypto Wallet Reaches 5 Million Users, Adds More Coins appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release. Los Angeles, CA (May 30, 2018) — mesmr, the blockchain-based new media ecosystem, is announcing the creation of mesmr.tv, a media platform designed for content creators and their audiences. “mesmr was formed due to a lack of trust in today’s new media platforms. Our goal is to give everyone the power to unleash their creativity, own the rights to their personal data and to leverage the transparency of blockchain, giving brands a visible ROI on their marketing spend. We’re building a consumer-centric blockchain in the hopes that we can bring everyone into the world’s new operating system that is blockchain technology,” Dil-Dominé Leonares, mesmr founder and CEO stated. The announcement comes in the midst of calls by content creators to revisit how the modern media platform manages revenue and access to content. With a unique token-based system, mesmr rewards all three parties—creators, audiences, and brands—for their participation on the platform. “One of our goals is to drive mass adoption of blockchain technology by making everything very user friendly,” added Val Kantchev, mesmr’s Chief Technology Officer. “A lot follows from that user focus, including also the decision to build our own blockchain network.” mesmr.tv rewards all participants for their engagement in the ecosystem. Based on their belief in on-demand income, mesmr.tv will be giving viewers tokens for their time spent watching ads, should the consumer choose to opt-in for this feature. In addition, they want to give them the option to either keep their data private or release it to advertisers for a fee. Their goal is to spur the adoption of blockchain by creating a platform that provides all the benefits of a token, without sacrificing user experience like other content sharing platforms in the blockchain industry. The company is aiming to create a “content democracy”, where videos succeed or fail based on merit, not how well they fit into advertiser-friendly guidelines. The community decides what rises to the top. Creators receive 80% of the advertising revenue generated from their content, and community members can gain extra tokens for sharing content that performs well. Over the next few weeks, mesmr will be rolling out their TGE (Token Generation Event) with a pre-sale set for June 15th. Allowing purchase of the mesmr token (MSMR) with Ethereum (ETH), they are expecting to generate over 350 million tokens with a value of $200 million USD. To learn more about mesmr, you can visit their website mesmr.tv or view their whitepaper available here. About mesmr: Founded in 2017, mesmr is committed to creating a secure media ecosystem powered entirely by blockchain. The soon-to-be-released, mesmr blockchain will be powered by the Proof of Influence consensus protocol solving the unfairness of PoS (Proof of Stake) and the sustainability issues of PoW (Proof of Work). mesmr.tv is the first proof of concept that runs on the mesmr blockchain and utilizes the influence score. Contact Email Address robert@frontlines.io Supporting Link www.mesmr.tv This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post PR: Mesmr – Revolutionary Decentralized Media Platform Announced appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A few months ago news.Bitcoin.com reported on the platform Localbitcoincash.org growing popular and adding a few new features. Now the website has revamped its user interface and the website’s developer has added services like a direct crypto-to-crypto exchange and a shopping section where users can post items to sell for Bitcoin Cash. Also read: The Exahash Era: SHA-256 Mining is a Significant Achievement in Computer Engineering Localbitcoincash.org Revamps the Site Again With Newly Added Features Localbitcoincash.org offers an escrow service so buyers and sellers can trade Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in a peer-to-peer fashion. The platform was launched in October 2017 in its beta stage and has seen a lot of changes since then. Localbitcoincash (LBC) pretty much offers the same services as its BTC counterpart Localbitcoins but also has a variety of other options for users. Since our last review, the website looks and feels completely different as the colors are now green and black in contrast to its older orange look. The front page shows a step-by-step walkthrough detailing how to use LBC alongside a list of buyers and sellers below this field. The Localbitcoincash.org exchange. LBC’s Fiat and Crypto-to-Crypto Exchange The sidebar to the left has a bunch of different options which include the fiat exchange where users can swap BCH for fiat currencies. Looking at the list of buyers and sellers on Localbitcoincash shows the platform seems to be getting a fair share of users. People from various locations all around the world are selling increments of BCH for their local currency. At the time of publication, prices range from the current spot market price found on online exchanges and some traders are selling for a few hundred more per BCH. The Localbitcoincash.org fiat exchange. The peer-to-peer LBC platform also has a crypto-to-crypto exchange that operates just like Shapeshift or Changelly but without fees. The peer-to-peer platform also has a crypto-to-crypto exchange that operates similarly to Shapeshift, and Changelly. Peer-to-Peer Escrow Shopping Similarly to the operations of the aforementioned platforms, LBC gives registered users a deposit and receiving address so they can swap BCH for cryptocurrencies like BTC, Dash, Ethereum, Smartcash, Steem, and more. Under this feature on the sidebar is the send BCH by email service which allows users to easily send BCH to someone in this mannner. Furthermore, on May 30, the LBC developer announced the addition of a peer-to-peer shopping section where users can sell items for BCH. LBC’s newly added shopping section that allows people to sell goods via escrow. “After many weeks of hard work, we are really excited to announce the launch of our peer to peer online shopping platform,” explains the LBC representative. “This means that anyone can trade with anyone freely, instantly and safely via escrow. Anyone can be a seller today and sell physical or digital products — There are no commissions at all by the platform and we don’t have any restrictions built in so users are welcome to message the sellers directly to deal outside of this platform.” All these additions fit with our objective of allowing anyone to earn a living online, especially people from failed states and corrupt countries. In many of these places, citizens had to suffer from the consequences of the failed government for many decades — Our hope is that with Bitcoin Cash, this will change and help lift someone up from poverty into economic freedom and equality. The fiat exchange shows traders selling BCH are located all around the world but some have a cap on how much they are willing to sell. A great majority of the peer-to-peer trading arrangements on Localbitcoincash are ‘Meetup’ swaps where individuals meet in person to trade fiat for BCH. In order to get a scope of what type of trade an individual is offering simply hit the ‘view’ tab to read the trader’s arrangements. The developer of LBC is adding to the website regularly and with each visit the trading portal seems to be more user-friendly over time. What do you think about the exchange Localbitcoincash? Let us know what you think in the comment section below. Images via Shutterstock, and Localbitcoincash.org. Now live, Satoshi Pulse. A comprehensive, real-time listing of the cryptocurrency market. View prices, charts, transaction volumes, and more for the top 500 cryptocurrencies trading today. The post Localbitcoincash.org Revamps Website and Adds New P2P Features appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

What’s the difference between Ripple the company and ripple (XRP) the cryptocurrency? Many people would assert “Not a lot” given that the former owns most of the latter and its founders were responsible for creating ripple in the first place. Ripple the company has other ideas though, and is on a mission to separate the two ripples – big and small – once and for all. Also read: May Breaks 2018’s Down-Trend in Monthly Total Raised by ICOs The Disambiguation of Ripple and XRP For several months, Ripple has been on a mission to dispel the notion that it is responsible for the XRP currency it issues. Just as Prince once changed himself into a symbol, the project would like to turn its currency into a symbol and keep it that way. This is despite the fact that ‘XRP’ is simply a currency ticker derived from an abbreviation of the word ‘ripple’, just as XMR is an abbreviation of monero. To mark the distinction, a new logo has been proposed that is clean, minimalist and, tellingly, looks nothing like that of Ripple. There’s even a community-run Twitter account for the new XRP symbol and Github which explains: “In order for XRP to be perceived as a ‘currency,’ it needs its own symbol. Just like the dollar sign ‘$,’ XRP needs a universal sign that denotes units of XRP. The current logo being used works great when referencing the company, and it should not be changed, but a character should be created to represent actual units of the digital asset.” The final logo has yet to be decided, but whatever version the community plumps for, it will look very different from the current shared logo of the company and coin. One of the proposed new logos for XRP Why the Rebrand? It has been theorized that the company is seeking to distance itself from its eponymous currency in order to “desecuritize” it. The likelihood of XRP being a security, given the fact that Ripple has a majority holding, is strong. In the event of XRP being classified as such by the SEC it would have a major impact on XRP’s price and its availability on US exchanges. Given the foregoing, it makes sense for the company to emphasize the distinction between the company and XRP. It is likely to encounter significant difficulties, however, in convincing people that this is the case. When Are We Decentralized Yet creator Jackson Palmer was petitioned to start referring to Ripple’s cryptocurrency as XRP, he issued a strong response: Semantics or Separate Things? The case for why the company and XRP are separate entities, according to the company, revolves around the fact that the XRP ledger is open source, and thus any company can use it for their own purposes. While this is true, third party development has been few and far between, and the vast majority of XRP’s code commits have been performed by staffers. If the company can successfully separate itself from its currency, it is possible that the XRP ledger could become more attractive to companies wishing to utilize it for their own purposes. It seems unlikely, however, that the XRP ledger, for all its efficiencies, will become the Hyperledger of enterprise. Other community proposed logos for XRP As cryptocurrency critic Preston Byrne has pointed out, the notion that “There’s not a direct connection between Ripple the company and XRP”, as stated by the company’s Director of Regulatory Regulations Ryan Zagone, simply doesn’t fly. The connections between the two are written all over the website, and every other third party news source. The Wikipedia page for Ripple (payment protocol) points out that “The network can operate without the Ripple company”, but evidence suggests that it would struggle to function if the company bowed out. For one thing, operating an XRP node requires obtaining permission from one of Ripple.com’s servers. With 55 billion XRP locked in the company vaults, the simplest way for Ripple to rid itself of association with the cryptocurrency would be to burn the bulk of its supply of XRP. That wouldn’t look too good on its balance sheet though, and thus the campaign to rebrand ripple as XRP intensifies. Do you think Ripple and XRP should be regarded as separate entities? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Ripple, and XRP Symbol Twitter. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Ripple Wants People to Stop Calling Its Coin ‘Ripple’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In recent regulatory news, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken action against the Titanium Blockchain initial coin offering (ICO) for allegedly making false claims; the enactment of Israel’s cryptocurrency regulations have been delayed; and a Chinese professor has discussed the current legal status of bitcoin trading in China, asserting that it is currently not illegal for Chinese citizen to trade bitcoin. Also Read: May Breaks 2018’s Down-Trend in Monthly Total Raised by ICOs SEC Ceases Titanium Blockchain ICO for Elaborate False Claims With North American regulators’ ‘Operation Cryptosweep‘ in high gear, news of regulatory action being taken against suspect initial coin offerings and investment schemes appears to break across the cryptocurrency world daily. The latest target of action from the United States SEC is Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services – which has become subject of a court order halting its ICO due to allegedly making fraudulent claims of business relationships with well-known businesses and the U.S. Federal Reserve. An SEC press release states that the commission has “obtained a court order halting an ongoing fraud involving an initial coin offering (ICO) that raised as much as $21 million from investors in and outside the U.S.,” adding that the court also approved an emergency asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver for Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services Inc., the firm behind the alleged scheme. The SEC complaint accuses the company’s president, Michael Alan Stollery, a/k/a Michael Stollaire, of having “lied about business relationships with the Federal Reserve and dozens of well-known firms, including PayPal, Verizon, Boeing, and The Walt Disney Company.” Robert Cohen, the Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit, stated: “This ICO was based on a social media marketing blitz that allegedly deceived investors with purely fictional claims of business prospects. Having filed multiple cases involving allegedly fraudulent ICOs, we again encourage investors to be especially cautious when considering these as investments.” Israeli Cryptocurrency Regulations Delayed The enactment of Israel’s cryptocurrency regulations, originally scheduled for this Friday, has been delayed until October. Following last week’s publishing of a draft law pertaining to money laundering that included specific provisions pertaining to virtual currencies, Israel’s finance minister, Moshe, Kahlon, abruptly requested that the law not be passed until the bill is ratified. “The existing ordinance for the prohibition of money laundering will lapse with the passing of the new law. The process of installing the new law, which includes public hearings, will take time. Consequently, there will be a period in which there will be no active legal provision concerning this matter, which will lead to a lack of clarity regarding the identification and reporting obligations imposed by the order on [the] prohibition of money laundering,” Mr. Kahlon said. Manny Rosenfield, the head of the Israeli Bitcoin Association, has described the delay of the law’s passing as a significant setback for the country’s cryptocurrency industry. “The postponement of the law that deals with digital currencies will leave start-ups in the same situation, and will cause a situation in which these companies will have to think twice about whether or not to stay in Israel […] This is a blow that will hamper the efforts of Israel to become a leader in a rapidly developing field of technology,” Mr. Rosenfield said. “It’s Not Illegal for the Public to Trade BTC” – Chinese Academic Whilst speaking at The 2018 China International Big Data Industry Expo in Guiyang, Liu Xiaolei, a professor at the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, argued that bitcoin trading is not currently an illegal activity for Chinese citizens to undertake, despite the China’s prohibition on cryptocurrency exchanges. According to a rough translation, Liu Xiaolei stated of the legality of China’s citizenry trading bitcoin: “In terms of supervision, the state [has] not [made] such a gesture [so as] to say it is not allowed.” Liu Xiaolei added that “everyone, especially the common people who do not understand this new technology […] should be reminded […] not to follow suit, because it is still a very risky investment.” Liu Xiaolei also argued that maintaining a ban on P2P cryptocurrencies is not practically viable. Which jurisdiction do you think has adopted the most appropriate cryptocurrency regulations? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Regulations Round-Up: SEC hits Titanium, Israeli Crypto Law Delayed, BTC Trading Legal for Chinese Citizens appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Representatives of Canada’s cryptocurrency industry are urging lawmakers to provide greater clarity regarding the regulatory obligations of cryptocurrency exchanges. In response to the absence of clear guidelines, a number of Canadian virtual currency exchanges have taken it upon themselves to voluntary register and report to Canada’s financial regulator. Also Read: Markets Update: Volume Rankings Report for May 2018 – EOS Dominates Leading Exchanges Canadian Crypto Exchanges Push for Greater Regulatory Clarity Canadian media has reported that a number of local cryptocurrency proponents are calling for greater clarity regarding the regulatory apparatus governing the operations of virtual currency exchanges. Joseph Weinberg of Shyft, a company providing identification verification services using blockchain technology, has argued that exchanges have been left in the dark as to their regulatory obligations. “Until you have regulators come out and say, ‘This is what you have to do,’ as an exchange, you’re kind of guessing and hoping for the best, which is a big problem,” Mr. Weinberg said. Cole Diamond, the chief executive of Toronto-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinsquare, stated: “We want to be regulated because ultimately we want to be able to provide certainty to our customers that we’re not some fly-by-night trading platform, that they can trust us.” Canadian Exchanges Adopt Self-Reporting Practices In the face of stark regulatory uncertainty, several Canadian exchanges have taken it upon themselves voluntarily to report to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (Fintrac). Mr. Diamond states that upon initially approaching Fintrac, “they told us we shouldn’t be registered there. We decided to do it anyway because we explained to them we don’t have anywhere else to go. We want to be regulated.” Despite expecting taking early steps to ensure regulatory compliance will give his exchange a competitive advantage in the long run, Mr. Diamond notes that Coinsquare’s “revenue and trading volume could be at least five-times larger if we did not have an internal compliance regime” Einstein Exchange CEO Anticipates Early Compliance Will Pay Off Long Term Vancouver-based Einstein Exchange has also adopted a voluntary reporting regime with Fintrac, in addition to taking measures to minimize the risk of credit card occurring on its platform. Michael Gokturk, the chief executive of Einstein Exchange, recounts that the exchange was hit with $8.3 billion USD worth of attempted fraud in a single day early into the exchange’s acceptance of credit card payments. “Our system went nuts,” Mr. Gokturk. Mr. Gokturk added that whilst “It’s so easy to get into this market and it’s so easy to take advantage of the lack of regulation. The best exchanges will welcome regulation and transparency and that’s what we’re trying to do. We welcome it with open arms.” Do you think that regulators worldwide will soon adopt clear regulatory apparatus for companies operating with cryptocurrencies? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shuttestock Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Canadian Crypto Exchanges Push for Greater Regulatory Clarity appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Learning centers, courses, and crypto educational seminars are on the rise in Japan, Thailand, and South Korea. Bitcoin no Madoguchi and Bit Station have opened up to offer guidance to Japanese investors. The Cryptoasset Revolution course and Cryptonist’s seminar are happening soon in Thailand. Meanwhile, Decenter University and Koscom have launched training courses in South Korea. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Japan In Tokyo, “Bitcoin no Madoguchi” (loosely translated as “Bitcoin’s Window”) recently started offering information on cryptocurrencies, crypto exchanges, and the latest news in the space. The shop is currently accepting reservations from customers seeking guidance. The company’s website explains: You can receive explanations and guidance about virtual currencies for free from the concierge at a real store so that novice investors in virtual currency can enjoy bitcoins and altcoins easily. While the information offered by the store is currently tailored for those considering a crypto investment of 1 million yen (~$9,206) or more, the company is planning to offer a service for anyone wanting to start investing. According to local media, the store offers information on major cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH as well as major crypto exchanges in Japan including Tech Bureau’s Zaif, Bitflyer, Bitbank, GMO Coin, and DMM Bitcoin. Bitcoin no Madoguchi. In Osaka, the Sankei Biz reported last week that Zero Base has opened up Bit Station educational center in the main shopping district of Osaka to provide general information on cryptocurrencies for those “who cannot take the first step in virtual currency trading.” The news outlet detailed: The store will provide information on various cryptocurrencies and exchanges, how to use various exchanges, how to open accounts at various exchanges, how to store cryptocurrencies in wallets, and tax consultation. The store has information on Bitflyer, Zaif, DMM Bitcoin, GMO Coin, and other domestic and overseas exchanges, the publication described, adding that customers can learn about cryptocurrencies such as “bitcoin, ripple, [and] cardano.” According to its Facebook page, Bit Station “is a real shop that supports the opening of accounts of exchanges, to the point where you can actually trade.” Bit Station. Thailand The Cryptoasset Revolution team. (Photo credit: Siamturakij) The Thai Fintech Association has launched the Cryptoasset Revolution (CAR) course in collaboration with Icora Co. Ltd, according to Nation Multimedia. The course “will provide participants with a complete understanding and knowledge about investing in crypto assets and initial coin offerings (ICOs),” the news outlet added, noting that the first course will take place at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in Bangkok from June 12 to August 14 and will cost 185,000 baht (~$5,755). Korn Chatikavanij, Chairman of the Thai Fintech Association, detailed: The Crypto Asset Revolution course is the first programme in Thailand that has a complete curriculum about the global crypto economy…The course will integrate both intensive theoretical and practical situations to prepare participants to understand and analyse market trends, help with business planning, recognise opportunities and threats and how to deal with potential critical market situations. Meanwhile, another crypto firm, Cryptonist, is holding a meetup on May 31 and inviting everyone to come and learn about cryptocurrencies. Attendees will also learn about the Thai crypto regulations and arbitrage. South Korea In South Korea, Decenter University has launched an introductory course on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. The 9-week course runs every Monday between June 11 and August 6. A total of 70 students will be admitted on a first come first serve basis, the university’s website details. The course aims to help students “Understand exactly the origin and working principles of Bitcoin and Etherum; Understand the impact that blockchains have on existing industries by analyzing key projects using blockchain; [and] Identify the global government and financial industry visions and trends toward the blockchain. Students will also have the opportunity to network “with experts and participants” in the industry. Another company that recently announced the launch of a crypto-related training program is Koscom. The company said Monday that its crypto and blockchain training course for its employees, the Korean Stock Exchange (KRX), and brokerage firms has started and will run through July, Ddaily reported. Koscom’s CEO Jung Ji-Seok launched a blockchain and crypto training course. (Photo credit: Ddaily) Koscom is a leading IT service provider in the capital market, providing a wide range of IT systems including a trading system for securities and derivatives market. The news outlet elaborated: The course consists of a comprehensive coaching course, including Bitcoin Core, consensus algorithm, ICO analysis, blockchain development, and project progression, along with basic knowledge of block chains. What do you think of these crypto educational resources? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Decenter University, Koscom, Bitcoin no Madoguchi, Zero Base, Bit Station, Ddaily, and Siamturakij. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Crypto Learning Centers and Courses on the Rise in Japan, Thailand, and South Korea appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The South Korean Supreme Court has ruled that cryptocurrency is an asset with economic value that can be confiscated. In the case involving a porn site and 191 confiscated BTC, the country’s top court upheld a district court’s ruling. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Supreme Court Has Ruled Supreme Court of South Korea. South Korea’s top court ruled on Wednesday that the government could confiscate cryptocurrencies as crime profits since they are assets with economic value. The case involves Ahn, who operated an online porn site, and his 191 BTC that the prosecution confiscated, as news.Bitcoin.com previously reported. “This marks the first time a cryptocurrency has been subject to confiscation,” the Korea Times wrote. With Wednesday’s ruling, “The Supreme Court recognized cryptocurrency as an ‘asset with measurable value,’” the publication detailed and quoted the Court stating: The cryptocurrency is recognized to have value so it can be confiscated. 191 BTC Confiscated “From 2013, Ahn distributed 235,000 obscene pictures online and made 1.9 billion won,” the news outlet described, adding that he “was arrested and indicted in May 2017 for violating the Protection of Children and Juveniles From Sexual Abuse Law.” Ahn was subsequently “sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined 696 million won by a lower court, confirmed by both a high court and the Supreme Court.” When Ahn was arrested, the prosecution seized his 216 BTC, claiming that they “were earned illegally and urged they be seized as cyber assets,” the publication conveyed. However, a lower court ruled against them, “stating bitcoins only existed electronically and had no physical form.” The prosecutors then appealed to a high court which “ruled in the prosecution’s favor, saying the cyber assets could be seen as profit earned from the trade in goods.” The high court ruled that 191 of “bitcoins [seized] were earned from the proceeds of crime,” and ordered them to be confiscated. At the time of this writing, this amount of BTC is worth over $1.4 million. The publication quoted the high court explaining at the time: If we return the bitcoins to Ahn, it will be giving him back profits that were earned illegally from running an online porn site. “The Supreme Court upheld this ruling,” the news outlet reiterated, adding that this “will allow any cyber assets gained from illegal activity such as gambling, drug deals, pornography and prostitution to be confiscated.” What do you think of the Korean Supreme Court’s ruling? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Wikipedia. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Korean Supreme Court Rules Cryptocurrency Is Asset With Economic Value appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The cryptocurrency industry have created a host of legal questions as old definitions are forced on brand new innovations. Should switching between the most profitable coin to mine at each time be considered some type of fund management? Austrian regulators seem to think so. Also Read: Bitcoin in Brief Wednesday: China Fights Impersonators and Fraudsters Unauthorized Alternative Investment Fund Management The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), Austria’s integrated supervisory body, has announced that, by means of a procedural instruction, it prohibited the business model of Invia Gmbh, a Vienna-registered company offering financial services in conjunction with the mining of cryptocurrencies. This was done on the grounds of the FMA’s suspicion that the company was involved in the unauthorized management of an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) as defined by the country’s relevant regulations. The Regulators say that the venture was requested to cease the unauthorized business operation. Meanwhile, the procedure concerning this matter is still pending. Invia Gmbh is neither licensed by, nor supervised by, the FMA. The FMA adds that it has decided to communicate this information to the public after having received “a large number of inquiries from consumers.” “Mining 2.0” According to a promotional forum post from November 2017, Invia offers “Active Managed Mining”. In practice this means for clients that: “You do not have to decide for yourself which cryptocurrency is to be mined, this decides [SIC] the company and thus spares the most lucrative coin. You receive your payment in Ethereum or Bitcoin currency. The company lets a software play in the background, this software decides within 1 minute which coin is lucrative and turns around. This unique piece of software serves as a hardware control, aligning it with the ‘most profitable’ crypto currency [SIC] available at any given time. The minted Coin is then converted to Bitcoin or Ethereum. Thanks to this software, it is possible to produce more coins overall.” This type of service is hardly new, as many cryptocurrency mining pools and clouds, as well as just software solutions, have been offering the same for years now. It is possible that by promoting the company to newbies in the field Invia triggered the FMA, which didn’t notice other services before. Should active managed mining be considered similar to management of an investment fund, requiring an authorization? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Now live, Satoshi Pulse. A comprehensive, real-time listing of the cryptocurrency market. View prices, charts, transaction volumes, and more for the top 500 cryptocurrencies trading today. The post Austrian Financial Market Authority Stops ‘Active Managed Mining’ Operation appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Ukrainian crypto businesses have created 25 digital coins in 2017 and 2018, raising more than $132 million through token sales, according to a new report. Cryptocurrencies are gaining popularity in the country, where the daily trading volume now reaches $1.9 million USD. The growing number of crypto users served by local exchanges has prompted calls for clear but light regulations. Also read: Ukraine’s Securities Commission Chief Seeks Legalization of Cryptocurrencies as Financial Instruments 3 Exchanges, 4,000 Traders Over the past year and a half, Ukraine-based companies have attracted more than $132 million through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), when traditional IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) have made 0 dollars. This according to Ukrainian deputy Alexei Mushak, who took part in the presentation of a new report titled “Green Book: Cryptocurrency Market Regulation.” The legislator believes that it’s time for Ukraine to introduce light regulation to the industry, or crypto businesses will choose other countries like Malta, Gibraltar, Estonia, and even Belarus. The authors of the study, associates at the BRDO (Better Regulation Delivery Office) analytical center, have tried to calculate the crypto turnover in various segments of the sector and determine the degree of state intervention needed for its further growth, Mind reports. The researchers have focused on market participants such as issuers of tokens, crypto exchanges, other online and offline traders, crypto miners. Fifteen ICOs have been conducted in 2017 and the first half of 2018, the released document revealed. The total capital raised in the token sales amounts to $132.7 million. Dream Team ($38 million), Rentberry ($30 million) and Dmarket ($10.5 million) are the top three projects. Eight other ICOs have not disclosed the amount of the capital they have collected. Ukrainian businesses have so far created 25 cryptocurrencies, according to Financial Club. The yearly crypto mining turnover in Ukraine exceeds $100 million dollars, the compiled data shows. There have been attempts to add mining to the country’s register of economic activities. In March, Ukraine’s economy minister ordered several government agencies and the National Bank to prepare the necessary documents to do so. Ukrainians in the Top 10 of Crypto Users The “Green Book” claims that Ukraine is among the top 10 countries in the world in terms of number of cryptocurrency users. The daily volumes of trading digital coins with Ukrainian hryvnia reaches $ 1.9 million. Three exchanges are currently operating locally – Exmo, Kuna and BTC Trade UA. Eighteen other trading platforms and more than 4,000 individual traders are also providing exchange services, both online and offline. According to Alexander Kubrakov, Head of IT at BRDO, the government in Kiev is ignoring the crypto sector which exist de facto, but not de jure. Three bills have been introduced in Ukraine’s parliament since October – the draft law “On the Circulation of Cryptocurrency in Ukraine”, the bill “On Stimulating the Market of Cryptocurrencies and Their Derivatives”, and a supplementary draft amending the tax code to regulate taxation of crypto incomes and profits. No real progress has been made towards their adoption yet. The BRDO experts propose gradual introduction of regulations. They think most outstanding issues can be resolved by regulators. On the first stage, the Ministry of Finance and the State Fiscal Service can issue clarification notices to define cryptocurrency as an intangible asset, and the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection can declare mining a license-free activity. On the second stage, the law “On the Prevention of Money Laundering” can be amended to integrate the concepts of “virtual currencies.” The analysts also believe that changes are necessary to identify the providers of exchange services for financial monitoring purposes. Currently, Ukrainian exchanges experience huge problems with bank accounts, and crypto traders can’t rely on clear guidelines regarding taxation. The speakers at the presentation noted that if the lack of regulation initially benefited the crypto sector in Ukraine, now it is actually holding it back. The official government position is very important for its further development, they emphasized. According to Maxim Libanov, member of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, the era of the gray market is already ending. “We see that the majority of market participants are no longer satisfied with this situation of legal uncertainty,” the official said. Do you expect Ukraine to introduce lighter crypto regulations? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. At Bitcoin.com there’s a bunch of free helpful services. For instance, have you seen our Tools page? You can even lookup the exchange rate for a transaction in the past. Or calculate the value of your current holdings. Or create a paper wallet. And much more. The post Ukrainian Companies Mint 25 Coins, Raise $132 Million appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release. Zug, Switzerland – Patientory Stiftung, a Swiss-based global nonprofit healthcare organization founded to educate and connect adopters of PTOY blockchain, a HIPAA-compliant blockchain that securely stores and manages health information in real time, today announced that it has joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), the world’s largest open source blockchain initiative. As a member of the EEA, Patientory Stiftung will collaborate with industry leaders in pursuit of ethereum-based enterprise technology best practices, open standards, and open-source reference architectures. Patientory Stiftung brings these industry leaders together at its Inaugural Blockchain in Healthcare Summit – North America on May 31, 2018. At that time it will also launch and make available the private, permissioned blockchain testnet network, PTOYNet. “Patientory Stiftung foresees an exciting future for blockchain in the healthcare industry and is thrilled to merge the benefits of the EEA and its other members with what will happen next,” said Mohsen Shafaei, Managing Director of the Patientory Stiftung. “The EEA’s resources will play an integral role in making our vision a reality and we look forward to learning about Ethereum and leveraging its technology to benefit everyone.” With more than 500 member companies, the EEA membership base represents a wide variety of business sectors from every region of the world, including technology, banking, government, healthcare, energy, pharmaceuticals, marketing, and insurance. The EEA’s industry-focused, member-driven working groups are each tasked with creating and delivering specific advancements to the development and use of ethereum-based technologies. About The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance The EEA is an industry-supported, not-for-profit established to build, promote, and broadly support Ethereum-based technology best practices, open standards, and open-source reference architectures. The EEA is helping to evolve Ethereum into an enterprise-grade technology, providing research and development in a range of areas, including privacy, confidentiality, scalability, and security. The EEA is also investigating hybrid architectures that span both permissioned and public Ethereum networks as well as industry-specific application layer working groups. EEA will collectively develop open industry standards and facilitate collaboration with its member base and is open to any members of the Ethereum community who wish to participate. This open-source framework will enable the mass adoption at a depth and breadth otherwise unachievable in individual corporate silos and provide insight into the future of scalability, privacy, and confidentiality of the public Ethereum permissionless network. For additional information about joining EEA, please reach out to membership@entethalliance.org or visit www.entethalliance.org. About Patientory Stiftung The Patientory Stiftung, a global nonprofit healthcare blockchain organization connects healthcare industry adopters of the PTOY blockchain. The PTOY blockchain securely stores and manages health information in real time, and such storage and management is facilitated by a blockchain based token (called “PTOY”). The Patientory Stiftung facilitates the development of standards that are essential to the implementation and adoption of the PTOY platform and token in securely protecting and managing healthcare information. Such standards are necessary for interoperability and auditability and for transparency purposes. These activities will help ensure the safety, reliability and usability of the use of the PTOY platform by its members and the general public, a prerequisite to the wide acceptance of the PTOY platform as a viable means of transacting business by the public and the acceptance of the industry as a whole. To learn more, visit www.ptoy.org. Contact Email Address nk@kasakmedia.com Supporting Link https://ptoy.org/inaugural2018/ This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post PR: Patientory Stiftung Joins the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Estimates are indicating that the total sum of capital raised by initial coin offerings (ICOs) in May exceeded the total sum raised in April – comprising the first month-over-month increase in the total sum raised by ICOs in 2018 so far. Also Read: Markets Update: Slight Comeback Shows Cryptocurrencies Press Forward Month-Over-Month Performance of ICOs Up for First Time in 2018 According to icodata.io, the total sum raised by ICOs in May has exceeded that which was raised in April – comprising the first instance in which month-over-month gain total for the funds raised through initial coin offerings has increased this year. As of this writing, icodata.io estimates that ICOs have raised approximately $715 million USD during May – a more than 27% increase over April’s total of roughly $516 million. Mean Total Raised by ICOs Declines in 2018 Although there are an increasing number of significant challenges now facing the ICO industry, such as advertising bans, heightened regulatory hostility in many jurisdictions, and widespread claims that the returns generated by ICOs for investors is declining, initial coin offerings appear to be thriving – with the total sum of funds raised through ICOs in 2018 (estimated to be approximately $5 billion as of this writing) having reached more than 82% of the roughly $6.1 billion raised in 2017. The average sum raised by initial coin offerings has declined, however, with the mean total raised by 871 ICOs in 2017 equating to just over $7 million – half a million more than the mean total of almost $6.5 million raised by the 780 initial coin offerings of 2018 so far. Year-Long EOS ICO Expected to Raise $4 Billion Block.one’s roughly year-long EOS ICO will come to a conclusion on the 1st of June, with analysts predicting that the offering will have raised in excess of $4 billion – making it the largest ICO in history. The EOS initial coin offering began on June 26, 2017. Despite the enormous sum raised, EOS has garnered controversy within the cryptocurrency community due to EOS’ terms explicitly stating that EOS Tokens do not have any rights, uses, purpose, attributes, “functionalities or features, express or implied, including, without limitation, any uses, purpose, attributes, functionalities or features on the EOS Platform.” Do you think that the ICO bubble is loosing steam? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock Bitcoin News is growing fast. To reach our global audience, send us a news tip or submit a press release. Let’s work together to help inform the citizens of Earth (and beyond) about this new, important and amazing information network that is Bitcoin. The post May Breaks 2018’s Down-Trend in Monthly Total Raised by ICOs appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Hostile or just overly cautions countries keep losing cryptocurrency-related businesses to more attractive jurisdictions, along with the jobs and tax money that go along with them. The latest example comes from Poland, which Bitbay has been forced to leave for Malta. Also Read: Dominance of Big Banks in UK Means London Might Miss the Boat on Bitcoin Farewell Poland Poland-based international cryptocurrency exchange, Bitbay, has announced its decision to suspend the activity of the trading platform in Poland. Founded in 2014 in Katowice, the company is said to have over 200 employees and 800,000 users. The reason for the exit from its home market is that Bitbay can no longer receive banking services in the country. “The activity of the Bitbay exchange in Poland requires cooperation with Polish bank. Unfortunately the last Polish bank ready to provide bank services undertook unilateral decision to finish the cooperation with Bitbay with the effect at the end of May. In those circumstances the continuation of providing high quality services by Bitbay exchange in Poland is no longer possible,” the company stated. The move will occur in a couple of phases. After May 31st, access to PLN accounts will not be possible, but all other functions of the exchange in Poland will still be active. After the expiry of the notice period, September 18th, users will only be able to withdraw funds, and trading on the Bitbay exchange in Poland will be completely suspended. The exchange operations will be conducted by a new supplier in Malta with the same software that was used by the exchange in Poland, based on the domain bitbay.net under the Bitbay trademark. Welcome to Malta In explaining the specific location it is moving the exchange operations to, the company’s team say they have been conducting analysis for many months in order to find the most cryptocurrency-friendly place in the European Union. “Productive discussions with the government of Republic of Malta and friendly business environment provide Bitbay assurance that the choice of Maltese jurisdiction is the best solution.” As we previously reported, the Maltese government’s has successfully focused on bringing in more international cryptocurrency business to booster the local economy this year. Back in March, Binance revealed that it would be moving its operations and starting to recruit 200 people to work on the island. In April, Okex announced it is also establishing its own entity in Malta. Should exchanges move to friendlier locations or try and fight in the local courts? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Now live, Satoshi Pulse. A comprehensive, realtime listing of the cryptocurrency market. View prices, charts, transaction volumes, and more for the top 500 cryptocurrencies trading today. The post Bitbay Exchange Moves to Malta After Last Polish Bank Stops Service appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

May witnessed sustained bearish action in the cryptocurrency markets, with many markets giving back most of the gains made during April. When looking at trade volume, we can see that BTC was by far the most traded cryptocurrency, followed by Tether and Ethereum. EOS also saw significant action, rising to become the fourth most traded cryptocurrency during the month. Also Read: 80% of the Top Cryptocurrency Exchanges From 2016 Have Been Replaced $185 Billion USD Worth of BTC Traded in May According to Coinmarketcap, nearly $185 billion worth of BTC has been traded over the course of the last thirty days. During May, more BTC was traded on the 3rd than any other day – during which $10.2 billion worth of bitcoins exchanged hands whilst the BTC markets ramped up to unsuccessfully test resistance at the $10,000 area. By contrast, the weakest trading volume was witnessed on May 26th – with $4.05 billion worth of BTC being traded as the markets steadily broke below the $7,500 area. The first two weeks of May produced daily trading volume of roughly $5.8 billion and $10.2 billion worth of BTC daily, with volume declining to between $4.05 billion and $6.75 billion worth of BTC daily during late-May. Tether and Ethereum Comprise $170 Billion Worth of Trade Combined The the second most traded cryptocurrency during May was Tether – with almost $93 billion worth of USDT exchanging hands. The volume of USDT traded during May oscillated between approximately $4.75 billion and $1.8 billion daily. As with BTC, trading volume was much heavier during the early weeks of May (between approximately 3.2 billion USDT and 4.75 billion USDT daily), before declining to between 1.8 billion USDT and roughly 3.5 billion USDT daily later into the month. The largest amount of USDT was traded on the 11th of May (4.75 billion), with the least amount of USDT being traded 26th of May (1.8 billion). Ethereum was the third most traded cryptocurrency of the last 30 days, with approximately $76.6 billion worth of ETH exchanging hands during May. The daily volume was fairly steady for ETH, with between $2 billion and $4 billion worth of ETH being traded each day except for May 3rd ($4.2 billion), May 7th ($4.3 billion), May 26th ($1.7 billion), and May 27th ($1.8 billion). EOS Fourth Ranked Cryptocurrency By Volume Over Last 30 Days May saw significant action in the EOS markets, with EOS consistently grind downwards to lose approximately 40% of its value when compared with the all-time high of approximately $20 posted at the end of April. EOS also maintained its position as a leading cryptocurrency by trade volume, comprising the fourth most traded cryptocurrency during May with a thirty-day volume of $47.5 billion USD. When looking at 24-hour volume, we can see that EOS pairings are among most traded on the leading exchanges by volume. EOS pairings are the second and sixth highest volume pairs on the top two cryptocurrency exchanges by volume, Binance, and Okex, and comprise the top volume pairing on the third, fifth, and sixth highest volume exchanges – Huobi, Upbit, and Bithumb. Other Top Markets by Volume Rankings Bitcoin Cash was the fifth most traded cryptocurrency during May – producing almost $28 billion USD worth of trades during the last thirty days. The volume for BCH fluctuated between approximately $500 million and $2 billion worth of trades daily. The sixth most traded cryptocurrency was Tron with almost $14 billion worth of trades during May, slightly edging out Ripple – which saw approximately $13.7 billion worth of XRP exchange hands over the last thirty days. Litecoin was the eighth most traded cryptocurrency with nearly $11.9 billion worth of trades, followed by Ethereum Classic with $6.5 billion, and True Chain with $6.1 billion. 24-Hour Volume Rankings Mirror Monthly Top Ten The list of leading cryptocurrencies by 24-hour volume is nearly identical to the 30-day rankings. BTC was the most traded cryptocurrency of the last day – with BTC parings accounting for 30% of trading activity over the preceding 24 hours. Tether has the second most volume with 15.5%, followed by Ethereum (13%), EOS (8.5%), Bitcoin Cash (3.75%), Tron (2.6%), Ripple (2.10%), and Litecoin (1.9%). The sole deviation between the 24-hour and the monthly rankings is the appearance of Cardano rather than Ethereum Classic in ninth place with 1.3%. True Chain has the tenth largest volume of the last 24 hours, accounting for approximately 1% of total cryptocurrency trade. Do you think that EOS will continue to sit as high in the volume rankings once main net launch hype subsides? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Images courtesy of Shutterstock Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Markets Update: Volume Rankings Report for May 2018 – EOS Dominates Leading Exchanges appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief we feature stories that show cryptocurrency is still a hot topic in China, for better or worse. Additionally covered are market awareness in Germany, a mosque that accepts bitcoin donations, a new green mining farm and an MMA champ’s love for crypto. Also Read: Dominance of Big Banks in UK Means London Might Miss the Boat on Bitcoin Mao Impersonator Enrages Chinese Netizens Chinese social media has erupted in anger this week after the use of a Mao impersonator at the Boao Blockchain Forum for Asia in Hainan province on Monday. “You are worthy of being called the great sons and daughters of the Chinese nation, and I thank you in the name of Mao Zedong,” the actor greeted the audience, but it appears the public disagrees. Mao is still officially revered in the country as the father of communist China and the law forbids using his image for promoting commercial goods and services. “The Boao Asia Blockchain Forum organizing committee expresses sincere apologies to all audiences, for the disturbance of public opinion caused by the conference,” a following apology statement explained. China Confiscates ¥1.7 Billion From Onecoin Scheme According to reports from the region, a local Chinese procurator’s office has prosecuted 98 people and recovered 1.7 billion yuan (about $270 million) in an alleged Onecoin pyramid scheme. The case is thought to involve up to 15 billion yuan, and had been under investigation since July 2016, supervised by the Ministry of Public Security. The Onecoin scheme involved twenty provinces in the country, according to South China Morning Post . Details of the case are “complicated,” and the amount involved is “huge”, and the final four suspects in the case had been prosecuted, the reports said. Around the end of 2017, 33 defendants were sentenced to four years in prison and fined between 10,000 and 5 million yuan. 85% of Germans Have Heard of Cryptocurrencies The majority of Germans have heard about bitcoin and even think they understand the term. This according to an online survey conducted by YouGov Deutschland GmbH, in which 2051 persons participated between 11/05/2018 and 14/05/2018. The results were weighted and said to be representative of the German population over 18 years of age. The stats show that 85% of Germans have heard of cryptocurrencies and say they know what the term means. 38% believe that their importance will increase and 21% foresee a loss of significance. 8% percent even say that they would invest all or the larger part of their available money in cryptocurrencies rather than in equities. 53% believe that cryptocurrencies would become more attractive, and 25% do not. Ramadan Kareem The Shacklewell Lane Mosque in Dalston, East London, UK has reportedly decided to accept cryptocurrencies as charity. “For a donor that already has a bitcoin or an ethereum account, the effort of converting cryptocurrency into say British pounds or dollars can be quite burdensome. The mosque effectively takes the burden on themselves,” said consultant Lukasz Musial. “For the donor, it’s just the click of a button to transfer to an account provided by the charity. From the mosque’s perspective, it opens a new stream of donations coming from all over the world,” he added. Greenhouse Mining United American Corp, a Florida-based company, has announced it completed the construction of its first “Blockchain Dome Heat Station” and greenhouse in the Canadian province of Quebec and that all 1,000 mining rig heat generation modules are in full service. Heat coming out of the rigs is used to warm the facility instead of letting that energy go to waste. “The Blockchain Dome was built on budget, on-time and to our specification. The results we can see and measure are overwhelming and beyond our expectations,” said CEO Benoit Laliberte. “We will provide further information to the market soon, but we can already state that we have set new efficiency and performance standards for this type of operation going forward,” he added. The sustainable use of mining-generated heat has been a hot topic for a while now. Earlier this year we reported about a similar venture after a photo of ‘Cryptomatoes’ went viral. Crypto Champ Strikes Again On Monday, we reported that Rory MacDonald, the current Bellator MMA Welterweight World Champion, has shared a clip of himself training in a BCH shirt. And on his latest interview on The MMA Hour the champ explained his decision to support cryptocurrency in general and bitcoin cash in particular. What do you think about today’s news updates? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Now live, Satoshi Pulse. A comprehensive, realtime listing of the cryptocurrency market. View prices, charts, transaction volumes, and more for the top 500 cryptocurrencies trading today. The post Bitcoin in Brief Wednesday: China Fights Impersonators and Fraudsters appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This is a paid press release, which contains forward looking statements, and should be treated as advertising or promotional material. Bitcoin.com does not endorse nor support this product/service. Bitcoin.com is not responsible for or liable for any content, accuracy or quality within the press release. Here’s ten reasons why Essentia has the potential to break the internet of fragmentation and propel us towards mainstream blockchain adoption. 1: Essentia is not just an application or a simple platform, it’s a protocol. Essentia does front itself with a user-friendly interface to navigate across multiple blockchains and decentralized apps. But its open-source code also means that developers can tuck into the back end and create customized experiences, for anyone to use. 2: Essentia automates the unnecessary digital admin, meaning you can get back to working on what really matters. Buying or selling crypto/assets? Simply set the value parameters to your preferred prices and Essentia will scan over your exchanges. By doing all the manual work instantly, Essentia ensures you get the best value. 3: Essentia is creating two brand new application classes, cross-chain apps (cApps) and multi-chain apps (mApps). As we have all begun to realize the world of blockchains are painfully fragmented. The lack of integration is exactly what Essentia has aimed to eliminate, with this new protocol, decentralized apps can function across chains and work simultaneously on multiple chains. 4: As a personalized operating system, Essentia allows us to interact with the new decentralized Internet. It’s like a bridge between the past and the future. For newcomers and tech experts alike, accessing and managing the web of decentralized entities has never been easier. Essentia can be thought of as a customizable OS which enables us to transport our data from centralized platforms to infinitely more secure decentralized services. 5: Essentia cannot own or access your personal data, nor will the (de)centralized services you use. Imagine no centralization, it’s easy if you try. No data thieves below us, above us only sky… Doesn’t really flow, but you get the gist. There is no supreme commander with access to swathes of personal data. Everything done within Essentia remains completely in the users’ hands, we can thank blockchain technology for that. 6: Essentia automatically interoperates with DApps in their native token, you’ll never need to carry multiple tokens again. Requiring a single token for each DApp you use is incredibly unpractical considering the time and cost in acquiring them. The ESS token may be the last token you ever have to obtain, that’s because it enables you to access your favourite decentralized services in one. How convenient! 7: On top of Essentia you can build applications in whatever language you want. Essentia is language agnostic. We wanted to make sure any developer around the world has the ability to use Essentia as their tool to create next generation blockchain based decentralized facilities. It’s a way of ensuring we build this community together, spread the blockchain love and speed towards mainstream adoption. 8: Essentia has integrated the best of the best applications, so you can natively interact with one convenient point of access. One seed to access your digital life, in its entirety or just sections. Our hard work partnering with and integrating the next best apps and services means it’s finally possible to have your entire crypto life secure and accessible only to you, from anywhere in the world. 9: Decentralized passwordless logins. It has finally become a possibility! Forget insecure passwords that are likely to be forgotten and vulnerable to be hacked. Essentia has adopted state of the art eLogin technology to ensure your accounts are only accessible to you. 10: Important for us investors out there — buy-sell crypto instantly. Ever checked the price of crypto then gone onto your exchange and it’s already changed for the worse? Never miss out on a good deal again. Not only can you automate the process but you could even use Amazon Alexa to voice command trades across the various exchanges to get the best price. Not a single button needs to be pressed! The extent of possibilities is by no means limited to ten examples, but we can already see why investors are getting excited about the upcoming ICO. The private sale recently closed which reached the hard cap of over $20m and offers for over $70m. It’s not too late to register in the whitelist so head over to Essentia.one and have a look around! To be a part of their growing community join their Telegram channel https://t.me/essentia_one/. Contact Email Address matteo@essentia.one Supporting Link www.essentia.one This is a paid press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post PR: 10 Reasons to Be Excited About Essentia appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Chilean crypto exchange Buda.com has launched in Argentina, initially supporting four cryptocurrencies. Already operating in three other countries, the exchange says Argentina has the potential to become its most important market in the course of a year. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Buda.com Expands into Argentina Chilean cryptocurrency exchange Buda.com started operations in Argentina on May 28 “to promote the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies,” La Tercera reported on Tuesday. Currently operating in Peru, Colombia, Chile and now Argentina, Buda.com has more than 80,000 clients, according to the news outlet. The publication quoted Pablo Chávez, General Manager of the exchange, saying that “cryptocurrencies can have a positive effect on the functioning of the Argentine financial industry and, particularly, on giving access and lowering the uncertainty of users and how they interact economically on the Internet.” Diario Financiero further quoted him elaborating: It is a relevant market not only for obvious reasons, such as its size, but also because it has a large community around cryptocurrencies… Argentina has the potential to become our most important market in the course of a year. Chávez clarified that initially “the cryptocurrencies that will be available will be bitcoin, ether and bitcoin cash,” but the exchange will also soon add litecoin, the publication detailed. “Initially we will be offering the market service, providing the platform for users who want to buy or sell cryptocurrencies in Argentine pesos.” The Argentine Market Regarding the exchange’s venture into the Argentine market, Chávez believes that Buda.com “should become one of the largest in the Latin American continent,” the publication conveyed, adding that he expects its transaction volumes to reach “close to USD 20 million per month by the end of 2018.” Chávez detailed, “People are realizing, for example, how easy it is to transfer money online, using…cryptocurrencies,” noting that: One of the main differences we see with the rest of the region, is that in Argentina there is a community around cryptocurrencies, which have been working for years with a process of education and closeness to banking entities. This environment will allow the exchange “to penetrate the market more quickly, using our regional structure,” the publication described. Buda.com Fighting Banks in Chile Meanwhile, back in its homeland, Buda.com is fighting to get its bank accounts reopened. The exchange filed a lawsuit against 10 banks in April after they closed the current accounts of crypto exchanges. Chile’s Court for the Defense of Free Competition (TDLC – Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia) subsequently ordered three banks to reopen the accounts of two crypto exchanges during the course of the lawsuit. Banco del Estado de Chile (Bancoestado), Scotiabank, and Itau Corpbanca (Itau) must reopen the accounts of Buda.com and another crypto exchange, Cryptomkt. The banks appealed the court’s decision but were rejected. Last week, Bancoestado announced that it will reopen the accounts of the two exchanges. However, Scotiabank and Itau have not confirmed the reopening of accounts, indicating that they may appeal the court’s decision further. What do you think of Buda.com launching an exchange in Argentina? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bancoestado, and Buda.com. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post Chilean Cryptocurrency Exchange Launches in Argentina appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Bitcoin cash is beginning to shed its inner nerd, and Vin Armani is one of the leading reasons. He’s lived what most men can only dream as a high class, world renowned escort to wealthy women. More recently, he’s the brain behind Cointext, a revolutionary rebranding of sending crypto without needing an internet connection. If all that wasn’t enough, he’s also something of a compelling philosopher. We caught up with Mr. Armani ahead of his long-form interview on Humans of Bitcoin, an episode that’s quickly become mandatory listening. Also read: Bitgrail Exchange Ordered Down Indefinitely as Italian Court Upholds Halt Vin Armani’s Art of Seduction Brought to Bitcoin Cash News.Bitcoin.com: Dude, you’re beefcake. You’ve got ladies. You’re in great shape. You’re a television star. You don’t live in your mom’s basement. What the hell are you doing in crypto? Vin Armani: Ha! The smartest people I know have figured out how much better life is on all fronts with a little time spent in the gym and a little money spent on a good tailor. I never lived in my mom’s basement. That’s probably attributable to my father, a tech entrepreneur, buying me a TI-99 for my 5th birthday (complete with cassette drive) and spurring my love for technology. By the time I was 15, I was already getting myself into unnecessary trouble with hacking and phreaking. When the TV show came along, [Showtime’s Gigolos] totally out of the blue, in 2010, I was already well into my software development career and I actually had to quit my position at what is now Saatchiart.com (where I’m told much of my code is still in the foundation of their platform) to go to Vegas and film the first season of the show [Showtime’s Gigolos, which ran for six season]. It was around that time that a developer buddy passed along a link to some information about Bitcoin. I believe that I first downloaded mining software in 2011, though I didn’t see it as anything more than just novelty at the time. I bought my first bitcoins in December 2012 for $15 each from Julian Tosh, who was running Bitcoinsinvegas.com at the time. When the price went to $1,000 for the first time in 2013, I cashed out, had an awesome Christmas, and I’ve been a vocal proponent ever since. When I started doing The Vin Armani Show in the Fall of 2016, cryptocurrency was a significant part of the show. It’s an even bigger part of the show, and my consciousness, now. Bitcoin Core vs Bitcoin Cash You took-on the bitcoin cash versus bitcoin core debate. Your tweets advocating bitcoin cash are increasing. What attracts you to bitcoin cash? Starting in 2014, I began working on some prototypes for various gaming devices that could utilize [bitcoin core (BTC)] as a settlement layer. One example, Ocelot is a mobile slot machine app that interfaces with a paper fiat collecting kiosk. Basically, it allows a player to insert paper cash and receive [BTC] in a wallet integrated into the app. They then use that [BTC] to gamble within the app and can “cash out” back to fiat. Because transactions would confirm, at that time, with miner fees of under 1 cent, I (and several very important gaming industry luminaries in Vegas) thought it could be a game changer. As fees began to go into double digits in cents and then move into the multi-dollar range, I was forced to drop [BTC] as the settlement layer. Same goes for a tipping prototype that I built for Legends Room strip club in Vegas – the first “Strip Club ICO“. Fees got ridiculous and I lost all confidence in [BTC]. I have personally seen the power and potential of cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange. That’s where the value has always been for me. When fees got out of control, I began advocating Litecoin and Ethereum, but neither felt as solid as [BTC] had felt to me when I first encountered it and got a chance to develop using the platform. After the fork, as Bitcoin Cash showed itself to be a return to the cryptocurrency I fell in love with, and as I was able to move my projects over to Bitcoin Cash with minimal effort, my excitement for Bitcoin returned. Bitcoin Cash brought me back into the fold. I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling. As I look around the cryptocurrency landscape, the voices and mindsets most aligned with my own are all coming from individuals who have thrown their lot in with Bitcoin Cash. These Are Important Times You’ve said your program, The Vin Armani Show, is an exploration of a whole new way of being. Can you expand on that a bit? Is that just the hubris of our time? What is so different about this time in human history? Every generation probably thinks that they are living in the most important time ever. To a certain extent, that is actually true. I think what is different about the time in which we currently live is substantially different, however. There was a time, at the dawn of our species, where every homosapien on earth could communicate, face-to-face, with every other member of the species. After all, they were members of the same small family. From the time that the first band of our early ancestors separated from that family and set off to find new lands in which to live, humans have existed in distinct pockets. Over hundreds of thousands of years, we eventually began to reconnect with our lost relatives. For the first time in human history, since the dawn of our species, every human on the planet really can communicate, in real time, face to face, with every other human. I believe that represents a “reset button” for the species. In fact, it may represent our evolving into a completely new species. Our generation is going to be the one that decides the fate of that species. These are important times. Learn more about Mr. Armani’s projects on the latest episode of Humans of Bitcoin, online now. Do you think we’re living in unique times? Let us know in the comments. Images via the Showtime, Gigolos, Cointext. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com The post Bitcoin Gets Sexy: Goodbye Pasty Neckbeards, Hello Vin Armani appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

In the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency, 2016 feels like a lifetime ago. For many of the top cryptocurrency exchanges at the time it effectively was; several have fallen by the wayside and eight out of the top ten platforms by trading volume have lost their spot. It’s not just vintage altcoins that time has been unkind to: the same holds true for many of the exchanges that once listed them. Also read: Faast Platform Connects With Popular Wallets Offering Cross-Chain Swaps 8/10 of the Top Cryptocurrency Exchanges Have Lost Their Place Over the past two years, the makeup of the top cryptocurrency exchanges has changed dramatically – and so has the volumes traded. In August 2016, Coinmarketcap records the top exchange as being Okcoin.cn, with a 24-hour volume of $440 million. Today, it’s ranked 188th, with a trading volume of just $17,000. Then, as now, BTC and LTC were the top traded pairs. Second on the list for trade volume in 2016 was Btctrade, with 24-hour volume of $218 million. Today, it sits in 54th place with volume of just $23 million. BTC and Ybcoin were its top traded pairs back then, the latter a Chinese coin which died in 2017. Today, Btctrade’s top pairs are BCH and ETH. Of the entire top 10 from 2016, just two exchanges remain there – Huobi and Kraken. Huobi occupied third place then and it lies in fourth spot today, despite its 24-hour volume having grown from $165 million to $1.3 billion. This is naturally a reflection of the increase in value that digital assets such as bitcoin have enjoyed in this period. The top three exchanges in August 2016 A Lot Can Happen in Two Years Here’s how the top ten cryptocurrency exchanges looked two years ago and today: 1. Okcoin.cn (188th now). Today: Bitmex 2. Btctrade (54th now). Today: Okex 3. Huobi (4th now). Today: Binance 4. CHBTC (dead now). Today: Huobi 5. BTCC (38th now). Today: Bitfinex 6. Poloniex (29th now). Today: Upbit 7. BTC100 (dead now). Today: Bithumb 8. Btcbox (25th now). Today: Hitbtc 9. Itbit (39th now). Today: GDAX 10. Kraken. Today: Kraken Many people write altcoins off as having no permanency and predict that the majority of cryptos will die a slow death. They may well be right, but as a look at the dominant cryptocurrency exchanges from 2016 shows, few enterprises live long. The churn rate for exchanges exceeds even that of the coins themselves. Coinmarketcap listed 105 exchanges in 2016, versus 213 today, though only 60% of the listed exchanges back then had any sort of meaningful volume of over $10,000 a day. Even accounting for inflation, 90% of today’s exchanges have some semblance of a respectable volume. Among the coins that accounted for the top trading volume in 2016 you’ll find Maidsafe, Nxt, Dogecoin, and even The DAO. Today, most people would agree that the top 10 exchanges have gotten better. Whether the top 10 cryptocurrencies, outside of bitcoin, have improved in quality is another matter. A final indicator of how much the landscape has changed in two years comes from the total trading volume. In August 2016, the top 10 exchanges saw just over $1 billion in cryptocurrencies traded in a day. Today, that figure stands at $10.6 billion. It will be interesting to see, two years from now, how many of 2018’s top exchanges are still standing. How many of 2016’s top 10 exchanges do you recall? Let us know in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Coinmarketcap. Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. The post 80% of the Top Cryptocurrency Exchanges From 2016 Have Been Replaced appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

There’s a new application called Faast, a service that claims to enable secure cross-chain trades by utilizing a few popular wallet clients and two well-known hardware devices Ledger and Trezor. This means users can swap BTC for ETH, and trade various ERC-20 tokens in a secure manner without leaving a trusted environment. Also read: The Exahash Era: SHA-256 Mining is a Significant Achievement in Computer Engineering The Faast Platform Allows Private Cross-Chain Swaps With 130 Supported Tokens This week the Faast portfolio management platform announced integration with the Trezor hardware wallet. Faast is an open source beta application that provides investors with the ability to diversify their crypto portfolios by enabling cross-chain trades. Platforms like these have been trending lately, with services like Shapeshift’s Prism and the ETH Radar Relay — services that allow trustless token trading with popular cryptocurrencies and ERC-20 tokens. Faast believes its latest integration with Trezor allows secure and safe trades without having to register for exchanges or move money to centralized trading platforms. The Faast Portfolio user interface. The Faast application is still in public beta. “If you were using Binance, for example, you’d have to send your BTC holdings on your Trezor wallet to your BTC wallet on Binance, then trade it for the token you wanted (which may not even be listed),” explains the Faast startup. It’s so much easier to just remove that extra step by using Faast to swap your BTC for the tokens you want, and get them safely delivered straight to your Trezor wallet. The Trezor interface or other wallets like Metamask, and Ledger will use the second-factor authentication process before importing coins. No Need to Surrender Private Data Another good aspect of not having to use an exchange and using a platform like Faast is avoiding data collection, and KYC processes involved with centralized exchanges. Faast says there is no need to surrender any information and all it takes to trade is a connection to a popular wallet. Aside from Trezor support the Faast application also works with Metamask, Ledger Wallet, Mist, and Parity. The wallets will act as a second-factor authentication when integrating the supported cryptocurrencies to the Faast portfolio platform. Faast supports 130 tokens and plans to add more. “In this way, Faast allows you to enjoy the security of a hardware wallet while staying true to the original crypto spirit of decentralization and safe, private trading online,” the development team explains. The company also details that while applications like Shapeshift offer cross-chains swaps in a private manner it doesn’t have a wide variety of coins. The Faast platform allows users to swap between over 130 supported coins, and the firm reveals more additions will be added soon. As mentioned above, the Shapeshift platform Prism also offers decentralized token trading in a similar manner, but Prism is in beta and invite-only. Radar Relay also does the same type of service and can be connected to a Ledger Wallet for cross-chain swaps. It’s true apps like Faast are interesting platforms that remove the middle-man from the trading equation while attempting to further decentralize the cryptocurrency environment. For now, however, millions of traders are still eerily comfortable with centralized exchanges even after all the hacks and lost cryptocurrencies over the years. What do you think about the Faast platform and swapping cryptocurrencies cross-chain? Let us know your thoughts about this platform in the comments below. Disclaimer: Bitcoin.com does not endorse this product/service. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the mentioned company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com and the author are not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or losses caused, or alleged to be caused, by or in connection with the use of, or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article. Images via Shutterstock, Medium, and the Faast platform. Prove ownership on the Bitcoin Cash Blockchain for only 0.0005 BCH. Using the Bitcoin.com Notary. The post Faast Platform Connects With Popular Wallets Offering Cross-Chain Swaps appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

London has enjoyed a status of a global financial hub for centuries and served as a pioneer for brand new trading options for decades. However, some fear it is now in danger of getting left behind by the hottest emerging asset class – cryptocurrency. One of the main reasons for this appears to be the dominance of the big banks over the UK economy. Also Read: Niall Ferguson Tells Bank of England Bitcoin Is Financial System of the Future Banks Hindering Progress Despite having a thriving fintech startups scene, an established trading ecosystem and a leading role in the traditional fiat currencies market, London appears to be missing the boat with regards to the rush of institutional money flowing into crypto finance. Locations such as Tokyo, Chicago, New York and even San Francisco are taking the lead with regards to regulated platforms, OTC and hedge funds, as well as exchange-traded derivatives such as futures. And many people in the industry believe this is mainly due to the outsize influence that the banks have in the City. “Banks have been unusually strict in dealings with crypto,” Max Boonen, a former Goldman Sachs trader and current CEO of B2C2, a London cryptocurrency market maker, told FT. “It’s nearly impossible to open an account for crypto in the UK. The problem is that in the UK there is a perception that banks have issues with anti-money laundering and decided to be a lot more conservative.” And David Mercer, CEO of LMAX, an FCA regulated FX trading venue which recently announced a physical cryptocurrency exchange dedicated to serving just institutional clients, expects UK banks would only join the market next year. “London is very bank-driven and we see it as being a late adopter,” he explained. Not Too Late? There are also factors that support London’s position in the crypto market, such as CFD brokers like IG Group and Plus500 achieving success with retail traders as well as Barclays agreeing to open an account for Coinbase. Additionally, there are those that think that the matter is overstated. “The City of London, taken as a whole, has the collective experience to make considered and forward-thinking decisions. This experience manifests itself in many ways, from the efficiency of trade execution to KYC & AML regulations and from the strength of our legal system to our culture of effective corporate governance. These reasons are why London dominates the international foreign exchange markets, and it is unthinkable that the City will not continue to be a dominant player in crypto markets,” commented to news.Bitcoin.com Nauman Anees, Co-founder of Think Coin, a multi-asset financial & cryptocurrency trading exchange. Anees added: “London is the dominant player in global financial markets thanks to the strength of its regulatory infrastructure and position as a gateway & conduit between every key global market – and while the crypto markets are novel in many ways, these key contextual advantages still apply. Moreover, events in recent years show the crypto space is one where ‘first mover advantage’ does not apply. Repeated hacks of key exchanges along with the slow pace of international regulation has meant that many ‘early adopters’ have not been positioned to fully develop and grow with the market, meaning that a more cautious approach will likely prove to pay the biggest dividends later. That said, the idea that there is a corporate resistance to crypto adoption in London is misguided. Most of the major investment banks have opened crypto desks, and the ones which haven’t already announced are undoubtedly experimenting behind the scenes.” How should London ensure that the crypto revolution does not pass it by? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Images courtesy of Shutterstock. Now live, Satoshi Pulse. A comprehensive, realtime listing of the cryptocurrency market. View prices, charts, transaction volumes, and more for the top 500 cryptocurrencies trading today. The post Dominance of Big Banks in UK Means London Might Miss the Boat on Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Lul.to, a German audio and e-book pirate platform, trafficked in close to a quarter million titles, serving 30,000 users. Summer of last year, the country’s Cyber Crime Competence Center (SN4C) shut the site down and arrested its operators. A basket of cryptocurrencies were seized in the process. Over a two month period, they were sold off to the public, raking-in a cool €12 million ($13.8 million), the highest take in the nation’s legal history. Also read: Bitgrail Exchange Ordered Down Indefinitely as Italian Court Upholds Halt German Authorities Sell Off Cryptos, Earn Millions Der Tagesspiegel is reporting that proceeds from seized crypto “achieved total just over 12 million euros,” the German news agency quoted a Bamberg prosecutor. The article continues, “In total, 1,312 bitcoins were sold. There were also significant amounts of other cryptocurrencies: 1,399 Bitcoin Cash, 1,312 Bitcoin Gold, and 220 Ether. The sales process lasted for almost two months: in more than 1,600 individual transactions, the crypto-money was sold from the end of February to the end of April on a German-based trading platform.” As governments are wont, they usually treat cryptocurrency as a perennially in-flux asset, and work to unload it quickly … without much thought. Though prosecutor Thomas Goger insisted prices “did not matter,” prices of bitcoin core (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin gold (BTG), and ether (ETH) slid, minus a slight recovery, pretty heavily during the government sell off, begun 20 February of this year. Perishable Food Der Tagesspiegel quoted state prosecutors as explaining, “Since all cryptocurrencies are exposed to the risk of high price fluctuations or even total loss, the Bayern Central Cybercrime Office ordered an emergency sale,” which the news agency described as akin to “treating [cryptocurrencies] like perishable foods.” Previous records in the country for such auctions came at the end of 2017, where authorities riding the wave of massive price spikes were able to nab €2 million. And often law enforcement is lucky at all to have recovered anything, as usually rather large crypto sums are spread out among various types of wallets, cold and hot. “The accused have cooperated,” Mr. Groger was quoted as noting. As a relative amount, the largest German take pales in comparison to Bulgarian authorities who, in 2017 were able to pay off 20 percent of the country’s national debt after it gained $3.3 billion. The United States, early this year, was able to raise $40 million in auction efforts, more than twice of Germany’s present, and history, haul. Do you think crypto addiction exists? Let us know in the comments. Images via the Pixabay, Castle Craig Hospital. Verify and track bitcoin cash transactions on our BCH Block Explorer, the best of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, keep up with your holdings, BCH and other coins, on our market charts at Satoshi’s Pulse, another original and free service from Bitcoin.com The post Nearly $14 Million in Crypto Sold by German Police appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Digital assets are seeing some recovery today on May 29, as cryptocurrency bulls are attempting to press market prices higher. Cryptocurrency values dropped pretty low this weekend once again after being unable to hold steady earlier last week. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) weighted price values are averaging $975-986 at press time, gaining 5.3 percent over the past 24-hours. Bitcoin Core (BTC) values are around $7,420-7,460 per coin, and have seen an increase of around 2.4 percent during today’s trading sessions. Also read: The Exahash Era: SHA-256 Mining is a Significant Achievement in Computer Engineering Crypto-Markets Rally Back on Tuesday, May 29 — But Will the Gains Be Short-Lived? Today we’re seeing a bit of a minor cryptocurrency rally after prices dipped to significant lows yesterday across the board. There’s definitely been a slight surge in purchasing as on-balance-volumes (OBV) showed a great divergence towards lower levels yesterday. At the moment the entire cryptocurrency market is hovering around $323 billion USD and 24-hour volume is around $17.6 billion. This shows that over the last 30 days the entire cryptocurrency economy has lost $106 billion USD in value. The May 29 minor recovery taking place today is testing major resistance across most digital asset market action, and the next day or so will decide where market values are headed. BTC Market Action Bitcoin Core (BTC) markets are showing a bit of a comeback this Monday morning gaining around 2.4 percent. 24-hour trade volume has increased to $5.4Bn since our last markets update which has helped push the current rally. The top exchanges today swapping the most BTC are Binance, Okex, Bitfinex, Huobi, and Bitflyer. The Japanese yen commands the top position today traded with BTC capturing 53.9 percent. This is followed by other pairs traded with BTC by the USD (20.4%), tether (USDT 16.1%), KRW (3.5%), and the EUR (3.4%). BTC/USD Technical Indicators Looking at the 4-hour BTC/USD chart on Bitstamp shows BTC bulls are attempting to push through some major resistance. Currently, the two Simple Moving Averages (SMA) still show the longer-term 200 SMA above the 100 SMA trendline. This indicates the path to resistance is still looking towards the downside, and today’s intraday traders may feel like shorting at certain vantage points above this region. RSI levels are around 53 right now and meandering higher, indicating today’s rally could keep pressing onwards. Today’s trading sessions also show that BTC bulls need to surpass the 50-week Moving Average (MA) in order to see a more affirmative bullish signal. Right now order books on the upside have heavy resistance from the current price level to $8,100, and after that things are a bit smoother. On the back side, books show that bears will see resistance around $6,900 to $6,300, and if the market goes below that then things will look uglier. BCH Market Action Bitcoin Cash (BCH) market action is seeing some bigger gains today, jumping 5.3 percent in value over the last 24-hours. BCH trade volume at the moment is $665 million amongst the world’s top exchanges. Today the trading platforms trading the most BCH include Okex, Hitbtc, Bitfinex, Huobi, and EXX. On the peer-to-peer exchange, Shapeshift.io, the most popular trade today is Dash for Bitcoin Cash swaps. BTC is the dominant pair with BCH on May 29 encompassing 39 percent of all trades. This is followed by tether (USDT 27.4%), USD (20.8%), KRW (8.7%), and the EUR (1.4%). BCH/USD Technical Indicators 4-hour BCH charts show bulls are pushing hard against resistance and have made some progress today. However, the 200 SMA is still well above the short-term 100 SMA, indicating when resistance is met there may be a downside break again. Unfortunately, other indicators reveal the same thing as the RSI oscillator at 75.9 shows overbought conditions and the MACd looks to be retreating as well. Order books show if buyers managed to press past $1,025 then there will be smoother seas up until $1,145. On the back side, it looks pretty decent for foundations and support between now and $885, but from there it won’t look pretty like we said in the aforementioned BTC charts. The Top Five Cryptocurrency Markets A majority of the top cryptocurrency markets are seeing gains today and are in the green. The second highest valued market capitalization is still Ethereum (ETH) as prices hover today around $563 per ETH. Ripple (XRP) has shown some improvement as well seeing 2.5 percent gains with one XRP averaging $0.59 U.S. cents per coin. Lastly, the coin that’s been a forerunner this past couple of weeks, EOS, is seeing decent market losses on May 29. EOS is down 2.66 percent and the price per token is around $11.96. The Verdict: The Song Remains the Same During our last markets update the overall verdict was “uncertainty,” and unfortunately this short-term outlook still remains the same. Enthusiasts and traders throughout forums, social media, and Telegram trade groups still are skeptical of a significant reversal at this time. One of the biggest reasons being volume is just not as strong as it was weeks and months ago, and its been growing weaker. On a more positive note, cryptocurrency development continues in full swing and there have been a lot of optimistic announcements made over the past three weeks about growing infrastructure and new investment vehicles. Right now cryptocurrencies are at major resistance levels, and whether they’re surpassed or not will show a clearer indication of where the cryptocurrency economy is going from here. Where do you see the price of BCH, BTC, and other coins headed from here? Let us know in the comments below. Disclaimer: Price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.” Images via Shutterstock, Trading View, and Satoshi Pulse. Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. The post Markets Update: Slight Comeback Shows Cryptocurrencies Press Forward appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article