Day: January 30, 2018

China-based Huobi, previously one of the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, plans to launch an office in San Francisco.

New rules regarding cryptocurrency have come into effect today in South Korea. The legislation seeks to tackle money laundering and to bring the space in line with banks’ KYC (know your customer) obligations. The regulations were set out in a document published on January 23. It stated that only those using real-name bank accounts would be permitted to trade cryptocurrencies. The date given for the change was January 30. According to the document, the new measures would:

“… reduce room for cryptocurrency transactions to be exploited for illegal activities, such as crimes, money laundering and tax evasion.”

Today, the South Korean Financial Services Commission stated that the new measures had indeed been implemented. In an email to CNBC, a spokesperson said it was still too early to tell what the effects of said regulations would be.

However, many within the cryptocurrency space are optimistic about the legislation that South Korea has introduced. TenX co-founder, Julian Hosp told CNBC’s “The Rundown” that the change in legislation would lend greater legitimacy to digital currencies in general:

“I think it’s the start of a crackdown on anonymity and the illegal use cases that some cryptocurrencies might have… If, afterwards, investors and companies have more legal security working in the ecosystem, it’s going to have some short-term downsides, but long term, it’s going to have a really, really big boost.”

Meanwhile, others involved in the space have welcomed the South Korean regulation as a much-needed step towards digital currency going mainstream. John Sarson, a managing partner at Blockchain Momentum, believes that ultimately the legislation is positive. He told CNBC:

“Protocols to protect investors have been what the cryptocurrency markets have been missing and it’s what the legislation in South Korea seeks to implement… It’s a good thing anytime an investment exchange knows their client and makes sure that their clients are doing things that are above board legally.”

Despite voices from the community sounding optimistic, the market has responded negatively both at the time of the FSC document’s publication and today, when the rules were actually implemented. Earlier, the price of Bitcoin fell from its GMT open of almost $11,300 to just over $10,200, according to industry price website Coinmarketcap.

It’s hardly surprising that such news has caused a momentary decline in optimism for cryptocurrencies. Hosp argues that the digital currency market at present is “highly emotional”. The smallest news in one corner of the global market can have a large impact on prices in the short term. On Tuesday, Korea represented only 4% of trade in Bitcoin. This figure is dwarfed by the likes of Japan and the US. Their national currencies made up around 40 and 30 percent respectively.

Image: PixaBay

The post South Korea: Cryptocurrency Regulations Come Into Play, Price Responds Negatively appeared first on NewsBTC.

A year ago today China’s central banks temporarily scared the cryptocurrency community when they stopped bitcoin exchanges from operating. Since then the top mainland-based digital asset exchanges moved abroad to more friendlier regions, but Chinese citizens are still acquiring bitcoin whether the People’s Bank of China likes it or not.

Also Read：Companies Deny Having Bitcoin or Blockchain Services Amid China’s Clampdown

Chinese Citizens Continue to Bypass the Cryptocurrency Exchange Ban

Last year the People’s Bank of China stopped domestic cryptocurrency exchanges from dealing with trades tied to the country’s legal tender, the renminbi. Following the month of uncertainty, Chinese traders took to the streets and acquired bitcoin through over-the-counter OTC dealers. The first week of February shows a small jump in volume according to Localbitcoins statistics but the following week trade volume quadrupled. Following this spike, week after week all year long China has seen consistent Localbitcoins trade volumes and all-time highs. Additionally, many of the mainland exchanges moved to areas like Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea offering OTC services.

Surging OTC Trade Volume and 10-20% Digital Asset Premiums

OTC trading platforms are being offered by the firm’s Huobi, OTCBTC, and Okex and the trading is more similar to eBay bidding than traditional cryptocurrency trading. According to a recent report, Chinese buyers pay with methods like Wechat Pay and Alipay. Additionally, Chinese buyers are paying a premium that’s 10 to 20 percent higher than the global average. For instance, on January 18 reports recorded the price of bitcoin to be roughly $11,730 but on Huobi’s OTC platform one BTC traded for $13,085. Alongside the significant premiums, traders from other areas of the world are finding arbitrage opportunities dealing with Chinese cryptocurrency investors.

Much like domestic exchanges all around the world, crypto-OTC trading platforms in that area see intense volumes. The Taiwan-based platform OTCBTC claims it’s processed over $100Mn USD worth of transactions during the company’s first fifty days. One seller on Huobi’s platform has seen “more than 10,000 separate bitcoin transactions in the past month.”

Just Don’t Mention ‘BTC’ In Your Bank Transfer

Even though Chinese investors are finding ways to purchase cryptocurrencies without mainland exchanges, OTC platforms caution buyers about mentioning specific terminology in bank transfers.

“Buyers should only put the order reference in the note for money transfer — To avoid your transfer from getting delayed, please don’t mention BTC, bitcoin or any other characters related to cryptocurrencies,” Says Huobi Pro’s message to customers on the trading platform’s user agreement.

What do you think about Chinese crypto investors flocking to over-the-counter platforms? Let us know what you think in the comments below.  

Images via Shutterstock, Krystal Hu, Huobi Pro, and Coin Dance volume statistics.  

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The post Chinese Investors Continue to Obtain Bitcoin Using Thriving OTC Platforms appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Facebook is banning all advertisements for cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and initial coin offerings (ICOs), as part of an “intentionally broad” policy against deceptive marketers.

Social media giant Facebook has unveiled a new policy that bans advertisements involving cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), a popular funding tool used by many new startups. Today, January 30th, Rob Leathern, the company’s product management director, wrote in a blog post that the new policy targets “ads that promote financial products and services that are frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices, such as binary options, initial coin offerings, and cryptocurrency.”

Many users of the site have likely encountered ads for ICOs, including those promising high investment returns and bonuses for early participation. Other advertisements seen on the platform pitch investment advice in and around the cryptosphere. Such ads, Leathern argued, are being targeted as part of an evolving policy against potentially fraudulent activities on the site.

“We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook ads without fear of scams or deception. That said, there are many companies who are advertising binary options, ICOs and cryptocurrencies that are not currently operating in good faith.”

Leathern added that the policy extends to other platforms under Facebook’s purview, including the photo-sharing app Instagram and the television channel Audience Network. He suggested that the policy could be changed in the future, although he didn’t provide any kind of timeline, saying that as the company gets better at detecting and removing bad ads, the company “will revisit this policy and how we enforce it.”

Currently, Facebook does permits ads for more sensitive financial topics, but with restrictions. For example, it requires written permission for any real-money gambling or gaming services and bans “misleading or deceptive” student loan ads. It also requires advertisers of these services to only target users over 18 years of age. Down the line, it is possible that legitimate cryptocurrency services will eventually get a similar treatment — once Facebook, like the rest of the world, figures out how to properly regulate them.

The post Facebook to Ban Cryptocurrency Related Ads, For Now appeared first on NewsBTC.

Just because this idea comes from traditional banking, it doesn’t mean we cannot take it to boost the crypto-economy. A familiar financial product just got a decentralized upgrade. #SPONSORED

Bitcoin has come a long way, but the original cryptocurrency might be in danger of stagnating if there are no changes in its path going forward. #ANALYSIS

Nowadays, the process of building a gaming PC is easier than ever. The problem is that graphics cards (GPUs) — the crucial component that powers the visuals of a PC — are in extremely high demand, which makes them difficult to find at their intended prices. In fact, many retailers are raising the prices of these cards by double — or more. For example, according to reports, Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1070 should cost around $380, but some cards are now being sold for more than $700 due to the massive shortages in the consumer GPU market. The demand, however, isn’t due to an influx of new PC gaming enthusiasts.

As we know, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin have soared in value over the past year. Coupled with this, a large range of mid and high-end graphics cards from companies like Nvidia (and others like AMD) are in short supply because cryptocurrency miners are buying them in bulk to build machines to mine their cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrency mining requires immense computational power, and miners figured out years ago that the chips in many high-end graphics cards are well-suited to the task. This has led people to put together “mining rigs” — after buying multiple consumer graphics cards for the necessary computing power — and then trying to turn a profit on their investment by mining for cryptocurrencies. Part of the problem, with regards to Bitcoin specifically, is that since there’s only a finite number of coins (because of the way the network is designed), each new Bitcoin takes more power to mine.

This long-ongoing shortage of gaming graphics cards has kept prices for AMD’s and Nvidia’s GPUs sky-high, and some retailers are taking steps to try to give gamers a better chance of buying the in-demand cards before cryptocurrency miners can snatch them up. For example, Nvidia is advising its retail partners to prioritize gamers over miners. But because these retailers are able to generate impressive margins at the moment, it’s unlikely that the company’s requests will result in real changes.31

Some retailers are limiting purchases so miners can’t buy stacks of cards; MicroCenter is offering discounts specifically to gamers who are buying the cards alongside other PC gaming components. It’s a problem that’s affecting pricing worldwide, not just in the U.S., and it seems unlikely to be thwarted unless graphics card vendors can flood the market to keep up with demand. 

The post Cryptocurrency Mining Contributing to Sky-high GPU Prices appeared first on NewsBTC.