CointelegraphBitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin, Cardano, Stellar, IOTA, TRON: Price Analysis, August 08CointelegraphThe U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (E…
Crypto markets are firmly in the red after the U.S. SEC postponed its decision on VanEck Bitcoin ETF. However, with many coins in the oversold territory, the charts suggest that this might be just a pullback
Crypto markets are firmly in the red after the U.S. SEC postponed its decision on VanEck Bitcoin ETF. However, with many coins in the oversold territory, the charts suggest that this might be just a pullback
Jackson Palmer has taken to Twitter today to muse on why news bearing little relevance has such an impact on the entire cryptocurrency market. The Dogecoin creator and cryptocurrency commentator believes that the low usage of cryptocurrency networks is responsible for their immense fragility in the face of such “non-news” events. Palmer Blames Lack of…
Jackson Palmer has taken to Twitter today to muse on why news bearing little relevance has such an impact on the entire cryptocurrency market. The Dogecoin creator and cryptocurrency commentator believes that the low usage of cryptocurrency networks is responsible for their immense fragility in the face of such “non-news” events.
Palmer Blames Lack of Crypto Usage for Weak Markets
In a lengthy Twitter thread, Palmer identified that the entire market was once again moving together. The presumed wisdom behind such a move was the recent Bitcoin ETF decision being postponed by the SEC. However, such a news event should not have impacted upon the entire market in such a way. Since many in the space had already predicted that the SEC would take as much time as possible to approve or deny a Bitcoin ETF, the recent news should have had a negligible market response for Bitcoin.
Something tells me there is more to this than just an ETF not being approved. pic.twitter.com/K4P8pojpAE
What’s more, the decision only really affects the price of Bitcoin. However, the entire market is showing red at the time of writing. Of the largest coins by market capitalisation, Bitcoin actually dropped by the lowest percentage over the previous 24 hours – almost 12%. It seems curious, therefore, that the likes of XRP suffered a drop of almost 20% over the same period when an ETF decision would have little bearing on the price of this largely unrelated asset.
In his Twitter thread, Palmer goes on to speculate that the declines in price were indicative of the cryptocurrency networks having incredibly weak markets. This he puts down to an under utilisation. He posted four graphs to illustrate his point.
The first is of Bitcoin’s confirmed transactions per day. The figure for July 2018 is lower than the entire two previous years displayed on the graph.
The second image Palmer uses to illustrate his point is a graph of the daily users of decentralised applications. At the time of writing, there are less than 10,000 daily users of dApps. It’s not made clear if this is across all cryptocurrency networks capable of supporting such dApps or just the largest – Ethereum. Either way, the picture is pretty damning for a network that has had over $36 billion invested into it.
The next graph posted highlights the number of transactions occurring on the Ethereum network over the last 12 months. Like that provided for Bitcoin transaction volume, the Ethereum figures are surprisingly low. At the time of writing the graph shows around 635,000 transactions per day. Palmer accompanies this image with the caption:
“When hundreds of billions of dollars pour into an technology, is this the growth chart you’d expect in return?”
Finally, he turns his attention to XRP – the native currency on the Ripple network. Here he highlights that the network is processing fewer payments each day than it was back in 2016. Again, does a network built to facilitate value transactions that isn’t being used for purpose necessitate a multi-billion-dollar valuation?
In concluding his thread, Palmer states that he has heard others state that these metrics are not a suitable measure of adoption. This, according to Palmer, is “broken logic” that “explains a lot about why these markets are so fragile.”
If Palmer’s musings on the correlation between low usage and weak markets hold true, substantial adoption will be required to build a market in which such volatility is the exception, rather than the norm.
When it comes to trading financial instruments, there is always a way to make profits, irrespective of whether the market trend is pointing upwards or downwards. The Contract for Difference (CFD) trading is a prime example of how the right trading decisions can benefit a smart investor. With CFD trading, participants in the trade generally…
When it comes to trading financial instruments, there is always a way to make profits, irrespective of whether the market trend is pointing upwards or downwards. The Contract for Difference (CFD) trading is a prime example of how the right trading decisions can benefit a smart investor. With CFD trading, participants in the trade generally speculate the rising or falling prices of fast-moving global financial instruments (commodities, currencies, indices, shares, treasuries, etc.). While it seems attractive, there are inherent risks which can impact even those who are experienced and knowledgeable, resulting in substantial losses.
In the recent days, the landscape of trading has undergone a significant change, as the new generation of traders opt for social trading methods over conventional practices. With social trading, the chances of executing profitable trades rise to a great extent as the participants tend to socialize and communicate with their peers while making use of limited holdings and taking advantage of referral programs, bonus-and-copy systems and more. Other safeguards like stop-loss mechanisms implemented on trading platforms also contribute to the positive development in the sphere.
NAGA TRADER
NAGA TRADER takes the top spot among all the online trading platforms currently available in the market, mainly due to its social trading and investment protection features. The platform sports an Auto Copy function that allows users to copy the trading strategies of the top traders on the platform to diversify their portfolios and reap benefits from it. The use of tried and tested methods reduces the risk margins to a great extent, creating a worry-free environment for amateur and experienced traders alike.
Further sweetening the deal is the NAGA Protector – a feature that helps users limit their risk and secure profits automatically by setting appropriate limits. The platform will monitor the trades on behalf of the users so that they don’t have to worry about losing out to the market forces.
The CYBO robotic advisor on NAGA TRADER platform eliminates the emotional aspect of trading to implement dynamic risk management and global diversification for the benefit of users.
ZuluTrade
ZuluTrade is an alternative to NAGA TRADER with excellent trade automation options. The platform allows users to monitor their accounts round the clock, throughout the year. The ZuluTrade Automator is an individualized personal trading assistant that keeps an eye out of the market movements and alert the users whenever there is a significant shift in the forces. It is also capable of automatically executing actions based on the users trading patterns and inputs.
Users on ZuluTrade can create their own trading rules and execute them using an if-this-then-that logic. It is ideal for professional traders with their own set of strategies. However, amateur traders and beginners might not find it that user-friendly.
Plus500
Plus500 is a robust automated trading platform with promising risk management tools, catering mainly to experienced traders. The platform allows them to utilize “Close at Profit” [Limit] or “Close at Loss” [Stop Loss] rates as well as Guaranteed Stops and Trailing Stops efficiently.
While Plus500 has made a name for itself in the trading circles, it maintains an exclusivity, only among advanced traders with years of experience in the craft. New traders may not find much use for Plus500 which in turn rules out a huge opportunity as well as userbase for the platform.
With more people trading mainstream financial as well as crypto assets, the market is evolving rapidly, and the existing platforms are expected to make improvements to their technology as well as service offerings. In the coming days, there will be more platforms trying to compete with these three powerhouses to generate profitable trades for their users.
Although smart contracts are of great interest to a lot of people, finding the real use cases for this technology is still very challenging. Hundreds of potential applications of smart contracts exist, and some industries are getting more attention than others. Below are some examples, in random order. #6: Multiparty Smart Contracts In the world […]
Although smart contracts are of great interest to a lot of people, finding the real use cases for this technology is still very challenging. Hundreds of potential applications of smart contracts exist, and some industries are getting more attention than others. Below are some examples, in random order.
#6: Multiparty Smart Contracts
In the world of cryptocurrency, multisignature solutions have become the new normal over the past few years. This does not just apply to wallet solutions, but also to smart contracts. A multiparty smart contract allows user A to lend money to user B to buy a property, car, etc. In this instance, a smart contract can serve as a legally binding agreement between the involved parties.
#5: Distributed Autonomous Societies
One of the more ambitious plans involving smart contracts revolves around creating distributed autonomous societies. Users can form groups in their preferred location to establish trade agreements with other groups of users. These agreements are self-enforceable due to the nature of smart contract technology.
#4: Distributed Autonomous Governments
Setting up a fully distributed autonomous society may be a challenge, and the same can be said for an automated government. Smart contracts allow, in theory, users to create their own self-enforcing government services. Whether or not this will ever lead to a disruption of the traditional governmental model is a different matter altogether.
#3: Exchanging Digital Value
The most common use case for smart contracts today is as a means of exchanging value between parties. Although this use case doesn’t even require smart contracts, it’s always good to have a log of all transactions and proof that a previous agreement existed between both parties prior to the transaction being made.
#2: Smart Rights
One of the more exotic options to explore comes in the form of smart rights solutions. These are especially useful when dealing with digital content. They also change the way people think of ownership in general, especially where blockchain assets are concerned. Translating this approach to real-world assets and products is a big challenge, for the time being.
#1: Distributed Autonomous Organizations
The DAO idea has been tried before on a large scale, and it quickly failed. The DAO is the best example of how good ideas are not sufficient to sustain an untested business model for a lengthy period of time. Even so, the concept still holds merit, as smart contracts can allow for peer-to-peer deliveries, purchases of electricity from the cheapest provider at any time automatically, and so forth. This particular approach may have the most potential in the long term.
BitcoinistVenezuela: The Price of Bitcoin is Now Doubling Every 18 DaysBitcoinistThe price of Bitcoin in Venezuela is now doubling roughly every three weeks as hyperinflation continues to plague the country. At the same time, Bitcoin trading volumes ke…
Venezuela: The Price of Bitcoin is Now Doubling Every 18 Days Bitcoinist The price of Bitcoin in Venezuela is now doubling roughly every three weeks as hyperinflation continues to plague the country. At the same time, Bitcoin trading volumes keep hitting record highs as people are scrambling for an exit.
A district judge in California has advanced the securities class action against the husband and wife duo behind blockchain project Tezos for their July 2017 $232 mln ICO
A district judge in California has advanced the securities class action against the husband and wife duo behind blockchain project Tezos for their July 2017 $232 mln ICO
Ethereum World News (blog)Stormy Markets — Volume Picks Up As Bitcoin (BTC) Drops To $6200Ethereum World News (blog)Bitcoin fell to nearly $600 from $7,100 just yesterday as the SEC announced that it would be delaying its verdict on the VanEck-backed E…
Stormy Markets — Volume Picks Up As Bitcoin (BTC) Drops To $6200 Ethereum World News (blog) Bitcoin fell to nearly $600 from $7,100 just yesterday as the SEC announced that it would be delaying its verdict on the VanEck-backed ETF. While it broke the vital $6,800 support, which many technicians see as a key level which Bitcoin should hold, it ...
After Saudi Arabia’s first blockchain meeting, ‘Translating Blockchain KSA 2018‘, the country is showing signs of incorporating new technologies to diminish the relevance of oil production. Since 1938, the Kingdom has since become the world’s largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the world’s second-largest oil reserves with the sixth-largest gas reserves and is the only …
After Saudi Arabia’s first blockchain meeting, ‘Translating Blockchain KSA 2018‘, the country is showing signs of incorporating new technologies to diminish the relevance of oil production.
Since 1938, the Kingdom has since become the world’s largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the world’s second-largest oil reserves with the sixth-largest gas reserves and is the only Arab country in the G20.
Also, the country still struggles with bridging the gap between history and modernity, having been projected into wealth by the discovery of oil before the Second World War. The kingdom has drawn criticism from advanced economies over various civil and social rights issues, which it intends to be based under religious laws under the absolute rule of the Saudi royal family.
This is sometimes a huge contradiction coming from a society which would rather present a more advanced and contemporary image. Saudi’s Vision 2030 is key to this change as outlined by Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz:
“The second pillar of our vision is our determination to become a global investment powerhouse. Our nation holds strong investment capabilities, which we will harness to stimulate our economy and diversify our revenues… Our country is rich in its natural resources. We are not dependent solely on oil for our energy needs… our real wealth lies in the ambition of our people and the potential of our younger generation.”
In keeping with the new Saudi direction and this new image as proposed by Saudi Vision 2030, blockchain has been seen as a pivotal technology. This has resulted in the Riyadh Municipality partnering with IMB this year to strengthen blockchain in order to streamline government services and transactions. Computerized reasoning, IoT, and blockchain are fast becoming a priority in a country which wants to advance its economy and its technological footprint, while also moving away from its reliance on oil by cultivating new business models.
Takreem El Tohamy General Manager, IBM MEA has indicated that the city of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, is already planning to incorporate DLT as a means to enhance and digitalize its current record keeping through working with computerized arrangements supplier Elm.
Another Swiss private bank has announced in a statement that it’s open to on-board cryptocurrencies. Maerki Baumann private bank in Zurich is open to accepting assets that were generated with cryptocurrencies, “under the condition that strict regulatory and legal requirements are fully complied with,” Managing Director Stephan Zwahlen told news.Bitcoin.com. Also read: Many Swiss Bankers and Financial […]
Another Swiss private bank has announced in a statement that it’s open to on-board cryptocurrencies. Maerki Baumann private bank in Zurich is open to accepting assets that were generated with cryptocurrencies, “under the condition that strict regulatory and legal requirements are fully complied with,” Managing Director Stephan Zwahlen told news.Bitcoin.com.
Assets raised from cryptocurrency transactions are usually rejected by most Swiss banks, but there are a few exceptions. Maerki Baumann has reportedly followed Falcon and officially accepted handling such assets, but it does not offer asset management solutions in cryptocurrencies nor accounts in crypto, the Managing Director of the bank told news.Bitcoin.com. Funds raised from speculative crypto transactions, payments for services rendered, or from mining successes are increasingly growing, together with the popularity of cryptocurrencies. But these assets reportedly often meet rejection from Swiss banks.
Vontobel, another Swiss private bank, together with Falcon, stands among the lenders that are agreeing to handle cryptocurrency-based investments on behalf of their clients.
The Swiss Contradiction
One of the contradictions about Switzerland which is aiming to become a “crypto nation” is that despite having hundreds of the most famous crypto companies worldwide based in Zug, hardly any of them have a Swiss bank account. The main reasons for that is the fear of black money that has tainted some of the major Swiss banks throughout history, Marc Bernegger, a Swiss Fintech and crypto entrepreneur, told news.Bitcoin.com in an interview in Zurich.
Bernegger has been a fintech entrepreneur for close to 20 years, and said he read Satoshi’s whitepaper in 2012. He then immediately felt that Bitcoin had a lot of potential. “I understood from day one the impact that the technology was going to have. Back in the old days, hardly anybody in the traditional financial services industry was even hearing about Bitcoin,” he said.
Marc Bernegger, Board Member at Crypto Finance AG
“Nowadays, when it comes to cryptocurrencies, there is an understanding of financial services that reminds [me of] the old banking privacy,” Bernegger said. “It isn’t about replicating that again, but I think Switzerland has a strong reputation and knowledge about protecting assets.”
However, the Swiss entrepreneur noted that one of the issues in Switzerland is that, officially, there are hardly any banks doing crypto. “Everyone goes to Bank Frick, a tiny bank in Liechtenstein, one hour away from Zurich,” Bernegger explained, but this is slowly changing, he observed. Bernegger, who is also a board member at Crypto Finance Group, is part of a task force led by Switzerland’s Finance Minister, Ueli Maurer, and Economy and Education Minister, Johann Schneider-Ammann, including federal and local officials, as well as members of various startups and legal representatives. “The initiative is aiming to create a more crypto friendly environment for companies,” Bernegger explained, “the names of the banks [involved] are not public but there are a few major [Swiss] banks and several other Swiss banks which will soon on-board crypto clients,” he revealed. “I personally think that six months from now, it will be quite common to open accounts as a corporate client doing crypto business in Switzerland.”
Finance Minister Invites Banking Association and National Bank to Discuss
“Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer recently took the initiative to invite the Swiss Banking Association (SBA), the Swiss National Bank (SNB), and the Finma Banking Supervisory Authority for a round table to discuss the issue of the banking accounts of crypto companies. As a result of this round table, SBA has formed a working group to tackle the issue and is in the lead,” Peter Minder, the head of communication of the Swiss Federal Department of Finance, told news.Bitcoin.com in an email.
Swissquote Group, the Swiss online bank, reported a profit of 25.7 million CHF (~$26.1million USD) from the first half of this year, which represents an increase of 44 percent over the same period of the previous year since it started accepting crypto, news.Bitcoin.com reported earlier this month. From a turnover perspective, Swissquote is reportedly one of the Swiss companies with the highest revenue out of all crypto businesses in Switzerland.
Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, a Swiss legacy bank, also opened the door to crypto and blockchain firms in June of this year. Its CEO Marianne Wildi, who trained as a computer programmer, argued that Switzerland should adopt a crypto Swiss franc. The bank also evaluated potential compliance risks before deciding to open up to blockchain and crypto firms, and also informed Finma of its decision.
Swiss Crypto Companies Target Banking Licenses
Swiss crypto companies are also actively trying to acquire banking licenses with Finma, the nation’s financial market supervisory authority, and may soon operate just like banks. It’s a matter of time, some say.
The main problem for Finma is that many of the cryptocurrency tokens are considered securities, and in order to handle securities as a broker in Switzerland, a company needs to get a broker’s licence, which seemingly no one in Switzerland within the crypto industry has at this stage. “Finma differentiates payment tokens, utility tokens, and asset-backed tokens. The payment and utility tokens aren’t considered securities,” Yassine Ben Hamida, a former Swiss banker now fully involved in crypto projects, told news.Bitcoin.com during a phone interview in Switzerland. “The problem is that you need to have a broker/dealer’s license in order to handle the tokens that are considered securities,” he confirmed.
Crypto Broker, which belongs to Crypto Finance AG, was not granted the security dealer’s license from Finma, as the company isn’t trading security tokens at the moment, its CEO said in an email. However the company is in the process of obtaining the license, it was confirmed to news.Bitcoin.com.
Crypto Fund, an asset manager also part of Crypto Finance Group, is the first company in Switzerland which is able to distribute foreign funds to “qualified investors” or so-called high net worth individuals. But they aren’t the only ones, sources involved in the Swiss crypto world say, for there are allegedly many Swiss independent companies that have launched certificates in order to invest in crypto. “This is one of our first milestones, because we are now ultimately moving to become a fully licensed Asset Manager and Broker. Crypto Finance Group is aiming at becoming the most advanced and secure investment and technology provider globally,” Mark Bernegger, who also serves as a board member at Crypto Finance Group, told news.Bitcoin.com in a statement.
Custody: How Crypto Assets Can Be Kept in Banks
Mainstream media recently reported that Goldman Sachs is considering a plan to offer custody for crypto funds, without citing any solid source. Japan’s Nomura, Bank of New York Mellon, JP Morgan Chase, and Northern Trust are all reportedly thought to be working on or exploring custody offerings. In Switzerland, there aren’t any banks at the moment offering deposit services of those securities. However, this is a market that will develop quickly, according to a former UBS executive and also a former Julius Baer executive in Switzerland.
Gazprombank Switzerland Ltd., a state-owned Russian bank, and third largest in the country by assets, is also looking into cryptocurrency asset custody service and working with auditors and with Finma, according to sources close to the matter. However, the bank couldn’t make any official statement on the topic at this stage, a spokeswoman told news.Bitcoin.com.
What do you think of Swiss crypto companies aiming to operate just like banks? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Crypto Finance Group and Business Insider.
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Blockchain loyalty programs are an interesting business with a lot of potential benefits. Rewarding consumers for spending time or money on a specific company or product will improve overall customer relationships. Various companies are working on blockchain loyalty solutions, with some of them hitting their stride in 2018. The items on this list are in no particular […]
Blockchain loyalty programs are an interesting business with a lot of potential benefits. Rewarding consumers for spending time or money on a specific company or product will improve overall customer relationships. Various companies are working on blockchain loyalty solutions, with some of them hitting their stride in 2018. The items on this list are inno particular order.
#5: Singapore Airlines
It was somewhat surprising to learn Singapore Airlines has a working blockchain loyalty program. Known as KrisFlyer, Singapore Airlines customers can convert travel miles into units of payment. Those payment tokens can be used across Singapore through merchant partners using QR codes. To make use of this solution, users will need to sign up for the KrisPay digital wallet.
#4: Royal Bank of Canada
Although banks have no high expectations for cryptocurrencies, they all see merit in blockchain technology. Bank of Canada is working with Manifold Technology to digitize its customer loyalty program. Choosing a smaller startup to build such key infrastructure is a remarkable decision. A beta version of this blockchain loyalty program has existed since 2017, although no final release date has been announced yet.
#3: BitRewards
One of the core companies working on blockchain loyalty program solutions goes by the name of BitRewards. The firm positions itself as a premium AI-powered rewards platform which extends services to merchants free of charge. Shoppers will automatically be rewarded with cryptocurrency for making purchases at participating retailers.
Whether or not any merchants or retailers will sign up for BitRewards remains to be seen. It is an interesting solution, especially because it is free to use. It’s still in the relatively early stages right now, as its token sale was completed not that long ago. Partners of the project include TUI and Warner Music Group.
#2: BioCoin
While most people may have never heard of BioCoin, it is a project with a fair bit of potential. Similar to BitRewards, it ensures users receive free tokens for every purchase made with BioCoin’s partners. Although this project is primarily trying to get the word out about its own currency, it is another example of how competition is heating up among blockchain loyalty programs.
#1: Blockchain Loyalty Inc
Until February of 2018, few people were aware Blockchain Loyalty Inc even existed. Earlier this year, the firm was successfully acquired by Peerless Development Ltd. Blockchain Loyalty has a growing client list and a number of partnerships. Offering virtual loyalty platforms to merchants has proven to be successful, thanks to partnerships with Etihad Airways, Visa, and others.
Researchers at Duo Labs have discovered that Twitter is home to at least 15,000 scam bots and have published their findings in a new report.Between May and July of 2018, staff members observed, collected and anal…
Researchers at Duo Labs have discovered that Twitter is home to at least 15,000 scam bots and have published their findings in a new report.
Between May and July of 2018, staff members observed, collected and analyzed nearly 90 million public Twitter accounts that had released over 500 million tweets. In addition, researchers also examined elements of each account including profile screen names, number of followers, avatars and descriptions to gather one of the largest accumulations of Twitter data ever studied.
Among the report’s most interesting finds was a sophisticated “cryptocurrency scam botnet,” which consists of at least 15,000 separate bots. The botnet ultimately siphons money from individual users by posing as cryptocurrency exchanges, news organizations, verified accounts and even celebrities. Accounts in the botnet are programmed to deploy malicious behaviors to evade detection and look like real profiles.
Researchers were also able to map the botnet’s three-tiered structure, which consists of “hub” accounts that are followed by many bots, scam publishing bots, and amplification bots that specifically like tweets to increase their popularity and appear legitimate.
Olabode Anise, a data scientist and co-author of the report, explained, “Users are likely to trust a tweet depending on how many times it’s been retweeted or liked. Those behind this particular botnet know this and have designed it to exploit this very tendency.”
To discover the scam bots, researchers utilized subsets of varying machine-learning algorithms and built features that could train them to locate the bot accounts. Among the five considered algorithms were AdaBoost, Logistic Regression, Random Forest, Naive Bayes and Decision Trees. It was discovered that Random Forest outperformed the other algorithms during the initial testing phases. From there, three individual models of the algorithm were trained to deal with both social and crypto spam bots.
Researchers discovered that bot accounts follow certain behaviors, which, once identified, made them easier to recognize. For example, bot accounts often tweet in short bursts, causing the average times between messages to remain low, while actual Twitter users often wait longer periods between their tweets.
Some methods for evading discovery, however, are more sophisticated. Bots often use unicode characters in tweets rather than traditional ASCII characters. They also use screen names that are typos of spoofed accounts’ screen names, and add white spaces between words and punctuation marks. Profile pictures are also edited to prevent image detection. Finally, many bots appear to follow the same accounts.
Twitter has suspended cryptocurrency spam bots in the past and usually identifies fake accounts quickly. Nevertheless, executives appear to have missed several portions of the latest scam project.
A Twitter spokesperson claimed, “Spam and certain forms of automation are against Twitter’s rules. In many cases, spammy content is hidden on Twitter on the basis of automated detections. When spammy content is hidden on Twitter from areas like search and conversations, that may not affect its availability via the API. This means certain types of spam may be visible via Twitter’s API even if it is not visible on Twitter itself. Less than 5% of Twitter accounts are spam-related.”
At press time, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading for just over $6,200. This is one of the biggest drops in recent weeks – over $900 in just 24 hours. All of bitcoin’s recent gains have been wiped away, and we are right back where we started. The recent bull run is […]
At press time, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap is trading for just over $6,200. This is one of the biggest drops in recent weeks – over $900 in just 24 hours. All of bitcoin’s recent gains have been wiped away, and we are right back where we started. The recent bull run is virtually non-existent, and the bears now have full control.
This is getting old – and a little annoying. Is bitcoin completely incapable of deciding where it wants to be? How could it take so long to perform such an important rise, just to slink back down to where it was in a matter of days? Bitcoin is proving far more vulnerable than ever, and its reaction to the latest news is particularly overwhelming.
Over $9 billion has been completely erased from the cryptocurrency space, and it appears bitcoin isn’t alone in it’s descent. Several altcoins and major competitors are suffering as well. Ethereum, for example, has fallen by over $50 since yesterday and is now trading for $354, while entities like Litecoin have fallen by over nine percent in less than a day.
The recent fall likely stems from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) recent decision to… not decide. Basically, the organization has postponed its decision regarding what to do with a recent bitcoin ETF proposal introduced by VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust. This is the company’s third attempt to get the bitcoin ETF proposed, and the SEC has shown time and time again that it is either completely unaware of how to handle it, or it has no interest. The body has repeatedly postponed all decisions regarding such ETFs or has outright rejected them.
For instance, a bitcoin ETF application was submitted just last week by the Winklevoss Twins of the Gemini Exchange in New York. Sadly, this application was also rejected, but many believed it was because the organization was too busy concentrating on the VanEck entity, which up to that point, appeared to be in good standing and likely had a solid chance of garnering approval.
Unfortunately, we can clearly see this is not the case. What would have been unique in this case is that the VanEck entity would have been backed not by futures, but by actual bitcoins. Furthermore, investors wouldn’t buy the underlying asset; rather, an ETF seeks to track the price of a specific entity that is listed on an exchange somewhere.
ETFs are often seen as a way for institutional investors to safely enter the crypto space. They can get involved in digital currency without purchasing coins via digital asset exchanges, which have been prone to various hacks and malicious activity over the past four years.
Hacking attacks are not new in the crypto community. Ever since Mt. Gox infamously lost over 800,000 BTC to hackers in one of the biggest heists ever, many other projects have been targeted. Hackers are evolving with time, and as was witnessed in the recent KICKICO hack, they are becoming more creative. The hackers managed […]
Hacking attacks are not new in the crypto community. Ever since Mt. Gox infamously lost over 800,000 BTC to hackers in one of the biggest heists ever, many other projects have been targeted. Hackers are evolving with time, and as was witnessed in the recent KICKICO hack, they are becoming more creative. The hackers managed to get away with over $7 million worth of KickCoins before the security team at the Moscow-based team regained control. This hasn’t fazed the company, however, and according to an executive, KICKICO is back on its feet and already planning major moves including new exchange listings.
Backward Never
On July 26, the KICKICO team received several complaints from users who reported that they were missing some of the tokens stored in their wallets. The security team was quickly alerted and unearthed an attack by hackers who had managed to get away with 70,000,000 KickCoins, valued at over $7.7 million. The company then took to its Medium page to notify its community of the attack and to assure them that the situation was under control.
It was the unique way the hackers used to get away with the coins that piqued the interest of many. Having gained access to the private key belonging to the owner of the KickCoin smart contract, the hackers then destroyed tokens held at 40 addresses and then created tokens at 40 other addresses. This ensured that the total number of tokens in the network remained constant, which might have made detection harder. Luckily, the KICKICO team responded quickly and replaced the compromised key with the cold storage key.
According to Valeriya Minaeva, an executive at KICKICO, the company is on top of things and will destroy all the stolen tokens. Speaking exclusively to NullTX, Minaeva stated that the company would refund the stolen tokens. The company has also taken measures to ensure such an attack never happens again.
Serious measures have been taken quickly to strengthen the security features of the platform, one of which is the change of the main wallet address. The main wallet address (Contract Owner) was previously created for 1 person; now it has been changed to a multisignature wallet (and with this one, the hackers will need to steel 3 keys to duplicate such operations), so in the future it will not happen again, as it is nearly impossible to lose all 3 keys.
Unfazed by the recent attack, KICKICO is already looking to the future, and as revealed by Minaeva, KickCoin is now listed on CoinBene. The Singaporean exchange jumped into the limelight after it overtook Binance to become the biggest crypto exchange in the world last month. The rapid rise to the top was brought about by the exchange’s new transaction fee mining model which rewards users with native tokens for every BTC or ETH incurred as charges.
The company will give away one million KickCoins to its users who trade KICK on CoinBene. The top trader will receive 120,000 tokens, which at press time amounted to $108,000, with the other top 50 traders receiving tokens as well.
KICKICO also revealed in a blog post on August 6 that after some members of the team had failed to reach a consensus on the future of the crowdfunding platform, they had gone their separate ways and have become an independent project. Known as Ucommunity, the new project will be released officially in a month’s time, with the founder of KICKICO, Anti A. Danilevski, now being solely in charge of the KICKICO team. The Ucommunity team will distribute new tokens to KickCoin holders via airdrops.
Another Swiss private bank has announced in a statement that it’s open to on-board cryptocurrencies. Maerki Baumann private bank in Zurich is open to accepting assets that were generated with cryptocurrencies, “under the condition that strict regulatory and legal requirements are fully complied with,” Managing Director Stephan Zwahlen told news.Bitcoin.com. Also read: Many Swiss Bankers and Financial […]
