Day: September 5, 2018

This week started off on a great note. Markets were up and traders started to get their hopes up that recovery may be in the works. However, today the crypto markets decided to flash crash, wiping over $20 billion in overall market cap in a single day.

To add insult to injury, there is no real cause for this downturn. There are some rumors about Goldman Sachs dropping their plans on opening a cryptocurrency trading desk, but that is no reason for a market crash of this size.

The good news, is this could be a bull trap as the short term trend for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is bullish overall. Analysts now believe that November may be a key month for cryptocurrency where the prices may regain some of their positions.

Some of the biggest losers are: BitcoinDark which is down 20%, NEO Gas down 18%, Siacoin down 17%, PIVX down 16%, and EOS down 15%.

Some currencies which were able to somewhat hold their value through today are Dogecoin which is only down 2%, and Bitcoin which is only down 5%.

Surprisingly Bitcoin Diamond is up a whopping 140%! Just don’t let FOMO beat you down on this one.

We can only hope that the markets recover this week and Bitcoin can close at least above the $7,000 level. June, July, and August were supposed to be strong months for cryptocurrency but so far August was the only mediocre month. As Q3 comes to a close at the end of the month, we can only hope that Q4 will prove to be a stronger quarter for crypto overall.

A Swiss blockchain startup is now allowed to operate as a financial intermediary by the country’s regulators, paving the way for similar firms

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) of Belgium has issued a second warning to the public about scam cryptocurrency exchanges.

FSMA: Number of Fraudulent Crypto Firms Targeting Belgians Grows

In a new warning to consumers, the FSMA has updated its list of scam digital currency exchanges and related companies. The updated message from the regulator follows a reported slew of new complaints from consumers.

The regulator mentions that fraudsters are using cryptocurrencies to “swindle consumers.” Those companies deemed fraudulent by the financial regulator have been added to a growing collection of offending firms.

The new names featured on the FSMA list are as follows:

• www.1st-cryptobank.com
• www.bitc-international.com
• www.boursebitcoin.com
• www.ccg-investment.com
• www.crownmanagers.com
• www.crypto.bnd-group.com
• www.crypto-access.com
• www.cryptofrancecapital.com
• www.cryptorama-bank.com
• www.cryptos-marketplace.com
• www.cryptowallet24.com
• www.e-cryptoney.com
• www.ecrypto-international.com
• www.emarketstrade.com
• www.executivecrypto.com
• www.fair-oakscrypto.com
• www.fast-coin.eu
• www.globalmarkets-group.com
• www.ldc-crypto-com
• www.lgsinvestpartners.com
• www.london-exchange.com
• www.minedecrypto.com
• www.mondial-investissement.com
• www.placementcrypto.com
• www.primecryptobank.com
• www.truetrade-capital.com
• www.vechain-wallet.com
• www.wallet-coins.com

The list provided by the authority includes companies that offer financial services in or from Belgium that do not comply with existing legislation and companies exhibiting serious evidence of investment fraud.

The list itself is accompanied by a further warning to potential cryptocurrency investors. It states that the names included are by no means the only companies in the space operating illegally. They are simply the ones that have been brought to the regulator’s attention.

The FSMA goes on to encourage those with doubts about the legitimacy of a platform to contact them about their concerns.

Along with the updates to the list, the FSMA issued a new statement to the one presented by the regulators in February. The warning reads:

“Cryptocurrencies are the hype of the year. Fraudsters are well aware of that, and try to attract customers online through fake cryptocurrencies and huge profits. The only thing they actually do, however, is take the customers’ money and disappear. It is as simple as that.”

The previous statement from the regulatory body includes a similar warning to that published today, as well as an extensive testimonial from someone affected by the shady operations of a fraudulent cryptocurrency company.

Similar warnings have now been issued by several financial regulators around the world. Amongst these, Chinese, British, and French regulators have been keen to encourage caution when considering the claims of fintech startups attempting to lure naive investors to part with their cash by fraudulent means.

Elsewhere, financial regulators in both the U.S. and Switzerland have started coming down hard on companies trying to exploit the buzz around the digital currency space.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post Belgian Financial Regulator FSMA Repeats Warning Against Crypto Trading Platforms appeared first on NewsBTC.

Despite previously telling the SEC it would not accept cryptocurrencies, High Times is accepting both bitcoin and ethereum for its IPO.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post and I wanted to come back by talking about some of the things I learned when I embarked on the mission of mining cryptocurrencies using GPUs.

I’ve been involved with cryptocurrency since 2014 and have seen the change in trends over the years. The first article written on this site is titled “Most profitable way to mine with your GPUs“, it was written back in April of 2014 when all the hype was about purchasing GPUs, setting up mining rigs, and mining obscure altcoins with mining algorithms for which no ASICs existed.

In a way, the trend of mining with GPUs has never really died, but it reached a point where there were so many different cryptocurrencies to mine that finding the right coin to mine was like finding a needle in a haystack.

I remember checking CoinWarz obsessively, trying to figure out the next best coin to mine. While I was able to turn a profit, the time it took to constantly fix crashed rigs, change mining pools, research what altcoins to mine, and change the miners themselves turned to be a big hassle I didn’t want to spend my time on.

Furthermore, because I had so many mining rigs (I believe it was 9 R9 290s), I had to run extension cables from different rooms of my house (which had their own circuits) and wire all the electricity to a single room. Those cables ended up getting extremely hot and I didn’t want to risk a fire.

In the end, I decided it wasn’t worth the risk for such an unpredictable income. Most of my profit went to paying the electricity bill which was in the thousands every month. The lesson is, if you decide to run a mining operation don’t run it out of the place you live in, instead rent out a warehouse.

I moved onto a better alternative – cloud mining. If you are thinking of cloud mining sites like Josh Garza’s GAW Miners (which turned into a big scam) where you simply buy a contract and let the cloud mining company do all the work then you are wrong.

The cloud mining sites I used were more like miningrigrentals or nicehash, where you rent a mining rig with your specifications for a certain amount of time and get to point it to a mining pool of your choice.

This way you still get to technically mine with GPUs, but you don’t have to worry about rig maintenance, electricity bills, or risk burning your house down. You also don’t have the overhead of purchasing all the components and messing with the set up of the rigs – which is way more trouble than you think.

This new method of mining turned to be much more profitable as my strategy was to keep a close eye on bitcointalk’s altcoin announcement section. When a new coin would come out I would rent some rigs from the above mentioned sites and mine as much of the new coin as possible. When the coin inevitably ended up on an exchange I would wait for the right time and sell the bag, turning a profit.

If you are looking to get into cryptocurrency mining I suggest the method I described above. If your methods prove to be profitable, only then should you try and purchase your own mining rigs. I will leave you with these two youtube videos I made 4 years ago when I first got into mining.

If you have been buying or selling on Amazon, then you are probably aware that for a long time, the world’s number one online retailer has maintained a strong stance on the use of cryptocurrencies on its platform. This is, however, likely to change soon after Mark E., an avid user at Change.org started a campaign recently to advocate for the use of Dogecoin on the platform. According to Mark, it is against the will of many people if Jeff Bezos continues to show a ‘stiff neck’ on the usage of Dogecoin on Amazon.

When Mark E. started the campaign a few weeks ago, many people dismissed him. To their surprise, the campaign has been able to gather over 11,000 signatures so far, with most of the petitioners being Amazon users.

11,000 Strong

The Mark-led campaign has spread rapidly and at press time, it had gathered 11,079 petitioners. In an official statement to Amazon’s CEO, Mark said that it is time the e-commerce website accepted the cryptocurrency.

Amazon.com is the leader in innovation. It should also show leadership in accepting Dogecoin. We are not asking this without reason. Dogecoin is not only a fast means of payment but also cheap and stable.

The self-proclaimed ‘leader in innovation’ also added that the digital currency has a huge supply when compared to other digital currencies and that it’s huge and active community means the development of the network is always ongoing.

Those who support the move say that if Amazon accepts Dogecoin as one of its payment methods, it will not only help the unbanked users who trade on the platform but also contribute to Amazon’s profitability as the number of transactions will rise.  The letter indicated that many small startups, established middle-level companies, charity organizations, several enterprises and individual entrepreneurs have already accepted the use of Dogecoin and that it was time for Amazon “to be one of the first major companies to see the power of Dogecoin and to accept it as a payment method.”

The number of signatures collected has already surpassed the projection. When it started, the campaign sought to collect some 2,700 signatures, perhaps led by the knowledge that even the previous petition to have Google Play accept the digital currency only collected 1,463 signatures.

The campaign comes at a time when the price of Dogecoin has witnessed a sharp price fluctuation over the past one week at the back of news that Dogecoin developers had successfully created Dogethereum, a smart contract that would act as a bridge between the Doge and Ethereum networks. The expected excitement at the news pushed the price up by 50 percent in just a few hours on September 1. The market has since then corrected, with the price dropping over 20 percent as the excitement cooled down. Dogecoin, the 22nd largest crypto in the market, is currently trading at $0.0052.

This is not the first time cryptocurrency enthusiasts are pushing for the e-commerce site to accept the use of digital coins. Bitcoin users have more than once tried to push Amazon to accept it as a means of payment.  Efforts to see that happen have, however, not yielded anything. Critics have it that Jeff is hesitant to accept any digital currency payments until the company launches its own native cryptocurrency.

It should be remembered that in November 2017, Amazon purchased three crypto-related domain names that fueled speculation of an impending integration of bitcoin or ether as a payment method. Although it’s almost a year since Amazon purchased them, there hasn’t been any official communication from the company on the matter. Cybersecurity analysts argue that it might have been merely a way to stop criminals from creating domains which carry the name of the e-commerce giant to phish clients.

A new report prepared for European Union finance ministers has found that the government’s regulatory authorities should introduce common rules regarding crypto regulations, including how they are bought, sold, and traded.

The report comes just a couple days before the EU members finance ministers meet in Vienna to discuss cryptocurrency regulatory frameworks.

The report, which was prepared by Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank, argues that the EU ought to develop clearer rules regarding cryptocurrencies and Initial coin oOfferings (ICOs) in order to better control investor risks and incubate growth for the industry.

Document Comes Days Before EU Meeting Regarding Cryptocurrency Regulations

The new document, which was exclusively seen by Reuters, will be presented to regulatory authorities this Friday and Saturday during the Vienna meeting. The meeting’s sole goal is to better develop a cohesive regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, which are thriving in Europe.

Although it is unclear how harsh the regulatory measures taken by the EU finance members will be, many European regulators have taken a positive stance towards cryptocurrencies. In a meeting note obtained by Bloomberg, regulators notably mentioned that they see ICOs as an “efficient way to raise capital” and that they must consider how cryptocurrencies can affect, and even modernize, the current economic system.

European companies have been taking unprecedented steps to research the effectiveness of ICOs as a means of fundraising, which was likely one of the catalysts that sparked the meeting. Currently, 30% of the projects funded through an ICO are based in Europe, making it one of the largest geographic markets for ICOs.

In their report, Bruegel recommends looking at regulating cryptocurrency exchanges rather than cryptos themselves, mainly due to the virtual and decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies, which makes them incredibly difficult to regulate.

Other countries are notably taking similar actions to regulate the instruments for buying, selling, and trading cryptocurrencies. The Japanese regulatory authority, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), has been taking measures to hold cryptocurrency exchanges to higher standards. It is doing so by developing operational licenses and conducting regular exchange inspections.

The increase in regulations by multiple countries is inspiring many crypto exchanges to relocate their headquarters to locations with lax regulations. Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, made the move to Malta earlier this summer, mainly due to the crypto-friendly environment fostered by the Maltese government.

As reported by Reuters, Bruegel discusses exchanges moving to regulatory friendly countries like Malta, saying:

“…the report also said exchanges seeking jurisdictions with lighter regulation might need to be tolerated for some time ‘to experiment and learn about the best approaches to this fast-developing technology.’”

Bitcoin’s price dropped 5% to just over $7,000 from its 24-hour highs of nearly $7,400 earlier today, but it is unclear if the price action is in any way related to the potential increase in regulations by the European Union.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post Report: EU Finance Ministers Should Introduce Common Crypto Regulations appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin Gold’s road has been rocky from the very start — here’s a brief history of its struggles

The European Parliament in Brussels has taken a further step towards clarifying rules for ICOs within the nations of the European Community.

The all-party group met yesterday to examine proposals for the launching of ICOs although as yet no formal statements of intent have been made regarding the outcome of the meeting. Nicolas Brien of France Digitale did urge for haste, however, arguing that “the market wants legitimization… from every jurisdiction. In the UK it’s particularly bad, none of the banks will bank you if you have crypto”.

Two weeks ago, the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) published a draft report that offers insights into new regulatory frameworks for crowdfunding. ICOs received a notable mention in the report stating, “It takes a much-needed step towards imposing standards and protections in place for what is an excellent funding stream for tech start.”

Brien went on to explain:

“Having the certainty, but also having that legitimization, I actually welcome having a European-wide proposal because it gives people the certainty to know. I think we need to be clear whether this is a utility token or a transferable security, or how the regulator regime looks at that, but I think this can be done because an ICO is another form of crowdfunding. It’s different, but it is a form of crowdfunding.”

As is so often the case at such meeting many regulators got on to discussing the need to prevent potential fraud and scams requiring a higher level of scrutiny than is currently the case. Laura Royle of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) echoed those thoughts at the meeting commenting:

“…we certainly do see a huge potential benefit in this space for firms to raise capital from a broad array of investors and without the cost of an intermediary, but there are risks associated [such as] the potential for fraud, with a lack of transparency and the volatility.”

There are current EU estimates that as many as 81% of ICOs could result in fraud. However, if new regulations result in a higher standard than is currently evident, then this may set the example for productive projects in the future within the EU. How this will apply to ICOs within the UK is still uncertain, given the country’s departure from the EU in March of 2019.

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The post New EU ICO Rules May Fall Under Crowdfunding Umbrella appeared first on BitcoinNews.com.