Darryn Pollock

Rakuten releases mobile app for trading Bitcoin and other coins

Rakuten Wallet, a subsidiary of Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten, is set to release a mobile app offering the ability to buy and trade three cryptocurrencies. The wallet will be made available for customers who already bank with Rakuten’s online bank via an app that will first be available on Android, with an iOS app due later. Rakuten has been hinting at an entry into crypto for a while. In August last year, it acquired crypto exchange “Everybody’s Bitcoin”, and earlier this year it announc

Number of publishers on Brave increased 1,200% since mid-2018

Privacy-focused web browser Brave has seen a 1,200 percent increase in verified publishers using its Brave Rewards program since July last year. This includes sites like the Washington Post, LadBible and, of course, Decrypt. This shows that adoption of the Brave browser, which includes native cryptocurrency support, is on the rise. The privacy-focused web browser—that blocks ads by default—allows for its users to earn BAT tokens if they choose to accept ads that are provided by Brave. These toke

Blockstream makes its Bitcoin mining operations public

Blockstream, the Canadian blockchain services company well known for its work on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, yesterday announced details of its Bitcoin mining operations, opening the doors to more institutional and enterprise customers. It revealed it had been mining on behalf of major investment company Fidelity and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. It has also created a mining pool called Blockstream Pool, to offer smaller miners the chance to tap into its vast resources. The two offerings

Hacker dumps more KYC data, piling pressure on Binance

The hacker that claims to have stolen thousands of KYC documents from Binance has released more photos in a new telegram group set up today. This puts more pressure on the exchange, which has tried to distance itself from the issue, to do something about it or admit that it was at fault. The latest documents were posted in a telegram group this morning, UTC time, advertised via the hacker’s twitter account. They feature KYC documents, including driving licences, passports and even fingerprints.

Coinbase escapes lawsuit over insider trading allegations

A U.S. District Court Judge has ruled that exchange Coinbase did not act fraudulently when it launched controversial Bitcoin fork, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), onto its platform in December 2017. While the exchange initially investigated itself and—unsurprisingly—found no wrongdoing, this was not enough to satisfy angry traders. The class action lawsuit was brought by Jeffrey Berk in December, 2017, accusing Coinbase of insider trading when it suddenly launched Bitcoin Cash on its platform just a few mon

Bitcoin's uncertain status as a safe haven investment

Bitcoin is a leading global hedge at a time when the US-China trade war is heating up, according to a new report from crypto insights and analysis company SFOX. San Francisco-based SOFOX analyzed price, volume, and volatility data from eight major exchanges and liquidity providers, to reach its conclusions about the state of Bitcoin. Its biggest takeaway: people are investing in it to hedge against global financial uncertainty. However, SFOX’s conclusion are partly based on claims that the S&P 5

Chinese police investigate alleged $176,000 EtherDelta exit scam

Non-custodial exchange EtherDelta has been reported to police for allegedly conducting an exit scam, according to Dovey Wan, a partner at cryptocurrency investment fund Primitive Ventures. The dispute involves the sale of Ethereum-based tokens native to the exchange, called EtherDelta Tokens (EDT). According to data from ICO-check, sales of the EDT token ICO raised $176,000. The Chinese investors have now been named after police obtained the stock ownership agreement between Coburn and the buyer

Bitcoin breaks $12,000 as it looks to capture the entire market

After more than ten days of steady growth, the price of bitcoin has managed to reclaim the $12,000 mark. At time of publishing, the coin was sitting at $12,259, up four percent for the day and an astonishing 25 percent for the week. Bitcoin’s market dominance is also on the rise, currently at 68.6 percent—a level not seen since April 2017. This dominance is reflected in the cryptocurrency market charts with Bitcoin showing the most significant 24 hour price gains across the top 20 coins. Bitcoin

Report: BitMEX traders flee as exchange sheds $524m in July

A new report from blockchain intelligence resource Token Analyst claims that many traders decided to ditch derivative trading platform BitMEX in July, taking with them funds worth half a billion dollars. In the same month, rumors that BitMEX may be under pressure from regulators began circulating after a Bloomberg report claimed the exchange was being probed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC.) It’s alleged that U.S. citizens were allowed to trade on the platform despite bein

Iran's new crypto bill legalizes mining at a cost to miners’ profit margins

On Sunday, Iran enacted legislation that officially recognizes cryptocurrency mining as an industry. It’s an attempt to create jobs and attract foreign investment. However, the long-awaited legal certainty comes with additional costs for miners. The government is hoping that regulating the industry will lead to the creation of large mining farms, which will become productive industrial units. But for this vision to come to fruition, taxes and other costs are being put in place. For starters, min

Private transactions are coming to Litecoin but need extra funding

The Litecoin foundation is looking to step up development of private transactions on the Litecoin network. To do so, it has posted a Litecoin wallet address for donations specifically to this cause. So far, the address has received 2.5 litecoin, worth $240. Normal cryptocurrency transactions involve making the transaction data publicly available. This has the downside that blockchain analytics providers can build up profiles of who is sending how much money to whom. Currently, crypto transaction

Square's Cash App makes $125 million by selling bitcoin

Payments company Square released its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, revealing its crypto-friendly Cash App made $125 million in revenue from bitcoin this quarter. This is nearly twice as much as it made in the preceding quarter. The higher revenue led to a $2 million gross profit purely from bitcoin alone. In the earnings report, the explanation for this massive leap in sales is put down to increased trading volume in bitcoin, largely due to the recent pump in price. Square's bitcoin sales

Bitmain made losses of $310 million in Q1 this year

Bitmain, the largest bitcoin mining company, reportedly made a loss of $310 million in the first quarter of this year. According to a report on Tencent’s QQ, the mining giant made stunning losses of $625 in the first two months of this year, which were mitigated by a $315 million profit in March. The bad performance was caused by a lack of demand for its 16nm range of mining machines, which were then sold at lower prices. Bitmain has long been the market leader in the production and design of AS

MoneyGram goes live with xRapid, using XRP

MoneyGram, the second-largest money transfer company in the world, has revealed it has already started using Ripple’s XRP-powered cross-border payment platform, xRapid. This comes just weeks after MoneyGram announced it would be using the platform and received an initial $30 million investment from Ripple. MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes said, on its quarterly earnings call, that MoneyGram had been making transactions on the xRapid platform as of last week. He added that it has shown a number of benef

You can now tip BAT on Twitter within the Brave browser

Twitter users are now able to tip with the Basic Attention Token (BAT) as long as they use the Brave browser. The recent move could put more pressure on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey—a vocal Bitcoin fan— to introduce native cryptocurrency tipping for all users. Brave is a privacy-preserving web browser that, in default mode, blocks ads and doesn’t collect user information. It also allows users to choose to receive ads and get paid for viewing them. The browser, which has been downloaded six million ti

Bitcoin leads the market as price rises above $10,500

Bitcoin has seen significant gains in price this week that have not only pushed its value above $10,000 but onwards to $10,500. This represents a five and a half percent increase over the last 24 hours. Last Saturday, the price of bitcoin fell below the important $10,000 mark, plunging $500 in 30 minutes before dropping further to a $9,300 weekly low on Sunday. Through the week, however, there has been some bullish momentum which culminated in a $1,200 gain in the last five days. This price gain

Only 15% of Bitcoin's total supply is left to mine

Bitcoin's inflation rate is slowly drawing to a close. Some 85 percent of the 21 million bitcoins that are programmed to come into existence have been mined, leaving just 3.15 million coins left. But while the majority of the supply has been unlocked, the remaining 15 percent will slowly come into being over the next 100 years. New bitcoin is minted every time a new block is created on the network, roughly every 10 minutes, increasing its supply over time. At present, 12.5 bitcoins are produced

China ranks Ethereum, EOS and Tron way above Bitcoin

China’s Center for Information and Industry Development (CCID) has published its latest cryptocurrency rankings. Top of the list? EOS, which takes the top spot for the second time. Ethereum came in a close second and Tron—despite its recent woes and controversies—was right behind in third place. But where was Bitcoin, the number one ranked cryptocurrency by market cap? It didn't even break the top ten. According to the ratings, Bitcoin came in at 11th place, with 103 points–by comparison, EOS sc

Everything you need to know about the Litecoin halvening

The Litecoin halvening is nearly upon us. On August 5, the supply of coins for mining rewards will be cut in half. Will it lead to a boom in Litecoin’s price? Probably not. Here’s everything you need to know. When block 1,680,000 is reached—predicted to be on August 5—the mining reward will drop from 25 coins to 12.5 per block. The number of blocks being produced however, will remain the same: Two every five minutes. This will mean fewer Litecoins will be created, lowering the rate of inflation

Bitcoin wallet Blockchain.com creates its own crypto exchange

Blockchain.com, a popular cryptocurrency wallet, has now branched out into offering an exchange service called PIT that it claims is the fastest in the world. The PIT is an institutional-grade cryptocurrency trading platform that will also cater to the retail market. The exchange will, initially, be open to more than 200 countries and offer 26 trading pairs, including the U.S. Dollar, the Euro, and the British Pound. The PIT’s most significant selling point is its speed. The exchange boasts that

Coin Prices

Stories by Darryn Pollock