John Belding

Crypto innovation stymied by "parade of enforcement actions,” says SEC’s Peirce

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce is once again raking her own agency over the coals over the way it has handled its approach to the cryptocurrency industry. Peirce, affectionately known as “Crypto Mom” to her crypto children, told an audience at the Institute on Securities Regulation in New York last week that she remains concerned about how the SEC has regulated crypto. “I believe our lack of a workable regulatory framework has hindered innovation and growth,” she said. SEC’s Peirce calls for “sa

Ripio bought the brazilian exchange Bitcoin Trade. Image: Unsplash

Bitfinex brings back referral program, offers “unlimited commission”

Bitfinex’s referral program is back, after an almost two-year hiatus. The cryptocurrency exchange today announced the launch of the “Bitfinex Affiliate Program,” which they say will allow users to invite their social networks to the platform and earn “unlimited commission.” Although Bitfinex never made a formal announcement, it was reported by users that the exchange ended a previous referral program when they closed new account registrations in late 2017. The closing of new registrations, Bitf

SEC’s Hester Peirce is worried about your privacy

It was perhaps the most weighty piece of writing to come out of the SEC last week that had nothing to do with a Bitcoin ETF or another enforcement action against a billion-dollar ICO. Last week, Commissioner Hester Peirce took her own agency to task over a new and little-known SEC initiative, called Rule 613, that Peirce says amounts to a “massive government surveillance program.” And while the future implications of this program for the cryptocurrency industry are yet undetermined, Peirce told

Bitfinex, EOS block producers partner with blockchain gaming startup Ultra

Ultra.io, a blockchain-based games distribution startup, today announced partnerships with its first three block producers: cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, EOS block producers EOS Rio and EOS New York. The Ultra blockchain, which is based on EOS, will use Dan Larimer’s delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm. The much-ballyhooed DPoS scheme has been at the center of plenty of debate. In the case of EOS, the network underwent a controversial constitution change earlier this year, an

The Fusion Network: Hacked?

The Fusion Network, a blockchain-based financial platform that makes it easy to swap stablecoins, among other things, appears to have been hacked earlier today. At 6:34pm EST Saturday, Fusion Foundation CEO DJ Qian announced in the official FSN Telegram group that the token-swap wallet, an Ethereum address used to swap ERC-20 FSN tokens for tokens on the FSN mainnet, had been compromised. Qian said 10m native FSN and 3.5m ERC-20 FSN were stolen—a combined 38% of circulating supply according to C

Quantum materials company takes on counterfeiting with blockchain

Maybe quantum technology and blockchain can co-exist after all. Earlier this week, U.S.-based nanomaterials company Quantum Materials Corp (QMC) announced an anti-counterfeiting solution that integrates nanotechnology with blockchain to address what the company says is a $1.8 trillion global counterfeit goods market. QMC said their solution embeds quantum dots, semiconductor particles just 10 to 100 atoms in size, into auto parts, apparel, bank notes, and just about any other physical product, e

Kim Jong-un has been Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2012. (Image: Korea.net)

US sanctions N. Korea for crypto hacks

The Trump administration announced sanctions against three North Korean hacking groups, dubbed “Lazarus Group,” “Bluenoroff,” and ”Andarie,” which they allege are controlled by the North Korean government and responsible for a litany of malicious cyber attacks in recent years. According to the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, one of the groups, Bluenoroff, has successfully tapped cryptocurrency exchanges for more than $500 million in crypto over the last two years. But that’s act

Report: Crypto QR code hacking on the rise

So just how common is QR code hacking in crypto? A recent report says it’s happening a lot more than people think. Researchers from crypto wallet provider ZenGo recently began looking into QR code integration and came across reports of sites using that method to scam users out of bitcoin, according to the report. As they began investigating, they discovered these incidents weren’t isolated, but part of a widespread fraud designed to direct transfers not to user’s wallets, but to the hackers' own

Coinbase invests $2 million in DeFi protocols Compound and dYdX

Crypto exchange Coinbase announced today a new fund aimed at encouraging the development of decentralized finance, or “DeFi” protocols. The exchange revealed that it has invested in two DeFi protocols: “Compound,” a protocol for lending and borrowing money and “dYdX,” a protocol for margin trading. Coinbase’s new initiative dubbed the “USDC Bootstrap Fund,” will invest in DeFi-related projects, by stumping up chunks of its stablecoin USD Coin (USDC). It will also help the project’s teams to asse

Crypto exchange Gemini launches institutional-grade custody solution

Crypto exchange Gemini—owned by the Winklevoss twins—has today created an insured custody service for 18 cryptocurrencies. The offering will expand on the five cryptocurrencies already listed on the exchange, adding a variety of Ethereum-based tokens. These will include Gemini’s own stablecoin GUSD, Augur’s utility token REP, and Kyber Network’s KNC. The custody service will allow Gemini exchange users—particularly institutions—to store large amounts of their coins at the exchange. These will be

Crypto gold rush: Paxos launches gold-backed stablecoin

Stablecoin issuer Paxos—whose PAX token trails only Tether and USD Coin in market cap—today announced the launch of a regulated gold stablecoin, called PAX Gold (PAXG). The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has approved the Ethereum-based token, according to a press release, which Paxos claims makes it the “first regulated digital gold product.” Each PAX Gold token will be physically backed by one fine troy ounce (weighing at 31 grams) of gold that meets the London Good Del

Van Eck’s Bitcoin ETF shares to be sold to institutional investors this week

Investment firms Van Eck and SolidX, two firms behind a Bitcoin ETF proposal currently before the SEC, have given up waiting on the SEC to authorize their Bitcoin ETF, and are now moving ahead with an alternate solution. Van Eck and SolidX will begin selling shares in a limited version of a Bitcoin ETF, available only to “qualified institutional investors” on Thursday, reports The Wall Street Journal. The firms reportedly will use a workaround found in a subsection of the 1933 Securities Act aff

Bitcoin bank accounts now available to European citizens

Berlin-based crypto banking startup Bitwala has announced the launch of their bitcoin banking app for iOS and Android. Customers in all 31 countries of the European Economic Area can now open a German bank account, with integrated bitcoin wallet and trading, within minutes, said the company in a statement. Benjamin Jones, co-founder, and chief technical officer of Bitwala, said in the statement that “Onboarding is now directly integrated into the app. Once you have an account, you can seamlessly

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Stories by John Belding