On Friday, Sept. 7, the Ripple price (XRP) is recovering, although the intraday outlook is still mixed. Ripple is trading around 0.2905. Fundamentals XRP news are mostly neutral. This week, TransferGo launched a payment channel to India based on XRP technology, which will enable real time transactions. The channel is going to be available across Europe and, going forward, will enable avoiding most current payment methods where transactions take around two or three days. It is yet unknown which XRP product TransferGo is using, but the reason for basing the transactions on XRP is quite clear: this token is very widespread in India and opens the door to unlimited opportunities there. Another payment service being launched by TransferGo is also based on XRP. Although it is a bit slower, it is going to be completely free of charge. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said this week that there was no point in replacing fiat currencies with cryptos. Regular money does its job quite alright, he added. In order to contest this point the speed and usability digital money must get much more effective, and while cryptocurrency can function well for overseas transactions, it is still not that useful for everyday payments. Continue reading: https://www.ccn.com/ripple-price-xrp-faces-tough-battle-against-selloff/ |
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Fool’s Gold? Bitcoin Fork Faces Cryptocurrency Exchange Delisting after 51% Attack  Three months after Bitcoin Gold fell prey to a high-profile 51 percent attack, one of the cryptocurrency exchanges affected by that exploit is threatening to delist BTG unless the coin’s developers help cover its losses. Last week, the Bitcoin Gold organization announced on its official website that Bittrex, a top-30 cryptocurrency exchange by volume and one of the few to offer USD trading pairs, has informed the project that it will delist BTG since the former has refused to reimburse the 12,372 BTG that the hackers stole from the company’s hot wallet. As CCN reported at the time, the attackers managed to steal an estimated $18 million worth of BTG from multiple cryptocurrency exchanges by using rented mining rigs to accumulate a majority of the Bitcoin Gold network’s hashpower. This allowed them to execute a double spend attack, through which they rewrote recent blockchain data to reverse payments and steal funds from exchanges. Bitcoin Gold, which has since upgraded the BTG protocol to a new hashing algorithm in response to the incident, claims that it is not responsible for the losses incurred by Bittrex. The organization wrote: “Despite all of our efforts, Bittrex was the victim of the last and largest BTG double-spend the attackers performed. The attackers deposited 12,371 BTG from the wallet we previously identified. Several hours later, Bittrex allowed them to trade that BTG and withdraw some amount of other coins, and then the attackers used the 51% attack to double-spend those BTG, invalidating their original deposit. (We do not know the net value of Bittrex’s loss since they have not disclosed the value of the coins they allowed to be withdrawn.)” Continue reading: https://www.ccn.com/fools-gold-bitcoin-fork-faces-cryptocurrency-exchange-delisting-after-51-attack/ |
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 Cryptocurrency exchange startup Quione has launched a new trading platform that it says will bring much needed liquidity to the crypto markets. Called Liquid, the new service is a cryptocurrency trading "portal" that provides users with access to what it claims in a press release is "a worldwide network of cryptocurrency exchanges." With a lack of liquidity having "hampered the development of the cryptocurrency markets," Liquid argued that its new product could help usher in greater stability. From launch, Liquid will allow users to match trades across "multiple transactions and cryptocurrencies" – that is, make cross cryptocurrency conversions, as well as convert from the Singapore dollar (SGD). The firm says, as an example, orders of BTC/SGD, ETH/SGD and BTC/ETH could be matched together. Later on, the firm plans to expand that offering with what it is calling a "World Book" technology. This aggregates orders and prices on different exchanges into a single order book and allows orders to be placed in the currency of choice, Quoine said. According to an example of the system in the Liquid white paper, a German trader who wants to sell bitcoin can opt to view the World Book for bitcoin (BTC) in euros (EUR). When an order is placed, they will see their order enter the BTC/EUR market, with the order's price also being reflected in their orderbook in EUR. If the trader's order to, say, sell BTC/EUR is matched with an order to buy BTC/SGD, "an FX conversion happens behind the scenes." After the trade, both parties receive their funds in their chosen order currencies. Mike Kayamori, co-founder and CEO of Quoine, said in the release: "Cryptocurrency markets need stability. This year, the 30 day BTC/USD volatility [2] index has been above 3 percent for almost the entire year, with highs topping 8 percent at the start of the year. Liquid is paving the way to a less volatile future by improving liquidity within the cryptocurrency ecosystem." Quoine operates cryptocurrency exchange businesses, and was licensed by Japan's financial watchdog, the Financial Service Authority, for its operations in the country back in September 2017. Two months later, Quoine raised $105 million in a sale of its QASH token that it said would fund Liquid's development. The utility token will now be used to power the platform, allowing users to access to services. In the press release, the firm further listed a number of features that it plans to add in the future including verification that allows withdrawals "under certain limits" to be made without having to undergo a know-your-customer process. A credit card funding option and mobile apps for iOS and Android are also in the works. Source: https://www.coindesk.com/quione-looks-to-boost-crypto-liquidity-with-new-trading-platform/ |
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 For bitcoin, the path of least resistance is to the downside. At press time, the leading cryptocurrency is trading at $6,340 on Bifinex – down 3 percent from the high of $6,550 hit earlier today. The bulk of that loss came amid a dramatic drop over almost $100 in an hour soon before press time. The minor recovery from the previous day's low of $6,300 was likely a product of oversold conditions reported by the short duration relative strength index (RSI) yesterday. More importantly, the fact that the gains were erased so quickly indicates that bearish sentiment is still quite strong and the minor pop has likely recharged engines for further sell-off. After a period of strengthening bull indicators over the last three weeks, the technical charts have now shifted toward the bears. As a result, a drop to $6,000 (February low) cannot be ruled out Source: https://www.coindesk.com/6k-ahead-bitcoin-price-drops-after-brief-recovery/ |
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 Mobile investment app Robinhood, which launched a zero-commission cryptocurrency trading service early this year, is now searching for a chief financial officer as it prepares for an initial public offering (IPO). Speaking at a TechCrunch event on Thursday, Robinhood CEO Baiju Bhatt revealed that the firm is "actively looking for a CFO right now" as he confirmed going public is "definitely" in the company's plan in the medium- to long-term. He added: "Being a public company I think aligns very closely with our mission as well. And it's definitely on the horizon, not in the immediate term, but that's something we are thinking about." Further, Bhatt said as a financial service company, its security measures and financial performances are being audited by financial regulators in the U.S. such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The news follows Robinhood's announcement in May that it raised $363 million in a Series D round funding led by DST Global and Sequoia Capital, which valued the firm at $5.6 billion. Bhatt said at the time that with the new capital, the firm aimed to "become either the largest or one of the largest crypto platforms out there" by end of 2018. As CoinDesk previously reported, the zero-fee stock trading startup launched Robinhood Crypto in February aimed to allow users in the U.S. to buy and sell cryptocurrencies at lower costs. Currently, it offers trading options for bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, ethereum classic, litecoin, and dogecoin in 17 states in the U.S. and claims to have over 5 million users on the platform. Source: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-and-stock-trading-startup-robinhood-is-eyeing-an-ipo/ |
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 A luxury car retailer based in Houston, Texas, has become the first Bentley, Bugatti and Rolls-Royce (but not Lamborghini) dealership in the United States to adopt cryptocurrency as means of payment. Post Oak Motor Cars, which is owned by Houston Rockets billionaire, Tilman Fertitta, will now accept bitcoin and bitcoin cash thereby breaking new ground in a segment that caters to athletes, celebrities and other elite clients. According to Fertitta, the decision to accept crypto is aimed at enhancing the experiences of customers. “The rising of bitcoin sparked my interest. Being a premier luxury car dealer, I always want to offer my customers the very best buying experience and this partnership will allow anyone around the world to purchase our vehicles faster and easier,” Fertitta, said in a statement. Partnering With Payments Processor Bitcoin payments at Post Oak Motor Cars will be processed by Bitpay, whose chief commercial officer, Sonny Singh, has said most buyers prefer making big purchases using the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization because it is convenient. Fertitta, who acquired the NBA team Houston Rockets last year at a price of US$2.2 billion, has been a vocal proponent of bitcoin. At the beginning of the year, for instance, the billionaire who also hosts the Billion Dollar Buyer reality television show on CNBC declared that bitcoin would become a permanent feature as he predicted that his businesses spread across various sectors would start accepting cryptocurrencies as means of payment. Reference: https://www.ccn.com/houston-rockets-billionaire-owner-accepts-bitcoin-at-luxury-car-dealership/ |
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Ethereum’s price fell to a 12-month low of $228.8 today, falling below the $255.05 of Sept. 17, 2017, fulfilling expectations of those who have predicted a weakening of support that ICOs have bestowed on the second largest cryptocurrency since early last year. Ethereum’s price has been on a roller coaster since it began climbing above the $20 range in March of 2017. The price reached $1,377.72 on Jan. 13, 2018, according to Coinmarketcap.com, riding the cryptocurrency market growth at the time. Some analysts credited a surge to ICOs on the Ethereum blockchain. After January, the price fell, hitting $386.59 on April 7, 2018, then rose to $830.02 on May 5 before falling to its current low. The price began the current year in the upper $200 range, reaching $283.29 on Sept. 10, 2017. Arthur Hayes, CEO of BitMEX, postulated in mid-August that Ethereum’s price was being supported by the ICOs that occurred starting in early 2017. Hayes said the ICO investments come from VCs that will dump their Ether in response to the bear market. He predicted Ethereum will fall below $100. reference: https://www.ccn.com/ethereum-price-falls-to-12-month-low-as-altcoins-suffer/ |
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 Often lauded as a bastion of anonymity, financial independence and personal security, ShapeShift exchange has made a controversial move in the eyes of some users by introducing KYC (know your customer) guidelines which will require their users to register their real identities to use the service. CEO Eric Vorhees published an announcement which was posted on Twitter describing ShapeShift membership as a loyalty program offering rewards such as discounts and higher transaction limits to users completing KYC. 📰🦊ShapeShift has big news for our users! We are now offering a new membership program, that will provide users with more benefits & a better user experience. Find out why we are making these changes from our CEO @ErikVoorhees: https://t.co/LnOoyLbIMU pic.twitter.com/PiTk26xVkA — ShapeShift.io (@ShapeShift_io) September 4, 2018 Vorhees wrote: “Membership requires basic personal information to be collected. Today, Membership is optional, but it will become mandatory soon. Yes, that last detail sucks. We would prefer if the collection of personal information was not a mandatory element. We still firmly believe that individuals, regardless of their race, religion, or nationality, deserve the right to financial privacy, just as they deserve the right to privacy in their thoughts, in their relationships, and in their communications.” Vorhees states in the post that there are three reasons for the decision – an increase in users asking for account-based features, the relationship between tokenisation and accounts, and of course, regulation. “The practice of requiring customers to hand over personal private information is one we’ve struggled with since inception,” he said. “To the extent that digital asset technology remains a legal grey area, we need to be prudent and thoughtful in our approach as we navigate the regulatory environment.” The move has unfortunately been met with immediate criticism throughout the space, with prominent figure Andreas Antonopoulos voicing his disapproval: Very disappointed that @ShapeShift_io is implementing KYC. Just goes to show that any centralized entity will be pushed in that direction, which is why LN, atomic swaps and Decentralized Exchanges are the only way to resist surveillance economics. — Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) September 5, 2018 Securities and defense litigation lawyer Jake Chervinsky posted an entire thread on Twitter discussing the matter, stating that regulators were silently invading crypto: 0/ A few thoughts on @ShapeShift_io's decision to start collecting users' personal information through a mandatory membership program. In short, this is how regulators silently invade crypto. Thread. https://t.co/ygiGzraE8q — Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) September 5, 2018 Chervinsky stated that ShapeShift has historically enabled users to trade with total anonymity, referring to CEO Eric Vorhees as “a true bitcoiner who speaks passionately about financial privacy & separating money from state.” The lawyer went on to point out that the US government wouldn’t stand for that separation, calling the concept of anonymous crypto exchanges a “genuine nightmare” for regulators relying on financial surveillance. Chervinsky believes that FinCen, a bureau of the US Treasury Department, has threatened ShapeShift with enforcement action. In 2013, FinCEN issued guidance saying that all the regulations governing money services businesses apply in full to crypto companies, and offered an insight into the shadowy world of forced regulation. “Unfortunately, this is how regulation often gets done here in DC. Regulators accuse a company of violations based on a weak-but-plausible theory that might fail in court, but would be too expensive/risky/damaging for the company to fight in public, so the company cooperates.” Users on Reddit didn’t take the news any better than those on Twitter, with comments such as “Shapeshift is dead to me,” “Shapeshift has lost its moral compass,” “So sad. Time to move on,” and “Goodbye forever!” Shapeshift responded to one commenter asking if ShapeShift thought the users were stupid, referring them to a recent tweet by Eric Vorhees which simply said: What I write is being watched very closely. Please give us time. — Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees) September 4, 2018 Source: https://www.ccn.com/crypto-exchange-shapeshift-sees-criticism-for-mandating-memberships-with-kyc-norms/ |
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 Regular bank ATMs have long been a target for criminals but now bad actors are turning their sights on Bitcoin ATMs as cryptocurrencies gain acceptance. According to Trend Micro security researchers, a malware targeting Bitcoin ATMs has been discovered in the underground markets. The Bitcoin ATM malware which is being sold at a price of US$25,000 takes advantage of a service vulnerability that allows users to purchase bitcoin worth 6,750 in either US dollars, British pounds or euros. The cryptocurrency purchases are done using Near-Field Communication (NFC) or the Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) pre-written cards which are provided to buyers of the malware. Lack of Common StandardsPer the cybersecurity researchers, the lack of standardization with regards to Bitcoin ATMs may be contributing to the problem. “Unlike regular ATMs, there is no single set of verification or security standards for Bitcoin ATMs. For example, instead of requiring an ATM, credit, or debit card for transactions, a Bitcoin ATM involves the use of mobile numbers and ID cards for user identity verification,” wrote Senior Threat Researcher at Trend Micro, Fernando Merces. “The user then has to input a wallet address or scan its QR code. The wallets used to store digital currencies are not standardized either and are often downloaded from app stores, posing another security problem.” From the analysis they have conducted, Trend Micro researchers have determined that the vendor of the malware has received more than 100 reviews meaning the malware could be gaining traction. The situation could get worse as the vendor is also proposing partnerships with interested parties on a revenue-sharing basis. Looking to Cash in as Bitcoin ATMs IncreaseThis comes at a time when the number of Bitcoin ATMs has exceeded 3,500 across the globe as CCN recently reported. While the Bitcoin ATM malware can be used in any location of the world, support by the malware vendor is restricted to the English, Russian and German-speaking markets. This is likely not a coincidence as more than half of the Bitcoin ATMs are located in predominantly English-speaking countries with Russian and German-speaking groups also enjoying healthy representation. A pre-dominantly English-speaking market such as the United States currently has 2166 Bitcoin ATMs while the United Kingdom boasts of 171 such devices. The Russian Federation is also in the top five with 72 locations besides more outlets located in other countries with Russian-speaking populations such as Ukraine. Austria and Switzerland, which boast of a significant number of German speakers, are also among the leading countries with regards to Bitcoin ATM adoption – with 153 and 29 locations respectively. Source: https://www.ccn.com/malware-targeting-bitcoin-atms-goes-on-sale-for-us25000/ |
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 Subsequent to recording the steepest daily drop in valuation in recent years, the crypto market has struggled to rebound in a convincing manner, pushing the dominance index of Bitcoin further up. Throughout the past 24 hours, the dominance index of Bitcoin achieved 55 percent, its highest point since December of last year. As tokens lost out largely against Bitcoin, the dominance index of the cryptocurrency increased significantly over the past few days, from 51 percent to 55 percent.  While the crypto market has avoided a drop below the $200 billion mark to its yearly low at $192 billion, Bitcoin and the rest of the market are still in a steep downward trend, with little to no support in mid-$6,000. Goldman Sachs Wasn’t the TriggerYesterday, on September 6, CCN reported that the announcement of Goldman Sachs, the $90 billion US-based investment bank, to supposedly pivot away from Bitcoin trading desk operation to crypto custody had no impact on the price of Bitcoin. “It is evident that the Goldman Sachs announcement had no impact on the short-term price of BTC. Ostensibly, the announcement of Goldman Sachs may seem like a negative development for the cryptocurrency sector,” the report read. Hours after the report of CCN was released, Goldman Sachs chief financial officer Martin Chavez officially refuted the reports that Goldman Sachs is delaying the launch of its Bitcoin trading operation, characterizing the reports as fake news. “I think one of the wonderful things about us is that we get written about a lot. I never thought I would hear myself use this term but I really have to describe that news as Fake news,” Chavez said at a TechCrunch conference. If Goldman Sachs had been the main trigger that led the Bitcoin price to fall from $7,400 to $6,400, the direct denial of reports regarding its Bitcoin trading operations should have led BTC to recover to its previous resistance level. The unconvincing movement of the cryptocurrency market despite the decision of Goldman Sachs to refute all reports related to its crypto venture has shown that the market initiated a large sell off due to large sell pressure that was built on top of Bitcoin since late August.
Where is Bitcoin Headed to?If Bitcoin fails to break out of the $7,000 resistance level in the next 24 to 48 hours to completely reverse its fall from the $7,400 mark, then it is highly likely that Bitcoin will test the $6,000 resistance level once again in the upcoming days, as it has done in April, June, and August. The expected drop of Bitcoin to the low $6,000 level is not necessarily negative, as it would allow the dominant cryptocurrency to bottom out at its low price range and prepare for a mid-term rally in the months to come. In the meantime, due to low volumes and increasing activity of Tether (USDT), tokens and small market cap cryptocurrencies will likely continue to bleed out against Bitcoin and the US dollar. Source: https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-dominance-hits-55-as-crypto-market-struggles-to-recover-convincingly/ |
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Adult entertainment streaming service Tube8 – a Pornhub subsidiary with over 150 million page visits each month – wants to reward your porn-watching habits with cryptocurrency… so it is putting its entire platform on the blockchain. In a note exclusively shared with Hard Fork, the company revealed it has entered an agreement with Vice Industry Token (VIT) that will see its platform entirely tokenized. The collaboration will enable users to earn VIT tokens for streaming and interacting with Tube8 videos. The token implementation is expected to take place by the end of the year. The move will make Tube8 the very first major adult platform to adopt token-based rewards and actually pay its users for their activity on the website. "But before you get too excited about turning your pornography addiction into a career, there are a few red flags you should know about."  Source: https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/08/17/pornhub-tube8-blockchain-cryptocurrency/ |
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300,000% Return in a Few Seconds – the 2017 GDAX Flash Crash Crypto veterans will remember the June 21, 2017 GDAX flash crash, where the ETH/USD market experienced a rapid 99.96% price drop of ETH from $317 to $0.10 in a matter of seconds. What happened?On 21 June 2017 at 12:30 PT, a multimillion dollar market sell of ETH was placed on the GDAX ETH/USD order book. Due to a thin order book, the massive market sell off caused buy orders to be filled from $317 to $224, translating into a book slippage of 29.4%. This slippage started a cascade of approximately 800 stop loss orders and forced liquidations of long positions, pushing the price further down, causing ETH to trade as low as $0.10 for a few seconds before completely recovering to around $300. Moments before the crash, one trader placed an order to buy 3,809 Ether at the price of $0.10. With ETHs price recovery, in seconds, that Ether was worth $1,124,700, resulting in a 300,000% return for the trader. Why Was Such a Drop Possible?On traditional markets, flash crashes have happened before, such as the 2010 flash crash which saw the Dow Jones index lose 9% in a matter of minutes. As is usually the case when comparing the cryptocurrency market with traditional markets, the GDAX flash crash was much more extreme. It is speculated that the same trader who made the trade of a century also orchestrated the flash crash themselves with a multi-million dollar market sell because they noticed: - That GDAX had no internal protocol to automatically halt trading of an asset after it drops a certain percentage quickly. - The thin buy order book. - The abundance of stop loss orders. Stop loss orders which are placed by traders to market sell their assets after they drop a certain amount. - The amount of leveraged longs. When a leveraged long is margin called, the exchange sells the collateral at market price in order to prevent further losses. The AftermathCoinbase, the company that operated the GDAX exchange, stated that the official investigation showed no indication of wrongdoing or account takeovers and reported that their matching engine operated as intended through the event. Citing their terms&conditions, they reminded customers that margin trading carries inherent risk, and that no trades will be reversed. The company was facing a public loss of trust and potentially even lawsuits from disheartened traders. Eventually, the came out with a second public release and stated that every trader that got margin called or had their stop loss orders executed will be credited for the lost amount with Coinbase’s own funds. The Wonder of Market ForcesAfter news of the traders incredible return of investment went around, traders started putting in limit buy orders at price levels they knew were unlikely to get filled, hoping to make a huge profit in the event of another flash crash. In doing so, traders consolidated the buy order book and increased support levels at all prices, reducing the chance of such a flash crash happening in the future. Source: https://coincodex.com/article/2272/300000-return-in-a-few-seconds-the-2017-gdax-flash-crash/
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I found this twitter handle a few months ago https://twitter.com/satoshi which claims to be own by the founder "Satoshi Nakamoto" and I've been following it ever since. What are your thoughts... I know there are lots of "Faketoshi(s)" out there  |
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The total cryptocurrency market was $238 Billion a few hours ago and yet the market is almost $260 Billion.  |
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The New York Times spoke to 21-year-old Jessica Smith who invested $28,000 in Envion, almost all the money she had made after two years trading cryptocurrency. Smith is now looking for new work, saying this “has been very painful.” Article: The Envion ICO Scandal – Both Sides of the Storyhttps://www.ccn.com/the-envion-ico-scandal-both-sides-of-the-story/ |
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Cyber attacks targeting cryptocurrency exchanges have been occurring for a while now, with the collapse of Mt.Gox in 2014 being perhaps the most notorious example. Prominent exchanges such as Bitstamp, Bitfinex and Coincheck have also been successfully hacked in the past, with Coincheck losing more than $500 million worth of their customers’ funds earlier this year. Yesterday, another successful hack was added to the list when Coinrail, a relatively small South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a security breach that resulted in stolen funds. For now, it is unclear exactly how much the thieves got away with, but the Pundi X team says 2,619,542,080 NPXS (about $14.66 million at the time of writing) were withdrawn from the exchange in an unauthorized transaction. The amount represents a significant amount of all NPXS tokens in circulation, which prompted the team to respond: “Since the amount of NPXS token is equal to 3% of our current supply, which could potentially affect the interests of all parties, we instigated an emergency security protocol to halt ALL the NPXS transactions at 11:16 am Singapore time (GMT+8) to protect NPXS holders and help Coinrail and Korean law enforcement to investigate the incident.”Apparently, the hacker(s) transferred the funds to IDEX, but the exchange collaborated with Coinrail and Pundi X and froze the account which deposited the tokens. South Korean authorities are already on the case, and we hope that the attackers will not be able to profit from the crypto assets they have stolen. The attackers also stole an unknown amount of other tokens from the exchange, but details are still unclear with some news outlets reporting that about $40 million worth of tokens were stolen. A number of observers blamed this security breach for yesterday’s heavy price drops, but this seems a bit far-fetched. Coinrail was not even among the top 50 exchanges by volume prior to the hack, and processed about $2 million worth on the day before it was hacked. The biggest cryptocurrency exchange at the moment, OKEx, handled $1.7 billion worth of trades in the last 24 hours. As always, you should be aware that holding your cryptocurrency on exchanges is risky, since they are a very attractive target for hackers. To be as safe as possible, you should consider withdrawing the assets you are not planning to trade in the short term. Ref: https://coincodex.com/article/1853/coinrail-suffers-security-breach-reportedly-loses-40-million-worth-of-crypto/ |
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We all know the recent bitcoin hard forks helped boost the price to another level. If we can take the last year 2017 as a case study, we can see the bitcoin price skyrocketed from September to December when there was a lot of bitcoin hard forks. Basically, the previous bitcoin hard forks attracted the mind of many investors to bitcoin which helped boost bitcoin price to around $20,000 in last December. I think the bitcoin really need a new hard fork to boost the price so that the HOLDers can smile again because they are no longer smiling anymore - LOL. Share with us what you think on this matter. thanks  |
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Bitcoin Briefly Drops to $9,000: Factors Behind the Decline On March 8, the price of bitcoin dropped to $9,000, after reaching $11,000 merely 48 hours ago. Analysts have attributed three major factors to the decline in the price of bitcoin: Mt. Gox sell off, SEC announcement, penalization of Japanese exchanges. Mt. Gox Trustee Sell-OffAccording to the official document released by the Mt. Gox trustee, a total of $404 million worth of bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash have been sold over the past few months, at a price determined by the trustee, which is significantly lower than the current market value of bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. “As a result of the consultation with the court, I considered it necessary and reasonable to sell a certain amount of BTC and BCC at this point and secure a certain amount of money for distribution resources, and thus, I sold the amount of BTC and BCC above. I made efforts to sell BTC and BCC at as high a price as possible in light of the market price of BTC and BCC at the timing of sale. I plan to consult with the court and determine further sale of BTC and BCC,” the document read. In the next few months, the trustee intends to liquidate the remaining assets, which are 166,344.35827254 bitcoins, worth around $1.7 billion based on the current value of bitcoin. It is likely that the planned sell-off of over a billion dollars worth of bitcoin has caused a domino effect on many cryptocurrency exchanges, leading to the decline in the value of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a consequence.
SEC’s AnnouncementThis week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that cryptocurrency exchanges that have listed initial coin offerings (ICOs) or tokens on their platforms are required to register with the agency in order to continue providing support for ERC20 tokens. As CCN reported, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated that the market overreacted to the announcement of the SEC, given that cryptocurrency exchanges have simple options to comply with the SEC: de-list ICO tokens or register with the agency. Garlinghouse added that there exists no uncertainty regarding the announcement of the SEC, as he noted: In context of yesterday’s SEC statement(s), I hear some in crypto talk about the current ‘regulatory uncertainty.’ What’s uncertain? SEC’s statements have been consistent and clear. ‘Regulatory uncertainty” is just a euphemism for ‘we wish we could ignore SEC regulations.’” Andreas Antonopoulos, a well-respected cryptocurrency and security expert, emphasized that the SEC and other federal agencies tightening regulations for ICOs was expected. Antonopoulos explained: “The recent SEC & FinCEN statements are not unexpected. I have been warning people about the potential risks (technical, financial, and legal) of engaging with ICOs for years.” Japan’s Cryptocurrency Exchange PenalizationAs Tokyo-based technology reporter Yuji Nakamura reported, the Japanese government recently penalized four cryptocurrency exchanges and revoked the licenses of two trading platforms for poor security and failing to meet Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) policies.  Given that Japan still remains as the largest bitcoin exchange market with over 51 percent of the market share, analysts stated that the crackdown on small exchanges have had an impact on the global cryptocurrency market. Source: https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-briefly-drops-9000-factors-behind-decline/
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