Websites and publishers need to be prepared for cryptocurrency miners slipping into ads on their sites, according to Israeli adtech firm Spotad.

The company, which operates an AI-powered advertising platform for purchasing media space, recently discovered cryptocurrency mining activity on its network, a development the company claims is becoming part of wider trend.

Spotad’s AI system, named "Sarah," recently identified anomalies in the code of seemingly legitimate ads for both desktop and mobile that turned out to be a miner for the cryptocurrency monero. The JavaScript-enabled ad was designed to dupe users into clicking on a pop-up that would initiate the mining process.

According to co-founder Yoav Oz, the agency responsible for the ad was unaware of the code that was embedded inside. The name of the agency or the subject of the ad has not been disclosed.

Investment guru James Altucher, heralded by some members of the mainstream press as the "face of the bitcoin bubble" for his outsize presence in internet ads, is investing in a new cryptocurrency venture.

As detailed in an SEC filing dated Thursday, Altucher has invested in a seed round for a Delaware company called Bitzumi, Inc., which intends to offer a forthcoming newsletter product and exchange service. The firm plans to raise up to $10 million, with a minimum raise of $1 million.

While Altucher is described as a co-founder both in the text and on the company's website, in emailed statements, he backed off of this categorization, calling himself just an investor and supporter of the firm. Affiliation aside, the filing indicates Bitzumi plans to use the new funds to grow its business into other verticals.

"Bitzumi Publishing's goal is to dominate search engine traffic in the cryptocurrency industry and drive traffic to both our Bitzumi exchange and other product offerings, such as subscription-based newsletters," the filing states.

Recently leaked computer vulnerabilities Meltdown and Spectre offer yet another reminder of how hard the digital age makes it to keep private information – even cryptocurrency private keys – safe.

Unveiled Wednesday, the widespread hardware vulnerabilities simultaneously impact Intel, ARM and AMD computer chips, which power the vast majority of the world's computers, mobile devices and servers, making it possible to steal private data such as passwords, financial information or just about anything stored on any device that uses one of these chips.

Where this is important for cryptocurrency in particular is, hackers can potentially use the specific attack vector to pinch the private keys that allow users to control their bitcoins on the blockchain.

Popular Mechanics called it a "horrific" bug, contending it's "hard to zero in on the most troubling part of this flaw," while an informational page authored by security researchers remarks that you're "most certainly" impacted by the bug.

And though there's no evidence that any passwords have been compromised, experts say it wouldn't be surprising if hackers or the NSA have been exploiting the attack.

If you're already following best practices for cryptocurrency storage, then you're probably fine. But if not, or if you're a newer user, experts say it's important to keep private keys on a safe device.

Visa, the payments giant, terminated a card issuer's membership on Friday, causing cryptocurrency debit card providers to suspend their services, according to three of the affected companies.

Bitcoin payments processor BitPay announced in a statement that its European card issuer, WaveCrest Holdings, Ltd., had been told by Visa to close its accounts. The company will refund any remaining balances, as well as card order fees for anyone who purchased a card after Dec. 1, 2017.

At the turn of the millennium, the concept of product reviews saw something of a postmodernist reinvention throughout the Western hemisphere, which corresponded with the advent of ‘Web 2.0.’ The two most notable manifestations of this would most definitely be user reviews, and review aggregators such as Metacritic.

Dogecoin, which started as a parody cryptocurrency, has now broken the $1 bln market cap showing how far virtual currencies have come since Bitcoin’s inception in 2009.

Four years after the Bitcoin genesis block was mined, programmer Billy Markus coded his very own cryptocurrency in 2013. With the help of Jackson Palmer, a product manager and data analyst at Adobe, Dogecoin was brought to life, meme and all.

Taking up the popular internet meme of the Shiba Inu dog, the creator envisioned the cryptocurrency to be a friendly online payment system, although its rise in popularity may not have been intended.

In recent weeks, many coins have seen absolute explosions in value. The top 10 and top 50 market cap rankings have been penetrated by a number of new contenders, some ascending from well outside the top 100. With many developments poised to occur this month and this quarter, investors are wildly bullish on an array of cryptocurrencies.

Today, Jan. 4, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) released a warning  for Main Street investors regarding the risks associated with cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

The warning was promptly followed by a statement from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that commended and reiterated the NASAA’s message.

The NASAA statement encouraged investors to look “beyond the hype” when considering cryptocurrencies and their derivatives, in order to better understand the associated risks.

China has long been a bastion of cryptocurrency mining supremacy due to a surplus of power in the country.

Some of the world’s largest mining groups, including the likes of Bitmain’s Antpool, BTCC, BW mining and BTC.com, operate large mining operations in the country.

Mining is the backbone of cryptocurrency, as computers are needed to validate transactions stored on the Blockchain by solving cryptographic algorithms. As cryptocurrencies continue to grow in popularity around the world, the demand on the network grows.

That means countries, where energy is cheap, are the most attractive to miners, as the process is power hungry, to say the least.

China’s has cut back on its energy production in the last year due to a surplus in their energy grid, as this graph from tradingeconomics.com shows, taking data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China.

For a long time the ultra wealthy and their money managers have been able to access a level of return on investment previously out of reach of the average person. The larger the amount being invested, the better the fund manager can be hired, and the better the deal that can be got.

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As per CoinMarketCap, the world's third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization toppled its previous record high of $2,477.65 (Nov. 12 high) and rose to a new record of $2,501.29 at 09:44 UTC today. Bitcoin cash (BCH) was last seen trading at $2,350 levels, meaning the 21 percent rally seen in the last 24 hours has pushed the gains since its launch to 316 percent.

Meanwhile, week-on-week, BCH has appreciated 43 percent.

The stellar rally is a part of the broad-based strength witnessed in the alternative currencies since last Tuesday. With bitcoin (large cap) showing signs of fatigue near the $20,000 mark, the rotation to small caps seems to have gathered pace. This is evident from the spike in trading volumes on exchanges offering BCH/BTC pairs.

Also, the investor community may have bought BCH on speculation that integration with payment processor BitPay would open the doors to more widespread adoption (and boost its utility as a payment method). The price chart analysis says the rally in BCH is here to say.

Having successfully predicted recent Bitcoin highs, Standpoint Research Founder Ronnie Moas sees lofty highs for the preeminent cryptocurrency in the next year.

In August, the billionaire former hedge fund manager tentatively forecasted Bitcoin’s rise to the $20,000 mark in three years, but his timelines were quite off the mark. Two months later, amid the start of Bitcoin’s outrageous bull run and talk of the launch of futures trading, Moas changed that prediction to 2018.

Speaking to CNBC ahead of the launch of Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Moas believes Bitcoin will see another 500 percent rise next year.

"Bitcoin is already up 500 percent since I recommended it in the beginning of July, and I'm looking for another 500 percent move from here. The end-game on Bitcoin is that it will hit $300,000 to $400,000 in my opinion, and it will be the most valuable currency in the world."

Most valuable currency in the world
It’s not hard to understand why Moas is taking a far more brazen approach to Bitcoin - given the way it has exceeded all predictions and death-sentences.

Moas says the cryptocurrency cap at 21 mln tokens is a major factor in its rapidly rising value. Again, he drew a comparison to gold but insists the cryptocurrency will be far more valuable as millions of people look to a slice of the action.

"I don't know how much gold there is in the ground, but I know how much Bitcoin there is, and in two years there will be 300 mln people in the world trying to get their hands on a few million Bitcoin."

Bitcoin’s volatility has been a hot talking point over the past few months, with enthusiasts and industry specialists taking the ‘hodl’ approach. The bullish approach has created scarcity on the market which has driven up value.

People are constantly asking if it’s ‘too late to buy Bitcoin,’ but Moas insists on buying in dips constantly.

"I look at Bitcoin the same way I look at Amazon. The way to play Amazon for the last 15 years was to buy it, hold it, and add on the dips. That's exactly the way I think people should be playing Bitcoin."

Although Dogecoin has been around for quite some time now, this altcoin never amounted to much. More specifically, it never even got close to becoming a top 10 cryptocurrency, mainly because most people never took this concept seriously. This isn’t a big surprise, mind you, as Dogecoin has always been the “meme” of cryptocurrency in every possible way. It is also how the original creator seemingly portrayed this project.

At the same time, we all have to acknowledge that Dogecoin made some things happen which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. It wasn’t Bitcoin or Litecoin which sponsored a NASCAR driver or sent the Jamaican bobsled team to the Olympics. That was all Dogecoin and its strong community of enthusiasts and generous individuals. All of that is well behind us now, though, and not much has come of Dogecoin ever since.

In fact, there has been little to no development of the Dogecoin ecosystem as we know it. Things have remained at a standstill for quite some time now. While there is no point in fixing something that isn’t broken, one would expect a bit more activity in this regard. Unfortunately, Dogecoin seemingly has no lead developer at this point in time. This situation has to change if the altcoin wants to succeed, although it remains to be seen if anyone will step up to the plate.

Bitcoin is on the rise against the U.S. dollar, but a look at all of its relevant trading pairs (LTC/BTC, ETH/BTC) suggests the move to $20,000 could take longer than expected.

The world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has traded more or less sideways over the last few days as the alternative currencies rallied sharply to new highs. But, as discussed yesterday, the lackluster action in BTC could be due to the rotation of money from BTC (large cap) and into alternative currencies (or so-called small caps).

This flow of money is best represented by the bullish break seen in cross cryptocurrency charts – i.e. ETH/BTC, LTC/BTC, BCH/BTC and XRP/BTC. For example, a rally in ETH/BTC could be an indication that the money is flowing out of bitcoin and into ether (ETH).

The development comes days after the company outlined four ethereum protocol changes that would restore access to the $275 million in ether frozen last month due to a vulnerability in the software. The four options, detailed in a blog post, entailed varying changes to the ethereum's software – specifically, the ethereum virtual machine (EVM) which translates smart contract commands in code.

In a move that could shift the trading dynamics of Bitcoin futures, the brokerage firm Interactive Brokers Group Inc will allow its traders to begin betting against the cryptocurrency. The firm’s CEO Thomas Peterffy told the Financial Times that clients will be allowed to short Bitcoin futures by the end of this week.

The announcement comes on the heels of a strong bull market after Bitcoin futures trading began this week. However, according to the Financial Times, Interactive Brokers is handling an estimated 53 percent of the total futures volume on 4 Board Options Exchange (CBOE) --- a sudden open short potential could reverse the bullish trend.

Lanre Sarumi is the CEO of Level Trading Field, an interactive online platform for professionals in the finance industry.

When you read you begin with A, B, C.

When you sing you begin with Do, Re, Mi.

When you trade futures you begin with F, G, H, J, K, M, N, Q, U, V, X, Z.

Each of those letters represents the month of the year that the contract expires. Remember, with a futures contract, two counterparties agreed on a fixed price and date to trade an asset. The month of that date is represented by those letters.

I don't know who came up with that nomenclature or how. Just memorize it and move on. Although I'm sure there is going to be some know-it-all in the comment section saying "I know!, I know!"

The products traded on the exchange also have product codes. Heating oil is RB, crude oil is CL and the bitcoin futures set to trade on the CME starting Dec. 18 will be BTC. On the CBOE, which introduced its bitcoin futures contract Sunday, the bitcoin product code is XBT.

If you want to trade the Jan. 2018 bitcoin contract, then, you will be trading BTCF8. BTC again represents bitcoin futures, "F" is the January code, "8" represents the year, 2018. If you want to trade the February 2018 BTC contract you trade BTCG8.