US SEC Suspends Securities Trading of Nevada-Based Firm for False Crypto Claims

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has suspended securities trading of a Nevada-based firm for making false claims that its cryptocurrency trading activities were approved by the SEC, according to an announcement published Oct. 22. Per the SEC’s order, in August 2018 American Retail Group, Inc. aka Simex Inc. published two press releases stating that the company had partnered with a custodian qualified with the SEC. The partnership would purportedly allow the company to conduct crypto transactions that would be “under SEC Regulations.” American Retail Group also stated in…

‘Bitcoin Threatens Gov’ts’ Ability to Make Money’

Bockhain entrepreneur and industry advisor Vinny Lingham told Cointelegraph in an interview Oct. 21 that cryptocurrency prices will surge again, but it will take some time. Speaking with CT during the Money20/20 conference Sunday, Lingham – also the CEO of Blockchain identity startup Civic – stated that cryptocurrency markets need time to regain previous volumes, arguing that the market’s priorities have shifted: “Now the world is waiting for utility, when people will actually start to use the cryptocurrencies.” Lingham also said that governments globally are poised to push back against…

Huobi Global Launches Multi-Stablecoin Solution Using HUSD

Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Huobi launched an all-in-one stablecoin solution called HUSD, which targets multiple stablecoins listed recently on the exchange. The solution is expected to eliminate the need to choose between multiple stablecoins and save costs of converting between stablecoins. Huobi, the world’s third largest crypto exchange by trade volume, listed four other US dollar backed stablecoins, Paxos Standard (PAX), TrueUSD (TUSD), USDCoin (USDC), and Gemini Dollar (GUSD) and started accepting its deposits from last week. Under the HUSD solution, any deposit using the four stablecoins will automatically be converted…

Crypto Market Sees Slight Losses After Trading Sideways, Bitcoin Hovers Near $6,400

Monday, Oct. 22: markets have taken a slight downtrend after trading sideways last week, with 15 of the top 20 digital currencies by market capitalization in the red, and Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $6,400, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Market visualization by Coin360 The BTC price has been trading in a narrow corridor from $6,372 to $6,730 at its highest point during the day. The leading cryptocurrency has lost 0.45 percent over the last 24 hours, and is trading at $6,483 as of press time. In terms of its weekly…

Bitmain Releases Overt AsicBoost Firmware for Antminer S9

Bitmain has finally released its firmware for the popular Antminer S9 to enable what is called “overt AsicBoost.” In a recent blog post, Bitmain explains their rationale for the firmware release, citing that they originally “decided against activating this mathematical function in mining hardware” due to the “uncertainty surrounding the use of AsicBoost.” Bitmain previously released support for AsicBoost back in March 2018 by adding support for it on their mining pools BTC.com and Antpool. This, however, came after the company noticed blocks being mined on the blockchain using AsicBoost.…

Experts Debate Whether Blockchain Will Replace Current Payment Systems

At the Money 20/20 conference in Las Vegas today Oct. 22, experts in the blockchain field debated the future of the technology and its potential effects on how payments are conducted. Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz and FIS Payments Senior Vice President of Product Strategy Esther Pigg offered competing visions of whether blockchain will benefit payments. According to Schwartz, blockchain technology will replace the world’s current payment systems, the developers of which are “putting bandages on a system that dates back to the dial-up era.” Blockchain will do to…

Bitfinex Took 630 Million Tether Out of Circulation After Drop Below $1

Bitfinex is sending massive quantities of tether tokens back to the vaults. The cryptocurrency exchange has overlapping management and owners with Tether Ltd., the company that issues a dollar-linked cryptocurrency of the same name (often abbreviated USDT). Both firms have come under increasing scrutiny following USDT’s dramatic break with dollar parity last week, when the exchange rate briefly dropped as low as $0.85 on the Kraken exchange. It has yet to fully recover. It’s notable, then, that a wallet address controlled by Bitfinex has sent 630 million USDT to an…

Op Ed: Why Satoshi Nakamoto Deserves a Nobel Prize

Alfred Nobel died with regrets. After making a fortune off of explosives, he indicated in his will that his fortune should be used to make a prize awarded each year to those who “conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.” By all accounts, his namesake award has been a success — winners are curing cancer, ending wars and discovering exotic bosons. Only a handful of humanity has won a Nobel Prize — be it in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, economics or peace — all of them distinguished for their exceptional work.   Yet the…

Ethereum Token BAT Continues Breakneck Rally, up 56% This Week

Ethereum token BAT continued its dramatic week-long ascent on Monday, bolstered by positive fundamentals related to its role in Brave’s web browser ecosystem and speculation that the cryptocurrency will soon be listed on Coinbase. BAT (short for Basic Attention Token) increased 14 percent against the dollar on Monday, briefly eclipsing $0.30 before settling down to a current value of $0.287. The token’s weekly return now stands at 56 percent, which is far and away the best return among top 50 cryptocurrency assets. BAT/USD | Binance As CCN reported, the rally…

Monero Transaction Fees Reduced by 97% After Bulletproofs Upgrade

After the recent hard fork upgrade of its protocol, Monero has seen its transaction fees shrink by approximately 97 percent, dropping from 60 cents to just 2 cents. Crypto analytics firm Coinmetrics shared a tweet confirming the drop in fees and their corresponding reduction in transaction size, falling from 18.5kb pre-fork to 3kb — an 80 percent change. The upgrade, called “Monero 0.13.0 Beryllium Bullet,” implements “bulletproofs.” First introduced by researchers at Stanford, the cryptographic scheme shrinks the size and cost of transactions specifically for Confidential Transactions.   Why Bulletproofs?…