Fake Elon Musk Accounts on Twitter Promote Bitcoin Scams, One Collects $170K

Several verified Twitter accounts have been hacked to impersonate Elon Musk today, Nov. 5, with one reportedly collecting almost $170,000. After compromising verified accounts, scammers changed the profile name and picture in order to pose as the Tesla CEO. Scammers would then post in comment threads started by the real Elon Musk, so as to give the impression of legitimacy. Some of the scam tweets said that Elon Musk was conducting “the biggest” crypto-giveaway in the world for those who use “Bitcoic” (read Bitcoin), and provided a link to “participate”…

Only 19% Chance Bitcoin Price Breaches $10,000 by Q2 2019

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn A drop in the bitcoin price’s daily moves has lowered the market’s expectations of reclaiming a five-figure valuation anytime soon. Options Traders Not Bullish on Bitcoin Skew — a crypto analysis blog authored by two London-based derivative traders — claimed that bitcoin has only a 19 percent chance of breaching the $10,000-mark by June 2019. The report rested their analysis on the expected outcomes of bitcoin futures that are expiring by the third week of the last Q3 month, explaining that the volatility embedded in the price of…

No, Bitcoin Isn’t Secretly Messing with the Mid-Term Elections

Brian Forde most recently ran for U.S. Congress in California’s 45th district and was the founding Director of the Digital Currency Initiative at MIT. Previously, he was a Senior Tech Advisor in the Obama White House. On the eve of the most important election of our time, we’ve seen what misinformation gets us. Fear of the unknown, fear of change. In these times, we need to be vigilant about how we examine what’s new or different. Hundreds of articles have been written about campaign contributions made with cryptocurrencies — and…

Firm Owned by India’s Richest Man Turns to Blockchain for Trade Finance

Oil and gas conglomerate Reliance Industries – owned by India’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani – has used blockchain to conduct its first trade finance transaction. According to a news release from HSBC India shared with CoinDesk on Sunday, Reliance Industries has recently executed a “live” blockchain-powered trade finance transaction in collaboration with US-based global chemical distributor Tricon Energy. The end-to-end transaction was facilitated by banking majors HSBC India and ING Bank, Brussels, and carried out on enterprise consortium R3’s Corda blockchain platform, the release adds. The Corda platform was integrated with…

Hackers Behind Zaif Crypto Exchange Theft May Have Been Exposed

Cybersecurity experts at Japan Digital Design, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), say they’ve found possibly revealing information on the bad actors behind the $60 million hack of Japanese crypto exchange Zaif. The company announced in a press release Monday, that it has been investigating the outflow of funds from Zaif since soon after the hack, in association with Takayuki Sugiura at information-security consultancy L Plus and security experts from a “capture the flag” cybersecurity team called TokyoWesterns. Once some of the stolen funds, in the monacoin cryptocurrency, started…

SEC Official Says ‘Plain English’ Guidance On ICOs Is Coming

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to clarify when and how cryptocurrencies may be classified as securities, its director of Corporation Finance said Monday. Speaking at the D.C. Fintech Week conference, SEC director William Hinman said the regulatory agency intends to release “plain English” guidance for developers to refer to when planning token offerings. This guidance will help such developers determine on their own whether any potential token offering may be classified as a security or not, according to Hinman, though it’s not clear when the guidance will…

Swiss Finance Watchdog Tells Banks to Treat Crypto Trading As High Risk

Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is giving tough guidance to banks wanting to trade in crypto assets. According to a report from Swissinfo.ch, FINMA has issued a confidential letter – seen by the news agency – to accountancy organization EXPERTsuisse, stating its stance on how financial institutions should weight crypto assets when calculating loss-absorbing capital buffers. FINMA said it advises banks and securities dealers to assign a “flat risk weight of 800% to cover market and credit risks” against crypto assets. That means, for instance, if the current price of bitcoin…

Musk Impostors Hack Lawmaker, Publisher Accounts in New Crypto Scams

A number of verified Twitter accounts were compromised Monday – including those owned by a U.S. lawmaker, a film company, and a book publisher – all to impersonate SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk. Each of the compromised accounts engaged in a well-known crypto giveaway scam by promising to send large amounts of bitcoin to any users who sent them small amounts first. To further reinforce the impression that the compromised accounts were genuinely owned by Musk, the hackers copied over the Tesla founder’s profile picture and retweeted some of…

The Mysterious East: Decrypting Japanese Crypto Traders

Japan is one of the key countries in the crypto financial world, where the headquarter of Bitcoin.com is situated, the crypto exchange Mt. Gox was established, the Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto name comes from, and cryptocurrencies in general are legalized. But, what do we really know about the growing industry of cryptocurrencies in the Land of the Rising Sun? What and where can be bought in Japan with crypto? What is the attitude of the authorities towards digital assets after adoption of the regulatory legislation? Recent changes in the structure…

Crypto Exchange Bitstamp Aims to Get 1,250 Times Faster with Tech Upgrade

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp is getting a new matching engine developed by Cinnober, a global provider of exchange and clearing technology whose clients are mostly traditional stock and commodity markets. Cinnober’s TRADExpress Trading System will replace Bitstamp’s in-house matching engine, the companies announced Monday. The new system will drastically increase the exchange’s capacity to match orders, which is especially important in periods of high market activity like last December’s rally, Bitstamp’s CTO David Osojnik told CoinDesk. Through a representative,Osojnik explained: “Our order matching speed is expected to become 1,250 times faster, while throughput will…