Singapore’s central bank has held discussions with Facebook about its upcoming libra cryptocurrency, Bloomberg reported on June 27. Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, reportedly acknowledged libra’s potential benefits — such as making payments cheaper or supporting the unbanked — but said the regulator needs to understand exactly how the tech giant’s system will work. As well as warning that it isn’t clear whether libra would offer a superior alternative to other electronic payment mechanisms, Menon said Singapore would be seeking assurances on security and privacy issues before making a regulatory decision.…
Day: June 27, 2019
Tesco’s Twitter Account Compromised, Hacker Asks for Bitcoin (BTC)
Hackers have hijacked the official Twitter handle of Tesco, a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer with over 3,400 stores scattered across the globe. The bad actors tried to orchestrate a bitcoin (BTC) giveaway scam with the account without much success, according to a BleepingComputer report from June 25, 2019. Tesco not Giving away Bitcoin Per sources close to the matter, Tesco has become the latest firm to be hijacked by cyberpunks on Twitter. The culprits briefly took over the firm’s official Twitter account, Tweeting all manner of irrelevant…
ICO’s access to information strategy calls for better compliance by public authorities backed up with enforcement action
The ICO has today published ‘Openness by Design’, its new access to information strategy. The strategy sets out five goals relating to the suite of access to information legislation regulated by the ICO: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) 2004, and the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015. The five ‘Openness by Design’ goals are: Ensuring that access to information rights is upheld in a consistent and timely manner and operates effectively in a digital age. Providing excellent customer service to individuals making requests…
Bitcoin Price Climbed to New ATH for 2019, Almost Hit 14,000
After hitting its new 2019-high close to $14,000 levels on Wednesday, Bitcoin price underwent a major pullback losing nearly $1.8K in just a few hours and is currently trading around $12,200 levels. Over the last seven days, Bitcoin has been on a massive bull run giving nearly 40% returns. From $9200 levels last week, Bitcoin price surged all the way close to $14000 levels hitting its new 2019 high. As per the daily chart on CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin went all the way to making a high of $13,793 before retracing back.…
Another Indian Crypto Exchange Shuts Down Blaming Banking Ban
Regulatory uncertainty ushered in by India’s central bank appears to have brought about the demise of another cryptocurrency exchange in the nation. In a Medium post published Thursday, the Koinex exchange says it’s been forced to shutter its services as a de facto ban on banking relationships for crypto firms – ordered by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April 2018 – has meant that it is economically unfeasible to continue with normal business. The exchange writes: “We have consistently been facing denials in payment services from payment gateways, bank…
Bitcoin Price Correction Continues as $13,800 Becomes Key to Further Gains
Bitcoin (BTC) was heading back towards $12,000 on June 27 as crypto industry businesses report record activity across the board. Data from Coin360 showed the bitcoin price coming off its local highs at $13,800 to circle $12,150 as of press time Thursday. BTC/USD saw significant volatility over the past 24 hours, abruptly dropping to as low as $11,945 due to problems with major exchange Coinbase before bouncing back above the $12,000 mark. The $13,800 level, charts now suggest, forms an important barrier to further gains. In all its history, bitcoin…
Bitcoin Price Plunges 18% in 2-Hour Crash; Are Crypto Bulls Hurting?
On June 26, the bitcoin price suddenly crashed from $13,868 to $11,350 across major crypto exchanges including Coinbase, recording an 18 percent drop against the U.S. dollar. While the factors behind the abrupt decline in the bitcoin price in the past 24 hours remain uncertain, Coinbase experienced a server outage as the dominant crypto asset dropped below $12,000 due to overwhelming user activity. According to TokenData, Coinbase experienced an outage as the volume of the exchange surpassed $1.5 billion for the first time since February 2018. Coinbase’s outage happens on…
CoinMarketCap Makes Its First Acquisition to Provide ‘True Prices’ for Cryptos
Photo: CoinMarketCap Blog CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency market data provider, has made its first-ever acquisition. The company acquired is Hashtag Capital, a startup involved in developing algorithms that analyze ‘all points of available liquidity’ with a view to more accurately reflect an asset. According to the press release, Hashtag Capital has already developed a set of algorithms for determining ‘true price’ of cryptos, and after the acquisition, the team behind the company will join CoinMarketCap and continue developing pricing algorithms and improving data offerings. Brandon Chez, CEO of CoinMarketCap, said: “We are…
Singaporean Exchange Bitrue Gets Hacked, Losing $5 Million in XRP, Cardano
Singapore-based crypto exchange Bitrue has suffered a major hack, losing 9.3 million XRP and 2.5 million cardano (ADA) from its hot wallet. The news was revealed in an official statement from the exchange published as a twitter thread on June 26. At the time of the breach — 1 a.m. GMT+8 June 27 — the stolen funds would have been worth over $4.5 million in XRP (valued at $0.488) and $237,500 in ADA (valued at $0.095), according to CoinMarketCap data. The exchange states that a purportedly single hacker first “exploited…
Singapore Exchange Bitrue Hacked for Over $4 Million in Crypto
Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitrue has been hacked for around $4.2 million in user assets. The platform announced the breach in tweets, saying that the event was identified at around 1 a.m. local time Thursday. Users funds are insured and anyone who lost cryptocurrency would be refunded, according to the company. The exchange said: “First of all, please let us assure you that this situation is under control, 100% of lost funds will be returned to users, and we are reviewing our security measures and policies to ensure this does not…