Day: June 28, 2019

Bitcoin Mining is Now More Competitive Than Ever, New Data Shows

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Bitcoin’s (BTC) mining difficulty has reached an all-time high, demonstrating the increasing competition for block rewards between miners, data from Blockchain.com revealed on June 27. Mining difficulty, which adjusts to the network hash rate every 2016 blocks, hit 7.86 trillion, a new record, surpassing the previous peak in October 2018.  Hash rate itself, which set new records on an almost daily basis throughout recent weeks, has meanwhile come down slightly to linger around 56 quintillion hashes per second.  In other words, competition among miners for new blocks as well as…

Central Bank of Uganda Warns Decentralized Cryptocurrencies Are Risky

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The deputy governor of the Bank of Uganda has warned the public about the limited protections offered them when they invest in unregulated cryptocurrencies. English-language Ugandan daily New Vision reports on June 28 that the bank’s deputy governor — Dr. Louis Kaskende — made his remarks during a Town Hall meeting in the city of Masaka, which was devoted to educating the public about the institution’s activities and role.  Despite bitcoin being designed, in particular, as a politically-neutral money, Kaskende reportedly underscored the risks of crypto trading and adoption, stating…

Irish Crypto Exchange Bitsane May Have Disappeared With Users’ Funds

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Irish cryptocurrency exchange Bitsane may have done a runner with users’ funds. Forbes said Thursday that the Bitsane exchange, which offers spot trading of cryptos and gained popularity as an early provider of XRP trading, has gone offline and has deleted its social media accounts. Emails sent by Forbes bounced back, it said. Customers of the exchange are saying that they have possibly lost amounts ranging from $5,000 to $150,000 in crypto holdings. On crypto data website CoinMarketCap, Bitsane’s trading information has not been updated for over 10 days. A user that…

Bitcoin Price Back Above $11,000 as Dip ‘Consistent’ With Parabolic Bull Run

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Bitcoin (BTC) corrected as low as $10,380 before rebounding above $11,000 on June 27 as commentators remain highly bullish about the market’s potential. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Data from Coin360 showed the bitcoin price dipping down from recent highs of $13,800 in a pullback many had anticipated.  BTC/USD gained rapidly throughout this week and last, adding thousands of dollars over several days before resistance at $14,000 finally checked the speed of the growth.  Estimates had said the pair could go as high as $16,000 before reversing, with Cointelegraph reporting…

Exit Scam? Dublin-Based Exchange Bitsane Vanishes With Users’ Funds

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Ireland-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitsane has apparently vanished, taking as many as 246,000 users’ crypto deposits with it. The news was reported by Forbes on June 27. Launched in 2016, Dublin-registered Bitsane LP was formerly listed as one of Ripple’s approved exchanges — a January 2018 CNBC article had also pitched the exchange as an option for investors seeking to trade XRP ahead of its listing on major platforms such as Coinbase. According to Forbes, user withdrawals on Bitsane began faltering in May of this year, with allegedly technical reasons cited…

Mike Novogratz Wishes He Had Sold Lot More Bitcoin on Wednesday

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Photo: Michael Novogratz / Twitter Bitcoin price plunged yesterday roughly after hitting a 17-month high a day earlier. The world’s most widely traded cryptocurrency dropped to a low of $10,373.75 Thursday afternoon what seems to be a $3,000 drop from where it was trading Wednesday. Bitcoin price had rallied to a high of $13,485.85 Wednesday afternoon and it was its highest price since January 2018. It then fell sharply after U.S. markets closed, trading around $10,823. After that, it rose back to around $2,188.08 but at the time of writing…

Iran Bitcoin Miners Set Up Shop in Mosques Amid Gov’t Crackdown

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Iranian bitcoin (BTC) miners are moving into mosques as the government launches an energy crackdown, social media users revealed on June 25. Iran, which offers free energy to mosques, now has around 100 miners occupying places of worship, generating much-needed income of around $260,000 a year.  “This money goes a long way in Iran’s choked sanctioned economy,” Oxford University researcher Mahsa Alimardani explained on Twitter.  Despite its increasingly troubled economic situation, Iran remains uncoordinated when it comes to cryptocurrency policy.  Last year, the central bank officially forbade lenders from servicing…

SEC-Registered Clearing House Brings Crypto Trading to 5 Million Clients

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American financial clearing and execution company Apex Clearing and its crypto investment subsidiary Apex Crypto have launched a new trading platform for broker-dealers and financial advisors to help their clients trade crypto more effectively.  According to a June 27 press release announcing the new broker-integrated Apex Crypto platform, equity investors will be able to seamlessly open and fund new crypto trading accounts “within minutes” — rather than the purported weeks it would usually take clients to do so. Founded in 2012, Apex Clearing is an SEC-registered and FINRA member digital…

Singapore Crypto Exchange Hacked For Over $4 Million in XRP and ADA

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Bitrue, a crypto exchange based in Singapore, has officially announced that it has had $3.9 million in XRP and $225,000 in Cardano (ADA) stolen in an early morning hack. “At approximately 1am June 27 (GMT+8), a hacker exploited a vulnerability in our Risk Control team’s 2nd review process to access the personal funds of about 90 Bitrue users. The hacker used what they learned from this breach to then access the Bitrue hot wallet and move 9.3 million XRP and 2.5 million ADA to different exchanges,” said the Bitrue team.…

tZero Launches Hack Resistant Cryptocurrency App for Bitcoin and Ethereum

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The global leader in blockchain innovation for capital markets, TZero has launched its digital wallet and exchange services app (the “tZERO Crypto App”) for cryptocurrencies. The initial release will support Bitcoin and Ethereum purchases. US retail giant Overstock’s crypto subsidiary tZero launched a digital wallet and exchange ‘tZERO Crypto’app, the company officially announced yesterday. The initial release of the app will support Bitcoin and Ethereum purchases. “tZERO Crypto App live on iOS! This will serve as the foundation for a broader digital asset trading solution. #blockchain #Crypto #Bitcoin2019 #ethereum #tZero $OSTK…