Reminder: Bakkt is Launching Bitcoin Futures in the Coming Day

Bakkt is Finally Here That’s right, Bakkt is finally here. After months upon months of deliberation, hype, and odd regulatory setbacks, the cryptocurrency venture that has been backed by the New York Stock Exchange, Microsoft, and Starbucks is launching. Starting Monday, July 22nd, the exchange will be testing physically delivered Bitcoin futures, which will be one of the first product of its kind to be regulated in U.S. markets. It is currently unclear who will be testing the product, or in which way the contract and custody solution will be…

Crypto Banking Firm FairX Shuts Down Due to Lack of Financing

FairX, a financial services company involved with banking and digital assets, has shut down its operations as it failed to establish a licensed national bank. According to a FairX Twitter thread on July 19, the company has fallen short of setting up a licensed national bank due to a lack of funding. FairX was trying to raise funds for the planned bank over the past 14 months, which it described as: “… a new, licensed, fully regulated national bank, modeled as a financial market utility, that would work with individuals…

Wasabi’s CoinJoin Management Lacks Privacy

The official Samourai Wallet Telegram account raised concerns over the alleged lack of privacy ensured by the CoinJoin implementation of competing wallet Wasabi on July 18.  According to Samourai Wallet, Wasabi wallet CoinJoin transactions are often not as private as they are purported to be. The company pointed out: “With Wasabi if you are mixing 10 BTC [Bitcoin], I can trivially track that 10 BTC as it is peeled down into smaller UTXOS (unspent funds). […] Additionally Wasabi outputs are in the order in which they are registered, allowing you…

Founder of Former ConsenSys-Backed Startup Sues Joseph Lubin for $13M

The founder of ConsenSys-incubated startup Token Foundry, Harrison Hines, is suing Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin for breach of contract. Per court documents filed with the Supreme Court of the State of New York County of New York, Hines has filed a lawsuit against Lubin in connection with “breach of contract, conversion, quantum meruit, unjust enrichment, fraud, declaratory judgment and unpaid profits arising from the defendants’ acts in connection with the business known as Token Foundry.” Hines thus intends to collect over $13 million, wherein “the relief sought is monetary damages…

South Korea: Crypto Crimes Cost $2.28B Since July 2017

The South Korean Justice Ministry estimates that cryptocurrency-related crimes have caused 2.69 trillion won (about $2.28 billion) of financial damage between July 2017 and June 2019. According to a July 21 report by English-language local media The Korea Herald, the ministry claimed that 132 cryptocurrency-related criminals and fraudsters had been indicted and detained, with another 288 indicted without physical detention during the aforementioned time frame. The report states that, while Justice Minister Park Sang-kim has ordered stern measures against cryptocurrency criminals, a lack of clear regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges has…

Major Coins Trading Sideways With Moderate Losses, Bitcoin Near $10,400

Sunday, July 21 — Major coins are mostly trading sideways, remaining relatively quiet with moderate losses over the past 24 hours, according to data from Coin360. Market visualization from Coin360 The leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) broke the $11,000 threshold earlier yesterday, but could not hold its position and dipped to its current price point of $10,406, down by 1.86% on the day. In terms of its weekly performance, BTC has lost 2.20%. Bitcoin 24-hour price chart. Source: Coin360 The second-largest crypto, Ether (ETH), has taken a downturn as well and…

Top-5 Crypto Performers: BSV, XTZ, TRX, LTC, ATOM, OKB*

A few of the top performers of the week are showing signs of a turnaround. The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. While Libra is expected to draw retail customers to cryptocurrencies, Bakkt is likely to attract institutional investors. Following the Bakkt Digital Asset Summit held on July 18, Managing…

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Builds a Blockchain Energy-Efficiency Company in Malta

Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak has carried out an initiative that will be incorporating blockchain to bring more efficiency in the field of energy. At the pre-launch of Delta Summit, Malta’s leading digital innovation event, he talked about the company he co-founded with Jacobo Visetti and invested in, EFFORCE. The company will be based on blockchain and work on bringing the level of efficiency in the field of energy. EFFORCE will be based in Malta. Applications of blockchain have been scaling to various industries. Sectors such as power and energy have…

CFTC Investigates Crypto Exchange BitMEX over Alleged Illicit US Trading

Seychelles-based cryptocurrency subsidiaries exchange BitMEX is being examined by the America Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to decide if it defied guidelines by permitting U.S dealers into its platform. As per a Bloomberg report on Friday, the investigation would take several months to explore the issue since BitMEX isn’t enlisted with the CFTC. BitMEX CEO and founder Arthur Hayes was quoted saying about the crypto exchange’s imbroglio: “BitMEX gives secured, quick, and standard methods for the individuals who see the capability of crypto and to exchange and fence digital currency…

BitMEX Bitcoin Volume Slumps 33% After CFTC Investigation

It was recently revealed that the US Commodity Futures and Trade Commission was beginning a month long investigation of the BitMEX crypto exchange over its high leverage Bitcoin trading options and the legality of allowing US citizens to access the platform. Bitcoin Trading Down on BitMEX Bloomberg originally broke the story that the US exchange would be coming under scrutiny from regulators. NewsBTC covered the events yesterday which appear to be linked to comments from senators regarding the crypto industry at two hearings last week on Facebook’s Libra project. The…