Bitcoin Slides Back Below $10K Amid Quick Bearish Sell-Off

Bitcoin has dipped back below the psychological area of support near the $10,000 level amid a 20-minute bearish sell-off that took the markets by surprise. At around 21:30 UTC on Feb. 19, the price of bitcoin (BTC) fell more than 4.5 percent from $10,086 to $9,610, according to CoinDesk’s BPI data, despite the technical signs appearing to favor the bulls. On exchanges like Bitstamp and Coinbase, prices dropped to as low as $9,280 before quickly being snatched up by opportunistic buyers looking to capitalize on the fall. BTC is now…

OpenNode Finds Way for Retailers to Turn Fiat Payments Into Bitcoin (Using Apple Pay)

The bitcoin payments startup OpenNode just gained access to Apple Pay, according to the startup’s head of marketing, Ryan Flowers. This could be a boon for the small subset of merchants who want to hold bitcoin, because it allows people to spend dollars through their regular fintech accounts yet still have those dollars exchanged to bitcoin for the merchant to receive. The customer’s fiat payment goes through OpenNode’s partner, Wyre, converting to bitcoin (BTC) and depositing in the merchant’s wallet. Merchants can sign up to be part of the private…

US Court Tells Telegram and SEC to Focus on ‘Economic Realities’ of Gram Token Sale

A U.S. federal judge says the SEC shouldn’t get hung up on “labels” in determining whether messaging platform Telegram conducted an illegal securities offering. In his first public remarks on the case, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York began Wednesday’s hearing with an opening statement that urged both parties to consider the “economic realities” of the $1.7 billion token sale while recognizing that “disclaimers don’t control” how the court views the asset. Castel also asked about Telegram’s economic justification for…

US Court Tells Telegram and SEC to Focus on ‘Economic Realities’ of Gram Token Sale

A U.S. federal judge says the SEC shouldn’t get hung up on “labels” in determining whether messaging platform Telegram conducted an illegal securities offering. In his first public remarks on the case, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York began Wednesday’s hearing with an opening statement that urged both parties to consider the “economic realities” of the $1.7 billion token sale while recognizing that “disclaimers don’t control” how the court views the asset. Castel also asked about Telegram’s economic justification for…

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the DeFi ‘Flash Loan’ Attack

There’s now a case study for how DeFi can go awry. bZx, the eighth-largest decentralized finance project according to DeFi Pulse, suffered two attacks last weekend following the introduction of “flash loans,” a new DeFi feature that limits a trader’s risk while improving the upside.  Led by CEO Tom Bean, the bZx team was attending ETHDenver, a major ethereum conference in Colorado’s capital, on Friday when an unknown attacker drained about $350,000 worth of ether from Fulcrum, the startup’s lending platform. As a post-mortem from the firm describes, the attacker…

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the DeFi ‘Flash Loan’ Attack

There’s now a case study for how DeFi can go awry. bZx, the eighth-largest decentralized finance project according to DeFi Pulse, suffered two attacks last weekend following the introduction of “flash loans,” a new DeFi feature that limits a trader’s risk while improving the upside.  Led by CEO Tom Bean, the bZx team was attending ETHDenver, a major ethereum conference in Colorado’s capital, on Friday when an unknown attacker drained about $350,000 worth of ether from Fulcrum, the startup’s lending platform. As a post-mortem from the firm describes, the attacker…

Andrew Yang Signs on to Be CNN’s Don Lemon for Smart People

Andrew Yang just signed on to CNN as a political commentator. He follows in the footsteps of many flunked presidential candidates. CNN finally has a Don Lemon for smart people. Presidential aspirant Andrew Yang threw in the towel after the New Hampshire primary. He conceded that as “the math guy” in the race, he had to acknowledge his numbers don’t look good in Super Tuesday states. Way to compliment himself on being smart. But Yang’s math isn’t really so great when it comes to his universal basic income scheme, “The…

Andrew Yang Signs on to Be CNN’s Don Lemon for Smart People

Andrew Yang just signed on to CNN as a political commentator. He follows in the footsteps of many flunked presidential candidates. CNN finally has a Don Lemon for smart people. Presidential aspirant Andrew Yang threw in the towel after the New Hampshire primary. He conceded that as “the math guy” in the race, he had to acknowledge his numbers don’t look good in Super Tuesday states. Way to compliment himself on being smart. But Yang’s math isn’t really so great when it comes to his universal basic income scheme, “The…

HSBC to Drop 35,000 Jobs and Invest in Digital Finance

In an earnings call held on Tuesday, Feb. 18, an HSBC executive revealed the bank plans to cut 35,000 jobs by the end of 2022 and invest more in digital systems.  The plan for HSBC in the next three years is to cut down on staff and branches and simplify the operation by investing in technology. Noel Quinn, group chief executive added in the earnings call that:  “In Retail Banking, we will expand our products offering and increase our investment in digital. We’ll refocus our Retail Banking presence to serve…

TradeSanta launches contest for traders

TradeSanta, a software providing cloud-based crypto trading services, is conducting the contest for users who want to win one of ten TradeSanta’s yearlong subscriptions. The basic plan you might land includes up to 49 trading bots, unlimited number of pairs, all strategies, Telegram notifications and general support from the team. TradeSanta says that with this contest, it aims to spread awareness about the benefits of trading crypto with bots. The challenge allows people from all over the world not only to take part in the race for free bots but…