Day: February 20, 2020

Coronavirus Crisis Explodes in South Korea with ‘Level 4’ Alarm

boss

More than 30 people in city of Daegu were confirmed with coronavirus in the past 2 days. The mayor considers the virus to be a level 4 contagious disease, the highest level possible. Local officials are preparing for worse to come. Over 30 confirmed cases of coronavirus have emerged in the South Korean city of Daegu since Tuesday, bringing up the total count to a staggering 108 with the nation’s first confirmed COVID-19-related death. That prompted the city’s mayor to change the status of the outbreak from ‘cautious’ to ‘serious’.…

Bitcoin’s 10% Flash Crash May Actually Satisfy This Bullish Chart Pattern

boss

Bitcoin didn’t fare too well on Wednesday. After recovering to $10,300 from the weekend’s low of $9,500 — a gain of just over 8% — the price of the leading cryptocurrency fell off a cliff as the day came to a close on Wednesday. In the span of a few hours, BTC plunged from $10,300 to as low as $9,250 on some exchanges, marking a crash of approximately 10%. This move was so violent that over $100 million worth of long positions were liquidated on BitMEX, accentuating how many traders…

Brazil’s Central Bank to Launch Near-Instant Payments as a Response to Cryptocurrencies

boss

A new payments system is coming to Brazil later this year promising almost instant transfers. Called PIX, the project from the country’s central bank will provide 24/7 payments in up to 10 seconds via mobile apps, internet banking and ATMs, according to reports from Reuters and local crypto news site Livecoins on Wednesday. Slated for launch on Nov. 10, 2020, PIX is aimed to speed up and reduce the costs of fiat transfers between individuals and businesses. At a launch event for the planned system on Wednesday, Central Bank of…

5 Drastic Changes GameStop Needs to Survive its Retail Nightmare

boss

GameStop is treating employees like crap while profits tumble. The used-game retailer needs to make some major changes if it wants to survive. Becoming a center of nerd culture is a great way to turnaround its abysmal business. A recent Polygon article reveals that GameStop’s own employees aren’t happy with the company. According to several anonymous workers, the company is pushing for more sales, trade-ins, and pre-orders at the expense of customer satisfaction. All of this comes as the company continues to struggle with the changing retail landscape. Brick-and-mortar stores…

Dow Futures Dive As Bloomberg Implosion Locks In Bernie Sanders

boss

U.S. stock market futures fell after Bernie Sanders nomination odds moved above 50% for the first time. Sanders was buoyed by the fact that Mike Bloomberg had a historically bad night, as his odds plummeted after an attack from Elizabeth Warren. Dow bulls were quick to buy the dip, but Wall Street still looks entirely complacent to the risk of a Sanders victory. Dow futures fell around 100 points to 29,244 Wednesday evening as the Democratic debate in Nevada sparked a violent reaction in betting odds that pushed Bernie Sanders…

EU Can’t Decide What to do with Libra

boss

Governments around the world are facing hard choices when it comes to cryptocurrency: overregulate it and risk losing the benefits to the economy, or do nothing and make themselves vulnerable to those who step up. Currently, the European Union can’t figure out what to do about Libra, the digital currency set to be released by Facebook in 2020.  According to a Feb. 19 memo released by Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis on behalf of the European Commission, the Libra Association has fallen short in its responses to questions from the EU. As…

Dutch Authorities Arrest 2 in Million-Euro Crypto Money Laundering Investigations

boss

Dutch tax enforcers with the Netherlands’ Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Services (FIOD) arrested two men Monday for allegedly laundering millions of euros in cryptocurrency, according to a joint statement by the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5). FIOD arrested the Dutch nationals in separate crypto tax evasion investigations, recovering about 260,000 in unnamed cryptocurrencies and more than 6.6 pounds of gold. Credit and debit cards holding crypto and euros were also seized, among other items. One of the suspects is alleged to have used the defunct bitcoin mixing service…

Julian Assange Allegedly Offered Pardon for Denying Russian Hacking

boss

A lawyer for Julian Assange spoke in court on Wednesday, claiming a former Republican congressman offered the WikiLeaks founder a presidential pardon. This clemency was to be in exchange for denying Russian involvement in the 2016 Democratic National Committee email hack.  Assange’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, declared in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Feb. 19 that former congressman Dana Rohrabacher of California’s 48th district had spoken to his client on behalf of the U.S. President. The congressman offered to arrange a presidential pardon from Trump if he would “play ball” by…

Gram Token Injunction Could Go Down to the Wire

boss

Following a two-hour hearing, a New York federal judge has extended the restraining order that prohibits Telegram from distributing its Gram tokens. On Feb 19, Judge P. Kevin Castel of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York reserved judgment on the US Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC)’s request for a preliminary injunction regarding Telegram’s 2019 Gram sale. The SEC believes that the Gram token – which the company described as a utility token for the forthcoming Telegram Open Network (TON) – is a security. The regulator…

Bitcoin Just Signaled “Sell” And It’s Vulnerable to a Massive Correction

boss

Bitcoin failed to climb convincingly above $10,200 against the US Dollar. As a result, BTC declined heavily below $9,800 and it is now vulnerable for a bigger a correction. Bitcoin price failed to clear the $10,200 and $10,300 resistance levels against the US Dollar. There was a sharp decline below the $10,000 and $9,800 support levels. Yesterday’s major bearish trend line acted as a strong hurdle near $10,200 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken). The pair is currently consolidating losses and it might face…