Hester Peirce’s Last Effort at SEC as Wilshire Phoenix BTC ETF Is Rejected

Securities and Exchange Commissioner (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce has published a dissenting statement in response to the Commission’s rejection of Wilshire Phoenix’s Bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund application.  In her statement, Peirce slams the SEC for its biased treatment of Bitcoin-related products with the passion of a “Bitcoin maximalist.” Given that the commissioner’s term expires in a little over three months, at the beginning of June 5, it raises a question: Could Peirce be positioning herself for a life after the SEC? Anti-Bitcoin bias among regulators? In her latest statement, Commissioner…

BIS Paper Reckons With P2P Payments, Tokenized Securities, Central Bank Digital Currencies

Researchers at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) are grappling with the future of payments – so much so that their newest quarterly report, released Sunday, is entirely dedicated to what that potential revolution holds. In its 138-page look at what lies beyond the financial horizon, the Swiss-based institution reckoned with coming trends that may well shape tomorrow’s payments infrastructure: tokenized securities, central bank digital currencies, cross-border payments and peer-to-peer innovations.   BIS Head of Research Hyun Song Shin said “the pace of change and potential for disruption” have made examining…

Tether CTO to Tell the Story of USDT Stablecoin At Upcoming Conference

Amid ongoing lawsuits surrounding controversial stablecoin Tether (USDT), the company’s CTO plans to detail the asset’s background at an upcoming conference.  Bitfinex and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino is slated to recount “the story of Tether’s inception and success” in a keynote speech at the CryptoCompare Digital Asset Summit in London on March 10, a statement from CryptoCompare said on Feb. 28. The firm’s CTO appears confident Although Tether still sits entangled in a complicated legal battle, the firm’s CTO thinks the stablecoin is at its best. “Through continuous innovation, Tether…

Market Update: Coronavirus Fears, Stock Market Crash, and Bitcoin Price Predictions

Digital currency markets have been consolidating since the initial price drop on February 26 that saw $25 billion shaved off the entire cryptocurrency market. At the time of publication, the cryptoconomy is hovering just above the $245 billion zone and a few coins today are making slight gains. Also read: MTV Airs Only the Negative Parts of Crypto Youtuber ‘Ya Girl’ Rachel Siegel’s Bitcoin Analysis As Crypto Markets Consolidate, Traders Await the Next Move On Sunday, March 1, 2020, most digital currencies have been consolidating into a triangular pattern and…

LEO, HT, LINK, HEDG, Bitcoin (BTC)

The last week of February saw a blood bath across various asset classes on fears that the coronavirus outbreak is turning into a pandemic. This led investors to dump their positions in the equity markets, which wiped off about $3.8 trillion of value in U.S. stocks. Gold, which has acted as a traditional safe haven was not spared. The yellow metal plunged about 4.6% on Feb. 28, which took the weekly loss to about 5% for the week.   This shows that the investors did not differentiate between asset classes and…

Kraken Donates 17.5 Bitcoin to Collaborative Hackerspace Noisebridge

On Feb. 27 Noisebridge advocate and attendee John Backus woke up to see that approximately 17.513 Bitcoin (BTC) – equivalent to about $156,000 at the time –  had been deposited into Noisebridge’s cryptocurrency wallet.  The unexpected deposit came from U.S. based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. The exchange sent the Bitcoin as a donation in response to a tweet that Backus had put out the day before asking for funds to help keep Noisebridge running.  Source Twitter In an interview with Cointelegraph on Feb. 27 at Noisebridge, Backus said that he was…

MTV Airs Only the Negative Parts of Crypto Youtuber ‘Ya Girl’ Rachel Siegel’s Bitcoin Analysis

A new television series by MTV features arguably the channel’s first crypto personality. Rachel Siegel, a bitcoin advocate and proponent of mass adoption who’s behind the Youtube channel Crypto Finally, was invited to enrich the story of a $5 million SIM swapping scam with her expertise. The episode was aired recently, attracting much attention from the crypto community, and not only for what it showed, but also what was cut out. Also read: Cryptocurrency Explained on the Latest Episode of The Simpsons MTV Show Consults ‘Crypto Expert’ on a $5…

Blockchain Storage Offers Security, but Leaves Data Transparent

In November 2019, security firm Risk Based Security called last year the “worst year on record” for breaches, with almost 8 billion records affected. Third-party control over personal data makes privacy something that is no longer a given. The advent of blockchain technology seems to have heralded a new era in data security. However, as the technology has become more common on the internet, questions have arisen concerning its ability to securely store data. The reason lies in complete transparency that may not be good for confidentiality, as recently claimed by blockchain…

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words: 18 of the Coolest Visualizations for Exploring the Bitcoin Network

Analyzing and exploring the Bitcoin blockchain is always interesting, but for the more abstract thinker, several sites provide unique looks at the network, nodes, and transaction data in easy to grok, visual fashion. Some of these even border on the psychedelic or sci-fi otherworldly, taking viewers on a virtual trip through the blockchain. Also read: How to Check the Bitcoin Price, Hashrate, Data – The 21 Best Monitoring Sites 18 of the Coolest Bitcoin Visuals billfodl.com – An audiovisual site, Billfodl’s Bitbonkers is the perfect visualizer to have running in…

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words: 18 of the Coolest Visualizations for Exploring the Bitcoin Network

Analyzing and exploring the Bitcoin blockchain is always interesting, but for the more abstract thinker, several sites provide unique looks at the network, nodes, and transaction data in easy to grok, visual fashion. Some of these even border on the psychedelic or sci-fi otherworldly, taking viewers on a virtual trip through the blockchain. Also read: How to Check the Bitcoin Price, Hashrate, Data – The 21 Best Monitoring Sites 18 of the Coolest Bitcoin Visuals billfodl.com – An audiovisual site, Billfodl’s Bitbonkers is the perfect visualizer to have running in…