Day: September 10, 2020

ICO fines company £130,000 for unauthorised pensions cold calls

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The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a fine under a law brought in to stop scammers defrauding people out of their pensions. Swansea company CPS Advisory Ltd was fined £130,000 for making more than 100,000 unauthorised direct marketing calls to people about their pensions. The law changed in 2019 to limit who can call people about their pensions. Andy Curry, ICO Head of Investigations, said: “Unwanted pension calls can cause real distress and even significant financial hardship to often vulnerable people, who can end up losing their hard-earned pension…

Structural Issues May Be Causing BitMEX’s Low Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Returns

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BitMEX may be one of the largest crypto derivatives platforms, but it offers the lowest return on bitcoin “cash and carry” trades. Currently, the return offered by Seychelles-based BitMEX on a three-month basis is 2.71% annualized, half of what rival exchanges like Binance, FTX and Deribit are offering, according to data source Skew. Cash and carry arbitrage involves buying an asset in the spot market against a sell position in the futures market when the latter is trading at a premium to the spot price. Essentially, carry strategies profit from…

Ex-CIA agent drags Microsoft’s crypto patent into right-wing conspiracy

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Cryptocurrencies are not immune to the feverish climate in 2020 — a year in which the line between mainstream politics and an online morass of conspiratorial theories is becoming ever more blurred. Former CIA counterintelligence and staff investigator Kevin Shipp, who has close to 150,000 followers on Twitter, has now dragged a recent Microsoft cryptocurrency patent into the quagmire. On Sept. 10, Shipp linked Microsoft’s recent cryptocurrency patent, which would enable users to mine crypto using their body activity data, to a short-lived Microsoft ad that had featured the Serbian…

Belarusian BYSOL Brings Bitcoin Grants to Repressed Protesters

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The Belarusian BYSOL Fund was created by the co-founders of the BY_help campaign, Belarusian diaspora, and business representatives to support anyone who lost their jobs because of their beliefs and opinions. Belarus-based non-profit organization BYSOL has been showing financial solidarity to ease the pains of Belarusian protesters with Bitcoin (BTC). The Belarusian BYSOL organization named taking note of Belarus country code BY and SOLidarity supports citizens laid off work with Bitcoin (BTC) worth US$1,500. It’s been about four weeks since the conclusion of the Belarusian presidential election, the controversial election…

DCG’s Foundry to finance Bitmain customers in North America

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China’s crypto mining giant Bitmain has entered a new partnership to streamline its operations in North America. As Bitmain officially announced on Sept. 10, the company has officially partnered with Foundry, a wholly-owned crypto mining subsidiary of major cryptocurrency firm, Digital Currency Group, or DCG. Within the partnership, Foundry will provide financing to Bitmain’s end customers in North America. According to Bitmain, obtaining financing is more difficult for crypto miners than for firms in other industries. Foundry, in its turn, will help “ship a significant number of machines into North…

Fiat Devaluation Drives Retail Bitcoin Transfers in Africa 56% in a Year: Report

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Monthly cryptocurrency transfers to and from Africa under $10,000 soared more than 56% from a year ago to reach $316 million in June, according to new research by U.S. crypto analytics firm Chainalysis. Altogether, $8 billion worth of crypto was received into the continent and $8.1 billion sent onchain in the last year. The total value of retail-sized transfers slowed down somewhat between November 2019 and February 2020 – falling to as low as $147 million – but spiked sharply in the ensuing months, as the hype around Bitcoin’s third…

How to Watch INX’s IPO in Real Time on the Ethereum Blockchain

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How’s the first registered offering of security tokens in the U.S. going? See for yourself. In the two weeks since INX Ltd. commenced its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO), more than 350 investors’ Ethereum addresses have been added to the “white list” of approved buyers. You don’t need to take the company’s word for it, it’s all on the blockchain, viewable through block explorer sites like Etherscan.  The public data doesn’t show who these registered investors are or how many of the tokens, priced at $0.90 each, any of them…

Ripple (XRP) Just Saw A Key Technical Breakout: Relief Rally Underway

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Ripple started a steady recovery wave, following bitcoin’s upward move and ethereum’s rally against the US Dollar. XRP price is likely to revisit $0.2575 or $0.2620 in the near term. Ripple is up 4% and it is trading above the $0.2350 and $0.2440 resistance levels against the US dollar. The price is showing positive signs above the $0.2450 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. There was a break above a key bearish trend line with resistance near $0.2360 on the hourly chart of the XRP/USD pair (data source…

Revolut expands to Japan as its first non-English speaking market

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Revolut, a major European cryptocurrency-friendly trading application is expanding to another major market. The London-based firm has launched its digital banking app in Japan, as Revolut announced in a Sept. 8 tweet. According to a report by The Nikkei, Japan is the first non-English speaking market for Revolut. Headquartered in London, the company reportedly has 13 million users worldwide, operating in European countries, the United States, Australia and Singapore. As reported, Revolut’s initial roll out in Japan will be limited to “international transfers” and “managing money in 23 currencies.” Registered…