Day: January 25, 2021

DDoS Attackers Return With Massive Extortion Campaigns in the Wake of Bitcoin Prices Surging – Security Bitcoin News

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Threat actors have been finding opportunities in bitcoin’s bullish trend to increase their extortion campaigns. Hackers are actively threatening companies with DDoS attacks unless they pay for bitcoin ransoms. Bull Run Prices Push Extortionists to Increase Bitcoin Ransom Demands According to an alert issued by security firm Radware, there have been several reports between December 2020 and the first week of January 2021 about DDoS extortionists. The firm claims the campaign is part of a global one that started in August last year. However, in the wake of the crypto…

Blockchain Bites: ETH Pumps, Coins Leave Exchanges

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Ethereum’s and Chainklink’s native cryptocurrencies, ether and link, have set new record highs while bitcoin is in motion to recover losses from its worst week in at least five months. Meanwhile, an early blockchain-based digital collectible sold for $762,000 … what!? Top shelf Calling bitcoin bulls:The Income Strategy fund for Miller Value Partners, a legendary hedge fund, recently bought a chunk of MicroStrategy debt issued to buy more bitcoin. Explaining the decision, Bill Miller IV said it was “an almost-free call option” on the cryptocurrency that “has been the best-performing…

Ripple ran crypto’s most expensive lobbying program in 2020

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Ripple Labs spent $690,000 on lobbying in the United States in 2020, which still didn’t save the firm from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Per legally mandated disclosures for 2020, Ripple’s lobbying program dwarfed those of other firms in the crypto industry. Coinbase, which looks to become the first American crypto exchange to issue public shares, spent $230,000 over the same year, while other exchanges like Binance.US, Gemini and Kraken did not report any spending on lobbying. Ripple’s spending on lobbying is, however, relatively paltry compared with the giants of…

It’s time to put the dukes down and work together for blockchain’s future

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Humans over the centuries found themselves quarreling with each other over everything from food to land to ideology, only to later find themselves at peace and cooperating. Later, once more, they’d return to draw arms. Great schisms between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity later repeated with the Protestant–Catholic wars of the 17th century, until peace finally settled upon the parties centuries after they’d begun. Fast forward 400 years, and it’s clear that technology has done nothing to curb our tribal instincts. If anything, the rise of blockchain has magnified these…

Vietnam’s Oldest Bitcoin Exchange Adds Lightning Network Support

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Vietnamese Bitcoin exchange VBTC has integrated the Lightning Network. In an announcement on Sunday, Vietnam’s oldest (and reportedly only Bitcoin-exclusive) exchange revealed that Lightning Network withdrawals are now open to its users.  According to an article by BitcoinVN News, the media arm of BitcoinVN, a parent company which also owns VBTC, Lightning Network withdrawals are priced at 1,000 satoshis plus 0.2% of the withdrawn amount. Normal bitcoin withdrawals have a fee of 100,000 satoshis (0.001). The news comes a few days after the exchange adopted SegWit native batched transactions as…

Bitcoin News Roundup for Jan. 25, 2021

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With bitcoin bouncing and ether hitting a new all-time high, CoinDesk’s Market’s Daily is back with the latest news roundup. Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here. This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io. Today’s stories: First Mover: Bitcoin Flushes ‘Weak Hands’ as Ethereum Hits New All-Time High  Last week’s rout in bitcoin market looks like “weak hands” selling out because bidders appeared to materialize whenever prices fell to $30K. U.S. President Biden is unlikely to raise taxes anywhere close to covering his spending proposals (NYT) China overtook the U.S. as…

Latch Merges with TSIA, Set to Become Publicly Traded Company via IPO, TSIA Stock Up 75%

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After the news about the deal with Latch, TSIA stock has skyrocketed in the pre-market. Latch, maker of the popular software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform LatchOS has announced that it would now be merging with an acquisition company started by the renowned real estate developer and investment manager Tishman Speyer, TS Innovation Acquisitions Corp (NASDAQ: TSIA). TSIA is a publicly-traded company that focuses on special purpose acquisition. The merger would lead to Latch becoming a publicly listed company.  It’s important to note that after the news, TSIA stock has jumped by 75%…

Bitkub submits improvement plans to Thai SEC and resumes trading

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Bitkub, Thailand’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, resumed its services on Jan. 23 following a brief period of shutdown enforced by the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission.  The shutdown followed a number of brief service outages which occurred due to large spikes in traffic when the price of Bitcoin (BTC) broke 1 million Thai baht ($33,340) earlier this month. The psychologically significant figure brought a huge influx of new investors to the site, which struggled to cope with the volume. The SEC ordered the exchange to cease activities and revise operational procedures to…

Assessing Altcoin Mood Music as Bitcoin Catches Its Breath

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While some altcoins have gained in Ethereum’s slipstream, others are plotting their own course while seeking to topple the front-runner itself. Is alt season upon us? Many crypto commentators are predicting just that, after Ethereum (ETH) hit a record high of over $1,440 on January 19. Altcoins have traditionally taken a backseat when Bitcoin is in the ascendancy and appreciated only when BTC consolidates. At the time of publication, several top 40 cryptocurrencies have popped, while Bitcoin’s price is down over 10% since this time last week. Although ETH’s price…