Cryptocurrency News Now!: SEC Postpones Decision on Bitcoin ETF Listing, Looking on the Bright Side

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

SEC Postpones Decision on Bitcoin ETF Listing, Looking on the Bright Side

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Let us make our future now, and let us make our dreams tomorrow's reality."

- Malala Yousafzai

Happy Wednesday! Here's a question...you are in a room with Vitalik Buterin, Charlie Lee, Roger Ver, and John McAfee. You can pick one to protect your crypto investment, the other 3 are going to try and hack you. Who do you choose? Let us know on Twitter!

Cheers,
Blockchain Brew Team

MARKET

COIN	PRICE	24H

BTC	$6,520.021857	-8.32%

ETH	$368.916351	-10.05%

XRP	$0.353212	-14.28%

BCH	$617.596002	-12.84%

EOS	$5.973286	-16.25%

*Information as of 9:30 AM EST

REGULATION

SEC Postpones Decision on Bitcoin ETF Listing, Looking on the Bright Side

DECISION TO POSTPONE

Yesterday, the crypto markets slumped after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a statement that explained the SEC is now extending the deadline for the VanEck-SolidX Bitcoin ETF listing decision to September 30th
This release caused a knee-jerk reaction in the markets as Bitcoin went from trading around $7,100 to trading around $6,500 in a matter of hours

The agency wrote in its official release:

"Accordingly, the Commission ... designates September 30, 2018, as the date by which the Commission shall either approve or disapprove, or institute proceedings to determine whether to disapprove, the proposed rule change."

THE BRIGHT SIDE

Some experts are looking for positive explanations for this event and are arguing that this may actually be a good thing for the crypto industry. Here's their reasoning:

Listening - The SEC has clarified that as of August 6th, 2018, there are over 1,300 comments from the public on the SEC's website regarding the Bitcoin ETF proposal. This extension could mean the SEC is taking the time to listen to the public's discussion and feedback.
Treading Lightly - After Hester Peirce publicly dissented against the SEC's disapproval of the Winklevoss BZX Bitcoin ETF, the extension could mean the SEC is now reviewing Bitcoin ETF proposals differently and more thoroughly.

JUST SO YOU KNOW

The SEC can push the decision out another 240 days if it doesn't decide by September 30th
And that outcome doesn't seem to far off as there have been at least 3 different Bitcoin ETF proposals that have been pending since January

RESEARCH

Researchers Uncover Huge Botnet Plaguing Twitter

RESEARCH

Security firm Duo Security performed analysis on 88 million Twitter accounts between May and July and found a network of 15,000 accounts linked to one another
Duo Security used machine learning techniques to identify bots and malicious users
Most notably, the firm mapped a three-tier structure used to perform giveaway scams

THREE TIER STRUCTURE

The first tier in the botnet consisted of impersonation accounts that would mimic popular crypto accounts and tweet phony giveaway links in reply to legitimate tweets
The second group of Twitter accounts was used for two purposes, the first purpose is to inflate the follower account
The final tier of the botnet is “amplification bots”, these accounts favorite and reply to the giveaway tweets to make them seem legitimate

The research study explains this structure:

"[Searching for connected bots] resulted in a 3 tiered botnet structure consisting of the scam publishing bots, the hub accounts (if any) the bots were following, and the amplification bots that like each created tweet. The mapping shows that the amplification bots like tweets from both clusters, binding them together."

PROBLEM STILL NOT SOLVED

While this new research has revealed much more information about how these bots operate, the problem is still ongoing much to the dismay of crypto enthusiasts
Now knowing how all of the bots are connected may just be the key piece to unraveling the entire botnet
Duo Security has plans of open sourcing the tools used in their research to help "keep Twitter and other social networks a place for healthy online discussion and community"

REGULATION

Japan’s Crypto Exchanges Apply to Form Self-Regulatory Body

JVCEA

The Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association is an organization made up of 16 Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges
The organization was formed in March of this year and registered with Japan’s Financial Services Agency in April
Now, the JVCEA has applied to the Financial Services Agency to become a "certified fund settlement business association"

SELF-REGULATING

The exchanges apart of the JVCEA desire to self-regulate themselves, instead of the government
The organization submitted an almost 100-page draft of proposed rules that exchanges would need to follow
Some of these rules include that exchanges conduct mandatory regular audits, prohibit the trading of anonymous currencies, and that margin trading be capped at 4 times the investor’s deposit

JAPAN & CRYPTO

Earlier this year, the Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck was hacked resulting in more than $500 million dollars worth of crypto being stolen
As a result of the theft, the Japanese Financial Services Agency has made efforts to make cryptocurrency trading within the country more secure
Japan has been a crypto friendly country and the FSA wishes to protect investors and prevent money laundering, not ban cryptocurrency totally

RESEARCH

DEA Finds Bitcoin is Used Substantially More For Legal Transactions

CRIME & CRYPTO

Being difficult to comprehend, crypto has had a stigma of being used only for criminal activity
While this stigma is not completely true, there is no doubt that cryptocurrencies have been used for illicit activities
The most major example of using crypto for illegal transactions was the Silk Road marketplace between 2011 and 2013, where Bitcoin was used to buy drugs, paraphernalia, and other illegal goods and services

DEA STUDY

The Drug Enforcement Agency has shared that only about 10% of Bitcoin transactions are used for illegal activity, which is down 80% since 2013
However, this is sort of misleading because the number of transactions and dollar amount has increased dramatically, just not as dramatically as legal transactions

DEA special agent Lilita Infante, who is a member of the 10-person Cyber Investigative Task Force, commented on this:

“The volume has grown tremendously, the amount of transactions and the dollar value has grown tremendously over the years in criminal activity, but the ratio has decreased.”

NOT SO PRIVATE

Bitcoin is not primarily a private cryptocurrency, there are other tokens that offer much more anonymity like Monero and Zcash

Although Monero and Zcash are more private, the DEA claims they are still able to track them, Infante stated:

“The blockchain actually gives us a lot of tools to be able to identify people. I actually want them to keep using them [cryptocurrencies]."

MORE BREWING

Bitmain Hits $15 Billion Valuation With Recent Backing From Uber's Largest Shareholder
Identity Verification: Trusting or Trustless?
Coinbase Enables Instant Trading, Increases Daily Purchase Limit for Verified U.S. Customers to $25,000

TODAY IN CRYPTO