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TAX HUNT: HM Revenue & Customs, the British tax authority, is pressuring cryptocurrency exchanges to reveal customers’ names and transaction histories, in a bid to claw back unpaid taxes, industry sources said. Letters requesting such data have landed on the doorsteps of at least three exchanges doing business in the U.K. – Coinbase, eToro and CEX.IO – in the last week or so, the sources said. “HMRC is looking to work with exchanges when it comes to finding information on people who have been buying and selling crypto. I think they will only go back a couple of years, two or three years,” said one insider. Full story
WALLET BATTLE: Bitcoin privacy wallet Samourai announced last Thursday that its primary competitor, Wasabi Wallet, is the target of an ongoing network attack, and said Wasabi did not properly address the issue. The blog post is the latest in a string of allegations Samourai has leveled against Wasabi since mid-July. The attack, claims Samourai Wallet, resembles a Sybil attack, where a small number of users falsify new identities to appear much larger in number. This would mean that the anonymity set, or crowd, in which a user can hide their bitcoin transactions is not as large as Wasabi suggests. Wasabi has issued statements refuting Samourai’s claims. Full story
DAPPS GALORE: Samsung is adding over a dozen new apps to its blockchain dapp arsenal. Launched in March 2019 with its flagship Galaxy S10 phone, Samsung’s online dapp store, Blockchain Keystore, has grown from an initial four applications to a total of 17. The four original dapps included a password wallet, a game, a social media app, and a billing app, while new dapps include an assortment of products from social media app Anpan to entertainment app The Hunters, according to CoinDesk Korea. Full story
ELECTRICITY SHOCK: A Malta-based bitcoin miner has taken action after getting a nasty surprise when he received his electricity bill. As reported by Malta Today, the unnamed man had bought a bitcoin miner from local IT firm 3 Group, but found that the power costs were greater than the value of the bitcoin earned by mining with the device. He therefore took his complaint to Malta’s Consumer Claims Tribunal. The firm did not contest the complaint and the tribunal decided that the customer should be refunded €2,000 ($2,240). Full story
BIG BACKING: Crypto lending startup BlockFi received $18.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures, the company announced Tuesday. Valar, which was founded in part by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, was joined by Winklevoss Capital, Galaxy Digital, ConsenSys, Akuna Capital, Susquehanna, CMT Digital, Morgan Creek, Avon Ventures and PJC. Valar’s investment was its first in the cryptocurrency industry following prior investments in other fintech firms like Transferwise, a press release said. Full story |
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| BRIEF SPIKE: BTC has pulled back to $11,700 from one-month highs above $12,300 hit earlier today. The price may soon drop further, too, as the cryptocurrency is looking heavy on the intraday charts. The dip, however, could be short lived, as the longer duration charts are still biased bullish. A UTC close above $12,000, if confirmed, could bolster the bullish prospects, opening the doors to retest of recent highs near $13,800. Full story |
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| | PASSWORD STEALER: Cybersecurity firm Avast says a crypto-targeting form of malware has been blocked by its anti-virus app over 360,000 times. The malicious piece of code, dubbed Clipsa, is a “multipurpose password stealer” that can replace crypto wallet addresses in the clipboard with addresses owned by the malware’s distributors. It can also mine cryptos on infected machines. The “attack vector is most likely malicious codec pack installers for media players,” says Avast. |
WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER
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