Tuesday, September 3, 2019

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September 3, 2019
SIDE-DOOR ETF: While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has so far blocked a number of proposed bitcoin ETFs, two firms aim to launch a more limited option this week. Announced Tuesday, VanEck Securities and SolidX Management – which have previously had a decision on their proposed bitcoin ETF postponed by the SEC – revealed they are using an SEC exemption that will allow shares in their VanEck SolidX Bitcoin Trust to be offered to institutions such as hedge funds and banks, but not to retail investors. Full story

HOT SPOT: Russia’s abandoned Soviet-era factories are enjoying a second life as cryptocurrency mining facilities as Siberia’s big hydropower plants (another legacy of the USSR) lure miners with cheap electricity. The favorable costs and naturally cold climate are turning Siberia into an international mining hub with miners from Europe, Asia and the U.S. placing their rigs in local farms. Full story

STEPPING DOWN: Billionaire and crypto industry veteran Anthony Di Iorio, founder of the Jaxx wallet-maker Decentral, retired this week to focus on “philanthropic initiatives,” he told CoinDesk. The ethereum co-founder will continue funding Decentral and approving budgets as chairman of the board. Meanwhile, former product manager Maggie Xu, will take the helm as the company’s new CEO. “If [Xu] develops a roadmap, presents it to me, it will be approved depending on which resources she needs,” Di Iorio said. Full story

PWC PAYMENTS: “Big Four” auditing firm PwC’s Luxembourg branch will accept cryptocurrency payments from clients starting next month. The move, announced Monday, is a response to client demand and demonstrates PwC Luxembourg’s belief in blockchain technology’s “medium to long-term” role in the economy, the firm said. PwC Luxembourg said it partnered with a local exchange to facilitate the payments. It did not identify the exchange and will initially only accept bitcoin payments. Full story

CHINA TRADE: HSBC has carried out the first blockchain-based letter of credit transaction denominated in Chinese yuan. The bank said Tuesday that the transaction marked progress for the Voltron trade finance blockchain platform it developed alongside other banks including BNP Paribas and Standard Chartered. The bank is moving from small pilots towards a possible commercial rollout of the platform at the end of this year or early in 2020. Full story
DOMINANCE RISING: Bitcoin's sudden recovery from $9,320 to $10,600 has neutralized the short-term bearish setup. The outlook, however, would only turn bullish if prices print a UTC close above the lower high of $10,956 created on Aug. 10. While the rise in bitcoin's dominance rate to 30-month highs supports the bullish case, low volumes and gloomy weekly chart indicators favor the downside. Full story

D’OH! A New Jersey man responsible for a crypto theft accidentally emailed an apology to a police detective during the resulting investigation, NJ.com reports. Darren Carter had managed to make off with over $15,000 in crypto after he stole a mobile phone belonging to a Connecticut resident at an airport. The funds were retrieved and returned to the proper owner, while Carter has been charged with identity theft.

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Bitcoin.com launches exchange / Bitcoin Cash's 2MB blocks / North Korea denies $2bn hack

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Happy Tuesday everyone!

I hope you all had a lovely Labor Day and are back into the swing of things after the long weekend.

Here's an update on the Bitcoin 100 Twitter list. Since my last post, I've added Aya Miyaguchi, executive director at the Ethereum Foundation, Leigh Cuen, crypto writer at Coin Desk, Udi Wertheimer, a developer, consultant, and Bitcoiner, and Arthur Hayes, co-Founder & CEO of BitMEX.

As always if you think any names should be added to the list I'm more than happy to check them out and get them included.

     

Market Watch: Following Labor Monday, Bitcoin is back up over $10,000. The market is in the green today with the month of September getting off to a positive start.

  • Bitcoin: $10,413 (⬆️ 6.02%) // $186.5 billion market cap.
  • Ethereum: $177 (⬆️ 2.93%) // $19.05 billion market cap.
  • XRP: $0.259 (⬆️ 1.60%) // $11.1 billion market cap.
  • Bitcoin Cash: $296 (⬆️ 3.27%) // $5.3 billion market cap.
  • Top 100 Winner: V Systems: $0.159 (⬆️ 14.31%) // $285 million market cap.
  • Top 100 Loser: Bytecoin: $0.0005 (⬇️ 11.35%) // $93 million market cap.

Prices are as of 09:00 a.m. EDT.

     

1. Bitcoin.com has launched a digital asset exchange, exchange.Bitcoin.com, that it hopes will compete against the likes of  Binance and Coinbase. The exchange will "host a slew of trading pairs," including Litecoin, XRP, Tron, Zcash, XLM, and EOS. It will also have markets dominated in base currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Tether. Danish Chaudhry, managing director of the exchange, said that Bitcoin.com has been working on the project for a year. He added that it's hoping to compete against the bigger, more established platforms such as Coinbase and Binance. –BITCOIN.COM

     

2. A crypto thief, who stole over $15,000 in cryptocurrency, has been caught by Connecticut police after mistakenly sending an apology email to a detective that was meant for the victim. The 29-year-old man from New Jersey had stolen a phone at an airport in California and may have got away with his crime. However, during the four-month investigation, the suspect sent an email, which ended up in the wrong hands. He is alleged to have transferred $15,472 worth of crypto from the victim's Coinbase account, which was then converted into U.S. dollars and transferred to his PayPal account. He was arrested for identity theft. Authorities recovered the stolen funds and returned them to the victim. –NJ.COM

     
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3. Bitcoin Cash is, reportedly, unable to mine blocks bigger than two megabytes. That's according to Amaury Séchet, the lead developer of Bitcoin ABC, a spin-off of the first Bitcoin Cash network. In a Reddit post, Séchet was responding to criticism from another user and added by arguing that there wasn't "actual demand for anywhere close to 2MB." Notably, the ability to process large blocks was the focal point of Bitcoin Cash when it came into existence in 2017. Blockstream engineer Grubles took to Twitter to highlight Séchet's admission. "No big deal. Just the main developer for #bitcoincash saying it can't currently handle bigger than 2MB blocks," he tweeted. –REDDIT

     

4. North Korea has denied it hacked $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency and fiat to fund its weapons of mass destruction, according to a UN report. A statement for the National Coordination Committee of the DPRK for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism read that the U.S. and "other hostile forces" were spreading "ill-hearted rumors." It went on to say that this was nothing, but a "nasty game aimed at tarnishing the image of our Republic..." Last month, the UN claimed in a report that North Korea was using "increasingly sophisticated attacks" to steal money. –REUTERS

North Korea denies it hacked $2bn in crypto and fiat
     
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5. The Dutch central bank has said that it will regulate companies that offer crypto-related services as of January 10, 2020. Revealed today, the De Nederlandsche Bank stated that if organizations wish to continue operating in the space, they must first register with the bank. The news follows advice given to Wopke Hoekstra, Dutch Minister of Finance, in January, that a licensing system should be introduced for crypto services. –REUTERS

     

6. RT host Max Keiser said in a tweet yesterday that altcoins are "never coming back" following a downturn in market prices over the past few weeks. His tweet comes at a time when Bitcoin is dominating just under 70 percent of the market, according to CoinMarketCap. Some, however, didn't appreciate his remarks. One user replied by simply saying "just like Maxcoin, right?" referring to the Max Keiser-inspired altcoin that was reported on back in 2014. –@maxkeiser

     

7. Australian Securities Exchange-listed firm Security Matters has filed a patent application in the U.S. to track the cannabis supply chain on the blockchain. According to the company, the patent can be applied to mark, track, and manage the supply chain, including cannabis-derived ingredients and products. It aims to tackle two problems in the industry: tracing cannabis' origin and to control and monitor its content. –ZDNET

     

8. Slovenia-based Crypto platform Eligma has secured nearly $4.4 million in funding from Bitcoin.com executive chair Roger Ver. Funding has also come from the Pangea Blockchain Fund, a Swiss investment company. One of the products under Eligma is Elipay, a system that enables merchants to accept crypto payments at their point-of-sale. Eligma is currently available in 430 locations in Slovenia and Croatia, but it's hoped that this secured funding will help to boost crypto adoption worldwide. –FINEXTRA

     

9. A new report from McAfee Labs has found that crypto-jacking attacks rose 29 percent from Q4 2018 to Q1 2019. According to the August 2019 Threats Report, Microsoft Windows and Apple iOS users were targeted. For Microsoft, products were singled out using a PowerShell command, which was used to mine privacy coin Monero. Malware program CookieMiner was employed against MacOS systems to steal wallets and credentials. –COIN DESK

     

10. HSBC has completed the first blockchain letter of credit transaction in yuan. According to Ajay Sharma, HSBC's head of trade for Asia, the use of the blockchain will help to ease financing troubles for small companies. In the past, obtaining letters of credit for small firms has been difficult. It's hoped that over time, though, the bad name and complexity that letters of credit have got will reduce. –SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

     

This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. Connect with her on Twitter.

Editor: David Stegon (senior editor at Inside, whose reporting experience includes cryptocurrency and technology).

     
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