A Digital Cryptocurrency Mining Company
After recording a rebound from $6,500 to $7,000 on April 2, the price of bitcoin has surged 6 percent again today, on April 4, as the entire cryptocurrency market recorded a daily gain of $10 billion. While several smaller cryptocurrencies like Steem and VeChain have outperformed bitcoin with a 50% and 25% increase in value,
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The Canadian parent conglomeration of the 9th largest bank in the United States, Toronto-Dominion Bank, has had a blockchain patent submitted to the US patent office since September of 2016. The patent covers a “virtual draft system and method” and includes the words “block chain” in such combination exactly 10 times. The patent application, like
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The US Securities Exchange Commission’s new Cyber Unit task force has taken down boxing great Floyd Mayweather’s sponsor, Centra Tech, alleging their ICO was based on fraudulent products and made up biographies.
The SEC announced on Monday that it was charging the founders of Centra Tech with fraud based on claims the company made about their suite of cryptocurrency related products such as e-wallets and major credit card backed prepaid debit cards.
Sohrab Sharma and Robert Farkas have been charged with fraud for selling “unregistered securities” related to the $32 million they raised from the ICO of their CTR coin between September 19 and October 5. Both men have been separately charged by criminal authorities of the same crime according to the SEC’s official press release.
The Florida based company that claimed to be “creating a world connected to cryptocurrency” through their products has been charged with violating the anti-fraud and registration provisions of federal securities laws.
The charges were brought when the SEC discovered the company has no agreement with either MasterCard or Visa to support their prepaid cards and also for having falsified impressive biographies and creating false or misleading marketing materials.
Centra Tech paid for celebrity endorsements from both DJ Kahleed and boxing legend Floyd Mayweather who touted the company on Instagram and Twitter to entice customers to invest millions into their ICO. Mayweather Tweeted out this message to his followers on the launch of the CTR ICO.
Centra’s (CTR) ICO starts in a few hours. Get yours before they sell out, I got mine https://t.co/nSiCaZ274l pic.twitter.com/dB6wV0EROJ
— Floyd Mayweather (@FloydMayweather) September 18, 2017
Steve Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, took Centra and its co-founders practices to task in his press release saying.
“[T]he defendants relied heavily on celebrity endorsements and social media to market their scheme … Endorsements and glossy marketing materials are no substitute for the SEC’s registration and disclosure requirements as well as diligence by investors.”
The SEC let tech companies know they were getting serious about digital securities fraud when it created its cyber unit which is wholly dedicated to the investigation and prosecution of ICO’s and blockchain related companies. They announced in February that an official probe into the market had begun.
Since then 80 subpoenas and more information requests have been issued to cryptocurrency companies and advisors launching ICO’s as part of an ongoing probe into the digital currency market.
The cyber units effect may already be taking hold as cryptocurrency based ICO’s have fallen off since the probe began raising just over $600 million in March which was half the amount of the previous month and the lowest since August.
Hong Kong exchange Binance reacted quickly to the news by posting a warning about the CTR token on its announcements page;
“This is a special announcement about the high risk associated with the CTR token in light of the information released earlier today relating to the controversial and fraudulent acts by members associated with the Centra Tech team.
We will continue to seek more information and monitor the situation closely, and may take further action including delisting. Should we choose to delist the token, a notice period of no less than 72 hours will be provided.”
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Active crypto traders can qualify for trader tax status (TTS) to deduct business and home-office expenses. And there might be an additional benefit.
Markets have been pretty grim viewing over the past few days however they have started to show some signs of life during this morning’s Asian trading session. Bitcoin has remained above $7,000 and is inching towards $7,200, up 3% on the day. Ethereum is still getting crushed but most of the altcoins are in the green again this morning. One or two are doing exceptionally well and the leader of the moment is VeChain.
According to Coinmarketcap VeChain is trading almost 29% higher this morning, leading the way in the top 25 altcoins. From around $2.27 this time yesterday VEN has jumped to a daily high of $3 before falling back a little to $2.90. Over the week it has remained at around the same level and has remade all losses from its weekly low of $2.15. Against BTC VeChain is up 26% to around 41000 satoshis from a level of 32500 sats this time yesterday. Over the week VEN has climbed around 8% against Bitcoin from a level of around 37850 satoshis this time last week.
The recent spike in Southeast Asia has been caused by a new exchange listing which usually has this effect. According to their Twitter feed VeChain is about to be listed on Bithumb, South Korea’s largest exchange.
Followed by Bithumb Pro, we are glad to announce that VeChain tokens will be listed on Bithumb Main in the next few hours! @BithumbOfficial @Bithumb_Korea. #GoVeChain https://t.co/7qrSYTWcIJ
— VeChain Foundation (@vechainofficial) April 3, 2018
Asian traders are getting their daily dose of fomo by getting into VEN before the exchange listing. At the moment it is traded predominantly on Binance which has 60% of the daily volume. That trading volume currently stands at $120 million, or 16,780 BTC. VeChain is ranked at 16th in the market cap charts with a total capitalization of $1.5 billion.
Crypto markets as a whole are still very bearish however have risen slightly over the past 24 hours. This time yesterday the total cap was around $259 billion, today it has climbed 2% to $264 billion. Other altcoins enjoying double digit gains in Asia this morning include Nem, Binance Coin, Lisk and Verge.
More on VeChain can be found here: https://www.vechain.org/
FOMO Moments is a section that takes a daily look at the top 25 altcoins during the Asian trading session and analyses the best performing one, looking for trends and fundamentals.
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Bloomberg reported Monday that nine cryptocurrency hedge funds have shut down in the first quarter of 2018.
One of the world’s largest cities may soon have its own cryptocurrency, at least if Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon succeeds in his bid to launch “S-Coin.” Park, who will seek a third term as mayor in the June elections, told CoinDesk Korea that S-Coin — as the cryptocurrency is tentatively named — could be used
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Over the past six months we’ve seen numerous high-profile cyber-attacks hitting online cryptocurrency exchanges around the globe. To better protect their digital and fiat assets — in a market that’s volatile enough as it is —an increasing number of traders are looking for alternatives.
Enter: the over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency market, which moves hundreds of millions of dollars of coins on a daily basis, mostly via the online messaging and video platform Skype, participants told Reuters. The participants who spoke with the news giant include traders who work at Chicago-based Cumberland Mining, Goldman Sachs-backed Circle, and New York-based broker-dealer Genesis Global Trading.
“Generally, you would go trade through an OTC desk when you have a large block trade you want to do without moving the market too much or incurring too much slippage,” said Kevin Zhou, founder of cryptocurrency-focused hedge fund Galois Capital.
OTC transactions are settled through bank wire transfers and by sending cryptocurrencies to digital wallets. OTC trades are not reported and independently audited, but some dealers said their desks often handle more than $100 million of cryptocurrency trades daily with minimum ticket sizes between $75,000 and $250,000.
“When the big [exchange] hacks happen we tend to see business go up,” said an OTC trader who asked to remain anonymous.
Genesis on average handles $75 to $80 million in trades daily, 10 times year-ago volumes, Chief Executive Michael Moro said. In December, the firm hit record monthly volume between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
Boston-based Circle handled up to $4 billion in OTC trades monthly over the past year, spokesperson Jennifer Hanley said.
Cumberland has been adding employees and opening offices across Asia and Europe, according to Global Head of Trading Bobby Cho. Most investors message traders directly, but are required by firms to undergo know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks with their compliance departments, traders and investors said. Trades are settled bilaterally, generally by the firm’s back office, which is why Skype is the perfect tool.
“We needed a tool that was global and more or less free and Skype provided that,” said Cho.
While business is growing, OTC firms are forced to deal with the absence of clear rules from regulators: the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) considers Bitcoin a commodity, while the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said some cryptocurrencies may be securities, without specifying further. What type of asset is traded and whether it must be traded with an accredited investor dictates if firms register with U.S. regulators and what compliance rules they follow, said Joel Telpner, partner at Sullivan & Worcester.
Genesis has registered as a broker-dealer with the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. It only offers trading in seven coins and, like other firms, records trader-client conversations. “We’re about as highly regulated as you can possibly be in the digital currency space,” said Moro.
Circle’s OTC desk trades a “very limited” selection of cryptocurrencies “aligned” to its “regulatory licensure,” said Hanley, and was “working closely with regulators to foster transparency in this developing market.”
Cumberland trades 25-30 cryptocurrencies and encourages regulators to work with participants to fully understand the market as well as the implications of any new laws and rules, according to a spokesperson.
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Over the past few years, we’ve been hearing more about cryptocurrencies and how they are set to change the future of how we transact online. Of course, currently, the most well-known cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, a name that has been grabbing news headlines all over the world. As Bitcoin becomes more famous, and as more people begin to invest in it, many are asking the question, what’s the difference between a cryptocurrency and a normal (terrestrial) currency?
Essentially, cryptocurrencies only exist online. You can buy your cryptocurrency from certain online sites, such as a Bitcoin exchange, by exchanging your regular currency for it. As with any normal currency, there is a certain conversion rate at which Bitcoin (for example) is valued at. The really big difference with cryptocurrencies is that unlike regular currencies such as USD or Euros, there is no central bank or government controlling it. Even better, you don’t even need a bank account to buy Bitcoin, or any form if ID, making it ideal for online gambling.
Other types of cryptocurrency such as Zerocoin are now gaining prominence in new ways, such as powering the world’s first 0% house edge online casino, ZeroEdge. Now, gamblers that are tired of always being ripped off by online casinos, where every game is skewed in the casino’s favor, can enjoy true 50-50 casino gambling.
Check out how it all works down below.
ZeroEdge.Bet – Revolutionary online gambling platform with 0% house edge games
ZeroEdge is a unique concept set to revolutionize the way you gamble online. Currently, all online casino games come with a house edge, i.e. the advantage that the casino has over you, which varies between 1% to 10% or more, depending on the game. ZeroEdge’s solution – offer games with 0% house edge and give players a completely fair chance of winning. In other words, playing at ZeroEdge.Bet is literally free, you don’t have to pay anything to the casino like it’s with traditional online casino sites.
The most amazing part is that Zerocoin value increases as more people join the world first 0% edge gambling platform. It is all achieved by creating a closed-loop economy in which high demand for 0% games drives Zerocoin’s value up. This model is also known as Metcalfe’s law which was originally invented in 1993 and can be seen in the actual Bitcoin’s price growth. ZeroEdge offers a unique gambling model which potentially could revolutionize the $70 Billion gambling industry. Players won’t be losing money but instead earning from the increasing Zerocoin value.
We have made a survey & asked hundreds of people about their gambling preferences & experiences. The main finding was that 99 % of them stated that they would choose 0% house edge games to play if such games were available. High demand for the world’s first 0% house edge games will increase the Zerocoin value exponentially. An important task for us will be to educate the players and raise their attention to this beneficial concept.
Zerocoins (ZERO) will be available to investors during an upcoming ICO. Visit http://www.zerocoin.bet to find out more.
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BitPay, the world’s largest blockchain payments provider, has closed its $40 Million extended Series B fundraising round, bringing the total amount raised to over $70 Million since the company’s inception in 2011. New investors in BitPay include Menlo Ventures, Capital Nine, G Squared, Nimble Ventures, and Delta-v Capital. Aquiline Capital Partners led the initial Series B Round, which was extended at the end of last year due to increased investor demand.
According to Stephan Pair, the company’s CEO, the funds will be used to help the company further expand its operations in growing markets across Asia:
“BitPay had a record 2017 as we processed over $1 Billion in bitcoin payments. We brought on these new investors who can help BitPay scale globally to meet customer demand,” said Pair. “Our goals include key hires in engineering and regulatory licensing, as well as expansion into emerging markets in Asia – one of BitPay’s fastest-growing regions for transactions and wallet adoption.”
Menlo Ventures selected BitPay as its first institutional crypto investment after spending significant time researching the broader crypto and blockchain ecosystem. According to the company, Menlo is committed to thesis-based investing, and prioritizes companies that are reshaping large and important markets through technology and process-driven breakthroughs. Poised to place itself amongst a rapidly evolving industry, BitPay joins the Menlo portfolio alongside other leading companies like Uber, Roku, BlueVine, and Warby Parker.
“We gravitated towards BitPay because we felt the company had identified a killer use for crypto in facilitating low cost payment solutions for cross-border commerce and B2B payments, which is a massive market poorly served by the existing payment rails,” said Tyler Sosin, a partner at Menlo Ventures.
“We are impressed with the company’s execution—it has demonstrated extremely efficient growth and a stickiness with merchants and consumers that is the hallmark of many great payment service providers. As the market leading crypto-processor, BitPay is well positioned to both benefit from and serve the fast moving crypto-ecosystem.”
Asia is a growing region for BitPay, and as a result a significant portion of the Series B investors call the continent home. Capital Nine is an Asian fintech corporation and investor with millions of customers across Asia. Other investors from Asia include Alvin Liu, Co-Founder of Tencent, and Yong An Financial Holdings Co., Ltd.
It’s should come as no surprise, then, that Bitpay is thinking about using the $40 million from its extended Series B fundraisinging round to fuel its international expansion, particularly into Asia. According to Pair, Bitpay could open an office on the continent this year in either Hong Kong or Singapore.
“Bitcoin’s popularity is spreading rapidly throughout Asia and BitPay has an opportunity to extend its technology solutions across Asia,” said Sam Lin, Director of Capital Nine. He added that “BitPay’s cross-border payment solution helps businesses pay or receive international payments faster and more economically.”
Across the globe thousands of companies have signed up with the payment processor to accept Bitcoin payments, including popular brands like Microsoft, Newegg, Namecheap, Gyft, and Virgin Galactic. Altogether, the company claims to work with over 30 e-commerce and point of sale integrators to promote the use and acceptance of digital currency.
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