Tag: Cryptocurrency

About $1.2 billion in cryptocurrency stolen since 2017, says cybercrime group

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Criminals have stolen about $1.2 billion in cryptocurrencies since the beginning of 2017, as bitcoin’s popularity and the emergence of more than 1,500 digital tokens have put the spotlight on the unregulated sector, according to estimates from the Anti-Phishing Working Group released on Thursday.

The estimates were part of the non-profit group’s research on cryptocurrency and include reported and unreported theft.

“One problem that we’re seeing in addition to the criminal activity like drug trafficking and money laundering using cryptocurrencies is the theft of these tokens by bad guys,” Dave Jevans, chief executive officer of cryptocurrency security firm CipherTrace, told Reuters in an interview.

Jevans is also chairman of APWG.

Of the $1.2 billion, Jevans estimates that only about 20 percent or less has been recovered, noting that global law enforcement agencies have their hands full tracking down these criminals.

Their investigations of criminal activity will likely take a step back with the European Union’s new General Data Protection Regulation, which takes effect on Friday.

“GDPR will negatively impact the overall security of the internet and will also inadvertently aid cybercriminals,” said Jevans. “By restricting access to critical information, the new law will significantly hinder investigations into cybercrime, cryptocurrency theft, phishing, ransomware, malware, fraud and crypto-jacking,” he added.

GDPR, which passed in 2016, aims to simplify and consolidate rules that companies need to follow in order to protect their data and to return control of personal information to EU citizens and residents.

The implementation of GDPR means that most European domain data in WHOIS, the internet’s database of record, will no longer be published publicly after May 25. WHOIS contains the names, addresses and email addresses of those who register domain names for websites.

WHOIS data is a fundamental resource for investigators and law enforcement officials who work to prevent thefts, Jevans said.

“So what we’re going to see is that not only the European market goes dark for all of us; so all the bad guys will flow to Europe because you can actually access the world from Europe and there’s no way you can get the data anymore,” Jevans said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Mobile body IAMAI moves apex court over RBI’s cryptocurrency ban

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court (SC) to put a stay on the central bank’s order on banning cryptocurrency, The Economic Times reported.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) refused to declare the use and dealing of virtual currencies even by regulated entities on April 6, at the RBI policy meet.

The central bank also gave the banks a deadline of July 6 to adhere to this norm.

IAMAI’s petition was the fifth such petition to be filed in the apex court, the report said, referring to the filing spotted in the SC’s website.

Subho Ray, IAMAI president, confirmed this development to the paper on Wednesday but did not mention when the petition is scheduled for the hearing.

Earlier,  Kali Digital Eco-systems and Moneytradecoin, crypto exchanges, filed petitions to the Delhi High Court against the RBI rule and four other crypto exchanges filed a joint writ petition in the apex court against the order.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Aditya Birla group gets ‘cryptojacked’, says report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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More than 2,000 computers of many companies of the Aditya Birla group were victims of ‘cryptojacking’, The Economic Times reported.

This, reportedly is a new kind of cyber-warfare where the hackers misuse the terminals they are targetting and use their processing power to mine cryptocurrency and in this case, the cryptocurrency mined was Monero, which is untraceable and is known for huge price volatility.

The attack was first noticed last month at the group’s subsidiary abroad, the report said. “It’s a kind of attack where the primary intention of the hackers is not to steal information and cause business disruption. Rather, they hijack the target’s computers and tap the power supply to the organisation to mine crypto coins,” a person aware of the attack told the paper.

“Aditya Birla Group has advance threat management systems that are constantly monitoring and protecting business critical applications and infrastructure in all Businesses. Recently, the advance threat detection systems of our Group alerted us of suspicious activity on some desktop systems. Based on this, our internal team immediately carried out an investigation and deployed countermeasures to isolate and eliminate the cause of this activity,” a spokesperson told the paper on Thursday.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Alibaba cannot block cryptocurrency firm from using similar name, says US judge

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A US judge on Monday rejected Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd’s bid for a preliminary injunction to block the Dubai cryptocurrency firm Alibabacoin Foundation from using the Alibaba name.

US District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan said Alibaba did not show he had jurisdiction, having failed to establish a “reasonable probability” that Alibabacoin’s interactive websites were used to transact business with customers in New York.

The judge said it did not matter that Alibabacoin might eventually list its cryptocurrency on US exchanges or that a New York company hosted one of its websites.

He also said any injury Alibaba might have suffered to its business, goodwill and reputation from alleged trademark infringement likely occurred in China, where the e-commerce retailer is based.

The Chinese company had alleged Alibabacoin hurt its business in the United States, causing actual confusion among customers there, in violation of federal and state laws.

A US-based lawyer for Alibaba declined to comment. Lawyers for Alibabacoin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Oetken dissolved a temporary restraining order issued on April 2 by another judge against Alibabacoin.

He also said Alibaba deserved another chance to show why the case belongs in Manhattan.

Alibabacoin, which is also known as ABBC Foundation, has argued that it was not trying to piggyback off the Alibaba name.

It has also said China’s ban on initial coin offerings in September eliminated a key source of potential confusion among consumers about its lack of ties to Alibaba.

The case is Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd v. Alibabacoin Foundation et al, US District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 18-02897.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Nasdaq open to cryptocurrency exchange in future, says CEO

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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 Nasdaq Inc is open to launching a cryptocurrency exchange in the future as the regulatory environment evolves, the head of the exchange operator said on Wednesday.

The view that cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin will be a future way to support commerce is becoming more mainstream, Nasdaq‘s Chief Executive Officer, Adena Friedman, said in an interview following the announcement of better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

But the virtual currencies are still very lightly regulated. That is part of the appeal to many early adopters but would have to change in order forNasdaq to operate a cryptocurrency exchange, Friedman said.

“Over time, if it ultimately does morph into a regulated environment, it does give us an opportunity to participate as a marketplace, but I think that is a longer road and it doesn’t have a certain path right now,” she said.

In the meantime, Nasdaq is exploring deals with several virtual currency exchanges to provide market infrastructure technology for trading and clearing, as well as surveillance, she said.

Nasdaq on Wednesday announced a surveillance deal with Gemini Trust Company to monitor cryptocurrency trading on its exchange for potential market manipulation and fraud.

Earnings

Nasdaq‘s net income in the first quarter rose to $177 million, or $1.05 per share, from $168 million, or 99 cents per share, a year earlier, helped by a volatility-driven spike in trading volumes.

Stripping out special items, such as merger and acquisitions costs, the transatlantic exchange operator earned $1.24 per share, topping analysts’ average estimates by four cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Volatility spiked in February after a prolonged calm in 2017, roiling global equities, bonds, currencies and commodities markets, and remained elevated through the end of March.

Revenue rose 14.6% to $666 million. Revenue from market services, the company’s largest business, jumped more than 21% to $735 million.

Sales from Nasdaq‘s non-trading related businesses also grew, with revenue from its market technology unit rising 7.7% to $70 million, and revenue from information services up 26% at $174 million.

Corporate services, which includes market listings, rose 7.5% to $172 million, as Nasdaq saw 37 IPOs in the quarter, including those of cloud storage company Dropbox and Chinese video streaming platform iQiyi.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Power-sucking Bitcoin ‘mines’ spark backlash

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Bitcoin “miners” who use rows of computers whirring at the same time to produce virtual currencies began taking root along New York’s northern border a couple of years ago to tap into some of the nation’s cheapest hydroelectric power, offering an air of Silicon Valley sophistication to this often-snowy region.

But as the once-high-flying bitcoin market has waned, so too has the enthusiasm for bitcoin miners. Mining operations with stacks of servers suck up so much electricity that they are in some cases causing power rates to spike for ordinary customers. And some officials question whether it’s all worth it for the relatively few jobs created.

“We don’t want someone coming in, taking our resources, not creating the jobs they professed to create and then disappear,” said Tim Currier, mayor of Massena, a village just south of the Canadian border, where bitcoin operator Coinmint recently announced plans to use the old aluminum plant site for a mining operation that would require 400 megawatts — roughly enough to power 300,000 homes at once.

In Plattsburgh, where two cryptocurrency operations have been blamed for spiking electricity rates, the prospect of more cryptocurrency miners plugging in spooked officials enough in March to enact an 18-month moratorium on new operations. The small border village of Rouses Point also is holding off on approving new server farms and Lake Placid is considering a moratorium.

For local officials, the power struggle has been a crash course in the esoteric bitcoin mining business in which miners earn bitcoins by making complex calculations that verify transactions on the digital currency’s public ledger.

Since it often uses hundreds of computers that throw off tremendous heat and burn a lot of power, it has tended to gravitate towards cooler places with cheap electricity, such as geothermal-rich Iceland or along the Columbia River region of Washington state.

The stretch of New York near the Canadian border similarly fits the bill. Cheap hydropower from a dam spanning the St. Lawrence River is doled out by a state authority to local businesses that promise to create jobs. Additionally, some municipalities such as Massena and Plattsburgh receive cheap electricity from a separate hydropower project near Niagara Falls.

In Plattsburgh, electricity is so cheap most residents use it instead of oil or wood to heat their homes. The couple of commercial cryptocurrency mines here can get an industrial rate of about 3 cents per kilowatt hour — less than half the national average.

But Plattsburgh Mayor Colin Read said its largest operator, Coinmint, which has two plants employing 20 or fewer people, can consume about 10% of Plattsburgh’s 104 megawatt cheap electricity quota. When the city exceeded its allocation like it did this winter, customers ended up paying $10 to $30 more a month for the extra electricity. For a major employer like Mold-Rite Plastics plant, it cost them at least $15,000 in February.

State regulators have since given municipal utilities the ability to charge higher rates to cryptocurrency miners. At least one bitcoin miner in Plattsburgh says he’s working with the city on solutions to the power worries.

Ryan Brienza, founder and CEO of the hosting company Zafra, said those could include mining on behalf of the city for an hour a day or harnessing the heat from mining computers to warm up large spaces.

While the direct number of jobs associated with mines can be small, Brienza said they can bring revenue, investments and talent to the city while employing local contractors.

“It can start snowballing,” Brienza said.

Coinmint’s plans for a new plant in Massena, for example, come with a promise of 150 jobs. That’s welcome in an area that in the past decade has suffered though the loss of aluminum-making jobs and the closure of a General Motors powertrain plant.

“J-O-Bs. Yup. What we need up here,” said Steve O’Shaughnessy, Massena town supervisor.

Coinmint had asked for a cheap power allocation from the New York Power Authority for Massena for part of its energy needs, but that request was deferred.

The power authority has separately enacted its own moratorium on allocating hydropower to cryptocurrency operations — mirroring municipalities that have effectively pushed the “pause” button on a rush of miners coming in.

Coinmint representatives said this month they hope to begin the Massena operation in the second part of this year. The company stressed that mines can be a good fit for this job-hungry area.

“They’re also going to get substantially more efficient over time,” said Coinmint spokesman Kyle Carlton. “So to the extent that Plattsburgh or Massena or anybody else can get in on that and establish themselves on the ground floor, I think that’s going to help those cities to be successful.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

One in five financial institutions consider cryptocurrency trading, survey says

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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One in five financial institutions is considering trading cryptocurrencies within the next 12 months, a survey published by Thomson Reuters on Tuesday found.

Among those respondents who said they were willing to trade cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, the best known of the digital coins, 70% said they were planning to start trading in the next three to six months, the survey showed.

The survey covered more than 400 clients across Thomson Reuters Corp platforms including large asset managers, hedge funds and trading desks at the biggest banks. Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters, provides data and news to the financial services industry.

Retail interest in the buying and selling of digital coins exploded last year after prices skyrocketed, and institutional involvement has been predicted to grow, despite regulatory warnings that cryptocurrencies are highly risky and prone to scams.

Banks are examining client interest and several hedge funds have tried their hand trading virtual currencies.

Large falls in cryptocurrency prices this year, however, have encouraged critics to warn again that the market is a bubble and that investors should stay away.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Here’s why WikiLeaks can’t convert its cryptocurrency into money

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Cryptocurrency marketplace Coinbase has shut the account of whistleblowing website WikiLeaks’ Shop for allegedly violating its terms of service — which means it cannot convert payments like bitcoin into conventional money.

According to a report on tech website Engadget, Coinbase did not give a specific reason but it pointed to its legal requirement to honour “regulatory compliance mechanisms” under the US’ Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Interestingly, WikiLeaks is calling for a “global blockade” of Coinbase, claiming that the exchange is reacting to a “concealed influence.”

Earlier this month, several tech giants, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, cracked down on malicious cryptocurrency mining practices on their platform.

Google Chrome’s web policy permitted cryptocurrency mining in extensions as long as it is the extension’s single purpose and the user is adequately informed about the mining behaviour.

“Unfortunately, approximately 90 per cent of all extensions with mining scripts that developers have attempted to upload to Chrome Web Store have failed to comply with these policies, and have been either rejected or removed from the store,” James Wagner, Extensions Platform Product Manager at Google, had said.

Extensions with Blockchain-related purposes other than mining will continue to be permitted in the Web Store, Google said.

Twitter confirmed to block cryptocurrency-related ads on the platform. In January, social media giant Facebook banned all ads promoting cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and ICOs.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

US cryptocurrency project gets $133 million investment from big investors

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A start-up launched by three Princeton University graduates for a new cryptocurrency has raised $133 million from a slew of big investors in a private placement, Intangible Labs Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Nader Al-Naji said on Wednesday.

Intangible Labs is the creator of basis, a digital currency that aims to maintain a stable price and be usable around the world.

The company’s investors included Bain Capital Ventures, Google’s venture arm GV, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and Lightspeed Foundation Capital, Al-Naji said. Billionaire hedge fund manager Stan Druckenmiller and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh also invested in the company.

The new token is built on the ethereum blockchain and has a built-in mechanism that controls its own supply to keep the price stable, Al Naji told Reuters in an interview.

“Volatility of cryptocurrencies has prevented their widespread adoption,” Al-Naji said. “We are trying to build cryptocurrencies that have all the benefits of crypto but is stable.”

Blockchain, a digital ledger of transactions, underpins cryptocurrencies in general and can be used to track, record, and transfer assets across all industries.

The $133 million sale was structured as a private placement to accredited investors, Al-Naji said. The company is still deciding whether to issue tokens through a public crowdsale, as it is assessing the current regulatory environment, he added.

A global regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrencies has slowed the pace of virtual currency sales as questions mount about their transparency and the risk of scams for investors.

More than 500 digital technology startups around the world have raised funds by selling their own cryptocurrencies, or tokens, that sidestep banks or venture capital firms as intermediaries.

Regulators around the world, led by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, have tightened the screws on token sales of initial coin offerings, by instituting rules and guidelines that are giving investors pause and delaying new offerings.

In an interview with Reuters in October, Al-Naji said the idea for basis, which was formerly called basecoin, originated in June from his blog, Nader Theory, in which he broached the idea of a stable coin that can shrink and grow its supply on the blockchain.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow