Cryptocurrency

A Swiss government memo appears to show a softening in the nation’s stance towards Libra, the proposed digital coin led by Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), just weeks after its former president described the project as a failure. The memo, seen by Bloomberg, shows the Swiss government refusing to rule out the possibility that Libra may one day

Six central banks have formed a working group with the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) to share findings as each investigates potential cases for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The group will be comprised of the central banks of Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, the U.K. and Japan, as well as the European Central Bank (ECB) and

Three plaintiffs who have been involved in three separate lawsuits against Tether and its sister company Bitfinex have moved to consolidate their cases into one class-action suit. Court filings by David Leibowitz et al., Eric Young et al., and Bryan Faubus et al., accuse Tether and Bitfinex of creating “the largest bubble in human history”

CoinDesk will be on the ground in Davos from Jan. 20–24 chronicling all things crypto at the annual gathering of the world’s economic and political elite. Below is the first edition of our pop-up newsletter, CoinDesk Confidential: Davos. Subscribe below. Get your Fourth Industrial Revolution hardhats on – it’s time to ponder the slew of problems

Ethereum (ETH) continues to gather pace after an impressive start to the year. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has already risen to a two-month high of $165 after a 13% rally this week. Over the past month, the cryptocurrency has rallied by more than 35% and is showing no signs of slowing down. Ethereum

This is part of a series of op-eds previewing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. CoinDesk will be on the ground in Davos from Jan. 20–24 chronicling all things crypto at the annual gathering of the world’s economic and political elite. Follow along by subscribing to our pop-up newsletter, CoinDesk Confidential: Davos. Jeremy Allaire is co-founder, chairman

New York-based crypto-asset exchange Gemini has announced an increase in insurance coverage of its custody platform. The cryptocurrency exchange has increased its custody limit to $200 million. This is the largest cold storage insurance limit for any exchange globally. Gemini Launches Insurance Company This move indicates that Gemini Custody expects the demand for its services

You might have heard of bitcoin’s “lightning network,” but don’t know what’s going on with it right now. Who are the mysterious big players behind this magical technology that allegedly solves all of bitcoin’s problems?   Lightning is one of the most promising technologies in the space right now, even drawing in Square and Twitter CEO

The Libra Association, the non-profit organization overseeing Libra, has established a five-member Technical Steering Committee (TSC) to oversee and coordinate the technical design and development of the Libra network. The responsibilities of the TSC are to direct the technical roadmap of the Libra network, form working groups to fast track research into specific issues, guide

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Japan-based Liquid Exchange has canceled the sale of Telegram’s Gram tokens and returned funds to customers as the messaging app company remains embroiled in an SEC lawsuit. The exchange has said that it is acting in compliance with the investor agreement, which states that Telegram’s Open Network (TON) should have been launched by October 31,

The new owner of the Chrysler Building is selling a property worth $135 million to a blockchain real-estate company, taking a fifth of the purchase price in tokenized securities. New York-based RFR Holdings, which purchased the Chrysler Building in a joint agreement in March 2019, agreed to sell its majority stake in a commercial property

Bitcoin (BTC) is the subject of increased buying momentum after coming under pressure early in the year. After plummeting to $6,860, the flagship token has bounced back and is currently staring at a 2-month high of $9,000. The 15%+ rally has come at the back of improvements in fundamentals. Bitcoin Futures Boost BTC According to

Crypto startup Kadena’s public blockchain launched Wednesday, adding interoperable smart contract support between the public chain and its private chain counterparts.  The Brooklyn-based offshoot of JPMorgan’s blockchain center announced that the launch marks another step in its effort to develop scalable, secure proof-of-work alternatives to the current leading cryptocurrencies: ethereum and bitcoin. As part of

One of the most interesting events in the crypto sphere in the New Year has been the strong gains that have been generated by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin SV (BSV). One pattern that can be discerned from the recent gains in BSV is the fact that it followed one of the two conscientious Bitcoin hard forks.

It’s been more than three months since Wyoming began taking applications to charter a new type of crypto-friendly bank, and no company has announced its application while a handful of firms have indicated an intent to apply.   This hasn’t cooled hype around the charter’s potential. In October, Colorado announced plans to draft special-purpose banking legislation

The SEC has produced new evidence in its case against Telegram, which shows that the company was engaged in trading Gram tokens several months after its initial coin offering (ICO). Messaging app Telegram has been embroiled in a lawsuit with the US Securities and Exchanges Commission, which alleges that US$1.7 billion raised from the sale

Chicago exchange CME Group has announced its highly-anticipated bitcoin options are now open for trading. Options on CME’s bitcoin futures contracts launched on the CME Globex around 16:00 UTC Monday. Each contract, quoted in U.S. dollars, represents five bitcoin and is cleared centrally to avoid counterparty risk. CME relies on trade flow data from several

Cryptocurrency has gone through a lot of new developments over the past few months and today, cryptocurrency lending company BlockFi made a major new announcement. The company, which operates its own platform, announced today that it has added support for two more digital assets. Major Expansion The company announced that from now on, loans can

Ethereum Classic successfully completed the “Agharta” hard fork at block number 9,573,000 at 06:26 UTC on Sunday, according to etcnodes.org. Similar to the network’s last backwards-incompatible upgrade in September, Atlantis, Agharta makes ethereum classic more interoperable with sister-chain ethereum. As part of the hard fork, the Constantinople and St. Petersburg upgrades deployed in tandem on

The crypto space has had a bit of a rollercoaster ride over the course of the past year, during which many cryptocurrencies have had their time in the sun, and one of the more notables tokens to considers in this regard is Bitcoin SV (BSV). Key Drivers In a development that will come as a

LedgerX announced Friday that co-founder and former chief technology officer Zach Dexter has been named the new CEO of the bitcoin derivatives company. The company suspended CEO Paul Chou and COO/CRO Juthica Chou last month, with no explanation. The two were also co-founders of the company. Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation vice chairman Larry Thompson

Controversial cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and its sister stablecoin issuer Tether have had a lawsuit against them withdrawn by two plaintiffs and re-filed with the addition of a new plaintiff. The two companies were accused of creating “the largest bubble in human history” in a lawsuit filed in New York in October, which alleged that Bitfinex

Bitcoin likely carved out a major price bottom in December, according to a non-price metric, which has proved to be a reliable price indicator in the past.  The leading cryptocurrency is currently trading above $7,700, having hit eight-month lows below $6,500 in mid-December. While the bounce is encouraging, the cryptocurrency remains trapped in a six-month-long

Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith has been indicted by a grand jury for conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) after speaking at a cryptocurrency conference hosted by the North Korean government last April. Griffith was initially arrested on Thanksgiving at Los Angeles Internation Airport after FBI Special Agent Brandon M. Cavanaugh alleged

A cybersecurity firm has warned cryptocurrency users to expect more attacks from North Korea, as its hackers develop “enhanced capabilities” to deliver malware through popular messaging app Telegram. Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs has been analysing new attacks from the Lazarus Group, a cybercrime group with links to North Korea, to determine how its techniques have developed

The vice-chairman of the Libra Association has been touting the benefits of the project over Bitcoin at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Dante Disparte, the vice-chairman of the non-profit organization overseeing the proposed digital currency led by Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), was speaking at the Digital Money Forum of the CES, where he emphasized

“HODLing” has returned to a major milestone: The total number of bitcoins that haven’t changed hands in more than a year has crossed the 10 million mark.  About 10.7 million bitcoins haven’t moved in more than 12 months, according to Digital Assets Data, a fintech company building crypto data feeds.  Considering the total number of

Messenger app Telegram has released a long-awaited update on the future of its TON blockchain and its native Gram tokens, clarifying certain aspects of the project as it remains embroiled in a lawsuit by the US Securities and Exchange Commission as to whether two ICOs conducted in 2018 should have been registered with the commission.

Aragon has started the process for recruiting human jurors as the governance protocol prepares to launch its decentralized court system. As of 16:00 UTC Tuesday, community members will be able to exchange the project’s ANT tokens for newly minted Aragon Network Juror (ANJ) tokens that will be used for staking on its dispute resolution platform.