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The Italian Red Cross and the Colli Albani Committee are raising donations of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to fight the country’s coronavirus pandemic with the support of Helperbit, as announced on March 12. Proceeds from the campaign will reportedly be used to set up a second-level advanced medical post for pre-triage of COVID-19 cases in the country, and it is expected to reach a goal of €10,000 to buy the necessary medical equipment for the infrastructure. The remaining funds will be used to cover the fees of the medical staff that will be involved in the project. Bruno Pietrosanti, president of the Colli Albani Committee, said that they need to ease the pressure on hospitalizations due to the increase in infected patients and the reduced number of places available in Italian hospitals: On carrying out the initiative alongside Helperbit, a blockchain startup that offers a platform for charities, Pietrosanti added the following: “We believe that an...

After experiencing a major outage last week, major stock and cryptocurrency trading app Robinhood is troubled again. Robinhood encountered another technical outage on Monday, causing its platform to halt trading services, according to a March 9 tweet by Robinhood’s support team. The firm announced earlier on the day: “Trading is currently down on Robinhood and we’re investigating the issue. We’re focused on getting back up and running as soon as possible and we’ll update the status page with the latest.” Subsequently, Robinhood has partially restored trading, noting that they are working to get the platform back up and running fully. According to online reports , the platform was partly functional after just an hour of downtime. As of press time, Robinhood app is still experiencing issues with equities, options and cryptocurrency trading, according to Robinhood’s status page . According to the website, Robinhood has already identified the issue and impleme...

ICE Reveals Cryptocurrency Intelligence Program The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has revealed the existence of a Cryptocurrency Intelligence Program (CIP) in the agency’s 2021 budget proposal. The proposal states that the CIP seeks to identify unlicensed capital flows taking place across peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplaces, online forums, and darknet markets. The CIP was developed by ICE’s Bulk Cash Smuggling Center (BCSC). Lloyd’s New Insurance Offering Covers Crypto Held in Hot Wallets Insurance giant Lloyd’s of London now provides a new type of liability insurance policy to protect cryptocurrency in hot wallets that is lost by theft. Lloyd’s new offering was developed by Lloyd’s syndicate Atrium together with crypto will-focused firm Coincover, with limits from as little as £1,000 ($1,275), Lloyd’s announced on March 2. The policy is also backed by an array of other Lloyd’s insurers, including TMK and Markel, all of whom are members of...

Bitfinex, the 11th largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, will remove dozens of cryptocurrency trading pairs later this week. According to a March 2 blog post , Bitfinex will remove 46 crypto trading pairs on Friday, March 6 due to low liquidity on the platform. The cryptocurrency exchange noted that the delisting of the trading pairs is a common measure that is expected to improve liquidity on Bitfinex platform and lead to a “more streamlined and optimized trading experience for our users.” The majority of trading pairs that are planned to be removed on Friday include a wide list of altcoins trading against Ether ( ETH ), the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap. That list includes about 30 trading pairs including altcoins like OKEx token ( OKB ), Verge ( XVG ) and Nucleus Vision ( NCASH ). Another 16 trading pairs include altcoins trading against Bitcoin ( BTC ), including pairs like Hydro Protocol ( HOT )/BTC and Medicalchain ( MT...

This week an Iranian general called for a unique way to bypass the sanctions on his country enforced by the United States. Saeed Muhammad, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, called for Iran to use cryptocurrencies to evade the economic sanctions. According to the Telegram channel of Coinit.ir, a crypto news organization based in Iran, the general addressed a crowd on Feb. 26 (translated from Farsi): “We are demanding the creation of a more sophisticated mechanism to bypass sanctions. To circumvent sanctions, we must develop solutions such as the exchange of products and the use of cryptocurrencies with our partnerships [in other countries].” The people of Iran have seen the value of their currency drop significantly in the wake of the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, following the withdrawal of the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018. Sanctions have effectively isolated Iran from foreign trade and investment ...

Confidential Transactions keep the amount and type of assets transferred visible only to participants in the transaction (and those they choose to reveal the blinding key to), while still cryptographically guaranteeing that no more coins can be spent than are available. This goes a step beyond the usual privacy offered by Bitcoin’s blockchain, which relies purely on pseudonymous (but public) identities. This matters, because insufficient financial privacy can have serious security and privacy implications for both commercial and personal transactions. Without adequate protection, thieves can focus their efforts on high-value targets, competitors can learn business details, and negotiating positions can be undermined. Confidential Transactions (CTs, the general idea of which was proposed by Adam Back on BitcoinTalk in 2013) aims to make the content of a transaction private — as Greg Maxwell explains in a 2017 talk , the amounts transacted are often more valuable to spi...

One of the newest episode of “ The Simpsons ” aired has just featured Jim Parsons of Big Bang Theory as a guest star to explain cryptocurrencies and how a blockchain works. In the song and dance predicts cryptocurrency to be the future money, the animated ledger states: “Each day I’m closer, to being the cash of the future. Not in your wallet, I’m in your computer! At the end of Jim’s talk, there is a subliminal message on screen. It further explains how cryptocurrencies work, part of which says: “Using the word “cryptocurrency” repeatedly while defining cryptocurrency makes it seem like we have a novice’s understanding of cryptocurrency. Well that is a total pile of cryptocurrency. In this system, rules are defined for the creation of additional units of cryptocurrency. They can be generated by fiat like traditional currency or just thrown around randomly or all given to LeBron.” The crypto community welcomed the episode. Altcoin Daily account has com...

To mark Black History Month, Coinbase has launched an advertising campaign with the pitch that cryptocurrencies can help tackle racial injustice in the financial sector. As part of the campaign, the exchange published a blog post on Feb. 13 with the results of a survey it conducted in the United States and United Kingdom. The crux of Coinbase’s survey centers on the notion that blockchain and cryptocurrencies, as trustless technologies with pseudonymous functionality, would be more color-blind than traditional financial services. Based on a sample of 5,126 respondents, Coinbase’s data appears to indicate that just one in three Black Americans perceive the financial system as equally accessible to people of all ethnicities. Moreover, twice as many Black Americans reported that they had been negatively impacted by their race or gender within the traditional financial system — 48% as compared with 24% of White Americans. This negative experience ostensibly transla...

North Korea’s internet use saw a 300% surge over the past three years , as the country’s regime has continued to rely on cryptocurrencies for various activities. Misuse of crypto and blockchain technology is among the primary tactics for the country to generate revenue as well as transfer and use illicitly obtained funds, a new study says. Titled “How North Korea Revolutionized the Internet as a Tool for Rogue Regimes,” the study was released on Feb. 9 by Insikt Group, an intelligence arm of the United States-based cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. The report analysed North Korean senior leadership’s internet activity between Jan. 1, 2019 and Nov. 1, 2019. According to the study, North Korea has continued to exploit cryptocurrencies as a strategic weapon, with the country’s political and military elite being reportedly involved in massive hacks of South Korean crypto exchanges, scams, cryptojacking, and crypto mining. Along with illicit banking processes an...

Ukrainian ’s powers stated that crypto mining does not require regulatory activity from governmental oversight bodies or other third-party protocols. In its legal article on virtual assets published on Feb. 7, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine specified that mining does not necessitate directives by state authorities as this activity is measured by the protocol itself and network members. The agency further added that it will contribute to the development and implementation of decentralized technologies, as well as establish sandboxes for their evaluation and verification, and assessment of potential risks to the market. The agency swore to promote collaboration between the financial market and virtual assets and their effective development, international best practices on taxation of virtual assets, as well as establish effective mechanisms to prevent abuse and offense from business and law enforcement. Ukraine has appeared to be actively e...

The underlying theory behind the Elliott wave principle is based around how price moves, which typically is not in a straight line, but in a series of waves. A great analogy would be one that compares an ocean tide coming in as the water rises, and flowing out as the water recedes into the sand below. Within any financial market (including cryptocurrency), every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. When price movement moves up, a contrary downward movement must follow. Price action within any financial marketplace is often divided into trends and corrections (sideways movement). Upward or downward price action will showcase the direction of a trend, while corrections will always move against the trend. These repeating patterns have been shown to occur within all financial marketplaces since the dawn of time. A man by the name of Ralph Nelson Elliott, first discovered these repeating patterns, known as impulsive and corrective waves. He noticed that these impulsi...

Two men charged over an alleged crypto trading ponzi scheme lured investors, including professional baseball players, with social media posts boasting about their luxurious lifestyles. On January 30, the Secret Service arrested the Arizona-based founders of Zima Digital Assets, John Michael Caruso, aged 28, and Zachary Salter, aged 27. Caruso commonly refers to himself as “Krypto King” in social media posts and claims he’s been a cryptocurrency investor since 2012. He has a criminal history and was last released from prison in late 2017. Salter is an aspiring R&B singer who releases music under the name “Sweet Talker.” Despite claiming no taxable income, the pair’s extravagant social media posts about their luxury good purchases helped draw in new investors. They were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. The complaint alleges that Salter and Caruso defrauded more than 90 investors out of at least $7.5 million since Ju...

Canada Issues Guidelines For Cryptocurrency Exchanges Canadian authorities have issued new direction to regulate which digital currency trading platforms fall under derivatives law. The Canadian Securities Administration (CSA) clarified new provisions in the “Guidance on the Application of Securities Legislation to Entities Facilitating the Trading of Crypto Assets” published on the 16th of January, 2020 . To know more check out our previous blog . Canadian Teen Charged For Cryptocurrency Theft A Montreal resident, age 18 if facing 4 criminal charges connected to a $50 million SIM Swap scam that targeted cryptocurrency holders. “Eighteen-year-old hacker Samy Bensaci is accused of being part of a crime ring that stole millions of dollars in crypto-currency by gaining unauthorized access to the cell phones of crypto-currency holders in America and Canada.” —  Infosecurity Magazine . 17th January, 2020 To know more check out our previous blog . South Korea...

The past few years have been a crisis for security in crypto . As the asset class has increased popularity, more and more security breaks have been highlighted and more institutions targeted. The burgeoning industry is ripe with opportunity, but also with risk. Two incidents that highlight this lapse in security spring to mind. Back in January 2018, Coincheck Japan was targeted, with attackers succeeding in stealing $530 million worth of NEM tokens from the crypto exchange . It is one of the biggest crypto exchange heists in the relatively short history of the industry and stands alongside the infamous attack on Mt. Gox, when around 800,000 BTC was stolen — a sum worth over $6 billion today. Further back in February 2016 , the Bangladesh Bank was targeted. Thieves tried to steal a total of $850 million via properly authenticated transactions in ordering the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to transfer the money through the SWIFT network . While “only” $101 million was t...

Dark pools are an ominous-sounding term for private exchanges or forums for securities trading . However, unlike stock exchanges, dark pools are not accessible by the investing public. Also known as “dark pools of liquidity,” these exchanges are so named for their complete lack of transparency. Dark pools came about primarily to facilitate block trading by institutional investors who did not wish to impact the markets with their large orders and obtain adverse prices for their trades. Dark pools were cast in an unfavorable light in Michael Lewis’ bestseller Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt , but the reality is that they do serve a purpose. However, their lack of transparency makes them vulnerable to potential conflicts of interest by their owners and predatory trading practices by some high-frequency traders. Why Use a Dark Pool? Contrast this with the present-day situation, where an institutional investor uses a dark pool to sell a one million share block. The lac...

Lagging indicators use past price data to provide entry and exit signals, while leading indicators provide traders with an indication of future price movements, while also using past price data. When faced with the dilemma of leading vs lagging indicators, which should traders choose? The answer to this question ultimately comes down to individual preference after understanding the advantages and limitations of each. Lagging indictors Lagging indicators are tools used by traders to analyse the market using an average of previous price action data. Lagging indicators, as the name implies, lag the market. This entails that traders can witness a move before the indicator confirms it — meaning that the trader could lose out on a number of pips at the start of the move. Many consider this as a necessary cost in order to confirm to see if the move gathers momentum. Others view this as a lost opportunity as traders forgo getting into a trade at the very start of a move. L...