Xcel Token

Bitcoin To Hit $100K In 2025, Says Justin Sun, Founder Of Tron Justin Sun, the founder and CEO of Tron (TRX), the 15th biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, is investing in a number of cryptos other than Bitcoin (BTC). In a Feb. 23 interview with CNN, Tron CEO said that he is a long-term believer in cryptocurrencies and owns a stake in many altcoins, including the two largest coins after Bitcoin  —  Ether (ETH) and XRP. Iranian Cell Calls For The Use Of Cryptocurrency 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 bypas...

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 ...

Justin Sun , the founder and CEO of Tron (TRX), the 15th biggest cryptocurrency by market cap, is investing in a number of cryptos other than Bitcoin (BTC). In a Feb. 23 interview with CNN, Tron CEO said that he is a long-term believer in cryptocurrencies and owns a stake in many altcoins, including the two largest coins after Bitcoin — Ether (ETH) and XRP. When asked whether Sun has its crypto portfolio diversified, the Tron CEO answered: “I own a lot of XRP and Ethereum, too. I’m like a long-term believer of the crypto so I want all crypto assets to succeed. So that’s why I own a lot of other different cryptos as well.” As a major believer in crypto, Sun is bullish on the price of cryptocurrencies and confident that cryptos like Bitcoin are the future of money. In the interview, Tron CEO predicted that Bitcoin will cross $100,000 mark in 2025, emphasizing that other cryptocurrencies will follow the trend. Justin Sun’s $100,000 Bitcoin prediction in his ...

Email Extortion Scam Targets Googles AdSense A new extortion scam targeting website owners serving banner ads through Google’s AdSense program has begun circulating the Internet. The malevolent scheme demands Bitcoin (BTC) in exchange for preventing an attack, which would purportedly lead to the users’ AdSense account suspension. The email-based extortion scheme was reported by security news and investigation blog KrebsOnSecurity, on Feb. 17. The blog post detailed that some site owners received a message as their site had been spotted by the malicious program as one seeking revenue from publishing an ad. Coinbase Pitches Crypto As A Solution For Racial Discrimination 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 ...

Steve Chen , the mastermind behind the $147 million Gemcoin cryptocurrency scheme, has admitted to wire fraud and tax evasion in a plea agreement. The 62-year-old Southern California resident agreed that he and other co-conspirators fraudulently promoted a cryptocurrency called Gemcoin (or Gem Coins) that helped fleece $147 million from 70,000 victims. Chen, also known as “Boss,” reported an income of $138,000 in 2014 which is a far cry from the $4.8 million he now admits to pocketing that year. Chen used the proceeds to buy homes and pay for a gambling habit, authorities said. Between July 2013 and September 2015, Chen ran a multi level marketing scheme to promote U.S. Fine Investment Arts, Inc. (USFIA) which rewarded investors first with points, and then with Gemcoins. These virtual coins were supposedly backed by gems mined by the company and could be traded on the USFIA platform . While the value of the coins supposedly increased based on the company...

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...

A new extortion scam targeting website owners serving banner ads through Google’s AdSense program has begun circulating the Internet. The malevolent scheme demands Bitcoin (BTC) in exchange for preventing an attack, which would purportedly lead to the users’ AdSense account suspension. The email-based extortion scheme was reported by security news and investigation blog KrebsOnSecurity , on Feb. 17. The blog post detailed that some site owners received a message as their site had been spotted by the malicious program as one seeking revenue from publishing an ad. The message appears as a warning, wherein the cybercriminals demand $5,000 worth of BTC to deter the attack. “Very soon the warning notice from above will appear at the dashboard of your AdSense account undoubtedly! This will happen due to the fact that we’re about to flood your site with huge amount of direct bot generated web traffic with 100% bounce ratio and thousands of IP’s in rotation — a nigh...

Conservative United States think tank the Heritage Foundation argues that instead of launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC), the government should ensure that the public can use the currencies they prefer, including private ones. In a commentary piece published on Feb. 12, the Heritage Foundation notes that Facebook’s Libra global stablecoin project “is just the latest reminder that providing money does not have to be a centralized function of government.” The report answers to the idea that the public sector must ensure that sovereign currencies stay at the centre of each nation’s financial system. The report argues that the principle of monetary sovereignty that member of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors Lael Brainard spoke about in February should be replaced with the concept of consumer sovereignty. The Heritage Foundation cites the popular concerns that stablecoins and cryptocurrencies heighten the risk of crime and fraud, and notes tha...

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...

Liechtenstein Based Start-up To Issue Tokens At The Value Of Collectable Cars Investment platform CurioInvest and Seychelles-based digital asset platform MERJ Exchange Ltd. will jointly begin offering a token backed by collector luxury cars. The so-called Car Token (CT1) token is set to be attached to the value of collectible cars giving more people a chance to have a portion of an asset, BNN Bloomberg informed on the 30th of January, 2020. Bitspark Shuts Down Hong Kong-based blockchain remittance start-up Bitspark has abruptly announced its closure , citing internal restructuring issues. On Feb. 3, Bitspark co-founder and CEO George Harrap officially announced the platform’s plans to shut down its services on the 4th of March, 2020. According to the statement, Bitspark users will be able to withdraw their cryptocurrencies from Feb. 3 to March 4 as the platform’s functionality will stay intact over the period. After March 4, account logins will b...

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...

A blockchain is roughly composed of four modules in terms of its hierarchy: Consensus engine Scripting and virtual execution environment Transactions, block and chain logics Peer-to-peer network Most research on associated topics has engrossed on the consensus engine (to improve transaction throughput) and the scripting language (to make blockchains more useful), leaving the properties of peer-to-peer network largely unexplored. The security properties of a blockchain actually hinges on the peer-to-peer network. Research on eclipse attack was started by Ethan Heilman, Alison Kendler, Aviv Zohar, and Sharon Goldberg in 2015. Their research illustrated the first attack against Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer network by controlling hundreds of nodes, which is modeled as an unstructured random graph in their research paper. Another interesting research paper titled “Low-Resource Eclipse Attacks on Ethereum’s Peer-to-Peer Network” demonstrated the feasibility of launching eclipse attac...

Zermatt Switzerland Accepts Tax Payments In Bitcoin Source: https://cointelegraph.com/ According to an announcement by Bitcoin Suisse, Zermatt started accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment for local taxes and transactions on Jan. 28, 2020. By partnering with Bitcoin Suisse, the authorities of Zermatt are now able to convert taxpayers’ Bitcoin into Swiss francs through Bitcoin Suisse which then transfers the amount in fiat curren cy to the municipality’s bank account. Bank of Japan Must Be Prepared To Release Digital Currency Source: https://www.coindesk.com/ The deputy governor of the Bank of Japan has said the institution must be ready to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC) should public demand surge in response to technical developments. In a strong statement of a future-oriented vision for the bank, Masayoshi Amamiya told attendees at a seminar — as per a Reuters report on Jan. 30 Bittrex Secures UDS 300 Million Insurance For Cryptocurrencies In ...