Kik technical advisor Tanner Philp must be deposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) related to the company’s 2017 kin token sale, elongating the discovery process in the messaging app’s battle with federal regulators. The agreement was made Wednesday before District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in the U.S District Court for the Southern District
Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of major encrypted messenger Telegram, argues that Apple’s cloud service iCloud is “now officially a surveillance tool.” Citing a Jan. 21 Reuters report, Durov claimed that applications like WhatsApp — which rely on iCloud to store private messages — are “part of the problem.” Telegram CEO delivered his verdict in
Bitcoin’s lightning torch is back, and it’s zipped through at least 38 countries already. The torch is a digital game first ignited in January 2019 by pseudonymous bitcoin enthusiast Hodlonaut, known for his Twitter avatar of a cat in a spacesuit. Each “torchbearer” sends a tiny amount of bitcoin to the next. A key rule
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov pushed back against a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) attorney’s speculation that his company’s 2018 token sale was meant to refill its cash reserves. During an 18-hour deposition, Durov disputed in particular SEC attorney Jorge Tenreiro’s claim that the sale would help Telegram pay for servers. This claim is a
Square, the payment services provider founded and run by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, has won a US patent to launch a new network that enables crypto-to-fiat transactions. Square was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey in their hometown of St. Louis, around the same time as Dorsey’s other company, Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), was beginning to
Libra has lost another Association member, but according to @nlw that’s likely low on its worries list, plus Square’s LN efforts & TON’s SEC support. News broke yesterday the Libra Association had seen its eighth high-profile defection, this time from the telecom giant Vodafone. In today’s episode of The Breakdown, @nlw argues Association membership is
Venezuelans are reportedly selling the state-launched Petro (PTR) cryptocurrency that was airdropped to them recently. Though the government claims to have fixed the value of one PTR at $60, the market price on LocalBitcoins is reported to be only half of that. According to a Reddit thread, Venezuelans are turning to LocalBitcoins to sell their
Recent research shows that Ether (ETH) was the cryptocurrency most correlated to the rest of the crypto market in 2019. In a report published on Jan. 22, the research arm of major cryptocurrency exchange Binance suggests that throughout 2019, ETH had an average correlation coefficient of 0.69. The paper, which compared correlation data of 20
Recently Hiromi Yamaoka, the former head of payments and settlements at the Bank of Japan, said that Facebook’s Libra has forced central banks to research and consider issuing central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Currently China is leading the race in developing a CBDC but it appears that other nations are now attempting to play catch
Grayscale Investments has committed to financially supporting development of the ethereum classic (ETC) cryptocurrency for another two years. Announced Wednesday, the asset manager will continue to donate one-third of the management fees from its Grayscale Ethereum Classic Trust to the ETC Cooperative each quarter through 2021. “It is a big vote of confidence which we
More remitters than ever are sending money home to their loved ones. In the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region alone, the World Bank reported a 12% growth in remittance flows in 2018—and roughly 2 billion remittance transactions take place in the region each year. While this rise of global remittances is significant, what is more astounding is
The former head of payments and settlements at the Bank of Japan (BOJ) says Facebook’s Libra galvanized central banks globally to look seriously into digital currency issuance. A Jan. 22 Reuters report cited remarks by Hiromi Yamaoka, who reportedly oversaw the BOJ’s research into digital currencies as part of his erstwhile role and continues to
Bitcoin’s bounce from key price support is struggling to gather traction. The top cryptocurrency by market value made a reversal from levels near $8,461 (Sunday’s low) during Tuesday’s US trading hours, rising to a high of $8,793 earlier today, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index. The bulls have defended the $8,460 level multiple times since
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking action against yet another ICO issuer: blockchain-based B2B marketplace Opporty. In a complaint filed on Tuesday, the SEC alleges that, from September 2017 to October 2018, Opporty International, Inc. and its founder and sole owner Sergii Grybniak conducted a “fraudulent” sale of digital assets called OPP
The Blockchain Association, a U.S. advocacy group uniting the industry’s leading startups like Coinbase, Circle, 0x, Ripple and others, has filed an amicus curiae brief in the ongoing SEC vs. Telegram case. It’s the second industry’s motion in as many days to support Telegram’s fight against the SEC allegation it broke the U.S. securities law
Bitcoin (BTC) outperforms major assets such as gold, real estate and stocks if an investor holds it for just four years, popular data confirms. Highlighting the success of Bitcoin as an investment tool on Jan. 22, veteran cryptographer Nick Szabo noted Bitcoin is so far unmatched compared to many other assets broadly considered profitable. Szabo:
