A NEW CRYPTO COIN BY FACEBOOK?

According to the New York Times, Facebook, social media giant, is planning to launch a crypto coin, which will be integrated with WhatsApp – a messaging platform, of Facebook and it will allow ordinary WhatsApp users to send electronic cash to their family and friends abroad. Facebook is already approaching to cryptocurrency exchanges about the potential listing of the currency.

Nevertheless, it is still unclear the way Facebook is going to solve the fundamental compromise between accessibility and decentralization, bothering existing crypto coins. Here, the problem is that there does not exist any Bitcoin company being able to reverse fraudulent transactions and restore lost crypto coins, or simply shut down fraudulent service providers. Thus, there is a need of a higher level of sophistication to participate in the Bitcoin ecosystem than any average Facebook or WhatsApp user has.

The Times also notes that Facebook is not the only messaging company that is preparing to launch a crypto, as Signal and Telegram  have an intention to launch their own crypto coins as well.

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Cryptocurrency linked money laundering cases increased 10 times in Japan

The Japan Times reported reports that in 2018 cryptocurrency linked money laundering cases in Japan have been increased 10 times. On Thursday, the National Police Agency told that over 7,000 cases were reported to police during 2018.

The number of the cases between April and December was 669, when for cryptocurrency exchange operators reporting transactions suspected to be linked to the movement of illegally obtained cash became obligatory. The transfer of cryptocurrencies can be anonymously rapid and in huge amounts, with police saying that in some cases cryptocurrency was used to pay for child pornography or illegal drugs.

417,465 cases of suspected money laundering, including all financial transactions, were reported to the police in 2018, up 17,422 from a year earlier, mostly involving banks and other financial institutions – 346,014 reports in total. On the 2nd place were credit card companies – 15,114 reported cases.

In order to counter the growth of suspicious transactions, the NPA plans to train specialists in data analysis as well as test AI technology that will be able to detect illegal trades after being taught to recognize patterns related to drug deals and money laundering transactions.

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TRADITIONAL BANKS OR MODERN CRYPTO EXCHANGHE?

The poll in Twitter showed that 68% of 9,734 respondents prefer to put their money on traditional banks than on a modern crypto exchange, and other 32% voted for crypto exchange. The result was expected for cryptocurrency industry news followers.

Millions of dollars was missed by users and in some cases and the cause were some cryptocurrency exchange hacks. And there is no way to get the money back.

These problems is in peoples skepticism concerning the cryptocurrency industry like it is far away from reality, but the advantage of cryptocurrency should be the safety of users’ funds and if it is not guaranteed then people would use the system they are more familiar with for many years, at least no conventional bank has been hacked and funds lost, still.

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BUFFETT AND HIS NEGATIVE OPINION ON BITCOIN

Worldwide well-known and useful cryptocurrency, bitcoin was branded by billionaire investor Warren Buffett. This delusion has attracted many hackers.

Buffett, at CNBC interview on February 25, told that bitcoin is not rare at all.
Buffett mentioned that his negative point of view on cryptocurrencies will not change, because it attracts cheaters. He explained that if someone does something spurious just by selling yo-yos for example, it is not money at all, but if we go to Wall Street, we can see real huge money. He added that it’s a delusion.

At the end of 2017, bitcoin reached $20.000, but now it has lost more than 80% of its price. Today, it worth $3,842 a coin, according to a well-known data source of cost changes in crypto assets, CoinMarketCap.

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FIRST CRYPTO-MONEY HACKING

An important announcement about first crypto-money hacking  was made by New Zealand police on the issue several times since it took over the undertakings, and one of them was the acceptance to allow the stock market to continue dealing. Also, Cryptopia has not made the site available and the crypto money exchange is closed yet. On 24 February, the leaders of the Cryptopia stock exchange made a statement from Discord about the questions.

16.1 million dollars in the hacker event, estimated to have been stolen, hackers, Ethereum wallets had been emptied for weeks. Cryptopia officials mentioned that although they got permission from the local authorities, but they wouldn’t continue to proceed until all funds were available and should not be in a hurry.

Crypto money exchange officials statement has also pointed up that New Zealand law forbid a company to undertake irresponsible operations in a way that puts investors at risk.

Additionally, the Cryptopia event, US law enforcement officials recently announced that in 2016 they had returned $120,000 BTC to $104,000 from the Bitfinex crypto money exchange. However, it’s not easy to get back the hacked amounts from the crypto money exchanges, US officials managed to do so in a small amount.

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BITCOIN IS BACK!

Currently, 1 Bitcoin is equal to $3,826, which is 1% more expensive than yesterday. While the recovery is growing up, a sustainable move above $3,800 may bring some relief for short-term BTC bulls.

Especially, the prices are supported by SMA100 (4-hour) currency ant $3,735. The decline was limited by this since Sunday. If it will be clear, the sell-off may be extended towards $3,600 with SMA200 (4-hour) situated right below this handle. This barrier is preferable to stop the downside to attract new buyers to the market. On the other hand, BTC/UDS will experience an increased downside tension and move to discover new lows at $3,300.

Above, the short-term recovery is $3,880 (SMA50 4-hour, SMA50 1-hour, SMA200 1-hour) and psychological $3,900, strengthened by SMA100 1-hour). So, $4,000 will come back once again.

Considering that the Relative Strength Index is shallow, in the neural area on all intraday charts, coin is going to continue the rangebound trading with a mild bullish bias.

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KuCoin PLATFORM 2.0 UPDATING

The KuCoin Exchange has a great success and eminence in the cryptocurrency market. With over five million registered users in more than 100 countries, KuCoin has built a strong foundation, where they can continue to build and raise their trading platform.

Redesigning for the User – Many new features and functions have been added to the platform, basing on recent feedbacks. Quality of life development is important, user-facing redesigns are concentrated on maintaining KuCoins’ high-performance standard

Now Trading is More Efficient – Thanks to ambition of increasing efficiency and decreasing the chance of losses, some advanced order functions will be submitted. These include Limit Orders, Market Orders, and Stop Orders and all this will be supported. Other order types such as Hidden Orders, Iceberg Orders, Stop Market Orders, and Stop Limit Orders also will be available. Another feature in new Platform 2.0 is computation mode, is that allows to charge various trading fees depend on their previous trading.

New Functionality with APIs – New WebSocket API, including full 3 levels of market data.  Also, there will be supported real-time  market  data  and  balance  data  streams,  which  will help to increase the market depth.

Security with Phone Number Integration is increased – Now mobile numbers  can  be  used  to register for an account on KuCoin in place of an email address.

Beyond Platform 2.0, there are still many plans for the rest of 2019 that will be realized. It will include new training facilities for new traders and social features that will help connect users together.

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BITCOIN BULLS GO DOWN TO BEARS’ TRAP

Bitcoin (BTC) reached to $4,000 and hitting $3,800 was a sensational crash.

BTC/USD is bartering at $3,779 at the time of writing, down 10% from the recent peak of $4,187. The inability to settle above critical resistance area after a breakthrough and develop a sustainable upside momentum bodes ill for Bitcoin bull, at least in the short run.

“That last sell-off is a sobering reminder that crypto is unsettled and risky. For instance, if we can keep $3,800 here, it would be a nice place to build support,”Matings Greenspan from eToro wrote in his Twitter account before the prices broke below $3,800 handle.

BTC/USD moved under DMA100 (currently at $3,780). Thus, now we are looking at $3,600, which is the next critical support for BTC/USD created by SMA200 (4-hour chart) and DMA50. Once it is broken, the downside may be extended towards $3,350-$3,300 congestion area.

So, how we can see a recovery at least above $3,850 (SMA200, 1-hour). Coming target is standing at $4,000 and the recent high of $4,187.

However, considering the neutral position of the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and a lack of enthusiasm on the market after the sell-off, the bull might need some time to lick their wounds before another assault.

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24-hour Timed Online Auction of BTC hosted by Wilsons Auctions

UK and Ireland based auction house Wilsons Auctions, which is a leading advisory service for worldwide law enforcement agencies, is planning to hold its first Bitcoin auction as per a signed contract with the Belgium Federal Government.

The 24-hour online auction is set to start at 12 noon (GMT) on 28 February, during which there will be sold off a total amount of about 430,000 USD in cryptocurrencies, which were seized by the Belgium police as a result of a drug trafficking case involving the use of the Darknet.

Head of Asset Recovery of Wilsons Auctions, Aidan Larkin mentioned, “We are thrilled to be awarded this 1st of its kind contract with the Belgium Federal Government to sell seized cryptocurrency, giving us the ability to offer government and law enforcement agencies worldwide, a secure solution so that the ever-increasing problem of seized cryptocurrencies can be managed by a reputable auction company with significant experience dealing with seized assets.”

In addition, Wilsons Auctions will sell some Bitcoin at its Unreserved Government Auction in Northern Ireland. However, the amount of the coins is not disclosed.

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Jesse Lund: Bitcoin will Hit $1 Million

The vice president of blockchain and cryptocurrencies for IBM, Jesse Lund, expressed his opinion about Bitcoin’s price, in the interview to news platform Finder.com, mentioning that it will hit $1 million.

Speaking about the Bitcoin possible price on this New Year’s Eve, he said: “I’ll go with $5,000.” He also added: “I see Bitcoin at a million dollars someday.”

As an explanation to his predictions, he said that he “likes that number,” and “if BTC is at a million dollars, then Satoshi is equal to the value of the U.S. penny.” According to Lund, with that value the whole network would have a liquidity of over $20 trillion, suggesting that such liquidity could change corporate and high value payments.

During the interview also discussing the collaboration with Stellar, Lund mentioned that besides Stellar, IBM is considering to work with other cryptocurrencies: “it could be Ripple, even XRP, Bitcoin, but it would also probably include other instruments, like stablecoins, and even eventually soon – hopefully – central bank-issued digital currencies.”

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XRP Ledger is Better Than Bitcoin: David Schwartz

David Schwartz, who is one of the team members, working on improving functionality of the Ripple network, has spoken about the XRP Ledger, expressing his opinion about it.

According to him, now the XRP Ledger is even more decentralized comparing to the previous year, as the number of transaction validations managed by Ripple, have been reduced dramatically, giving other independent operators more leeway. Discussing the difference between the XRP and the BTC networks, David mentioned that the XRP Ledger uses the Consensus Protocol contrary to the Proof-of-Work system that uses BTC.

David also spoke about the 2019 expectations, adding he foresees that the use of cryptocurrencies and decentralize exchange will increase and there will be more stable coins in the financial market.

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THE USER PAID $450,000 AS A SENDING FEE OF ABOUT 0.15 ETH

This night, an unknown user attempted to go down in history as the sender of the most expensive transactions in the history of the Ethereum network.

From his address he gave four transactions, which translated ETH is less than 0.15, or about $19, while paying more than $450 000 as commissions.

During the first transaction, he sent 0.01 ETH and paid 210 ETH (more than $30,000) to the miners. For the next two transactions, he doubled the amount and paid 420 ETH for each, transferring 0.02 ETH to the recipient addresses.

But the real surprise for the miners was the fourth transaction, with which the amount of 0.1 ETH was transferred, accompanied by a Commission of 2,100 ETH.

Who may own this wallet is currently unknown, but it continues to be actively used to send small transactions, which are now covered by commissions of adequate size.

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SEOUL WILL INVEST $1 BILLION IN BLOCKCHAIN AND FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGIES BY 2022

The capital of South Korea intends to invest more than $1 billion in financial and technological startups and blockchain. This follows from the official report of the government of Seoul. A specialized “Seoul innovation development Fund”, designed to support startups experiencing difficulties in attracting investments, will be engaged in investments. The main area of support will be financial and technological initiatives.

The government of Seoul notes that in the UK or Silicon Valley in the US, the company accounts for about $7 million investment, while Korea now invests seven times less. According to the head of the Department of economic policy of Seoul Joe In-don, support for such startups will be a catalyst for corporate growth and innovation in society. In the future, these investment programs will contribute to the development of venture companies. Seoul plans to increase investments in order to provoke the growth of start-up investment and the creation of a competitive environment.

Earlier, Seoul created a special group to work with blockchain technologies. It included 100 people who will study the possibilities of the blockchain and ways of its integration into the work of state bodies. Also, the head of Seoul Park Vaughn published a plan for 5 years, which was called the “Blockchain city of Seoul”. It provides a number of measures to support and develop blockchain startups in Seoul.

 

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SBI PLANS TO SUPPORT RIPPLE AND ACCELERATE XRP DISTRIBUTION

As the President of the Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings Yoshitaka Kitao said, the Bank plans to support the startup Ripple, increase the adoption of the XRP token and push its course to new heights.

“In the current environment, we are maximizing efforts to use XRP. On the other hand, we will provide investment tools that offer virtual currencies to institutional investors,” the head of the holding said.

Kitao spoke about his belief that Ripple and the XRP token will be able to revolutionize the cryptocurrency industry. He sees a huge potential in the startup and token, and therefore decided to offer his help in promoting this digital asset.

“I don’t see much value in bitcoin. The current price of bitcoin makes its use for practical purposes more and more difficult. So I think XRP will become crypto asset # 1. And we want to achieve this,” Kitao said.

 

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BITPAY: “95% OF THE COMPANY’S PAYMENTS ARE MADE IN BITCOIN”

Cryptocurrency operator BitPay carries out almost all of their transactions using bitcoins.

This was stated by the General Director Stephen Pair. He said: “95% of our payments are made in bitcoin.”

While the figure itself is not surprising, Pair’s latest statement stands in stark contrast to the comments he made two years ago. As the user of StopAndDecrypt noted in social networks, having supported his words with two videos from Peyr’s speech at the Consensus conference in May 2017, BitPay at that time generally wanted to abandon bitcoin.

At that time, the probable alternative was ready to be in the industry – bitches was launched two months later.

Since the advent of BCH, fees in the bitcoin network have declined sharply. The user StopAndDecrypt suggested that the harsh statements of Pair against bitcoin at that time were associated with high commissions. However, now the company’s attitude to altcoins has become sharper. Pair also said:

“Over the years, Dogecoin fanatics… Litecoin fanatics have come to us; they’ve all tried to PR on social media to create the perception that their coin is the only one and… is going to beat bitcoin, and so we have to use it.”

As for Bitcoin Cash, Pair added that his company will continue to support Bitcoin ABC.

At the beginning of the year, BitPay reported record revenue in 2018. The firm said it had processed payments worth more than $1 billion at the end of December last year.

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BANK OF OMAN BANKDHOFAR WILL USE THE TECHNOLOGY RIPPLENET

The second largest Bank in terms of capitalization, Oman BankDhofar, whose total income in 2017 reached $ 28.2 million, announced the beginning of the use of RippleNet technology for international transfers to India.

RippleNet is a payment network based on blockchain technology and designed for institutional clients and organizations. The platform is used by more than 200 clients, including Euro Exim Bank, SendFriend, Traspaygo and others.

BankDhofar was the first in the country and one of the first in the region to join RippleNet. This technology will allow the Bank to make cross-border transfers using a mobile application in less than two minutes. Indian citizens who live in Oman and do not have resident status will be able to receive funds from their home country, as well as send money to relatives.

Note that at the beginning of the year, the national Bank of Kuwait (NBK) allowed the use of RippleNet technology for online banking.

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RAKUTEN ADDS CRYPTOCURRENCY IN ITS APPLICATION

The Japanese Corporation will introduce digital money support in Rakuten Pay in spring 2019.

One of the largest online retailers in the world, Rakuten will add cryptocurrency support to its mobile app. The updated version of the Rakuten Pay program will be presented on March 18 this year, according to the financial statements of the Japanese Corporation for 2018.

In January, the company announced that it had included Everybody’s Bitcoin exchange in the new payment division. The retailer bought the platform in August 2018 for $2.4 million, its representatives explained that they believe in the role of cryptocurrency payments in e-Commerce and offline retail, as well as peer-to-peer payments in the future.

Rakuten accepts Bitcoin payments through its American portal in March 2015. Earlier, the head of the exchange Binance Changpeng Zhao suggested that Amazon will launch its cryptocurrency, as Internet companies need digital money.

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NORWEGIAN LIBERTARIAN CITY LIBERSTAD PRODUCES ITS OWN TOKEN

Norwegian libertarian city Liberstad issues its own cryptocurrency, called CITY for a fixed asset calculations.

According to the head of the city John Toralf Holmesland, the use of national paper currencies in the territory of Liberstad is completely prohibited, and the city token is the only way to pay.

All visitors of Liberstad interact with the platform urban network using municipal application. The toolbar allows the community to perform many different tasks, such as managing identity documents, voting on various city initiatives, registering property, and other services.

The city token uses the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus method, which allows block validators to earn tokens for their work, although their choice is based on the current number of tokens in their wallet.

However, there are some countries working on “genuine” blockchain adoption. Thus, the UAE is creating a “smart city” based on blockchain, and in China a Research Institute was recently founded, which is engaged in improving the development of such cities. This initiative is focused on artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain technologies.

Recall that in 2018 more than 100 people from Brazil, Sweden, the UK and other countries have acquired land in Liberstad, where payment was taken on 27 cryptocurrencies.

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IN CHINA, THE INTEREST OF MINERS TO THE CRYPTOCURRENCY GRIN IS GROWING

Since the official launch of the Grin cryptocurrency network, a little more than a month has passed, but during this time the capitalization of the coin has grown to $13.6 million, and the daily trading volume exceeds $20 million.

Grin developers use the Mimblewimble Protocol to provide privacy and scalability that they claim has not yet been offered. The bizarre name is inspired by the stories of Harry Potter and his magical Gringotts Bank.

Most investors understand that Grin is not the best option for playing on volatility and does not have too high liquidity yet, but for miners it is a good option to earn.

The past year has been a very difficult time for miners and they just need new cryptocurrencies, including those that are resistant to mining with the help of ASIC. In the short term, Grin can provide this.

The profit from mining Grin is now higher than from the production of ether. And yet, miners need to act quickly, as major players — or coin owners-may soon decide to raise money from the market by arranging a sale. The first ASIC for GRIN may be released by Innosilicon at the end of summer 2019.

In General, the prospects of Grin are vague, which is quite normal for any new altcoin, but Chinese miners are not afraid of this, since they probably sell the mined at the moment, so while the coin is being pumped, the popularity of mining this crypto currency among them is growing every day.

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BITMAIN RELEASES NEXT-GENERATION ASIC CHIP BM1397

This Monday, Chinese mining company Bitmain announced a 7-nm chip of a new generation codenamed BM1397, which, according to her statement, surpasses its predecessors in performance and energy efficiency and is suitable for mining cryptocurrencies on the SHA256 algorithm, including Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.

Chip BM1397 requires less energy and is able to achieve efficiency in 30J/TH, which is “higher by 28.6% than the previous 7-nm chip from Bitmain” under the code name BM1391.

BM1397 is manufactured using the technology of the Taiwanese company TSMC, which is engaged in the production of semiconductor products and is one of the leading suppliers in the cryptocurrency mining industry.

The BM1397 chip will be installed in the new ASIC miners of Antminer S17 and Antminer T17 models, the release of which Bitmain promises to report later. The company does not give other details of the updated devices in its message.

At the end of December, Bitmain confirmed the information about the reduction of staff, after the media reported the closure of its research center in Israel.

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ARGENTINA AND PARAGUAY HAD THEIR FIRST TRANSACTION WITH THE PAYMENT IN BITCOINS

Argentina announced the completion of the first transaction to export products to Paraguay using Bitcoin as a means of payment.

The load of pesticides and fumigation of products has become the first batch of orders paid with Bitcoin. The deal shows that cryptocurrency can act as a trustworthy form of a payment at the level of international trade as well as a payment between individuals. Note that, despite the small amount of the party paid by Bitcoin, the very fact of such a transaction is remarkable.

Argentina used the services of Bitex to carry out the transaction. Payment was made under the terms of the program Esporta Simple, which allows you to make small payments not exceeding $15 thousands.

Earlier this month, it became known that the Argentine smart card Cube (Sistema Único de Boleto Electrónico), which is used to pay for public transport, can now be replenished with Bitcoins. These maps are used for bus, train, metro and motor boat trips in 37 cities, including the capital, Buenos Aires.

 

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КUCOIN EXCHANGE ANNOUNCED THE TECHNICAL WORKS

Based in Singapore, the cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin maintenances on Monday, February 18, in connection with the upcoming upgrade of its trading platform to verson 2.0.

According to a report on the exchange’s website, the update will start at 08:00 local time (UTC+8) and is expected to last about 14 hours.

During the technical work, users will not have access to the platform. All pending orders will be held until the resume operation and after the update is complete, users will have 30 minutes to cancel previously placed orders. As the exchange says, such an opportunity will be presented for the purpose of possible losses due to price fluctuations in the market.

On the upcoming launch of version 2.0 of the platform in the first quarter of 2019, the KuCoin exchange announced in November last year simultaneously with the receipt of $20 million of investments.

The updated version of the platform will support more types of applications, as well as offer “more efficient, stable and completely new API for trading and other new services”.

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THE FOUNDER OF THE EXCHANGE QUADRIGACX KEPT PRIVATE KEYS TO COLD WALLETS ON PAPER

During the investigation into the case of the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, it became known that the founder of the exchange Gerald Cotten for some time kept the private keys to cold wallets on paper, printing and placing them in a Bank cell.

Back during his interview on the True Bromance podcast in February 2014, Cotten spoke about the risks of losing private keys to cold wallets and the impossibility of their recovery:

“If you lose the private keys to your cold cryptocurrency wallets, you will lose all your digital assets stored on them, because even the US government with their most powerful computers in the world will not be able to help you recover them.”

The other day, it became known that five more cold wallets of the QuadrigaCX exchange were found. However, with all this, the management of the exchange still does not have access to most of them. Moreover, the exchange continues to lose money.

In early February, a Canadian court released the QuadrigaCX exchange from prosecution of creditors for 30 days, but according to a study, the QuadrigaCX exchange was insolvent long before the termination of work.

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FORBES: “BITCOIN IS REALLY MONEY”

One of the authors of Forbes expressed the opinion that bitcoin is an excellent substitute for Fiat money and has all the properties of traditional financial assets.

He explained why bitcoin can be a great unit of exchange. One of the arguments was that when financial institutions make payments, clients have to wait for the transfer, and when the transaction is carried out in the blockchain and using cryptocurrency, the recipients can receive their transfer 10 minutes after it is sent.

The journalist also stressed the complete independence of cryptocurrencies from natural disasters. If the banks in Florida did not work during the last hurricane, it did not affect the cryptocurrencies in any way. If any store accepted bitcoins, there would be no problem with payment.

Chambers went hard on the use of money as a means of preserving wealth, noting inflation and the disadvantages of the traditional banking system, citing the example of the currency of Venezuela and Iran.

As for the use of bitcoin as a unit of account, chambers reasonably noted that “if bitcoin is a unit of account on more than 500 exchanges, then why can it not be a means of account in the state?”.

In conclusion, chambers wrote that most of the barriers to the use of cryptocurrencies arise from the regulators of different countries. He urged them to be more loyal when using new technologies.

 

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BY 2024, BLOCKCHAIN INVESTMENTS IN THE ENERGY MARKET WILL REACH $3.4 BILLION

According to a new report from Infoholic Research LLP, the use of blockchain in the energy services market is expected to grow by 60% by 2024.

According to the report, the blockchain in the energy services market in 2018 was estimated at $210.4 million, and it is expected that by 2024 this figure will increase to $3.4 billion. Thus, Infoholic Research predicts an increase of 59.4%. The report also notes that the key stimulus for growth in the next five to six years will be the sale of distributed energy and P2P-electricity.

Blockchain technology has found many applications in the energy sector. In January, Spain’s largest energy company Iberdrola began using the blockchain to track renewable energy sources. In the same month, the Danish Ministry of energy and IOTA announced that they plan to improve the efficiency of the energy sector with the help of blockchain. In addition, last month, Power Ledger and Sharing Energy announced that they will use the blockchain to sell solar energy.

In addition, in December last year, Reliance Industries Limited invested $5 million in a platform for trading energy resources on the blockchain, and the research company Zion Market Research said that according to its estimates, the blockchain will reach $12 billion by 2024 in the energy market.

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BRAZILIAN TRADER ACCIDENTALLY BOUGHT BTC AT THE RATE OF $19 400

One of the cryptocurrency traders in Brazil accidentally bought BTC at a price much higher than the market price.

On one not the most popular Brazilian cryptocurrency platform TemBTC a trader bought 0.0047 BTC for 340 Brazilian reals (about $91). That is, if he bought a whole bitcoin at the same rate, it would cost him $19,400. On other cryptocurrency platforms 0.0047 BTC would cost him about $15.

Most likely, an inexperienced trader who does not understand the dynamics of the market, placed to buy a large order and thus emptied the entire glass of orders for sale. Before buying bitcoin at a price of $19 400, he also bought the application at the price of $16 000, $13 000 and $10 000.

Note that the record value of bitcoin on the Brazilian cryptocurrency platforms was reached in December 2017 and amounted to $18,900 per 1 BTC.

TemBTC was recently purchased by Bitcoin Banco Group, which owns other cryptocurrency platforms, including the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the country NegocieCoins. After that, the daily trading volume on TemBTC increased from 1 BTC to 100 BTC or more. At some point, the daily turnover of the exchange reached 2000 BTC.

Despite the comic nature of the situation, many cryptocurrency traders took this moment with optimism, as it may indicate a return to the market of investors who again began to buy bitcoin.

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POLONIEX EXCHANGE ADDS GRIN

Cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex announced the beginning of support focused on increased privacy of users of the cryptocurrency Grin.

The auction will be available in pairs BTC/GRIN and USDC/GRIN. Users already have the opportunity to make deposits; withdrawals will be available in the coming weeks.

The report of the Seattle-based exchange also says that in the next 12 months, part of all commissions that will be received as a result of transactions with the cryptocurrency will be sent to the Grin development fund. In the first month of trading it will be 50%, in the following months – 25%.

The exchange also notes that due to the feature of Grin transactions that do not have public addresses, users are offered two ways to deposit funds, which should provide maximum security and simplicity.

The first method involves the use of a URL, reducing the process of depositing funds to one step. It is best suited for those who want maximum simplicity, and will also be useful when transferring funds from mining pools or other exchanges.

The second method is more complex and assumes that Poloniex and the user exchange a unique file before initiating a transaction translation on the Grin network. This method is intended for more advanced technical users, as well as for those who want to use Poloniex as a Grin wallet for p2p transactions.

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NASDAQ WILL ADD SUPPORT FOR BITCOIN AND ETHER CRYPTOCURRENCY INDEX

Service for real-time quotes Nasdaq Global Index Data Services (GIDS), which already has more than 40 000 indices, has been supplemented with two new cryptocurrency indices Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX).

From February 25, subscribers of the GIDS service will receive information about the movement of bitcoin and ether quotes collected by Brave New Coin, which deals with data on the market of cryptocurrency assets.

The BLX and ELX indices will provide users with real-time information on the value of BTC and ETH, respectively, as well as information on the state of the cryptocurrency spot market.

At its core, the indices will use the indicators of the most liquid markets. The information will be updated every 30 seconds. The indices will be calculated in US dollars.

Brave New Coin also provides data on the cryptocurrency market and publishes important news from the world of digital assets. Clients of the company can use the My BNC application, consisting of a cryptocurrency wallet and management tools that will help in managing the investment portfolio.

Nasdaq representatives also noted that among cryptocurrency traders, the BLX index is one of the most widely used. Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman praised the potential of the technology of cryptocurrency indices from Brave New Coin.

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JP MORGAN BANK WILL RELEASE ITS CRYPTOCURRENCY

American Bank JP Morgan, which is one of the largest in the world, announced plans to launch its own cryptocurrency JPM Coin. It will be used to conduct instant payments between the company’s customers, testing of the new altcoin will begin in a few months, CNBC writes.

JPM Coin will be the first cryptocurrency issued by a major American Bank. It will benefit from pioneer status and a large market share (the company serves 80% of Fortune 500 organizations).

In May last year, the largest Bank in Japan Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group announced plans to launch its own digital money. Testing of the MUFG Coin should take place in 2019 in several regions of the country, it will be able to participate up to 100 thousand customers of the company.

Also, Mizuho Financial Group Corporation is preparing to release cryptocurrency. The altcoin rate will be tied to the Japanese yen; a new coin will be presented in March. Local shops will start accepting altcoins, and visitors who will pay for their purchases with digital money will receive special discounts.

Earlier, analysts of JP Morgan Bank criticized cryptocurrencies and said that they do not make sense. According to experts, digital money will be used only if investors lose faith in major reserve assets such as gold and the dollar.

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BLOCKCHAIN WILL BE USED TO SELL SUGAR

At the meeting of Dubai entrepreneur and managing Director of Al Khaleej Sugar Jamal al Gurair with stakeholders, it was decided to study the use of blockchain in the sugar industry. Among those present at the meeting were bankers from ABN Amro Bank NV and Societe Generale SA, as well as representatives of ConsenSys.

This initiative follows the decision of four longtime competitors in agribusiness to join together for the standardization and digitization of trade. Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Bunge Ltd., Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus Co. known as ABCD, last year they began studying blockchain and AI technology in order to reduce costs and increase transparency of trading operations.

Sugar trade using blockchain technology is considered as part of the simplification of trade and transport operations of one of the most important agricultural sectors. The group for the production of sugar on the blockchain will be headed by veterans of the industry, including CEO of agribusiness Emeterra Jacob Robbins, a former buyer of sugar in Coca-Cola Jeff Bauml, as well as Nigel Durham from the London sugar Association, which develops the rules of contracts for the sugar industry.

 

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AT THE EVENT, BMW WILL DISCUSS THE INTRODUCTION OF BLOCKCHAIN IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

BMW became interested in blockchain last year, in particular the use of technology to protect customer data used on their cars.

Today, the company launches the Mobility Open Blockchain initiative, which will bring together members of the consortium founded by BMW Group, as well as representatives of well-known technology companies from around the world, startups and blockchain specialists at the BMW group center in Munich.

The main purpose of the two – day event is to exchange knowledge and experience, as well as to discuss and promote common standards for the use of blockchain technology.

In 2018, BMW tested a concept that demonstrated how customers can use the VerifyCar app to track their car’s mileage, verify its authenticity, and share that data with third parties via blockchain.

BMW Group also intends to use blockchain to track the origin of individual parts and components through its partners – this principle has been successfully tested by BMW Group as an additional confirmation of the concept, after which a pilot project was launched at the plant in Spartanburg (USA) to study the multi-level international supply chain.

The project will be ready by the end of 2019. According to the developers, it will contribute to the wider implementation of the blockchain in the procurement network and suppliers of BMW Group.

 

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THE VOLUME OF SEGWIT TRANSACTIONS IN THE BITCOIN NETWORK REACHED 90%

Portal p2sh.info tracking the performance of the Bitcoin network reports that the total volume of transactions that were sent using SegWit technology has reached 90%. At the same time, in quantitative terms, such operations occupy only 45%.

This difference in numbers is due to the fact that almost all major exchanges have already switched to the use of SegWit, and it is from the wallets of various exchanges is a large volume of transactions. In the near future, this protocol will be supported by other exchanges, for example, the Gemini platform plans to add support for SegWit in the first quarter of this year.

It is noteworthy that the use of SegWit transactions, most likely, led to a significant reduction in fees in the Bitcoin network to the level of 2014, although the daily number of transactions increased to the level of January 2018, when the rate of the first cryptocurrency reached $20,000.

Recall that SegWit technology was activated on August 24, 2017. It is designed to scale the Bitcoin network and improve security. It allows you to approximately double the total “weight ” of transactions in the block. This technology is backward compatible with network clients that do not support the protocol.

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NEW ZEALAND POLICE HAVE ALLOWED THE CRYPTOPIA EXCHANGE TO RESUME ITS WORK

The Police Department of New Zealand reports that the Cryptopia cryptocurrency exchange can return to work if desired. However, on the exchange’s website still hangs a message that the service is suspended.

The founders of the company have not yet commented on the notification to the police and do not report whether the platform will be re-launched after hacking.

“The bulk of the work in Cryptopia’s offices has been completed, although representatives of the crime control group in the high-tech industry are still there. They need to finish something else”, the inspector of criminal police Greg Murton declared.

Merton declined to answer the question as to whether and when any charges would be brought. He also did not comment on the amount of potential damage and did not discuss the assumptions that the attackers withdrew funds from the wallets of the exchange even after the beginning of the investigation.

It is believed that the total amount of stolen crypto assets reaches 23 million dollars. Although in his only meaningful comments about the hacking Cryptopia CEO Pete Dawson denied this information. He also didn’t name the total amount of damage.

The police said that the employees of the exchange actively cooperate with the authorities. Statements that cryptopia office was taken by storm, they completely deny.

 

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CENTRAL BANK OF CHILE: “CRYPTOCURRENCIES WILL NOT REPLACE TRADITIONAL MONEY”

Representatives of the Central Bank of Chile do not believe in the possibility of replacing conventional money with cryptocurrencies. They said this in a report provided at the request of the Chilean court for the protection of free competition (TDLC), which is involved in the dispute between cryptocurrency exchanges and banks in the country.

The Central Bank of Chile noted that bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have been created as an alternative to Fiat funds, but are at an early stage of development and it is unclear what the evolution of digital money will lead to. However, the Central Bank of the country is still skeptical about the future of the industry.

Recently, the Chilean service added a special section to the annual tax return, which describes the income from cryptocurrency transactions. Already this year, Chilean citizens will have to report on the income received with the help of cryptocurrencies.

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BLOOMBERG: INVESTORS AND MINERS ARE TRYING TO SURVIVE THE “CRYPTOCURRENCY” DUE TO DERIVATIVES

Cryptocurrency investors and miners are turning to derivatives, including options, in an attempt to survive a protracted recession in the market, according to Bloomberg.

The article describes the growing popularity of complex trading instruments, as well as how difficult it is for industry representatives to cope with the consequences of the “bear” market, which has become the longest in the history of the industry.

With the emergence of many experienced financial professionals who enter the digital asset market, the range of complex trading instruments has become more diverse. As an example, Bloomberg cites the move of Singapore-based cryptocurrency trading firm QCP Capital, which reported that the company recently purchased a three-month option for a nominal amount equivalent to 250 BTC (~$900,000).

The exercise price of the specified contract, was reportedly set at $4 200, so if bitcoin will trade below that level at the time of expiry of the contract, the contractor QCP will receive a prize of $666 250 and will maintain their assets in BTC. If, on the contrary, by April bitcoin will be trading above $4,200, the counterparty will have to sell its 250 BTC at this price, abandoning the expected profit.

Given the fact that many of these derivative contracts are private bilateral contracts, as Bloomberg notes, there is not much official statistics. However, the miners most affected by the fall in market prices have become one of the main sellers of a derivative instrument similar to the coated option.

 

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BARRY SILBERT: MOST CRYPTOCURRENCIES WILL DEPRECIATE

A lot of crypto-currencies will not be able to survive the current situation in the market, most digital money will become worthless, believes Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group. In an interview with CNBC, he said that Bitcoin has already won the fight for the right to be called “digital gold, the coin is actively interested in institutional investors.

“I do not believe in most cryptocurrencies, they will become worthless. Almost every ICO project tried to attract money, but their tokens are now not used anywhere,” Silbert said.

He added that Millennials will invest in Bitcoins. Also, the money that is now in gold, will be transferred to the cryptocurrency, says the head of the American venture company.

According to him, the situation in the market will change dramatically when major players come. Infrastructure for them is already being developed, soon it will launch the store from the company Fidelity and platform Bakkt.

At the end of last year, Silbert said that the ICO market died. The expert called the fall in the value of digital money a fantastic opportunity to buy assets at a bargain price.

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THE HEAD OF OVERSTOCK: “BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY CAN IMPROVE GOVERNMENT SERVICES”

The founder and head of the retail giant Overstock.com Patrick M. Byrne expressed the opinion that the blockchain can make government services “super-efficient and eliminate the possibility of bribery.”

In an interview with the MarketWatch portal, Byrne said that the time has come when it is time to fundamentally change the structure of government services, and the use of distributed registry technology, in his opinion, will be the best solution.

“The establishment of the “government-as-service”, that is, the set of applications and companies, as well as the use of the blockchain for the provision of government services will make them super-efficient, inexpensive to maintain and inaccessible to bribery,” – said the head of the Overstock.com.

He explained:

“For example, we can come to Venezuela with six laptops and create not only an active community, but also one of the most advanced government systems. We can set up a Central Bank in a laptop. All citizens download the free app and now we have the most advanced monetary system in the world.”

Byrne also said that in the near future he expects contracts with several sovereign states, in which he plans to radically change government services.

In addition, in January it became known that Overstock was the first company in Ohio to pay taxes in bitcoins.

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STANDARD CHARTERED WILL USE BLOCKCHAIN-BASED SUPPLY CHAIN FINANCING PLATFORM

The multinational banking and finance company Standard Chartered has signed a Memorandum of understanding with Chinese fintech firm Linklogis, supported by Tencent. The agreement will allow Standard Chartered to use the blockchain-based Linklogis supply chain financing platform.

Standard Chartered is reportedly going to use a blockchain-based platform Linklogis for the financing of supply chains to improve financing capabilities of the business and consolidate its network and customer relationships in China. The blockchain platform increases the transparency of the supply chain for large buyers, as well as offers small businesses more efficient and convenient access to credit.

In addition to using the blockchain platform, the agreement also implies further cooperation between Standard Chartered and Linklogis in other areas. The report says that these areas include accelerating the registration of new customers of the bank by digitizing the administration processes and improving risk management systems using data and analytical capabilities of Linklogis.

For Linklogis, the agreement will also bring considerable benefits by giving the company access to the global Standard Chartered network and opening opportunities to provide its solutions to firms that import and export to China.

 

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COINBASE WALLET ADDS KEY BACKUP FUNCTION

Users of the Coinbase Wallet cryptocurrency wallet will now be able to create backup copies of keys on Google Drive or iCloud.

In a statement, Coinbase said that allowing users to upload their keys to the cloud will provide protection against their loss, which will avoid the loss of funds in the event of their improper placement.

Coinbase Wallet users will now be able to store an encrypted copy of the recovery phrase in their cloud accounts. Coinbase notes that neither it nor cloud services will have access to users’ funds, as the recovery phrase key is unlocked with a password known only to the user.

The company reports that in addition to Google Drive and iCloud, support for other cloud storage will be added over time, but this feature will be an additional service that will not replace the original recovery option.

Earlier, the company announced the addition of Bitcoin support to its cryptocurrency wallet, and also reported that the protection of keys will continue to be carried out with the help of Secure Enclave technology, which is considered the most secure way to protect personal data on mobile devices.

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BITHUMB WILL LAUNCH A LICENSED CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE IN THE UAE

South Korean company Bithumb begins expansion in the Middle East with the launch of a licensed cryptocurrency exchange in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The firm announced on Tuesday that it had signed a Memorandum of understanding with UAE-based Nvelop to create a joint venture for the initiative. Nvelop was founded by the E11 investment fund from Abu Dhabi and the Asia-based venture company Trill Ventures Group to Finance blockchain companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

According to Bithumb, thanks to the new partnership, the Company plans to further expand in the MENA countries, including such States as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Back in June last year, the Abu Dhabi market regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the global Abu Dhabi market, issued a regulatory framework under which cryptocurrency exchanges must be licensed and approved by the FSRA as cryptocurrency asset businesses. Regulation also limits the types of cryptocurrency assets that firms can use.

FSRA plans to start issuing cryptocurrency licenses under this scheme in the first half of this year, Bithumb said. In the case of obtaining the approval of the regulator, the stock exchange company in the UAE can start work around mid-2019.

Despite the ongoing” cryptocurrency winter”, Bithumb is actively developing. Last week, the company launched an over-the-counter cryptocurrency trading platform, and in January, it also became known that Bithumb enters the US market through a reverse takeover deal.

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ASIC MINERS CAPTURED 50% OF MONERO’S MINING HASHRATE

According to the study, which placed the user MoneroCrusher, ASIC-miners took more than 50% Monero (XMR cryptocurrency) mining hashrate.

It is interesting that the developers of Monero were almost the first initiators to make hard forks twice a year in order to prevent the extraction of cryptocurrency on processors with specialized chips.

During the first hard forks Monero has four branches — each in a separate cryptocurrencies. However, immediately after that, the developers found a noticeable drop in hashrate. After the second hard fork, the hashrate began to increase, which meant that these same miners were again in the network. Just at this time, the price of the coin jumped by 25%. The researcher concluded that ASIC miners captured more than 50% of XMR production.

New Monero hardwork— update client version 0.12.0 Lithium Luna — is planned by the developers on April 6. The update plans to make changes to the algorithm of digital asset extraction to combat ASIC-miners.

In January, another study concluded that XMR is now the most popular cryptocurrency mined with the use of malicious software, and about 4.32% of all Monero in circulation produced by hackers. The researchers don’t know if the owners of the malware were able to cash out the XMR. In total, about 1 million malicious miners have been detected over the past 12 years out of 4.4 million cases of malware use. It is noteworthy that in second place after Monero, Bitcoin is allocated for crypto- jacking, and the third is Zcash. About five years ago, Dogecoin and Litecoin became objects of crypto-jacking, but again the popularity returned to Monero and Bitcoin.

 

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VENEZUELA REGULATOR HAS RESTRICTED THE AMOUNT OF CRYPTOCURRENCY TRANSFERS AND INTRODUCED COMMISSIONS

The national regulator of cryptocurrencies and related activities (Sunacrip) of Venezuela has published a new decree number 41.581, which establishes the Commission for conducting cryptocurrency transfers.

The decree describes “the requirements and procedures for making transfers and accepting transactions in cryptocurrencies for citizens in the territory of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela”.

“The person making the transfer must pay a Commission that can reach 15% of the transfer. The exact Commission is calculated depending on the volume of the transaction, but it cannot be less than $0.28,” the document says.

Sunacrip also sets limits on transfers. Citizens can send $600 every month, and if necessary to increase the limit they can apply to the regulator and, after obtaining approval, will be able to send amounts up to $3000.

Earlier, the Venezuelan government published a decree obliging taxpayers working with virtual currencies in the country to pay taxes in cryptocurrencies. Similarly, operators of foreign currencies must pay taxes in the currencies with which they work.

Note that in early February, a “constitutional decree on the integrated system of crypto assets” was issued. Against this background, Venezuela has set a new record for Bitcoin trading volume.

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THE BRAZILIAN CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGE WON THE CASE OF CLOSING A BANK ACCOUNT

The court of Rio de Janeiro ruled in favor of the Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange Mercado Bitcoin in the case of closing one of its current accounts. The court rejected an appeal filed by Banco Sicoob against the decision of the district court in Barra da Tijuca, which granted the exchange the right to keep its account open.

According to the judge Regina Lucia Passos, there must be a valid reason for closing the account, but the Bank could not provide it, according to the local newspaper Portal do Bitcoin. Passos claims that despite the warning about “the risks associated with the storage and trading of so-called virtual currencies”, the Central Bank of Brazil did not prohibit the trading of digital coins.

The judge also insisted that Sicoob did not suffer any losses due to the maintenance of the Mercado Bitcoin account. She added that by closing it unilaterally and stating only that there was no commercial interest, the Bank had in fact violated Brazilian Central Bank regulation No. 2025/93. The document States that the financial institution must clearly determine the reason for such action.

Portal do Bitcoin notes that the court decision may not be final, but, nevertheless, for Mercado Bitcoin it is a victory. Last year, the exchange lost a lawsuit over the closure of its account. In October, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled that banks have the right to close cryptocurrency-related accounts without explanation. The court stated that the cryptocurrency trading platform must prove that any constitutional norms have been violated and submit the case to the Supreme Court.

This is not the first time that Brazilian courts have ruled in favor of cryptocurrency exchanges when it comes to considering banking services. In November, the court ordered the banks to reopen the accounts of the Bitcoin Max cryptocurrency exchange, which were blocked without explanation by the banks Banco do Brasil and Banco Santander in September.

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PHILIPPINE UNION BANK BEGINS INSTALLATION OF CRYPTOCURRENCY ATMs

One of the largest Filipino banks Union Bank has established the country’s first cryptocurrency ATM, which will allow local users to easily exchange cryptocurrencies for Fiat funds and Vice versa.

The emergence of such a device demonstrates the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the Philippines. Recently, the country has adopted a set of comprehensive rules to regulate cryptocurrency and ICO called Asset Token Offering (DATO).

During the work on the creation of the crypto ATM, representatives of Union Bank were in constant contact with the Central Bank of the country, as a result of which the installation of the device was approved by the Central Bank of the Philippines.

It is reported that at the moment only one crypto ATM has been installed, but such devices will continue to appear in the offices of the Bank, if there is a demand for these services.

Recently, the head of Pantera Capital Dan Morehead said that every tenth adult resident of the Philippines uses the services of the country’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange Coins.ph. With the help of cryptocurrencies, users of the platform can pay for utilities, pay for credit card payments, as well as send money and trade assets.

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IN TEXAS, ELECTRICITY BILLS CAN BE PAID IN CRYPTOCURRENCY

Texas residents can pay their electricity bills with cryptocurrency thanks to the collaboration of GridPlus Energy and local power transmission and distribution companies Oncor Electric Delivery Company and CenterPoint Energy.

GridPlus Energy uses the Ethereum blockchain to provide its consumers with direct access to wholesale energy markets. Currently, payment of electricity bills is accepted in Ethereum or Dai, however the company has announced that it plans to add the option of accepting payment in Bitcoins in the near future as well.

Electricity companies report that their current products are calculated on a monthly basis and their goal is to bring future products closer to real-time intervals.

“In Texas, electricity prices vary depending on supply and demand in the market with 15-minute intervals, so it would be ideal to adjust bills and payment to this level,” the report said.

According to representatives of GridPlus Energy, there may be significant price fluctuations in this market, but, with averaging over a long period, real-time payment is more profitable for the end user than a fixed-price product.

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BINANCE COIN HAS ESTABLISHED A HISTORICAL MAXIMUM IN PAIR WITH BITCOIN

On Monday, February 11^th, the native token of the Binance exchange updated the historical high against bitcoin, rising in price to 0.0026880 BTC. It was the highest rate BNB against BTC for all six years of the existence of the coins.

The BNB rate has undergone a small correction and is trading around 0.0026000 BTC.

At the same time, if we talk about the price of Binance Coin against the US dollar, here the coin is still far enough to the maximum of January 12, 2018, when its weighted average rate, according to CoinMarketCap, reached $24.91. So, today BNB rose to $9.82 as much as possible.

Note that Binance Coin shows a steady increase for the past several weeks. So, on Wednesday, February 6^th, BNB rose in price by more than 15% and is among the Top 10 on CoinMarketCap. It happened against the backdrop of the announcement of licensee project Fetch.ai on the platform Binance Launchpad and release of the new version of a test network Binance Chain support hardware wallet Ledger.

However, this BNB did not stop and continued to climb to new heights, not least thanks to the announcement of the integration of Binance exchange technology xRapid from Ripple. The increase in the price of BNB against the dollar for the week was 35%, and the capitalization of the cryptocurrency at the moment is $1.34 billion.

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THE CYBER POLICE OF UKRAINE EXPOSED THE MAN WHO STOLE FUNDS FROM CRYPTO-WALLETS OF 720 THOUSAND UAH

Employees of the cyber police exposed a man-a resident of the Kiev region, who stole funds from the crypto-wallets of the exchange’s clients for online exchange of cryptocurrency of hundreds of thousands of UAH.

It is established that the acquisition of cryptocurrency clients occurred in several stages. At first, the attacker was picking up accounts of crypto-exchange customers who had not visited their accounts for a long time and on which multi-factor authentication was not installed. Subsequently, he carried out a replacement backup mailboxes or independently to add such boxes to accounts where backup addresses have not been specified. This gave the opportunity to later restore access passwords to the wallets and initiate the cancellation by electronic means.

Conversion and withdrawal of funds occurred via online exchangers.

Currently there has been mounted the amount of damages, which is the equivalent of more than 720 thousand UAH. The man spent received from criminal activity money on participation in gambling on virtual simulators of slot machines.

A man is suspected of committing an offense, provided by Art. 361 of the Criminal code of Ukraine for unauthorized intervention in work of computers, the automated systems, computer networks or telecommunication networks.

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LOCALBITCOINS INTRODUCES NEW RULES FOR VERIFICATION OF USERS

In July 2018, the European Commission introduced the FIFTH ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING DIRECTIVE (EU Directive 2018/843, also known as 5AMLD), which for the first time in history takes into account virtual currencies.

5AMLD contains provisions on the services of the exchange of virtual currencies and the operators of custodial wallets. Although it is necessary for EU member States to implement the Directive by January 2020, Finland has already prepared a new bill focused on cryptocurrency services, which amends the country’s anti-money laundering law in accordance with the 5AMLD Directive.

Legislative requirements are still being developed, but it is already clear that the new law will make significant changes in the activities of crypto-currency exchanges, which will eventually affect all exchanges and participants of the European crypto market. The most important changes include improvements to the process of registering new accounts and identifying users.

LocalBitcoins promises to make the transition to the new rules as simple as possible for customers who legally use the service and already comply with the terms of service of the exchange.

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