BitMEX Chiefs Looted More Than $440M From Exchange After Finding Out About Probes, Suit Alleges

BitMEX Chiefs Looted More Than $440M From Exchange After Finding Out About Probes, Suit Alleges
The suit seeks an order of attachment against the parent company of BitMEX.

US Banks May Seek to Partner With or Buy Crypto Custodians, OCC’s Brooks Says

US Banks May Seek to Partner With or Buy Crypto Custodians, OCC’s Brooks Says
The OCC's July ruling that allowed banks to provide custody spurred the newfound interest, Brooks said.

Crypto Is Less Scary Than Halloween

Crypto Is Less Scary Than Halloween
The great Twitter hack of 2020 highlighted the scariest thing about crypto: being tricked by scams. Here is how to avoid being a victim.

China Should Take Part in Creating Regulatory Framework for Digital Currency, Xi Says

China Should Take Part in Creating Regulatory Framework for Digital Currency, Xi Says
China's president said the nation should proactively participate in setting the international framework.

The World Is Never Getting Off Government Stimulus

The World Is Never Getting Off Government Stimulus
The Breakdown weekly recap looks at bitcoin buying by Iran, JPM Coin and the latest round of lockdowns coming to Europe.

$14K: Bitcoin Hits Highest Level Since January 2018

$14K: Bitcoin Hits Highest Level Since January 2018
Bitcoin has carved out a 33-month high, showing resilience amid growing instability in the traditional markets.

Crypto Lender Celsius Taps Horizen for ‘Proof-of-Reserves’ Proof of Concept

Crypto Lender Celsius Taps Horizen for ‘Proof-of-Reserves’ Proof of Concept
The proof-of-reserves pilot would take information that appears on Celsius’ website and have it fed from a public Horizen sidechain instead.

Market Wrap: Bitcoin Tests $13.6K as DeFi Total Value Locked Dips Below $11B

Market Wrap: Bitcoin Tests $13.6K as DeFi Total Value Locked Dips Below $11B
Bitcoin’s price hit $13,600 before retrenching while some investors pulled crypto out of DeFi.

Desperation Among Filecoin Miners Creating a Big Market for FIL Borrowing

Desperation Among Filecoin Miners Creating a Big Market for FIL Borrowing
The Filecoin network is facing liquidity problems, forcing some miners to borrow the native token at outrageous rates.

MakerDAO Members Voting on a Safeguard Against BProtocol Flash Loan-Type Attack

MakerDAO Members Voting on a Safeguard Against BProtocol Flash Loan-Type Attack
The Maker DAO community is voting on a proposal to harden the protocol's governance structure against flash loan voting.

Bitcoin Developers Still Divided on Specifics of Taproot Activation

Bitcoin Developers Still Divided on Specifics of Taproot Activation
The code for Taproot is ready to go, but developers are still discussing how to deploy the update across Bitcoin’s distributed network.

Prime Broker Bequant Adds Risk-Monitoring Service in Push for Added Compliance

Prime Broker Bequant Adds Risk-Monitoring Service in Push for Added Compliance
Bequant is adding New York-based Solidus Labs’ surveillance tools to its digital asset services business.

Why Satoshi Chose Halloween to Release the Bitcoin White Paper

Why Satoshi Chose Halloween to Release the Bitcoin White Paper
Was Satoshi’s release of the Bitcoin White Paper an allusion to the Reformation or something to do with the ancient pagan tradition of Samhain?

Overstock Touts Voatz Blockchain Voting App as Solution to US Election Fracas

Overstock Touts Voatz Blockchain Voting App as Solution to US Election Fracas
The comments come days before a ballot count marred in uncertainty.

INX to List on Canadian Securities Exchange Following IPO

INX to List on Canadian Securities Exchange Following IPO
INX will list on the CES once it closes its $117 million IPO.

Money Reimagined: Who Are the Real Monsters?

Money Reimagined: Who Are the Real Monsters?
Next to the frightening creatures of the legacy financial system, bitcoin is the normal, wholesome outlier, like the niece from TV’s “The Munsters.”

Ethereum Developers Pencil In January for Eth 1.x ‘Berlin’ Hard Fork

Ethereum Developers Pencil In January for Eth 1.x ‘Berlin’ Hard Fork
Ethereum developers are eyeing January for the Berlin hard fork. The backwards-incompatible upgrade of the existing Eth 1.x blockchain was first set for July.

Blockchain Bites: Ripple’s MoneyGram Pump, OKEx’s Bitcoin Cash Plan, Bitcoin’s Birthday

Blockchain Bites: Ripple’s MoneyGram Pump, OKEx’s Bitcoin Cash Plan, Bitcoin’s Birthday
Tomorrow marks the 12th anniversary of the Bitcoin white paper.

Deribit Sees Record Bitcoin Options Volume as Activity in $36K Calls Surge

Deribit Sees Record Bitcoin Options Volume as Activity in $36K Calls Surge
Daily volume for bitcoin options have hit lifetime highs on crypto derivatives exchange Deribit.

Library of Congress Reports Surge in Crypto Law Searches

Library of Congress Reports Surge in Crypto Law Searches
The surge comes as America's largest library rolls out a crypto regulatory guide.

Swiss Arm of Russia’s Gazprombank Launches Institutional Bitcoin Offerings

Swiss Arm of Russia’s Gazprombank Launches Institutional Bitcoin Offerings
Gazprombank (Switzerland) has been authorized by FINMA to launch institutional cryptocurrency services in Switzerland.

First Mover: Bitcoin Heads for 24% October Gain as US Election Countdown Begins

First Mover: Bitcoin Heads for 24% October Gain as US Election Countdown Begins
Pantera's Dan Morehead looks at negative images of GDP charts and counts words in Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper to chronicle bitcoin's "movement."

ETH Gobbles Up Larger Share of Genesis Loan Book as Trading Firms Feast on DeFi Summer

ETH Gobbles Up Larger Share of Genesis Loan Book as Trading Firms Feast on DeFi Summer
Genesis Trading saw the share of bitcoin in its loan portfolio drop – mainly due to demand for liquidity mining on DeFi protocols.

FTX Raises ‘TRUMP’ Futures Margins as Price Suggests Lower Expectations of Election Win

FTX Raises ‘TRUMP’ Futures Margins as Price Suggests Lower Expectations of Election Win
FTX said the price of one TRUMP contract roughly equals the president's expected chances of reelection.

Huawei’s Mate 40 Phone to Ship With Digital Yuan Wallet

Huawei’s Mate 40 Phone to Ship With Digital Yuan Wallet
The upcoming Mate 40 line of devices will feature a built-in hardware wallet for China's central bank digital currency.

Bitcoin Traders Can Now Bet on $40K Price With New Deribit Options

Bitcoin Traders Can Now Bet on $40K Price With New Deribit Options
Options at a $40,000 strike price expiring in March 2021 and June 2021 went live on Deribit early on Friday

UK Police Find no Crime in Alleged $3M Crypto ‘Staking’ Scam

UK Police Find no Crime in Alleged $3M Crypto ‘Staking’ Scam
Investors who say they lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in an alleged cryptocurrency fraud have had no luck persuading the police that there was in fact a crime committed.

Advising the Advisers: ‘On Purpose’ Podcast Live Taping Party

Advising the Advisers: ‘On Purpose’ Podcast Live Taping Party
As a financial adviser, you might feel pressured to know every answer to your clients’ portfolio needs. But you’ve got some burning questions about digital assets like bitcoin. Now’s your chance to ask: On Purpose podcast host and Onramp Invest CEO Tyrone Ross invites the public to CoinDesk’s first podcast live taping party and AMA […]

Ripple Keeps Pumping Funds Into MoneyGram

Ripple Keeps Pumping Funds Into MoneyGram
All in, Ripple has funded the money sender to the tune of over $52 million for providing liquidity to one of its payments products.

Market Wrap: Bitcoin Hits $13.6K; 500K ETH Options Pile Up for December

Market Wrap: Bitcoin Hits $13.6K; 500K ETH Options Pile Up for December
Bitcoin’s price is turning bullish as ether options traders accumulate half a million of ETH options for December expiration.

Leaked Docs Reveal How Binance Dealt With US Regulations: Report

Leaked Docs Reveal How Binance Dealt With US Regulations: Report
Crypto trading colossus Binance created a corporate plan for profiting from the U.S. market while avoiding regulatory scrutiny, Forbes reported Thursday, citing a 2018 document it obtained.

Harvest Finance Boosts Bounty to $1M for Information Leading to Return of Exploited Funds

Harvest Finance Boosts Bounty to $1M for Information Leading to Return of Exploited Funds
Harvest Finance is offering $1 million for information leading to the return of funds from Monday's $24 million exploit.

Mirage Recovery: What ‘Record’ GDP Growth Tells Us About the Economy

Mirage Recovery: What ‘Record’ GDP Growth Tells Us About the Economy
The Department of Commerce’s new report shows 33.1% annualized GDP growth in Q3, but does this really tell us much about the state of the economy?

‘Flash Loans’ Have Made Their Way to Manipulating Protocol Elections

‘Flash Loans’ Have Made Their Way to Manipulating Protocol Elections
BProtocol used a flash loan to speed up election results on MakerDAO. The DeFi platform is now weighing changes to its voting process.

Audius, the ‘Decentralized Spotify,’ Is Moving Part of Its Service to Solana Blockchain

Audius, the ‘Decentralized Spotify,’ Is Moving Part of Its Service to Solana Blockchain
Decentralized music app Audius announced Thursday that it will migrate its content management system over to Solana’s high-speed blockchain from an Ethereum sidechain operated by the POA Network that runs on a set of trusted validators. Audius occupies a similar space to popular music players like Pandora or Spotify, but it allows artists to set […]

US Charges Stanford Crypto Group Director With Defrauding His Former Employer – the Fed

US Charges Stanford Crypto Group Director With Defrauding His Former Employer – the Fed
Lawrence Rufrano allegedly hid his work at Stanford and blockchain startup Factom from disability benefits regulators.

Bitcoin Transaction Fees Rise to 28-Month High as Hashrate Drops Amid Price Rally

Bitcoin Transaction Fees Rise to 28-Month High as Hashrate Drops Amid Price Rally
The cost of doing transactions on bitcoin is surging at a time the network is suffering its worst congestion in nearly three years.

Blockchain Bites: Coinbase’s Card, Avanti’s Approval, FTX’s Fractional Stocks

Blockchain Bites: Coinbase’s Card, Avanti’s Approval, FTX’s Fractional Stocks
Meanwhile, The Graph's $12 million raise is one in a line of many public token sales this year.

Crypto and Fintech Share Goals: They Should Talk

Crypto and Fintech Share Goals: They Should Talk
The missions of programmable money and autonomous finance overlap, so it's surprising people from crypto and fintech don't collaborate more.

Casa Rolls Out ‘Bank-to-Wallet’ Bitcoin-Buying Services for US Customers

Casa Rolls Out ‘Bank-to-Wallet’ Bitcoin-Buying Services for US Customers
The cryptocurrency custody startup announced on Thursday that users will now be able to buy bitcoin (BTC) on the Casa app using their bank accounts.

All-In on DeFi: Why the Days of Centralized Exchanges Are Numbered

All-In on DeFi: Why the Days of Centralized Exchanges Are Numbered
The CEO of Binance on why DeFi will come to dominate CeFi.

Huobi Beefs Up Venture Arm With Former DragonFly Partner Leading DeFi Investments

Huobi Beefs Up Venture Arm With Former DragonFly Partner Leading DeFi Investments
Alex Pack from DragonFly will Join Huobi to help invest "tens of millions of dollars" in decentralized finance.

Iran Amends Law to Allow Imports to Be Funded With Cryptocurrency

Iran Amends Law to Allow Imports to Be Funded With Cryptocurrency
Strapped for international currencies, Iran is turning to cryptocurrency to allow imports to continue to flow.

New York’s Financial Regulator Wants Firms, Including Crypto Miners, to Look Closer at Climate Change Risks

New York’s Financial Regulator Wants Firms, Including Crypto Miners, to Look Closer at Climate Change Risks
The New York Department of Financial Services’s letter said that it expects all firms, including virtual currency businesses, to start assessing climate change associated financial risks.

Blockchain Firm Figment Raises $2.5M in Funding Round Led by Bonfire Ventures

Blockchain Firm Figment Raises $2.5M in Funding Round Led by Bonfire Ventures
Figment said the latest round will enable it to continue developing its blockchain staking, governance and developer tools.

First Mover: Bitcoin Falls as COVID-19 Surges, ECB’s Lagarde Steps Up, US GDP Hits 33%

First Mover: Bitcoin Falls as COVID-19 Surges, ECB’s Lagarde Steps Up, US GDP Hits 33%
The enthusiasm jolt from bitcoin's ascent toward $14K ran into realism, and options traders see low probabilities of a new price record this year.

Fidelity Digital Assets Expands Crypto Custody Service to Asia

Fidelity Digital Assets Expands Crypto Custody Service to Asia
The cryptocurrency-focused arm of financial services giant Fidelity Investments is expanding its custody service through Singapore-based Stack Funds.

Voyager Digital Revenue Rises Over 1,000% on Increased Crypto Adoption

Voyager Digital Revenue Rises Over 1,000% on Increased Crypto Adoption
Publicly traded digital-asset brokerage Voyager Digital registered four-digit growth in revenue in the last fiscal year.

Bank of Canada Governor Says Digital Dollar Project Moving Past Trial Stage

Bank of Canada Governor Says Digital Dollar Project Moving Past Trial Stage
Tiff Macklem said Canada's digital dollar initiative is progressing past the experimental phase and that the G7 needs to coordinate on digital currencies.

Bitcoin’s Options Market Sees Just 6% Chance of $20K Before Year’s End

Bitcoin’s Options Market Sees Just 6% Chance of $20K Before Year’s End
At press time, bitcoin was seeing a 6% probability of bitcoin trading above the historical 2017 all-time high of $20,000 by the end of December.