OKExs visits from India saw the highest increase, reaching 545.56%

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethirum (ETH) prices are at $ $10,103.5 and $247, respectively

BTC, on Monday, witnessed a price surge by almost $1,000 in less than 12 hours

According to cryptocurrency research platform Coinpaprika and global crypto exchange OKEx, India is poised to gain considerable global market share of crypto transactions this year.

The report published last week showcased that the trading volume of Indian crypto exchange platforms, CoinDCX and WazirX, witnessed an increase in the trading volume since the ease of cryptocurrency trade policy in the country. As per Similarweb, the website traffic of major crypto exchanges from India has increased during 2020 Q1.

Furthermore, the report revealed that OKExs visits from India saw the highest increase, reaching 545.56%. It claimed that newly registered users from India rose by 4100% during the same period. The global crypto exchange platform is now eyeing India and has plans to launch P2P trading platform in the country soon, which will allow Indian users to buy Bitcoins, Etherium and other digital currencies with INR via multiple payment channels.

Previously, another global crypto exchange platform Kraken had also announced that it will be expanding to the Indian market this year. With this, the crypto market in India is expected to get fierce in the coming months.

However, the crypto market still faces challenges in terms of lack of clear regulatory policies, including tax obligations. Also, there is no clarity in terms of how cryptocurrency can be used for cross-border transactions or for conversion into more stable currencies such as Bitcoin and Etherium. More than anything, the market is influenced by political factors, and any fluctuation or move towards a decentralised market, Bitcoin may no longer be necessary for Indians.

At the same time, as a utility token, the demand for Bitcoin has significantly increased in countries where the fiat currency has depreciated in value.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) at the time of writing was $10,103.5, with a market cap of $185 Bn, compared to last week (May 26, 2020) which stood at $8,821.92, with a market cap of $162 Bn. Interestingly, Bitcoin on Monday (June 1) the price increased by almost $1,000 in less than 12 hours.

Ethereum (ETH), on the other hand, was priced at $247, with a market cap of $27 Bn at the time of writing, compared to last week (May 26, 2020), where the price of the cryptocurrency was $202, with a market cap of $22 Bn.

Singapore-based crypto exchange and wallet provider Zebpay recently announced that it has commissioned blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis to monitor transactions executed across its platforms in India. Through this partnership, Chainalysis will provide Zebpay real-time alerts in case of any suspicious or high-risk transactions across the platform. Avinash Shekhar, CFOat ZebPay said that they wanted to build a best-in-class compliance program in India from the start.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) approved Swiss bank InCore to perform B2B digital trading as a measure to create a blockchain-friendly environment across the EU banking sector. Also, the financial regulator has allowed the bank to develop its tokenization capabilities. Mark Dambacher, CEO of InCore Bank told Finews.ch that their customers will benefit from the expansion to the new asset class without having to invest in infrastructure and new processes.

Crypto Exchange Platform Kraken announced that it is adding support for the Ethereum version of US-dollar pegged stablecoin Tether (USDT-ERC20). The company in its official blog post said that crypto traders using Kraken will now be able to tap into the biggest market for the USDT as the exchange will enable deposit and withdrawal for the stablecoin. With this, it expects to see an increase in trade volumes across its different markets once support for the stablecoin is enabled.

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Cryptocurrency This Week: Indian Crypto Exchanges Witness Surge In New Users, Bitcoin Sees $1000 Spike � ... - Inc42 Media

U.S. Crypto Trading Firms Make Acquisitions Targeted at Prime Brokerage Services

This week major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced plans to acquire Tagomi, a U.S.-based prime brokerage platform focused on the cryptocurrency industry. In a press release, Coinbase referred to Tagomi as the leading crypto prime brokerage platform and said the acquisition will bolster our offerings for advanced traders and the most sophisticated crypto investors. According to the press release, the acquisition will allow Coinbase to offer custody, professional trading features, and prime brokerage services on one platform, giving sophisticated investors the seamless, powerful trading experience they have come to expect in equities and FX markets.

In a similar move, U.S.-based Genesis Global Trading, a cryptocurrency trading firm, recently acquired UK-based Vo1t, a cryptocurrency custody provider. A recent report notes that the acquisition is intended to allow Genesis Global Trading to begin developing a full suite of prime brokerage services under one roof including lending, trading and custody. According to Investopedia, [p]rime brokerage refers to a bundle of services that investment banks and other major financial institutions offer to hedge funds and similar clients.

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FINRA Approves Blockchain ATS, Institutional Crypto Trading Firm Expands Reach

Last week an investment management company announced that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) had approved its request to engage in private placements and to operate an alternative trading system (ATS) to trade digital securities. The company, whose ATS technology has been in development since 2016, will use blockchain technology to offer new capital formation opportunities for issuers, investors and traders.

A large Swiss securities and financial infrastructure company announced on Wednesday that it is leading a $14 million Series A investment into a California-based enterprise infrastructure provider that builds institutional investing tools and technology for cryptocurrency industry clients, including several major cryptocurrency exchanges. According to reports, the provider plans to use the investment funds to build out its portfolio of institutional bitcoin investing tools. The Swiss securities company also reportedly plans to use the providers technology to connect its private banking customers to a panoply of digital asset investment opportunities.

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SEC Announces Charges and Consent Order Against Issuer of $25.5 Million ICO

This week the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced charges against BitClave PTE Ltd., a company based in San Jose, California, for conducting an unregistered initial coin offering (ICO) of digital asset securities. According to an SEC press release and the SECs consent order, from June to November 2017, BitClave raised over $25 million by selling its Consumer Activity Tokens (CAT) to approximately 9,500 investors, including investors in the U.S. and planned to use the ICO proceeds to develop, administer, and market a blockchain-based search platform for targeted consumer advertising.

Under the consent order, BitClave has agreed to pay disgorgement of $25,500,000, prejudgment interest of $3,444,197 and a penalty of $400,000. The consent order also establishes a Fair Fund to return monies to injured investors, paid by BitClave. According to the press release, BitClave also agreed to transfer all remaining CAT in its control to the fund administrator for permanent disabling, publish notice of the order, and request removal of CAT from all digital asset trading platforms. The press release also notes that CAT has already been removed from many third-party trading platforms, and BitClave is currently winding down its operations and does not plan to continue developing or supporting the platform.

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Major Crypto Mining Malware Attack Detected

Earlier this month, a computer and cloud security firm reported that since December 2019, a hacker group known as Blue Mockingbird infected more than 1,000 business computer systems with mining malware. According to that report, the malware attacks servers running ASP.NET applications and exploits a vulnerability to obtain administrator-level access in order to modify the server settings. Once that high-level access to the system is obtained, an application is installed and run to mine Monero, a popular cryptocurrency. The report did not reveal the names of the attacked companies.

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Cryptocurrency Trading Firms Expand Services Through Acquisitions, Regulatory Approvals and Investments, SEC Charges ICO Issuer, Crypto Malware Attack...

A recent study on Bitcoin transactions reveals that 74 percent of exchange-to-exchange trades are taking place across borders, which highlights both the need for better regulation and control, and that crypto theft and fraud is alive and well, not to mention on its way towards a record year.

According to the latest Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering report from security research firm CipherTrace, malicious actors have managed to steal nearly $1.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency assets in hacks and fraud campaigns during the first five months of 2020.

The news comes just weeks after the Bitcoin halving, and it looks like the pandemic has played a major role in creating the right conditions for crypto fraud, which accounts for the majority of stolen digital currency. With governments focused on channeling resources to reduce the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, it's become easier for thieves to fly under the radar.

CipherTrace shows that the main global actor by far is the billion-dollar Ponzi scheme operated by Wotoken in China. The campaign operator has been linked to the PlusToken Ponzi campaign and has stolen about a billion worth of crypto assets from more than 750,000 victims who were drawn by unrealistic promises of high returns based on the automated work of an algorithmic trading software that didn't even exist.

Other notable incidents were related to exit scams like the EOS Ecosystem and insolvencies like FCoin's that amounted to a combined $180 million.

Last year, hackers and scammers stole more than $4.5 billion, but CyperTrace noted that they're getting better at moving money around and avoiding anti-money laundering measures. For instance, thieves are sending 47 percent fewer crypto assets through exchanges, and they also "seem to be getting better at obfuscating the origins of their stolen funds prior to cashing out on exchanges."

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Cryptocurrency fraud reached $1.36 billion in the first five months of 2020 - TechSpot

In brief:

There's plenty of ways to earn cryptocurrency in this space; you can freelance for it, you can set up a node, you can even walk for cryptocurrency. But none of these are half as satisfying as earning crypto while maneuvering a pudgy, but altogether non-descript, yellow bird around some green pipes.

Thats right folks. Flappy Bird, the obsession-worthy mobile game that stirred up a sensation in 2014, is back. To be clear, its not the official Flappy Bird, but it does have one leg up on the original: You can play it to win cryptocurrency.

"Hello everyone! I'm ecstatic to announce a project that I've spent many, many sleepless nights on," reads the developer's post in the Nano subreddit. "I present to you, FlappyNano!"

Per the developer, the game is a simple twist on the original. Rather than the aforementioned yellow plumper, the central character is replaced by a blue ghost-like creature.

FlappyNano harnesses a multiplayer feature in which competitors ante up 0.1 nano. The player with the highest score wins the pot.

To begin, one player sends an invitation via an in-app link. Once the challenge is accepted, a third party escrow address appears as a QR code for players to deposit funds. Once the pair have deposited, it's game on.

At present, the game works on both desktop and mobile, but the developer suggests installing Natrium, a Nano-based wallet, for the best experience.

This isnt the first crypto-version of Flappy Bird. But the last one wasnt so successful.

An EOS iteration of the gamein which top-ranking players earn EOS-based tokenshas pretty much flatlined in terms of usage. According to data from DappRadar, the game hit a peak of 464 users a week after its release in 2019. Since then, there has been virtually no activity at all.

But will FlappyNano fly?

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How to win cryptocurrency by playing Flappy Bird - Decrypt

In 1968, roughly 100,000 Americans died from the H3N2 flu. Currently 105,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus. In 1968, protests erupted following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Today, people are protesting the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after being pinned down by a white police officer. In 1968, the S&P 500 posted yearly gains of over 10%. Today the Dow Industrial Jones is down on the year at 28,868 but has rebounded 38% after cratering to a yearly low of 18,591 in March despite 40 million jobs getting wiped out during that same time period.

As the stock market appears to brush aside the deadly global pandemic, mass unemployment, peaceful protests, violent clashes and bankrupt businesses, Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin shares his thoughts on why todays crisis, despite the quantitative easing, the emergency stimulus checks and the volatile markets, is not a financial crisis and why cryptocurrency represents a new way for people to control their money as opposed to a US dollar replacement.

He tells his 911,400 followers on Twitter,

Bitcoin was born out of a crisis that was fundamentally financial in nature. Either the banks misbehaved, or the government over/under/misregulated the financial sector, or they bailed out too many banks, or they printed too many dollars.

And bitcoin itself is primarily a financial tool. Ethereum is explicitly less financial in nature, but even there it remains a fact that a large fraction of applications that a blockchain legitimately makes better involve handling coins/tokens/money of some form.

2020 is first and foremost not a financial crisis. Its a virus crisis, its a crisis of epistemology (how we learn whats true and whats false in the face of competing groups misleading us), its a crisis of overbearing policing in many places, and much more.

Yes, the money printer did go brrrrr. But thats a relatively small portion of what is going on, and even there inflation is still going down not up.

And cryptocurrencies ended up being very much correlated to wider economic trends. Doesnt mean they dont protect from other things (eg. political barriers/interference), but it does mean that narratives need to adjust.

Buterin adds,

Conclusion: finance is relatively less important this decade than it was in the last decade, and the crypto space needs to adjust to this reality. Even within finance, some change of emphasis is in order.

Luckily, theres many categories of ethereum applications (and other chains) that go beyond finance. Decentralized censorship-resistant publishing and communication, decentralized communities / governance / DAOs, DAOs for content curation, etc etc. All important work.

Within the space of financial apps, I would say the success of stablecoins has shown that what people want is not to get away from the USD right this minute, but to move into the crypto environment where they have more options of what to do with their money. Freedom of exit.

Financial censorship (especially the insidious second-order variety where intermediaries get quietly pushed to extrajudicially block use cases that are perfectly legal) continues to be a problem for many marginalized groups and crypto can help.

Though I do think that a broad shift from crypto just being finance to crypto also being decentralized governance and organization and community is needed, and is happening. After all, public goods and community are incredibly important even to the crypto space itself.

I will come out and say this directly: this mentality below is exactly what we should be expanding beyond right now. Reforming money is not sufficient.

2016-20 is a period of ideological realignment. Many old ideologies and coalitions are dying, and many new ones being born. The hills and valleys on the battlefields are shifting. The crypto space needs to be watching carefully and adjust to new realities.

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Ethereum Creator Vitalik Buterin: Cryptocurrency Must Expand Beyond World of Finance - The Daily Hodl

A judgment has been reached in a securities fraud case between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Blockvest, LLC, a purported financial services company selling digital BLV tokens. On May 29, Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel filed an order granting the SECs motion for terminating sanctions against Blockvest and its alleged founder, Reginald Buddy Ringgold III. This case is being held in the Southern District of California.

In the original complaint filed on October 3, 2018, the SEC accused the defendants of creating a fictitious regulatory agency called the Blockchain Exchange Commission (BEC), and of lying about registering its upcoming initial coin offering (ICO) with regulators. Initial coin offerings are used to raise funds for using the sale of cryptocurrency. In 2018, Blockvest claimed that it raised more than $2.5 million in pre-ICO sales of its BLV digital tokens and would raise $100 million during its ICO.

Since the ICOs were neither approved nor registered with SEC or other agencies, they were considered fraudulent. The complaint said that since BEC lacked affiliation with SEC, Investors assets therefore lack the safety or protections that defendants are falsely portraying in their ongoing scheme to raise money through Blockvests planned ICO and ongoing pre-sales. Blockvest tried to defend itself by claiming its BLV tokens were not actually securities and that there were no official investors during their initial sale, only friends and family members.

In the newly filed order, Judge Curiel adopts SECs motion for terminating sanctions, entering a default judgment against Ringgold. Explaining his decision, Curiel says that Ringgolds fraud relates to the legal issues central to this litigation and he will likely not pay monetary sanctions.

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SEC Wins Terminating Sanctions Against Cryptocurrency Creator - Law Street Media

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Coronavirus threat to global Good Growth Opportunities in Cryptocurrency Mining Software Market - Jewish Life News

Hackers are taking over computers to mine for cryptocurrency, with cyber-security firm Kaspersky saying Singapore has had a spike in cryptojacking attempts in the first three months of this year.

The firm said it blocked more than 11,700 cryptojacking attempts on devices here between January and March - an increase of more than three times from the same period last year, when there were about 2,900 attempts.

Cryptojacking is the unauthorised use of someone else's device to mine for cryptocurrency by solving complex mathematical problems.

In a recently published report, Russia-based Kaspersky said the spike in Singapore is the highest percentage increase in South-east Asia.

Hijackers target Singapore because its information technology infrastructure offers a healthy supply of bandwidth for cyber criminals to take advantage of.

"Cyber criminals use various means to install miner programs on many people's computers, and take all of the profit from cryptocurrency mining without incurring any of the equipment or electricity costs," said Mr Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for South-east Asia at Kaspersky.

The hackers rely on social engineering tactics, such as fake links in e-mails or on websites, to dupe victims into installing malicious code onto their devices and wider networks, which turns them into mining tools.

"Miner" computers and devices perform a job similar to a central bank, recording transactions in a ledger publicly accessible to anyone while checking the validity of these exchanges.

For their work, those behind the mining computers are awarded cryptocurrency, which can make the enterprise profitable if the miners can put in the time and energy.

Cyber criminals increasingly prefer cryptojacking to other forms of attacks as it is often more profitable and presents a lower risk of being caught.

The uptick in cryptojacking cases could be due to more people working from home amid the Covid-19 pandemic, said Mr K.K. Lim, head of cyber security, privacy and data protection at law firm Eversheds Harry Elias.

Some of the computers used at home might not have been issued by companies and their security features may not have been kept up to date.

Number of cryptojacking attempts on devices here that were blocked by cyber-security firm Kaspersky between January and March.

Number of such attempts blocked by the company in the same period last year.

Also, these computers could be shared with other household members, who could have unwittingly downloaded risky programs or visited risky sites, said Mr Lim.

Mr Yeo said many workers might not have the full support of IT security teams working remotely, leading to a lower standard of cyber hygiene during this period.

Experts say there are some signs to look out for if one suspects a device has been hijacked for cryptojacking.

"The tell-tale signs for crypto mining can include the slowing down of computer speed, higher consumption of electricity and higher usage of Internet bandwidth," said Mr Bryan Tan, a lawyer from Pinsent Masons MPillay specialising in technology law and data protection.

Mr Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for South-east Asia at cyber-security firm Kaspersky, said the strain on a device's battery from mining could cause it to physically be deformed too, due to having its processing cores work overtime to obtain cryptocurrency.

He pointed to a recent study by Kaspersky which found that phones that were used to mine for cryptocurrency through malware for two days straight became physically deformed due to the phone batteries expanding.

"Batteries will run down much faster than before, and devices may run quite hot. If the device uses a data plan, users will see data usage skyrocket," he added.

Mr K.K. Lim, head of cyber security, privacy and data protection at law firm Eversheds Harry Elias, said having in place proper Internet browser security features, which can scan for malicious software, will go a long way towards shielding users from falling victim to cryptojacking. But he added that nothing beats practising good cyber hygiene habits such as avoiding unknown links in e-mail and having updated security features.

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Spike in cryptojacking attempts on devices here, says cyber-security firm - The Straits Times

Personal computers are illegally hacked by cryptocurrency miners to collect Monero cryptos.

Microsoft is replacing humans with AI to select and curate news stories on the companys Edge browsers and MSN site. That move will lead to over 20 people losing their jobs.

Googles Pixel Buds 2 has a connectivity issue, according to a growing number of user reports on the companys support forum and Reddit.

Facebook is making some updates to its user verification policy. With this change, page owners with large audiences need to confirm their identity with the social network.

Lastly, Indias Department of Telecom (DoT) has issued a notice to internet service providers (ISP) to block a file-sharing platform.

Crypto-jacking

Crypto-jacking is the process of illegally using someone elses computer to mine or collect Bitcoin or other types of cryptocurrencies.

In the UK, an 18-year-olds computer was crypto-jacked by miners to collect Monero cryptocurrency, the BBC reported.

Abdelrhman Badr did not know he was crypto-jacked until he noticed unusual activities in his computer. Even after turning his PC to sleep mode, the fans kept running.

And when he opened the laptop, the main login page would open up without the usual login page.

"My computer wasn't actually going to sleep at all," he told the BBC.

Badr serendipitously found about the mining when he was going through the computers program. The device has been sending information to a website he never heard of.

That website was collecting Monero cryptocurrency. In retrospect, Badr thought that an accidental download might have installed a malware in his pc.

Badrs computer falling prey to cryptocurrency mining is not on-off. A few weeks earlier, a pan-European group claimed to have attempted mining cryptocurrencies using multiple machines.

The practice of illegally collecting crpytocurrencies is currently on rise as the price of the asset is falling, according to Palo Alto Networks.

So, to reduce costs associated with mining, hackers resort to crypto-jacking.

AI to replace humans at Microsofts news curation division

Microsoft has decided to replace humans with AI to select, edit and curate news stories on the companys news webpage and Edge browser, the Guardian reported.

The move resulted in over 27 individuals losing their jobs at PA Media, a company contracted by Microsoft to manage its news page. The employees were told that the software companys decision to terminate its contract is a result of Microsofts global shift to use AI for news.

The PA Media team managing Microsofts MSN site does not file own stories. They only select articles from other news organisations and post them on Microsofts website. For hosting these articles, both Microsoft and the news organisation share advertising revenue.

We are in the process of winding down the Microsoft team working at PA, and we are doing everything we can to support the individuals concerned, a spokesperson at PA Media said in a statement.

We are proud of the work we have done with Microsoft and know we delivered a high-quality service.

Microsoft said that the company decision to use AI is not a result of the current pandemic. It has been evaluating its businesses on a regular basis to increase investment in some functions, and reducing in others.

Facebook to verify identity of users with large audiences

Facebook said it will verify identity of users with large audiences in the US in an effort to improve user experience in its apps.

The move will be the social networks extension of its page verification process started in 2018. Back then, Facebook verified users who manage Pages with a large group of followers.

The extension in the attestation policy comes at a time when the US is warming up for 2020 Presidential election. And the addition to the ID confirmation process may limit the spread of viral posts if the social network spots inauthentic behaviour.

The social media company wants to ensure that real people, and not bots, use its network. The move will also help users to know who is the actual person behind the content they see on Facebook. The messengers identity is important given their message reaches a large number of people.

If someone does not verify their identity or provides an ID that does not match a linked Facebook account, the speed of the viral post will be reduce so fewer users will see it.

And if the person posting the content is a Page admin, that person will need to complete a Page Publishing Authorization. Without completing it, their account wont be verified, and they cant post any content on the page.

The ID shared for verification will be stored securely and will not be shared on a persons profile.

Internet service providers in India asked to block WeTransfer

WeTransfer, a Netherlands-based file sharing platform, has been blocked in India on instruction from Department of Telecom (DoT) to internet service providers (ISP), Reuters reported.

The DoT had issued an order on May 18 to ISPs without giving a reason for blocking the site. The order invokes a clause from conditions laid out for granting licences to ISPs, Reuters said on reviewing the note.

Per the clause invoked by DoT, all ISPs must block websites in the interest of national security or public interest.

At this moment in time, WeTransfer seems to be blocked and unavailable in India, WeTransfer said in a blog post.

We are working hard to understand the reasoning behind this block, as well as how to get it reverted as soon as possible.

WeTransfer allows users to share and upload files of up to 2GB for free in one transfer. Paid users can transfer 20GB per upload.

Pixel Buds 2 users report issues

A growing number of Pixel Buds 2 report Bluetooth connectivity issues, 9to5 Google reported.

Several threads on Google support forums and some on Reddit show many users facing issues related to random audio cutouts, leading to brief pauses while connected to the buds.

The issues have been coming up since the first pieces were shipped, and Googles updates arent solving the connection problem.

Unfortunately, even with the latest version 295 update, the problem is not fixed, based on reports by users.

In one of the cases, even a replacement pair did not solve the issue.

A review on Reddit said: I was really excited to get these in today, but have had nothing but issues with them. While sitting at my computer they seemed to work fine, but I noticed that if I touched the left ear bud or moved my head too much, it would cut out.

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Todays cache | Crypto-jacking, and more - The Hindu