Updated: May 25, 2018:

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Wondering About The Tax Treatment Of A Cryptocurrency Hard Fork And Airdrop? - JD Supra

Cosmos (ATOM), a cryptocurrency used in an ecosystem of different blockchains, is slowly sneaking towards the top ten coins by market cap. The price of cosmos gained 7% today to reach $3.92 while bitcoin and the vast majority of other cryptocurrencies see losses of between 1-3%.

Overall, cosmos has been in an uptrend for the past three monthsand is currently up more than 26% since September 12, 2019. Meanwhile, bitcoin, ether (ETH) and XRP are down 31%, 20.5% and 13.7% respectively across the same time period.

Its most recent rally is likely attributed to news that Binance users will be able to stake their ATOMs on the Binance staking platform, allowing them to earn a passive income in the form of regular staking rewards.

Staking is a hot topic at the moment and announcements of exchanges and wallets supporting staking of Tezos have caused its price to surge in recent months.

As a result, cosmos continues to make headway towards breaking into the top ten coins by market cap. Cosmos has climbed from rank 20 to its current position at rank 16 in the last three months.

Part of the reason behind cosmos's meteoric growth throughout the latter half of 2019 could be the result of gradually improving trade volumes. Since July, the average daily trade volume of ATOM has doubled and now regularly exceeds $200 million traded per day.

Be the first to get Decrypt Members. A new type of account built on blockchain.

Likewise, cosmos has also seen its adoption improve in recent months, after being listed on several major cryptocurrency trading platforms, including Kraken, Crypto.com, Poloniex, Huobi Global and most recently, Binance.US.

See the original post:
This little-known cryptocurrency is heading towards the top ten - Decrypt

Major Dutch bank ING is developing technology so that its clients can safely store digital assets like cryptocurrencies, Reuters reports citing sources familiar with the matter.

The firm then told reporters it sees increasing opportunities surrounding digital assets, both asset-backed and native security tokens. ING noted a focus on providing a compliant way to access the sector.

Reuters sources said that the custody project is operating out of its Amsterdam offices, but that its still in its early stages. The bank reportedly also has several other blockchain initiatives.

Keeping cryptocurrency safe has become a business in itself. Last year, prominent cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase began offering its own custody services.

While Coinbase is certainly a trusted exchange, for a household name like ING to offersimilar services would only be a boon for the digital asset industry.

Not all banks are sold on the idea, however. Earlier this year, Hard Fork reported that another Dutch institution,ABN AMRO,ING shelved plans for a custodial cryptocurrency wallet, citing lack of interest.

Published December 12, 2019 14:29 UTC

More:
ING bank wants to give clients a compliant way to store cryptocurrency, report - The Next Web

Welcome to Monday, its the start of another week and that means its time for Hard Forks wrap-up of the weekends top cryptocurrency and blockchain headlines.

Take a look.

According to CNBC, the US Internal Revenue Service has released a new tax form, asking cryptocurrency traders to declare their holdings.

The IRS new Schedule 1 for the 2019 tax season, asks tax payers if they received, sold, sent, exchanged, or acquired virtual currency by any other means over the past year.

Earlier this year, the IRS started sending letters to known cryptocurrency traders telling them to fess up about their trading habits.

In a similar move to the IRS, the government in South Korea is looking to levy taxes on citizens that trade cryptocurrency.

The Korea Times reports that the countrys Ministry of Economy and Finance is exploring a revised bill to tax capital gains from cryptocurrency transactions. The bill is reportedly going to be drawn up early next year.

The that the countrys Ministry of Economy and Finance confirmed that its exploring a revised bill to tax capital gains from cryptocurrency transactions. The bill is reportedly going to be drawn up early next year.

The latest Ethereum network update went live over the weekend. Dubbed Istanbul, the update was actioned at block number 9,069,000,Ethereum tweeted yesterday.

Istanbul features six major upgrades designed to improve the Ethereum networks efficiency and operational speed. Read more about it here.

Chinas central bank is reportedly going to test its digital currency in Shenzhen and Suzhou, The Block reports.

Four state-run commercial banks, in collaboration with three state-owned telecom companies, are reportedly working to find the best way to introduce the digital currency.

Earlier this year, Bank officials from the country said it had no timeline for the roll-out of its digital currency, but according to the latest report claims Chinas central bank has accelerated the project in response to Facebooks announcement of its own cryptocurrency Libra.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is now looking to question messaging app Telegrams former chief investment advisor. The SEC is asking John Hyman to testify and hand over documents about Telegrams suspicious token sale, writes CoinDesk.

The SEC had to ask the High Court of England and Wales to get hold of the information.

Telegram was supposed to distribute its blockchain-based token TON back in October, but has put that on hold to maintain the status quo until it settles the legal battle with the SEC.

Well there you have it, another weekends headlines caught up with. Now go get on with your week!

Published December 9, 2019 10:17 UTC

The rest is here:
Moonday Mornings: IRS readies to tax your cryptocurrency no matter what - The Next Web

Bitcoins long-term holders continue to keep their cryptocurrency close, despite its declining value 59 percent of BTCs circulating supply still hasnt moved in at least one year.

Generally, these trends are in-line with shrinkingBitcoin BTC trading volumes, reports research firm Delphi Digital.

Still, the firm highlighted 220,000 BTC (worth roughly $1.6 billion at current prices) bought way back in November 2017 the start of peak Bitcoin-mania that hasnt moved at all since then. Surely, some strong hands.

Trading activity spiked at the end of October, when Bitcoins price last pushed above $9,000, butvolumes had reached six-month lows by the end of November.

Declining volume has been the trend since the high back in June, a symptom of a general decrease in new money entering the space, said Delphi Digital analysts.

In fact, Bitcoins month-over-month volume has dropped by 9.4 percent across the top cryptocurrency exchanges, with the largest decline coming from spot USD markets.

The firm again noted this means its possible theresless capital entering and exiting the space.

As for where the inflowing Bitcoin goes,major exchanges Binance and Huobi persist as the industrys dominant trading venues. Together, they account for over 50 percent of BTC deposits every month since August.

Analysts noted that OKEx and Huobi saw strong increases since the beginning of August, but highlighted that a portion of the latters activity was actually a byproduct of a cryptocurrency-fueled Ponzi scheme known as PlusToken.

The worst monthly decline since the same month last year definitely added insult to injury to the crypto markets ongoing drawdown. Fading catalysts and sentiment are partially to blame, but one of the real culprits is the lack of new buyer demand, said Delphi Digital.

Often times, it seems as if capital is just being reshuffled among existing player who can ignite violent market moves given the minuscule size of this market, so a renewed enthusiasm among investors is going to be required for bitcoin (and crypto at large) to reverse its downward trend, it added.

Published December 11, 2019 14:43 UTC

Read the original post:
$1.6B in Bitcoin bought during 2017s bull run hasnt moved - The Next Web

Baffling seems to be the best way to describe the online account of an investor who lost his entire life savings on a cryptocurrency website.

The 78-year-old retired trawlerman, who Ill call just by his first name John, began by putting 250 into Cryptomusu.com.

It claimed to offer a secure platform and expert help in trading virtual currencies incuding Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Dash and others, promising highest yields in the market.

John describes his account manager Daniel Cohen at a wild guess a made-up name as very friendly, saying: We used to discuss families and Liverpool and our likes and dislikes.

Having wormed his way into Johns confidence, the account manager persuaded him to invest more and more, saying he should borrow from friends or family, or put the money on his credit card.

His investment became 2,500, then he put in another 14,000 and 5,000 shortly afterwards.

John says he could not make head nor tail of the website but that didnt seem to matter at first because Mr Cohen traded on his behalf and his account appeared to flourish.

Then, literally overnight, a supposed balance of $90,000, around 81,000, was wiped out due to what the website called some bad trades.

Cryptomusu persuaded John to try to recover his loses by taking out a 15,000 loan and increasing his overdraft to fund new investments, with equally disastrous results.

John is now having to pay 500 a month to cover debts that a few months ago he could never have imagined having.

His emails to Cryptomusu pointing out that they were aware of his complete lack of knowledge of cryptocurrency trading resulted in a compensation offer of just 3,000, and only if he signed a non-disclosure agreement.

You convinced me that I had nothing to worry about as my money was as safe as houses, he said to Mr Cohen in an email.

Can you imagine how I feel right now?

I cant eat or sleep and I havent told my wife yet that we are bankrupt and could even lose our home.

I am in a state of shock verging on suicidal.

You actually called me your friend and assured me that you would take care of us.

It now seems to me that your task was to gain my complete confidence, which you did, build up a good repartee and then take me to the cleaners.

Youd need a heart of stone not to be moved by that and Cryptomusu hasnt been moved.

According to its website its owned by a company called Agatha Limited at 8 Copthall, Roseau Valley, Dominica in the Caribbean.

This notorious address has been used by other cryptocurrency companies, including Options Tech Limited.

Last year the Financial Conduct Authority warned consumers to avoid this unauthorised company and its websites unitedmarkets4you.com, upperbrookstreet.com, cryptexmarkets.com and blockchainexchangepro.com.

It has also warned against other sites at the same address including toroption.com and binaryuno.com.

Cryptomusu has not replied to my emails.

Original post:
Cryptocurrency scammers carefully built up their target's trust, then they fleeced him mercilessly - Mirror Online

While the majority of world's most powerful economies are savagely racing against the clock in an attempt to stop cryptos before they're launched, some of the smaller countries are trying to use cryptos as a state currency.

In 2018, the Republic of the Marshall Islands passed the Declaration and Issuance of The Sovereign Currency Act. This act gives the Marshall Islands the ability to create and issue its own cryptocurrency, the SOV.

The SOV Foundation chose SFB Technologies as its technical partner for developing the new currency's infrastructure, and according to a whitepaper they released, it will be based on software similar to EOS.

The whitepaper also announces that the blockchain will be governed by a layer of Verifiers (Trust Network). Transactions will be validated by 21 "approved entities" or "eligible nodes" that will act as block producers, which will obtain some rewards in the process.

In contradiction with the "classic" state of currencies, the inflation of SOV will be fixed as only 4% of total supply will be unlocked annually. This supply will be utilized to reward its participants and satisfy demand for the coin (pro rata).

Image by:https://sov.foundation

The plan to create a state-backed cryptocurrency sounds extremely ambitious, if not romantic. Shortly after announcing the new currency, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) criticized the idea of SOV issuance. As the regulatory body proclaimed:

The issuance of a decentralized digital currency as a second legal tender would increase macroeconomic and financial integrity risks, and elevate the risk of losing the last U.S. dollar correspondent banking relationship.

We shouldn't forget that the Republic of the Marshall Islands is an associate state of the USA. This includes high levels of legal and economic dependence by U.S. government, and it will not welcome idea of having the U.S. Dollar being replaced by some state-backed crypto.

What do you think? Will SOV be issued? Give us your opinion on Twitter!

View original post here:
EOS.IO Software Will Host National Cryptocurrency: Details - U.Today

London-based cryptocurrency compliance firm Elliptic has launched a new tool that allows banks to work more closely with crypto exchanges.

Dubbed Elliptic Discovery, the product collects detailed profiles of more than 200 global crypto exchanges to enable banks to manage risks associated with crypto transactions, Business Insider reports Dec. 11.

Designed specifically for banks, Elliptic Discovery reportedly provides compliance teams with necessary insights to identify flows of funds on crypto assets and assess risks including money laundering. The tool is reportedly based on Elliptic's data that was collected since 2013 and offers a wide range of identifiers and risk indicators in terms of exposure to crypto-assets through exchanges, the report notes.

James Smith, CEO and co-founder at Elliptic, noted that the new tool is created to address the existing lack of visibility into the crypto-asset ecosystem by banking institutions.

According to Smith, this lack of access to the crypto industry has resulted in zero-tolerance to the new asset class and frustrated customers, while banks have remained blind to the actual risks posed by their exposure to crypto-assets.

Smith pointed out that there are different types of crypto currency exchanges, which would be taken into account by the banks while assessing the risks. He said:

Elliptic Discovery changes that by enabling banks to shine a light on their customers' crypto-asset activity and take a risk-based approach [...] Not all crypto-asset exchanges are alike and Elliptic Discovery will allow banks to make this distinction and seize the opportunity to work more closely with these businesses, based on an evidence-based assessment of the risk.

Elliptic has not specified which banks have already signed up for Discovery or expressed interest in doing so in the report.

Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist at Elliptic, said in an email to Cointelegraph that the company has seen significant interest from banks around the world. Robinson expressed hope that Elliptic Discovery could help alleviate regulatory pressure to crypto in some jurisdictions. He said:

In countries such as China and India, where the regulatory environment severely restricts the activity of crypto exchanges, we hope that the availability of tools such as Elliptic Discovery will prompt regulators to reevaluate these restrictive policies.

Backed by Japanese banking giant SBI Group and Santander's venture capital arm Santander InnoVentures, Elliptic is a major global crypto forensics and analysis firm. The company is known for providing its services to American crypto exchange Coinbase and has been a partner of Binance, one of the worlds biggest crypto exchanges, since May 2019. In November 2019, Elliptic issued a report tying about $400 million worth XRP tokens to illegal transactions.

Earlier this year, Elliptic refuted allegations that it was collecting and selling clients user data to third parties for financial gain.

Go here to see the original:
Elliptic Launches Tool to Connect Banks with Cryptocurrency Exchanges - Cointelegraph

Based out of Johannesburg, South Africa, CREDIT is a cryptocurrency that is swiftly being adopted in the emerging markets of the African continent. Recently, it marked its first year of existence as more and more users adopt it.

New Year, New Developments

A hybrid blockchain that utilized both Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS), CREDITs first anniversary is being celebrated by the crypto exchange TERRA offering CREDIT users a vast portfolio of products and services. It is also now fully PoS. Currently TERRA is offering 8 unique products, with each one catering to a specific need that the emerging market of Africa needs:

For the Unbanked and Poor

CREDIT is a cryptocurrency that is specifically designed towards people who cannot enter the mainstream banking system due to different barriers. Cut off from the financial systems and markets, these people have no other option. CREDIT changes all of this. A hybrid crypto with easy to use, hold and stake tokens through smartphones, it allows everyone to take part in the crypto economy.

Terra founder and creator of CREDIT, Dan Ronchese talks about his belief,

The only way a cryptocurrency can become a global payment system is if everyone who makes payments has access to it

With the unbanked populations with access to smartphones reaching 2,000,000,000 in number- yet still not having access to a bank account, an immense financial potential of humanity is locked away. CREDIT aims to change that and also bring prosperity to them.

CREDIT, with its PoS, has extremely low power requirements and a vast array of supporting systems, can be used on Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux and even Raspberry based devices. A real-world solution to an important problem, the CREDIT is being adopted at an unprecedented rate in the emerging markets of Africa.

For more information on the unbanked-friendly African cryptocurrency, visit their website here.

Read the original:
CREDIT, the African Cryptocurrency of Choice, Celebrates First Anniversary - NullTX

Police have arrested one of the directors of a cryptocurrency startup in Uganda that closed suddenly and made off with investors money.

A Mr Samson Lwanga, director of Dunamiscoins Resources Limited, was arrested last week and should appear in court later this week, local news reports.

Its reported that the scam managed to con 10 billion Ugandan shillings ($2.7 million) out of victims.

The authorities are still on the look out for the other four directors of the company.

Like numerous other cryptocurrency-based scams, Dunamiscoins promised investors and employees large returns in a short space of time. However, after a month, the company shut down its offices, leaving investors in the lurch and employees out of work many of whom were yet to even start their job.

We have already opened a general inquiry file and investigations are going on. We recorded statements from the complainants and arrested one of the directors called Samson Lwanga who is currently detained at Old Kampala Police Station, a police spokesperson said in a statement.

According to the police spokesperson, Mr Lwanga is willing to refund money to investors, but he cant because their accounts have been frozen. The police are investigating if this is true.

At the time of Hard Forks first report on the scam, it was unclear how many people had been affected by Dunamiscoins.

However, in Daily Monitors latest update, it seems the scam is bigger than first reported. And the story sounds all too familiar.

Investors were encouraged to get their friends and family to participate, only to find out later that they had all been duped

According to the report, at least 1,000 people had registered with the cryptocurrency startup, however, some victims have said the number of people involved is closer to 10,000.

Dunamiscoins reportedly began operating in March, and was paying out to early investors. It came crashing down last week when its offices shut and phone lines were disconnected.

Published December 10, 2019 10:19 UTC

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Police arrest head of $2.7M Ugandan cryptocurrency scam - The Next Web