Category Archives: Bitcoin

A snap-shot investigation to follow the funds connected with yesterdays Twitter Hack of Jeff Bezos, ... [+] Elon Musk, and several celebrities to review where the fraudsters have transferred the funds into.

Performing an initial investigation to follow the funds related to the Twitter TWTR hack that happened on July 15 to Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kanye West, Bill Gates and numerous other celebrities and executives of large technology companies, it is evident the many of those funds already hit reputable exchanges that might freeze the funds.

During the Twitter hack, the fraudsters, posing as celebrities, falsely informed users that they have decided to partner up with a mysterious organization called "CryptoForHealth" in order to 'give back to their community.' The scam has been covered extensively by several news outlets including Forbes contributors like Jasse Damiani, that reviewed the initial steps just after the hack.

As different celebrities were sharing and resharing those posts that turned out to be fraudulent, some of their followers decided to open up their own wallets and pay as well. More than $130,000 later, most of the posts had been removed, the website of CryptoForHealth shut down. Twitter stepped in to forbid some users to tweet, but it is high time to recover the funds to the victims or at least specify to which exchanges they have been sent.

Despite a common misperception as Bitcoin represents a pseudo-anonymous network, transactions performed on it are both visible to the general public and traceable. Addresses can be directly connected to particular exchanges.

As scammers are still moving funds between cryptocurrency wallets, investigators from all over the world have stepped in with the goal to identify types of exchanges and freeze the funds on different accounts.

From the initial review, it is evident that much of the funds have been transferred to Binance. In a recent statement to TechCrunch, Binance Security Team informed that they have been aware of the situation and launched an investigation, which is visible to the crypto community as their team marked several cryptocurrency wallets as fraudulent.

Earlier today, an article released by Cointelegraph revealed that addresses used by the hackers had previously been linked to Coinbase and BitPay, common names in the cryptocurrency exchange and merchant sphere.

According to our initial analysis the funds have reached many exchanges, but the core of the funds originated from the main Binance address. It is now clear that scammers were sending funds back and forth between different cryptocurrency addresses in an attempt to confuse law enforcement agents, wash them. Once completed fraudsters have sent a large parts of the funds to an address belonging to Binance yet again, which has been rather quickly discovered and flagged by the exchange.

Secondary besides Binance, it seems though that multiple exchanges like Bittrex, as well as MercadoBitcoin in Brazil have received funds from this scam already, said Sven Martinsson, the Founder & CEO of VALEGA Chain Analytics - a Blockchain Investigations and analytics firm working out of Finland.

Even though the investigation remains novel, due to the transparency of the open blockchain of Bitcoin, it is possible to follow different transactions to a different account at cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Being personally engaged in one such crypto exchange platform, competent and motivated compliance team members have a portfolio of tools and processes to stop such transactions in case they are being spotted. The fraudsters seem to know that so that there is a race for the fraudsters to try to exchange the funds to fiat currencies as soon as possible and Blockchain investigators to mark as many wallets as quickly as possible to freeze those funds.

Even though the identity of the scammers remains yet unknown, there are tools in place which allow for visualizing transactions between different accounts and exchanges that use the publicly available data and connect wallets to crypto exchanges.

Here are a couple of examples of how the fraudsters anticipated to hide their tracks. Everything starts on the left side in the middle of the graph, which represents the first address to which the scammers asked users to pay. Each additional connected line of dots represents their effort to hide their tracks and mix funds between different wallets and exchanges.

A more comprehensive description has been placed below each picture which represents a print screen out of a Blockchain Analytics Software.

Even though if this initial graph might not be the easiest to read, it represents the initial ... [+] address cryptocurrency address listed on the hacked addresses (red dot at the lower part of the picture on the left side). Once the scammers received the funds they started to distribute the funds to multiple different wallets. (the second line, looking from the left to the right). While receiving those funds scammers have been trying to transfer funds to more and new addresses to try to wash them to possibly exchange them back to FIAT currency. Green dots represent the addresses that already have been flagged as fraud, green represents addresses that have not YET been flagged in the system as of 6:30 PM CET. When expanding a few of those as an example, it is possible to see that a few were sent to an address that had not yet been associated with fraud or suspicious activities.

Zooming in closer to different dots allows us to directly view the cryptocurrency wallet address which has been used. It is connected to a particular wallet provider or a platform (with strong but not utmost certainty). In order to review where funds were directed and how much was sent.

Expanding further, one of the addresses gives an immediate hit on another Binance address (This ... [+] addresses has already been flagged by the exchange as of 6:30 PM CET)

It is visible that scammers used some of the addresses multiple times (the split the funds to ... [+] different addresses and send them to a new address) and not yet all of the wallets have been flagged as fraud.

Investigations performed by compliance teams take time as they are most likely performed by individuals who are working for different exchange platforms or geographies, so sometimes the funds are able to be transferred to an account before they are being flagged as fraudulent. Red accounts have been already marked as fraudulent.

By the time Binance, when this chart has been recorded most certainly the team behind Binance has ... [+] taken the appropriate countermeasures and flagged a Cryptocurrency wallet as Darknet wallet. Before this cryptocurrency wallet has been flagged, unfortunate significant amount of funds have passed across it to other addresses.

The fraudsters didnt stop at one platform there. Within hours, one of the cryptocurrency wallets in ... [+] which funds have not been moved, has finally initialled a transfer. (It is the red-dot at the bottom, which starts with Cpf)

Following each transaction and the connected spiderweb of transfers between cryptocurrency addresses helps to spot a time period in which fraudsters will try to wash funds with a legitimate exchange. As stated below, fraudsters launched a transfer to MercadoBitcoin in Brazil as well as Bittrex.com already.

The more paths have been explored the more exchange have been listed to which funds have been ... [+] transferred. This time funds were sent to a suspicious cluster (in yellow) of entities (mainly with tumblers and gambling companies, an easy way to launder money) Using the weakness of mostly national law enforcement agencies., fraudsters have approach many exchanges around the globe like MercadoBitcoin (an exchange in Brazil). Furthermore a Binance address to the left now considered a darknet entity.

This review is just a snapshot of the current stage of transfers performed by the fraudsters as of the afternoon of July 17th. It does not display traces in full to avoid obstructing justice or investigations. Even though it has been a Twitter hack and not a Bitcoin hack, the pseudo-anonymity of bitcoin and visibility of each transaction with tools like the wallet explorer does prove that the Crypto community is not helpless and knows more and more with each transaction the fraudsters perform. It is important to underline that it was not Bitcoin that got hacked, it was Twitter. Bitcoin was just the chosen means of payment.

Sven will release a collected investigation free of charge to anyone who can identify themself as an investigator in the process.

Disclaimer:

The transaction investigation remains ongoing. For security reasons and not to interfere with investigations, this is just a teaser to provide insights into different tactics of criminal networks. Exchanges in question have the appropriate means to stay compliant and do their reporting accordingly. This is NOT an attempt to defame or point any fingers and the statements are assumptions, not yet evidence. It remains a visualization of investigation that affected many users and the account holders on Twitter.

For transparency purposes - The contributor of this post is a Head of Compliance in one of the leading Cryptocurrency Exchanges in the Nordics called Safello.

He serves as a board advisor to Valega Chain whose team has launched an investigation to follow the stolen funds on his request. Statements about how Blockchain Analytics Tools work have been performed on the example of Valega Chain Analytics and should not be generalized to other Blockchain Analytics Tools as all of them have their own criteria, tools, and internal processes.

View original post here:
Uncovering The Money Laundering Attempts Of Bitcoin Fraudsters Behind The Recent Twitter Scam - Forbes

The Bitcoin (BTC) market has been quiet lately. A little too quiet.

As of Tuesday Bitcoins volatility levels had dropped to levels unseen since 2017. In recent weeks, Bitcoin has fallen behind as investors piled into altcoins such as Chainlink (LINK) and Cardano (ADA) .

One possible explanation for Bitcoins consolidation may be an increased presence of high-frequency trading (HFT) firms in crypto in recent months. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Bitfinex explained that he believes HFT is a major reason behind Bitcoins low volatility.

In crypto, we are back to the old days of HFT before it became the zero-sum game that it has become today. In crypto HFT firms can make a lot of money deploying relatively straightforward plays, such as cross-exchange arbitrage and exploiting the spread between one exchange and another.

HFT is a trading method that uses algorithms to transact a large number of orders in fractions of a second. It has existed in the cryptocurrency space for a long time. But just as billionaire Paul Tudor Jones revealed his Bitcoin holdings recently, other institutional investors are increasingly joining the market. This may explain the greater use of HFT.

Bitfinex, which claims to be huge for HFT in crypto, recently revealed that between 80 percent and 90 percent of volume on Bitfinex was now generated by HFT firms. Bitfinex partnered with Market Synergy and has been offering institutional standard cryptocurrency connectivity.

Bitfinex concludes the growing use of HFT represents increasing maturity in the digital asset space. But why would Bitcoin volatility go down with increased use of HFT? Ardoino explains the increased liquidity due to the surge of HFT tradings leads to low volatility:

As Bitcoin becomes an established asset class, we anticipate the high levels of volatility associated with cryptocurrency to recede, he explained. There is generally an inverse correlation between liquidity and volatility; i.e., higher liquidity tends to lead to lower price volatility.

The increasing presence of HFT firms in crypto seems to have added more liquidity to crypto exchanges. This provides sufficient orders for both sides of the order book and increases market efficiency, contributing to prolonged low volatility price consolidation in Bitcoin

Bitcoin is famous for moving aggressively for a short period of time. Last year, Tom Lee of Fundstrat reminded investors that the majority of Bitcoin (BTC) gains come in the ten best trading days of the year. However, the growing presence of HFT may be changing the rule of 10 best days as well.

Read the original:
Is High-Frequency Trading the Reason Bitcoin Has Become Boring? - Cointelegraph

The former chief operating officer at disgraced payments firm Wirecard has reportedly brought "significant sums" of bitcoin following his escape from Germany, according to reporting by a leading German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

Jan Marsalek was a key figure behind the breakdown of Germany-based Wirecard, which has made headlines for filing for insolvency and allegations of improper accounting tied to billions of dollars that went missing from its balance sheet.

As per German publication Handelsblatt, Marsalek has been missing for weeks and he "is said to have brought significant sums to Russia in the form of bitcoins from Dubai, where Wirecard had dubious operations" as per a translation of a Sunday evening report. The report says he is in Moscow under the supervision of Russian military.

Marsaleks fascination with cryptocurrencies has been documented, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

"Mr. Marsalek liked engaging in late-night discussions about cryptocurrencies and their ability to move money without a trace," a July report noted.

2020The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Originally posted here:
Most-wanted Wirecard executive reportedly owns significant sums of Bitcoin Report - Yahoo Finance

At the same time that volatility and short-term implied volatility have been sucked out of the market, longer dated options (six months or so until expiration) are still pricing closer to their historical average volatility in the 70% range. This steepness in implied volatility term structure suggests one of two things: Investors expect that this period of low volatility will be transitory and that a catalyst in the next couple of months will once again rock markets, or perhaps sellers of options are just not willing to make a longer-term bet, and as such, are not providing any supply in these longer-term options. The result is a steepness in term structure that could present an opportunity for the volatility-savvy trader.

Implied volatility is an interesting asset to trade. Most individual investors who use options as part of their investment strategy do so for the purpose of speculation or protection. They might even employ income generation strategies by selling options against their holdings. They tend to be focused on prices: What level do they think this asset can get to before expiration? Where would they be willing to sell it or buy it? While the nuances of volatility and options pricing may not be obvious to everyone, every trade that a trader makes is implicitly taking a stand on implied volatility.

On the other side of the individual investors trades are option market makers. These players think of almost nothing but implied volatility. The goal of a market maker is to keep their net position as flat as possible while collecting a bid/ask spread on each trade. The likelihood of order flow being balanced on every single option strike and expiry is essentially zero, so they use implied volatility curves and term structure to relate option prices to each other, keeping their risks balanced even if their position becomes a hodgepodge of long and short calls and puts at all different strikes and expirations. Option market-makers prefer to have all their risks balanced out, but when customer order flow is concentrated in one direction, sometimes that is simply not possible.

The result of this unbalanced order flow, with investors happily selling short-dated options while being skittish to sell longer dated options, has led to extreme steepness in the implied volatility term structure in Bitcoin (BTC) options. As of this writing, according to data analytics service Skew, the implication in options prices (as illustrated by forward implied volatility, which is the calculated volatility between two specific expiries) shows the expectation that volatility will realize 30% in the next week, the last week of July will see volatility of 50%, the month of August will see 60%, and the month of September will see 70%.

Perhaps the market is right and has great insight about when the current low volatility environment will end. But more likely, order flow is at such an imbalance between expiries that market-makers have twisted the term structure to levels that present some positive expectancy opportunities.

If traders wanted to express the opinion that the current cycle of low volatility reinforced by continued short-dated option selling will continue, they would do well to sell both calls and puts on various strikes with expiration dates in six to eight weeks, just after the inflection point where implied volatilities really start to drop off.

If the current environment continues, they will likely see gains not just from collecting decay on the option premium, but also from implied volatilities rolling down the term structure surface. If they wanted to, or needed to, for margin purposes, they could hedge some of the risk of an unexpected event by buying a few options in much longer dated expiries and a few contracts in cheap, short-dated expiries as well.

No one can predict exactly when the next high-volatility market event will come, but its likely not tomorrow. It is more likely to happen within the next month, and even more likely than that within the next two months.

It is very reasonable for volatility term structure to be upward sloping, but the current steepness in that slope implies a specific time frame for the reemergence of increased volatility coming in early August. Its entirely likely that this implication is priced into the Bitcoin options market not because its the actual forecast, but because there are plenty of investors willing to sell two-week options, while there are few willing to sell one-month and two-month options.

If a trader has the appetite for this risk and believes that there is no specific reason that realized volatility should double within the next several weeks, they could theoretically get paid a hefty premium for selling those options.

This is part two of a two-part series on Bitcoin volatility read part one on the rise and fall of BTC volatility here.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, readers their own research when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

This article was co-authored by Chad Steinglass and Kristin Boggiano.

Chad Steinglass is the head of trading at CrossTower, an exchange operator. He has over 15 years of experience trading equity, index and credit derivatives. He was an options market-maker at Susquehanna and Morgan Stanley and the head trader for a division of Guggenheim. He was also a portfolio manager of capital structure arbitrage at Jefferies. He is an expert in market dynamics, market microstructure and automated market-making and trading systems.

Kristin Boggiano is president and co-founder at CrossTower, an exchange operator. Kristin is a structured products, regulatory and digital asset expert who brings over 20 years of experience as a trading and regulatory lawyer and over nine years in digital asset trading and regulation. Prior to founding CrossTower, Boggiano was a chief legal officer of AlphaPoint, managing director of an algorithmic trading platform at Guggenheim, and special counsel at Schulte Roth, where she founded the structured products and derivatives division and led the regulatory group for Dodd Frank. Kristin is also the founder of Digital Asset Legal Alliance and Women in Derivatives. She earned her law degree and MBA from Northeastern University and her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

Read more here:
Where, Oh Where Has Bitcoin Volatility Gone? Part 2 - Cointelegraph

The concept of bitcoin days destroyed (BDD) was introduced in 2011, two years after the creation of the worlds first cryptocurrency,bitcoin. People were already beginning to create blockchain metrics to measure on-chain transaction activity and value.

Once the first cryptocurrency metric was created, BDD was quickly followed by a plethora of other unique metrics including unspent transaction output (UTXO), market value to realized value (MVRV) and spent output profit ratio (SOPR). Despite the sophistication of cryptocurrency data and analysis since 2011, BDD remains a fundamental metric to understanding and valuing bitcoin.

[BDD] is a metric that reflects the collective action of long-term [BTC] holders, said CoinDesk senior research analyst Galen Moore on a special podcast episode about the metric. Whats the psychology of the long-term holder? You can see that in a collective way [through BDD] in a way I dont think is possible in other asset categories.

Moore interviewed Coin Metrics Lucas Nuzzi on July 7, to learn more about BDDs use cases and limitations. In a follow-up discussion July 9, Moore noted no other financial asset enables traders and investors to see the activity of long-term asset holders as transparently as bitcoin.

To this, CoinDesk research intern Duy Nguyen noted the motivations behind why long-term holders are moving funds at any given time is still largely a guessing game that requires further off-chain analysis beyond the scope of BDD.

View original post here:
The Origins of the World's Oldest Bitcoin Metric, Explained - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Bitcoin

Bitcoin fell by 0.95% in the week ending 19th July. Partially reversing a 2.50% gain from the previous week, Bitcoin ended the week at $9,231.2.

It was a bearish start to the week. Bitcoin fell from a Monday intraweek high $9,350 to a Wednesday intraweek low $9,026.6.

Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $9,095 before finding support in the 2nd half of the week.

3 consecutive days in the green cut the deficit for the week, with Bitcoin recovering to $9,200 levels.

3-days in the red, however, were enough to leave Bitcoin in negative territory for the week.

Bitcoin would need to move back through the $9,200 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $9,380 into play.

Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break back through to $9,300 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and last weeks high $9,380 would likely cap any upside.

In the event of a breakout, Bitcoin could take a run at $9,500 levels before any pullback. The second major resistance level at $9,526 would likely cap any upside, however.

Failure to move back through the $9,200 pivot would bring support levels into play.

A pullback through to sub-$9,100 levels would bring the first major support level at $9,055 into play.

Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $8,879.0. The 23.6% FIB of $8,900 should limit any downside in the week.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.36% to $9,197.9. A mixed start to the week saw Bitcoin rise to an early Monday high $9,238.2 before falling to a low $9,191.2.

Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested at the start of the week.

Cardanos ADA fell by 2.23% in the week ending 19th July. Following a 29.24% rally from the previous week, Cardanos ADA ended the week at $0.12409.

It was a mixed start to the week. Cardanos ADA rose to a Monday intraweek high $0.1369 before ending the day in the red.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.1468, Cardanos ADA slid to a Thursday intraweek low $0.1169.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $0.10116, Cardanos ADA recovered to $0.12 levels to limit the downside.

4-days in the red that included a 3.49% loss on Thursday and 3.01% fall on Friday delivered the weekly loss. A 6.61% rally on Tuesday limited the downside for the week, however.

Cardanos ADA would need to move through the $0.1260 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.1350.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Cardanos ADA to break back through to $0.130 levels.

Barring another extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and last weeks high $0.1369 would likely cap any upside.

In the event of another breakout, the second major resistance level at $0.14596 and $0.15 levels could come into play.

Failure to move through the $0.1260 pivot could see Cardanos ADA see a 2nd consecutive week in the red.

A pullback through to sub-$0.12 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.1150 and 23.6% FIB of $0.1125 into play.

Barring an extended broader-market sell-off, however, Cardanos ADA should steer well clear of sub-$0.010 levels. The second major support level at $0.1060 should limit any downside.

Story continues

At the time of writing, Cardanos ADA was down by 0.92% to $0.12294. A bearish start to the week saw Cardanos ADA fall from an early Monday high $0.12444 to a low $0.12267.

Cardanos ADA left the major support and resistance levels untested at the start of the week.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

See the original post:
Bitcoin and Cardanos ADA Weekly Technical Analysis July 20th, 2020 - Yahoo Finance

The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army have requested information on web-based cryptocurrency tracking tools. The tools must enable U.S. government agencies worldwide to conduct in-depth investigations into the source of crypto transactions and provide multi-currency analysis from bitcoin to other top cryptocurrencies.

The U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army have posted a request for information (RFI) entitled cryptocurrency investigative web-based application. The request was published on the U.S. governments website on July 10.

All information submitted in response to this announcement is voluntary, the notice states, adding that The U.S. Army Contracting Command-New Jersey (CC-NJ) located at Fort Dix, NJ is surveying the market for potential contractors capable of providing one license for one user of a cloud, web based application capable of assisting law enforcement to identify and stop actors who are using cryptocurrencies for illicit activity such as fraud, extortion, and money laundering.

The requests accompanying Statement of Work (SOW) describes that the contractor must provide access to a reliable cryptocurrency investigation service, also referred to as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution required for use in criminal investigations and the other missions conducted by the US Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC). The USACIDC is the premier Military Criminal Investigative Organization within the Department of Defense, responsible for conducting worldwide criminal investigations wherever there is a U.S. Army interest. The notice elaborates:

Application must enables users to conduct in-depth investigation into the source of cryptocurrency transactions and provides multi-currency analysis from bitcoin to other top cryptocurrencies.

The USACIDCs Major Cybercrime Unit in Quantico, VA, will administer the service but users can be located anywhere in the U.S. and overseas. Intended users include those in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The service must be a tested product, without hardware or software to install. It must meet the SOW requirements, including providing real-time bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transaction tracing and be able to spot transaction patterns and interactions with other entities. The contract will be for one year with the option to extend four more years. Responses to the information request must be made by July 20.

The Department of Defenses request came after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service awarded a contract for blockchain analytics software to Coinbase, as news.Bitcoin.com reported.

What do you think about the U.S. Army looking for crypto tracking tools? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Read more here:
US Army Requests Information on Tools to Track Cryptocurrency Transactions | News - Bitcoin News

Someone hacked Twitter Wednesday and used bitcoin to capitalize on it.

Bitcoin is an alternative money system based on the value of censorship resistance. In other words, Bitcoin was built from the ground up to evade third-party interference (think banks, governments and law enforcement), making it a natural tool in the hands of a world-class hacker.

Bitcoins value proposition can be broken into a few categories, all based on the technology under the hood.

Once the hacker gets it, its theirs

Bitcoin is electronic. A popular meme for bitcoin is magic internet money, which, in a sense, it is. Bitcoin operates natively online you can send bitcoin from your phone or computer to anyone else, just about anywhere in the world, in a few clicks, without anyone being able to stop you. And once youve sent it, you cant get it back.

That feature or in this case, a bother is a prime reason the Bitcoin blockchain exists. Bitcoin relies on what are called Peer-to-Peer (P2P) transactions so it cant be confiscated by middlemen such as law enforcement. Once the coins are in someone elses wallet, count them as good as gone.

Bitcoin is pseudonymous

Like many Twitter handles, Bitcoin is pseudonymous. We cant link an address to a personal identity very easily.

Stolen U.S. dollars (USD), on the other hand, would be near impossible to get into and out of a bank account without being flagged. Traditionally, money is moved from one account to another through a third party.

Legacy systems have the upside of being able to reverse transactions and attach identities to them. That is clearly a disadvantage to hackers. (Notably, reports surfaced of the hacker running a similar campaign on CashApp for USD).Bitcoin transactions, by comparison, are a lot harder to control.

Bitcoin is liquid

Bitcoin is also traded online in a lot of places. Holding bitcoins in your wallet wouldnt be worth much without people to swap dollars for bitcoins. Launched in 2009, bitcoin is the most established and most highly traded digital asset. Its also available on popular financial apps such as CashApp or PayPal.

Its common sense that the attackers would choose bitcoin. Bitcoin is the most censorship resistant and liquid asset in existence, Blockstream CSO Samson Mow said in a private message.

All this to say the Twitter hacker chose the right cryptocurrency to get U.S. dollars.

But bitcoin can be tracked and traced

Addresses can be tracked, however. And they can also be blackballed by others. By nature, the Bitcoin blockchain is 100% transparent. That means the ins and outs of transactions from one party to another are viewable for all to see with a little know-how.

For example, popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase would not allow users of its service to transfer funds to the Twitter hackers address.

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis says the 12 or so bitcoins (worth about $110,000 at the time) the hacker netted are already on the move. But we can see where they are going. Some firms are even able to match meatspace identities with blockchain ones based on small details hackers overlook.

Having said that, there are tools available to people who really want to obfuscate their transactions, and whoever perpetrated this particular heist seems to be prepared to take measures to protect their loot.

At the end of the day, its important that people be wary of promises of free money on the internet whether that comes in the form of dollars, pounds or bitcoin.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Follow this link:
Twitter Hack Used Bitcoin to Cash In: Here's Why - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Paypal has confirmed that it has been developing cryptocurrency capabilities in a letter the company sent to the European Commission regarding the EU framework for cryptocurrency markets. Recently, Paypal and Venmo were rumored to soon allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly.

In a letter to the European Commission (EC), Paypal revealed its work on developing crypto capabilities. The letter was in response to the public consultation launched in December last year on building an EU framework for markets in crypto assets. According to Ledger Insights, Paypals letter was published in June, along with a number of other responses the Commission received.

The crypto-asset industry has experienced substantial growth over the past few years, Paypal told the EC. As such, Paypal is continuously monitoring and evaluating global developments in the crypto and blockchain/distributed ledger space.

In the letter, the company explained its involvement with the Libra project, proposed by social media giant Facebook. Noting that it signed a non-binding letter of intent to participate in the Libra Association, Paypal clarified:

Since the projects inception, Paypal has taken unilateral and tangible steps to further develop its capabilities in this [crypto asset] area.

The company proceeded to explain that after leaving the Libra project, it has continued to focus on advancing our existing mission and business priorities to democratize access to financial services.

In the letter, Paypal claims to have more than 300 million active accounts across the globe, with millions of new users being added every year. The company serves customers and businesses in 31 European jurisdictions and has a license to provide banking and payments services in Luxembourg.

Regarding the EU framework for crypto assets, Paypal told the EC that The regulatory framework should allow for innovative products and services to be brought to market without undue regulatory burden while simultaneously providing regulatory clarity, guidance, and safeguards.

Three key points were mentioned. Firstly, Paypal suggested the EUs crypto framework should have a clear set of definitions on various crypto activities to ensure that companies engaged in such activities are properly licensed and regulated. Secondly, the company called for a proper application of a risk-based approach, in line with the principles underpinning existing EU AML regulation and global standards, and lastly any regulatory framework in Europe should strive to be technology-neutral to support innovation and competition in this fast-evolving space, the company described. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) also recommends a risk-based approach to regulating cryptocurrencies and related service providers.

Last month, Paypal and Venmo, a mobile payment service owned by Paypal, were rumored to soon offer direct crypto buying and selling. News.Bitcoin.com reached out to Paypal but the companys representative neither confirmed nor denied the rumor. Paypal, however, is not new to the crypto space. In 2018, the company filed a patent for an expedited cryptocurrency transaction system. Its CEO, Daniel Schulman, also said in November that he owned bitcoin.

What do you think about Paypal developing crypto capabilities? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

More here:
Paypal Developing Cryptocurrency Capabilities, Letter to European Commission Confirms | News - Bitcoin News

Lead Writer at News.Bitcoin.com, Jamie Redman has made Redeeem.coms list of twelve influential go-to crypto bloggers. Redeeem says the list comprises names behind some of the most informative crypto news articles.

In its citation, Redeeem says Jamie Redman, who is also a crypto meme designer, is one to follow for crypto enthusiasts. Redeeem also lists some of Redmans best works to date.

A decentralized crypto fan, Redman has been in the crypto space since 2011 and has written over 3,300 articles since 2015 with just News.Bitcoin.com alone.

Redman believes the community should be focused on moving forward instead of squabbling endlessly.

Commenting on this recognition, Redman said:

Its an honor to be named by Redeem.com as one of the top twelve crypto bloggers among some of the writers I respect and read regularly. Blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions are hard to understand and its up to writers to break it down for people and make comprehension easier.

Redman adds that crypto writers have played an extremely important role when it comes to the adoption of crypto assets, as our words describe the myriad of benefits this technology has to offer.

Meanwhile, also making Redeeems 12 Best Crypto Bloggers list is Pete Rizzo, a former editor with Coindesk and Roger Huang, cryptocurrency writer with Forbes. Also, two female crypto bloggers, Portia Burton from the blog Blockchain Explainer, and Angeline Mbogo from the news outlets Bitcoin Africa, Afritechnews.

Crypto bloggers remain instrumental in pushing back against some misrepresentations and mistruths often peddled by ignorant but influential individuals.

Bloggers have also called out the mainstream media when it publishes misleading stories about bitcoin or the general crypto space.

The recent hacking of verified Twitter accounts and the associated donation scam gave fresh ammunition to cryptocurrency critics. Bloggers like Redman and many others have been on hand to set the record straight.

What do you think of Redmans recognition? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, blog.redeeem.com, Mike Townsend

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Originally posted here:
News.Bitcoin.com Lead Writer Jamie Redman Named One of the Best Crypto Bloggers | Featured - Bitcoin News