Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

North Korea's hacking crews are causing carnage in the cryptocurrency market and one has been blamed for stealing $250 million-worth of virtual coins from one exchange in 2020.

A North Korean hacker crew called Lazarus Group has been accused of carrying out a heist on cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin, dubbed the biggest cryptocurrency theft of last year at $275 million worth of virtual money. That figure represented half of all cryptocurrency stolen in 2020, according to cryptocurrency tracker and law enforcement contractor Chainalysis, which exclusively revealed its attribution of the huge attack to Forbes ahead of the release of its own research report on Tuesday.

The hack of Singapore-based KuCoin, which lets people trade Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrency, also took Lazarus illicit winnings up to $1.75 billion, Chainalysis claimed. Its feared that North Korea is using stolen cryptocurrency to fund its nuclear initiatives, whilst also causing serious losses to the burgeoning virtual economy. Meanwhile, the thefts are helping prop up North Koreas flagging economy, which has reportedly taken a severe hit thanks to the Covid-19 crisis. CNN reported on a confidential U.N. document on Tuesday, which suggested that North Korea had stolen a total of $316.4 million from financial institutions and virtual currency companies between 2019 and November 2020 to support its warfare and economic plans.

Chainalysis said it was able to attribute the KuCoin hack to the North Korean hacking group by looking at how the stolen funds were laundered. Lazarus Group, previously blamed for the infamous Sony Pictures hack of 2014 amongst many other attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges, has a unique way in which it sends money to mixers. Those mixers mix up cryptocurrency into different accounts in order to make tracking of funds more difficult. The size, and the way that funds are sent to mixers is extremely specific, and it's like a fingerprint, said Kim Grauer, who led Chainalysis research into the KuCoin attack.

Grauer thinks North Koreas cryptocurrency thefts could be filling huge holes in the countrys coffers. COVID in particular has further continued to devastate the North Korean economy and so we think that... the country may be becoming increasingly dependent on hacking for just funding, period, Grauer added. When you think about $1.75 billion, it's a very significant amount of money for that country considering their GDP.

The KuCoin breach took place in September 2020, and the exchange offered rewards of up to $100,000 to anyone who could provide valid information to us regarding this incident. Later, KuCoin CEO and founder Johnny Lyu claimed $201 million in cryptocurrency had been recovered as of October 3 and said perpetrators had been caught. This February, Lyu said in a blog post that it had cooperated with exchange and project partners to recover $222 million (78%), and cooperated with law enforcements and security institutions to recover $17.45 million (6%). At the same time, KuCoin and our insurance fund covered the remaining part, about $45.55 million (16%). In the end, we ensured that no users sustained any loss in this incident.

KuCoin, which claims to have over six million registered users, told Forbes that while its working with law enforcement and security agencies to track the suspects, no more details can be announced at the moment, per their request. Chainalysis said it had shared its findings relating to the North Korean attribution with KuCoin, but declined to provide any more detail on its work with the exchange.

The news comes hot on the heels of a Google warning that another crew of alleged North Korean hackers had attacked security researchers via what may have been a Chrome zero-day exploit - an attack on an unpatched vulnerability or string of vulnerabilities.

With a mix of more sophisticated digital attacks and huge thefts of cryptocurrency, North Koreas investment in offensive cybersecurity is proving to be reaping rewards for Kim Jong-uns regime, whilst costing victims their privacy and, in some cases, their crypto wealth.

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North Korean Hackers Accused Of Biggest Cryptocurrency Theft Of 2020Their Heists Are Now Worth $1.75 Billion - Forbes

The cryptocurrency market has continued to witness a boom despite the global pandemic wreaking havoc on all significant economies on the planet.

Many crypto startups have emerged in the space during this pandemic to cater to the ever-increasing demand for Bitcoin and alike cryptocurrencies.

For instance, CoinSwitch Kuber recently announced the raising of $15 million (Rs 109 crore) Series A funding from leading global fintech investors such as Ribbit Capital, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital India and prominent angel investor Kunal Shah from CRED.

Cryptocurrency market capitalisation fueled by Bitcoins growth recently crossed the $1 trillion mark. Out of which, Bitcoin, has been on a bull run for quite some time and is responsible for roughly 69% of the total market value.

Similarly, many cryptocurrency prices have been on the rise, and investors are wondering why. Here are five reasons why cryptocurrency prices are rising:

Recently, there has been a trend where public companies are converting their cash treasuries into cryptocurrency. Square, an American payments company, bought $50 million worth of Bitcoins. Following this, Microstrategy- a public listed company in the US, converted $425 million worth of cash reserves into Bitcoin, considering it to be a better store of value.

The launch included four majorly traded currencies, namely Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin. Paypal has also announced plans of allowing transactions to be made using cryptocurrencies.

Paypal is known to have 350 million users who will now be capable of adopting crypto as a payment means. Also, its 30 million merchants will have the option of receiving payments in crypto.

Paypal was one of the critics of cryptocurrency as a sustainable currency. Now it is one of the biggest names jumping on the bandwagon. Along with others and PayPal's support, there has been more demand for the asset class, thus contributing to its price rise.

Apart from Paypal, the company also owns another popular payment platform Venmo which will expose another 40 million users to crypto payment. While these platforms are new to crypto, some other platforms are already making crypto payments wider.

As several private investors seek to adopt cryptocurrency as a means of exchange, many governments are also trying to regulate the market.

Many countries like Japan, USA, Germany etc. have taken a positive stance towards cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin Halving Driven ScarcityIt is not news that most cryptocurrencies in the market have a limited supply. Bitcoin is also one of them. This year the third Bitcoin Halving took place.

Bitcoin halving is an important event in the Bitcoin network that happens every four years.

The Bitcoin network works because it introduces new bitcoins in the market by a process called Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin miners do this mining by verifying Bitcoin blocks which are simply groups of Bitcoin transactions.

Every 10 minutes, a miner who can verify one block of transactions and add it to the Bitcoin network gets awarded a certain amount of bitcoins as a reward.

Currently, this reward stands at 6.25 BTC per valid block mined. But this reward per block reduces by half roughly every four years, or after every 210000 blocks are mined. This phenomenon of Bitcoin block reward getting reduced by 50% every four years is termed as Bitcoin halving.

It also doubles the stock to flow ratio (total currency available: total currency in circulation) making is highly scarce.

Halving is one of the most critical factors that contribute to the price of Bitcoin.

Since there are only 21 million Bitcoins in total, there is less circulation of the market currency as the reward decreases. And as more people become aware of the asset's scarcity, more demand rises, resulting in a higher price.

Since Bitcoin holds more than half of the market capitalisation, the Bitcoin price variation may affect other currencies.

Easy Accessibility To PublicCryptocurrency is a digital currency that can be used as both - a store of value and a mode of exchange. While it has just started to gain attention as a legit payment method, it has established itself as a new asset class over the past decade.

Even if the public is unwilling to use it for transactions, many want to convert their cash into crypto because they believe that its deflationary nature makes it a better store of value and a hedge against inflation.

Especially in India, after the RBI ban against cryptocurrency was lifted, its investors had a significant surge.

Many platforms have launched and received funding in this space to make crypto investing accessible. One such platform is CoinSwitch Kuber- acquiring over two million users in just six months after it launched.

As cryptocurrency is becoming more accessible to the public, more retail investors want a share of the asset class and are willing to pay more.

Bottom LineIf the rising prices in the crypto market have got you thinking that it is too late to invest in cryptocurrencies, understand that this is just the beginning.

With more countries seeking to regulate the market, cryptocurrencies will become mainstream.

Disclaimer: This above is non-editorial content and TIL hereby disclaims any and all warranties, express or implied, relating to the same. TIL does not guarantee, vouch for or necessarily endorse any of the above content nor is responsible for them in any manner whatsoever. The article does not constitute investment advice. Please take all steps necessary to ascertain that any information and content provided is correct, updated and verified.

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5 reasons why bitcoin cryptocurrency prices are on the rise - Economic Times

Just like the price swings in cryptocurrencies, the news on regulations for the Indian crypto industry has been coming in thick and fast. While the government on 29 January listed a bill in Lok Sabha to ban all private cryptocurrencies, recent reports suggest that it might now bring in an ordinance to put that into effect. With the contents of the legislation unknown, experts say that the fate of investments worth $1 billion in digital currencies by Indians rests on how the Center defines a 'private cryptocurrency'.

The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 seeks to ban all private cryptocurrencies and also provides for the creation of a legislative framework on an official digital currency.

Also Read | Scarcity on high seas hurting Indias exports

According to experts, a blanket ban would hit over eight million investors in India who own over $1 billion worth of cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency is a sunrise sector employing thousands of people in India. The regulation is the need of the hour, but a ban will set our economy back by a decade," said Nischal Shetty, chief executive officer of WazirX.

As the draft of the bill is not public, experts say it is hard to determine what the government may consider as private cryptocurrency. However, the key argument is that terming major digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum as private would be incorrect.

The term private cryptocurrency could be applied to some rare experimental projects but not to Bitcoin, Ether, or most popular cryptocurrencies. There software is open source and they are not owned by any entity, private or otherwise," said Vikram Rangala, CMO, ZebPay.

Some of the public blockchains and their corresponding cryptocurrencies such as Ripple are created by privately-owned enterprises but find their application in the public domain and have corporate governance considerations similar to traditional finance corporations. In reality, there are public blockchains and there are private blockchains, and many large Indian corporations are already using private blockchain infrastructure such as hyperledger," said Sumit Gupta, co-founder and CEO, CoinDCX.

Notably, this is not the first time, when the government has sought to come up with a regulation for the industry. An earlier bill in 2019 reportedly sought to ban cryptocurrency and criminalize its possession in India. However, it was not introduced. Moreover, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had banned cryptocurrencies in 2018, which was later overturned by the Supreme Court of India in March 2020.

The government may likely be considering every cryptocurrency except introduced by RBI or the government to be private. The ban would be a disaster at both the legislation level and the enforcement level to ban cryptocurrencies," said Sathvik Vishwanath, CEO and co-founder of Unocoin.

Industry experts argue that as the ownership of major crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ether are public, the government may need to come up with some other term than private to define and regulate non-government cryptocurrencies.

Nonetheless, industry experts are hopeful that there wont be a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies.

While the prices of cryptocurrencies in India slumped soon after the bill was listed by the government, the prices recovered a bit after it failed to find a mention in the Budget speech of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 1 February 2020.

The majority of Bitcoin, Ether and other investors are holding on to their crypto assets and will continue to do so. Overall, the crypto community seems to be resilient and confident that in the end, the government will make the right decision," said Rangala.

Meanwhile, the crypto industry is actively engaging with the government and to try and find an amicable solution. All stakeholders associated with the crypto and blockchain industry are working together to resolve the issue at hand. We have reached out to the government and are looking at a continuation of dialogue which leaves room for better understanding and cooperation from the competent authorities," said Gupta.

Meanwhile, leading cryptocurrency companies such as CoinDCX, WazirX, Unocoin, CoinSwitch Kuber, Zebpay and PocketBits have joined hands to launch a campaign called, #IndiaWantsBitcoin, which aims to educate and build greater awareness amongst policymakers and the public about cryptocurrencies.

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For Indian crypto industry, the devil lies in the definition - Mint

OLBs SecurePay TM Payment Gateway to Enable Merchants to Seamlessly Offer Cryptocurrency Payments

The OLB Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OLB), a provider of cloud-based omnicommerce and payment acceptance solutions for small and mid-size merchants, announced it has upgraded its SecurePay payment gateway system to support Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC and DAI across all merchant platforms. Merchants utilizing the OLB SecurePay gateway service or the OmniSoft cloud-based business management platform will immediately have the option to accept these alternative contactless payment methods without any equipment changes. Our systems will be wallet agnostic and, integrating them with third-party software, customers will be able to seamlessly pay with Cryptocurrency wallets such as MetaMask TM, Coinbase Wallet TM, Crypto.com and Trust Wallets TM.

Ronny Yakov, CEO of OLB, said, "Providing all the latest technologies and tools to merchants is our top priority. It is imperative to adjust to these times as the world becomes further integrated with digital currencies. By enabling our merchants the ability to accept digital payments, it will also help enhance the funds available for every merchant that opts in, as these forms of payments settle instantly, providing small businesses with more flexibility and agility. By 2027, the global payments industry is projected to be 8.94 Trillion USD and according to Statista there are 66 million users of Cryptocurrency wallets, according to Fortune Business Insights"

SercurePay is compatible with mobile, tablet-based and cloud infrastructure and will be integrated into the merchants current payment ecosystem, in order to enable the acceptance of Cryptocurrency payments. Merchants interested in implementing omnicommerce services or accepting crypto within their existing payment infrastructure can set up an account at https://cryptoaccept.com

For more information about The OLB Group, please visit http://www.olb.com or http://www.olb.com/investors-data .

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Interested investors or shareholders can be notified of future Press Releases and Industry Updates by e-mailing investorrelations@OLB.com .

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OLB Group Announces Plan to Offer Cryptocurrency Payment Options via Blockchain Technology on its OMNICOMMERCE Platform and SecurePay TM Gateway -...

Tribune News ServiceNew Delhi, February 9

Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur on Tuesday told the Rajya Sabha that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) lack a legal framework to regulate cryptocurrencies which are neither currencies nor securities or commodities.

80 Chinese firms active in India: Anurag

Taking note of the inadequacy of the laws to deal with the subject, the government formed an inter-ministerial panel to enact legislation, Thakur said during Question Hour. He said the panel had submitted its report. The committee of secretaries formed for this purpose also had given its report. Thakur added that the proposed law was in the final stages of completion. We will be bringing the Bill soon, he said.

There are multiple definitions of cryptocurrencies available globally, he said. The RBI had banned cryptocurrencies. All these factors have been taken into account while framing the proposed law, which will be tabled in Parliament soon, he said.

There have been reports suggesting that the Centre is planning to ban cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin by bringing a Bill in Parliament. It is also rumoured that the Centre may introduce its own digital currency through the RBI.

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Bill on cryptocurrency soon - The Tribune India

The government's draft bill on cryptocurrencies is likely to bar Indian companies and individuals from using digital currencies if cleared by parliament.

The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021 is expected to be introduced soon in the ongoing Budget session (of parliament).

People, traders, exchanges, and other financial systems' participants will not be permitted to deal in cryptocurrencies, with penalties proposed in the draft law for any violation by corporates as well as individuals, NDTV reported.

Also Read: Inter-ministerial group recommends ban on Bitcoin, private cryptocurrency in India: FM

The decision was taken after an inter-ministerial panel, including representatives from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), felt that private cryptocurrencies will pose a risk to the financial stability of the country.

The bill, which proposes a blanket ban on all private cryptocurrencies, will also lay the basis for an official digital currency with ties to the RBI, which can regulate it, the report added.

The Centre's draft bill comes days after car manufacturer Tesla, led by billionaire Elon Musk, announced a $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin with plans to accept the cryptocurrency from customers purchasing its electric vehicles. This drove the digital money to an all-time high.

Also Read: Sell or hold - investors on edge as India mulls cryptocurrency ban

Both the Centre and the central bank have been cautioning against digital currencies and have advised all banks and financial institutions not to deal in them.

The RBI, through a circular in April 2018, had advised all entities regulated by it not to deal in virtual currencies or provide services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling them.

In mid-2019, a government committee had suggested banning all private cryptocurrencies, with a jail term of up to 10 years as well as heavy penalties for anyone dealing in digital currencies.

However, the Supreme Court in March 2020 overturned RBI's circular, permitting banks to handle cryptocurrency transactions from traders and exchanges.

As per the official estimates, around 7 million Indians hold cryptocurrencies worth more than $1 billion.

Also Read: Cryptocurrencies are neither currency nor commodity; will bring bill soon: Anurag Thakur

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Cryptocurrency bill: Individuals, corporates to be fined for using digital money - Business Today

InvestorPlace

Insider trading happens when people who have access to confidential information about a company use that to profit off its stock. These insiders include folks like the corporate officers and members of the board of directors. Historically, there have been countless cases of unscrupulous insiders benefitting at the expense of unsuspecting shareholders. For example, suppose an insider knows that some news is about to come out that will cause a companys stock price to fall. They could go into the market and sell their shares to someone who doesnt know about the news. Likewise, if theres news coming out that will drive the price higher, they could buy stock from an unsuspecting shareholder. In order to prevent this type of activity, the government has developed numerous regulations and laws. One requires that, when a company insider decides to buy or sell shares in their companys stock, they must publicly disclose it to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That gives outside investors a chance to profit, too.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Right now, the market is making all-time new highs. Some analysts believe that this recent insanity with GameStop (NYSE:GME) and the cryptocurrency markets are signs that we are in a bubble. Many companies have seen their stock prices soar for no apparent logical or fundamental reasons. 8 Cheap Stocks Under $20 That Could Double But within this wildness, there has also been insider trading in the following seven companies. The insiders have decided to take advantage of the rallies and sell some of their shares. That could mean they believe these stocks are over or fairly valued and will eventually trade lower. aTyr Pharma (NASDAQ:LIFE) ANGI Homeservices (NASDAQ:ANGI) Anaplan (NYSE:PLAN) Tradeweb Markets (NASDAQ:TW) SVMK (NASDAQ:SVMK) Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR) Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) Insider Traded Stocks to Sell: aTyr Pharma (LIFE) Chart by TradingView A biotherapeutics company, aTyr Pharma was founded in 2005, is based in California and is the first name in this article on insider trading. As you can see in the chart above, shares of LIFE stock doubled in just three days. On Feb. 4, the stock opened at $3.90 per share. Then on Feb. 8 just two trading days later shares reached $8.33. There was no news, so the stock was probably taken up by the day traders. However, two company insiders decided to sell some of their shares. President and CEO Sanjay Shukla sold 778 shares at $7.66, while CFO Jill Broadfoot sold 390 shares at $7.66 as well. These were small sales and both insiders continue to hold larger positions. But this could also mean they believe the shares got ahead of themselves in the recent market frenzy. The three analysts on Wall Street that follow this company think aTyrs long-term prospects are great. According to Tipranks, they all have strong buy ratings on the stock, with an average price target of $13.33. That is about two times higher than where LIFE stock is now. ANGI Homeservices (ANGI) Chart by TradingView ANGI Homeservices operates a digital marketplace that you guessed it connects consumers with home service professionals. This is another stock that has ripped higher in the recent market chaos. As you can see on the above chart, the share price appreciated by more than 50% in less than a month. Between Jan. 15 and Feb. 8, ANGI stock rose from around $12 to a close of $18 per share. Allison Lowrie is the CMO of ANGI. She decided to raise some cash and take advantage of the recent move. Based on a SEC Form 4 (which reports insider trading), Lowrie sold 76,903 shares at $17.74 per share. Thats worth close to $1.4 million. 7 Must-Own Stocks in February Wall Street seems to agree with Lowrie that this is a fair valuation for the company. On Tipranks, nine analysts follow ANGI and have an average target price of $17.38. That is somewhat close to the current price of just under $16. Anaplan (PLAN) Chart by TradingView Anaplan is a company that provides a cloud-based planning platform to connect people and organizations. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. On Jan. 28, shares of PLAN stock opened at around $62.50. By Feb. 8, they had reached a high of over $83. That represents a gain of more than 30%. Sandesh Kaveripatnam is a director for Anaplan. In terms of insider trading, Kaveripatnam decided to take advantage of the recent price appreciation and raise some cash. One Feb. 5, he sold 11,991 shares at prices between $78 and $81. That made for a sale amounting well over $900,000. Wall Street thinks that shares are fairly valued at current levels. Moreover, they probably think that Kaveripatnam has made a smart move. On Tipranks, five analysts follow Anaplan. The average target price is $79.59 relatively in-line with where PLAN stock is currently trading. Tradeweb Markets (TW) Chart by TradingView Next on this insider trading stocks list, Tradeweb Markets builds and operates electronic marketplaces. According to its website, the company offers institutional, wholesale and retail market participants unparalleled liquidity, advanced technology and a broad range of data solutions. Moreover, Tradeweb operates in both the United States and internationally. It was founded in 1996. As you can see on the above chart, TW stock is trading at a resistance level. Resistance means there is a large concentration of sellers gathered around the same price. When stocks reach resistance levels, they have a tendency to sell off. That has happened with Tradeweb. It hit resistance in both June and December. Now it has reached that level once more. Enrico Bruni is a managing director for the company. Probably believing shares would sell off again, Bruni reportedly sold 142,861 shares at a price of $67.66 on Feb 9. 7 Safe Stocks for Reddit's WSB Bull Gang Like ANGI and PLAN, the Street thinks TW stock is fairly valued, too. On Tipranks, the seven analysts following the company give this name an average share price of $69.83 close to current prices. SVMK (SVMK) Chart by TradingView Formerly known as SurveyMonkey, SVMK provides clients with survey software solutions. The companys products allow other companies to engage with their customers and employees. SVMK was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California. At the beginning of December, shares of SVMK stock were trading around the $21 level. Since then, they have trended higher. Trading at a high of $28.12 on Feb. 11, the stock currently changes hands closer to $25. Like with other insider trading names on this list, CEO Alexander Lurie just made a significant sale on the stock. Between Feb. 5 and Feb. 8, Lurie sold a total of 16,595 shares at an average price of $28. This is about $460,000 worth of stock. Three analysts follow SVMK stock on Tipranks and they probably agree with Luries decision to sell. Each believes shares are trading at a fair price. The average target is $29. This is only slightly higher than the range that the stock traded at over the past several days and close to the price that the CEO sold at. Smartsheet (SMAR) Chart by TradingView Smartsheet provides a cloud-based platform for the efficient execution of work. The company was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Washington state. As you can see in the above chart, between late November and now, shares have rallied from $52 to todays levels of over $80. With SMAR stock trading at about $84 (and rising), this represents a gain of over 60% in less than three months. At least one insider is using this move to lighten up their position. In terms of insider trading, CMO Anna Griffin sold 5,500 shares between $75 and $76 on Feb. 5. That made for a gain of more than $400,000. Other insiders have reported selling shares as well. 7 F-Rated Growth Stocks to Sell Sooner Than Later This company is widely followed by Wall Street. Nine analysts cover the stock on Tipranks. They give it an average target price of $80.89. This is only a few dollars below where it trades today. Twitter (TWTR) Chart by TradingView Last on this list of insider trading stocks, Twitter is a social media company that operates as a platform for public self-expression and conversation in real time in both the United States and internationally. It was founded in 2006 and has headquarters in San Francisco, California. Like other companies in this article, Twitter has rallied and the insiders are selling. In just the past month, the price of TWTR stock has gone from $46 to $60 and above. The stock trades at around $72 today. On Tipranks, 32 analysts give a price target of $62.86 on Twitter. This is about $10 below the current price. Whats more, Robert Kaiden is the chief accounting officer of the company and sold shares recently. On Feb. 9, Kaiden reported selling 12,032 shares at prices between $55 and $57 a piece. At the time of this publication, Mark Putrino did not have any positions (either directly or indirectly) in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next Potential Winner It doesnt matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. #1 Play to Profit from Biden's Presidency The post 7 Stocks With Important Insider Trading Signals That Say Sell appeared first on InvestorPlace.

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5 Things To Consider When Choosing A Cryptocurrency Exchange - Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin is creating new records as valley maverick Elon Musk and traditional mega financial institutions like Mastercard and Bank of New York have joined the list of adopters.

According to Morgan Stanley's Chief Global Strategist, Ruchir Sharma, Bitcoin was not only the hottest investment of 2020, but it was also the hottest investment of the decade ending in 2020, up more than 200 percent a year on average.

Even as the crypto market grows, central banks globally are looking at the possibility of introducing a digital currency. According to a BIS survey of global central banks, all central banks have begun studying the prospects and viability, with many central banks in both advanced economies and emerging markets attempting to replicate wholesale payment systems using distributed ledger technology.

Cryptocurrency bill: Heres what you need to know

In India, the government is gearing up to table a bill to ban private cryptocurrencies while creating a framework for a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) backed Indian digital currency in the parliament during the ongoing budget session.

People in the know say that the bill will specify the modalities for transactions and payments using the Indian digital currency, through specified financial institutions and banks. It is also likely to allow individuals to use this currency and hold accounts. The bill is also expected to have the framework for the derivation of the value of this currency by the RBI.

ALSO READ: Bitcoin hits all-time high, nears $49,000-mark amid adoption from BNY Mellon

On the other hand, the proposed law may put a blanket ban on private cryptocurrencies. However, CNBC-TV18 has also learnt that those who currently hold these cryptocurrencies will be given some time to exit. The bill will also spell out penalties for those who do not adhere to the new rules.

CNBC-TV18 caught up with SC Garg, Former Finance Secretary, Vikram Subburaj, Co-Founder & CEO of Giottus, Vaibhav Gaggar, Managing Partner at Gaggar & Partners and Sumit Gupta, CEO & Co-Founder of CoinDCX to understand the situation better.

Garg, who headed the panel which has proposed that a law be enacted to ban all private cryptocurrencies in India, said, The problem is that the cryptocurrencies, starting with bitcoin, initially evolved or came up as currencies. They were meant to facilitate international payments, they were meant to take care of the transfers of money from one place to another. At the point in time, the asset part of it was very low and that is why it is called a coin, it is called currency. But over the years, its role as a currency has diminished has become smaller, and this has become more of an investment into an asset kind of thing. So, if this community ends this confusion and evolves this purely as an asset and not as currency to be part of the payment or transfer system the bill only targets cryptocurrencies as currencies, it does not deal with cryptocurrencies as assets.

Vaibhav Gaggar, however, countered this. He said, What one has been reading about since we have not seen the bill yet, there seems to be a total prohibition coming and I dont see a distinction between it being a currency versus an asset. From what one has seen or has been hearing, it appears they are going to say that even an investment into it is not going to be permitted, you cannot use let alone from India and Indian currency, but even if you have funds lying overseas, you are not going to be permitted to trade in the currencies. So, I am not too sure whether the government is going to follow through with the nuanced distinction that SC Garg pointed out.

Bitcoin as legal tender: Countries which say aye or nay to the cryptocurrency

Vikram Subburaj said that the government cannot have a law to wipe out these investments.

Even if the government is looking at banning, we hope that they give some timeline so that the consumer investment is safeguarded. We are talking about consumer protection and we cannot wipe away that investment; one fine day we wake up and it is all gone. So keeping the consumer in the center of all this, if the decision is taken, that would be something that could be welcome. If the government is going to say that let us not use it as a payment method, not as currency, if it is asset class and the trading continues, then the investments are safeguarded. So, that is a good move forward. Any small hint even if the government provides that trading is going to continue and there is going to be restriction on one or two places, that will give a big relief to consumers and also the startups and ecosystems which are dependent on cryptocurrencies, he reasoned.

Sumit Gupta elaborated this further saying that there are around 75 lakh investors who are in this confusion.

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Cryptocurrency conundrum: Is banning private players when Bitcoin is booming the way to go? - CNBCTV18

It was a Saturday morning and Adam was feeling bold.

He'd made thousands of dollars on a single trade the night before, and was feeling lucky. But Adam wasn't trading on the NASDAQ, pumping GameStop stocks or investing in a startup. He was about to sink $2,500 into a cryptocurrency called DeTrade.

It seemed safe. Adam had investigated the coin's development team on LinkedIn, and watched a video of its CEO laying out a roadmap for the coin's future. A newswire piece published on Yahoo touted DeTrade's technology as advanced enough to disrupt cryptocurrency.

Thanks to Bitcoin hitting an all-time high valuation of $40,000, almost tripling its value in two months, cryptocurrency is very much back in the zeitgeist. But while for many people Bitcoin is synonymous with cryptocurrency, it's not what crypto traders like Adam are interested in. Beneath Bitcoin and Ethereum, the second-best-known currency, is a strange underworld of different cryptocurrencies.

Called altcoins or, sometimes, "shitcoins," these are essentially penny-stock cryptocurrencies. And they're crazy. Bitcoin tripled its value recently, but many altcoins explode 30, 40 or 50 times over within days. Arguably the most famous is Dogecoin, which recently shot up thanks to a potent combination of Reddit and Elon Musk, but there are thousands of altcoins, forming an Indiana Jones-esque Cave of Crypto Wonders. The spoils can be life-changing, but there are traps around each corner. Fortunes can be made and lost in seconds. Cons and fraudsters are everywhere, with traders vulnerable to scams at each step of the process.

Case in point: Adam's foray into DeTrade. The touted technology behind it wasn't real. Nothing about the project was. DeTrade, for all intents and purposes, didn't exist. The LinkedIn profiles were fake, and the video of its CEO was a deepfake created with AI. It was a scam. Those behind it, operating in the unregulated world of crypto, vanished. Adam lost his $2,500, but he got off easy. In total, those behind the scam took in around $2 million.

Just a regular day playing with altcoins, says Adam.

Adam got into cryptocurrency in September. When we spoke, it felt like he'd crammed years of trading into two months. He put in $4,000 and lost it in days. Then he turned $3,000 into $90,000. After withdrawing a third of that and then losing just over another third, he now had around $20,000 in crypto.

Adam had seen some tempestuous trading in recent weeks. One person managed to flip $2,000 into over $40,000 on two different occasions, but lost it all to scams both times. Another put $150 in a coin and doubled his money in 15 minutes. Decent result, but his $150 would've turned into $28,000 if he'd waited only one more day.

But despite the community's enthusiasm, there's a small problem. Right now cryptocurrencies don't really do anything.

Bitcoin nearly tripled in price, from $15,000 to over $40,000, in two months. If you invested $1,000 in early November, you could have taken out $2,600 two months later.

Investing in a stock means ascertaining its value -- based on factors like competition, risks and, above all, profit generation -- and then putting money into ones that are undervalued. If other investors follow you, the stock rises, giving you an opportunity to take profit.

Speculation is naturally part of this: The Dot-com Bubble was all about pouring money into "pre-profit" companies in the hopes they'd make money someday. Cryptocurrency, however, takes speculation into the stratosphere. For the most part, cryptocurrency is pure speculation. People are investing in technology that produces nothing, and has no practical application. As I write this, a coin called Meme is selling for $517. That's a little over four times the price of an Apple share. Doge, a coin marketed after the internet slang for "dog,"doubled in value earlier this month after a pornstar tweeted about it. After the price settled, it then rocketed once more when Reddit wanted to make it the GameStop of cryptocurrency.

This disconnect between price and purpose has made many experts understandably skeptical.

David Gerard is one such skeptic. He became interested in Bitcoin in 2013, when it first hit $1,000, and has since written two books on cryptocurrency. His most recent focuses on Libra, Facebook's ill-fated attempt at digital currency.

"The driving force of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency is nothing to do with technology," he told me during a Skype call. "It's all about the chance that people might get rich for free. All of this is about the psychology of get-rich-quick schemes."

In his years working as an IT systems administrator, Gerard's job has been to examine new technology and discern what's useful and what's not. Cryptocurrency, he told me, is not.

"Bitcoin burns a whole country's worth of electricity for the most inefficient payment network in human history," he said.

After launching at around $8 in August, the obscure Meme coin briefly reached a valuation of over $1,750 in September. If, with fantastic luck, you invested $1,000 at $8 and sold at $1,750, you'd be up $217,000. This is the allure of "shitcoins."

That's no exaggeration. Cryptocurrencies are mined using powerful computers, and many enterprising types put together farms of computers used solely for the purpose of mining Bitcoin. As a result, Bitcoin is responsible for more energy consumption than Switzerland.

Gerard says the only thing you can do with Bitcoin is buy it and sell it. He's even harsher on altcoins.

"They're absolutely useless objects. Even by the standards of Bitcoin, altcoins are useless," he said.

This is precisely what makes them so fascinating. Seemingly, all they can do is get internet punters to bet on their success. But this enables average people to become rich. That Meme coin I mentioned before? It was listed at $2.72 and a month later hit an all-time-high price of over $2,000.

Imagine becoming a millionaire from a joke internet coin.

Crypto Spider has made millions with altcoins. Crypto Spider isn't his real name. Like most people in the cryptocurrency community, he goes by a pseudonym.

He's gained renown in some Telegram groups over the past few months thanks to a "2K to 1M" challenge, where he endeavored to see how quickly, and with how few trades, he could turn the first number into the second. In cryptocurrency, you can follow someone's portfolio if you have their wallet number, so the community was able to watch this challenge play out in real time.

Within two months, that $2,000 had grown to over $2 million. Much of that money was made off one trade: He chucked $50,000 into a project which, in the space of around a week, magnified 35 times in value, netting him $1.75 million. After passing $2 million, he cashed out.

"You won't ever see that type of explosive growth if you don't trade in altcoins," he told me, though he also said "95% of these coins are going to be nonexistent in the future."

Like Adam, Crypto Spider has no background in finance or trading. He lists college courses in game theory, basic algorithmics and some economics as useful to his crypto exploits -- but in essence he's a self-taught amateur. He declined to tell me his specific age, only that he was "20ish" when he first got into cryptocurrency in 2017.

He admits he was attracted by the "pretty numbers," by seeing coins magnify in value 30, 40 and 50 times within a short period. He was enthusiastic enough to start a university club around cryptocurrencies, and how they'd be used in the future.

Crypto Spider says cryptocurrency will play a "major part in the future of finance," and speaks with the passion of a believer. He breathlessly transitions from how cryptocurrency is a part of the internet's evolution to the possible use cases of blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin, in the next 10 years. But despite his enthusiasm, I couldn't help but notice how chunks of what he said echoed Gerard.

Cryptocurrencies are mined using powerful computers. More emissions are produced by global Bitcoin miners than by the entire country of Switzerland.

For one thing, he looks back at all the projects he was excited about in 2017 and realizes most were almost entirely vaporware, technology that's advertised but never delivered.

Gerard calls the cryptocurrency community a pool of scammers. Spider notes that people often invest in altcoins they know don't have a function, because there's enough hype around the project to make money. "It's a bubble," he said, "we're literally swapping money from each other. I somehow was able to game all the other people."

Spider says his performance is 60% luck. He first approached cryptocurrnecy trading with the mentality of, "I'm young, I'm dumb, I can lose all my money and it'll be OK."

Again, it reminded me of something Gerard said: "If you're rich enough that your money is your own problem, fine. If you know zero is a number your investment could go to, fine."

"But a lot of people are being ripped off, and that's really bad."

People really are getting ripped off. Difficult to regulate and subsisting largely on hype, cryptocurrencies are particularly prone to scams.

Take OneCoin, a company that, through a presale for a cryptocurrency that didn't exist, stole $4 billion from people around the world before its founder disappeared. Then there's BitConnect, a coin that reached a $2.6 billion valuation by promising a 1% return on investment every day. It was eventually designated a Ponzi scheme by various authorities around the globe, causing it to lose 96% of its value before getting shut down months later.

Those are two of the biggest instances of crypto-fraud. But millions of dollars are scammed from cryptocurrency markets every day in less dramatic ways. Coins are suddenly discontinued, with owners taking all the money with them in what the community calls "rug pulls." Some have investment contracts, ignored like terms-of-service agreements, that prohibit you from taking your money out of a project. Other times, entire cryptocurrency exchanges -- which sell coins like a stock exchange sells stocks -- vanish.

"I think I've been scammed over 100 times," Crypto Spider said, adding that he lost $250,000 through fraud in December. "Who knows who creates these projects. A lot of people are taking on pseudonyms, because they're almost all money grabs."

But the deepfake used to scam $2 million adds a new vector. Coming into wider use in recent years, deepfakes are mostly used for pornographic purposes, but as the DeTrade scam shows, deepfakes can also be used in financial scams.

OneCoin founder Ruja Ignatova at an event for the "revolutionary" cryptocurrency. Ignatova disappeared around the time OneCoin was discovered to be a fraud: The cryptocurrency the company sold didn't actually exist. It's reported to have scammed over $4 billion from people around the world. Ignatova has yet to be found.

Gerard says he's never seen a deepfake used as part of a scam before. Crypto Spider says he's seen it just once.

"We didn't have that problem in 2017, where people would use deepfakes and rug pull like this," he said. "The internet is evolving, but the scammers are also evolving."

Deepfake technology "is being democratized, and that may not be a good thing," said Julie Inman-Grant. Now commissioner of the Australian government's eSafety Commission, Inman-Grant formerly led public policy teams at Microsoft, Adobe and Twitter.

"This kind of takes the art out of social engineering," she explained, referring to the techniques usually used by scammers to get you to click a fraudulent link or hand over credit card details. "If they're delivering a video of someone you respect and you really have no way of telling by the naked eye or ear if it's fake or not, the potential for misuse could be devastating."

Ironically, it's blockchain, the behind-the-scenes technology, that could be the solution to the burgeoning deepfake problem. In cryptocurrency, the blockchain is an unalterable ledger that tracks every transaction. Once it's on the ledger, it can't be altered. That same technology can be used to track anything -- like the creation and distribution of a video, from studio to iPhone screen. There are already startups working toward this, like Truepic.

When I asked about blockchain's ability to neutralize deepfakes, Inman-Grant wasn't entirely optimistic.

"It's definitely an arms race, but it's not an arms race we're winning right now."

When Bitcoin hit $40,000 in December, it was confirmation to enthusiasts that cryptocurrency is the future. For skeptics, a higher peak just means a more precipitous fall.

"I think they'll become increasingly regulated and less and less interesting," Gerard said of cryptocurrency. That means less of the "pretty numbers" Crypto Spider was attracted to, but hopefully fewer scams.

For Adam, DeTrade actually had a happy ending. One aggrieved victim of the scam analyzed the metadata of the deepfake, which he used to track down the perpetrators. After some naming and shaming across Telegram, the money was returned.

That unexpected $2,500 return was a big deal, equivalent to a few weeks pay. Good timing too: By the time Adam got it, a bad trade saw his crypto portfolio diminish from $10,000 to $2,000.

Just another day trading altcoins, Adam told me.

Correction, 1:30 p.m. PT:Removed incorrect statement that Netflix had yet to turn a profit.

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Forget Bitcoin: The insane world of altcoin cryptocurrency trading - CNET

Ether, the digital token of the Ethereum blockchain, is the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world by market value.

Jaap Arriens | NurPhoto via Getty Images

LONDON The cryptocurrency ether hit a fresh all-time high on Friday, surging past $1,700 for the first time.

Ether, which is the world's second-largest digital coin by market value, climbed 11.2% to a price of $1,743 at around 10:30 a.m. ET, according to data from CoinDesk.

It comes after bitcoin, the most valuable virtual currency, hit a record high close to $42,000 last month.

Bitcoin more than quadrupled in price over the course of 2020, and is up 29% since the start of 2021. Ether has risen about 129% year to date.

Ether has been steadily rising this week as investors await the highly anticipated launch of ether futures contracts from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange next week.

Trading in ether futures is set to start Monday. The CME launched bitcoin futures over three years ago, at the peak of that cryptocurrency's 2017 rally.

Some investors believe that futures and other crypto-focused derivatives products will give institutional investors more confidence to invest in the space.

"Bringing more financial instruments will bring more participants into the market," said SachinPatodia, a partner at Avon Ventures, a venture capital fund affiliated with the parent company of Fidelity. "That probably is positive for the ether price."

But Patodia said a big driver of the price of ether and other smaller digital currencies was the momentum for bitcoin in recent months.

"We've seen this pattern over many crypto cycles that we've gone through, where bitcoin leads the way in price movement and then you see what we call the alt-coins get carried along," he said.

Ethereum, ether's network, was created after bitcoin in 2013. The main difference it has with bitcoin's blockchain is the ability to support applications.

"This move by the CME may spark further buying of ether by new entrants to the market because it provides a way forsophisticatedinvestors to hedge their risk againstpositions that they may be holding on the underlyingasset," Simon Peters, a cryptoasset analyst at online investment platform eToro, told CNBC.

"However, it is worth noting that, like bitcoin, CME ether futures will be cash settled so as not to involve any physicaldelivery, so we shouldn't necessarily expect a major impact on spot prices."

Crypto investors said another factor potentially boosting ether was the start of a major upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain, called Ethereum 2.0. Believers in ether hope the upgrade will make Ethereum faster and more secure.

The total market value of all cryptocurrencies combined hit $1 trillion last month, as bitcoin's price surged to records. Bitcoin bulls say it's gotten a boost from institutional demand, as well as the perception that it is a store of value similar to gold.

Bitcoin was up 4.7% in the last 24 hours, trading at a price $38,151. XRP, the third-largest digital token, climbed 10.7% to 44 cents.

But skeptics like economist Nouriel Roubinisay bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value. A recent Deutsche Bank survey found investorsview bitcoin as the most extreme bubblein financial markets.

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Ether, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, hits a record high above $1,700 - CNBC