Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

From outrageous price predictions to the future of altcoins, crypto analysts and industry leaders are placing their bets on the fate of digital assets in 2020.

Here are seven forecasts predicting some major shifts in the year ahead.

1. Twelve months ago, Bob Loukas, a Bitcoin trader and analyst, accurately predicted what the price of BTC would be at the end of 2019. Now, he thinks Bitcoin is headed for its all-time high near $20,000 by the end of 2020.

In the absolute bear case, after a 6-month downtrend, expect a counter-trend move towards $10k-$11k before another big downtrend. If you think you will FOMO buy $10k then buy it now instead.

Bob Loukas (@BobLoukas) December 26, 2019

2. Mike Novogratz, the CEO of crypto investment giant Galaxy Digital, is also bullish on BTC, saying he expects the king coin to end the new year above $12,000.

2020 prediction #1. @realDonaldTrump loses by more than 10mm votes. #2 $btc finishes over 12k. #3. @USAWrestling wins 3 golds in Tokyo (MF). #4 @tomhanks wins the Oscar for Mr Rodgers. #5 @reform and its partners help shrink the supervised population from 4.5mm to 4mm or <

Michael Novogratz (@novogratz) December 28, 2019

3. Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, thinks numerous governments around the world will experiment with blockchain and their own digital assets.

Says Zhao in an interview with Global Coin Research,

I think in 2020, we will see different experiments tried by many different governments around the globe for adoption. Some will work, some may not, but overall, they will have a tremendously positive effect for crypto adoption.

4. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse predictsthat 10 of the 20 largest banks on the globe will begin to actively hold and trade digital assets in 2020 as fiat currencies go digital.

Hes also predicting that at least one G20 currency becomes fully digitized by 2021.

5. Decrypt columnist Matt Hussey echoed Zhao and Garlinghouses sentiments, predicting numerous nation states will roll out their own digital currencies this year.

6. Jimmy Song, a Bitcoin educator, thinks BTC dominance will be at more than 75% by the end of the year. He also predicts lots of altcoin delistings.

2020 Predictions Part 1:

* Bitcoin dominance will be 75%+ at end of year* Taproot will be activated without much controversy* Bitcoin price will have a bottom to top difference of at least 100%* Halving will be the big narrative

Jimmy Song () (@jimmysong) December 30, 2019

2020 Predictions Part 2:

* Lots of altcoin delistings* IEOs will lose steam* Some coin will be 51% attacked and cause an exchange to lose lots of money. Coin will go down less than 20%.* More coins will change to be merge mined with Bitcoin.

Jimmy Song () (@jimmysong) December 31, 2019

7. And last but not least, John McAfee now has only one year left to see whether Bitcoin reaches his sky-is-the-limit, dick-on-the-line forecast.

When I predicted Bitcoin at $500,000 by the end of 2020, it used a model that predicted $5,000 at the end of 2017. BTC has accelerated much faster than my model assumptions. I now predict Bircoin at $1 million by the end of 2020. I will still eat my dick if wrong. pic.twitter.com/WVx3E71nyD

John McAfee (@officialmcafee) November 29, 2017

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7 Big Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Predictions for 2020 - The Daily Hodl

XRP was once the best-performing crypto assets of all-time, peaking near the $3 price point at the top of the previous bull market on the back of retail FOMO, perpetuated by those saying that the cryptocurrency was on the verge of being adopted by the worlds largest banks and financial institutions.

But since then, the price of the third-largest cryptocurrency has absolutely fallen off a cliff, collapsing from the heights above $3 to $0.192, where XRP sits as of the time of writing this.

Some say it is only a matter of time before the cryptocurrency rips higher to revisit its all-time highs.

Per previous reports from Ethereum World News, popular trader and long-termXRP bull Credible Crypto remarked in November that those getting impatient about the XRP price are missing the big picture, and will miss out on the gains that are sure to come. Elaborating on why this is, he noted that XRP only started running nearly 2 years after the BTC bear market low was put in in 14-15 and that too, only afterBTCbroke prior ATH.

The implication in this Twitter message, of course, being that theres a rather high likelihood the cryptocurrency will surge higher in a move that will bring it to orders of magnitudes above where it started.

Though a prominent and respected cryptocurrency analyst has branded XRP but a moonshot investment, meaning that it has dramatic upside potential, but a low likelihood of that potential being fulfilled.

Mati Greenspan, a former senior analyst at eToro and the founder of Quantum Economics, released his startups latest newsletter on Friday morning. In it, the prominent cryptocurrency analyst took a moment to touch on XRP, specifically in regards to the narrative spreading on Crypto Twitter that the cryptocurrency will be used as a bridge currency for the world.

Should XRP become the worlds bridge currency, meaning that it will effectively be used as a form of liquidity by all banking institutions, the price would likely go sky-high, surging past the previous all-time high in a short period of time.

While possible, Greenspan noticed that it does seem more likely that a coin created by banks, for banks, would be favorable to most large financial institutions, before adding that some competitor or central bank digital currencies may become widespread and efficient. This risk factor led him to the conclusion that XRP is just a moonshot investment in his eyes.

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Top Analyst Brands XRP a Moonshot Investment; Heres Why - Ethereum World News

Ian Balina, a native of Uganda, Africa, is the founder and CEO ofToken Metrics, is Kiana Danials guest today on Invest Divas Diva on the Block.

Ian Balina someone who lost 2.5 million dollars while streaming live on youtube, is one of the most recognized and probably the most controversial personalities in the crypto community. He left behind his data analytics and IT jobs at companies like Deloitte and IBM to become a full-time crypto investor and researcher.

In this episode of Diva On The Block Ian and Kiana talk about:

His journey from Uganda, to the US Why he quit his secure job at IBM to work full time in crypto Why he focuses on ICOs and how he manages his risk His thoughts on transparency How he and his team are using AI, machine learning and data analytics to create investment strategies, and whether hes just using these words as a buzz word, or theyre actually using it I also chat with him about his upcoming project, Token Metrics, an investment, research, and media platform to take cryptocurrency investing mainstream.

After you watch the video,go to the comment sectionand let me know what you think of my discussion with Ian Balina and his new mission with Token Metrics.

Ian immigrated to the United States with his family at eight years old. He attended middle school and high school in the USA and would go on to attend The George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. on an academic merit scholarship. He would graduate GWU with a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Engineering.

Title:Influential Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Investor, Advisor, and Evangelist, and the Founder/CEO of Token MetricsWebsite:https://ianbalina.com/Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianbalina/Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ianbalina/Twitter:https://twitter.com/DiaryofaMadeMan(138.5k followers)Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/diaryofamademan/

While at GWU, he got the entrepreneur bug and founded his first startup, Leximo, the worlds first social dictionary. After working on Leximo, he went on to work as an independent software developer, then as an IT consultant for Deloitte, the worlds largest consulting firm.

Ian later joined IBM as an Analytics Tech Evangelist, where he helped evangelize and sell the IBM Cloud and Big Data Analytics Portfolio in North America. Ian helped drive revenues in the millions of dollars per year. He was recognized as one of IBMs top employees by being a member of the IBM Hundred Percent Club, due to achieving more than 100% of his million-dollar sales quota. After four years with IBM, he retired from the corporate world to become a full-time cryptocurrency investor.

Ian Balina is also an influential Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Investor, Advisor, and Evangelist. He has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNBC, Huffington Post, The Street, INC and Entrepreneur Magazine for his work in analytics, cryptocurrencies, and entrepreneurship.

According to TheRichest.com, Mr. Balinas net worth is $6 million dollars

Ian started Diary of a Made Man, his video diary of his journal in life and in crypto investing. He became one of the worlds most prolific ICO influencers in 2017 while growing his portfolio from $37,000 to $5.36 million by January 2018. In April 2018, Ian Balina fell off his perch after sustaining a hack of his personal wallets in which he lost almost $2.5 million.

Ian is a founder and General Partner at 100X Advisors, a global blockchain investment and advisory firm,. The firm has made 15 investments in 15 different countries in the last year. He has brought a data-driven, money-ball approach to investing in blockchain startups, called Token Metrics.

Token Metrics is a data-driven cryptocurrency investment research platform that helps retail investors leverage analytics and machine learning to become better investors.

The BTC/USD pas remained below the dailyIchimoku cloud. It now appears to have bottomed out just above the key support level of $6,406.

The pair may even be in the process of forming aDouble Bottom bullish reversal chart pattern.

However, the bearish momentum still appears to be strong. A break below this key support level could open doors to further declines. Could Bitcoin reach the $4,000 again?

What do you think about Ian Balina and his controversial background? Do you think hes a scammer out there to get people? Or do you think he truly has the best interest of people in mind?

Go to thevideos comments sectionand let me know.

This article was originally published on InvestDiva.com.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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Ian Balina, The Controversial Face Of Cryptocurrency - Nasdaq

While cryptocurrency mass adoption in the Middle East may still take a little more time to take place, there are several countries in the region that are truly taking notice.

From the UAE to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Lebanon, some private and public entities are willing to take the risk by embracing the new technologies earlier than the others. However, there are also other countries that decided to crack down on anything involving cryptocurrency.

Discover iFX EXPO Asia 2020 in Macao The Largest Financial B2B Expo

That being said, one of the focal points that should be taken into consideration when analyzing the nascent industry is that adoption in this region is mainly driven from the top down. Government agencies and traditional banks, though historically known as the slowest technology adopters, are the main players diving right into crypto transformation.

The region boasts some of the wealthiest nations in the world, with GDP per capita, ranges from $50,000 to $130,000 in the Gulf states, thanks to large reserves of oil and other lucrative natural resources. However, the spending on the digital economy and its share of Arab countries GDPs is a mere low single-digit. Conventional sectors, such as real estate and stocks, are still monopolizing private investments, spending, and conversations.

So it could be a bit frustrating for crypto enthusiasts to watch the slow pace at which Arab investors are reacting to the crypto phenomenon.

But with such a hype surrounding cryptocurrencies, the virtual asset class may have enticed retail investors, with many utilizing cryptocurrency as a speculative asset to take advantage of price fluctuations.

All in all, the innovation and private investments in the crypto space have been and will remain lagging far behind other regions, including emerging nations, as in fact, they are nowhere. However, regulators, caught up with the much-hyped vision of crypto, have likewise others begun to investigate blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. And while they are expected to continue to push ahead with regulations, this may ultimately wake up the wealthy investors base to the opportunities that the new business offers.

Various countries in the Arab world have emerged as early adopters, and theyre poised to become even more influential in the near future.

Currently, at the frontier of Fintech adoption, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have announced plans to launch a digital currency to serve both countries. Dubbed Aber, it was announced in November on an experimental basis to facilitate financial settlements between the two Middle Eastern nations, which have a combined economy of over $1.2 trillion.

A Global Year in Review: KVB PRIME Expands into Key International MarketsGo to article >>

The government of Dubai has also revealed details of its own digital currency, called emCash, which will be used to pay for government and private services in the city.

Ripple, a US-based crypto payments company, is already working with Saudi and Emeriti banks to legitimize cryptocurrencies further. It has inked partnerships with Saudi Arabias de facto central bank to pilot instant cross-border payments. According to Ripple, more than fifty financial institutions in the Middle East revealed their interest in its solutions that enablecross-border money transactionsin a faster and cheaper way than the current systems allow.

Regardless of the regulatory stance, policymakers in the Middle East are aware that the adoption of the cryptocurrencies appears inevitable. Those going bigger on this track are wary of the combination of the potential benefits and risks, as well as factors that determine policy openness or aversion.

The UAE has already taken steps to regulate the way that blockchain start-ups are raising money initial coin offerings though the nations regulators continue to warn of the many risks involved. The watchdog proposed a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework that effectively recognizesdigital tokens as securities.

Under the guidelines, startups wishing to execute anICOmust approach the SCA to see if it falls under the bodys regulation. Also, market intermediaries and secondary market operators dealing with ICOs must be approved by the regulator. ICO operatorswill have to publish a prospectus, just like a firm would for an IPO on the stock market. And if an ICO has the characteristics of a security, such as giving a person ownership of shares in a company, then the SCA will regulate it.

In addition, Abu Dhabis financial regulator granted approval for Arabian Bourse, which allows the startup to operate a full-fledged crypto-asset exchange and digital custodian in the emirate.

Bahrain is also establishing itself as a blockchain pioneer in the region. Indeed, the smallest Middle Eastern nation isnt too far behind with its numerous initiatives to attract cryptocurrency business. On the one hand, Bahrain Central Bank has approved the crypto-asset exchange Rain Crypto Exchange to go live, post their partnership with global exchange Bittrex. Rain received its node after a two-year regulatory sandbox process under the central banks supervision.

Other countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Kuwait are also said to have taken notice.Their regulators have drafted different bills allowing central banks to issue rules regulating cryptocurrency activities and blockchain-based finance. The new rules reflect a U-turn from last years crackdown that said that cryptocurrencies are an entirely non-sharia compliant business.

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of debate on the use ofvirtual coins as a legitimate formof currency and investment as Islamic law emphasizes real economic activity based on physical assets and without pure monetary speculation.

All economic activity in Islamic finance must be compliant with Sharia law, which has stringent rules to ensure certainty and immediacy of transactions. Islamic law also prohibits the acceptance of interest or fees for loans of money.

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Cryptocurrency in Arab World: Clock is Ticking, But Pace is Slow - Finance Magnates

Money is a funny asset. As much as people yearn it throughout their lives, it is of a little use in the afterlife. Accordingly, passing it to an heir is a much more solid option. To do it, people usually write wills. Alternatively, it is the court that helps heirs get access to the inheritance.

Unfortunately, with cryptocurrency, its not the same. And it might actually end up in its owners grave, albeit in a metaphorical way.

After all, the transfer of cryptocurrency is highly complex and private in nature. If the heirs dont have the private keys to the wallets, no one can access the assets. Sometimes they might not even know that there is money awaiting them in the first place. Consider this: according to the Financial Times, almost 2.3 million to 3.7 million Bitcoins have gone missing in the past. In a great many cases the death of the asset holders is to blame.

This story shook the crypto space. In December 2018, the exchanges young founder Gerald W. Cotten unexpectedly passed away while on a trip to India.

Regrettably,Cottons death locked crypto assets worth $250 million somewhere in a cold storage. His widow, Jesse Powell, continues to claim that no one but him had access to the exchanges cold wallet.

Some are still refusing to believe this fact. Recently, 115,000 investors have demanded to exhume his body to prove that he is actually dead.

Such incidents put enough emphasis on planning crypto inheritance.

Before you plan the inheritance of your crypto assets, it is important that your legal heirs know about the existence of such asset class. Educating them about the basics will prove to be helpful in case of an unfortunate event.

That said, there are multiple ways of ensuring that your assets will be dispersed in the manner you choose.

To make sure your crypto assets are passed on to your loved ones, they must be mentioned in your will. It is obvious that you may not wish to disclose the PIN, passwords and private keys in your will. Thus, for the sake of security, digital asset legal experts advise the creation of a memorandum to a will. In it, one can mention all the critical information.

A prosecutor may hold the memorandum of your will. Additionally, you will have to elect its executor. S/he will hand over the memorandum with details of accessing your crypto assets.

Yet, there is a catch. For instance, in the USA digital account ownership is governed by the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Asset Act (RUFADAA). According to it, mentioning cryptocurrency in your will and appointing an executor is insufficient. Instead, the asset owner must sign the Terms of Service Agreement with an exchange. These contain the rules for account access in case of the owners death.

All in all, it is a tedious process.

Multiple projects are now offering better-tailored solutions to cryptocurrency asset owners.

For example,Safe Haven is a project that is dedicatedly building solutions for digital inheritance. Earlier this year it announced the testing phase of SHIP (Safe Haven Inheritance Platform) V1.0. It works in a unique fashion. The owner is required to encrypt his/her private keys, seeds, and passphrases using SHIP in different shares. These shares are distributed to the stakeholders and one Validation Share is stored on the VeChainThor blockchain.

Once the owners decease is confirmed, the legal entity unlocks the Validation share. Subsequently, it combines all the remaining shares to unveil the passwords and private keys to the assets. Currently, the platform is in the testing phase.

A couple of other projects like Casa and PassOn are also helping crypto-asset owners to ensure their assets are passed on to the heirs.

This is a computer program that transfers cryptocurrency to the heirs account in case of the owners death. The program emails the owner at regular intervals and waits for a fixed programmed duration. If theres no reply (or a death certificate is found), a smart contract is triggered. And the assets are automatically moved to the account that has been mentioned while setting it up.

Last Will is one such platform for Bitcoin Cash (BCH) inheritance.

The downside, however, is that it is problematic. What if you simply dont have the time to reply?Besides, the heirs must be well acquainted with cryptocurrencies so that they can access the assets from the wallet.

Exchanges like Coinbase have set up standard ownership transfer procedures to make crypto inheritance easy. To make sure the assets are passed on to a legal heir, the Coinbase team asks for numerous documents. For instance, the death certificate of the owner, his/her will, government-issued ID proof of the heir, etc.

Yet, it is not a completely full-proof method of gaining access to the crypto inheritance. Imposters can always find their way.

Although IRS (US) and HMRC (UK) do not treat cryptocurrencies as traditional assets, according to both, it is subject to inheritance tax. The amount of tax the heir has to pay fully depends on how the asset was received and disposed of.

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Is Cryptocurrency Inheritable? Yes, Here is How it Works - Bitcoin & Crypto Guide - Altcoin Buzz

In November, Upbit, a popular Korean crypto asset exchange, lost $50 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) from the exchange hot wallet in a seeming hack. Details on the attack remain sparse some think it was an inside job as the word hack was not mentioned and due to the timing of the loss of funds though Upbit promised to reimburse all users affected with corporate funds.

Despite this, the stolen ETH is still out in the wild, so to speak. And according to blockchain analysis, after a few weeks of silence to seemingly fly under the radar, the hackers are starting to move the funds yet again, potentially creating a catalyst for some downward price action in the Ethereum market.

On Saturday, Whale Alert, a Twitter account dedicated to tracking suspicious blockchain transactions, posted the tweet below. In it, the account indicated that 5,000 ETH, valued at around $660,000 as of the time of writing this, was transferred from a wallet operated by those involved in the Upbit hack to an unknown wallet.

This may seem negligible, but NewsBTCs analysis of the transaction and related addresses found that this single transfer is more sinister than it may seem on the surface.

Our analysis using Ethereum blockchain explorer Etherscan found that portions (in smaller batches of 25, 50, 100 coins) of the 5,000 Ethereum are being siphoned into newly-created addresses, which in turn send funds to crypto exchange wallets.

So far, NewsBTC has found that some of Upbits stolen funds are being sent to at least three exchanges: Bibox, Binance, and one we cant identify at the moment.

There remain millions of dollars worth of Ethereum related to the hack in non-exchange wallets, making it likely that the hackers are waiting for the right moment to transfer those funds to exchanges in a bid to cash out their booty.

Hackers sending funds to exchanges can only mean one of two things: theyre attempting to cash out their stolen cryptocurrency, or theyre looking to convert their assets to another cryptocurrency (maybe to Bitcoin or Monero in this case) to make their transactions less traceable.

Whatever the case, this means that Ethereum should see some selling pressure in the coming days as a result of the sale of these hacked funds on Binance, Bibox, or other exchanges that the hackers are trying to send their cryptocurrency to.

Yes, $600,000 isnt a lot of money in the grand scheme of the cryptocurrency market, but might we remind you that there remain thousands of ETH out on the market ready to be liquidated.

Also, Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis company, has found that the PlusToken Wallet scam, which was a China-centric crypto scam that secured billions worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum, has dozens of millions worth of ETH left to liquidate.

With PlusToken purportedly driving the Bitcoin crash over the past six months, their liquidations of the second-largest cryptocurrency could perpetuate troubles for this already-troubled market.

There is a silver lining though: Changpeng CZ Zhao of Binance has pledged to work with Upbit and other industry players to ensure any hacked funds that may make their way to Binance are immediately frozen.

Read more:
Upbits Stolen Ethereum Is Moving, and Its Bad News for ETH - newsBTC

Bitcoin (BTC) hasnt done too hot over the past few months, plunging some 50% since the June top of $14,000. The selling has stopped over the past few weeks, with the price of the leading cryptocurrency flatlining in the low-$7,000s, leading some to suggest that another leg lower is possible.

But it seems that the cryptocurrency and the ecosystem surrounding it want to start off 2020 with a bang.

Asnoted by digital asset manager Charles Edwards, Blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency information and wallet service, found that Bitcoins hash rate the measure of computational power processing BTC transactions hit a new all-time high on the 1st day of 2020. The all-time high, 119 exahashes per second, or 119 with 18 zeroes after it.

This surge in the hash rate breaks the previous all-time high set more than two months ago in October, meaning that Bitcoins network is now stronger than ever before, marking an amazing start to 2020.

Indeed, as further pointed out by cryptocurrency trader The Moon, BTCs hash rate is eight times higher than it was back during the $20,000 top of 2017, implying to him that the price of the leading cryptocurrency is about to explode SOON!

So what does this mean for Bitcoins price outlook? Why does the growing hash rate indicate that a price explosion (to the upside) is likely on the horizon?

Well, the uptick in hash rate confirms that miner capitulation, which is when miners sell their BTC en-masse to keep their operations afloat, has ended and recovery has started.

According to the Hash Ribbons, an indicator tracking instances of miner capitulation, Bitcoins booming hash rate is signaling that now is a great time to buy BTC for the long run. While this may sound extremely arbitrary, buy signals printed by the Hash Ribbons have only taken place 10 times before in BTCs history,preceding uptrends of thousands of percent.

Just look to the chart below, which shows that Hash Ribbon buy signals always led to an average gain-to-cycle-peak of +5000% in previous cryptocurrency market cycles.

BTC rallying by 5,000% from here, for some perspective, will mean that BTC will have a valuation close to a jaw-dropping $400,000 apiece.

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Bitcoin Hash Rate 8x Higher Now Than At $20,000 Top; Why Its Bullish - Ethereum World News

According to a press release from the Department of Justice on November 29, 2019, Virgil Griffith, resident of Singapore and U.S. citizen, was arrested for a criminal complaint where he was charged with violating, ...the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by traveling to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) in order deliver a presentation and technical advice on using cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to evade sanctions.

Virgil Griffith

Mr. Griffith allegedly traveled to North Korea without permission from the federal government, and with knowledge what he was doing was against the law.We cannot allow anyone to evade sanctions, because the consequences of North Korea obtaining funding, technology, and information to further its desire to build nuclear weapons put the world at risk.Its even more egregious that a U.S. citizen allegedly chose to aid our adversary.

In this case, Griffith is specifically accused of traveling to North Korea (DPRK) in April 2019 to attend and present at the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference (the DPRK Cryptocurrency Conference), even though the U.S. Department of State had denied Griffith permission to travel to the DPRK. Griffith presented at the DPRK Cryptocurrency Conference, knowing that doing so violated sanctions against the DPRK and at no time did Griffith obtain permission from OFAC to provide goods, services, or technology to the DPRK.

Despite receiving warnings not to go, Griffith allegedly traveled to one of the United States foremost adversaries, North Korea, where he taught his audience how to use blockchain technology to evade sanctions.By this complaint, we begin the process of seeking justice for such conduct.

EXECUTIVE ORDERS ON PROTECTING U.S. SANCTIONS BROADEN FROM TRADING CRYPTO TO TEACHING CRYPTO

Griffith is specifically charged in connection with the IEEPA as a result of an Executive Order 13466 of June 26, 2008, Continuing Certain Restrictions With Respect to North Korea and North Korean Nationals and enforced under the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Most recently, Forbes reported on how Congress may enact a law with the Executive Order from Trump specific to Venezuela and the use of Petro cryptocurrency by U.S. citizens.

In both cases, U.S. persons, in a dramatic twist of foreign policy and the ability of the U.S. to enforce sanctions in light of technological disruption, are held to account for actions that may help a country evade sanctions through the use of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. With concerns over this latest incident resulting in an arrest, the Department of Justice appears to be signaling the level of concern law enforcement have with respect to the power of cryptocurrency and blockchain to disrupt the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions as a foreign policy tool.

Despite receiving warnings not to go, Griffith allegedly traveled to one of the United States foremost adversaries, North Korea, where he taught his audience how to use blockchain technology to evade sanctions.By this complaint, we begin the process of seeking justice for such conduct.

In the press release - provided below - U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Assistant Attorney General of National Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Counterintelligence Division, and the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI jointly announced the arrest of Mr. Griffith. Griffith was arrested yesterday on Thanksgiving in Los Angeles National Airport and awaits disposition of his case before a judge today. The DOJs Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit will be handling the case.

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U.S. Authorities Arrest Virgil Griffith For Teaching Cryptocurrency And Blockchain - Forbes

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South Korea has achieved a high level of national informatization in recent years. The country is a world leader in internet access speed, some 92 percent of population is internet users, and, in 2005, South Korea was the first nation to complete the transition from dial-up to broadband internet access. The government is pursuing an active ICT development policy by adopting master-plans for national informatization and initiating the establishment of various institutions in the field of cybersecurity and internet regulation.

One could assume that South Korea should be at the vanguard of cryptocurrency introduction as well, and to some degree, this is correct, inasmuch as South Korea is the worlds third largest bitcoin trade market and therefore has a great potential to attract digital currency investment. However, since 2017 the Korean government maintains an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) ban policy, i.e. it prohibits any forms of receiving investments in exchange for cryptocurrency sale from domestic companies. Many consider such a stance counterproductive and say it seriously affects cryptocurrency trade by making prices volatile and thus undermining the market.

The South Korean government certainly has a strong rationale for restricting ICOs, since such form of investment may involve substantial risks of defrauding due to the anonymity of ICO transactions (not to mention that cryptocurrencies have been generally associated with illegal activities for a long time). The official South Korean position on the issue is expressed in the Financial Supervisory Commissions statements. The conclusions of its 2019 report examining the activity of 22 domestic companies which had been running ICO businesses abroad confirm that unregulated token sales are too risky and unstable to institutionalize ICOs. In August 2019, FSC chairman candidate (subsequently elected chairman) Eun Sung-soo reiterated governments commitment to take a cautious stance toward ICOs and mentioned on several occasions that significant work is yet to be done regarding the legalization of this type of cryptocurrency sale.

The situation is further complicated by actual fraud or failure cases, for example, the closure of Coinnest, one of the largest crypto exchanges in South Korea. Coinnest is notorious for a corruption scandal in which its top executive was charged with accepting a billions of won bribe and conducting an accidental airdrop of more than $5 million to its clients. Both incidents provided a direct impetus for Coinnests closure and, along with a Ministry of Justice 2019 report estimating losses from cryptocurrency crime over a two-year period at $2.3 billion, generated a distrust on the part of the government toward the feasibility of ICO legalization. Nevertheless, this doesnt mean that South Korean leaders are eager to hinder the development of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies; on the contrary, they do admit the possibility of legalizing ICOs in the future, provided that a proper regulation framework would be designed in order to minimize investment risks.

But it may not be easy to develop efficient regulation because the question of cryptocurrency circulation concerns a rapidly evolving information space, which has proven so far difficult to define as a legal reality. The example in this regard is the case of public debates over cybersecurity and cybercrime regulation in South Korea: Not only legal difficulties prevent government from adopting comprehensive cybersecurity policy guidelines, but the oppositions strong disapproval of embedding the concepts of cybercrime and cyberterrorism in legislation (understood as a measure that aims to eventually provide authorities with more tools of tight control over information spaces) stalls the process of state policy adaptation to the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.

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ryptocurrencies may await the same fate, being assessed by some as a potential threat to the economic sustainability of the nation and thus obtaining a degree of relevance similar to that of cybersecurity. The opposition Liberty Korea Party has already taken advantage of the situation with ICOs when criticizing the administrations economic policy: the LKPs 2020 economic transformation plan (dubbed Wealth of People, paraphrasing Adam Smiths famous work) condemns the governments reluctance to legalize cryptocurrency funding as being counter-progressive and restrictive towards open market principles. The worlds crypto community has subscribed to that criticism, including Vitalik Buterin, the inventor of the Ethereum cryptocurrency, who urged the South Korean government to ease regulation of the blockchain industry, mentioning that the ICO ban will inevitably affect further introduction of blockchain technology due to the inherent interconnection between crypto and blockchain.

Moon Jae-ins administration, nevertheless, understands the complexity of the situation and has no intention to give up the idea of ICO legalization completely. As a preliminary and experimental step to the future blockchain liberalization, a decision has been made to establish a regulation-free zone in Busan, where some of the blockchain-related restrictions are now lifted in the form of digital voucher introduction. This voucher can be exchanged in local cash and also used in transactions in various blockchain services. Although its not the same as allowing ICOs, such initiatives demonstrate that the Korean government is open to a search for compromise, albeit a tentative and cautious one.

Such attention is paid to the ICO issue for political reasons. The North Korean factor in many respects shapes both South Korean domestic and foreign policy planning, and cybersecurity is no exception to this. The recent years have been marked by an extensive public discussion on the North Korean cyber threat, generally attributed to the activities of North Korean hackers. Whether the North Koreans are really involved in numerous cyberattacks (including the infamous Sony Pictures hack or WannaCry ransomware attack) or some parties are trying to exploit the image of North Korea as a hacking superpower for their own purposes is the subject of ongoing debate, but what remains crucially important is the high level of the securitization of the North Korean hackers issue in South Korea. Beyond that, a particular North Korean interest in cryptocurrencies as targets for cyberattacks is frequently noted: North Korean hackers are allegedly responsible for multiple attacks on both crypto exchanges and individuals owning cryptocurrencies. According to information provided by the United Nations Security Council Panel of Experts for sanctions on North Korea, North Koreans have stolen around $670 million in foreign currency and cryptocurrency over the 20152018 period; South Korean estimates reach tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies stolen by North Korea in the last year alone. Such data and general discussion cannot but provoke a reaction aimed at efforts to protect the cryptomarket. The ICO legalization issue thus also belongs to the national security domain and the security discourse has the special claim on it, which would make it difficult for an opposing party to deregulate blockchain in case they come to power. The opposition would find themselves exactly in the same position as the current administration.

In light of the above, the prospects for lifting the ICO ban remain unclear, since some technical (lack of intellectual and technological resources as well as bureaucratic complexities) and economic (inherent volatility of cryptomarket) problems are amplified by posing it as a cybersecurity challenge. The steps toward deregulation taken by the government in trying to establish an experimental blockchain zone are important, but it can hardly be said that the complete legalization of blockchain is going to happen in the foreseeable future. The ICO conundrum can nevertheless be used as a powerful tool of anti-Moon Jae-in critique and, on top of unfolding public disapproval of Moons economic policy, it can possibly contribute to the undermining of the authority of current administration, even though the problem seems to go beyond the question of who holds power.

Valentin Voloshchak is a teaching assistant at the Department of International Relations at the Far Eastern Federal University

This work was supported by the Core University Program for Korean Studies through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of the Korea and Korean Studies Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS-2015-OLU-2250003).

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What Hides Behind South Korean Cryptocurrency Regulation Policy? - The Diplomat

Lawmakers in Thailand plan to reform cryptocurrency laws after voicing concerns that they have made the country uncompetitive.

As local English-language news outlet Bangkok Post reported on Nov. 25, Thailands regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants to reconsider its crypto policy in 2020.

The reason, it says, lies in poor uptake of its certification and licensing scheme by cryptocurrency businesses.

Since it came into power last year, only five companies have completed certification, and of those, just two have launched.

Now, amendments are on the table, but the SEC has not yet given precise details of how current practices would change.

The regulator must be flexible to apply the rules and regulations in line with the market environment, Bangkok Times quoted Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol, the secretary general of the SEC as saying.

Ruenvadee continued:

For example, laws should not be outdated and should serve market needs, especially for new digital asset products, and be competitive with the global market. We need to explore any possible obstacles.

Thailand imposes stiff penalties for those attempting to sell digital tokens without due approval from the SEC. These include possible fines of at least 500,000 baht ($16,540), as well as two-year jail sentences.

Nonetheless, when the countrys first initial coin offering (ICO) under the new rules launched last month, it signaled a significant step forward from state policy several years ago, which favored an outright cryptocurrency ban.

Worldwide, ICOs, in particular, have all but died out, with analysts attributing the lack of momentum to mounting regulatory pressure.

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Thailand: Cryptocurrency Law Will Change in 2020 to Stay Competitive - Cointelegraph