Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

The cryptocurrency market resumed the recovery. Bitcoin and all major altcoins are trading in a green zone with gains ranging from 2% to 7% on a day-to-day basis. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization surpassed $200 barrier and reached $204 billion from $196 billion this time on Tuesday; an average daily trading volume increased to $69 billion. Bitcoin's market share settled at 66.5%.

BTC/USD dipped below $7,000 on Wednesday; However, the sell-off proved to be temporary as the coin recovered to the previous range within several hours. At the time of writing, BTC/USD is changing hands at $7,430, off the intraday high of $7,626. The initial support is created by SMA200 (Simple Moving Average) 1-hour at $7,389.

Ethereum is hovering above $151.00, off the intraday high registered at $154.97. The second-largest digital asset, with the current market capitalization of $16.5 billion, has gained over 3% in recent 24 hours. ETH/USD is supported by a psychological $150.00. This barrier is followed by SMA50 1-hour at $148.59. An initial resistance is created by SMA200 1-hour at $154.50.

Ripple's XRP bumped into $0.2300 and retreated to $0.2250 by press time. The 3d largest digital asset with the current market value of $9.6 billion has gained over 2.5% on a day-to-day basis amid global recovery on the cryptocurrency market. A confluence of SMA100 and SMA50 1-hour on approach to $0.2200 serves as initial support. The resistance is created by a psychological $0.2300.

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The Cryptocurrency Market Update: Bitcoin back on recovery track, Ripple and Ethereum follow the lead - FXStreet

Trend or Anomaly? Lowest Quarterly Crypto Asset Thefts and Scams in Two Years

CipherTrace, the leading cryptocurrency and blockchain intelligence firm, released its Q3 2019 Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Report. Highlights of the report address cryptocurrency regulation, nefarious actors within the ecosystem, impending legislation, international trends and prevailing sentiments. Of particular note, CipherTrace conducted a first-ever comprehensive investigation of cryptocurrency exchange Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures and found that two-thirds (roughly 65 percent)of the top 120 exchanges lack strong KYC policies.

has been conducting examinations that include compliance with the funds Travel Rule since 2014.

On June 21, 2019, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organization that standardizes global legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats, released Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers. In this Q3 Crypto AML Report, CipherTrace reveals that, with only seven months left for nations to pass laws and virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to comply with the guidelines, the majority of exchanges are not equipped to handle basic KYC, let alone comply with the stringent new funds Travel Rule included in the updated FATF guidance.

The research results revealed that the lions sharemore than two-thirdsof exchanges do not have good KYC. The breakdown of the ratings shown in Figure 1 are as follows:

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The FATF funds Travel Rule requires VASPs to securely transmit (and store) sender and receiver personally identifiable information (PII) with any cryptocurrency transaction valued at or exceeding USD/EUR 1,000. Consequently, stringent KYC is necessary to meet the Travel Rules base requirements.

Nations that fail to enforce FATF guidelines are often subject to political ostracization, financial sanctions, and are added to a FATF blacklist, which documents countries that it judges to be non-cooperative in the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. The U.S. has maintained a similar Travel Rule through the Treasury Departments Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) since 1996. Recently, Kenneth Blanco, FinCEN Director,explainedthat his organization has been conducting examinations that include compliance with the funds Travel Rule since 2014.

(The Travel Rule) is the most commonly cited violation with regard to money service businesses engaged in virtual currencies, said Blanco.

The Travel Rule has proven particularly problematic for privacy coins, whose primary use case, to obfuscate money transmitter data, seemingly contrasts with the information sharing required for compliance. In expectation of regulatory crackdown, many exchanges have pre-emptively removed privacy coin listings. However, 32 percent of exchanges, including those determined to have weak or porous KYC, still have privacy coins listed.

In its report, CipherTrace explains how exchanges and cryptocurrency developers have grappled with the privacy dilemma. Although the report does punctuate a concern for privacy coins that have no compliance strategy, CipherTrace affirms that recent reports of the death of privacy coins have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, many of the top privacy coin developers have already released statements (outlined in the report) on how they could comply with the Travel Rule.

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Outside of the significant KYC research findings and the Travel Rule, the CipherTrace Q3 CAML report discusses this quarters top stories related to cryptocurrency crime. After two years of large, high-profile exchange hacks and exit scams, there has been a significant reduction in cryptocurrency crime. Still, even with the lowest quarterly cryptocurrency thefts and scams in two years, 2019 still experienced a massive spate of crypto crimesmore than $4.4 billion to date.

While CipherTrace has no hard data to explain the Q3 dropoff except for potentially the anomalous nature of the QuadrigaCX and PlusToken frauds skewing the numbers in previous quartersone possible explanation is that government regulation of the industry is having a positive impact. CipherTrace had previously speculated that the shift from outright thefts to exit scams and other frauds perpetrated by insiders indicated that crypto exchanges had begun to adequately invest in hardening their IT infrastructures. This is because criminals, as they are wont to do, follow the path of least resistance.

CipherTrace cites maturing and sophisticated terrorist and criminal syndicates as partially responsible for the global regulatory clamp-down on cryptocurrency. Terrorists, other criminal organizations and their supporters and sympathizers are constantly looking for new ways to raise and transfer funds without detection or tracking by law enforcement. As regulators continue to stifle resources for criminal cryptocurrency use, terrorists are using more sophisticated methods to secure funding and launder money for operations and attacks.

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CipherTrace Q3 2019 Cryptocurrency AML Report: 2/3 of the Top 120 - AiThority

According to a recent Reuters report, cryptocurrency crime is higher in 2019 than 2018.

More money flowed through digital exchanges in 2019 but criminals saw that as an opportunity to hack blockchains, says the report.

More from the Reuters report:

Losses from digital currency crime soared to $4.4 billion in the first nine months of the year, up more than 150% from $1.7 billion in all of 2018.

The 150% increase in crypto theft and fraud reflects how criminals are adapting for bigger and better scores, Dave Jevans, CipherTrace chief executive officer, told Reuters.

Criminals chase money and the money is right here and ripe for the taking. Little attacks are often easy to defend against, but targeted attacks are far more lucrative, he added.

According to one of Reuters primary sources, crimes valued under $5 million often go unreported or underreported because larger crimes tend to pose larger threats to business.

That source also said the the industry is seeing fewer reported attacks but greater amounts of loss.

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While blockchain technology in general can be beneficial to many different business and certain efficiencies are opened to said businesses by accepting cryptocurrency it is clear thatcryptocurrency crime has itself cornered far away from a solution.

If small and medium businesses dont feel that an incident will be looked into by the right authorities, it could have a freezing effect on adoption.

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Cryptocurrency Crime Spikes This Year and SMBs are Paying the Price - Commercial Integrator

There was a time just a few years ago when Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain were topics best left for those on the fringe, for many in the mainstream failed to understand the importance or the potential of these technologies. Now, however, mainstream media have started to cover this space quite often, writing about it, shooting shows about it, and such. In short, cryptocurrencies are starting to enter the mainstream conscious.

So far, the spotlight from mainstream media has been on Bitcoin, which is the largest cryptocurrency and blockchain network by market capitalization. Though it seems that other networks are getting recognition too, like Ethereum and XRP.

Speaking to BBC in a recent segment on cryptocurrencies, Nathalie Oestmann, the chief operating officer of British fintech startup Curve, took some time to mention XRP and a closely affiliated company, Ripple.

Discussing the current fiat system, Oestmann noted that the settlement and clearance of the transactions within this hegemony take days, before adding that these transactions are of high cost for companies, governments, and consumers at the end of the day. She even went as far as to say that the traditional settlement model is not good for the economy, presumably in reference to the fact that slow and expensive transactions decrease the inefficiency of the capitalistic structures that govern much of society.

Oestmann then name-dropped Ripple, the fintech company that is best known for using XRP to increase the speed and lower the cost of payments, across boards especially. Theyre producing commercial opportunities for companies to do cross-border exchange, removing the multiple-day process by using cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are unproven and nonvolatile, though central banks are starting to look at this, the fintech executive explained, asserting that this technology has some viability in the real world.

While many in the realm of traditional finance may be confused about the viability of Ripple and its products, firms that have used the companys products have claimed to have seen improvements to their business. Per previous reports from Ethereum World News, the chief executive of Mercury FX, a company that has adopted Ripples XRP-utilizing On-Demand Liquidity product, recently claimed that the use of the technology has allowed transaction speeds to drop to seconds and price of transactions drop by upwards of 90%. The trial with the orphanage was so successful, we were soon facilitating payments for a U.K. business that imports Mexican food, the CEO was reported as adding.

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XRP and Ripple Name-Dropped on BBC Segment on Cryptocurrency - Ethereum World News

While the rest of the crypto market slowly bleeds away, one cryptocurrency dubbed Storeum has sprung out of nowhere, citing improbable gains. But what is this cryptocurrency, how did it get here, and is it a scam?

Recently, Coinmarketcap (CMC) has been a fairly dire, mournful reminder of the recent carnage witnessed within the cryptocurrency markets. Various charts, strewn with squiggly lines pointing downward, depicting prices that are more in keeping with the mid-bear market of 2018. Nevertheless, one outlier remains. Poking its unfamiliar little head above the rest is Storeum (STO).

In the past week, the cryptocurrency has seen ungodly gains of approximately 11310%. Over the last 24 hours alone, STO cites a 333% hike.

According to a historical snapshot of CMC taken on 10 November, Storeum was little more than a spec of dust in the grand scheme of the crypto ecosystem. Ranking at #1430, conferring a price of $0.0026, and living a life of relative obscurity among its once-contemporary sh*tcoins.

Since that time, though, the winds of change and fortune seemingly blew in Storeums direction. Today it sits proudly if somewhat bewilderingly at position 29 on CMC, with a price tag of $2.16. Overtaking 1401 cryptocurrencies and breaking into the top 30 all in just over two weeks. Which begs the question, what on earth is going on?

According to its website, the project bills itself as the worlds first decentralized, peer-to-peer marketplace. A platform for businesses to build their online markets upon.

Other than that, theres not too much information to go by. According to its questionable roadmap which read more like a childs wishlist a litany of vague goals such as further development and make more partnerships are scheduled for 2020.

Meanwhile, a 30-page white paper offers little more than a few typos and an unoriginal vision to revolutionize e-commerce.

Oh, and theyve given themselves a price target of $100 per STO

Up until now, Storeums aforementioned misdemeanors could be put down to simple ineptitude. Yet, it seems, after digging a little deeper, that things are a whole lot murkier than at a glance.

First of all, the token cites listings on several low liquidity and relatively unknown exchanges. One of which is itself implicated in allegations of scamming.

Moreover, a painfully obtrusive omission lies in the projects lack of a publicized team. While boasting a motivated team, Storeum neglects to provide any pictures or social links to either their CEO, CIO, or Developer. The few LinkedIn profiles that were available have since been deactivated.

Damningly, a quick Google of Full Stack Developer, Juliana Leem, leads to a top-ranked result a bitcointalk thread accusing Storeum of generating fake/AI team members.

Within the thread from July 2019, the original poster (OP) accuses Storeum of a score of misdeeds, including:

Fake CEO and team members, stolen content, plagiarized whitepaper, bumping botsyou name it lol

According to the OP, content posted on Storeums whitepaper was partly ripped off from other crypto projects, including Electrumdark. Solidifying their beliefs, the informer urges others to fact check via a fake image detection website. The facial recognition search apparently came back conclusive, returning a positive result for computer-generated pictures:

In the time since the post, Storeum had clearly realized their jig was up removing the LinkedIn profiles of the team along with their respective faces.

Worryingly, these blatant red flags arent doing much to dissuade Storeums followers.

Storeum is a nice project which we should expect much initiatives from it. https://t.co/jISSLZaY3n

Amprah Isaac (@Flexynalda) November 25, 2019

I'm SOOO excited to be a part of this community. Storeum, XRP, Holochain, and EXT Stock seems to have a lot of exciting stuff coming up as well, so I can't wait for the next few months to come!#cryptocurrency #bitcoin

Carlos Noda (@TokenCarlos) November 25, 2019

Of course, its entirely possible that these are simply paid shills/bots. Still, there remains a fundamental danger that some poor sap will get sucked into a pump and dump Ponzi. Just make sure it isnt you.

This article was edited by Samburaj Das.

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This Cryptocurrency Is Up 11310% in a Week. Legit Scam or Just Legit? - CCN.com

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You may not have thought about Akon since his song 'Lonely' took over the charts a decade ago, but the musician has moved from conquering the charts to building what has been dubbed his very own 'Wakanda.'

Between setting up his own cryptocurrency AKoin and vowing to bring electricity to 600 million people in Africa, Akon has been quietly building his own 'futuristic'city in Senegal named after himself.

He announced the news last June that he was working on building a 100% crypto-based city and building is now officially under way, as he announced on Nick Cannons radio show Power 106 Los Angeles that construction has started. On top of that, its officially been named Akon City.

(Getty Images)

While it may soundlike something out of a supervillains playbook, Akon plans for the city to be renewable with a focus on solar energy. (A statement claims that his charity project Akon Lighting Africa has provided "scaled solar power solutions throughout 18 countries to date in Africa".)

(Hussein Bakri/BAD Consultant/Semer Group)

The same statement also revealed Akon City is intended to be a 100% crypto-based city with AKoin at the center of transactional life,described as a real-life Wakanda.

The singer, who has previously said he would consider running for President of the United States, told Cannon, Its Akon City. Its all renewable, the Akon-tainment solar city.A real physical place, its going to have a real airport.

Its a 10-year building block so were doing it in stages. We started construction in March and stage two is going to be 2025, Akon continued.

The city is based in Senegal and after Cannon hinted that it would take a billionaire to build an entire city, Akon criticised the term. The singer, who also owns two record labels on top of running his charity Akon Lighting Africa, said, I always felt like if you have to label yourself a billionaire, I dont think billionaires even label themselves billionaires. You know, you have no idea. But the crazy part about it though, when I hear stuff like that it makes me sad.

(Hussein Bakri/BAD Consultant/Semer Group)

When I travel, I see so many things that happen - so many people that need assistance and so many things that just need to be resolved - and if you can have a billion dollars sitting in the bank while you have all these people suffering and struggling? Man, its just crazy, he said.

(Getty Images)

Its like a waste of a billion dollars sitting there, literally, Akon continued.

Akon told Cannon that he was in the impact business and added that he wanted to build a legacy." According to a statement about AKoin, the city will be built on 2,000 acres of land gifted to Akon from the President of Senegal and will be a five minute drive to the airport, plus nearby Dakar.

(Hussein Bakri/BAD Consultant/Semer Group)

He also said he hoped that AKoin would take off on an international level, saying that it was the project he was most excited about personally rather than his namesake city. He said, You might just go to vacation and when you transfer your American dollars into their money, you might just be transferring it into AKoins. Thats the goal.

Akon speaking at the Lisbon Web Summit in 2019 (Getty Images)

Page Six reported that at an appearance last June, Akon talked further about cryptocurrency and AKoin. Saying that blockchain and crypto could be the saviour for Africa in many ways, he responded to technical questions about the blockchain with, I come with the concepts and let the geeks figure it out.

According to Arabian Business, Akon also appeared at the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival and criticised other celebrities for what he perceived as badly thought out moves into cryptocurrency.

(Getty Images)

He said, I think a lot of the entertainers went with the wave and also the hype of cryptocurrency, not understanding what it was or what it is and I think a lot of them got caught up into the companies that got eventually folded or were scams.

(Hussein Bakri/BAD Consultant/Semer Group)

Thats just a lack of education in getting into certain things because as an entertainer you find yourself endorsing a lot of products that you dont do due diligence on, he finished.

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Akon has started building Akon City in Senegal with focus on cryptocurrency and renewable energy - Evening Standard

Bold Profits DailyNovember 29, 2019

Paul Mampilly: Its Paul on the Iancast again. Im hijacking this permanently.

Ian Dyer: Fine with me. We have good discussions.

Paul: With Market Talk Im always trying to keep it tight down to three to five minutes. I have a lot of competition between Hudson and Amber. On this one, were going to do it long. How about that?Ian: Sounds good.

Paul: Lets start with dramatic news. You and I never sleep. I know you were up watching Bitcoin hit $6,500.

Ian: The whole time, yes. It bounced. The Bakkt futures we talked about last week, the expiration date came into play there. Bitcoin fell to below $7,000, then it bounced and went a little lower.

Again, around these expiration dates in the futures, all these new Bitcoins are being sent out from the actual futures company to all the investors. It creates an immediate supply that can have an effect on price.

Paul: Long term, I dont know anybody who would ever want to be short those futures. Youd have to deliver something of a fixed quantity. I remember seeing analysis that something like 30-40% of Bitcoin are being HODLed. Hold on for dear life, thats what HODL means.

The crypto world has its own language. We have HODL. We have FUD.

Ian: Thats fear, uncertainty and doubt, right?

Paul: Time to lambo for time to move. So 40% of all Bitcoin approximately is being HODLed. I read analysis on The Block, which is a website where they do crypto analysis, that hedge funds are short Bitcoin. This sounds crazy to me.

Ian: Me too. Theres a lot of questions around it. When you look at all these hedge fund managers that are into traditional investments like 60% stock and 40% bonds. Bitcoin doesnt fit anywhere in there and they dont know what to do with it. They dont think it will ever overtake gold as a safe haven asset.

Theres a lot of naysayers out there still which is surprising considering its survived for 10 years now almost 11 and it started out as a fraction of a penny and has grown into a $150 billion asset class all on its own with no promotion other than word of mouth. Its amazing what it has done so far. Its an alternative currency.

Paul: Exactly. Both Ian and I are on the record of seeing Bitcoin at much higher numbers. Ian has a $50,000 by end of 2020. Is that right?

Ian: Yes, $50,000 next year and somewhere around $100,000 in 2021.

Paul: I think thats conservative. I think we might hit $100,000 maybe even by the end of 2020. Heres why. To me, Bitcoin is the first exponential asset. It runs off a digital mechanism rather than a lineal mechanism which is the stock market, the bond market. In other words, it requires human intervention.

If you think about gold, you have to go dig it out of the ground. Theres a whole process. Bitcoin is completely digital. Theres no physical element to it. It can exponentially grow and its already done that. This is why it has so much skepticism because theres never been an exponential asset in history this is asset number one. Its going to be the most valuable.

Ian: Theres never been something like these halving events in any asset before. When the supply is limited by this much on one specific day, that day has a lot of say in the future of Bitcoin. Weve seen that because after the past few halving events, theres a gigantic rally by thousands of percent after the supply is cut.

Paul: I went back and modeled the Litecoin halving event to Bitcoin. For sure, its setting up to be a minimum of $25,000 to $30,000 the way it models. Most of the people who believe in Bitcoin largely never bat an eye at the volatility. Its the disbelievers who come to really give us a lot of grief about it.

Ian and I believe in Bitcoin. We think Bitcoin is going to the moon. Everyone can make their own judgment. There is that one indicator that we both track. We should tell people about it.

Ian: A company called Grayscale has their own Bitcoin trust. They own a lot of Bitcoin and sell it as a fraction on the stock market. You can buy shares of the trust backed by Bitcoin. Its a way of buying Bitcoin on the stock market, which is really interesting and not a lot of people know it exists.

Weve seen all these headlines and rumors of a Bitcoin ETF, but there already is one and it doesnt get that much press. It gives us a good indicator because when theres a lot of bullish or bearish sentiment on Bitcoin you will see the premium of this ETF start to go up or down. Right now its trading about 27% above the price of Bitcoin.

The stock market is giving Bitcoin a premium even though it fell 50% in just a few months. Thats a really bullish indicator to me. Its been as low as 10% and then it bounced from there. Now, like I said, its up almost 30% and people are paying a lot more for Bitcoin in the stock market because as of right now more people have stock accounts than crypto accounts.

Paul: Its a pain to get a crypto account. I have a coin-based account and you probably have one as well, but most people dont want to deal with that. I can tell you from tracking the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, at the peak in 2017 the premium was something like 130-140%.Ian: It was more than double.

Paul: At the low about this time last year I believe the premium was something like 3-4%. Right now its nowhere near as pessimistic as it was back then so theres no reason to expect the premium to be as low. I dont believe it has traded at a discount any time recently.

All signs point to Bitcoin going higher sooner rather than later. I feel like we can leave that one right there and move to the next one. I think we should name the Iancast, Tesla, Bitcoin and Pot.Ian: Thats what we talk about. Its the fastest growing things out there.

Paul: Its also what most millennials like to trade and are invested in. When I did a Tesla, Bitcoin and pot video for my Tuesday Bold Profits, I got 30 comments. I dont think Ive ever received 30 comments on anything before. Thats where people are at.

So lets deal with Tesla. Cybertruck.

Ian: Yea. Cybertruck. Just to start off, Tesla has never had an advertisement before. Theyve never spent on marketing. Its crazy the publicity this stuff is getting. Literally everybody was talking about the Cybertruck over the weekend. We both pre-ordered one.

I personally love it. I know a lot of people are really skeptical of the design. I think its going to grow on people. Its a steel truck thats supposedly bulletproof, although the window did break during the promo.

If you throw a steel ball at any other car window its going to go right through the car window. Bulletproof glass breaks. It doesnt shatter but it breaks like that.

Paul: I follow Elons tweets. It turns out, when they hit the sledgehammer against the Cybertruck it cracked the window. Thats why when they threw the ball, it shattered the window. Elon said what they should have done is first throw the ball and then hit the Cybertruck with a sledgehammer.

Then the demo would have worked out fine. But, you know, thats how it is in life. I think they got $100 million worth of free publicity as a result of the windows breaking because everybody felt like they had to show it.

Ian: Yes. And they have more than 200,000 orders already in the first few days for this truck.Paul: I feel like the truck makers depend on trucks and SUVs. Between the Model Y coming out and now with this, its really time. Those companies are going to struggle. Maybe some of the others will end up being a competitor, but for now theres no competition of any kind for Tesla.

Ian: It even blows the gas-powered pickup trucks out of the water. I drive a pretty good truck and the Tesla can tow more, carry more, has a bigger truck bed and it faster. Its a super powerful truck. Ive heard a lot of people say it doesnt appeal to the kind of market that drives pickup trucks.

They want more power. What doesnt appeal? I guess the design? I think it will grow on people and I dont see it as a reason not to buy it.

Paul: My reaction was pretty much what everyone elses was. I didnt stay up for the launch, but I woke up and looked at it and then I thought, Whoa, thats different. Then about a minute later I thought, I really like it. Then five minutes later I thought, I need to order one.

Ian: Same here. I woke up and saw it and thought, Thats weird. Thats actually what it looks like? But then it grew on me. Its going to take time. Its what everyone imagined future cars would look like 20 years ago and now its finally here. I think its going to grow on people. Its kind of iconic.

Paul: Im watching the reaction on Twitter and people are having a slightly slower version of what we went through. It came out and now they think its kind of cool. I think this might be as fast selling as the Model 3. People say its only a $100 deposit and it doesnt mean anything. But 200,000 is a lot of people.

Ian: Even if 90% of them cancel thats more than $1 billion theyre getting from this already.Paul: You looked this up before we got on. Whats the short position in Tesla?

Ian: Its down. It was just 25% a few weeks ago. Its down to 16% now.

Paul: I have to tell you, in my entire 25 years of being on Wall Street I have never known a company as large as Tesla carry such a large short position. This is insane.

Ian: Theyre different. Different doesnt appeal on Wall Street. Everyone wants to think the same way, be safe, not get fired for liking some company that everyone else hates.

Paul: They talk about Tesla stock owners and car owners being a cult, but the people who hate Tesla are also a cult.

Ian: Pretty much. They do have a lot of haters millions.

Paul: They do. I always keep my Sentry Mode on when I drive my car because I dont want to run across someone who wants to do something to my car. We like Tesla at Bold Profits. You can also see we had a Tesla at our last franchise meeting and it was a super big hit. Amber gunned it and she loved it. Were trying to persuade everyone to get one.

Weve done Bitcoin, weve done Tesla, what about pot? I was on last week and the stocks all sold off. Then, boom.

Ian: Theyre back. Its going to be a ride, for sure. Thats how bottoms are. It goes up and down fast. Some of these stocks in the pot sector doubled from their bottom and went up 100% in a couple days. You dont see that when theres not some big buyer looming in the background.

Theres going to be buying in these stocks. They are bottoming out right now and theyre going to come back up. Its going to be great. The market is so bearish on these stocks right now because theyve gone down so much for months. Its the classic selloff weve seen where the end is the worst part. Its like that with anything in the stock market.

Paul: This is so true, Ian. You are absolutely right. Most people Im included in this, Ive never had perfect timing start buying probably a month too early. Then they underestimate how much that last drop is going to be. Thats where they get shaken out and they sell.

Its also where they get emotionally blown out. They are not going to come back. Then they end up missing it.

Ian: They are the ones who push it up at the end toward the bubble phase.

Paul: Thats right. Then they come at the end and signal the very top. Im going to guess just by the sharpness of the move in the ETF MJ, Canopy, Cronos and Aurora, that theres a combination of short covering as well as actual long buying going on.

Ian: Yes. Some of these went up 100% in a couple days and a lot of them went up at least 40% in the first initial bounce.

Paul: In my experience, when you have the sharp, off-the-bottom jump of 40-50% it means theres actually a big buyer. A strong hands buyer that is going to own and is signaling they are going to buy more. This is why market makers keep lifting the price up to find sellers who are willing to sell.

In my experience thats a good sign. Were bullish on pot and we have it across a ton of our services. Did you end up putting on that trade for the pot company?

Ian: We did. In Rebound Profit Trader we have a pot trade. Were probably going to do another one very soon. Were bullish on that. In Rebound Profit Trader the goal is to get stocks at the bottom and buy call options on them, which go up faster than the stock. You can make hundreds of percent in just a few days by doing that if you time it right.

Here at the bottom of the pot crash we think its a really good time to buy calls on these beaten down pot companies.

Paul: We were chatting before on Slack and you said we had eight 60% winners in Rebound Profit Trader? I forget the numbers.

Ian: Weve had 10 winners in the past month.

Paul: 40%, 60%, something in that range?

Ian: Yes, a lot of them are more than 40%. Biotech has been very strong. We just closed our fourth biotech gain of more than 50% all four have come within the past week. Its been a good run. Biotech is looking like a good place to be too.

In our other options service Rapid Profit Trader we just closed a biotech gain of about 45%. We only held it for three days. You can make money really fast when youre in the right place in the market.

Paul: They say biotech is the poor mans lottery. Its been true. I have traded a ton of biotech in my life because you can have incredible, fast gains. You put options on top of that and were talking about a 12-engine rocket that can zoom up instantly. 45% in three days is just wow.

If youre interested in any of Ians services, he runs two phenomenal options services: Rebound Profit Trader and Rapid Profit Trader. They have slightly different strategies but they have a common goal to make you money really fast. Check into the description below.

A little market update. What are we seeing?

Ian: Were recording this Monday. Today the market is making all-time highs. I saw the ETF we track for biotech XBI is up 4% today. Biotech is still moving higher. S&P 500 is making all-time highs. The Russell 2000, which is the small- and mid-cap stocks is breaking out. Its at a 52-week high as well.

Its looking really good right now. Its looking really good to close the year out.

Paul: Remember, the way we look at the world 52-week highs are important because it shows confidence, it shows people are pushing money in and theyre willing to pay higher prices for it.

If you like the content you are seeing here on the Iancast, subscribe to the channel, give this video a thumbs up, share it with your friends and comment below on what youve been experiencing during this bull market. You can also follow me on Twitter @MampillyGuru.

Whats your Twitter, Ian?

Ian: Its @IanDyerGuru. Give me a follow.

Paul: Thats what we have for this Iancast for today. Ian, well have another one next week.Ian: Yeah. See everyone next week. Have a great weekend and hope you had a good Thanksgiving.Paul: Same here. This is Paul saying bye.

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$150 Billion Cryptocurrency Boom Is Here Buy This ETF to Profit - Banyan Hill Publishing

While the crypto market continues to stall, some analysts are betting on institutions to carry the next bull cycle, opposed to casual traders who snowballed the BTC price in 2017. Indeed, the Wild West days of crypto, accompanied by thousands of cash-grabbing, fraudulent ICOs seem to be coming to a close compliance is the general trend now. World-known corporations and banks like Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) have entered the space, and, in order to save their reputation, they intend to play by the rules only those rules have to be established first.

Crypto Derivatives: A Traditional Tool to Help the Market Grow

Thats where traditional markets could inspire crypto actors. Thus, the industry has started to push towards financial mainstream, and first results are already in. One of them is crypto derivatives, a niche version of the time-tested trading tool. Indeed, derivatives have proven useful in terms of the stock market, even in the post-crisis conditions: for instance, they expanded U.S. real GDP by about $3.7 billion each quarter over the 2003-2012 period, according to the Milken Institute research.

Equity derivatives for example a class of derivatives whose value is based on the stock of a publicly traded firm is one of the most popular offerings, as it allows people to gamble on the value of publicly traded corporations like Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), or even a basket of large-cap stocks like FANG, which combines shares of the four high-performing technology stocks in the market.

Coming back to the context of cryptocurrencies, derivatives are financial contracts between two or more parties that derives (hence derivatives) their value from the underlying cryptocurrency. In other words, it is an agreement to buy or sell a particular cryptocurrency at a fixed price and a specified time in the future. Its most popular form BTC futures was introduced on two of the U.S.'s leading and diverse derivatives marketplaces, CME and CBOE, in December 2017, largely de-stigmatizing bitcoin as some marginal asset on the Internet.

Notably, the demand for such products has not only stayed, but grown bigger, too: in fact, June 2019 was the best month for CMEs bitcoin futures volume since its launch. Nearly 300,000 contracts were traded in the 31-day period, marking a 27 percent increase in volume on the month prior and a 73.69 percent increase on March volumes.

Since then, the exchange has applied to the U.S. Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) for permission to double its open position limit. Its also recently confirmed a January launch date for a new instrument: options on bitcoin futures.

Indeed, crypto derivatives are particularly important for institutions, since they represent a major risk managing technique: specifically, they offer protection from cryptos infamous volatility (a massive red flag for blue-chip investors and corporations). Additionally, they allow traders to offset their potential losses via put options and hedging another essential instrument in the arsenal of institutional traders.

Main Actors in the space: LedgerX, Bakkt, Deribit, BitMEX

Putting out fully-compliant products is a considerably difficult task in the crypto market, given the continued lack of proper regulations. Exchanges attempting to launch new products have met with varying degrees of success. For example, U.S.-regulated clearing platform LedgerX attempted to race ahead of the competition to release a physically-settled bitcoin futures contract over the summer.

Ultimately, it was thwarted by the CTFC, much to the chagrin of the companys CEO. Unlike conventional, cash-based BTC futures, the physically-delivered ones ensure that customers receive actual BTC tokens instead of fiat once the contracts expire.

In contrast to LedgerXs efforts, Bakkt, a major exchange operated by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and supported by a plethora of major companies including Microsoft and Stabucks, has made progress. In September, the company successfully launched its physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts after obtaining the necessary CFTC-issued license required. Since then, it has also announced its planning to launch options on bitcoin futures, ahead of competitor exchange CME.

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Another leading exchange is Deribit, the Amsterdam-headquartered platform which is well-known for being the first true bitcoin options exchange. Currently, its the only exchange to offer the following three kinds of derivatives products at the same time: perpetual, futures and options. In fact, perpetuals derivative products which are similar to futures, but dont have an expiry date are the most popular trading option on the platform.

Deribit is continuously expanding its services: earlier this year, it allowed the public to trade European, vanilla-style ethereum options for the first time in history. Most recently, it has joined forces with Paradigm, the first institutional-grade OTC communication platform, to launch a service for institutional crypto-derivatives traders. Specifically, the new service offers yet another trading feature, the so-called block trades: privately negotiated, principal-to-principal transactions in futures or options that exceed certain minimum quantity thresholds.

Its a game-changer for institutional traders, as it safeguards them from another major crypto-problem, insufficient liquidity. Thus, block trades will allow them to trade in numerous transactions, avoiding slippage and minimizing impact on the market price (block trades are performed outside of the order book).

Deribit and Paradigm. First to offer crypto derivatives block trading for institutions.

Most importantly, Deribits volume has been on a steady rise: in April 2019, even before the major uptrend on the market, its BTC options volume exceeded half a billion dollars in a month. In October, the company showed impressive growth in its Options market.

Analysts from @CryptoCompare released a very comprehensive Exchange Review for September and highlighted Deribit's impressive growth in Options, with volumes surpassing $1B. ?https://t.co/m4n9oH5IJ8 pic.twitter.com/MTr0xIuKsF

— Deribit (@DeribitExchange) October 22, 2019

In comparison, the volume of BitMEX another bitcoin derivatives platform and Deribits main competitor has recently slumped as much as 33%, likely due a probe from the CTFC. However, even that didnt stop them from reporting $1 trillion in annual trading volume earlier in July.

Crypto Derivatives Boom Could Arrive Any Moment Now

One thing is clear: crypto derivatives products are currently in large demand, and institutions seem to be the primary customer. Given the fact that institutions have historically had much more leverage compared to retail customers, the next crypto boom could be much more intense than the 2017 one. We're seeing $200-400M a week in new crypto deposits come in from institutional customers, Coinbase CEO has recently tweeted. The institutional money is coming, and it seems that the needed tools will be there ready.

Disclosure: None.

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Is a Cryptocurrency Derivatives Boom On Its Way? - Yahoo Finance

BOSTON Twomen from Massachusetts were arrested and charged in Boston federal court Thursday in an elaboratescheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars fromcryptocurrency executives and others that included taking over their social media accounts and threats to their families.

Federal prosecutors say Eric Meiggs, 21, of Brockton,and Declan Harrington, 20, of Rockport,usedcell phone SIM-card swapping and computer hacking to targetonline accounts ofat least 10 individuals with large amounts of cryptocurrency. The victims included the heads of cryptocurrency companies.

The two defendants stole or attempted to steal more than $550,000 in cryptocurrency, according to prosecutors, and gainedaccess into two victims' "OG" (original gangster) accounts with social media companies. They were unsuccessful in stealing from some of the victims.

Trump on cryptocurrency and Bitcoin: 'I am not a fan'

Meiggs and Harrington, whose alleged actions spanned multiple years,were charged in an 11-count indictment and arraigned Thursday. Each face one count of conspiracy, eight counts of wire fraud, one count of computer fraud and abuse, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

Cryptocurrency refers to digital currency, includingBitcoin, that does not rely on a central bank but instead transactions from user to user.

Prosecutors allege the two men engaged in"SIM swapping," which occurs when cybercriminals convince a cell phoneservice provider to reassign the phone number of another individual's SIM card, located inside their phone, to a phone controlled by them.

Itallowed them to pose as thevictim torequest that social media providers send them password-rest links or an authentication code to their newly controlledphone numbers.

In one instance, according to the indictment, the defendants in March2018gained access to one victim's Facebook and Gmail accounts. They then sent messages to the victim's contacts, convincing one of them to send $100,000 in cryptocurrency.

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Weeks later, the defendants accessed another victim's LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as accounts at online cryptocurrency exchanges, allowing them to steal $10,000 in cryptocurrency, the indictment says. The defendants contacted the wife of the victim, prosecutors say, and sent a text message to his daughter saying, "TELL YOUR DAD TO GIVE US BITCOIN."

Bitcoin bandits: Hackers steal equivalent of $40M from Binance

In November and December of 2015, prosecutors say Meiggs sent a series of Twitter messages to another victim seeking control of the victim's Instagram account, which was an "OG" account name. Prosecutors say Meiggs indicated he knew where the victim lived and sent the address and name of the victim's mother with the message: "Just give up."

The indictment does not identify the victims or name their companies. Five are residents of California. Others live in New Jersey, Illinois, Nevada, Michigan and Arizona.

Reach Joey Garrison and on Twitter @joeygarrison.

How the scammers behind the biggest cryptocurrency hack in the world pulled it off Time

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/11/15/massachusetts-men-arrested-plot-steal-cryptocurrency-bitcoin-social-media-threats/4201763002/

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2 men arrested in elaborate plot to steal $550K in cryptocurrency by hacking social media accounts - USA TODAY

While most of the cryptocurrency market is experiencing mild to moderate losses, one obscure cryptocurrency, known as Blockv (VEE) is defying expectations after pumping by more than 7,000% in the last day. The recent surge now makes Blockv the 33rd largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, just behind Decred (DCR) and Zcash (ZEC).

According to the website, Blockv is a platform that is a platform that allows developers to create digital objects on the blockchain. However, despite launching almost two years ago, the platform failed to gain much momentum, while the VEE token has been on a near-constant decline throughout much of its existence.

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So, how did this pump come out of nowhere? Well, it currently appears that almost 100% of its minor $240,000 in daily trade volume can be attributed to a single South Korean exchange known as ChainX. The VEE/KRW trade pair on this exchange recently saw a colossal spike in activity. When volume suddenly spikes on a coin with a very low trading volume, it can send the price rocketingas we've seen before. So that was likely the cause.

This isn't the first time Blockv has witnessed such a meteoric surge. Back in December 2017, shortly following its token generation event (TGE), the cryptocurrency managed to climb from around $0.018 up to $0.326equivalent to gaining more than 1,700% in just five weeks. But it was short lived. Since then it lost 99.5% of its value.

And, with such low volumes this time around, the coin will find it hard to stay in the top 40.

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This cryptocurrencys price just pumped 7,000%, but why? - Decrypt