Theo NBC News, một trong những điều khoản sẽ giúp việc xác minh danh tính khách hàng và chuyển vào ví cá nhân trở nên dễ dàng hơn bằng cách thực thi việc lưu giữ và báo cáo chi tiết.

Thượng nghị sĩ Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) đang chuẩn bị một dự luật để việc sử dụng tiền điện tử nhằm mục đích tránh các lệnh trừng phạt trở nên khó khăn hơn.

Trong một dòng tweet vào thứ Ba, Warren nói rằng dự luật mới của cô ấy sẽ “đảm bảo rằng tiền điện tử không bị Putin và những người bạn của ông ấy sử dụng để phá hoại các lệnh trừng phạt kinh tế của chúng tôi”, bà đề cập đến Tổng thống Nga Vladimir Putin.

Theo NBC News, hãng đầu tiên báo cáo về dự luật được đề xuất của Warren, một trong những điều khoản của nó sẽ giúp dễ dàng hơn trong việc xác minh danh tính khách hàng và chuyển vào ví cá nhân bằng cách yêu cầu các tổ chức tài chính ghi lại hồ sơ chi tiết và gửi báo cáo cho Bộ Tài chính.

Tuy nhiên, cơ hội thông qua dự luật bị hạn chế vì đảng Cộng hòa kiểm soát Thượng viện.

Warren và ba thượng nghị sĩ Đảng Dân chủ khác đã gửi một lá thư vào tuần trước cho Bộ trưởng Tài chính Janet Yellen hỏi về cách Bộ Tài chính có kế hoạch thực thi các biện pháp trừng phạt kinh tế trong ngành công nghiệp tiền điện tử.

“Thực thi mạnh mẽ việc tuân thủ các lệnh trừng phạt trong ngành công nghiệp tiền điện tử là rất quan trọng vì các tài sản kỹ thuật số cho phép các tổ chức vượt qua hệ thống tài chính truyền thống, ngày càng có thể được sử dụng như một công cụ để trốn tránh lệnh trừng phạt,” các thượng nghị sĩ viết.

The post Thượng nghị sĩ Hoa Kỳ Warren đã soạn thảo Dự luật tiền điện tử để ngăn chặn việc trốn tránh các lệnh trừng phạt appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Tỷ lệ chấp nhận tiền điện tử của người dân trên toàn cầu năm 2021 tăng 881% so với 2020, dẫn đầu là Việt Nam, Ấn Độ và Pakistan.

Theo dữ liệu về Chỉ số chấp nhận tiền điện tử toàn cầu (GCAI) do Chainalysis thống kê từ 154 quốc gia và vùng lãnh thổ, Việt Nam đứng đầu với điểm tuyệt đối là 1, trong khi vị trí thứ hai và thứ ba là Ấn Độ và Pakistan lần lượt đạt 0,37 điểm và 0,36 điểm.

Theo nguồn tin từ trang Vietnam Insider, đây là năm thứ hai Chainalysis thực hiện thống kê này. Chainalysis là một nền tảng blockchain được thành lập 2014 tại Mỹ. Công ty chuyên cung cấp dữ liệu, phần mềm, dịch vụ và nghiên cứu cho các cơ quan chính phủ, sàn giao dịch, tổ chức tài chính và các công ty bảo hiểm và an ninh mạng ở hơn 60 quốc gia.

Số liệu được Chainalysis phân tích dựa trên khối lượng giao dịch ngang hàng (P2P) trên các sàn tiền số, thay vì tổng khối lượng giao dịch tiền số, giúp thống kê chính xác hơn về số người tham gia. Trước đây, việc tính tổng khối lượng giao dịch thường có lợi cho các quốc gia giàu, vốn có những “cá mập” là các nhà đầu tư chuyên nghiệp và tổ chức sở hữu lượng tiền số lớn.

Theo Chainalysis, mục đích của chỉ số GCAI là đánh giá khả năng chấp nhận tiền điện tử của “những người phổ thông” và “tập trung vào các trường hợp sử dụng tiền điện tử liên quan đến giao dịch và tiết kiệm cá nhân, thay vì giao dịch và đầu cơ”. Các chỉ số được tính trọng số dựa trên lượng tài sản bình quân của mỗi cá nhân và giá trị đồng tiền lưu hành tại từng quốc gia cụ thể.

Kết quả xếp hạng cho thấy, phần lớn trong số các quốc gia hàng đầu là các nền kinh tế mới nổi. Trong khi đó, Mỹ tuột từ vị trí thứ 6 năm ngoái xuống vị trí thứ 8, trong khi Trung Quốc từ vị trí thứ 4 xuống thứ 13.

Vị trí của Việt Nam đang có nhiều thay đổi tích cực trên bản đồ blockchain và tiền số của thế giới. Các dự án tiền mã hóa do người Việt sáng lập như Axie Infinity (AXS), Coin98 (C98) hay TomoChain (TOMO) cũng đã tạo được dấu ấn trên thị trường.

Trong khi đó, Boaz Sobrado, nhà phân tích dữ liệu fintech tại London, cho rằng việc xác định mức độ chấp nhận tiền điện tử của mỗi người dân ở mỗi quốc gia là điều không dễ dàng và phương pháp của Chainalysis vẫn có “điểm mù” do khó lấy được dữ liệu đầy đủ ở một số thị trường P2P. “Tuy vậy, đây là chỉ số tốt nhất hiện tại mà chúng ta có được”, ông nói với phóng viên của Vietnam Insider.

The post Tại sao Việt Nam trở thành quốc gia dẫn đầu về tỷ lệ chấp nhận tiền điện tử? appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Mã gốc của đồng tiền số ethereum (ETH) được dự báo có tiềm năng tăng gấp đôi giá trị thị trường hiện tại trong quý IV nhờ sự kết hợp của chỉ báo kỹ thuật và hỗ trợ cơ bản.

Theo các chuyên gia phân tích, ba chỉ báo phân tích cho thấy mã gốc của ethereum tăng hơn 9% vào ngày 1/10, gần vượt qua mức kháng cự 3.000 USD, lần đầu tiên khởi sắc sau 10 ngày. Mức tăng của đồng tiền ảo này chủ yếu xuất hiện sau khi giá phục hồi đối với hầu hết các loại tiền kỹ thuật số, bao gồm cả bitcoin (BTC).

Mối tương quan giữa ethereum – bitcoin với tỷ lệ lạm phát cao tại Mỹ
Sự bùng nổ của thị trường tiền điện tử vào ngày 1/10 vừa qua trùng với thời điểm Bộ Thương Mại Hoa Kỳ công bố báo cáo mới nhất về chi tiêu của người tiêu dùng.

Dữ liệu cho thấy chỉ số giá chi tiêu cá nhân cốt lõi của Mỹ – thước đo lạm phát của Cục Dự trữ Liên bang (Fed) đã tăng 0,3% trong tháng 8 và tăng tới 3,6% so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái. Như vậy, lạm phát cơ bản đã tăng lên mức cao nhất trong 30 năm qua ở Mỹ.

Các nhà đầu cơ có xu hướng coi bitcoin như một hàng rào chống lại lạm phát, điều này giải thích xu hướng tăng giá của bitcoin và các loại tiền điện tử khác. Nói chính xác, chỉ số giá tiêu dùng cao, lạm phát tăng ở Mỹ thúc đẩy giá bitcoin và ethereum tăng.

Thực tế, mối tương quan trung bình trong 30 ngày của ether với bitcoin là gần 0,89, theo dữ liệu từ CryptoWatch – có nghĩa là ethereum có mức tăng giá gần tương tự với bitcoin.

Một cuộc khảo sát của Đại học Michigan (Mỹ) được thực hiện từ ngày 25/8 đến ngày 27/9 vừa qua cho thấy lo lắng lạm phát diễn ra trong dài hạn của người tiêu dùng Mỹ đã tăng lên 3% – mức cao nhất trong một thập kỷ.

Kết quả đó có vẻ trái ngược với quan điểm của Chủ tịch Fed Jerome Powell, người đã mô tả lạm phát gia tăng là “nhất thời” trong nhiều tháng. Tuy nhiên, tới phiên điều trần tại Thượng viện gần đây thì ông cũng buộc phải thừa nhận rằng giá tiêu dùng cao hơn có thể giữ nguyên ít nhất cho đến năm sau.

Kết quả là, áp lực lạm phát gia tăng đã khiến những nhà đầu tư tiền điện tử có lý do để coi bitcoin như một phương tiện bảo vệ cuối cùng.

Giám đốc điều hành của MicroStrategy Michael Saylor thậm chí đã đề xuất các công ty chuyển đổi trái phiếu dựa trên tiền mặt của họ thành bitcoin. MicroStrategy hiện đang nắm giữ khoảng 0,5% tổng nguồn cung bitcoin đang lưu hành trên thị trường, hiện có giá trị lên tới hơn 6 tỷ USD.

Theo trang Vietnam Insider, một trong các lý do khiến ethereum có thể tăng giá là nguồn cung thấp.

Nguồn tin cho thấy, tổng số lượng ethereum token được nắm giữ trên tất cả các sàn giao dịch tiền điện tử đã giảm xuống mức thấp kỷ lục.  Các sàn giao dịch hiện chỉ nắm giữ 18,1 triệu ETH so với mức 23,73 triệu ETH vào một năm trước.

The post Bitcoin và Ethereum có thể tăng giá gấp đôi ngay trong năm nay? appeared first on Crypto Insider.

You’ve likely heard some of the following terms if you’ve paid attention to the world of finance: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum. But what do they mean? And why is cryptocurrency suddenly so hot?

First, we’ll explain the blockchain basics.

As society become increasingly digital, financial services providers are looking to offer customers the same services to which they’re accustomed, but in a more efficient, secure, and cost effective way.

Enter blockchain technology.

The origins of blockchain are a bit nebulous. A person or group of people known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakomoto invented and released the tech in 2009 as a way to digitally and anonymously send payments between two parties without needing a third party to verify the transaction. It was initially designed to facilitate, authorize, and log the transfer of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.

How does blockchain technology work?

Blockchain tech is actually rather easy to understand at its core. Essentially, it’s a shared database populated with entries that must be confirmed and encrypted. Think of it as a kind of highly encrypted and verified shared Google Document, in which each entry in the sheet depends on a logical relationship to all its predecessors. Blockchain tech offers a way to securely and efficiently create a tamper-proof log of sensitive activity (anything from international money transfers to shareholder records).

Blockchain’s conceptual framework and underlying code is useful for a variety of financial processes because of the potential it has to give companies a secure, digital alternative to banking processes that are typically bureaucratic, time-consuming, paper-heavy, and expensive.

What are cryptocurrencies?

Cryptocurrencies are essentially just digital money, digital tools of exchange that use cryptography and the aforementioned blockchain technology to facilitate secure and anonymous transactions. There had been several iterations of cryptocurrency over the years, but Bitcoin truly thrust cryptocurrencies forward in the late 2000s. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies floating out on the market now, but Bitcoin is far and away the most popular.

How do you mine cryptocurrency?

Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies don’t just fall out of the sky. Like any other form of money, it takes work to produce them. And that work comes in the form of mining.

But let’s take a step back. Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Bitcoin, ensured that there would ever only be 21 million Bitcoins in existence. He (or they) reached that figure by calculating that people would discover, or “mine,” a certain number of blocks of transactions each day.

Every four years, the number of Bitcoins released in relation to the previous cycle gets reduced by 50%, along with the reward to miners for discovering new blocks. At the moment, that reward is 12.5 Bitcoins. Therefore, the total number of Bitcoins in circulation will approach 21 million but never actually reach that figure. This means Bitcoin will never experience inflation. The downside here is that a hack or cyberattack could be a disaster because it could erase Bitcoin wallets with little hope of getting the value back.

As for mining Bitcoins, the process requires electrical energy. Miners solve complex mathematical problems, and the reward is more Bitcoins generated and awarded to them. Miners also verify transactions and prevent fraud, so more miners equals faster, more reliable, and more secure transactions.

Thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto’s designs, Bitcoin mining becomes more difficult as more miners join the fray. In 2009, a miner could mine 200 Bitcoin in a matter of days. In 2014, it would take approximately 98 years to mine just one, according to 99Bitcoins.

Super powerful computers called Application Specific Integrated Circuit, or ASIC, were developed specifically to mine Bitcoins. But because so many miners have joined in the last few years, it remains difficult to mine loads. The solution is mining pools, groups of miners who band together and are paid relative to their share of the work.

Current & future uses of blockchain technology & cryptocurrency

Since its inception, Bitcoin has been rather volatile. But based on its recent boom — and a forecast by Snapchat’s first investor, Jeremy Liew, that it would hit $500,000 by 2030 — and the prospect of grabbing a slice of the Bitcoin pie becomes far more attractive.

Bitcoin users expect 94% of all bitcoins to be released by 2024. As the number moves toward the ceiling of 21 million, many expect the profits miners once made from the creation of new blocks to become so low that they will become negligible. But as more bitcoins enter circulation, transaction fees could rise and offset this.

As for blockchain technology itself, it has numerous applications, from banking to the Internet of Things. It is expected that companies will flesh out their blockchain IoT solutions. Blockchain is a promising tool that will transform parts of the IoT and enable solutions that provide greater insight into assets, operations, and supply chains. It will also transform how health records and connected medical devices store and transmit data.

Blockchain won’t be usable everywhere, but in many cases, it will be a part of the solution that makes the best use of the tools in the IoT arsenal. Blockchain can help to address particular problems, improve workflows, and reduce costs, which are the ultimate goals of any IoT project.

The post What is the blockchain technology & cryptocurrency? appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Two meme cryptocurrencies, both inspired by shiba inu dogs, are now within the top 10 by market value.

As of Monday afternoon, dogecoin, which launched in 2013 as a joke, ranks No. 10 with a market value of over $35 billion, according to CoinGecko. It’s currently trading at around 27 cents. A token called shiba inu, which launched in 2020 to poke fun at dogecoin, ranks No. 9 with a market value of over $38 billion. Shiba inu hit an all-time high of $0.00008616 on Thursday.

Since Wednesday, both dogecoin and shiba inu have frequently swapped places in the rankings, competing in somewhat of a rivalry. In fact, the shiba inu community refers to the token as the “dogecoin killer.”

But although their supporters may not want to admit it, dogecoin and shiba inu have a key characteristic in common, Caitlin Cook, head of community at crypto asset management tech company Onramp Invest, tells CNBC Make It.

Both are largely driven by the communities behind them, Cook says. “The dogecoin community and the shiba inu community are both very, very vocal and committed,” she explains.

The strength of community

“Altcoins like [shiba inu] are primarily community-based, meaning their success is largely dependent on the success and growth of its community, instead of its utility,” Douglas Boneparth, certified financial planner and president of Bone Fide Wealth, previously told CNBC Make It. (The term “altcoins” refers to the multitude of cryptocurrencies aside from bitcoin.)

The shiba inu token creator even calls it an “experiment in decentralized spontaneous community building” in its white paper.

Both shiba inu and dogecoin’s growth can be largely attributed to supporters hyping up them up, Cook says. “It’s the power of the people who are amplifying it that kind of drives the performance a lot of the time,” she says.

That includes celebrity supporters like billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. Musk often tweets about different cryptocurrencies, and in doing so, has seemingly impacted their prices.

A few times throughout 2021, shiba inu appeared to jump after Musk repeatedly posted images of his shiba inu puppy on Twitter. But on Oct. 24, Musk clarified that he doesn’t own any shiba inu tokens and that he only owns bitcoin, ether and dogecoin.

But overall, the current surge is “so much community-driven, and any token or coin out there has the opportunity to run up like this if someone with a big microphone is amplifying it,” Cook says.

The risk factor

However, the fact that these tokens are so susceptible to price swings based on who’s talking about them is a big part of what makes investing in them risky.

Both dogecoin and shiba inu are “speculative bets,” Cook says. “They’re not long-term investments for most people, and most people probably wouldn’t have a long-term thesis behind why they would hold them for a long period either.”

That’s because they’re considered to be bets on a community rather than a technology, she says. “There’s not a viable product.”

Experts warn that any cryptocurrency investment can result in the loss of your entire investment. They generally recommend that you only invest what you can afford to lose, regardless of which cryptocurrency you choose. And altcoins may require additional caution due to their differences from something like bitcoin, including their structure, supply and utility.

Bitcoin launched in 2009 with the intent to be a peer-to-peer financial system. Its blockchain was carefully created with a well-thought-out ecosystem. Bitcoin also has a limited supply, which allows for built-in scarcity by design. Because of that, it’s seen as a store of value by its holders, who also hope it becomes a prominent decentralized digital currency.

Most altcoins lack these characteristics. Though their communities are a strength, it’s something they’re very dependent on, since many lack technological development and don’t have a supply cap.

Due to volatility and risk, “I always say that crypto isn’t a suitable investment for a lot of people,” Cook says. “When you get into more volatile altcoins, it’s an even less viable investment for a lot of people that don’t have the stomach for it.”

Of course, it’s impossible to know how things will unfold for dogecoin and shiba inu. “Who knows? Maybe one day grandma will give her grandkids some SHIB for their birthday,” Boneparth says. “The future of either depends on wide-scale adoption and use in our current financial system.”

The post Dogecoin passed by Shiba inu in the top 10 cryptocurrencies—here's what drives the growth appeared first on Crypto Insider.

In 2014, as regulators in New York were exploring ways to control Bitcoin, executives at Wall Street’s biggest banks fretted that regulating cryptocurrencies would also legitimize them — and that could threaten the finance industry. So they tried to sow doubt.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos that year, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, called Bitcoin a “terrible” store of value that was also being used for illicit purposes. At a meeting to discuss violations of Iran sanctions, H. Rodgin Cohen, the finance industry’s pre-eminent lawyer, warned the state’s regulators that the federal government was “very worried” about Bitcoin and its use.

Those efforts failed. New York’s Department of Financial Services began issuing licenses for Bitcoin businesses in 2015. There are now more than 75 million users of Bitcoin, up from around three million seven years ago, and the number of digital currencies has exploded. Globally, 220 million people use cryptocurrencies, according to a July report by Crypto.com.

“Most people agree that in the future — it might be 10 or 20 or years or it might be sooner — effectively all assets are going to be in a digital format,” said Thomas Olsen, a partner at Bain & Company who advises financial firms on cryptocurrencies and other digital asset matters.

Now the banking industry is racing to catch up. Banks want to compete in this new world and profit from it. Their approach is two-pronged: experimenting with cryptocurrency offerings and lobbying regulators to create rules that work in the banks’ favor. Some are offering cryptocurrency investments to their wealthy clients. Others are weighing trading desks for Bitcoin. JPMorgan even started its own digital currency in 2019.

And instead of warning regulators away from cryptocurrencies, banking industry representatives now complain that regulators have not acted quickly enough and that their inaction is costing banks valuable time in their mission to compete.

But their initial skepticism has cost them time. An alternative financial world is springing up around the traditional banking industry. Cryptocurrency start-ups are beginning to offer credit cards and loans. People and businesses around the world are embracing digital currencies at a rapid pace. Even governments are getting involved. El Salvador recently said it would accept Bitcoin as legal tender. And the Federal Reserve, following in the footsteps of central banks around the world, is evaluating launching its own digital currency.

The traditional banking system held sway for centuries. Banks have long helped governments control the flow of money in their local economies by taking deposits, then lending some of that money to other customers. With the rise of secondary markets for loans, banks could lend even more against the deposits they had by selling the loans to investors after they were made and freeing space on their balance sheets to do more lending. At every step of the way, they made money.

When Congress relaxed regulations in 1999 to let commercial banks enter the fray on Wall Street, their power increased again. They could now make markets in almost anything, like oil, wheat or government bonds, aiding sales and purchases of all kinds even as they helped everyday Americans make and receive payments, buy houses and start businesses.

Digital currencies, which let individuals bypass banks in money transfers, sales and business collections by connecting people instantly without an intermediary, are threatening to take away that central role banks play.

Outwardly, top executives at the biggest U.S. banks have shown little enthusiasm for digital currencies. Mr. Dimon continued to be skeptical, calling Bitcoin a “fraud” in 2017. More recently, he declared it “worthless.” And three years ago, Bank of America’s chief executive, Brian Moynihan, barred the giant company’s wealth managers from putting any client money into cryptocurrency-related investments.

But some individual bankers were getting curious. After spending years privately ridiculing Bitcoin, Thomas Montag, Bank of America’s chief operating officer, asked a friend of his for a tutorial on cryptocurrencies and spent hours listening to lectures, reading books and meeting with executives from cryptocurrency businesses, according to a person familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Last year, engineers at Bank of America filed the biggest number of patent applications in the bank’s history, including hundreds involving digital payments technologies. It’s unclear how exactly the bank plans to use its technology, but it was partly driven by the desire to keep customers within the bank’s systems rather than lose them to scrappy cryptocurrency start-ups that allow them to transfer money free.

“The bank sees potential in blockchain, and we’re currently a leading patentholder in the space with more than 160 patents,” a Bank of America spokesman, Mark Pipitone, said. “But we still haven’t found a use at scale to make the financial lives of customers and clients better.”

Other big banks are embracing more direct contact with cryptocurrencies. Bank of New York Mellon and Northern Trust are working on offering custodial services to their clients — essentially bank accounts for other banks — that would hold Bitcoin. On Oct. 5, U.S. Bank announced that it would offer cryptocurrency custody services to money managers.

Just as it does for stock and bond prices, Goldman recently began posting digital asset prices on its Marquee platform for big clients like hedge funds, preparing for a time when the bank might be able to support trading in cryptocurrencies.

In 2019, a unit of JPMorgan called Onyx introduced JPM Coin, a digital currency backed by the dollar that ran on Quorum, an internal technology that mimicked the structure of blockchain. But the bank controlled Quorum, unlike Bitcoin’s blockchain, which is decentralized. It recently spun off Quorum to a software start-up.

JPMorgan also started an all-digital system that mimics the traditional “overnight repo” market, where banks exchange short-term U.S. government debt securities for cash. These transactions used to take more than a day to complete — hence the “overnight” label — but JPMorgan’s platform does them in just 15 minutes, reducing risk. It has only three users so far, and two are JPMorgan’s own businesses. Goldman this year became its first outside participant. If more banks join, JPMorgan could end up controlling of one of the most crucial short-term funding markets in the world.

Igor Pejic, an expert on cryptocurrencies, said JPMorgan was one of a few major banks whose experimentation with blockchain — the technology underlying digital currency transactions — has made them digital pioneers poised to profit in the future from systems they’re testing now because, he said, “they are setting up an infrastructure which at the end of the day they control.”

But soon after JPM Coin went live, regulators began calling, said a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. They worried that the movement of the coins around the financial system could cause a buildup of risk because they were tied to the dollar, sparking a panic and leading to the 21st century version of a bank run. The bank had to cut back on the scope of JPM Coin’s use.

Now, JPM Coin cannot be used to transfer value outside JPMorgan’s internal systems. Bank customers can use it to move dollars and other assets back and forth inside the bank almost instantly, but it is meaningless in the wider world.

Regulators have also trained their sights on smaller banks trying to build cryptocurrency businesses. In 2018, the New York-based Quontic Bank, with just $1 billion in assets, asked the top U.S. banking regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, for feedback on its plans to launch a debit card program that gave customers rewards denominated in Bitcoin.

Quontic’s chief executive, Steven Schnall, wanted to be able to offer his customers rewards that might increase in value as Bitcoin did.

Steven Schnall, the chief executive of Quontic bank, received a volley of queries from regulators when he tried to start a debit card program that gave customers rewards in Bitcoin.Jason Binn/WireImage
Mr. Schnall said he was surprised by the intensity of the questioning he and other top executives received from regulators. The O.C.C. lawyers envisioned an almost endless list of problems. What if Quontic customers lost their Bitcoins? What if the bank account holding them was owned by a trust and not an individual person? How would they be divided if someone died? The deliberations took two years, and at the end there was no clear green light.

“They just forced us through a process to make sure that they had clearly identified all of the risks,” Mr. Schnall said. Quontic decided to go ahead with the program. It chose to rely on an outside firm to handle everything related to Bitcoin so that Quontic would not actually have to “touch” the cryptocurrency.

Regulators, who were caught off-guard by the rapid adoption of cryptocurrencies, are scrambling to write new rules governing their use. And banks see a fresh opportunity to lobby regulators on writing rules in a way that benefits them.

Bank lobbyists are pushing regulators hard for uniform rules around cryptocurrency-focused lenders and other companies that transfer money and offer services similar to banking, arguing that unless they are subjected to the same controls banks face, the newer businesses will enjoy an unfair advantage.

American banks are also taking a stand against the Federal Reserve’s exploration of its own digital currency. The American Bankers Association, which represents the largest U.S. banks, warned members of the House Financial Services Committee this past summer that the negative consequences of creating a central bank digital currency “could be severe.” The association said there did not seem to be a pressing need for one because “the dollar is largely digital today.”

Mr. Cohen, senior chairman of law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, who years earlier warned New York regulators off Bitcoin, is among those pushing for greater regulation.

“We need a regulatory approach to cryptocurrency,” Mr. Cohen said in an interview with Bloomberg Television last month. Creating new rules would be “very difficult,” he said, “but that really should be a prod rather than an excuse.”

By NYTimes’s Emily Flitter. Lananh Nguyen and Kate Kelly contributed reporting.

The post Banks are slowly embracing crypto after trying to kill it but being failed appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Đối với những người mới đến với tiền điện tử, hai thuật ngữ trên có thể khá khó hiểu và thậm chí gây hiểu nhầm.

Một số người đề cập đến Bitcoin khi nói về công nghệ blockchain, trong khi những người khác sẽ đề cập đến blockchain khi nói về tiền điện tử nói chung.

Tuy nhiên, các thuật ngữ này không thực sự hoán đổi cho nhau: chúng là các khái niệm riêng biệt nhưng có sự kết nối với nhau. Vì vậy, điều quan trọng là phải hiểu sự khác biệt giữa chúng. Trong bài này, chúng tôi sẽ giới thiệu cho bạn những kiến thức cơ bản về công nghệ blockchain, tiền điện tử và Bitcoin.

Cơ bản là giống nhau?

Hãy xem xét ví dụ sau:

• Website là một công nghệ dùng để chia sẻ thông tin.
• Công cụ tìm kiếm là một trong những cách phổ biến và được biết đến nhiều nhất để sử dụng công nghệ website.
• Google là một trong những ví dụ phổ biến và nổi tiếng nhất về công cụ tìm kiếm.

Tương tự như vậy:

• Blockchain là một công nghệ dùng để ghi chép thông tin (các khối dữ liệu).
• Tiền điện tử là một trong những cách phổ biến và được biết đến nhiều nhất để sử dụng blockchain.

Bitcoin là ví dụ đầu tiên và phổ biến nhất về tiền điện tử.

Blockchain: Khái niệm của nó là gì?

Hầu hết các blockchain được thiết kế như một sổ cái kỹ thuật số phân tán và phi tập trung. Nói một cách đơn giản, blockchain là một sổ cái kỹ thuật số, hay về cơ bản là phiên bản điện tử của sổ cái trên giấy có vai trò ghi lại danh sách các giao dịch.

Cụ thể hơn, một blockchain là một chuỗi tuyến tính gồm nhiều khối được kết nối và được bảo đảm bằng các bằng chứng mật mã. Công nghệ Blockchain cũng có thể được áp dụng trong các lĩnh vực khác không nhất thiết phải có các hoạt động tài chính. Trong bối cảnh tiền điện tử, blockchain có vai trò lưu giữ hồ sơ vĩnh viễn của tất cả các giao dịch đã được xác nhận.

‘Phân tán’ và ‘phi tập trung’ đề cập đến cách thức tổ chức và duy trì của sổ cái. Để hiểu sự khác biệt, hãy nghĩ về các hình thức sổ cái tập trung phổ biến như hồ sơ công khai về mua bán nhà, hồ sơ rút tiền ATM của ngân hàng hoặc danh sách các mặt hàng đã bán của eBay. Trong mỗi trường hợp ví dụ đưa ra, chỉ có một tổ chức kiểm soát sổ cái: một cơ quan chính phủ, ngân hàng hoặc eBay. Một yếu tố phổ biến khác là chỉ có một bản chính của sổ cái và bất cứ bản nào khác chỉ đơn giản là bản sao lưu chứ không phải là bản chính thức. Do đó, sổ cái truyền thống mang tính tập trung bởi vì chúng được duy trì bởi một tổ chức duy nhất và thường dựa vào một cơ sở dữ liệu duy nhất.

Ngược lại, một blockchain thường được xây dựng như một hệ thống phân tán có chức năng như một sổ cái phi tập trung. Điều này có nghĩa là có nhiều bản sổ cái (phân tán) và không có tổ chức nào nắm quyền kiểm soát duy nhất (phi tập trung). Nói một cách đơn giản, mỗi người dùng tham gia vào mạng blockchain sẽ giữ một bản sao điện tử của dữ liệu blockchain. Dữ liệu blockchain được cập nhật thường xuyên tất cả các giao dịch mới nhất và đồng bộ với bản sao của người dùng.

Nói cách khác, một hệ thống phân tán được duy trì bởi công việc tập thể của nhiều người dùng trên khắp thế giới. Những người dùng này còn được gọi là các node mạng, và tất cả các node này đều tham gia vào quá trình xác minh và xác thực giao dịch theo các quy tắc của hệ thống. Do đó, quyền lực là phi tập trung (không có cơ quan trung ương).

Blockchain: Thực tiễn ra sao?

Blockchain (chuỗi khối) có cái tên này là do cách thức tổ chức các hồ sơ: một chuỗi các khối liên kết. Về cơ bản, một khối chính là một loại dữ liệu, trong số các loại hình khác, chứa danh sách các giao dịch gần đây (giống như một trang in gồm các mục nhập). Các khối, cũng như các giao dịch, được công khai và có thể nhìn thấy, nhưng chúng không thể bị thay đổi (giống như việc cất mỗi trang in vào một hộp kính kín). Khi các khối mới được thêm vào blockchain, một bản ghi liên tục gồm các khối liên kết sẽ được hình thành (giống như một sổ cái vật lý có nhiều trang). Đây là một ví dụ đơn giản để dễ hình dung, nhưng thực tế thì quá trình này diễn ra phức tạp hơn nhiều.

Một trong những lý do chính tại sao blockchain có khả năng chống sửa đổi là do các khối được liên kết và bảo đảm bằng các bằng chứng mật mã. Để tạo ra các khối mới, những người trong mạng cần tham gia vào một hoạt động tính toán tốn kém và có cường độ lớn được gọi là đào. Về cơ bản, các thợ mỏ chịu trách nhiệm xác minh các giao dịch và nhóm chúng thành các khối mới được tạo rồi sau đó đưa thêm vào blockchain (nếu đáp ứng được các điều kiện nhất định). Họ cũng có trách nhiệm đưa các coin mới vào hệ thống, được phát hành như một phần thưởng cho công việc của họ.

Mỗi khối mới được xác nhận sẽ liên kết với khối ngay trước nó. Điểm hay của thiết lập này là không thể thay đổi dữ liệu trong một khối một khi khối được thêm vào blockchain vì được bảo đảm bằng bằng chứng mật mã. Quá trình tạo ra một khối mới rất tốn kém và việc hoàn tác là cực kỳ khó.

Tóm lại, một blockchain là một chuỗi liên kết gồm các khối dữ liệu được sắp xếp theo thứ tự thời gian và được bảo đảm bằng các bằng chứng mật mã.

Tiền điện tử, hiểu thế nào cho đúng?

Nói một cách đơn giản, tiền điện tử là một dạng tiền kỹ thuật số được sử dụng như một phương tiện trao đổi trong một mạng lưới người dùng phân tán. Không giống như các hệ thống ngân hàng truyền thống, các giao dịch này được theo dõi thông qua một sổ cái kỹ thuật số công cộng (blockchain) và có thể được thực hiện trực tiếp giữa những người tham gia (ngang hàng) mà không cần trung gian.

‘Crypto’ dùng để chỉ các kỹ thuật mã hóa được sử dụng để bảo mật hệ thống kinh tế và để đảm bảo rằng việc tạo ra các đơn vị tiền điện tử mới và việc xác thực giao dịch diễn ra suôn sẻ.

Mặc dù không phải tất cả các đồng tiền điện tử đều có thể đào được, nhưng rất nhiều đồng tiền, giống như Bitcoin, phụ thuộc vào quá trình đào, có sự tăng trưởng chậm và được kiểm soát về nguồn cung lưu hành. Vì vậy, đào là cách duy nhất để tạo ra các đơn vị mới của các đồng coin và giúp tránh được rủi ro lạm phát vốn là mối đe dọa của các loại tiền tệ fiat truyền thống, nơi mà chính phủ có thể kiểm soát nguồn cung tiền.

Túm lại, Bitcoin là cái gì?

Bitcoin là đồng tiền điện tử đầu tiên được tạo ra, và theo lẽ tự nhiên, là một trong những đồng tiền điện tử nổi tiếng nhất. Bitcoin được giới thiệu vào năm 2009 bởi nhà phát triển với danh xưng Satoshi Nakamoto. Ý tưởng chính là tạo ra một hệ thống thanh toán điện tử độc lập và phi tập trung dựa trên các bằng chứng toán học và mật mã học.

Mặc dù là đồng tiền điện tử nổi tiếng nhất nhưng Bitcoin không phải là duy nhất. Có nhiều đồng tiền điện tử khác, mỗi loại có các tính năng và cơ chế riêng. Hơn nữa, không phải tất cả các đồng tiền điện tử đều có blockchain riêng của mình. Một số được tạo ra trên nền của một blockchain đã tồn tại, trong khi những đồng tiền khác được tạo ra hoàn toàn từ đầu.

Giống như hầu hết các đồng tiền điện tử, Bitcoin có một nguồn cung hạn chế, điều đó có nghĩa là sẽ không có thêm Bitcoin nào được tạo ra bởi hệ thống sau khi đạt được nguồn cung tối đa. Mặc dù điều này là khác nhau giữa các dự án, nguồn cung Bitcoin tối đa được đặt là 21 triệu coin. Thông thường, tổng cung là một thông tin công khai được xác định khi tiền điện tử được tạo ra.

Giao thức Bitcoin là mã nguồn mở và bất kỳ ai cũng có thể xem hoặc sao chép mã. Sự phát triển của dự án nhận được sự đóng góp của nhiều nhà phát triển trên khắp thế giới.

The post Dành cho người mới: Blockchain và Bitcoin là gì? appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Bitcoin (BTC) was made possible by the people who believed in it, and its future is heavily dependent on the torchbearers of this legacy — the general public.

While Bitcoin’s rise from an online blog post into mainstream finance is worthy of a novel in itself, the constant support from the ecosystem of traders, miners and users has helped Bitcoin beat all odds and grow into one of the most profitable assets in humanity’s financial history.

Living the dream in cryptoland would ideally translate to buying a cup of coffee from a local store with Bitcoin. And the good news is that many businesses across the globe have started accepting the truly borderless currency. Given the increase in Bitcoin’s acceptance and considering the possibility of a great return on investment, the new generation of business owners wants to accept Bitcoin as payment for their services. But how? 

The Bitcoin ecosystem currently hosts a plethora of players offering a safe place to store Bitcoin among other cryptocurrencies. However, the risk of storing the asset with an unsafe provider is very real, which can ultimately lead to losing your Bitcoin forever.

Here are various options available to get going with Bitcoin acceptance in a few clicks. 

The essentials to accept Bitcoin

Bitcoin wallet — This is like your leather wallet where you store cash. The only difference is that it’s digital and that it stores Bitcoin. As someone running a business, always remember that a Bitcoin wallet can only accept BTC and no other form of cryptocurrencies. 

Many wallet services allow users to store multiple types of cryptocurrencies using different addresses. Bitcoin wallets are protected by passwords and private keys and are the only possible options to gain access to the funds.

Bitcoin address — Every Bitcoin wallet comes with an address. This address will be unique to your wallet and can be shared with others to receive payments. Wallets also have the option to convert the Bitcoin address into a scannable QR code, which can be displayed at the store.

However, if you make a transaction to a wrong address or with an unsupported currency, the underlying technology will not allow users to reverse or cancel it. Since the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, did not hire a customer service agent before disappearing for good, it is impossible to request a refund on your Bitcoin transactions.

Private key — The private key acts as a mathematical gateway to your Bitcoin reserve. Without this key, you instantly lose access to your BTC wallet. While all Bitcoin wallets have a unique private key, digital wallets often have options to log in through passwords. In either case, it is recommended to store a copy of this information on other devices such as USB sticks as a backup.

All you need to accept Bitcoin

After getting familiar with the basic requirements to hold and store Bitcoin, there are a few more steps that need to be taken to set up a business for accepting BTC payments. One of the best practices is to do your own research and identify the platforms and services that best meet your business and regulatory needs.

Look out for local regulations — Before you put up a sign that says “Bitcoin accepted here,” it would be wise to check for regulations in your jurisdiction. Accepting Bitcoin in disputable geographies may incur serious legal charges ranging from hefty fines to jail time.

Wallet options — Setting up a new Bitcoin wallet is as easy as signing up for a new email address. Some of the most common platforms for a Bitcoin wallet include cryptocurrency exchanges, and online (websites) and app-based wallets. Businesses also have the option to procure point-of-sale machines for collecting payments in Bitcoin through cards. 

Recommending wallet options is risky because the wallets are only as safe as the intent of the private companies hosting your BTC reserves. To help you get first-hand information on the latest and greatest in Bitcoin innovation, take a look at our beginner’s guide for you to find the best places to discuss Bitcoin and how to subsequently choose the best BTC wallet.

Online businesses can also make use of third-party payment processors, such as Coinbase and BitPay, to set up website payments gateways for BTC transactions. To see how a store that processes BTC payments operates, check out the Cointelegraph Store.

What to be aware of

Considering the massive price volatility, businesses are advised to maintain invoice copies with Bitcoin’s price based on the time of the transaction. This will help you keep track of your “true” income. 

Taxes calculated on Bitcoin transactions are heavily dependent on local jurisdiction. For example, the United States considers Bitcoin as property and will tax it differently compared to a jurisdiction that accepts it as a currency. Portugal currently leads this space, allowing citizens to trade cryptocurrencies tax-free since 2018.

The post Here’s How To Accept Bitcoins In Your Store appeared first on Crypto Insider.

A teenager who traded 157 BTC in the past three months has been arrested for alleged theft of Bitcoin from consumer devices.

A teenager who traded 157 BTC in the past three months has been arrested for alleged theft of Bitcoin from consumer devices.

Police in California have arrested an alleged hacker who stole Bitcoin (BTC) totalling more than $1 million by hijacking cellphones, investigative cybercrime blog Krebs on Security reported Wednesday, August 22.

Citing a police report, the publication reveals Xzavyer Narvaez, 19, used “SIM swapping,” a technique also known as a “port out scam,” to reportedly steal cryptocurrency from victims’ devices. Over a period of several years, Narvaez and another suspect already under arrest used the funds to buy items such as luxury sports cars.

From March to June 2018 alone, Narvaez’s account on cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex processed 157 BTC (around $1,009,000). The police report also confirms that crypto payment processor BitPay was used in Narvaez’s purchase of a 2018 McLaren from a car dealership in Southern California.

According to the report reproduced by Krebs On Security, Narvaez had used the same device to commit the crimes multiple times, which the publication summarizes “ultimately gave him away,” as “approximately 28 SIM swaps were conducted using the same employee ID number over an approximately two-week time period in November 2017.”

Further investigations by Vice revealed that the SIM swapping underworld regarded the 19-year-old as “one of the best SIM swappers out there.”

Nonetheless, Narvaez was unsubtle about his reportedly illegitimate cryptocurrency gains, posting photographs of cars he purchased on Instagram, Vice reports.

Earlier in August, a U.S. investor filed a $224 million lawsuit against telecoms giant AT&T over alleged negligence, claiming that $24 million in cryptocurrency was stolen via a “digital identity theft” of his cell phone account.

The episodes come as attitudes among U.S. law enforcement have become more nuanced regarding the use of cryptocurrency by malicious parties.

In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this month, Lilia Infante, an agent working on the Cyber Investigative Task Force at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said she hoped cryptocurrencies remained in favor in criminal circles, noting:

“The blockchain actually gives us a lot of tools to be able to identify people. I actually want them to keep using [cryptocurrencies].’’

The police report notes that the investigators had used the Bitcoin blockchain in order to “trace the flow of the bitcoins used to purchase the McLaren back to an address attributed to the cryptocurrency exchanger Bittrex,” also noting that “BitPay provided records that identified the Bitcoin transactions in which the vehicles were purchased.”

At the same time, the DEA reported the percentage of crimes involving Bitcoin had dropped dramatically since 2013.

The post Teenage ‘SIM Swapper’ Who Allegedly Stole Crypto From Cell Phones Arrested by California Police appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Last week, at least two crypto-related enterprises, a Silicon Valley stock and cryptocurrency trading platform Robinhood and Singapore-based crypto exchange Huobi, moved closer to going public by holding an initial public offering (IPO).

The ‘old school’ way to collect investments might seem especially attractive in the context of mass adoption trends and a declining ICO market, which now sees its hardest slump in 16 months. But what is an IPO exactly, and which crypto-related companies have chosen to go public?

What’s an IPO?

For those who know what an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is, the concept of initial public offering (IPO) — a more traditional way for a company to seek investments from broader audience in the public market — should seem familiar. The main difference between the two is that an ICO gives out tokens — whose use case is based on the company’s performance — while an IPO gives investors stock ownership in a company.

An IPO, or stock market launch, is when a company sells its shares to institutional investors and retail (individual) investors. This process is significantly more regulated compared to the ICO market: An IPO has to be supervised by regulators — like the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — and be underwritten by one or more investment banks. The so-called ‘underwriters’ manage the process, negotiate with the SEC and help its client get listed on a stock exchange. In the end, they collect commision on the raised funds.

Once the company gets listed on a stock exchange, say the NASDAQ in New York, it goes public — i.e., its shares are traded freely in the open market. Importantly, the company is now bound to comply with the watchdogs and keep its investors in the loop by publishing information regarding internal operations.

Holding a successful IPO includes a number of potential benefits, like attracting capital from a larger amount of investors, diversifying equity base and increasing the overall exposure and prestige of the company. Consequently, there are disadvantages as well, some of which include risks which include not enough capital being raised, legal costs and the requirement to disclose sensitive financial information.

Normally, ICOs allow investors to pay with crypto — usually Ethereum (ETH) — hence remaining somewhat anonymous, while IPO investors are limited to fiat money. However, in August, marijuana culture media group High Times Holding Corp. announced it would accept Bitcoin (BTC) and ETH in its upcoming IPO, making it the “first traditional stock offering ever to accept investments” in digital currencies. Despite the SEC later claiming that High Times will not be supporting cryptocurrencies as payment for shares, the media representative Jon Cappetta has since confirmed that the company is, in fact, technically accepting BTC and ETH as payment options, although now the digital money will be converted into U.S. dollar by a third-party company to meet the SEC’s requirements.

Alternatives to IPOs: Shortcuts to the public

Beside the traditional IPOs described in the section above, there are some alternative ways for a company to go public — namely the reverse IPO and Dutch IPO.

A reverse IPO, or a reverse takeover, is a way to bypass at least some of bureaucratic scrutiny involved in the process and go public with less hassle. To conduct a reverse IPO, a private company should buy enough shares to control a publicly traded company (also referred to as the shell). After that, the shareholders of the private company merge the shell company with their enterprise and exchange their shares for a majority of the shares of the public company.

At that point, they have gone public without having to go through the aforementioned process of a traditional IPO. In countries like the U.S., such a company will still have to disclose the information regarding the deal to the SEC, however “there are no registration requirements under the Securities Act of 1933 as there would be for an IPO,” as the regulator mentions on its website. Moreover, if the reverse-merger company’s securities are listed and traded on an exchange, the listed company must still meet the exchange’s initial listing standards to qualify for listing — however, the overall process is still much cheaper and faster in the end.

Dutch IPOs, in turn, are more similar to ICOs — they represent a way to raise money directly from the public instead of holding a conventional IPO, where investment banks would take their cut in the process.

During a Dutch IPO, as per Investopedia, potential investors submit their bids for the number of shares they want to buy and the price they are willing to pay for them. Once the bids are entered, “the allotted placement is assigned to the bidders from the highest bids down, until all of the allotted shares are assigned.” The price is based on the last successful bid. Perhaps the largest company at least remotely related to crypto that has gone public through a Dutch IPO is Patrick Byrne’s Overstock.com.

Australia and the U.K.: First crypto IPOs

Although the majority of crypto firms still rely on ICOs — as Block.one’s June offering showed — investors are still ready to pump record-breaking amounts of money into an unreleased product, and some of the players have already gone public through IPOs.

An apparent first was almost secured by an Australian-based Bitcoin mining firm Bitcoin Group Ltd., who was set to become the world’s first crypto firm to be traded on a stock exchange. It submitted its first prospectus to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) back in 2015, and after a series of delays caused by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) interference, raised a modest 5.9 million Australian dollars during its IPO, severely missing its AU$20 million goal. The ASX then raised concerns regarding Bitcoin Group’s capital, and the company chose to withdraw from the stock market.

Since then, the ASX has seen at least two more successful crypto-related applications: A fintech startup Kyckr, which uses blockchain for its corporate identity management platform, was listed on the stock exchange in 2016 after raising $5.2 million; and Identitii, a blockchain-based software outfit that helps financial institutions exchange payment information, which was listed on the ASX after its $11 million IPO in August 2018. While it is yet unclear how Identitii will perform, Kyckr shares are now being traded at 12 cents, despite being initially sold for 20 cents.

Another country that has hosted crypto-related IPOs is the United Kingdom. Back in December 2015, Coinsilium, a firm which provides advisory services to blockchain projects, was listed on the ISDX Growth Market in London, becoming the world’s first blockchain company to float, according to Financial Times. Coinsilium issued 10,000,000 ordinary shares at approximately 13 cents per share and raised one million pounds ($1,3 mln) in gross proceeds, becoming “the world’s first IPO of a blockchain technology company,” as Cameron Parry, Coinsilium’s executive chairman, commented on the news. The company’s shares trade at approximately 9 cents as of press time.

Moreover, in August 2018, mining firm Argo Blockchain PLC, which offers customers the ability to mine four cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Zcash — became the first crypto company to join the London Stock Exchange (LSE), raising around $32 million for a total valuation of about $61 million. It sold a total of 156,250,000 ordinary shares that represented 53.2 percent of the firm’s issued share capital at around 21 cents per share. Argo’s stock shares are being sold for approximately 23 cents, as of press time.

Hong Kong: Main frontier for China’s biggest mining players

The biggest player to join the IPO race might be Bitmain, an extremely successful Chinese mining company with around $3.5 billion in profit generated in 2017 — arguably one of the most influential businesses in the industry. Specifically, Bitmain develops high-grade Bitcoin mining hardware and has huge mining capabilities.

In June, media started to report that Jihan Wu, the co-CEO of Bitmain, was planning to conduct an overseas IPO in a market with U.S. dollar denominated shares — like Hong Kong — as it would allow early backers to cash in funds.

Later in July, a research unit for crypto exchange BitMEX analyzed leaked data on Bitmain’s potential IPO and stated that the mining giant had conducted a pre-IPO round that allegedly raised around $14 billion, leading them to believe that it could raise no less than $20 billion at the IPO stage.

Nevertheless, as Cointelegraph reported earlier, there had been a lot of rumors and uncertainty around Bitmain’s upcoming IPO. For instance, though DST Global and Japan’s SoftBank were initially listed among possible investors, they have since denied their involvement. Nevertheless, if Bitmain IPO ever does happen, it’s likely to affect the crypto industry simply due to the scale of the operation.

Still, Bitmain might be outraced by some of its compatriots: Both Canaan Creative, China’s second-largest BTC mining hardware manufacturer, and its competitor Ebang Communication have announced their plans to conduct IPOs on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx), which is yet to list crypto-related stocks. Interestingly, both Canaan’s and Ebang’s estimated goal is $1 billion, which is still modest compared to Bitmain’s whooping $20 billion.

Significantly, to accommodate the rising amount of fintech-based IPOs, the HKEx announced in August a new blockchain-powered private market. Called the HKEx Private Market, it focuses on helping smaller startups get their financing through pre-IPOs before entering the bigger market and facing the regulators’ supervision. It is set to be launched by the end of the year, according to the stock exchange’s chief executive Charles Li:

“We plan to launch a completely new venture called the HKEX Private Market in 2018 to provide early stage companies and their investors with a share registration and transfer platform based on blockchain technology so they can conduct pre-IPO financing and other activities on an off-exchange venue not under the regulatory remit of the Securities and Futures Ordinance. The Private Market will serve as a ‘nursery’ for early stage companies before they are ready to enter public markets.”

The reverse IPO: Simpler, but not necessarily a successful way for crypto companies

On Aug. 29, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) announced that Huobi had acquired controlling stock interest in Hong Kong-based electronic products manufacturing firm Pantronics Holdings Ltd.

Huobi reportedly seized an overall stake of 71.67 percent in Pantronics, alongside blockchain services provider platform Fission Capital — at a breakdown of 66.26 percent and 5.41 percent respectively.

Huobi’s purchase had the apparent signs of being a reverse IPO. However, Sandy Peng, a partner at Fission Capital, told Cointelegraph that “for the time being, this is a straight forward acquisition […] As stated in the announcement, Huobi intends to start new blockchain-related businesses using this entity.”

Indeed, the reverse IPO way, despite being cheaper and faster, has not proven to be fruitful for crypto companies: On Aug. 1, when crypto evangelist Mike Novogratz’s crypto-focused merchant bank Galaxy Digital made its trading debut on Toronto’s TSX Venture Exchange, the largest stock exchange in Canada, it shares plunged 20 percent.

Lacking the two years’ of audited financials required for a U.S. IPO, Novogratz instead acquired a Canadian crypto start-up Coin Capital, which he then merged with an already TSX-listed Canadian shell company Bradmer Pharmaceuticals.  

Before approving the listing, Canadian regulators subjected the firm to close scrutiny and pushed back its trading debut from April to August, during which a protracted downtrend in the crypto markets saw BTC below $6,000.

The U.S. SEC advises investors to be extra cautious when investing in the stocks of reverse merger companies.

From Coinsquare to Coinbase: More potential IPOs on the horizon

In September, Techcrunch reported that Robinhood, a stock and cryptocurrency trading platform with five million customers, was looking for a chief financial officer (CFO) to navigate the company through the path to an IPO. The Silicon Valley startup is already undergoing a series of audits from the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to ensure regulatory compliance.

Coinsquare, one of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is aiming to hold an $120 million IPO in September to facilitate overseas growth, according to the Bloomberg report. Interestingly, Coinsquare plans to sell its shares on the main Toronto Stock Exchange, “in contrast to several crypto companies which have used a shortcut to list on Canada’s junior TSX Venture Exchange in recent months via reverse takeovers,” as the media points out.

Interestingly, Coinsquare chief executive officer Cole Diamond insisted that Coinsquare was not taking the reverse IPO route, saying:

“Hell no. We believe that there are a tremendous amount of low-quality deals going public.”

Another major America-based crypto exchange, Coinbase, which has a reputation for being fully compliant with regulators, has also been flirting with the idea of holding an IPO since December 2017, but is yet to disclose any concrete details on going public. Meanwhile, all eyes are on Bitmain and its competitors, who are racing to enter the blockchain-friendly Hong Kong market.

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