Author: Anna Galvez

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Crypto Markets News

SBI Holdings Acquired 12% Of Clear Markets In A Move To Develop A Cryptocurrencies Derivatives Platform

The Japanese financial institution SBI Holdings will extend its crypto portfolio with cryptocurrencies derivatives after purchasing a 12% stake in Clear Markets, said SBI’s financial report released on July 31st. SBI intends to acquire up to 20 percent more in the near future.

Clear Markets is a US-based provider and developer of electronic trading platforms offering trading services for OTC derivatives in the US, UK, and Japan.

SBI’s new investment in Clear Markets is one part of its commitment to establish a trading platform for cryptocurrency derivatives addressed to institutional investors. The platform is intended to allow financial institutions to trade cryptos more efficiently.

Clear Markets will facilitate hedging for cryptocurrency swaps that are “necessary for dealing with cryptocurrencies and financial instruments that use cryptocurrencies.” In the review, the SBI group stated that the intensified use of cryptocurrencies and their derivatives would boost liquidity.

Nikkei Asian predicts that the investment will cost SBI Holdings approximately $9 million.

SBI Holding to develop a cryptocurrencies derivatives platform with Clear Markets

Clear Markets intends to implement a cryptocurrency trading service as it already has a US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and SEF (Swap Execution Facility) license and is involved in derivatives brokerage market across the UK and other 32 European countries. The corporation is an affiliate of QUICK Corp. a member of the Japanese Nikkei Inc.

In 2017, SBI Holdings spent money on over 20 crypto-related projects and, on July 17th, it formally released the official version of the VCTRADE cryptocurrency exchange. Now, SBI Holdings plans on releasing a cryptocurrencies derivatives platform with Clear Markets.

Japan is among the world’ s top countries in the introduction of cryptocurrencies and crypto investments. “Up to 50 percent of the cash trade in cryptocurrency” has so far occurred in Japan, said Mark Brickell, CEO of Clear Markets.

During the past week, the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association (JVCEA) declared that it would demand that its cryptocurrency exchange affiliates restrict the trading operations of some customers in order to avoid high capital losses for those investors with relatively small financial holdings.

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Crypto News Tech

PowerGhost Is An Innovative Crypto Mining Malware, Mostly Targeting Corporate Networks

Unauthorized crypto mining malware recently discovered by Kaspersky Labs is affecting corporate networks worldwide. The computer security firm said that so far the most affected countries by this virus are India, Brazil, Colombia, and Turkey. The cryptojacking malware was named PowerGhost because of the difficulty of detecting it, an advantageous feature for unauthorized mining malware.

The firm’s experts described that, once it is sneaked onto the victim’s device, it accentuates its privileges through vulnerabilities in the operating system and begins to mine cryptocurrencies in the background.

Among the countries with the highest incidence of this virus attack are Brazil and India, with 200 to 290 users affected, followed by Colombia and Turkey, where between 110 and 200 users were infected, according to SecureList data.

Like any other crypto mining malware, PowerGhost uses processing power from infected devices and uses it to decipher the puzzle that validates a block of transactions with cryptos. This process, known as cryptojacking, requires a large number of computational resources and can cause overheating and lag the affected devices.

PowerGhost crypto mining malware is mostly focusing on corporate networks

In this particular case, the virus seems to be focused on corporate networks, so it also attacks server performance and accelerates wear and tear, generating replacement costs.

Kaspersky Labs warns that, compared to most malware of this type, PowerGhost is more difficult to detect because of it doesn’t need any files to work. That means it does not download malicious files to the devices it infects, making it easier to operate without being noticed.

Moreover, experts identified a version of this crypto mining malware that contains a tool for DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks which can paralyze networks and servers.

A technical analysis of this malware published by Secure List shows that cybercriminals are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to achieve their goals. They believe that the devs of PowerGhost went further by using “file-less” techniques to deploy the cryptojacking software on their victims’ systems.

It seems that the growing popularity and the increasing prices of cryptocurrencies have made cybercriminals to innovate new malicious crypto mining software. As the data shows, the cryptojacking malware programs are gradually replacing the ransomware Trojans.

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Crypto News

The US Chamber of Digital Commerce Released A Technical Report On Crypto Tokens And ICOs Legal Management

The US Chamber of Digital Commerce, through the Token Alliance, made available a technical report in which the authors release various guidelines for the crypto tokens market to grow responsibly. The document intends to encourage further guidance for stakeholders such as users, investors and the various regulators that look closely at crypto assets and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

The 108-page document, entitled “Understanding Digital Tokens: Market Review and Guidelines for Policymakers and Professionals,” contains recommendations for groups or individuals promoting crypto tokens. The first suggestion they highlight is that sponsors should be aware that confusion can occur if they use vague terminology. So they invite the promoters to avoid language related to financial values or marketing that might confuse readers about the nature of the crypto tokens.

As a second point, it is explained that the tokens sponsors must have lawyers who are experts in the US federal securities law. This is because these are instruments that can be used by regulators seeking to prevent securities fraud, such as the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The US Chamber of Digital Commerce offered a guide for legal management of crypto tokens and ICOs

In another section, the steps to be followed, from start to finish, in a token distribution are mentioned. The following are discussed:

  • to carry out the concept and development of the technology
  • to write the white paper and other materials accurately
  • to carry out regulatory and corporate reviews
  • to carry out a public distribution

The aspects to be included in the white paper should consist of explaining the technology in detail, explaining the project, exemplifying its use, describing the token, characteristics, risk disclosure, promotion, and marketing.

Industry and government must work together to create a regulatory landscape that allows crypto tokens market participants and ICOs to precisely determine when a token is a product and when it is a value. Legal predictability promotes market efficiency by eliminating unnecessary costs and obstacles, facilitating the development of new projects that will benefit consumers. Legal clarity will also help the government to remove bad actors who have taken advantage of the lack of policy guidance.

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Crypto News

Yesterday, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Community Celebrated 1 Year Of Coin’s Existence

Yesterday, on August 1st, we marked one year since the launch of the User-Activated Soft Fork (UASF) that made it possible to activate Segregated Witness (SegWit), a solution to the problems of scalability and information management in the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. During that time, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) emerged.

As a result of this community decision, Bitcoin (BTC) main network was the scene of a fork from which the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) broke off, a token whose promoters wanted to position as the “real” Bitcoin. The disagreement over the size of the blocks generated was the primary trigger for this proposal.

It has been described as Independence Day, as the users of the leading cryptocurrency in the market imposed their criteria to the attempt to stop this improvement by the promoters of the increase in the size of the blocks.

From the beginning, the developers of the protocol advocated the application of SegWit via UASF, while the promoters of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and, among them Jihan Wu, CEO of the mining equipment manufacturing company, Bitmain, bet on the application of a hard-fork where the capacity of the blocks would be considerably increased.

Yesterday we marked one year since the User-Activated Soft Fork (UASF) that gave birth to SegWit and Bitcoin Cash (BCH)

Pieter Wuille presented this scalability solution during the Scaling Bitcoin conference in Hong Kong in 2016. The update was received with reluctance, but when the implementation and signaling of SegWit became more evident, the proposal was accepted.

The great debate over the size of the blocks as a potential solution to scalability caused the community to split up. The leading promoters of the hard-fork signed an agreement in New York, with which they signed the need for the modification to take place.

Additionally to Bitmain and Roger Ver, other actors such as Huobi, BTCCPool, Bitmain, F2Pool, BTCTop, ViaBTC, BiXin, BW, 1Hash, Canoe, BATPool, and Bitkan had signed this document, despite the fact that the group opposing the proposal was much larger.

One of the main turning points is that this modification followed a mandatory scheme to change the node’s software, overriding the blocks generated before its activation. However, the Bitcoin (BTC) community decided to give in to SegWit and its User-Activated Soft Fork (UASF) scheme.

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Crypto News

Latin American Countries Increased Their Bitcoin (BTC) Trading Volumes In July

In July, Argentina recorded the highest volume of Bitcoin (BTC) transactions in its market at LocalBitcoins, reaching the equivalent of $220,000 in Argentine pesos for the week of July 7th. Also, the Colombian and Mexican Bitcoin markets showed increases in the same month, maintaining them until the end of July.

In the specific case of Argentina, according to data from Coin Dance, LocalBitcoins reported an abrupt increase in person-to-person transactions in the first week of July, trading a total of 31 BTC under the volume of 6,047,934 Argentine pesos.

Also, throughout July the Argentine market of LocalBitcoins had a slight decrease in the volume of transactions but remained constant between 4 and 5 million Argentine pesos. That is to say, between $100,000 and $180,000, numbers that precede the market increase that the country experienced last June.

On the other hand, Colombia kept its volume rising steadily throughout July, which has been increasing since May 2018, reaching 4,400,000 Colombian pesos in purchase and sale transactions, about 2,000 dollars, for the exchange of a total of 199 BTC.

Mexico also experienced increases in its domestic market, but the volume fluctuated from week to week, ending with the best values of the month with a total of 6,600,000 Mexican pesos for the exchange of 42 BTC. That is a total of $354,627 for the week of July 28th.

Latin American countries increased their Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes

Latin American countries have generally and consistently maintained the growth of their Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes for this time of year. For example, in the case of Venezuela, the market volume skyrocketed due to the country’s economic situation, reaching 14 trillion bolivars for a total of 604 BTC for the week of July 21st.

Brazil, which recorded a decline in trade in June, recovered in July with a peak of BTC transactions that reached the volume of 3,201,000 rials, or 128 BTC. That is approximately over $800,000.

In the specific case of Peru, the country had a decrease Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes in the first week of July, but rebounded in the following weeks, reaching the maximum of transactions for the week of July 21st with more than 3 million soles, about $900,000.

Today, the LocalBitcoins platform has become a tool to calculate the growth of the Bitcoin (BTC) market in Latin America, proving on more than one occasion that the Latin American region is more and more related with the cryptocurrency market.

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