Author: Anna Galvez

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Crypto News

This Is How TokenPay And Litecoin (LTC) Foundation Will End Up With Their Own German Bank

Charlie Lee, the founder of Litecoin (LTC), tweeted with Derek Capo, the CEO of TokenPay in April. The discussion soon turned into a friendly exchange of private messages, where the two cryptos enthusiasts found out they had a common concern: the banking system.

Both the Litecoin Foundation and TokenPay have encountered challenges in ensuring bank accounts security, a longstanding situation for the industry.

“Some banks close bank accounts if they have anything to do with cryptos. We saw many competitors with similar offers being cut off because they didn’t own the bank and didn’t have control,” explained Derek Capo from TokenPay.

“Why don’t we talk about having a Litecoin (LTC) debit card, so you have a real solution? Because, you know, they’ve worked so hard to get a Litecoin (LTC) debit card, I said, why don’t we talk?” recalls Charlie Lee.

The Litecoin Foundation thus acquired a 9.9 percent interest in WEG Bank AG, a previously shady German banking institution.

But the Litecoin (LTC) Foundation did not invest money in this move

TokenPay first purchased the shares and made them available to the nonprofit in exchange for technical support in the future. TokenPay also purchased another 9.9 percent (the highest permissible in Germany with no prior approval from the regulatory authorities) from WEG and is now seeking the green light to acquire 80 percent more.

If everything proceeds as scheduled, TokenPay and the Litecoin Foundation will not only have a trusted banking associate but will also transform WEG into a hotspot for customers worldwide who would like to trade fiat for crypto coins or purchase goods and services with cryptos.

Over time, after dealing with Litecoin (LTC) debit cards and cryptocurrency payment processing, both Derek Capo from TokenPay and Charlie Lee from Litecoin Foundation plan to embed banking services into the eFin decentralized cryptocurrency exchange owned by the TokenPay group.

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Crypto Finance News

Central Bank Of Thailand Plans Adopting Blockchain Technology For Cross-Border Payments

The push for the adoption of Blockchain technology in Thailand’s banking sector appears to be unstoppable. The Governor of the Bank of Thailand (BoT), Dr. Veerathai Santiprabhob, at the ASEN Bloomberg Business Summit, disclosed that the Central Bank was carrying out a thorough examination of blockchain applications for authentication of documents, financing of the supply chain, and cross-border payments.

“The Sandbox serves as a platform for FinTech financial institutions and firms to test new technologies and operating standards in a secure environment before products and services are released to the general public,” said Santiprabhob.

The Governor of the Bank of Thailand also asserted that there is a secure attachment on the part of the Central Bank to the region’s connectivity with the world. The Bank considers the use of Blockchain for cross-border payments as a way of enhancing the financial sector in Thailand.

Central Bank of Thailand has the goal to adopt blockchain technology for cross-border payments and back-office activities

Earlier this July, Santiprabhob announced that he was collaborating with the country’s banking sector under Thailand’s Blockchain Community Initiative to harness blockchain technology in the financial system. This effort gathered 14 commercial banks, as well as seven state and private enterprises.

The governor of the BoT also considers that Blockchain has an essential role to play in mitigating fraudulent activity and safeguarding financial information.

“The adoption of modern technologies such as biometrics and Blockchain can help safeguard financial information and reduce the number and scale of fraudulent activity,” said Santiprabhob.

“The Bank of Thailand is also undertaking regulatory reform to review obsolete rules and regulations, to facilitate trade and to ensure that our regulations do not impede competition and innovation and also contribute to the high costs of financial services,” the Governor added during the ASEN Bloomberg Business Summit.

Ultimately, the Central Bank of Thailand’s purpose would be to use blockchain technology for cross-border payments and back-office activities.

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Crypto News

Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Plans To Launch Its Own Bank, The “Founders Bank”

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, is considering launching its own decentralized, jointly owned banking institution. The news was announced in a statement issued by the same company last week. The “Founders Bank” project will be based in Malta, as the small island has positioned itself as one of the most crypto- friendly countries in the world.

According to Bloomberg, Binance has chosen to take a 5% stake along with other anchor investors. This cooperation amounts to approximately 155 million dollars. In simpler terms, the project reflects an effort to unite and relate cryptocurrencies market with conventional banking.

To achieve this, the cryptocurrency exchange platform must obtain the corresponding permits on the island of Malta, but it appears that this will not be a problem since the authorities have taken this initiative with considerable enthusiasm.

The biggest drawback for the Binance own bank would be the European Central Bank (ECB)

Malta’s Deputy Minister of Financial Services, Silvio Schembri, noted with delight the fact that his nation had been chosen as the location for the “first community-owned bank in the world.”

Now, since Malta is a Member State of the European Union, it seems that the most challenging thing will be to get approval from the European Central Bank (ECB). As we all know by now, the ECB has been against some initiatives involving cryptocurrencies, such as the idea of a crypto-funded state.

Binance’s “Founders Bank” will conduct its fundraising offering through the Neufund blockchain-based platform and issue its own legally binding capital tokens. According to Binance, the sales will be carried out under German regulations in collaboration with one of the leading stock exchanges in Europe.

It is no coincidence that Malta is hosting this project

Binance was forced to migrate from Japan and Hong Kong due to strict regulatory measures. Being now located in Malta, it is no surprise that this is the location for these and other initiatives the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange platform will deploy.

Malta, on the other hand, a member of the European Union, is competing with destinations like Gibraltar and Switzerland for the attention of cryptocurrency-related firms around the world.

Binance’s decision to launch its own bank, “Founders Bank,” to blend cryptocurrencies with traditional banking comes as a counter-attack against the banking institutions which consider cryptos as a threat to fiat money.

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Crypto News

Japanese Police Retained A Man’s Cryptocurrency Holdings For Violating Traffic Law

Japanese Police now has the right to seize cryptocurrency from those who violate traffic laws. That is to say, if you park badly, if you don’t respect a traffic light or if you stop where you shouldn’t, you are exposed to the authorities retaining your digital assets (among other assets) as collateral to ensure that you pay the fine.

In this context, local media in Japan reported that the traffic guidance division of the Hyogo prefecture police announced this week that they had confiscated the cryptocurrency holdings of a 59-year-old resident on multiple parking violation charges.

The Kobe Shimbun media reported that around 44 USD was seized in cryptos, but police did not reveal whether it was in Bitcoin (BTC) or some other crypto.

The media channel specified that if by the end of this month, the payment is not received, at the deadline for claiming the seized property, the retained cryptocurrency will be charged at the current rate and given to the prefectural police.

Japanese police can retain cryptocurrency to cover traffic fines

Normally, according to NewsBitcoin and the mandates of the Japan Public Safety Commission, “land, houses, cars, bank savings, wages, and life insurance payments could be seized.”

Still, the 59-year-old man’s case is a little different because the police had no records of his workplace, nor any bank information about statements or cash deposits. The confiscation of their cryptocurrency was possible because in previous months cryptocurrency was declared and legalized as a mean of payment.

According to police reports, after the crypto assets were recognized by the funds’ settlement law that was implemented in April last year, digital coins were sanctioned as an asset that can be seized.

This method used by the police has been highly effective in getting offenders to pay fines. If you choose not to pay, you may lose more than what not obeying the rules would cost you. Also, if it takes too long to pay a fine, you risk losing whatever has been seized, in this case, cryptocurrency.

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Crypto News

MyEtherWallet Hacked Via The Hola VPN Chrome Extension

MyEtherWallet, one of the most popular Ethereum (ETH) wallets, alerted its users that, in case they’ve used the Hola VPN service that works as a Chrome extension to access their portfolio, their funds may be compromised.

The MyEtherWallet (MEW) development team asked their users to transfer the funds stored in their wallet if they had used the Hola VPN service within the last 24 hours. That although their platform was not compromised, but they assume that the attackers still have access via the before-mentioned VPN. According to them, Chrome’s extension may have been the victim of malware for five hours in an attack aimed at logging wallet activity to steal funds.

The vulnerability exploited by the attackers occurred hours after the last update of Hola VPN, released yesterday, and according to MyEtherWallet, the attack was registered from a Russian IP address.

Some Reddit users complained their wallets were hacked even though they had not used Hola VPN

The developers also reminded their users that MEW “does not have any personal data, including passwords,” so their users can be sure that hackers will not get any information if they did not use the VPN. However, the extent of the attack is unknown at this time, and some Reddit users claim to have been hacked without using Hola VPN.

It is important to note that this is the second attack MyEtherWalletexperience in 2018, after the incident on May 24th, when the devs presumed that during the hours of the attack hackers had the opportunity to manipulate the Ethereum (ETH) wallets. According to official statements, MEW suffered the hijacking of some DNS servers that were redirected for hours to a phishing site.

In October 2017, it was the first time when MEW was the subject of a phishing operation in which more than $15 million in Ethereum (ETH) got stolen. However, the attacks MyEtherWallet has suffered in recent months have not been directly linked to vulnerabilities in the wallet code but to its associated services and phishing.

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