Tag: Cryptocurrency Exchange

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Zaif Cryptocurrency Exchange Lost $60 Million BTC, MONA, and BCH During a Recent Cyber Attack

Zaif, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, reported on Thursday, September 20th, that it suffered a cyber attack which resulted in the theft of $60 million in Bitcoin (BTC), Monacoin (MONA), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The startup reported that the event occurred on September 14th but was noticed on Monday and confirmed on Tuesday.

Of the total amount subtracted, about $19.6 million belong to the cryptocurrency exchange platform, while the rest of the funds were stolen from customers. The Osaka-based company, owned by Tech Bureau Corp, temporarily suspended all deposits and withdrawals until security levels were restored, according to the press release.

Although the investigations are in their initial phase, the company said the cyberattackers diverted the cryptos from the platform’s wallets to their accounts.

Zaif, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, lost $60 million in Bitcoin (BTC), Monacoin (MONA), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in a cyber attack

“The reason why the amount of damage cannot be determined at this time is that the server is not restarting until security is guaranteed to avoid secondary damage. As soon as the amount of virtual currency lost is determined, we will report it promptly, stated Zaif’s representatives.

The incident was reported by Zaif to the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA), as part of its protocol in case of such attacks, to initiate investigations and find the hackers.

In the past, cyber attacks on Japanese cryptocurrency exchange platforms have given a massive blow to the crypto ecosystem in the country. This was also the case in January when $530 million in NEM (XEM) were stolen from Coincheck. The event was considered by Lon Wong, founder of NEM (XEM), as “the biggest robbery in the history of the world.”

Another famous case was that of Mt. Gox Bitcoin (BTC) exchange house in 2014 when the hacker stole 744,000 Bitcoin (BTC) from the users and another 100,000 BTC from the startup itself. The losses summed up to $422 million.

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Abra Exchange Allows Traders From The EU To Buy/Sell Cryptos Using Their Bank Accounts

On Tuesday, September 4th, the Abra crypto exchange platform and wallet announced the implementation of a new channel for users across the European Union, to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using their traditional bank accounts. Investors and users of Abra’s services are now in a position to purchase any of the 28 cryptos listed on the platform or to convert them into fiat money with their bank accounts.

Traders from the European Union can now buy and sell cryptocurrencies using their bank accounts on Abra crypto exchange platform

The US startup, which offers crypto investment services, among others, announced in a press release that all countries in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), which covers most of the Europeans nations, will be able to purchase Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) or other of the 26 cryptos, including Cardano (ADA), Basic Attention Token (BAT) and Tron (TRX), which were recently listed by Abra crypto exchange platform.

In this regard, Bill Barhydt, founder, and CEO of Abra pointed out that there is currently a higher demand for investing in cryptocurrencies.

“This new feature is helping to change the way people invest, adding a brighter future for the world’s cryptocurrencies market. Investors should be given the opportunity to finance their portfolios directly from their bank accounts,” said Bill Barhydt, Abra Founder, and CEO.

Abra also added credit card purchases for Bitcoin (BTC) about two months ago

The SEPA area is a territorial and economic jurisdiction located in Europe where citizens, companies or commercial entities can make and receive payments in Euro under the same conditions, rights, and obligations. In total, SEPA covers 28 EU Member States as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and San Marino.

The Abra crypto exchange service to permit users from the EU to use their bank accounts to exchange cryptos comes almost two months after the company enabled the purchase of Bitcoin (BTC) with credit cards such as Visa and MasterCard from virtually anywhere in the world.

The company also announced last March that it had created an application for mobiles that works as a wallet to protect cryptos, as well as a crypto exchange platform between cryptocurrencies and fiat money.

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Cryptocurrency Exchange Platforms In Japan Should Obey New, Stricter Regulations

Cryptocurrency exchange platforms across Japan should now follow a more stringent procedure to conduct their operations legally, after the country’s financial authority has strengthened its evaluation system in this area.

Sources at the Financial Services Agency (FSA) told The Japan Times that the new rules aim to ensure that future cryptocurrency exchange platforms are carrying out proper risk management. The FSA evaluation process had been suspended after 58 billion Yen (about $530 million) was stolen from customers in January following a cyber attack on the Japanese exchange house Coincheck.

Applicants now have to answer to about 400 inquiries, almost four times more questions than in the original procedure, the Japanese news portal reported. Additionally, the evaluations provide for on-the-spot inspections by the FSA to verify the truthfulness of the answers.

Among the new requirements that candidates are required to submit, there is information regarding the board meetings which gives clues about the financial health of the company and the security of its IT system. This data also allows FSA officers to assess whether company executives are adequately involved in decision-making.

The hacking of the Coincheck platform forced the Japanese authorities to tighten up the control over cryptocurrency exchange companies

The control over the cryptocurrency exchange platform conducted by the Japanese financial authorities was tightened after the multi-million dollar robbery on Coincheck.

By March, five Japanese crypto trading platforms had already closed their doors because they were unable to comply with the Financial Services Agency (FSA) regulations. Others were temporarily suspended by the agency to catch up with the regulations.

Additionally, in April, a group of sixteen FSA-approved cryptocurrency exchange platforms across Japan set up the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Industry Association with the aim of establishing self-regulatory measures to protect users and prevent cases such as the one that involved Coincheck.

More recently, in June, the FSA issued orders for commercial upgrades to six crypto trading platforms after conducting on-site inspections. The measure required operators to improve their internal audit and user protection systems.

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Institutional Investors To Play A Significant Role In The Crypto Market, Says The Coinbase VP

Coinbase Vice President and General Manager Adam White, during a recent interview, asserted that institutional investors would play a significant role for the crypto market since they see cryptocurrencies as a reliable investment asset. This statement is indeed a very bullish assertion regarding the future of the crypto-verse.

During an interview Adam White held at CNBC’s Fast Money talk-show, the Coinbase VP stated that the retail investors hit the breaks, letting institutional investors step in to take the significant role of becoming the primary investors in the cryptocurrencies market.

The role of institutional investors would be a significant one within the crypto market, in the future. To prove its statements regarding the switch from retail investors to institutional investors, Adam White presented Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange figures and new products.

Accordingly, Coinbase chose to invest in new crypto-related services and product, as well as in the new Coinbase Custody platform, specially designed for institutional investors.

Institutional investors will come in large number when the crypto market transparency increases

According to Adam White, Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange platform’s VP, increased crypto market transparency would attract more and more institutional investors. He also added that lowering cryptocurrency regulations’ ambiguity and full compliances with crypto-related legislations would benefit the emergence of increasingly more institutional investors in the market.

We have a long-term vision for space. And we are focused on building the exchange, the wallet, the custodian, that allows capital to move into space.

Adam White, Coinbase Vice President and General Manager

Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange platform introduced the Coinbase Custody service dedicated to institutional investors, among the first platforms in the world.

The emergence of institutional investors would indeed increase the cryptocurrencies trading volumes and would bring the crypto market to the next level, which could mean increased adoption and, above all, higher cryptocurrencies values against the USD.

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FCoin Cryptocurrency Exchange Buy Back Its FT Tokens To Finance A New Investment Fund

The Chinese cryptocurrency exchange platform FCoin announced the creation of a new investment fund to support a group of previously constituted token funds, selected to continue investing in blockchain technology projects. The capital for this support will come from the repurchase of its FT tokens on the secondary market.

The announcement, dated July 13th, states that the repurchase will be, in an initial phase, 100 million FT tokens. According to information published on FCoin official website, this operation is intended to encourage project fund participants to adopt FT tokens to raise financing capital.

To operate this parent fund, they will establish an “FT Trading Area,” which will be accessible to participants in projects that have managed to raise more than 3 million FT tokens from the fund. However, they noted that they would make further announcements later on on the relevant rules of the “FT Trading Area.”

FCoin cryptocurrency exchange has been the subject of several controversies since its launch last May

FCoin’s business model, where the cryptocurrency trading is, at the same time, used as mining, was questioned by the crypto community as not sustainable over time. Recently, the startup launched a competition to develop a ranking of accumulated deposits, which congested the Ethereum (ETH) network.

The recent significant increase in Ethereum’s fees was analyzed by a Reddit user, who pointed out that it was related to the competition launched by FCoin.

As the user stated in a publication two days ago, 40% of the network was being used by a contract for an ERC20 token called “IFishYunYu,” which has no features. However, a significant number of accounts he calls “mysterious” were sending massive amounts of this token, apparently to transfer individual tokens to the FCoin cryptocurrency exchange, which are distributed in different directions and then returned to the primary address.

That would have meant that in 24 hours around 50 ETH per hour would have been paid in fees.

The high volume of transactions in the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, generated by the FCoin cryptocurrency exchange, are caused by the startup business model, as the ranking depends on the accumulation of deposits on the platform.

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