Several Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges have delisted markets in a bid to comply with China’s recent clarifications on the legality of ICOs. Yunbi, Dahonguo, and Yuanbao have issued statements addressing the central bank’s new regulations, moving to delist markets that facilitate the trade of tokens issued via initial coin offering.
Robert Shiller, the Nobel-winning author who predicted the two biggest speculative markets in recent history, is repeating that bitcoin is in a bubble.
In January 2014 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he called the cryptocurrency "an amazing example of a bubble," adding that there was "no question about it."
On Monday, Israel and Switzerland signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at increasing their relations in the financial services sector. The document was signed in Tel Aviv by Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Ueli Maurer, the head of Swiss Confederation Federal Department of Finance.
The Ministry of Finance stated, "Israel and Switzerland have signed a letter of understanding for extensive cooperation in the financial services sector." At the same time, sources said that the Israel Securities Authority was promoting an extension of the dual listing arrangement for Israeli companies to Hong Kong and Singapore.
ICOs allow start-ups to raise investment by selling new cryptocurrencies, which are similar to bitcoin, in return for cash. However, the People’s Bank of China says this practice, which has become popular around the world as well as in China, constitutes illegal fundraising.
The document defined initial coin offerings (ICOs) as an unauthorized fundraising tool that may involve financial scams, the Caixin report noted. The committee provided a list of 60 major ICO platforms for local financial regulatory bodies to inspect.
When charted, bitcoin’s rapid gains resemble how stocks surged into the tech bubble before collapsing. CNBC has talked to Informa Financial Intelligence strategist David Ader who reckons the five-fold rise in the price of Bitcoin this year is a little over the top:
"This is the price chart for an overly frothy market, in my opinion. I just don’t see anything quite as comparable to this in bubblelicious terms," said Ader, a former top-rated bond market strategist.
Several major banks have joined a project called Utility Settlement Coin (USC) that is intended to facilitate the issuance by central banks around the world of currencies using Blockchain technology.
Six international banks: Barclays, Credit Suisse, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, HSBC, MUFG and State Street have joined up with UBS to develop a new digital cash system using the blockchain. BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Santander and the blockchain company Clearmatics joined the project back in 2015.
Litecoin, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by value and rival to bitcoin, has rallied nearly 1,400 percent since the start of the year after hitting a record high price.
On Monday, litecoin hit an all-time high of $64.2, marking a 1383% rise since January first where it traded at $4.33, data from industry website Coinmarketcap.com showed. The price pulled back slightly on Tuesday and was just above $62 in early trade.
Hackers have discovered that one of the most central elements of online security, the mobile phone number, is also one of the easiest to steal; and it’s is an increasingly growing problem, the New York Times reports.
In a growing number of online attacks, hackers have been calling up Verizon, T-Mobile U.S., Sprint and AT&T and asking them to transfer control of a victim’s phone number to a device under the control of the hackers.
Once they get control of the phone number, they can reset the passwords on every account that uses the phone number as a security backup – as services like Google, Twitter and Facebook suggest.
