Digital Financial News

As concerns rise that entrepreneurs are cashing out their initial coin offerings and that some digital tokens including Bitcoin may have become overvalued, nearly all of the largest cryptocurrencies fell.

While 2017 was a big year for cryptocurrencies, Ripple seems to haveflown under the radar to a certain extent. Certainly, the digital currency has its share of investors and enthusiasts. As of this writing, with a global market cap of more than $43 billion (according to coinmarketcap.com), it remains the fourth-largest virtual currency in the world.

First it was bitcoin, then ethereum, litecoin, and other digital currencies became the center of attention. Now, it's apparently time for ripple to enjoy the spotlight. The once-obscure cryptocurrency has catapulted itself into the No. 1 spot on the list of largest digital currencies by market cap, surpassing bitcoin cash, ethereum, and a host of other competitors.

As the total value of the digital currency industry tops $600 billion, scores of new millionaires (and even billionaires) have emerged. Two of the newest billionaires who have enjoyed massive windfalls from the success of XRP are Ripple's current and former CEOs Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse.

Recent news that the National Security Administration (NSA) may have successfully launched investigations into "Tor, I2P, and VPN," with an additional pending request for projects focused on cryptocurrencies, is likely to go over poorly with the cryptocurrency community.

As the digital currency market starts to creep back following a major decline earlier this year, one long-time banker suggests that 2017's high-flying run may repeat itself. Oki Matsumoto, CEO of Japanese financial services company Monex Group Inc., spoke at the Japan Society in New York on Tuesday, indicating that despite a pushback from global regulators, cryptocurrencies could take off in the same manner that derivatives did 38 years ago when they were equally disliked by regulators. The finance executive started his career in derivatives at Solomon Brothers in 1987. The entrepreneur then spent 12 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was responsible for starting the investment bank's yen-denmonated fixed-income trading desk. (See also: Already More ICOs in 2018 Than All of 2017: $6.3B.)

The hack saw more than 2000 unauthorised transactions which sent the stolen bitcoin to a digital wallet controlled by Lichtenstein, say authorities. According to the Department of Justice, over the last five years, about 25,000 of the bitcoin were move from the wallet via a "complicated money laundering process" that ended with some of the funds being deposited into financial accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan.Deputy Attorney General Lisa O Monaco says: “Today’s arrests, and the department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals.“In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions.

The cryptocurrency industry breathed a sigh of relief this week, as many digital assets including Bitcoin showed signs of recovery from a tumultuous January. All eyes are on the top coin for now, as it breached the important $45,000 resistance level a few hours ago, for the first time in over a month, after gaining a 5.2% valuation over the past day.

The race to integrate cryptocurrencies into the global banking network is real. The digital asset marketplace recently reclaimed or rather surpassed the $2 trillion mark. The sheer valuation was one of the reasons for the unprecedented traction. A report published by KPMG, one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting organizations had published a report to highlight the same.

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Pete Sessions has appointed Himanshu B Patel as chief advisor for his Crypto Group.

Sequoia Capital is playing catchup with arch-rival Andreessen Horowitz in the race to invest in what could be the future of the internet — so-called Web3.

Disclaimer: The text below is a press release that was not written by Cryptonews.com. 

Government has a consultation process for cryptocurrency formalisation, Nirmala Sitharaman has said

India has surprised the payments world by announcing that its central bank will issue a digital currency as early as the coming financial year, a crucial decision that most other major economies are refusing to make in a hurry. According to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, an electronic representation of India's legal tender will give a big boost to its digital economy. How valid is that claim, and how risky is a hasty transition to a central bank digital currency, or CBDC?

Crypto firms, convened by risk monitoring software firm Solidus Labs, are establishing a coalition to combat market manipulation with an effort to win for trust in the mass nascent digital asset industry, according to Reuters.

Disclaimer: The text below is a press release that was not written by Cryptonews.com. 

The month of January spooked the market amid a larger sell-off. While BTC depreciated by 50% and the market saw losses of hundreds of millions, the market, at press time, seemed to be on the path to recovery.

After the market witnessed mayhem in early January, the crypto-verse is now on the path to recovery. The global cryptocurrency market cap recovered by 2.5% in the last 24 hours. This, while Bitcoin’s dominance remains under 40% on CoinGecko.However, reversing its last week’s slide, BTC managed to gain by 12% over the past week to trade near $42,500, at the time of writing.

A taxation frenzy has gripped cryptocurrency markets worldwide, as several countries introduced tax regimes for the nascent asset class over the past few weeks. The latest such development has popped from Venezuela, where the government is set to impose an exorbitant structure on crypto payments.

A grave setback engulfed India’s cryptocurrency market last week when the country’s government introduced a 30% tax on digital asset income. While some have heralded it as a step towards the legitimization of the sector, many investors are crying foul over the high tax rate.