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There Is No ‘Bitcoin’: What the SEC Doesn’t Get About Cryptocurrency

Edan Yago is the founder of  CementDAO , an effort to bring together stablecoins into a unified ecosystem.  He previously was the CEO and co-founder of software firm Epiphyte and helped set up the industry associations DATA and the Stablecoin Foundation.  The views expressed here are his own. —————————- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been gone to significant lengths in an attempt to understand the crypto asset space. This effort is to be applauded. However, the SEC has failed to come to terms with one fundamental aspect of crypto assets and systems. Namely, properly constructed crypto systems do not involve “persons” or “entities” and do not represent a form of property. For this reason, they do not have any analogue in the traditional financial world, nor can they fall under financial regulation. In the traditional financial world, assets are a claim on a specific property. For example, a commodity, shares in a company or a debt owed. Crypto asset

Major Accountancy Firms Race to Offer Auditing Services for Crypto and Blockchain Companies

Top professional services firms, including EY, PwC, and KPMG, are currently hiring hundreds of blockchain and cryptocurrency experts to offer auditing services to companies involved in the loosely regulated sector, the Financial Times reported on Oct. 29. Auditors Grapple with Crypto and Blockchain Despite a prevailing lack of consensus on how digital assets should be accounted for and the overall negative sentiment large financial institutions have towards cryptocurrencies in general, major accountancy firms don’t shy away from providing services to companies in the sector. Companies such as EY, PwC, and KPMG are ramping up their by hiring specialized staff and developing their own in-house technologies to support the crypto audit process. The main reasoning behind the overwhelming support the industry has gotten from the auditors stems from their belief that businesses will continue to use the blockchain technology underpinning it even as the hype around cryptocurrencies die

Ex-Russian Economics Minister Claims Crypto as the Right Model for Money Supply

Russia’s former Minister of Economics and Trade, Herman Gref, has spoken out in favour of cryptocurrencies and their transformational nature as a future threat to the financial sector’s status quo. Gref, who was Russian Economics minister between 2000 and 2007 is CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of the largest Russian bank Sberbank. In a recent forum, he suggested that over time centralised money supply models would give way to new innovations. However, Gref did suggest that such change would take time and certainly wasn’t imminent, although he felt that blockchain adoption was a much nearer prospect.  Cryptocurrency adoption would, in his view, take another decade before it could offer a challenge to current banking systems , commenting that, as yet“… it’s not likely that any state is ready to part with the centralised money supply model.” Talking of DLT the ex-minister suggested that the significance of the new technology is starting to find its way into financia

Walmart is now selling bitcoins for $1 ??

Walmart   is now selling bitcoin for $1. But in a new spin on the volatile and ever-changing world of cryptocurrency, this digital currency is made of chocolate. Frankford bitcoins , are 1.42 ounces of milk chocolate wrapped in gold-colored foil made by Frankford Candy. They’re reminiscent of the regular old foil-wrapped milk chocolate coins of yesteryear. But of course, entirely different because they’re called bitcoin. Bitcoin   is a digital decentralized currency that’s created and then held electronically. Frankford just added the milk chocolate. View image on Twitter Frankford Candy @frankfordcandy Lots of Milk Chocolate + Bitcoins = Pure happiness. 12:49 AM - Sep 7, 2018 20 See Frankford Candy's other Tweets Twitter Ads info and privacy Frankford Candy, which has been in business since 1947, is hardly the first company to see opportunity in the rise of cryptocurrencies. Who can forget Long Island Iced Tea Cor

Canadian Bitcoin Fund Receives Status as Mutual Fund Trust

Canada’s “first” and “only” regulated Bitcoin (BTC) fund First Block Capital Inc. has obtained mutual fund trust status, allowing investors to put their fund units in self-directed registered accounts, according to a press release published September 10. First Block Capital Inc. (First Block) announced that investors in its flagship product the FBC Bitcoin Trust — available for accredited investors only — can now put their holdings in such accounts as a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA). Essentially this will allow accredited investors to deposit their fund units into accounts which provide substantial tax benefits for retirement and savings purposes. There are several types of accredited investors in Canada which include but are not limited to: an individual registered as an adviser or dealer by securities regulators; a person who beneficially owns financial assets in the amount that exceeds $1,000,000 before taxes; or a person wh

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the temporary suspension of trading in the securities Bitcoin Tracker One (“CXBTF”) and Ether Tracker One

The regulator pointed to “a lack of current, consistent and accurate information” in the two crypto investment vehicles issued by Swedish firm XBT Provider AB following their entry into the US market last month. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Sunday issued an order to halt the trading in Bitcoin Tracker One (CXBTF) and Ether Tracker One (CETHF), two investment products that track cryptocurrencies. The two exchange-traded notes (ETNs) are issued by Swedish company XBT Provider AB, a subsidiary of U.K.-based Coinshares Holdings. The two products have been listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange since 2015 and  entered the U.S. market  last month under the ticker CXBTF, enabling domestic investors to access and invest in the crypto ETNs in an over-the-counter (OTC) market with their U.S. dollars. SEC_News ✔ @SEC_News The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the temporary suspension of trading in the securities Bitcoin Track

Bitcoin Adoption Is Getting A Massive Lightning Network Boost --- Payment Gateways

  Replica bitcoins are seen in this photo illustration on November 4, 2017. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Bitcoin adoption is about to take another step forward with the Lightning Network today getting a boost from payment processing startup CoinGate — which is adding all 4,000 of its merchants to the off-chain system. Those CoinGate merchants which will be able to accept payments via the Lightning Network include  Swiss watch manufacturers Chronoswiss and Louis Chevrolet, gaming store Mmoga.com, hosting service Bitlaunch, and adult websites Livejasmin and  Manyvids. The Lightning Network , first proposed by Thaddeus Dryja and Joseph Poon  in a 2015 white paper , creates a layer on top of the bitcoin blockchain, where transactions can be passed back and forth before being added to the underlying blockchain. This should mean transaction speed is greatly increased while costs are significantly reduced. When sending a Lightning payment, two parties de

Yahoo Finance Integrates Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin Trading

Yahoo  Finance has  integrated  trading with  Bitcoin  (BTC),  Ethereum  (ETH), and  Litecoin  (LTC) on its platform. While statistics are available on the platform for other digital currencies like Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ), Ethereum Classic ( ETC ) or  EOS , they currently do not have buy and sell options. The development has led some in the crypto community to say that it is an important step forward for crypto adoption. Crypto enthusiast and founder of  Morgan Creek Digital , Anthony Pompliano tweeted: Pomp  ✔ @APompliano You can now buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin on Yahoo Finance. THE VIRUS IS SPREADING 10:13 PM - Aug 29, 2018 6,294 2,495 people are talking about this Twitter Ads info and privacy BTC continues to trade near the $7,000 price point, according to Cointelegraph’s  Bitcoin price index , after it  broke through  the $7,000 threshold on August 28. At press time, the leading cryptocurrency is trading around $7,043.