Director

CFTC Requests Default After Failing to Find $147M Bitcoin Ponzi Operator

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has requested that the alleged founder of the crypto $147 million Ponzi scheme Control-Finance be declared a default.On April 3, the CFTC filed for a ruling of default after Control-Finance’s alleged founder and director, Benjamin Reynolds, did not respond to the regulator’s complaint.CFTC unable to locate Reynolds after 10 monthsThe CFTC’s complaint was filed during June 2019 — alleging that Reynolds misappropriated at least 22,858 BTC from more than 1,000 customers from May 1, 2017.In January 2020, the SEC requested additional time

Coronavirus & Bitcoin Price: Is China Losing Its BTC Mining Monopoly?

This week the price of Bitcoin (BTC) surged more than 15%, reaching a high at $7,200 before pulling back into the $6,800 range. Despite the recovery, Bitcoin still has a way to go in order to reach the $8,000 level seen before the coronavirus-triggered selloff on March 12.Cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360The drop had several consequences on the Bitcoin network. Having reached the $3,800 price range, the accentuated drop forced some Bitcoin miners to throw in the towel and shut down their operations due to mining becoming unprofitable.As miners have

Huge Rise in Chinese ‘Blockchain’ Companies — But Are They Real?

More than 35,000 blockchain companies are operating in mainland China —  but it’s believed that many of them do not even use blockchain technology.In the first quarter of 2020, as COVID-19 shut down factories, offices and cities across the  world, 2,383 brand-new “blockchain” companies sprung up in China.This brings the total to 35,010 companies as of April 1 — over 20,000 in Guangdong province alone — according to Tianyancha, a business data company.But in mid-February data firm LongHash estimated that approximately 70% of the total number of blockchain firms registered

Dow Jones Has a Blockchain-Based Product for Fighting Fraud and Staying Compliant

Dow Jones Risk & Compliance has teamed up with a company called EastNets to build a real-time blockchain-based watchlist feed. This watchlist identifies high-risk third parties for business deals and helps maintain a business’s regulatory compliance. This blockchain-based product currently lets users solve problems associated with manually updating these watchlists and protecting data from cyber criminals.Deya Innab, chief strategy and product officer for EastNets, said:“Designing and testing a suitable solution was challenging, but we are delighted to lead the industry with a real-time, secure watchlist update solution that is actively

AT&T Starts Appeal to Dismiss Crypto Investor’s SIM Swapping Case 

AT&T has moved to have a long-standing negligence case against it dismissed. Earlier this week, the company filed a motion to dismiss claims that it was complicit in a SIM swapping case that resulted in millions in crypto stolen from its customers. The case itself originated back in 2018, when crypto investor Michael Terpin sued the telecoms giant of negligence and accused it of being complicit in two separate SIM swapping operations. A Timeline of Terpin’s CaseAt the time, Terpin claimed to have lost almost $24 million, but was suing the firm

U.S. Crypto ATM Network Helps to Promote Social Distancing

Bitcoin Depot, the largest Bitcoin ATM operator in the world, has begun powering down some of its machines in an effort to halt further spread of COVID-19.As much of the world sits in quarantine, Bitcoin Depot has chosen to temporarily shut off crypto ATMs which specifically reside in high traffic areas. The company is undertaking this push as a way to encourage social distancing.“As we monitor the ongoing situation, the number of locations temporarily taken offline will likely increase,” Bitcoin Depot’s director of product, Alona Lubovnaya, told Cointelegraph in an

Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator Director on What DLT Startups Need to Succeed

The Berkeley Blockchain Xcelerator — an incubator for early stage distributed ledger technology startups at the University of California, Berkeley — recently launched its spring cohort, which includes startups seeking to fight COVID-19, launch a cannabis-themed massively multiplayer online game and create a reverse auction platform for loans.Cointelegraph spoke to Jocelyn Weber, the director of the Xcelerator, to find out more about the resources the program offers to startups, success stories from previous cohorts and advice for startups looking to launch in the crypto space.Cointelegraph: Could you give an overview