Student Faces Charges for Stealing $5 Million in Crypto via “SIM Jacking”

Motherboard has reportedly obtained court documents pertaining to the arrest of Joel Ortiz, a 20-year-old from Boston, who is accused of stealing $5 million USD in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Mr. Ortiz and his currently unidentified accomplices stole crypto from roughly 40 victims through a hacking technique known as “SIM jacking.” Also Read: Archaeologists Argue Micronesian … Read more

The Daily: US Presidential Candidate Accepts Crypto, KICKICO Hacked – $7.7M Stolen

US presidential candidate, Andrew Yang (D), has announced that his campaign for the 2020 election is now accepting cryptocurrency donations. Also in the Daily, Chinese social network, Tianya, is about to issue a native token, and the KICKICO project has been hacked – resulting in the loss of $7.7 million USD worth of tokens due … Read more

South Korean Regulator Presses Lawmakers to Pass Crypto Bill Urgently

South Korea’s top financial regulator has urged lawmakers to pass the country’s first crypto bill quickly, citing the urgent need from rising incidents at crypto exchanges. There are currently several crypto-related laws pending at the National Assembly. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space Crypto Law Urgently Needed South Korea’s top financial regulator, … Read more

Japanese Crypto Exchanges Working on Lowering Margin Trading Limits

Japanese cryptocurrency exchanges may soon set a strict limit on the leverage they offer for margin trading in order to better protect investors. The association comprised of 16 government-approved crypto exchanges is reportedly imposing a leverage limit as part of its self-regulatory rules. There will be a grace period and exceptions. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms … Read more

Crypto Exchange Coinrail Reopens with Offers to Recover 11 Cryptocurrencies

South Korean exchange Coinrail has resumed service after it was hacked last month. The exchange has offered users some options to recover their cryptocurrencies. Eleven cryptos were stolen, some of which have been fully recovered and are now available for trading and withdrawals. However, some coins were not recovered. Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into … Read more

Bitcoin is Great for Criminals. It’s Even Better for Law Enforcement

When the indictment of Russian intelligence officers for interfering with the US election broke, the recriminations were swift. Not only had the 12 allegedly hacked the Democratic National Committee, but they’d had the temerity to do so using servers paid with cryptocurrency. When politicians and mainstream media began finger pointing, they had only one culprit … Read more

This Week in Bitcoin: New Exchanges, Bancor Breach, Binance CEO vs Vitalik

In this week’s daily editions of Bitcoin in Brief we reported about a couple of new exchanges, a major security breach at Bancor, and why the Binance CEO came out against Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. This week’s most commented-on article covered the Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, who predicted that cryptocurrencies will be “regulated into oblivion.” Also … Read more

Top 4 Disappointments of 2018 (So Far)

There’s no simple way to put it. 2018 has been tough for the world of cryptocurrency. As most individuals who are currently invested made their start right before or during the bear market, which has been the longest in crypto since 2014-2015, it’s safe to assume that a large number of them have seen significant … Read more

The Daily: Decentralized Exchanges – New and Hacked, and Some Lost Coins

In today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief, we cover two decentralized exchanges – an Irish team that’s launching its Local Token Exchange and the already operating Bancor that has reported a security breach and admitted the loss of $12.5 million worth of coins. Also, hackers in China have mined cryptos worth $2 million using malware … Read more

Syscoin Hack Disrupts Binance Prompting Temporary Shutdown

Syscoin has been hit by an unusual hack that has manipulated the coin’s total supply. The attackers then sent the fraudulently generated coins to Binance and sold them, pushing the price of 1 SYS to as high as 96 BTC. The BTC they received was then withdrawn, prompting Binance to temporarily cease trading and to … Read more