Anonymous hacker Phineas Fisher will pay up to $100,000 in crypto to hackers for leaking some damaging information about global high-profile firms. The bounty, called the “Hacktivist Bug Hunting Program” was published on Nov. 15 and targets big companies including Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group and American oil company Halliburton, as Vice reported on Nov. 17. The idea of the new bounty is to pay other hackers who carry out politically motivated hacks against firms, which would lead to the disclosure of documents in the public interest, according to Vice. Other targets reportedly include mining and livestock companies in South …

Mimblewimble, a privacy-focused blockchain protocol, is allegedly not private at all. According to an expert at blockchain research firm Dragonfly Research, Mimblewimble's privacy is fundamentally flawed, which he reportedly proved by discovering the exact addresses of senders and recipients for 96% transactions of Mimblewimble’s privacy-centric coin Grin (GRIN). Ivan Bogatyy, a researcher at United States-based Dragonfly Capital Partners, published a Medium post on Nov. 18 in which he claimed that he was able to break Grin’s purported privacy while spending just $60 per week on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Mimblewimble should no longer be treated as an alternative to Zcash …

The crypto space is taking a breather after the recent sharp run. However, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) recently tweeted that he is positive that Bitcoin (BTC) will resume its rally to $16,000 “soon-ish.” This suggests that CZ believes the market has bottomed and is in the process of resuming the uptrend. Furthermore, the long-term price action of Bitcoin shows that it has outperformed the S&P 500 since 2003. In other crypto-related news, French high school students will now be taught the basics of Bitcoin and its effects on the French and global economy. This suggests that the government is …

Dubai-based multi-currency and spot/futures exchange, BTSE, unveiled its Monero (XMR) futures trading, Oct. 31. The move makes it one of the first and only exchanges offering futures contracts on the privacy-focussed cryptocurrency. Bucking the trend of exchanges delisting privacy-focused coins BTSE is a relatively unknown, low-volume exchange that is licensed by the Department of Economic Development, Government of Dubai and is under the regulations of the Central Bank of United Arab Emirates, according to its website. The decision to list Monero comes at a time when the popular privacy coin is being delisted from several other exchanges. Despite having proved …

As Japan and South Korea — two of the largest cryptocurrency exchange markets in Asia — are increasingly pressuring exchanges to delist privacy-focused crypto assets, and concerns are rising that it could lead to more markets, at least in Asia, to follow the trend of the two major countries. Meanwhile, Blockchain analytics firms like CypherTrace appear to be developing technologies to better understand the structure of privacy-focused coins and to trace transactions initiated by cryptocurrencies. Speaking to Cointelegraph, a spokesperson for CypherTrace said that the company expects to see some progress by 2020 on privacy coins, stating, “We look forward …

The Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) crypto regulations will trigger a shift of criminal activity from Bitcoin (BTC) to privacy coins, it has been claimed. Criminals mostly use BTC and ETH to date David Jevans, CEO of major crypto transaction tracking firm CipherTrace, shared his remarks about criminal use of cryptocurrencies at a panel held by blockchain advocacy group, the Chamber of Digital Commerce, on Oct. 21. During the panel, Jevans claimed that well-known cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) are currently the most popular among criminal actors to date due to their good brand name and the ease …

The German Federal Ministry of Finance has expressed concerns about rising use of privacy tokens due to their association with criminal activities and difficulties in tracking them. Published on Oct. 19, the ministry’s “First Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing National Risk Assessment” for 2018-2019 provided analysis aimed at the identification of existing and future risks in the field of anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorism financing (TF) in Germany. Among other challenges, the report examines circulation of cryptocurrencies in the darknet for criminal purposes. Pseudo-anonymous vs. anonymous tokens The report marks a distinction between pseudo-anonymous and anonymous tokens, noting that pseudonymity …

While the fundamentals in the crypto space have been improving over the past few months, repeated opposition to popular projects like Libra has kept the sentiment subdued. Speaking at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank fall meeting, German Federal Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz vehemently opposed the idea of allowing Facebook to create Libra because, according to him, it is the “responsibility of democratic states.” Similarly, the Financial Action Task Force also voiced its concern on Libra and other stablecoins when its president Xiangmin Liu said that successful creation of these stablecoins can lead to “new risks regarding money …

Cryptocurrency exchange OKEx Korea announced the end of Monero (XMR), DASH, Zcash (ZEC), Horizen (ZEN) and Super Bitcoin (SBTC) trading as of today, Oct. 10. Per the Oct. 2 announcement, the assets have been delisted today. A previous version of the announcement was published on Sept. 10. That being said, since then the support for privacy coins ZEC and DASH has been defined as temporarily suspended due to regulatory concerns. Regulatory concerns over privacy coins More precisely, OKEx Korea reports having received a request to end the transaction support and review the compliance with the 'Travel Rules' according to the …

Binance exchange will feature three new coins within the fifth phase of its crypto lending product available for subscription starting from Sept. 20. Same interest rate for all 3 coins After initially launching its Binance Lending Service on Aug. 28, Binance will now allow users to lend assets and earn interest with three major altcoins, including privacy-focused coin Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC) and Dash (DASH). Fifth phase of Binance Lending Service. Source: Binance Similarly to the initial phase, lending products on the fifth phase on the platform will have a 14-day fixed-term lending period after subscription from Sept. 20 to …

Many central banks across the world are racing against each other to devalue their currencies. Crypto fund executive Travis Kling believes that Bitcoin (BTC) is a great hedge against irresponsible monetary and fiscal policies of central banks and governments. Tim Draper has said that his target price of $250,000 for Bitcoin is conservative because at that price, the leading cryptocurrency will have only about 5% market share of the currency world, which may be understating the importance and power of Bitcoin. He said that, as the adoption of Bitcoin among the masses increases, the price will skyrocket higher. In the …

The trade war between the United States and China has stoked fears of a recession. According to a survey by eToro, if a recession occurs, 40% of millennials would prefer to invest in crypto. However, Generation Z and Generation X investors are not convinced by crypto as they have chosen real estate and commodities as their preferred mode of investment. Gold Bullion International co-founder Dan Tapiero believes that Bitcoin (BTC) is “an invention.” He alluded to the decade-long record of the leading digital currency and said that if a company were to develop such a secure network framework, it would …