New Q2 Report Shows that Crypto Exchanges lost over $760 million to hackers in H1 2018

Cryptocurrency theft has surged three times in the first half of 2018 over the whole of last year, according to a report by CipherTrace.

In its recently published inaugural cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Report, the US-based cyber security firm revealed that cryptocurrency exchanges lost $761 million to theft in Q1 and Q2 combined, as compared to the $266 million lost in 2017.

CipherTrace estimates this figure could surge to $1.5 billion this year. According to the authors, these illegally obtained funds are “laundered by criminals to help hide their true identities and avoid arrest.”

Some of the major heists that shook the cryptocurrency ecosystem this year were the ones suffered by Japan’s Coincheck, India’s Coinsecure, and South Korea’s Coinrail and Bithumb. Coincheck alone lost about $530 million in a high-profile heist which occurred in January this year.

See full report here: https://news.bitzamp.com/report-crypto-exchanges-lost-over-760-million-to-hackers-in-first-half-of-2018/

The slumping cryptocurrency market could cause graphics card prices to fall again this month.

After what seemed like an eternity of having to endure ridiculous prices, GPU costs are finally returning to normal levels. According to a new report, this month should see another reduction on graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD, with an average drop of around 20 percent.

We know that crypto mining was the primary reason behind the incredibly high GPU prices. Following the sudden boom in Bitcoin price in late 2017, the demand for GPUs reached its peak as cryptocurrency miners gave a hot chase for the cards. This caused a shortage of RAM and the resulting price inflation as several GPU providers struggled to keep up with the demands.

However, with crypto markets slumping in recent months, failing to come anywhere near their mid-December peak, many farms have cut their GPU orders or stopped operations entirely, leading to a fall in card prices. The effect became apparent in May when a variety of GeForce GPUs arrived back in stock at near MSRP levels.

Taiwan site DigiTimes noted that this trend is going to continue throughout July. With Bitcoin price nearing the production costs for mining 1 BTC, several bitcoin miners are pulling out from the business.

While there are still many people mining cryptos, many uses dedicated ASICs, but demand for these has also waned. This means that suppliers have to slash prices in order to try and clear inventory. DigiTimes reports that this “mining chill” will lead to a GPU price reduction of “around 20 percent in July.”

Last month, a source claimed that Nvidia overestimated recent demand for its GPUs, thereby generating an excess inventory. It’s thought that the company is holding back its new GeForce cards until the stock is cleared. This poise the question: If users will actually purchase a Pascal-based GPU now, or wait until the next-gen cards arrive?

Source: https://news.bitzamp.com/slumping-cryptocurrency-market-could-hugely-affect-gpu-prices-in-july/
Date Posted: July 03, 2018

BTCC, one of the longest-running and once part of the major three trading platforms in China, has announced the re-opening of its exchange business with plans to issue its own tokens.

The company said the new crypto exchange is now officially open with new trading pairs including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum and litecoin against the US dollar, as well as several crypto-to-crypto trading options.

BTCC further noted that it is planning to add major cryptocurrency assets and is also open to listing more ERC-2o based tokens.

BTCC has also announced a reward system for user registrations. Users will be rewarded with points for completing full registration including ID verification and for trading. The points can be fully converted into BTCC’s own tokens, which will be further tradable on its platform.

Read More: https://news.bitzamp.com/worlds-oldest-crypto-exchange-btcc-launches-new-platform-plans-to-issue-own-token/

ONchain Capital founder, Ran NeuNer, who predicted Bitcoin’s drop to $5,900 earlier this month is saying there is more blood to come for the cryptocurrency market.

Speaking at the CNBC’s Fast Money Show, Neuner said with the consistent bearish movement of the cryptocurrency market, bitcoin will likely go down to $5350.

“The same model is telling us there is more blood to come”, NeuNer said. “There is a 62% chance of a bear market, and a bear market means we’re going to test $5350 as the next point. There is a 16% chance of a bull market, but to confirm the bull market we’re going to need to test $7400 with high volume. So right now my money is on the market continuing to go down to about $5350 in the next two weeks.”

Read More: https://news.bitzamp.com/onchain-capital-founder-says-there-is-more-blood-to-come-as-bitcoin-will-see-5350-soon/

Major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is expanding its fiat market to include support for the British Pound Sterling (GBP).

In a recent interview, Coinbase UK CEO Zeeshan Feroz has confirmed to NewsBTC that the exchange will be listing new GBP pairs in its trading platform, as well as the enabling of deposits and withdrawals within the next few weeks.

Read More: https://news.bitzamp.com/coinbase-is-adding-british-pound-gbp-support-to-trading-platform/

India's Coinsecure begins compensation process, affected users have until June 30 to submit necessary documents in order to be reimbursed.
Indian bitcoin exchange Coinsecure has announced that it has begun the process of compensating customers who lost funds in major hack earlier this year.

The exchange reported in April this year that it lost 438.88 BTC (approx. $3.3 million at the time) to hackers. In an online post on Wednesday, Coinsecure states:

“We are happy to inform you that we have started the process of compensating our customers in Indian Rupees, ex gratia, for the loss of their Bitcoins in the attack that occurred on April 9, 2018. Users will be required to sign an agreement releasing Coinsecure of any future liability and provide certain other documents in order to receive the payment.”

According to the post, users have to duly sign and deliver the document to Coinsecure, along with other documents, before June 30, 2018.

“We will not entertain any claims received after June 30, 2018 and we shall have no liability towards any users who try to submit claims after the said date,” it added.

Read More: https://news.bitzamp.com/hacked-crypto-exchange-coinsecure-begins-compensation-process/

Cryptocurrency derivatives platform BitMEX has announced the Tron futures contracts against Bitcoin with the expiry date of September 28, 2018.

According to the official announcement, the company says it has decided to launch TRX futures trading due to high demand from customers.

“Due to popular demand, we will be listing the BitMEX TRON / Bitcoin 28 September 2018 futures contract, TRXU18, on or before 26 June 2018 08:30 UTC,” the statement read.

BitMEX doesn’t require traders to have 100 percent of the collateral as margin. This means the user can trade with leverage over 100 times on some of these contracts. All of the cryptocurrency futures listed on BitMEX are denominated in Bitcoin so that users can only speculate on the future value by using Bitcoin.

Read More: https://news.bitzamp.com/crypto-derivatives-platform-bitmex-announces-tron-trx-futures/

A new South Korean cryptocurrency exchange has reportedly leaked critical information of 19 users, putting around $620,000 worth of cryptocurrency at risk.

CoinDesk Korea reported on Monday that an employee at Bitkoex, an exchange launched in May, posted in a Kakao group chat last Friday the details of Karma (KRM) coins held by 19 users on the platform.

According to the report, the message contained the users’ email addresses as well as the wallet addresses and private keys to the KRM in their accounts, which grants access to anyone with the information.

Read More: https://news.bitzamp.com/korean-exchange-leaks-users-data-puts-over-600k-worth-of-crypto-at-risk/