Nearly one year after it was announced that South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb, would be sold to BK Global Consortium for 400 billion won ($333 million), the deal appears to be going nowhere. The acquisition, which would see BK Global Consortium purchase a 50 percent stake and one share, was originally announced by Bithumb operator BTC Korea Holdings on October 12, 2018. The purchasing company also put down $100 million as a down payment and had plans to create its own cryptocurrency, which hasn’t materialized either. Where’s The Money? The deal was supposed to be completed in February of this year but has seen two extensions. The deadline to pay the final acquisition amount was also extended twice. In April, payment was delayed on the condition that the purchasers

For the first time in the nation’s history, United Kingdom police will auction off approximately $662,000 in criminally-confiscated bitcoin (BTC).The seized BTC will be auctioned off by Wilsons Auctions — starting Wednesday — on behalf of U.K. authorities. The Ireland-based auction house will reportedly sell all of the bitcoin to the highest bidders and has not set any reserves.The confiscated coins, themselves, were seized by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) from a criminal who obtained the digital coins while illegally supplying personal data and hacking services.Two Chances to Buy Discounted BitcoinThe bitcoin price experienced a sharp pullback on Tuesday, but the U.K. auction could provide a deeper discount for committed holders. | Image: ShutterstockThere will be two

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) collapsed in extreme fashion late last night. Some individuals were able to capitalize on the move more so than others — with the world’s biggest cryptocurrency available at $1,800 per coin with Binance’s own stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD). BUSD currently is ranked 2064 by market capitalization and has a small 24-hour trading volume of $743,509 — or only 74.49 BTC — according to CoinMarketCap. It is this low liquidity that may have been responsible for the extreme dump down to the absurdly low level of $1800 per Bitcoin. BUSD is a new stablecoin from a collaboration of Binance and Paxos. Binance USD Illiquidity: Not Worth Mentioning? At the time of this writing, neither Binance nor CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao have responded to the wild price action. However, Zhao

The price of bitcoin just collapsed down through its long-standing support above $9,000 to almost $8,500. At the time of this writing, the market-leading cryptocurrency is trading around $8,600 — but the extremely volatile nature of this move could have the price affected at print time. The Descending Triangle Proves Its Bearishness Many technical analysts have been drawing a descending triangle for months now, which — per classical technical analysis theory — is a bearish pattern. Though bitcoin managed to put in some slightly-higher highs throughout the pattern — which had some analysts claiming the price of BTC was trading, rather, in a symmetrical triangle — the cryptocurrency market leader has broken down through any support it had in convincing fashion. Bitcoin price breaks through

Think Bitcoin’s ready for prime-time trading on a major stock exchange? SEC Chairman Jay Clayton says you’re "sorely mistaken." | Source: REUTERS / Aaron P. Bernstein

U.S. Securities and Exchange Chairman Jay Clayton just delivered a rebuke to cryptocurrency backers, alleging that Bitcoin is unlikely to trade on a major US exchange until it’s much better regulated.
Crypto’s Not Ready for Prime-Time
The chairman of the independent agency of the United States federal government stated in his opening speech at Delivering Alpha:
“If [investors] think there’s the same rigor around that price discovery as there is on the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange … they are

Facebook sat down with the United Kingdom’s finance ministry, the central bank, and other regulatory officials in what was presumably a pre-emptive move to win favor before announcing its own self-titled cryptocurrency, Libra. This new revelation comes from Reuters, which received the details from freedom of information requests and claims that the responses illustrate an intentional effort to garner support for Libra before its unveiling in mid-June. The social media behemoth reportedly sat down with one of the British finance ministry’s junior ministers and officials dealing with cryptocurrency policy before meeting with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on April 23 and April 24, respectively. Facebook then met with both, again, in addition to the Bank of England, on May 14.

In a move that wasn’t entirely unexpected, the Bitcoin price has plunged below $10,000 in a breakdown that started around 1 PM UTC this morning. The quick dump liquidated approximately $150 million in long positions on BitMEX. Everyone’s Bitcoin Price Triangle To say that this morning’s dump was not unexpected is to understate the current situation. Nearly every technical analyst with a TradingView account has drawn the same (or similar) descending triangle as the one reproduced below. Source: TradingViewIf they haven’t, the contrarian analysts have likely drawn some sort of symmetrical triangle, pennant, or wedge pattern. Either way, it is clear that the price of Bitcoin has put in consecutively lower highs and was lacking the steam to breakthrough the descending resistance line of the

Governments around the world went on high alert after American social media giant Facebook announced a permissioned blockchain digital currency, named Libra.
Unsurprisingly, the prospect of a privately-backed alternative digital currency didn’t exactly excite financial regulators in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Here are the four countries that really don’t like Facebook’s Libra.
France Is Not a Fan of Libra
France has, perhaps, been the most vocal opponent of Facebook’s cryptocurrency — stating last Thursday that the country will block the development of Libra.
French finance minister Bruno Le Marie vowed to block Libra’s development in Europe. | Source: ShutterstockCiting concerns pertaining to consumer risk and governments’ monetary sovereignty, French Finance

France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire says Facebook’s Crypto Libra won’t be allowed to develop in Europe. | Source: ShutterstockFrance’s Bruno Le Maire has reportedly warned that the country will block the development of Facebook’s in-house cryptocurrency, Libra, in Europe — citing threats to the “monetary sovereignty” of the continent’s governments.The Minister of the Economy and Finance stated today at the opening of an OECD conference on cryptocurrencies:I want to be absolutely clear: in these conditions, we cannot authorize the development of Libra on European soil.Facebook’s self-labeled cryptocurrency is slated for launch sometime next year after being first announced this past June.Global Governments Taking NoticeMany view Libra not so much as a competitor to decentralized

Bakkt CEO Adam White said that his firm’s "Bitcoin Warehouse" will be revolutionary "like the…ATM." | Source: ShutterstockLast week, Bakkt opened its "Bitcoin Warehouse" for the storage of customer deposits and withdrawals ahead of its Bitcoin Daily & Monthly Futures launch later this month. Now, Bakkt CEO Adam White is waxing poetic about the revolutionary effect he expects it to have on the financial industry when it goes live on September 23.Today our Warehouse opens for customer bitcoin deposits and withdrawals as we prepare for the Bakkt Bitcoin Daily & Monthly Futures, launching September 23The availability of physical delivery brings more flexibility in managing bitcoin exposure— Bakkt (@Bakkt) September 6, 2019Bitcoin Storage: The Greatest Thing Since the ATM?After introducing

Facebook’s crypto scheme appears to have spurred regulators to take the social media giant’s privacy scandals more seriously. | Source: REUTERS / Aaron P. BernsteinFollowing reports earlier today that dozens of state attorney generals were set to officially commence antitrust investigations into Big Tech behemoths Facebook and Google, New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed that at least one of the companies would indeed face government scrutiny.Unsurprisingly, it’s the one that recently revealed its ambitious – and controversial – plans to launch its own cryptocurrency.New York Sinks Its Teeth Into Scandal-Ridden FacebookNew York will investigate Facebook for potential antitrust violations. | Source: AP Photo/Alex BrandonAttorney General James officially confirmed the matter by

Bitcoin basher Mark Mobius raised concerns over the security promised by blockchain technology while calling it "a very high-risk situation." | Source: REUTERS / Danish Siddiqui (i), Shutterstock (ii). Image Edited by CCN.Mobius Capital Partners LLP founder and emerging markets fund manager Joseph Bernhard Mark Mobius has raised concerns over the security promised by blockchain technology — first made famous by Bitcoin (BTC) — while calling it "a very high-risk situation."Mark Mobius: Blockchain Could Create ‘Big Crisis'[embedded content]At the time of this writing, the Bitcoin network — the most famous and robust blockchain network — has been operational for 99.98 percent of its lifetime, which began Jan 3, 2009, 02:54:25 GMT.Nevertheless, Mark Mobius believes "blockchain" can be