Currency updates & News

A manager of the Exmo Bitcoin exchange has been kidnapped in Ukraine. According to Russian and Ukrainian media reports Pavel Lerner, 40, was kidnapped while leaving his office in Kiev's Obolon district on 26 December. The reports said he was dragged into a black Mercedes-Benz by men wearing balaclavas. Police in Kiev confirmed to the BBC that a man had been kidnapped on the day in question, but would not confirm his identity. A spokeswoman said that the matter was currently under investigation, and that more information would be made public later on. Mr Lerner is a prominent Russian blockchain expert and the news of his kidnapping has stunned many in the international cryptocurrency community. Exmo described him as an analytics manager. Blockchain is the technology that underpins the digital currency Bitcoin. Exmo Finance is registered with Companies House in the UK, but has its main operations in Ukraine. According to its website, it has 94,955 active users tra...

Bitcoin’s price has risen stratospherically, a fact that leaves many minor players in the market with massive gains and many bigger players millionaires. But is this a bubble? Are the gains real? And are the bitcoin whales in for a sad Christmas? First we must understand what drives bitcoin price and, in particular, this boom. The common understanding for current growth leads us back to institutional investors preparing for the forthcoming BTC futures exchanges. The primary theory about the astonishing rally being put forward by investors on social media is that bitcoin will soon benefit from big institutional money injections via the introduction of the first BTC futures products. CBOE Global Markets and CME Group are launching new futures contracts on December 10 and December 17, allowing investors to go long or short on bitcoin. This ability makes bitcoin far more palatable to big investors who are currently flooding the market to make profits if and when the bitcoin price falls...

For bitcoin traders, all eyes should be on Dec. 10 and Dec. 18. That's when former self-styled bitcoin whales will be swallowed up like plankton as the CBOE and CME Group launch bitcoin futures contracts for the first time in history. Over the next few days, I will be providing information on trading in the bitcoin futures market. My goal is to shed some light on its peculiarities and hopefully help people avoid mistakes. To start, it won't just be the whales that will be devoured, but any other smaller crustaceans that choose to ignore the potential impact a derivatives market can have on an underlying commodity. You see, in bitcoin's cash market, where these whales exist, they swim amongst other bitcoin marine lives without necessarily attacking their co-habitants. The reason is simple. Everyone in bitcoin's cash market is financially incentivized to keep the price of bitcoin high. Sure, the market sometimes takes a dip, but that’s because some bitco...

In Zimbabwe, a country where hyperinflation led to $1 being worth 35 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars , the relative security of cryptocurrency already came at a premium. The recent military takeover of the capital – which generals insist is not a coup – has made made the problem even worse. Bitcoin prices have risen 10% to $13,499 on Golix, the troubled nation’s only cryptocurrency exchange. That figure is nearly twice the $7,000 Bitcoin price on U.S.-based exchanges such as Bitfinex. The surge has been fueled by Zimbabwean investors seeking a safe haven from domestic banks amid the country’s ongoing political, financial and monetary woes. While Zimbabwe once had its own currency, it began using a mix of currencies from stable economies including the U.S. dollar in 2009 after hyperinflation made its own note nearly worthless .   But, as the country’s political situation has worsened, Zimbabweans have continued to hoard money and park it in assets such as Bitcoin — a move t...

                                           ADVERTISEMENT Joe   Pindar is the director of strategy in the office of the chief technology officer at security firm Gemalto. In this opinion piece, Pindar argues that the recent token craze is a blip, and that blockchain technology remains more important in the long term than any currency. If you attend investment conferences or talk to long-time industry analysts, it's clear that that the general cryptocurrency market bubble is unsustainable. There were 30 initial coin offerings (ICOs) in July, each launching new cryptocurrencies. Then, in August, there were more than 50 , with marketing and investors ranging from Floyd Mayweather to Paris Hilton . Now, part of this mania is based on speculat...

Bitcoin has hit a new all-time high today, with prices reaching $5,226 on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index. At press time, the bitcoin-U.S. dollar ( BTC/USD ) exchange rate is trading at $5,200 levels. Week-on-week, BTC is up 18.75 percent, while month-on-month it's up 23 percent. The new record broke a previous all-time high of $5,013 set in September . ADVERTISEMENT All in all, it's a sharp reversal of trend given the cryptocurrency dropped to a low of $2,980 in mid-September on the news China had banned token sales and that local cryptocurrency exchanges would shut in the aftermath. However, in subsequent days, bitcoin's price quickly regained, reportedly due to a pick-up in trading volumes in Japan, South Korea and other markets. Increased institutional interest seems to have played a role in boosting bitcoin prices. For example, a rumored "bitcoin desk" at Goldman Sachs would certainly be a game changer for the nascent market. Still, it's just t...

Blockchain startup Circle has unveiled new software aimed at connecting the world's digital wallets. Known as ' CENTRE ', the project seeks to create a way for digital wallets (like Venmo, Alipay or the startup's own Circle Pay) to communicate with one another. Put more simply, CENTRE as envisioned would let the companies behind those apps to transmit and settle funds between them. At its heart, the project targets the so-called "walled garden" issue, wherein different platforms – whether they be a social media site like Facebook or a payments app like Venmo – exist largely within their own ecosystems. Circle is aiming to build a bridge between them, betting that it would make for a more inclusive consumer payments environment. Circle released today a new white paper outlining the specifications and intended use for CENTRE, which notes that the project has grown since being established as an internal method for transacting in both cryptocurrencies and f...

Using a consultant can have many benefits, but before we go through these benefits it’s important that we cover a few things about consultants, as well as some tips for when using one. The nature of a consultant’s engagement with the client will change as priorities are refined and projects develop. Care must be taken to keep the project focused and stop it becoming an open-ended arrangement. It is essential that the client clearly remembers the initial purpose of the consultancy, and that changes in direction are subject to rigorous assessment. A consultancy assignment may contain a number of elements simultaneously. In other cases there may be a clear sequence from the strategic, through the tactical, to the purely operational. This could mean changing consultancies or adding other practices to the team, as the consultancy you start with may not be the most appropriate choice going forward. Now, onto what you came to read… The benefits of using consultants include: ...

Nazi gold  ( German :  Raubgold , "stolen gold") is the rumored  gold  allegedly transferred by  Nazi Germany  to overseas banks during  World War II . The regime is believed to have executed a policy of looting the assets of its victims to finance the war, collecting the looted assets in central depositories. The occasional transfer of gold in return for currency took place in collusion with many individual  collaborative  institutions. The precise identities of those institutions, as well as the exact extent of the transactions, remain unclear. The present whereabouts of Nazi gold that disappeared into European banking institutions in 1945 has been the subject of several books,  conspiracy theories , and a failed  civil suit brought in January 2000  against the  Vatican Bank , the  Franciscan Order , and other defendants. he draining of Germany's gold and foreign exchange reserves inhibited the acquisition of...

Deloitte is taking non-financial applications of blockchain technology into uncharted waters. To record the inspection certificates for ships, oil rigs and the like on a  private, shared ledger , the consulting firm's blockchain lab for Europe, the Middle East and Africa recently partnered with DNV GL, one of the world's largest classification societies. Such companies certify that vessels and offshore structures meet acceptable standards for safety and environmental impact. But, the certificates they issue can be forged, potentially undermining trust in the system. Further, checking that a certificate is real is a slow, cumbersome process. Deloitte and Norway-based DNV GL see blockchain technology as the answer to both problems. Their solution creates a digital ID of each certificate that is stored and accessed on a private blockchain. The decentralized approach is seen as a way to discourage fraud or otherwise tampering with the documents. Lory Kehoe, Deloitte...