Crypto currency online is your best source for up to date crypto currency news and technical information. We have brought this website you informed and up-to-date with all the current changes and trends happening in one of the newest industries available and will continue to you our best to date and informed. Crypto currency mining is becoming more and more popular every day. What we've done combined news, information, my crypto currency charts and the best mining products that you can purchase.
GMO Internet has released a monthly report on its mining business for February 2018, revealing that the company has mined over 200 bitcoins during this year so far. GMO has also mined over 300 Bitcoin Cash during 2018.
GMO Internet Mined $1.8 Million Worth of BTC and BCH in February
Major Japanese conglomerate, GMO Internet, has released a report detailing the performance of its mining business. GMO Internet first announced its desire to start mining BTC and BCH during September 2017, before launching operations in December of the same year.
In December 2017, GMO mined 21 BTC and 213 BCH – then valued at approximately $15,850 and $2,715 USD respectively. In January 2018, GMO mined 93 BTC and 25 BCH – then valued at roughly $10,300 and $1,500 each. GMO reported a hash rate of 22 penta hashes per second (PH/s) during December, and 27 PH/s during January.
During February, GMO increased the scale of its mining operations, with GMO reporting a hash rate of 108 PH/s following the employment of additional hardware. GMO mined 124 BTC and 287 BCH during February 2018 – valued by GMO at approximately $10,670 and $1,240 respectively.
GMO to Expand Mining Business
The report states that GMO Internet’s “goal is to see the hash rate reach 3,000 PH/s this year,” indicating the company’s intention to soon comprise a major player within the bitcoin mining industry.
If successful, a hash rate of 3,000 PH/s would give GMO comparable power to that of Viabtc’s mining pool. According to Blockchain.info, Viabtc currently comprises the third largest bitcoin mining pool, accounting for 12.9% of the BTC mining network with approximately 3,390 PH/s as of this writing.
Last month, GMO Internet also announced its intention to launch a cloud mining service in August 2018. The company started accepting priority applications from prospective customers on March 1st. GMO appears to be targeting customers with deep pockets – as a single two-year contract is estimated to cost roughly $5 million (550 million JPY) each, excluding maintenance expenses.
Do you think that GMO will be able to produce 3,000 PH/s this year? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, gmo.jp
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A basic understanding of Go and JavaScript is needed to follow this tutorial.
This is story is brought to you by Hacker Noon’s weekly sponsor, Pusher, who provides real-time APIs for developers.
REST is a popular architectural style for providing standards between computer systems on the web, making it easier for systems to communicate with each other. It is mostly used by APIs to provide data to other systems requiring them.
Sometimes, the providers of APIs would like to monitor its use. Monitoring APIs helps provide useful information, such as which endpoints are called most frequently, or what regions are the largest audience using request IP Addresses. This information can then be used to optimize the API.
In this article, we will implement realtime monitoring of a small API built with GoLang, using Pusher. Here’s a preview of what it should look like at the end:
Requirements
To follow along with this article, you will need the following:
Basic knowledge of JavaScript (ES6 syntax) and jQuery.
Basic knowledge of using a CLI tool or terminal.
Once you have all the above requirements, let’s proceed.
Setting up our codebase
To keep things simple, we’ll be using an already written GoLang CRUD API, which is available on GitHub. We will fork the repository and set it up following the README.md guidelines on installation.
Next, we will set up Pusher in the API project. Pusher is a service that provides a simple implementation of realtime functionality for our web and mobile applications. We will use it in this article, to provide realtime updates to our API monitor dashboard.
Let’s head over to Pusher.com, you can create a free account if you don’t already have one. On the dashboard, create a new app and copy out the app credentials (App ID, Key, Secret, and Cluster). We will use these credentials in our API.
Now that we have our Pusher app, we will install the Pusher Go library by running:
$ go get github.com/pusher/pusher-http-go
Monitoring our API
We have so far set up a functional CRUD API, and we will now implement monitoring calls to it. In this article, we will monitor:
The endpoints called with details like name, request type (GET, POST, etc) and URL.
For each call to an endpoint, we will also take note of:
The requesting IP address remove,
The response status code for the particular call.
Now that we have defined what to monitor, we will begin by creating models to keep track of the data we acquire.
Creating models for monitoring
Based on our specifications above, we will create two new model files EndPoints.go and EndPointCalls.go. As was used in the base API, we will use the GORM (the GoLang ORM) for managing data storage.
💡 Our new model files will exist in the models directory and belong to the models package.
In EndPoints.go, we will define the EndPoints object and a method to save endpoints:
package models
import ( "github.com/jinzhu/gorm" )
// EndPoints - endpoint model type EndPoints struct { gorm.Model Name, URL string Type string `gorm:"DEFAULT:'GET'"` Calls []EndPointCalls `gorm:"ForeignKey:EndPointID"` }
// SaveOrCreate - save endpoint called func (ep EndPoints) SaveOrCreate() EndPoints { db.FirstOrCreate(&ep, ep) return ep }
In the code block above, our model did not re-initialize the GORM instance db, yet it was used. This is because the instance defined in the Movies.go file was global to all members of the package, and so it can be referenced and used by all members of package models.
💡 Our EndPoints model has an attributeCallswhich is an array ofEndPointCallsobjects. This attribute signifies theone to manyrelationship betweenEndPointsandEndPointCalls. For more information on model associations and relationships see the GORMdocumentation.
Next, we’ll fill in the model definitions and methods for our EndPointCalls model in the EndPointCalls.go file:
// EndPointCalls - Object for storing endpoints call details type EndPointCalls struct { gorm.Model EndPointID uint `gorm:"index;not null"` RequestIP string ResponseCode int }
// SaveCall - Save the call details of an endpoint func (ep EndPoints) SaveCall(context iris.Context) EndPointCalls { epCall := EndPointCalls{ EndPointID: ep.ID, RequestIP: context.RemoteAddr(), ResponseCode: context.GetStatusCode(), }
db.Create(&epCall)
return epCall }
As shown above, our EndPointCalls model defines a SaveCall method, which stores the requesting IP address and the response code of an existing EndPoint object.
Finally, we will update the model migration in the index.go file to include our new models:
// index.go // ...
func main() { // ...
// Initialize ORM and auto migrate models db, _ := gorm.Open("sqlite3", "./db/gorm.db") db.AutoMigrate(&models.Movies{}, &models.EndPoints{}, &models.EndPointCalls{})
// ... }
Saving endpoint data for monitoring
Using our newly created models, we will edit the MoviesController.go file to save relevant data when an endpoint is called.
To do this, we will add a private helper method to MoviesController.go, which will save endpoint data with our models. See how below:
The saveEndpointCall method takes the name of the endpoint as a parameter. Using the controller’s iris.Context instance, it reads and saves the endpoint path and request method.
Now that this helper method is available, we will call it in each of the endpoint methods in the MoviesController.go file:
// MoviesController.go // ...
// Get - get a list of all available movies func (m MoviesController) Get() { movie := models.Movies{} movies := movie.Get()
go m.saveEndpointCall("Movies List") m.Cntx.JSON(iris.Map{"status": "success", "data": movies}) }
// GetByID - Get movie by ID func (m MoviesController) GetByID(ID int64) { movie := models.Movies{} movie = movie.GetByID(ID) if !movie.Validate() { msg := fmt.Sprintf("Movie with ID: %v not found", ID) m.Cntx.StatusCode(iris.StatusNotFound) m.Cntx.JSON(iris.Map{"status": "error", "message": msg}) } else { m.Cntx.JSON(iris.Map{"status": "success", "data": movie}) }
name := fmt.Sprintf("Single Movie with ID: %v Retrieval", ID) go m.saveEndpointCall(name) }
// ...
As shown in the snippet above, the saveEndpointCall helper method will be called in each CRUD method.
💡 ThesaveEndpointCallmethod is called as aGoroutine. Calling it this way calls it concurrently with the execution of the endpoint’s method, and allows our monitoring code to not delay or inhibit the response of the API.
Creating the endpoint monitor dashboard
Now that we have implemented monitoring our API’s calls, we will display the data we have accrued on a dashboard.
Registering our template engine
The GoLang framework, Iris, has the ability to implement a range of template engines, which we will take advantage of.
In this section, we will implement the Handlebars template engine, and in our index.go file, we will register it to the app instance:
Above, we have added definitions for the path /admin/endpoints, where we intend to render details of our API endpoints and its calls. We have also specified that the route should be handled by the ShowEndpoints method of DashBoardController.
To create DashBoardController, we will create a DashBoardController.go file in the controllers directory. And in our DashBoardController.go file, we will define the DashBoardController object and its ShowEndpoints method:
// DashBoardController - Controller object for Endpoints dashboard type DashBoardController struct { mvc.BaseController Cntx iris.Context }
// ShowEndpoints - show list of endpoints func (d DashBoardController) ShowEndpoints() { endpoints := (models.EndPoints{}).GetWithCallSummary() d.Cntx.ViewData("endpoints", endpoints) d.Cntx.View("endpoints.html") }
In ShowEndpoints(), we retrieve our endpoints and a summary of their calls for display. Then we pass this data to our view using d.Cntx.ViewData("endpoints", endpoints), and finally we render our view file templates/endpoints.html using d.Cntx.View("endpoints.html").
Retrieving endpoints and call summaries
To retrieve our list of endpoints and a summary of their calls, we will create a method in the EndPoints.go file called GetWithCallSummary.
Our GetWithCallSummary method should return the endpoints and their call summaries ready for display. For this, we will define a collection object EndPointWithCallSummary with the attributes we need for our display in the EndPoints.go file:
// EndPoints.go package models
import ( "github.com/jinzhu/gorm" )
// EndPoints - endpoint model type EndPoints struct { gorm.Model Name, URL string Type string `gorm:"DEFAULT:'GET'"` Calls []EndPointCalls `gorm:"ForeignKey:EndPointID"` }
// EndPointWithCallSummary - Endpoint with last call summary type EndPointWithCallSummary struct { ID uint Name, URL string Type string LastStatus int NumRequests int LastRequester string }
And then define GetWithCallSummary method to use it as follows:
// EndPoints.go
// ...
// GetWithCallSummary - get all endpoints with call summary details func (ep EndPoints) GetWithCallSummary() []EndPointWithCallSummary { var eps []EndPoints var epsWithDets []EndPointWithCallSummary
db.Preload("Calls").Find(&eps)
for _, elem := range eps { calls := elem.Calls lastCall := calls[len(calls)-1:][0]
Above, the GetWithCallSummary method leverages the Calls attribute of EndPoints, which defines its relationship with EndPointCalls. When retrieving our list of endpoints from the database, we eager load its EndPointCalls data using db.Preload("Calls").Find(&eps).
For more information on eager loading in GORM, see the documentation.
GetWithCallSummary initializes an array of EndPointWithCallSummary, and loops through the EndPointsobjects returned from our database to create EndPointWithCallSummary objects.
These EndPointWithCallSummary objects are appended to the initialized array and returned.
💡 TheEndPointWithCallSummaryis not a model. It is a collection object and does not need to have a table in our database. This is why it does not have its own file and is not passed toindex.gofor migration.
Implementing the dashboard and displaying data
Now that we have the dashboard’s route, controller and data for display, we will implement the dashboard view to achieve a simple list display of endpoints and their summary data.
Let’s update templates/endpoints.html to have the following code:
Above, we render our endpoints list using Bootstrap and our Handlebars template engine. We have also created and used a template function status_class, to colour code our list based on their last call status LastStatus.
We define the status_class template function in index.go after initialising our template engine:
// index.go
// ...
func main() { app := iris.New()
tmpl := iris.Handlebars("./templates", ".html")
tmpl.AddFunc("status_class", func(status int) string { if status >= 200 && status < 300 { return "success" } else if status >= 300 && status < 400 { return "warning" } else if status >= 400 { return "danger" } return "success" })
app.RegisterView(tmpl) }
Then in our view file we call the function as:
class="list-group-item list-group-item-"
💡 In the above LastStatus is the function’s parameter.
Adding realtime updates to our dashboard
So far in this article, we have monitored the calls to an API and displayed the data via a dashboard. We will now use Pusher to provide realtime data updates to our dashboard.
Sending realtime data from the backend
Earlier, we installed the Pusher Go library, which we will use to trigger an event when an endpoint is called. In the MoviesController.go file, where the API requests are handled, we will initialize the Pusher client:
Here, we have initialized the Pusher client using the credentials from our earlier created app.
⚠️ Replaceapp_id, app_key, app_secret and app_clusterwith your app credentials.
Next, we will use our Pusher client to trigger an event, which would include the endpoint’s data to be displayed in our view. We will do this in the saveEndpointCall method, which logs an endpoint and its call:
Above, we create an EndPointWithCallSummary object from EndPoints (the endpoint) and EndPointCalls. This EndPointWithCallSummary object has all the data required for display on the dashboard, so will be passed to Pusher for transmission.
Displaying data in realtime on the dashboard
To display the realtime updates of our endpoints, we will use the Pusher JavaScript client and jQuery libraries.
In our view file, templates/endpoints.html, we will first import and initialize a Pusher instance using our app’s credentials:
In the new_endpoint_request event handler, the endpoint data is categorized into either an update scenario (where the endpoint already exists on the dashboard) or a create scenario (where a new list item is created and appended).
Finally, you can build your application and when you run it you should see something similar to what we have in the preview:
Conclusion
In this article, we were able to monitor the realtime requests to a REST API and demonstrate how Pusher works with GoLang applications.
This is story is brought to you by Hacker Noon’s weekly sponsor, Pusher, who provides real-time APIs for developers.
Harvard professor and renowned economist Kenneth Rogoff, who’s in the past argued for a reduction in the amount of physical cash, has recently stated that bitcoin is likelier to hit $100 than $100,000 a decade from now.
Speaking at CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) argued that if the cryptocurrency stops being used to launder money and evade taxes, its “actual uses as a transaction vehicle are very small.”
He said:
“I think bitcoin will be worth a tiny fraction of what it is now if we’re headed out 10 years from now … I would see $100 as being a lot more likely than $100,000 ten years from now.”
Bitcoin has indeed been associated with illicit activities such as money laundering and tax evasion. Expert estimates on the cryptocurrency’s use in these activities vary. As reported by CCN, a 2016 Europol report found no evidence of terrorists using bitcoin.
Moreover, a report from the European Commission to the European Parliament and Council found that terrorists and criminals are barely using bitcoin or ethereum. The report labeled the risk of digital currencies being used to finance terrorism as “moderately significant.”
Nevertheless, according to Rogoff, government regulations would be a trigger for bitcoin’s demise. The economist stressed that developing a global framework of regulations would take time. He noted:
“It really needs to be global regulation. Even if the U.S. cracks down on it and China cracks down, but Japan doesn’t, people will be able to still launder money through Japan.”
Throughout the world, individual countries are creating their own regulations for cryptocurrencies. Last year, Japan legalized the flagship cryptocurrency as a payment method.
Mexico’s congress has also approved cryptocurrency and crowdfunding regulations, that just need the president’s signature to become law. Similarly, the Philippines’ primary securities regulator has confirmed it will work toward crafting regulations for cryptocurrency transactions and initial coin offerings (ICOs).
According to Rogoff, authorities have been slow to regulate bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies because they anticipate developments in the technology behind cryptocurrencies. Per his words, regulators want to see the technology develop,” as the private sector has historically “invented everything” when it comes to currency.
Notably, this isn’t the first time Rogoff takes a bearish approach to bitcoin. Back in October, the former chief economist at the IMF argued bitcoin’s price will collapse in the long run, as “the long history of currency tells us that what the private sector innovates, the state eventually regulates and appropriates.”
From Tuesday March 13 through Wednesday March 14, the 5th annual SXSW 24 Hour Hackathon will bring together hackers, creators, makers, and coders to converge to solve problems, create new tools, and push the boundaries of existing tech across entertainment media.
After receiving hundreds of applications, we’ve narrowed the field to the top 120 hackers. It’s going to be fun. While the field is mostly set, we’re still reviewing all new applications. Apply here.
“When you think of SXSW, depending on who you are you either think of the best new music, technology, or movies,” said Travis Laurendine. “As a polymath myself, I co-created the SXSW Hackathon to be the blender where all of the elements of SX are united as one and the incubator to give the winning teams SXSW itself as their initial and very fertile testing ground for real world users.”
“This year as the ultimate nod to the importance of innovation at the intersection of technology and entertainment, we have some of the most valuable companies in the country sponsoring and sending engineers to help participants build things for artists and their consumers to use,” Travis continued. “I can’t wait to see what these super star developers build on these consumer platforms that translate to over $1 trillion in market cap. Especially when they see what’s in the new sandbox that Capitol Records is bringing into the mix and the other music, film and API surprises we have waiting for them!”
At Hacker Noon, we’re proud to be a media sponsor for such an exciting event. We’ll have an area at the event, where you can tell us your tech story. Can also DM me. Looking forward to meeting you there
2018 SXSW Hackathon Mentors
Proud to announce the mentors for the Hackathon and Incubator are:
USAA. USAA, known for its innovative approach to bringing banking and insurance to its members, is joining us for the SXSW Hackathon as the presenting sponsor.
Amazon Alexa. Alexa is a cloud-based voice service from Amazon. Alexa is the brain behind Amazon Echo and other Alexa-enabled devices.
Amazon Web Services. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a secure cloud services platform, offering compute power, database storage, content delivery and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow. Millions of customers are currently leveraging AWS cloud products and solutions to build sophisticated applications with increased flexibility, scalability and reliability.
Capitol Music Group. Capitol Music Group (CMG) is comprised of Capitol Records, Virgin Records, Motown Records, Blue Note Records, Astralwerks, Harvest Records, Capitol Christian Music Group, and CMG’s independent distribution division, Caroline.
ConsenSys. ConsenSys is a global formation of technologists and entrepreneurs building the infrastructure, applications, and practices that enable a decentralized world.
Cloudinary. Manage web and mobile media assets with Cloudinary, the leading cloud service: image and video upload, storage, manipulation, optimization, digital asset management and delivery.
Despite all its previous efforts to prevent the people it rules from engaging in the online trading of cryptocurrencies, the Chinese government is taking further action to deter the practice. According to reports, local internet users can still access the Chinese social media accounts of former-mainland exchanges abroad and regulators have now acted to prevent this.
Chinese internet financial regulators have blocked access to the social media accounts on the Wechat network of some overseas bitcoin exchanges, Beijing-based media group Caixin has reported on Tuesday. Wechat has over 1 billion monthly active users and serves as a master platform that runs about 600,000 different mini-programs. Its dominance of the internet ecosystem in China is so great that if a company is off the social network it might as well be off the grid completely.
Many former Chinese trading platform operators have left the country’s mainland and set up shop in the self-regulated territory of Hong Kong or even farther afield where they are free to offer services with Chinese language support and accept deposits from mainlanders if they can get to them. By pushing the industry offshore, regulators have thus lost the control of exchanges they might have had otherwise and forced to try and block them if they find something they disapprove of like promoting ICOs.
Great Firewall of China Not Strong Enough?
As reported back in February, Chinese authorities have already decided to block internet access to the websites of overseas cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms promoting ICOs. However, local users are reportedly still able to access such international trading venues as Huobi, OKEx and Binance even without the use of a VPN to bypass the Great Firewall of China, supposedly triggering the recent social media crackdown.
A person close to the Chinese internet financial regulation agency reportedly told Caixin this week that: “The moment financial fraud is reported, the person in charge should be immediately arrested, no matter if it is domestic or foreign, all should be regulated. We are urging all relevant departments to further block the IP addresses of overseas cryptocurrency exchange platforms.”
Is this the last step the Chinese government can take against bitcoin or are we likely to hear of many more such moves? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.
The New Jersey Bureau of Securities has slapped the Steven Seagal-backed initial coin offering (ICO) “Bitcoiin2Gen” (Bitcoiin or B2G) with a cease and desist order, alleging that it is fraudulently selling unregistered securities.
The order, which was entered on March 7, is not entirely surprising, as the project was characterized by a number of red flags — and regulators have not been shy about the fact that no ICO is Above the Law.
Most notably, New Jersey’s securities officials took issue with action film hero and “Zen Master” Steven Seagal’s endorsement of the token sale.
“The Bitcoiin Websites do not disclose what expertise, if any, Steven Seagal has to ensure that the Bitcoiin investments are appropriate and in compliance with federal and state securities laws,” the order reads. “Additionally, there are no disclosures as to the nature, scope, and amount of compensation paid by Bitcoiin in exchange for Steven Seagal’s promotion of the Bitcoiin investments.”
The SEC, incidentally, has called such endorsements “potentially unlawful” and has warned that celebrities who endorse securities offerings without making proper disclosures could face prosecution.
Moreover, as CCN reported — and New Jersey noted in its cease and desist order — an infographic explaining the ICO’s referral program is literally shaped like a pyramid, although the company has assured concerned parties that it is not a pyramid scheme.
Finally, the ICO also projected that its B2G tokens — which are priced at $5 each during the token sale — will be worth $388 by December, netting investors a cool 7,700 percent profit. Marketing an ICO as an investment, however, is one of the easiest ways to have one’s token sale flagged as a securities offering.
In addition to being prohibited from offering its tokens to New Jersey residents, the order warned that Bitcoiin may face other enforcement actions, including both ancillary relief and civil penalties.
Bitcoiin2Gen — which now finds itself Under Siege, as it were — has not addressed the cease-and-desist order publicly, instead saving its Twitter feed for more important matters — such as retweeting Maxim articles discussing the merits of one-night stands.
Following yesterday’s after-hour shocker, and the subsequent drift higher, US markets behaved as we expected, trading in a hectic fashion with no clear direction. Despite the lack of real momentum, bulls could claim another small victory, as the major Wall Street indices ended the session near their intraday highs, although the S&P 500 and the Dow are still well off the bounce highs set early last week.
Nasdaq Futures, 4-Hour Chart Analysis
The Nasdaq continued to pull its weight, and with European stocks and US small caps also showing relative strength once again today, we still expect choppy trading to continue until Friday’s Jobs Report, even as technicals still favor a re-test of the February lows.
Russell 2000 (Small Cap Index, 4-Hour Chart Analysis
Today’s recovery was boosted by the late-day news regarding a possible exemption to Mexico and Canada from the recently announced trade tariffs, even as tax and tariff ideas continued to pop up globally amid the intensifying trade war chatter.
Canadian Dollar Dominates Forex Markets
USD/CAD, 5-Min Chart
The Canadian Dollar had a very active session following the Bank of Canada’s rate decision and statement, as we expected, and the tariff-exemption rumors gave another twist to the Loonie’s already hectic day before the bell.
First, the currency sold off, as the central bank’s officials voiced their concerns regarding trade, while leaving the benchmark rate unchanged at 1.5%, in line with the consensus estimate. The USD/CAD pair almost hit 1.30 amid the CAD dip, but the favorable news about the tariffs pushed the pair to its intraday low below 1.29, as stocks rallied towards the end of the session.
EUR/USD, 4-Hour Chart Analysis
The US Dollar was stable in the second half of the session against its most important peers, with the EUR/USD pair hovering around the 1.24 level, while the USD/JPY pair settling down near 106. With Treasury yields remaining near their recent highs, the Greenback might be ready to bounce back against the Euro, as the re-test of the previous rising trendline is now completed, and the MACD indicator is close to giving a sell signal.
Commodities had a dominantly bearish session despite the stable Dollar, as gold drifted lower throughout the day thanks to the improving global sentiment, while oil sold off after an encouraging start following the release of the mixed US crude inventories report, and industrial metals also finished lower.
Cryptocurrencies
BTC/USD, 4-Hour Chart Analysis
The segment took a heavy beating today, especially in the second half of the day, as the majors shed 10% on average thanks to the Binance hack rumors, and another report regarding the SEC’s crackdown on the cryptos. The plunge came on the heels of a two-day sell-off that had been relatively mild in the case of most of the coins, but now, as volatility and correlations jumped, things might get heated up, with several coins approaching crucial support zones.
BTC has been trading around $10,000 following the initial move $9450, and now it is back below the key level after-hours, with all eyes still on the line-in-the-sand support zone between $9000 and $9200 that could be tested in the coming days, as the short-term picture remains bearish, while the recovery is still likely to resume after the correction.
Japanese authorities have penalized seven domestic cryptocurrency exchanges following inspections, including a month-long suspension for two exchanges.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA), the country’s financial regulator and watchdog, has narrowed down on cryptocurrency exchange operators using lax cybersecurity practices and inadequate money laundering measures. Two exchanges, FSHO and Bit Station, are hit the hardest with month-long business suspension orders effective today.
Over the course of its inspections, the FSA discovered that a BitStation senior staff member had ‘diverted’ customers’ bitcoins for personal use, the Nikkei reports. There were repeated cases of high-value cryptocurrency trades with no judgment made about the need for notification of a suspicious transaction,” the FSA said of Yokohama-based FSHO.
Five other exchanges – Tech Bureau, GMO Coin, Bicrements, Mr. Exchange and Coincheck, the Tokyo-based exchange that lost $530 million in stolen NEM this year – have all been hit with business improvement orders by the FSA. All seven exchanges have been scrutinized for lacking proper internal control systems and underwhelming security measures. Two of the seven exchanges, Tech Bureau and GMO Coin, are notably registered with the FSA and are licensed to operate an exchange in Japan.
Following an onsite inspection of internet conglomerate GMO’s cryptocurrency exchange the regulator accused the operator of failing to investigate a number of system faults and subsequent measures to prevent them from occurring again.
The FSA began inspecting exchanges soon after the Coincheck hack in late January and the regulator determined that the exchange lacked measures to combat money laundering, demanding that the Tokyo-based operator ensure a reliable and secure business operation that safeguards consumer assets. Acknowledging its second such notice today, Coincheck said it will comply with a mandate to submit its improvement plan by March 22.
After completing its first round of inspections, the FSA reportedly fears a repeat of a Coincheck-style hack after discovering a multitude of concerns in customer protection and anti-money-laundering measures. While initially focusing on oversight into transactions and systems management, the FSA is now forcing exchanges to address a broader range of issues including corporate governance and management structure.
On Wednesday, March 7, the U.S. regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a letter concerning the potential of unlawful online platforms that trade digital assets. The SEC is concerned with platforms operating without permission and advises investors to use entities that are registered with the SEC as an alternative trading system (ATS).
Investors Should Use a Platform or Entity Registered with the SEC
The top U.S. regulatory agency hasissued a warningto “unlawful online platforms that trade digital assets” alongside issuing a recommendation to digital currency investors. The SEC says that many exchanges have become popular selling cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). A number of the platforms offer a mechanism to trade assets that the SEC considers a “security” and some of them are operating unlawfully. If this is the case the platform “must register with the SEC as a national securities exchange or be exempt from registration.”
“The federal regulatory framework governing registered national securities exchanges and exempt markets is designed to protect investors and prevent against fraudulent and manipulative trading practices,” explains the SEC letter.
To get the protections offered by the federal securities laws and SEC oversight when trading digital assets that are securities, investors should use a platform or entity registered with the SEC, such as a national securities exchange, alternative trading system (“ATS”), or broker-dealer.
The SEC’s public statement issued this Wednesday.
While the SEC’s Letter Questions if Exchanges Are Lawful, Crypto Prices Plummet
Immediately after the SEC letter was published and started being shared across social media and forums, cryptocurrency markets dropped significantly in value. The top 100 digital currencies according to Coinmarketcap.com saw losses between 10-20 percent in a short period of time.
BTC/USD markets dump on March 7 following the SEC letter.
The SEC explains that many platforms give the impression they are a registered exchange that offers functionality like bidding, order books, and execution data. However, these attributes do not make a platform qualified in the eyes of the U.S. regulators and federal securities laws. So the SEC has created a list of 13 questions investors should ask themselves before using an online trading platform. These include asking if the platform has registered as a national securities exchange, seeing if the exchange is an ATS, and other questions that determine whether or not the exchange is lawful.
What do you think about the warning from the SEC? Let us know your thoughts on the subject in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, SEC, and Bitcoin Wisdom.
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The Ardor/Bitcoin (ARDR/BTC) pair launched its bull run on December 12, 2017 when it breached resistance of 0.00005. The momentum of the breakout was so strong that it went as high as 0.000152 on January 3, 2018. In less than three weeks, the market grew by over 200%. Breakout players exploited the growth as they took profits.
With sellers dominating the market, it dropped to 0.00007999 on January 5. Bottom pickers entered the buying picture as they sensed that a higher low was established. The increased demand brought the price up to 0.00012813 on January 14. At this point, bulls were exhausted. Bears capitalized on the opportunity and sent the market on a freefall.
Technical analysis show that Ardor/Bitcoin has taken out support of 0.00005. Below this level, the next firm support is 0.000027. This is the price point where the market consolidated before it ignited the bull run on December 12. There’s a very good chance that it will once again create a base at 0.000027 in preparation for another bull run.
The strategy is to buy as close to 0.000027 support as possible. If bulls get to create a new base at this level, the pair will likely consolidate for some time before it can restart a bull run. As it consolidates, it will range trade between 0.000027 and to our target of 0.00005. The process may take a month.
Daily Chart of Ardor/Bitcoin on Poloniex
As of this writing, the Ardor/Bitcoin pair is trading at 0.00003414 onPoloniex.
Summary of Strategy
Buy: As close to 0.000027 as possible.
Target: 0.00005
Stop: 0.000025
Disclaimer: The writer owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.
Major Japanese conglomerate, GMO Internet, has released a report detailing the performance of its mining business. GMO Internet first announced its desire to start mining BTC and BCH during September 2017, before launching operations in December of the same year.
The report states that GMO Internet’s “goal is to see the hash rate reach 3,000 PH/s this year,” indicating the company’s intention to soon comprise a major player within the bitcoin mining industry.
As 
The top U.S. regulatory agency has
The SEC’s public statement issued this Wednesday.
BTC/USD markets dump on March 7 following the SEC letter.
Crypto Currency Online 
