Cryptopia Hacked Once Again, And US Congress Approves Bill To Study Cryptocurrencies

The State of The Market — January 30, 2019BTC: $3,477.31 (+0.89%)XRP: $0.315050 (+7.96%)ETH: $108.97 (+2.78%)

The market posted slight recovery today after crashing early this week. Over $2.8 Billion was added to the total market cap in the last 24 hours. Most of the coins are in green right now, with XRP leading the pack which is up by 8%. However, the market is not bullish yet, and it is just reacting to the oversold conditions. MobileGo (MGO) continues to remain the biggest gainer for the second consecutive day and it is up by 24%.

In other news, nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which operates the popular Wikipedia website, recently announced a new partnership with the blockchain payments provider BitPay with the goal of enabling Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash donations to be accepted through Wikipedia. The announcement cites the “difficulty in accepting payments globally due to the fractured payments ecosystem and a multitude of payment options,” as the reasoning behind the move to accept cryptos. Also, based on data from Coinhills, 490,925.45 BTC were traded against the Japanese Yen (JPY) over the past 24-hours, which means the JPY has overtaken the USD in terms of Bitcoin trading around the globe. 49.1% of all BTC trading volume was executed against the JPY as compared to 45.8% against the USD, also meaning that the two currencies accounted for 94.9% of all BTC trading. The popularity of the JPY/BTC pair began picking up substantially in November of 2018 when it had previously accounted for 21% of BTC trading.

1) Less than two weeks after undergoing a $2.5 million hack, Cryptopia exchange has become the target of another attack. On January 28, the same hacker revisited Cryptopia and stole another 1,675 ETH ($180,000) from an assortment of Cryptopia wallets. The attack brings the total number of compromised wallets to more than 17,000. Users who noticed funds being moved thought Cryptopia was taking measures to secure the exchange after the most recent attack, but after nearly 15 hours of activity, Cryptopia confirmed that the exchange had been compromised. The stolen funds were also moved to the exact same ETH address as the funds stolen in the first attack. This is a developing story which will be updated as more information becomes available. (Read More)

2) The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill authorizing a study that seeks to determine how cryptocurrencies and online marketplaces can be used to facilitate sex and drug trafficking. The “Fight Illicit Networks and Detect Trafficking Act of 2019 (H.R. 502) received bipartisan support and passed 412–13. The bill conveniently referred to as ‘FIND’ will obligate the Comptroller General of the U.S. to investigate exactly to what extent cryptocurrencies and online marketplaces indirectly support sex and drug trafficking. The results of the study will be used to propose regulatory and legislative frameworks that would stop illegal activity brokered via cryptocurrency. Once complete, the Comptroller General will be required to present the findings before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the Committee on Financial Services. (Read More)

3) A person familiar with planned events and product rollout at Fidelity Investments said the investment giant could formally launch its Fidelity Digital Asset Services (FDAS) custody product in March. The platform is already live with clients and some assets under management and Bloomberg also recently reported that Fidelity is aiming to formally debut FDAS in March. A statement from Fidelity Investments said, “We are currently serving a select set of eligible clients as we continue to build our initial solutions” and the Bloomberg article suggested that Bitcoin storage will be first, then Ethereum custody will follow. A March rollout would correspond with a previous timeline provided by FDAS director Tom Jessop. Previously, Jessop also mentioned that Fidelity would look into adding “the next four or five [cryptocurrencies] in rank of market cap order.” (Read More)

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