Amid the ongoing growth of the cryptocurrency lending industry, major crypto wallet service Blockchain.com launches a new lending product for all users, not just institutions. After first launching an institutional crypto lending desk in August 2019, Blockchain.com is now rolling out its crypto lending service to all users across more than 180 countries, the United Kingdom-based firm announced to Cointelegraph on March 10. Borrow allows users to borrow Paxos Standard against Bitcoin at the launch The new lending product from Blockchain.com, dubbed Borrow, allows to users borrow Paxos Standard stablecoin (PAX) against Bitcoin (BTC) directly from the platform’s native cryptocurrency …

On Feb. 12 Iota (MIOTA) suffered an attack targeting its official desktop wallet. The Iota network went offline on the same day, and has remained down since. On March 6, David Sønstebø, the founder of Iota, revealed that he will personally fully repay all 46 victims of last month’s Iota hack to the tune of 8.52 million MIOTA — worth roughly $1.97 million at the time of writing. Cointelegraph spoke to David directly, who confirmed that he will reimburse all affected users from his own pocket, and that the Iota Foundation remains on track to relaunch the network on March …

Major cryptocurrency hardware wallet supplier Ledger has warned its users about another phishing attack trying to steal their crypto — this one using a Google Chrome extension. In a March 5 tweet, the French crypto company specified that there is a fake extension on Google Chrome browser that attempts to steal users’ crypto by asking them to enter their 24-word recovery phrase to access their wallet. Ledger Live gets removed from the Chrome Web Store The phishing attack was reported by Catalin Cimpanu, a cybersecurity reporter at business technology news website ZDNet on March 4. According to Cimpanu, the malicious …

Whales appear to be accumulating Ether (ETH), with the percentage of ETH supply controlled by the top 100 wallets standing near 25%. The observation was made by blockchain data analysis firm Santiment, who tweeted that the centralization of ETH among top wallets suggests that whales are accumulating. Santiment argues that the data indicates large investors “have a collective sentiment of the token being undervalued and believe it’s a great mid to long-term hold play.” However, the company cautioned that signs of accumulation do not guarantee parabolic price action in the short term stating, “Sometimes these price rises take a bit …

Insurance giant Lloyd’s of London now provides a new type of liability insurance policy to protect cryptocurrency in hot wallets that is lost by theft. Lloyd’s new offering was developed by Lloyd’s syndicate Atrium together with crypto will-focused firm Coincover, with limits from as little as £1,000 ($1,275), Lloyd’s announced on March 2. The policy is also backed by an array of other Lloyd’s insurers, including TMK and Markel, all of whom are members of Lloyd’s Product Innovation Facility. “It is a new type of liability insurance policy with a dynamic limit that increases or decreases in line with the …

Each crypto token commands a small army of fierce supporters. For many, the sole cryptocurrency that is worthy of such staunch support is Bitcoin (BTC). But what truly is Bitcoin, what is its purpose, and how can it be fully optimized? The division among those trying to answer these questions led to the creation of Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin’s most successful offshoot. While for some, BCH has been the answer to crypto’s woes, but the coin has had some significant issues of its own over the past few months. From a multimillion-dollar hack to a new mining tax, BCH is …

Despite the ever-increasing trend of wallets allowing dozens of cryptocurrencies to be stored in one place, one provider claims there is demand for a more focused approach to keeping coins safe. Freewallet says it has established a range of wallets around one of the most common requests from the community: dedicated, stand-alone applications for specific digital currencies. The company argues that the appeal of stand-alone wallets lies in how they offer familiarity and convenience to those who dislike holding all of their assets in one place. Freewallet drew a comparison between stand-alone wallets and credit cards that support a single …

Altcoin Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has become the subject of intense speculation after a major investor claimed he lost $30 million in a wallet hack. In a now-deleted Reddit post from Feb. 22, the investor, who appears to be Dreamhost founder Josh Jones, said the attacker also stole 1,500 Bitcoin (BTC) worth $14.4 million. Hacker steals reported $45M The hack came in the form of Jones’ SIM card being compromised. So far, he has not confirmed whether this was a so-called “SIM swap,” or whether the funds were commandeered by other means. In the deleted post, Jones appealed to BCH miners …

Responsible for one of the top performing cryptocurrencies, IOTA is continuing to release new information in response to a Feb.12 hack on its official wallet. According to a Feb. 19 status update, the IOTA Foundation strongly recommends users of the Trinity Wallet to immediately change their passwords and use the seed migration tool to protect their assets. Trinity users who opened or updated their wallets between December 17th, 2019 and February 18th, 2020 may be vulnerable. Trinity users - If you opened #Trinity between Dec 17th 2019 - Feb 18th 01.30 CET 2020, you will need to use the seed …

A multicurrency wallet has announced that it will allow users in the European Union to withdraw Bitcoin to their Visa credit cards. Lumi Wallet says its new feature has been built with simplicity in mind, with an easy-to-follow Know Your Customer procedure. Transactions can also be initiated quickly, meaning crypto enthusiasts don’t need to jump through endless hoops. Upending the status quo According to the company, the current methods of converting crypto to fiat simply aren’t practical — creating a “perplexing affair” that’s not too dissimilar from the arduous process of getting a refund from an online retailer. Although selling …

A company is using nonfungible tokens to help consumers establish ownership and control over their DNA data. GenoBank.io’s approach comes as the world’s scientific community begins to scratch the surface of what can be achieved through DNA sequencing — understanding our ancestry, detecting and treating breast cancer earlier, and prescribing personalized medicine. Although consumer-focused DNA testing products have exploded in popularity over recent years, concerns about privacy have grown with it. In direct response to that, millions of Americans who have received DNA data from major providers like 23andMe or Ancestry will be able to use a GenoBank.io algorithm to …

Bitcoin (BTC) is already processing 1% of the world’s GDP and the number is growing by “an order of magnitude” every halving cycle. According to statistician Willy Woo, who analyzed data from monitoring resource Coin Metrics, Bitcoin’s investment flow is $727 billion annually. BTC processes $727B per year The number is almost 10% of payment processor Visa’s transaction volumes each year — Visa processes $8.8 trillion in transactions. “Bitcoin's investment flow (aka annual investment velocity) is presently growing an order of magnitude (10x) every 4 years,” Woo summarized. Per the statistics, Bitcoin should “catch up” with Visa at some point …