A reportedly ongoing hack against cryptocurrency wallet Electrum has seen a malicious party steal almost 250 Bitcoin (BTC) (about $937,000), commentators reported on social media Dec. 27. Subsequently confirmed by Electrum itself, the attack consists of creating a fake version of the wallet that fools users into providing password information. “The hacker setup a whole bunch of malicious servers,” Reddit user u/normal_rc explained: “If someone's Electrum Wallet connected to one of those servers, and tried to send a BTC transaction, they would see an official-looking message telling them to update their Electrum Wallet, along with a scam URL.” Affected users …

Bermuda’s financial regulator has released draft regulation for crypto custodial services, according to an official press release issued on Tuesday, Dec. 18. The Bermuda Monetary Authority’s (BMA) draft regulatory document, entitled “Digital Asset Custody Code of Practice,” seeks to clarify the regulator’s stance on crypto custodial services in Bermuda and to protect clients’ assets. The document provides a detailed regulatory basis for offering crypto custody services, including both business management and technology issues, such as transaction handling, incident reporting, keys generation and operating hot and cold storage. Aiming to deliver a high level of protection for crypto custody clients, the …

Crypto hardware wallet supplier Ledger has signed an agreement with crypto payment startup Crypto.com to allow users to pay for its products with crypto, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Dec. 19. Hong Kong-based Crypto.com has reportedly signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Ledger that will enable Ledger to adopt their service Crypto.com Pay. The payment platform will purportedly allow Ledger clients to pay for products with cryptocurrency. Crypto.com Pay will purportedly be incorporated into Ledger’s online store, where customers will able to make purchases via Crypto.com Wallet and Card application. While the press release does …

The number of unique Ethereum (ETH) wallet addresses has broken 50 million on Saturday, Dec. 15, according to data from the ETH BlockExplorer Etherscan. Number of unique Ethereum addresses on Dec. 15, 2018. Source: Etherscan.io On Saturday, the Ethereum network saw a daily increase of 168,506 unique crypto wallets, following a steady growing trend this year. With that, the highest historical daily growth of unique Ethereum addresses took place on Jan. 4, 2018, with 352,888 new addresses created on the Ethereum network. Highest historical growth of unique Ethereum addresses on Jan. 4, 2018. Source: Etherscan.io While the unique address growth …

Blockchain-focused electronics supplier SIRIN Labs will launch its first blockchain-based smartphone tomorrow, Nov. 29, U.S.-based IT and business tech magazine Computerworld reports today, Nov. 28. Following a funding round that raised $157 million in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for a blockchain-powered phone in December 2017, the Swiss-based firm announced this summer that they will release their blockchain-enabled smartphone FINNEY in November 2018. Based on both Android and SIRIN’s open-source operating system (OS), SIRIN OS, the FINNEY phone will offer a cold-storage crypto wallet and provide secure encrypted communications. On sale for $1,000, FINNEY will also contain a Token Conversion …

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) services for cryptocurrency hardware wallet Ledger have resumed, according to an announcement published Nov. 23. Ledger suspended its BCH service on Nov. 14 in anticipation of the cryptocurrency’s hard fork “to prevent unwanted transactions and potential replay attacks.” During the service pause it was not possible to send BCH through the wallet’s infrastructure. The BCH network experienced an upgrade on Nov. 15, resulting in a complex battle and eventually splitting the blockchain into two — BCH ABC supported by crypto evangelist Roger Ver and BCH SV led by Craig Wright. The hash war led cryptocurrency exchanges around …

Despite the present market crash, major Wall Street crypto bull Tom Lee has reiterated his recently reduced year-end price prediction for Bitcoin (BTC) at $15,000 in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday, Nov. 20. In the recent statement, the head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors pointed out two major types of crypto players — those who are “using it and have wallets in crypto,” and those who belong to a speculative side of the market. According to Lee, those two sides of the crypto community should find a way for “sort of interacting with each other” for …

Cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer Trezor issued a warning to users Nov. 19 after making what it called the “startling” discovery that rogue actors were creating and selling fake devices. Trezor, which together with Ledger and KeepKey forms one of the oldest and best-known wallet manufacturers, said that an “unknown” third party was distributing “one-to-one copies” of its flagship Trezor One device. “Trezor clones have been released over the years of our activity,” officials said, noting: “However, in recent weeks, we have discovered something more startling. A one-to-one copy of Trezor One. In other words, a fake Trezor device, manufactured by …

A blockchain network is preparing for the imminent hard fork to the second version of its core system on 28 Nov – with users set to benefit from flexible transaction fees and the ability to develop their own plugins with ease. ARK has been preparing Core V2 of its platform for some time, and has stressed that its community will not be affected by the hard fork as long as they update their desktop or mobile wallets to the latest version. Upon launch, exchanges and node operators will be required to update to the new core codebase. Forking out for …

Before the internet brought us dog videos and your grandmother’s Facebook updates, losing money was a traumatic experience. Dropping $20 meant you’d probably never see it again – all you’d have left is that unmistakable sensation of feeling stupid. At least in the fiat world, it’s become a little bit harder to lose money. Centralized institutions mean you can recover usernames and passwords in a jiffy – answering a few security questions or showing your ID to regain access. Help is even available if you burn thousands of dollars in a fire, thanks to a specialist department that pieces them …

U.S. law enforcement consider so-called “SIM swapping” one of its “highest priorities” in a bid to fight cryptocurrency fraud, security news and investigation blog KrebsonSecurity reported Nov. 7. Speaking to the publication, Samy Tarazi, a police sergeant in Santa Barbara and a supervisor of the REACT Task Force — a group dedicated to fighting cybercrime — said the number of instances of the crime had increased dramatically. “For the amounts being stolen and the number of people being successful at taking it, the numbers are probably historic,” he said. SIM swapping refers to the act of remotely hijacking the SIM …

Global cryptocurrency and fiat trading platform eToro announced the release of its own cryptocurrency wallet today, Nov. 6, with initial support for four cryptoassets. EToro, which last month became the first platform to offer fiat trading of cryptocurrency exchange Binance’s in-house token Binance Coin (BNB), promises to add additional functionality to the product following the initial release. “The eToro wallet today is just the beginning and we will adding a whole host of additional functionality which will include supporting additional crypto and fiat tokens, crypto to crypto conversion, the ability to deposit fiat, payment in store and more,” CEO Yoni …