Exchanges

OKCoin Grants $100,000 to BTCPay Server Toward Its Open-Source Development

28/05/2020 by Idelto Editor

Today, San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin announced a $100,000 donation to open-source bitcoin payment processor project BTCPay Server.

The funding comes as part of the OKCoin Independent Developer Grant, which was launched last year. BTCPay Server’s product is free to use and its dependent on such contributions to continue operations.

“Supporting infrastructure projects is key to our mission at OKCoin [and] we believe that the most impactful way to do this is by backing independent open-source developers; the ground troops and projects dedicated to creating and improving the core infrastructure that the rest of us build on,” the exchange said in a statement shared with Bitcoin Magazine. “BTCPay Server … encourages adoption and greater use of Bitcoin by increasing its utility across global merchants, allowing businesses to transact in the cryptocurrency.”

This is the second donation in OKCoin’s grant program, with the first going to Bitcoin Core developer Fabian Jahr. It matches the largest-ever donation awarded to BTCPay Server, a $100,000 grant from Square Crypto.

“For us, it means recognition,” BTCPay Server contributor Pavlenex told Bitcoin Magazine of the donation. “It means we are doing something good when a corporate entity thinks we are worth receiving a big donation like this.”

He added that the donation will allow the BTCPay Server team to focus on its goal of driving adoption of its product and of Bitcoin around the world, ultimately becoming a set of technologies that others build upon.

“Basically, we’ll be able to focus more and produce even more features,” Pavlenex said. “Feature-wise, we want to use this grant to improve our API and user experience. Our main focus is allowing people to build stuff on top of BTCPay Server. In the future, BTCPay should become more of a tech stack than a payment server.”

These efforts toward adoption and creating a world in which the promise of cryptocurrency can be realized more widely are aligned with OKCoin’s vision for the grant program.

“The BTCPay project sustainably advances cryptocurrency adoption,” said OKCoin CEO Hong Fang, per the company statement. “Their efforts support our vision of a responsible financial ecosystem built upon digital assets. Our intention is that the grant helps accelerate the pace of Bitcoin development and highlights the significance of independent developers like BTCPay.”

The post OKCoin Grants $100,000 to BTCPay Server Toward Its Open-Source Development appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitbuy, Knox Team to Offer Insured Custody for Bitcoin on Exchange

27/05/2020 by Idelto Editor

Today, insured bitcoin custody provider Knox has announced its partnership with Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Bitbuy in a sign of growing interest for offline and insurable third-party storage solutions.

“Bitbuy is partnering with Knox … allowing its clients to have their bitcoin stored in an offline vault with insurance up to the full value of holdings,” according to a press release shared with Bitcoin Magazine. “This is a significant development for the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry, and makes Bitbuy the world’s first platform to find a way to keep the full value of its bitcoin cold storage holdings insured, which usually represents the vast majority of a platform’s client holdings.”

Creating a Custody Solution That Works for Bitcoin

For Bitcoin, custody is critical. A fundamental tenet of the technology is its power to free users from the third parties that control the traditional financial system — the banks that can withhold funds and policymakers who can bar access. “Not your keys, not your coins” has become shorthand for this philosophy that BTC custody should not be trusted to middlemen.

But personally holding private keys is a solution that doesn’t make sense for institutions or groups of more than a few individuals. It’s not viable for organizations to join the Bitcoin ecosystem without some form of third-party custody.

As Alex Daskalov, founder of Knox, explained to Bitcoin Magazine upon its launch in September 2019, “Second best thing you can do if you’re not going to hold your private keys is that you should have the right to have the full value of the assets insured.”

Daskalov explained that, upon its launch, Knox’s insurance broker matches it with insurance based on a sliding scale of how much it’s willing to cover. These insurance companies issue written attestations that they are willing to cover deposits up to certain thresholds and these attestations can serve as some added confidence for customers.

Bringing Better Insurance to Exchanges

This latest partnership is targeted at an avenue where Bitcoin custody could use a new solution: for holdings left on cryptocurrency exchanges.

“Many cryptocurrency users leave their bitcoin on-platform to make them readily available,” per the Knox release. “Platforms typically rely on internal storage systems for their offline holdings — typically 95 percent — that they secure on behalf of their clients. Custodial exchanges are not financially compensated for this service and treat it as the cost of doing businesses.”

As the Bitcoin community has learned repeatedly, cryptocurrency exchanges are decidedly unsafe places to leave your funds. That fact may have affected many Bitbuy users after the Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX went bankrupt while owing $190 million in clients’ digital assets last year.

“Bitbuy … will be moving all its bitcoin holdings over to Knox, which will securely store Bitbuy clients’ bitcoin in a fully segregated and insured custody account,” the release states. “The Knox insurance policy covers the risk of theft and loss, including internal theft such as collusion, up to the value of the holdings held in cold storage subject to the full policy terms, conditions and exclusions.”

Bitbuy clients will not be required to pay any additional fees for this protection, as the exchange decided to absorb the costs itself.

“Deep liquidity and asset security shouldn’t be mutually exclusive,” said Adam Goldman, president and founder of Bitbuy, according to the release. “We’re excited to be pushing forward the limits of the experience for Bitcoin.”

The post Bitbuy, Knox Team to Offer Insured Custody for Bitcoin on Exchange appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Hacker Attempts to Sell Data Allegedly Tied to Ledger, Trezor, Bnktothefuture Customers

24/05/2020 by Idelto Editor

According to an online monitoring web portal called, Under the Breach, a hacker is purportedly trying to sell customer information that stems from companies like Keepkey, Trezor, Ledger, and even the investment platform Bnktothefuture. The hacker doesn’t seem to have any passwords, but is offering detailed information that was stolen from an alleged Shopify breach like email addresses, home addresses, and phone numbers.

The cybercrime resource known as Under the Breach has disclosed that customers who have purchased products using Shopify and purchased items from companies like Ledger, Trezor, Keepkey, and even Bnktothefuture may have had their identities leaked.

The hacker is said to be the same person that attacked the forum Ethereum.org and he claims to have a massive cache of customer information.

The Ethereum forum hacker is now selling the databases of @Trezor and @Ledger.

Both of which obtained from a @Shopify exploit.
(suggesting there are many more underground leaks).

The hacker also claims he has the full SQL database of famous investing site @BankToTheFuture. pic.twitter.com/4M3f2bQKvB

— Under the Breach (@underthebreach) May 24, 2020

Under the Breach documents show that the hacker has three large databases with information pertaining to an alleged 80,000 customers. This includes the customer’s email address, name, phone number, residential address, and other pieces of data.

The databases from Shopify are allegedly tied to Ledger, Trezor, and Keepkey. However, on May 24, 2020, the firm Ledger addressed the Shopify discussion and called it a “rumor.”

“Rumors pretend our Shopify database has been hacked through a Shopify exploit,” Ledger tweeted. “Our ecommerce team is currently checking these allegations by analyzing the so-called hacked DB, and so far it doesn’t match our real [database] DB. We continue investigations and are taking the matter seriously.”

The company that manufactures Trezor hardware wallets has also denied the situation. Trezor’s official Twitter account stated:

There are rumors spreading that our eshop database has been hacked through a Shopify exploit. Our eshop does not use Shopify, but we are nonetheless investigating the situation. We’ve been also routinely purging old customer records from the database to minimize the possible impact.

The information provided by Under the Breach shows that there are no passwords available and only identity information per request. Allegedly, the hacker also breached the Bnktothefuture SQL database and scooped up identity information from that investment platform as well.

News.Bitcoin.com also spoke with a Shopify representative and the company said: “We investigated these claims and found no evidence to substantiate them, and no evidence of any compromise of Shopify’s systems.”

The hacker has a number of dubious claims and supposedly has the databases for close to 20 crypto exchanges worldwide. No one can confirm whether or not the hacker really does have these databases, and so far it seems to be merely hearsay. The individual also has told the public he hacked two digital currency tax companies and is planning to sell that data as well.

What do you think about this so-called hacker? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Hacker Attempts to Sell Data Allegedly Tied to Ledger, Trezor, Bnktothefuture Customers appeared first on Bitcoin News.

More Than $220M in Bitcoin Withdrawn from Crypto Exchanges Since the Halving

14/05/2020 by Idelto Editor

In mid-April, news.Bitcoin.com reported on a great number of BTC withdrawn from cryptocurrency trading platforms and after the third BTC halving, the trend has picked up once again. Data from Glassnode’s Bitcoin Exchange Net-Flow statistics show that close to 24,000 BTC has been withdrawn since May 11. Additionally, statistics from Bituniverse’s exchange reserve data indicate the same, but withdrawals are only affecting certain exchanges.

Crypto Exchange Bitcoin Withdrawals Grew Before the Halving, While Tether Rises

Just recently, the BTC blockchain experienced its reward halving and a number of observers are monitoring the network’s health. The price has slowly risen higher, and the overall hashrate lost a touch of hashpower, but nothing drastic like some skeptics predicted. It should also be noted that the tether (USDT) market briefly eclipsed XRP’s on May 12, and the overall supply of stablecoins has crossed a $10 billion valuation. USDT markets show that the market valuation of the stablecoin tether is $5.74 billion, or more than half the valuation of all the stablecoins in existence. After the bitcoin (BTC) halving on May 11, a number of users moved close to 24,000 BTC ($222 million) from centralized trading platforms, according to Glassnode’s Bitcoin Exchange Net-Flow statistics.

In mid-April news.Bitcoin.com leveraged Glassnode’s data, statistics from Chain.info, and Bituniverse BTC reserve counts as well. That data shows that most of the movement came from specific exchanges and not the top dog. For instance, Coinbase still has the most reserves in BTC, and reserves have remained roughly the same. Huobi saw about 20K BTC leave since April 12. Bitfinex and Bitmex have seen some decent amounts of bitcoin withdrawn since then as well. Bitfinex had around 205K BTC in reserves in mid-April and today there’s only 134K today. Bitmex had around 228K BTC and on March 13, 2020 reserve data now shows 214K BTC. Bitstamp had 66K BTC on April 12, 2020, but today it has a touch more, holding 71K BTC according to Bituniverse data.

Of course, this has caused a number of larger exchanges, by order of reserve count, to move positions. Bitmex and Bitfinex have dropped down a number of notches since January 1, 2020. The top five cryptocurrency trading platforms today, after the third BTC halving, include Coinbase, Huobi, Binance, Okex, and Bitfinex. Glassnode’s statistics show $200 million leaving some of the top cryptocurrency exchanges after May 11, but a lot more BTC has been withdrawn since mid-April. On Wednesday, Glassnode also tweeted that the Bitcoin Exchange Net-Flow subsided a hair, prior to the halving and following the event as well. Glassnode wrote:

In the hours before and after Bitcoin’s halving, exchange net flow decreased significantly. So far, the event has had no impact on 2020’s trend of investors withdrawing BTC from exchanges.

The millions moved off of exchanges since mid-April have been far larger than the Proof-of-Keys day initiated by Trace Mayer, which really didn’t amount to much of anything. Additionally, just like within the mining industry, exchanges are seeing a massive power shift, and those who were once mega-exchanges are being replaced by newcomers. Coinbase, however, has maintained its #1 spot for a long time and still holds 1 million BTC in reserves, according to Bituniverse and Chain.info data.

What do you think about all the BTC withdrawn from exchanges? Let us know in the comments below.

The post More Than $220M in Bitcoin Withdrawn from Crypto Exchanges Since the Halving appeared first on Bitcoin News.

17,000 Quadrigacx Users Seek $307M from the Failed Canadian Crypto Exchange

13/05/2020 by Idelto Editor

About 17,000 people have filed claims for refunds from the collapsed Canadian digital asset exchange Quadrigacx. Altogether, the claims, denominated in both cryptocurrency and fiat, amount to nearly $307 million.

According to a document released Tuesday by Ernst & Young, the court-appointed monitor, the bulk of the claims submitted stem from bitcoin (BTC) deposits that users of the exchange held on the platform.

More than 24,436 BTC claims worth about $219.8 million at current market prices have been filed, it said. Users are also requesting compensation in the form of bitcoin cash, bitcoin gold, bitcoin SV, ethereum, and litecoin, along with Canadian dollars and US dollars.

Quadrigacx went bankrupt in January 2019 following the alleged death of founder and chief executive officer Gerald Cotten, until now believed to have been buried together with a combined $190 million of customers’ funds. More than 115,000 customers were left in the cold after Cotten’s death.

Ernst & Young assumed control of the exchange early February of the same year, once Quadrigacx filed for bankruptcy. The accountants have so far only recovered around $30 million, say reports, mainly because Cotten kept no record of transactions and appeared to use customer funds to finance a luxurious lifestyle.

As per the latest document, all refunds will be paid in the Canadian dollar equivalent, but only after the country’s tax collector, Canada Revenue Agency, first claims its share in unpaid taxes. However, the Agency has yet to file a claim and there’s no timeline on when claimants can expect to receive their reimbursements.

Ernst & Young, which asked affected users to file claims by August 31, 2019, said it had not finished verifying the papers it received, as some contained technical errors or stated values that are not consistent with those found on the Quadrigacx database.

“The trustee notes that there are a number of proofs of claim that contain certain technical
deficiencies (i.e. proofs of claim are unsigned),” it said, adding:”…in a number of cases, the claimant has asserted a preferred claim … without any support for the preferred claim status.”

The accountants stated that “all affected user claims are unsecured claims without any preferred status.”

Claims against failed cryptocurrency exchanges have tended to take some time before they are refunded. Compensation claims against Mt.Gox are still to be paid six years down the line.

What do you think about the Quadrigacx claims? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post 17,000 Quadrigacx Users Seek $307M from the Failed Canadian Crypto Exchange appeared first on Bitcoin News.