Is the global cryptocurrency market ready for a token from a major e-commerce company? Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Rakuten CEO Hiroshi “Mickey” Mikitani announced that his company plans to launch a new blockchain-powered payment system called Rakuten Coin. While the company isn’t well-known in the U.S., Rakuten is easily one of […]
Peer-to-peer payments startup Circle announced yesterday that it has acquired Boston-based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. According to multiple reports, Circle is paying around $400 million for the exchange, which has been in operation since 2014. The sale also brings Goldman Sachs one step closer to becoming a major player in the cryptocurrency world, as the financial […]
In a stunning announcement made earlier today, Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck revealed that the company was the victim of the largest cryptocurrency heist in history. According to a report published by Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun (and translated by Coindesk), the hackers made off with over 500 million NEM (XEM) tokens, worth roughly $535 million (58 […]
Last week, while most people in D.C. were focused on the looming government shutdown, Senators Marco Rubio (R.-Fl) and Robert Menendez (D.-NJ) published an open letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressing serious concern about Venezuela’s plans to launch a state-backed cryptocurrency. The proposed token, known as the “Petro,” was announced by Venezuelan President […]
Late last week, the Indian government began sending tax notification documents to tens of thousands of cryptocurrency traders and investors in the country. According to Reuters, these notices follow a recent government survey that found over $3.5 billion in cryptocurrency transactions within the country over the last 17 months. By some estimates, India’s population of […]
Earlier today, the Israel Tax Authority (ITA) released a draft version of their plans to tax proceeds generated by initial coin offerings (ICOs). Under the plan, the ITA would impose a value-added tax (VAT) on profits generated from ICOs, although the tokens themselves would not be taxed. The plan also creates two distinct categories for […]
Entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban confirmed this morning that the Dallas Mavericks, an NBA team owned by Cuban, will be accepting cryptocurrency payments “Next season.” The news came as a seemingly off-the-cuff reply to a question posed by one of Cuban’s Twitter followers. Cuban, who is no stranger to cryptocurrency technology, later confirmed the news […]
Yesterday, Dallas-based money transfer company MoneyGram announced a new partnership with San Francisco-based cryptocurrency company Ripple (formerly Ripple Labs). The partnership will allow MoneyGram to test a new, cryptocurrency-based approach to processing international transfers, and is aimed at reducing the high costs for moving money across borders. Given the steady rise of the global remittance […]
Earlier today, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a post that seems to suggest the company is seriously considering the integration of cryptocurrencies. While the bulk of the post focuses on Zuckerberg’s 2018 challenge to himself to use his influence to help “fix” the current “anxious and divided” state of American culture, particularly in […]
This time last year, the idea of any national government considering the possibility of creating its own cryptocurrency would have been laughable. Times have definitely changed. This week, both Russia and the UK made it clear that they’re at least giving the concept of a state-backed cryptocurrency serious thought.