ICOs

Fake ICO Giza Scoots with USD 2mil Worth of Crypto

A fake ICO, Giza, that was launched by a mysterious Marco Fike - the firm's COO, in January 2018, disappeared with USD 2 million worth of cryptocurrency. Although there were warning signs of a scam, they managed to to get more than 1,000 investors to buy their tokens with Ether. These warning signs included a lack of correspondence from its founders, a reported falling out with its sole supplier and fake LinkedIn profiles of its team members.

From mid-February, the digital wallet address linked to Giza began showing large outflows of Ethereum. That went on for another 2 weeks until the last transaction on 02 March.

Based on a report posted by CNBC.

PWC Trials Blockchain Analytics Tool for ICO Tracking

Price Waterhouse Coopers, a major accounting firm, has reported that they have developed a blockchain analytics tool to track ICO tokens from their launch through trade transactions to ensure that they are not used for illicit purposes.

This tool comes in timely with the migration of many Asian crypto companies to Singapore and Hong Kong, arising from the lack of overly restrictive ICO regulations in these territories amid China's crackdown on the cryptocurrency sector.

Additional reporting by Bitcoin.com and the South China Morning Post.

Malaysia's Central Bank Outraged by Startup Coinzer's Use of State Symbols

Malaysia's Central Bank, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), has slammed local startup Coinzer planning its ICO, for using many state related terms and symbols to promote its token sale.

BNM nor the state is authorising or endorsing the upcoming ICO and the use of coveted state symbols may mislead investors for thinking so. The Securities Commission Malaysia issued a cease-and-desist to the startup ahead of its ICO.

Based on a report by Coindesk.

SEC May Be Training Its Sights on ICO Attorneys & Service Providers Next

The Securities and Exchange Commission of the US, has been reported issuing subpoenas to ICO issuing companies recently. In a recent waning issued by Jay Clayton, the current Chair of the SEC, he mentioned that he is disappointed by some of the aggressive tactics taken by gatekeepers of ICO startups - attorneys, accountants and consultants, and that he will not hesitate to recommend strong enforcement action to be taken against them.

Additional reporting by Anthony Zeoli from CrowdFundInsider.

Cryptocurrencies

Ethereum Mining Rigs Designed to Keep Rooms Warm

In what has become a running joke on the environmental impact of mining rigs, with their generation of copious amounts of heat while solving cryptographic puzzles, French company Qarnot has decided to package their Ethereum rig into a home appliance designed to mine Etheruem or alternative coins while providing indoor heating.

The Qarnot rigs boasts a well-designed appliance and retails at a cost of EUR 2,900 or about USD 3,600. Building a similar rig DIY will cost about half of that. The Qarnot rig is plug and play and can be controlled by a mobile app. It is said to operate noiselessly based on its patented design that dissipates a soft and comfortable warmth.

If you are planning on keeping your home warm while generating cryptocurrencies in the cooler months of the year, be sure to check out the Qarnot mining rig.

Based on a report by Jason Evangelho in Forbes.

TrueEx Teams up with Consensys to Make Ethereum More Accessible

Fintech firm, TrueEx, has teamed up with Blockchain tech company, Consensys, to make acquisition of Ethereum more accessible to institutional buyers though a regulated derivatives market for digital assets.

In the recent press release, TrueEx, the first exchange approved the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a Designated Contract Market (DCM) of the US, states that initial crypto contracts settled in USD will be listed as "trueDigital" on its swap platform.

Additional details can be found in this report by Molly Jane Zuckerman of CoinTelegraph.

John Oliver Educates & Warns His Audience About the Blockchain & Bitcoin

In his YouTube video released on the channel LastWeekTonight, John Oliver eloquently and irreverently explains the core concepts of blockchain technology and bitcoin.

In his own words: ‘Everything you don’t understand about money combined with everything you don’t understand about computers’.

For the details and to watch the video, check out my earlier post: John Oliver's Humorous Take on the Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies.

Blaming the Recent Bitcoin Bloodbath on Mt Gox Related Sales Does Not Make Sense

Mt Gox's trustee reported last week that they had sold USD 400 million worth of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash between 18 December 2017 and 05 February 2018 to generate proceeds to repay Bitcoin owners and creditors affected by the massive hack on the exchange in February 2014 to the tune of 850,000 Bitcoins.

There have to be other factors that contributed to the steep decline in Bitcoin's price, since the value of the Bitcoins sold by the trustee vis-a-vis the Bitcoin market volume, should not have had that much of an effect.

Mt. Gox of Japan was probably the largest and most well-known heist of Bitcoins. The theft in February 2014 of the 850,000 Bitcoins valued then at USD 450 million would be worth about USD 7.7 billion today.

Based on reporting by Chuck Jones in Forbes.

That's it for this compact version of recent crypto news.

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Image Credit: Photo by Andre Francois on Unsplash.