Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

By Moris Beracha .-  The bitcoins and the main cryptocurrencies in the market were designed with some important security patterns, which make them quite difficult to steal. The fundamental aspects of cryptocurrencies include protecting user privacy, avoiding asset theft and avoiding harmful practices such as double spending. However, there are some failures that are sought out by hackers, which allow them to take over and empty some accounts, leaving losses, in some cases, of thousands or millions of dollars. According to the Bit2me cryptocurrency and blockchain academy, about a billion US dollars in Bitcoin have been stolen to date. They recall the thefts in Mt Gt I and II, for a total of 769,408 bitcoins; the 173,655 bitcoins seized by the FBI when closing Silk Road; the robbery known as “Pony” Botnet, which stands out due to the number of machines involved, and which amounted to a total of US $ 220,000 in various types of cryptocurrencies that...

Standard Token Protocol (STP), a firm hoping to bring transparency to the tokenization process, announced Wednesday it has raised a total of $7 million through the sales of its STP tokens. The fund was raised through two rounds from investors including Neo Global Capital, BlockVC, AlphaBit. STP develops an open-source standard for projects looking to tokenize their assets. The company highlights compliance, claiming that the protocol will ensure tokens fully comply with region-specific regulations and KYC requirements. Meanwhile, the firm’s STP tokens could be used to pay for issuance fees and compliance investigation or to be used for staking and governance on STP’s platform,  per the company’s white paper. STP’s offering of compliance-proof tokenization protocol seems timely as initial coin offerings (ICOs) regain momentum, with 109 offerings raising a total of over $236 million in April alone,  according to ICObench’s data .  However, the ICO sector is also no...

By Daniel Palmer Canada-based messaging app firm Kik has launched a crypto crowdfunding campaign to support a likely court battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over its 2017 initial coin offering (ICO). Announced by Kik founder and CEO Ted Livingston and Patrick Gibbs, a partner at law firm Cooley LLP, on the UnChained Podcast Tuesday, the campaign is being launched in the hopes that “a lawsuit would eventually result in a new Howey test for crypto tokens, to determine which ones are a security.” A dedicated website – dubbed Defend Crypto – has already been set up allowing supporters to contribute to the fundraising effort, that its founders say is not only in support of Kik but many crypto firms that face potential action from the U.S. regulator. The site offers donation options in 19 cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and XRP, as well as less standard options like augur (REP), DAI and, of course, Kik’s kin (KIN) token. ...

by   Nick Chong North Korea Still In Love With Bitcoin, Crypto Due to the decentralized, borderless, and censorship-resistant nature of  Bitcoin  and related technologies, North Korea, the world’s most well-known hermit state, has taken a liking to this decade-old innovation. But some would argue that North Korea has taken its crypto penchant a bit too far, with a multitude of reports indicating that the nation is leveraging cryptocurrencies for dubious financial gain. As reported by  Ethereum World News  in mid-October, Lazarus, a supposed North Korea-based hacker consortium, was found to be responsible for five cryptocurrency exchange hacks, including the now-infamous $500 million breach of CoinCheck. A report from cybersecurity firm Group-IB, who first divulged this information, indicated that Lazarus’ constituents used social engineering, phishing, and malware to forcefully visit pertinent databases and access points. Now, per the  South Chi...

Featured image from Youtube/Bloomberg. By William Suberg Investor and cryptocurrency bull Mike Novogratz has fine-tuned his Bitcoin price outlook, repeating to Bloomberg Monday, October 15, that it would not break $10,000 in 2018. The Galaxy Investment Partners creator, who is known for his optimism about Bitcoin’s future, had previously called a “bottom” in the market in mid-September. Now, he thinks more time is required for momentum to build to take prices higher, and the long-anticipated wave of institutional investors piling into the cryptocurrency space will only occur next year. “...I think Q1 [or] Q2 [2019] if the institutions start coming in, we’ll put in new highs,” he told the network. Novogratz was speaking the day Fidelity Investments announced it would release a custody solution tailored to such institutional investors looking for security when interacting with cryptoassets. While this was a boon for Bitcoin, Novogratz said, the solut...

The SEC this year has kept up a steady stream of actions against private-equity firms By Chris Cumming Evidence is building that the Securities and Exchange Commission has moved on from the era of trying to reform private equity through enforcement actions. The SEC last week released its strategic plan for the next four years, which offers an important window into how the commission views the markets and its role as regulator and enforcer. The plan is heavy on efforts to protect retail investors and adapt to changing technology, including issues like improving cybersecurity and tracing initial coin offerings. But it dedicates almost no time to private markets, institutional investors, or fee and expense abuses, areas that were often highlighted as priorities under the previous SEC regime. Instead, the SEC is focused on ways to protect retail investors, a point Jay Clayton has repeatedly emphasized since taking over as the regulator’s chairman last year. Goals in the ne...