Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

By Ana Berman The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) has issued basic guidelines for banks working with blockchain startups on Friday, September 21. As Reuters reports, the measure was taken to prevent a mass crypto exodus out of Switzerland. The document states that banks see blockchain as an opportunity for Switzerland to house financial and technology startups despite "risks," especially money laundering. Due to a significant increase of crypto-related companies based in the country, the SBA has decided to provide a road map for banks to open their corporate accounts. The guidelines divides blockchain companies into two large groups: those with and those without Initial Coin Offerings (ICO). Blockchain companies without ICOs should be treated like other small- and medium-sized companies, and will be obliged to accept relevant Swiss regulations and apply them to their business models. The second group includes blockchain startups with ICOs who issu...

  New cryptocurrencies such as Tether may be pegged to the dollar, but they have big flaws By Barry Eichengreen W hile the mania for cryptocurrencies may have peaked, new units continue to be announced, seemingly by the day. Prominent among the new arrivals are so-called “stable coins.” Bearing names such as Tether, Basis, and Sagacoin, their value is rigidly tied to the dollar, the euro, or a basket of national currencies. It’s easy to see the appeal of these units. Viable monies provide a reliable means of payment, unit of account, and store of value. But conventional cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, trade at wildly fluctuating prices, which means that their purchasing power – their command over goods and services – is highly unstable. Hence they are unattractive as units of account. No grocer in their right mind would price the goods on their shelves in bitcoin. No worker would want a long-term employment contract that paid them a fixed number of thos...

By Kate Rooney    The world's largest cryptocurrency moved back into the $7,000 range as a key exchange in South Korea, one of bitcoin's biggest markets, came back online. The digital currency hit a high of $7,100 Tuesday, up 6 percent this week after starting Monday around $6,600, according to data from CoinDesk. The cryptocurrency is still down about 50 percent since the beginning of 2018, and 64 percent from its high in December. After losing the equivalent of $30 million in a June hack, Seoul-based Bithumb was forced by its banking partner Nonghyup Bank to temporarily stop taking new customers. The world's fifth largest exchange reopened account registrations again this week, according to local media outlet Yonhap News and multiple crypto industry news sites. "All of this buying is coming from Asia," said Brian Kelly, founder and CEO of BKCM. "The biggest news in the market right now is that South Korea exchanges are coming back online." Bithumb...

By Moris Beracha/ Crypto.BI According to a quarterly report released by Cipher Trace, the quantitative investment firm, specializing in the systematic trading of cryptocurrencies, in the first half of 2018, more than $760 million in cryptocurrency was stolen from exchanges, nearly three times more than in 2017. The growth in the demand for currency in the industry of services has driven, according to this report, money laundering of coins. Also, the services that clean dirty funds are widely available, said CipherTrace, and some have even advertised through Google AdWords. Likewise, many exchanges, and new ones are opening all the time, have security vulnerabilities. And cryptocurrencies, once stolen, often cannot be returned or even traced to the thieves. “There are so many cryptocurrencies now, and they are worth so much money, and there are so many exchanges globally where you can cash out, that we’ve seen not just traditional cyber gangs, but we’ve seen a new s...