The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international policy-making organization designed to “[combat] money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system,” announced in October an initial set of cryptocurrency-centric rules, with a more comprehensive set to follow by June 2019. The preliminary regulations require countries worldwide “to license or regulate cryptocurrency exchanges and some firms providing encrypted wallets, to help stamp out the use of digital money for money laundering, terrorism financing or other crimes,” said a Reuters report.Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are also responsible for complying with the provisions.

Coming off a week of heavy losses, bitcoin fell as much as 10 percent and set a fresh low at $3,447.58 on Sunday, according to data from CoinDesk.It later recovered to roughly $3,945 as of 6 p.m. ET. READ MORE...

And what’s the best way to find out whether there’s a tradeable pattern or trend happening? Short answer: there’s no good way to perform any of these tasks.Simply click the “Buy” box and the results show up instantaneously.

The internet is saturated with financial news, which often leaves investors wondering where they can find cryptocurrency-related news that matters to them. On a clustered financial website that covers stocks, bonds, forex, economic news, retirement topics, forex, etc.., the question is: how can you filter through all of the noise to find the news that meets your interests and needs? Tickeron has created a solution: Artificial Intelligence that filters the news for you and can translate the news into actionable trade ideas.  With “Newsfeed” on tickeron.com, the Tickeron model is breaking the mold for how investors can use financial news to make trades and manage investment portfolios.

Over the last 24 hours, the Bitcoin price has remained fairly stable in the $6,300 region with its volume stagnant at around $3.7 billion. Stellar (XLM) has increased by nearly six percent as the anticipation towards the potential listing of XLM by Coinbase, the world’s largest fiat-to-crypto exchange, continues to intensify. The rest of the market has struggled to initiate an upward movement, which was expected given that trading activity in the cryptocurrency exchange market tends to subside during the weekend. READ MORE...  

As long as owners know their private key – the permanent password generated upon creation of a new cryptocurrency wallet – their holdings are safe, accessible only to them.But what happens to the crypto left behind when you die if no one knows how to access it? Passing cryptocurrency on to loved ones is unlike bestowing cash, jewelry, or other physical possessions, as detailed in an essay in Quartz’s Private Key crypto newsletter.

The no-VC/no publicly traded approach paid immediate dividends, with crypto news source Coindesk estimating $5 billion raised via ICO in 2017, often with little more than a buzzword-heavy whitepaper and spiffy website. Those days, however, seem to be firmly in the past.With increased press coverage came increased scrutiny – including from federal officials, who expressed concerned that the lax regulatory climate around virtual currencies enabled companies to engage in less-than-honest behavior, like raising money for a company that does not exist. Their concerns were founded.

Basic necessities like food and medicine are in short supply, rampant crime is the norm, and the population that hasn’t fled has grown increasingly desperate as their currency, the bolívar, has been devalued to extremes. Crypto enthusiasts around the world have watched the resulting economic crisis for President Nicolás Maduro and his administration with great interest because they have opened the door for real world (and potentially widespread) adoption of digital currencies.Bitcoin, Dash, and others are significantly more reliable stores of value and mediums of exchange than the bolívar, with the added benefit of providing ways around the control mechanisms of Maduro’s authoritarian government. Somewhat counterintuitively, the Maduro administration has also embraced cryptocurrency.

The brutal collapse of the country’s economy has led to rising crime and a scarcity of basic resources – including food and medicine – for its citizens. The South American nation holds the largest reserves of crude oil in the world and was once awash with cash, but severe income inequality, corruption, increased oil supply from elsewhere around the globe, and international sanctions have minted a political crisis of epic proportions for President Nicolás Maduro and his administration.Amid the crisis, the country’s currency (called the bolívar) has been devalued to the point that inflation is in the quintuple digits. Such hyperinflation has been a part of life for Venezuelans since 2014, leading its citizens to search for a viable means of exchange.

With fiat currency in each country significantly devalued by inflation, limited by capital controls, or both, citizens have been turning to cryptocurrencies as a dependable store of value and means of exchange. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are, in turn, excited by the prospects for blanket adoption in those countries and elsewhere – a process called ‘hyperbitcoinization,’s which signifies the point where people exit fiat currency for bitcoin after extensive fiat devaluation.Others have tempered their enthusiasm, convinced that the relative isolation of these occurrences means adoption has little chance to spread outward. Venezuelans have turned to crypto in increasing numbers, driven by both extraordinary inflation and capital controls imposed by the government in 2003 that make it difficult to obtain US dollars.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially rejected requests to list nine cryptocurrency funds, dealing a blow to the digital currency enthusiasts who lobbied hard for the ETFs. The decision was not particularly surprising – the SEC has cited concerns about market surveillance and manipulation for as long as they have been dealing with cryptocurrency, encouraging exchanges to minimize the risks investors face in an unregulated market.Hester Peirce, an SEC commissioner, promised a review of the decision, but a reversal remains unlikely. ProShare Capital Management, GraniteShares Advisors, and Direxion Asset Management sponsored the nine ETFs, whose requests had been pending since December and January and were denied in advance of a hard deadline.

On Wednesday, digital currencies experienced sharp pullbacks on news of Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s postponing its plans of setting up a cryptocurrency trading desk. Bitcoin lost more than -3% in around 10 minutes, followed by sharp declines in Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple.A Business Insider report, citing  people familiar with the matter, indicated that Goldman Sachs has moved down the position of its cryptocurrency trading desk plan on its priority list for now.

The total market capitalization of digital currencies declined to $193 billion – compared to $835 billion in January. Is this year going to be the ‘unraveling’ of last year’s crypto exuberance?But given the inherent uncertainties - such as those related to regulation or broader mainstream acceptance - still plaguing digital currencies, volatility is hardly a surprise.  

The World Bank is turning to blockchain to raise funds. The international financial institution will be issuing blockchain bonds – the first of its kind - to raise upto 100 million Australian dollars ($73 million).World Bank has hired Commonwealth Bank of Australia to manage the issuance of the bond, which is nicknamed “bond-i”. Blockchain, which is the technology undergirding bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies, allows direct transaction between people/organizations without requiring an intermediary or third-party in between.

A very interesting study published by the scientists from Yale University, Professor Aleh Tsyvinski and economics Ph.D. candidate Yukun Liu claims that there are “good and bad times” to buy and sell bitcoins. There has been thousands and thousands of scientific (and not so scientific) studies on the predictors of the stock market starting with simple moving averages and ending with the correlation between winning teams in Super Bowl and the behavior of S&P 500.While the past performance, as we all know, is not a guarantee of future results, these scientists have discovered two non-trivial statistical phenomena: 1.

Cryptocurrencies have a massive sell-off, causing them to drop to new lows. On Wednesday, the market value of digital currencies tracked by Coinmarketcap.com plummeted to about $230 billion - the lowest level since November.The crypto plunge follows the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's holding off its decision on whether to approve  a VanEck exchange-traded fund backed by Bitcoin, thereby probably muting investors’ hopes of seeing cryptocurrencies gain a wider acceptance.

Bitcoin enters its third day of decline, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) turns down an exchange-traded fund’s  request  to be listed. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss wanted to list their Bitcoin ETF on Cboe Global Markets Inc., but SEC is adamant that it is not convinced that the cryptocurrency is adequately monitored and therefore rejected the listing request. The news led to a dampening of Bitcoin optimism, with the digital coin’s price dropping below $8,000. Had the SEC green-lighted the ETF’s listing, there could potentially have been a surge of institutional investments/mutual fund participation – and therefore increasing trading volume – in the cryptocurrency market.  

Congressman Brad Sherman during the Wednesday hearing of a subcommittee for the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee suggested prohibiting US citizens from buying and mining cryptocurrencies. The California Democrat said that beyond cryptocurrencies being possibly used as a form of money soon, it can currently be utilized by tax evaders and countries trying to bypass U.S. sanctions.

Its rising ubiquity around the world means increased attention for the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem, placing digital currencies firmly in government regulatory crosshairs.Sweden recently announced their intention to create a state-backed digital currency, joining a growing list of governments to broach the subject. Countries like the UK, Ecuador, Estonia, Russia, Senegal, and more have begun exploring their own state-backed cryptocurrencies, but only one has officially launched as the declared primary currency of the state – the Venezuelan Petro.

His company’s new, mobile-friendly crypto exchange is designed to reflect this belief – and potentially point the direction for the future of cryptocurrency trading. “From a long-term perspective, we want to take a stand, and the first steps toward moving the market away from being tied to Bitcoin,” said Pankewitz.“There are thousands of projects in cryptocurrency — distributed apps, blockchain use cases, and smart contract platforms across every industry vertical…each has their own project, company, team, utility, levels of funding, traction, community, and business model.