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The negotiator entered the chatroom four days after the attack. Hackers had locked down several servers used by the epidemiology and biostatistics department at the University of California at San Francisco, and wanted a $3 million ransom to give them the keys. On Friday, June 5, at 6:50 p.m., they directed a UCSF negotiator to a webpage on the dark web—meaning beyond the realm of Google—that listed a dozen or so sets of apparent victims and demands. The whole thing looked oddly like a customer service portal. Just below the university’s entry was a flashing red timer counting down to a payment…
What do you do after you crowdfunded more than $40 million to bid on a copy of the U.S. Constitution — and then you don’t win the auction? Asking for a decentralized group of internet frens. Over the course of a few days, a group of crypto investors operating as ConstitutionDAO raised tens of millions of dollars (or 11,600 ETH worth $49.6 million based on Friday’s prices) to participate in a Sotheby’s auction of a copy of the U.S. Constitution. The artifact ultimately sold for a record breaking price of $43.2 million, to noted crypto skeptic and billionaire Ken Griffin.…
One minute Bitcoin’s price is up. The next it’s down. First Elon Musk loves it. Then he isn’t so sure. Some countries are embracing Bitcoin as legal tender. Others have some serious questions. Bitcoin has been on a wild ride in 2021. The cryptocurrency’s price surged from around $30,000 in January to a peak of over $63,000 in April. Then in June, it dipped below $30,000. Now, Bitcoin’s price is up about 14% this year. The S&P 500, by comparison, has returned about 18%. The plunge has brought out a favorite refrain: buy the dip. So maybe you’re thinking that…
When it comes to decimal places, cryptocurrencies are treading into bizarre territory that other markets have never dared — or bothered, really — to go before. Shiba Inu cost just $0.00004893 or so each on Friday afternoon, while Dogecoin fetched less than 1 cent early this year. A Bitcoin can be sliced into a satoshi, which is this much of the coin: 0.00000001. Then there’s the weirdest of all: the wei. That’s one quintillionth of an Ether, or 0.000000000000000001. The likely explanations for this are a mix of understandable and befuddling. Retail traders love penny stocks. It’s easy to dream…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) named Haoxiang Zhu as head of the agency’s Division of Trading and Markets, where he is expected to help the regulator lead major new policies around equity market structure, among other priorities, the agency said on Friday. Zhu, a professor of finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will begin at the SEC on Dec. 10, the agency said, adding that acting division head, David Saltiel, will serve as deputy to Zhu. “The work of our Division of Trading and Markets links the investors in our capital markets with those companies seeking to…
Payments giant Square released a white paper on Friday detailing a new decentralized protocol for exchanging digital and other assets known as tbDEX. “The tbDEX protocol facilitates decentralized networks of exchange between assets by providing a framework for establishing social trust, utilizing decentralized identity (DID) and verifiable credentials (VCs) to establish the provenance of identity in the real world,” the company wrote in the paper’s abstract. In a post introducing the protocol, a TBD developer wrote that “the tbDEX protocol aims to create ubiquitous and accessible on-ramps and off-ramps that allow the average individual to benefit from crypto innovation.” TBD…
On December 2nd at Art Basel Miami, the very first Ross Ulbricht non-fungible token (NFT) collection will be showcased at the event and auctioned via Superrare. The proceeds from the auction will support Ross Ulbricht’s freedom efforts and a donor-advised fund called Art4giving, which helps support people who have incarcerated family members. Non-fungible token (NFT) assets have become a big deal this year and turned into a billion-dollar industry in what seems like overnight. This week Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the now-defunct Silk Road marketplace, introduced his first NFT collection after spending nine years behind bars for a non-violent…
The price of bitcoin has dipped below the $60K zone, a number of people have been talking about the third-largest bitcoin address called “1P5ZED” which has accumulated thousands of bitcoin during the last few days. Nobody knows who the owner of the wallet is but it holds more than 111,359 bitcoin, as it’s been steadily accruing bitcoin since the wallet’s first transaction on February 5, 2019. While some assume the address is a mega bitcoin whale, onchain data indicates that the wallet could be tied to an exchange. Bitcoin’s fiat value has been volatile and it’s one of those times where everyone…
Manchester City have suspended their partnership with the mysterious cryptocurrency start-up company, 3Key. The company was named by City as an “official regional partner in decentralised finance trading analysis” last week as part of a commercial expansion by the Premier League champions. However, that process has now been halted, with the decision believed to be based on 3Key’s lack of online presence. As the Guardian reported on Wednesday, individuals named as 3Key executives on a recent press release do not have a digital footprint, while on Tuesday, two websites associated with 3Key went offline. “Manchester City conducts due diligence in respect…
Bitcoin, Ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have swung wildly this week—bouncing around after a closely-watched bitcoin upgrade. The bitcoin price has rallied back toward $60,000 per bitcoin after crashing towards $55,000 earlier this week. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by value, has meanwhile soared back toward its all-time highs. “There has been a lot of fear,” Wood said this week, speaking on a call with finance magazine Barron’s. “It was partly behind the correction in May. There was a shiver associated with the end of quantitative easing and then ultimately raising. “The bitcoin price crashed in May this year following a…