Former President Bill Clinton has just been announced today as the keynote speaker at Ripple's upcoming event "Swell". In a press release Ripple stated:

"Today, we’re thrilled to announce 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton as the keynote speaker for Swell – where the world’s leaders in policy, payments and technology connect.

At a time when groundbreaking technology and regulation were often on a collision course, President Clinton helped usher in a period of extreme growth and adoption of the Internet, shaping what it is today. He also established programs that bridged the “digital divide” and brought new technology to underserved communities around the world."

What is unclear is if the former President will touch on the topics of cryptocurrency or blockchain technology - he's never mentioned either in the past.

Swell takes place in San Francisco October 2nd and 3rd.

We covered the first announcement of HTC's plan in an article titled "HTC's new phone will be powered by blockchain" back in May of this year.

Now, Litecoin founder Charlie Lee confirmed his role as an adviser to HTC and their new blockchain enabled phone, tweeting:

"Met the HTC Exodus team last week and was really excited to hear the phone will support LTC and Lightning Network on Litecoin natively! I will be an advisor as I see having a secure crypto phone that makes LN simple is needed for mass adoption.

P.S. No, they will not remove BTC. "

HTC describes the new phone and project as:

"Our vision is to expand the blockchain ecosystem by creating the world’s first phone dedicated to decentralized applications and security. With the release of the HTC Exodus we can now make this a reality.

With over two decades of experience manufacturing the world’s leading smartphones, and shipping over 100 million phones, we believe we can help reshape the internet with the HTC Exodus. Join us and together we will make decentralization a reality."

The phone is set to release in the 3rd quarter of this year.  Updates will be posted on their website at https://www.htcexodus.com

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We have confirmed that a secret meeting just took place, hosted by the world's second largest stock exchange NASDAQ, with a mystery guest list of insiders from both the Wall Street and the cryptocurrency worlds.

"We've approached countless large investors over the last few months and they've told us two things - they want in, but first there's a few steps the cryptocurrency world needs to take. Without going into all the specifics - we're taking those steps" says my source from a major San Francisco based cryptocurrency company - who wishes to remain unnamed for now.

Among topics discussed were how these large firms working together could work to "validate [cryptocurrency's] potential role in global markets" and the "implications of future regulation for cryptocurrencies" as well as "what the necessary tools are and what surveillance will be needed" a source told Bloomberg.

Expanding on the topic of 'surveillance' this week was the denial of an application to launch the first Bitcoin ETF, placed by the Winkelvoss Twins who first reached fame for suing Mark Zuckerberg claiming they created Facebook.  Zuckerberg settled out of court, they then launched the Gemini exchange. 

Gemini recently hired NASDAQ for this exact reason, to use the tools they developed to provide surveillance over the stock market and spot manipulation, and apply it to the cryptocurrency markets.

While they were denied this week, as surveillance capability expands SEC commissioner Hester Peirce has made her position clear - the end goal for her is to approve a Bitcoin ETF.  These comments triggered the green we're seeing on the charts today.

"This will not be the last meeting of this nature" says Bloomberg's inside source.

The world's top rated exchange is Binance and to their credit they have made sure not to expand new user signups faster than their network capabilities can grow.

The exchange and company behind it is called "Voyager" and among it's founders is Uber co-founder Oscar Salazar, as well as early Uber investor Philip Eytan.

“We saw an opportunity to build a dynamic smart order router that can take advantage of the marketplace and also offer customers no commissions” Voyager CEO Stephen Ehrlich explained. Stephen previously ran trading arm of the online stock trading site E-Trade.

Now here's the part that sounds most exciting - Voyager will have the ability to pull price data and make purchases though over 10 global exchanges - and execute the trade on whichever has the lowest price for that coin at that moment. Prices can vary for the same coin from one exchange to another, and sometimes widely - knowing you're always getting the best price is a pretty big advantage.

Then as icing on the cake - there's zero fees (for now), which is why I expect this to take a large bite out of Cobinhood, the cryptocurrency trading platform launched by stock trading app Robinhood which also boasts "zero fees" - but features a lot less coins.

They aim to launch with 15 cryptocurrencies and rumor is among them will be Ripple's XRP, and Stellar - making them the first mainstream US based exchange to feature them.

Beta testing has just began, with a tentative official launch in October of this year.

You can signup for updates at http://investvoyager.com

Pang Huadong is the former vice president of North American investment banking at JPMorgan Chase, and is currently serving as an academic adviser of the Asian Blockchain Institute.  His time at JPMorgan included the worst of the most recent crisis in 2008.

Speaking to the China Econmic Times, he says:

"In June 2007, after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), I worked in JP Morgan Chase's Fixed Income Self-Management Department. At that time, 13 people managed JP Morgan's more than $40 billion. When the 2008 financial crisis was the worst. The average daily loss is 300 million US dollars. It is only gradually understood that blockchain technology may be the key to avoiding the next world-class financial crisis."

To understand why blockchain could have prevented the crisis, you must first understand what caused the crisis - a system of repackaging and reselling subprime loans often so many times firms could no longer keep track of which loans they were still responsible for.

Blockchain's public ledger feature also acts as a 'chain of custody' record - the ability for a bank to 'lose track' of assets immediately disappears.

Some believe this is why it's so rare to hear someone from the world of banking praising blockchain - once implemented, their ability to cheat the system or simply 'play dumb' when things go wrong becomes greatly diminished.

We were really pretty impressed with the new mining software by HoneyMiner, so I thought i'd do a quick review for our readers.

The basics of how it works is the mining program runs on virtually any Windows PC, it then figures out what type of mining your computer can do, and the most profitable coin to mine at the moment and automatically starts mining that coin!

Simple interface makes the software easy to use for anyone (download it here)

The best part is, instead of dealing with earning a bunch of random coins, they automatically convert your mining earnings to Bitcoin!   What I was impressed with the most - your earnings don't sit 'pending' - they're instantly added to your balance every minute, and you can freely withdraw as you wish!

To kick it off, they're starting everyone off with some free BTC in their mining wallet (1000 Satoshi's!)

Check out www.HoneyMiner.com to begin - it took me less than 5 minutes to setup and begin mining!

TV commercials and billboards are officially a thing of the past. The new paradigm heralds an era of progressive marketing challenging everything we thought we knew about advertising and product placement.

What if I told you that you could shop for and instantly buy that item right in front of you? Perhaps choose a different color on the spot, or save your preference for a later purchase? These are some of the concepts explored by Trivver, a new blockchain ad technology that brings 3D product placement to the world of extended reality.

The idea is pretty simple. Trivver allows advertisers to put 3D objects into virtual and augmented reality. The goal is to monetize the experience, which would bring new revenue to VR while giving the consumer a more personal and interactive experience. Of course, there’s a built-in shopping app, too.

Advertisers will be able to make elaborate 3D ad campaigns. Publishers can monetize their content. Consumers will be rewarded for their participation in tokens. Win-win-win.

XR (Extended Reality) is expected to generate a 2021 revenue of $215 billion, according to the Trivver whitepaper. With all that content and development, there will undoubtedly be a powerful ad platform supporting the industry. If advertising is to make up even a fraction of that sum, Trivver is positioning to be in the eye of the storm.

Trivver is starting with what they call “generic smart objects” or GSOs. These are the customizable 3D shapes that will be used in VR and AR environments. A white-label aluminum can, for instance, could be any brand of soda. It’s an easy way to introduce the concept. These objects are “smart” in that they are digitally attached to all kind of relevant info: SKU data, product offers, social media links, coupons, etc. Trivver plans to have a catalog made up of thousands of these GSOs to represent everything from electronics to foodstuffs.

There is a wealth of information to discover. Trivver understands that the sheer amount of data to be recorded and analyzed is critical and should be privacy-protected, so they are committed to the responsible use of all gathered private details.

While the marketing concept is lofty, the Trivver tech is down-to-earth, at least by crypto standards. The ERC20 TRVR tokens will be tradeable on popular exchanges, while the advertising info will have its own XR AD Exchange (XRAE). Eventually a proprietary but decentralized blockchain will hold the project together. For technical details on how this all works, see their thorough whitepaper at https://www.trivver.com/docs/Trivver_Whitepaper.pdf

The ICO is preparing for token distribution this year, with “predictive analytics” on growth following soon after in early 2019. The blockchain launch is expected sometime in 201. The leadership team is made up of advertising and marketing heavyweights, while CTO Simon Keating is known for hit game credits such as the Harry Potter Series.

Token sale ends September 28th. Visit https://www.trivver.com for more details.

What a strange week it's been.  I began working on this article several days ago, thinking by the time my Friday deadline hit everything would be cleared up and I could end this with some conclusions on what they're doing over at Coinbase. 

But instead, this week ends with me more confused than I began - so instead, i'll give you a run down on all of it - you can make your own guesses and draw your own conclusions.

So first there was a major announcement - that the SEC and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has given Coinbase the thumbs up for trading cryptocurrencies that meet the legal qualifications of a security.

But now,  they're taking it all back, telling TechCrunch:

“The SEC’s approval is not required for the change of control application. Coinbase has discussed aspects of its proposed operations, including the acquisition of the Keystone Entity, on an informal basis with several members of SEC staff. So it’s not correct to say that the SEC and FINRA approved Coinbase’s purchase of Keystone because SEC was not involved in the approval process. Approval was received from FINRA.”

Then today, Coinbase has apparently gained a hedge fund with over $20 Billion in assets into their Coinbase Prime service  - except no one is saying which it is. According to Business Insider citing leaks from anonymous sources who told them:

"...the firm has onboarded a $20 billion hedge fund through its prime business, the people said, declining to specify which fund. The team is working on getting other large hedge funds onto its trading platform."

What's clear is this - there's an aggressive battle going on behind the scenes right now to be the first cryptocurrency outlet with blessings from the US Government to offer full brokerage services which many believe will end in the cryptocurrency markets seeing trillions of dollars flooding into it. 

Over the past few months we've seen cryptocurrency companies recruiting people from Wall Street, and Wall Street companies recruiting people from the cryptocurrency world - all in preparation for the day this happens.

The traditional finance world demands this combination of services before they're willing to invest large sums: Government approval for their market trading actions, and the full array of services they're used to on Wall Street (custody, financing, lending, shorting)

Currently, the companies racing to be the first to do it are Coinbase, Circle, and Robinhood. From what we know it at least appears currently CoinBase has taken the lead.

We're sure it's just a random coincidence that Democrat Congressman from California Brad Sherman's largest donation over the last year came from a credit card processing company, according to political donation data tracked by watchdog group OpenSecrets Center For Responsible Politics.

Today in a hearing with the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on the topic of "the future of money" representative Sherman went in to a confused jumbled message about the huge threat cryptocurrencies are to everyone's safety, his point being:

"We should prohibit US persons from buying or mining cryptocurrencies" he said in an opening statement, then later in the hearing when given a chance for extended comments he explained "It a solution ONLY to the problems of tax evaders, criminals, and terrorists!"  and that cryptocurrency supporters "delight in that".

Thankfully, Norbert Michel from Washington think-tank 'The Heritage Foundation' brought things back to reality, saying:

"It is true that criminals have used bitcoin, but it's also true that criminals have used airplanes, computers and automobiles. We shouldn't criminalize any of those instruments simply because criminals used them."

Then (and as I said, surely not connected to his political donations) Sherman pointed out that he could already use a credit card virtually anywhere.

The good news is - with the exception of representative Sherman's tantrum, overall the hearing was generally positive when it came to cryptocurrency and the panel they invited shared some of it's exciting prospects, specifically Dr. Eswar Prasad of Cornell University making the point that as long as the Federal Reserve acts responsibly, the US dollar can remain strong while cryptocurrencies make life easier for citizens.

Just to be clear - there's no chance that representative Sherman's dreams of banning cryptocurrency could happen, at least not anytime soon.  No other members of congress seemed to share his views.

I covered some of the previous attacks on cryptocurrency from credit card companies here which is worth a read if you're not familiar with the ongoing battle.

You can watch the full hearing on YouTube here.
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He called Bitcoin a "Pioneer with arrows in it's back" today while a guest on CNBC's "Fast Money" - it's an opinion that's becoming more popular over time, which basically says Bitcoin will go down as the coin that simply paved the way for another newer coin to eventually dominate.

So what coin does he think will take the #1 spot from Bitcoin?  O'Leary believes Ethereum is "becoming the new platform" adding that if he was heavily invested in Bitcoin he'd be starting to worry now.

O'Leary also touched on the topic of large investors, bankers and Wall Street types entering the market and bringing billions with them, but currently holding them back is "The regulators aren't on board yet, and we have to wait until that happens... then you'll see real money."

That's something we've written about many times - traditional investors want regulators to make the rules clear before they start investing large sums of money into the cryptocurrency market. It's a topic the cryptocurrency community is divided on currently, with some saying the current 'wild west' atmosphere of lax regulations is why they got involved in the first place.

Kevin O'Leary is a Canadian businessman, author and television personality. He co-founded O'Leary Funds and SoftKey.

So, the Russian election meddling operation was both a mixture of evil genius, and unbelievable stupidity. Or so we're being told.

Touching the topic of politics is like playing with fire, i'm just a tech journalist - and that's what i'm looking at here - simply the technical aspects of this highly politicized story.

But in a time when it's painfully obvious that neutral reporting is a lost art and every outlet here in America is the mouthpiece of one of the two main political parties, I feel it's important I disclose my personal views before diving in.

I'm an independent. A real one. I couldn't decide which side I distrust more of I had to, when I've been asked which I would vote for in that 'gun to your head' hypothetical ultimatum - my answer is 'just flip a coin'. I see huge differences between what candidates from each party say - and little difference into how they actually act once they've won.

So with that said, on the topic of Russian election meddling - sure, I believe it happened.

What i'm not convinced of is it was just them. It's a game dozens of countries play - the US isn't just a victim of election meddling but among the world leaders when it comes to doing it to other nations, China and Israel come to mind as the top runners-up.

The FBI indictment filed this week against 12 Russians outlines how they used Bitcoin in the election meddling operation, stating:

"...using funds in a bitcoin address, the Conspirators purchased a VPN account, which they later used to log into the @Guccifer_2 Twitter account. 

The remaining funds from that bitcoin address were then used to lease a Malaysian server that hosted the dcleaks.com website."

Here's where things start to make no sense, the indictment outlines their motive for using Bitcoin as:

“...web of transactions structured to capitalize on the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin."

The problem is: Russian intelligence, and even the average teen or college student who started dabbling in Bitcoin last year knows - it's not anonymous.

Did you catch the other incredibly sloppy 'mistake' they made? They used the same Bitcoin wallet to fund multiple parts of the operation - meaning once the FBI found that 1 wallet address, they had a record of everything right in front of them.  It's like the evidence was handed over to investigators on a silver platter.

Bitcoin's main feature is the "public ledger" - a record of transactions out in the open for the entire world to see.  In other words, Bitcoin's main feature is what would scare any intelligence agency away from using it in a serious covert operation.

In 2017 the MIT Technology Review published an article titled "Criminals Thought Bitcoin Was the Perfect Hiding Place, but They Thought Wrong" which explains how Bitcoin is actually being used against those who it to commit crimes:

"But while Bitcoin users can withhold their identities, they can’t avoid revealing other information that can be useful to investigators. Every Bitcoin transaction is recorded on its blockchain, a publicly accessible record of all transactions made using the currency. Blockchains “provide a really useful source of truth,” says Jonathan Levin, cofounder of Chainalysis, which develops software tools for analyzing blockchain data. Its products can help investigators draw inferences about how people are using the currency."

Here in America, the press has hyped up Russian intelligence operations as "extremely sophisticated" but that narrative falls apart immediately upon hearing they used Bitcoin.

Could it be... they're actually largely technically incompetent? That feels hard to say too, given what we know.

So, somehow they managed to pull off things like"DNCLeaks" and "Guccifer 2.0" and even supplied Wikileaks with stolen documents - all things that would take an extremely tech savvy operation to do. But then while doing all that, these same people were also unaware all their financial transactions using Bitcoin were exposed for the entire world to see?

You read about parts of it and think to yourself "wow, this really took some genius to pull off" then a minute later read something else, like them using Bitcoin, that then has you saying "how could they be so stupid?"

It feels strange to close an article without a conclusion - but the point of this piece is to highlight how I just cannot come to one. I'm not an expert in any of this - except the use of Bitcoin, and I cannot fathom a reason a covert operation would use it.

You might ask "well what would be a more secretive way the Russians could have made these purchases?" frankly - practically anything. The first thing that comes to mind would be a prepaid visa/mastercard debit card, purchased with cash - they're available everywhere from grocery stores to Walmart's.

This story is possibly the oddest confusing combination of masterful digital espionage, and complete technical illiteracy I've ever seen.

If you thought the finance sector was a man’s world – think again – as it appears women are surging ahead in crypto trading; or at least taking steps to get noticed in this ever-growing industry. Women are taking more and more of an interest in both trading and the decentralised blockchain technology behind digital assets such as Bitcoin.

A recent survey of crypto traders revealed that 8.5% were women. While these figures may seem low at first, the increased interest in the crypto field from females could see numbers grow in the near future. Interestingly, a meet-up group in New York City called Women in Blockchain boasts an impressive 1,400 members.

The Cryptocurrency Market & Women
The cryptocurrency market is undoubtedly attracting attention from both sexes. While males still largely dominate the sector it must not be forgotten that the concept of crypto trading and the technology behind it is relatively new in terms of mainstream usage and there’s plenty of time for growth. Tech-savvy female entrepreneurs are already shunning venture capital in favour of ICO fund raising techniques showing that women are embracing crypto trends.

While the majority of the crypto trading market is made up of men, there are seemingly very clear reasons behind these statistics. Research conducted over the past several years has revealed that women tend to be more risk-averse than men. This was reaffirmed by research published in Science Daily in September 2017, which stated that women still demonstrate lower risk tolerance with regards to their financial decisions.

According to the research, women have a lower risk appetite largely due to income insecurities with child birth, child care and care giving all contributing to insecurity levels. This helps to explain why the percentage of women in the crypto trading world is small, albeit growing, in comparison to men – after all, the crypto world is highly volatile and nothing is guaranteed. Markets are easily influenced by speculation, rumours, news of regulatory changes and more which leads to huge surges and declines in cryptocurrencies. Crypto traders therefore need to understand their own tolerance to risk.

Benefits for Women Trading Crypto CFDs
When trading CFDs you don’t actually own the underlying asset. This means that exchanges – which have shown to be vulnerable to hacking and theft – are not needed therefore eradicating the insecurities of many traders. All you do when you trade CFDs is speculate on future price movements. This allows you to trade both rising and falling markets, offering the opportunity to make profits from both an increase and decrease in the prices of alt coins – given that you can predict future prices accurately.

The high volatility of the crypto market makes it ideal for short-term traders, offering various opportunities to enter and exit the market. This is another reason why CFDs are ideal for women entering the crypto CFD space. In addition, CFDs are a good option for beginners in crypto trading, since traders can start with small lot sizes and gradually increase investments as they gain experience and knowledge.

Given that statistics show that a large percentage of women crypto traders are beginners, crypto CFDs, therefore, are the best choice for them. FCA-regulated global broker, Blackwell Global, has launched the largest crypto CFD offering in the world, allowing traders to speculate on the price movements of 15 cryptos, along with forex, indices and commodities, all from a single account. The company states that with the prompt and comprehensive customer support offered, crypto CFD traders can access all the help they need, at any point during the trading process.

Blackwell Global has also launched the largest educational portal for crypto CFDs in the world, offering a wide variety of resources, such as seminars, articles and more, for the benefit of traders across all levels of expertise and experience. In addition, with the facility to first open a demo account to learn the ropes before moving onto the live market, along with leverage as high as 400:1, traders have all they need to ensure a satisfying trading experience.

Women are certainly making their mark in every single arena, and the world of cryptocurrency is no different. However, given that this is a new and volatile market, trading CFDs is possibly the best option for women to participate in crypto trading.

Coinbase just announced a list of coins they are 'exploring' the option of adding to their exchange, in a blog post stating:

"Today we are announcing that we’re exploring the addition of the following assets to Coinbase:

Cardano (ADA)
Basic Attention Token (BAT)
Stellar Lumens (XLM)
Zcash (ZEC)
0x (ZRX)

We are making this announcement internally at Coinbase and to the public at the same time to remain transparent with our customers about support for future assets."

Coinbase emphasizes that none of these are guaranteed to be added. The full announcement can be read here.

[Update - Note] - After sharing this on social media the common question we're getting is "why name them if they aren't necessarily adding them?"  Well, after they added Bitcoin Cash last year Coinbase employees were accused of  buying some shortly before it happened, "insider trading" in other words.  But if Coinbase is simply public about the whole process from the beginning, no one will be able to say that about the next coins to be added.

A Chinese based investigation into illegal gambling on the FIFA World Cup has lead to a large bust, according to local news:

"The network took off more than 20 involved gangs, arrested more than 540 suspects, smashed more than 70 gambling apps and websites, shut down more than 250 online social platform chat groups, and frozen more than 260 million yuan of funds involved in the seizure. A group of servers, computers, mobile phones, bank cards and other items involved."

The local police department behind the operation released a statement saying:

"In recent years, online gambling crimes have developed rapidly, and the forms have emerged in an endless stream. Recently, Maoming police found in their work that some criminals used the online platform to open casinos and declared that they “support the world-wide Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin to recharge, and dozens of countries in the world work simultaneously” to attract a large number of fans to bet. Gamble the ball, while the local police also found that multiple gambling gangs used the online social platform to promote the gambling platform during the World Cup"

Included in the seized assets were $1.5 Million worth of cryptocurrencies, and $750k in bank deposits. 

Authorities say this isn't a one-time operation - adding that online gambling outlets targeting Chinese citizens should expect police to maintain "high pressure" against them.

This one's a wild story, but i'll try to keep it as straight and to the point as possible.

There was once a Russian based exchange called BTC-E which closed down after an insider there named Alexander Vinnik was charged with laundering billions - currently the US, France, and Russia are fighting over who gets to extradite him and put him behind bars. 

The BTC-E exchange was also allegedly connected to black market darknet drug dealers from the now busted Silk Road - basically,  BTC-E was a favorite exchange among the shady members of the crypto underworld.

Flash forward to today, BTC-E re-launched under the name WEX - and the shady business seems to have started up again.  They're showing Bitcoin trading at $8151, while other exchanges are showing it somewhere around $6400.

Traders in various crypto forums and telegram channels are suspecting an exit scam may be coming - the price manipulation could be to attract gullible arbitrage traders.  That is, when Bitcoin is selling higher on one exchange than another, you could in theory purchase Bitcoin for $6400 from somewhere like coinbase, send the coins to WEX, then sell them at a huge profit with little effort - perhaps WEX is hoping people start sending their BTC over for this reason, then the site will simply disappear.

WEX has already given users a heads up for planned downtime for "maintiance" tomorrow June 12th.

Avoid this one.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is among a long list of people targeted by Ethereum scammers on Twitter.

The scam works like this - Elon Musk makes a real tweet, then immediately following it, a profile designed to look exactly like his will respond with something like "By the way, i'm doing a giveway for our fans..."  this usually then involves some gimmick like "Send 0.5 ETH, and get 3 back!".

The bots are aggressive, and manage to usually be the first reply to a targets tweets, causing Musk to comment:

"I want to know who is running the Etherium scambots! Mad skillz …"

Which then got Ethereum's creator Vitalik Buterin to respond, sadly saying:

“I do wish @elonmusk's first tweet about ethereum was about the tech rather than the twitter scambots........”

The scammers do seem to have dozens if not hundreds of impostor accounts pushing their scams.  Even Global Crypto Press has been hit by them - so far we've reported two accounts impersonating our organization (The only real one is @GlobalCryptoDev) - to Twitter's credit both were removed within 24 hours.

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The forex market is old, dating way back to the late 19th century. The cryptocurrency market, on the other hand, is a recent phenomenon and, unlike forex, has new coins entering the fray at regular intervals. The crypto world is neither affected by country-specific, geo-political issues nor macro-economic factors, because of its decentralised nature. This calls for a different approach to trading these instruments.

However, long-term and short-term trading strategies, along with arbitrage, are applicable in both cases. Each market has its own set of advantages and disadvantages for traders too.

Market Capitalisation
It is important to understand the nature of both markets before trading. The forex market remains the largest and most liquid market in the world. The average daily turnover in 2016 was approximately $5 trillion. It also has greater depth and stability, compared to the cryptocurrency market, due to its larger size.

In comparison, the cryptocurrency market is smaller, standing at $245 million as of June 28 2018. Moreover, most of the coins are available in limited supply. The price of crypto coins is determined largely by the demand-supply ratio.

These factors have to be kept in mind when we look at trading strategies.

High Volatility
The crypto market has highly volatile instruments. Random rumours and speculations drive price movements. In contrast, the forex markets show stability, and lower periods of volatility. You can expect 20% to 30% fluctuation in the crypto exchange rate in a day, which makes leveraged
trading a rare feature. However, higher volatility also means higher chances of profits, sometimes at unprecedented levels. This is why many short-term traders resort to cryptocurrency trading, since they get plenty of opportunities to get in and out of the market. In contrast, the amount of profit that could be made in the forex market is lower.

In either way, stop loss and other risk management techniques have to be used for both types of trading.

Cryptocurrency Exchange Rates Differ from the Actual Value
The exchange rates of cryptocurrencies can differ slightly from their actual value, unlike fiat currencies. Also, given that these are digital assets, they need to be stored on software or hardware wallets. Traders often prefer to store their crypto assets in exchange wallets. The problem, however, is that these wallets have proven to be vulnerable to hacking and theft.

Fortunately, leading brokers like Blackwell Global, are providing various means of crypto trading, like CFDs, where traders don’t actually own the underlying asset, but simply speculate on the price. CFD trading allows traders to take positions in both rising and falling markets. This is highly useful in trading in a highly volatile cryptocurrency market.

24/7 Crypto Trading
Cryptocurrencies can be traded 24/7. In contrast, forex markets close at the weekends. With robust trading platforms like MT4, one can trade in various crypto coins, with useful crypto indicators available to help determine the price action and assist in identifying buying and selling points. You can always choose a demo account to try different strategies in real market conditions, but without using any real assets for trading.

With the rise of blockchain applications, trading in cryptocurrencies is only expected to become increasingly lucrative. Many forex brokers have now included crypto offerings in their product portfolios, so that traders can benefit from the soaring prices of alt coins. Blackwell Global, a leading FCA-regulated broker, has introduced the largest-ever crypto CFD offering, with over 15 different coins to trade via a single account, along with forex and commodities. To know more, visit Blackwell Global.

YouTube has been added to the list of people and organizations in a class-action lawsuit against crypto scam Bitconnect, according to recently filed papers (link) which state:

“YouTube failed as a gatekeeper to protect its users from, and warn its users of, the very harm YouTube set out to prevent with its advertising protocols and proprietary algorithms"

The documents go on to make the case that it didn't stop with YouTube simply allowing videos promoting Bitconnect to be uploaded, but many of the video creators were rewarded by YouTube directly because the videos were monetized, stating:

"YouTube was negligent in failing to warn those victims of the harmful content for which YouTube compensated their creators and publishers."

In my opinion - this seems like a stretch.  Bitconnect 'victims' are searching for anyone to blame but themselves - the entire operation was clearly a scam from the beginning, and every legitimate person in the cryptocurrency world was sounding the alarm.

I am the only journalist to have confronted Bitconnect reps in person at the Silicon Valley Blockchain Expo (link) - I did this at the peak of Bitconnect when everyone was making money (or at least thought they were).

Bitconnect fans decided to send me death threats instead of heed the warnings from myself and others.  I saw the same things on Twitter when established people in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world tweeted warnings about Bitconnect being a ponzi scheme.  Bitconnect users simply responded in anger - saying these people were 'just jealous' that they missed out on huge profits.

Investors in Bitconnect were warned time and time again, anytime Bitconnect was mentioned online there would always be people responding calling it what it was - a scam.  But when it appeared that profits are rolling in, nobody wanted to hear it.

I'm all for everyone behind Bitconnect going to prison, and i'm fine with everyone who promoted it getting sued - but these are people *directly* involved.  The idea YouTube is now liable for what those people uploaded, and at fault for the victims believing what those videos said, is in my opinion a pathetic blame-game. 

Sure, there were videos on YouTube of people saying Bitconnect was legitimate - but what no one can explain is: why did you listen?  No one saying these things had earned any credibility, there's no reason they should ever had been considered a more reliable source than a random person on the streets.

At some point the Bitconnect 'victims' need to face the truth that something sounded too good to be true, and indeed was.

The volatility of crypto makes it impractical to use as an everyday transactional currency. Until the markets mature and price levels out, the only hope of mass adoption lies in the foundation of a viable “stable coin”, or a cryptocurreny pegged to a stable asset like the U.S. dollar. Many believe that the emergence of a strong stable crypto will herald an exodus from fiat into the world of internet money.

Currently there are more than 8 coins vying for this position on CoinMarketCap.com. They all have slightly different constitutions and proposed uses. Here are three of the most popular, and what makes them distinct.

1. True USD - An ERC-20 token pegged to USD. TUSD is a product of TrustToken, a platform which will eventually have tokens pegged to other assets like bonds and real estate. TUSD does not currently have many trading pairs, but it can be bought with BTC on Binance, Bittrex, Upbit and others.

2. Dai - From decentralized autonomous organization MakerDao, Dai is pegged to USD but backed by Ethereum. It runs on the ETH blockchain as a smart contract and is therefore public and transparent. Dai is not yet available on major exchanges, but can be found on Bibox and Hitbtc.

3. Havven - (Nomin) Also a decentralized organization, Havven is a blockchain whereby stable coins called Nomin are transacted. Havven is still speculative as it hasn't been tested on exchanges yet. Buy on Kucoin or Gate.io.

For now, coins like Tether and True USD are mainly used are safe-haven during Bitcoin corrections, though it should be noted that trading any crypto this way comes with risks. None of these products are perfect, they all have flaws, questionable origins, or over-complicated whitepapers. In some ways it has become a race for the prize. One thing is certain: any semblance of mainstream adoption relies heavily on the promise of a stable, fast, secure, and available medium.

Popular exchange Gemini announced a major new hire today -  New York Stock Exchange's Chief Information Officer, Robert Cornish.

“Rob is a tremendous addition to our team. He will ensure that Gemini continues to deliver the best platform experience to our customers as possible and set the standards of excellence for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Rob is globally recognized for his abilities in leading high-performing engineering teams, his expertise in exchange and matching-engine architecture, and running high-throughput platforms that are both secure and resilient” said co-founder Tyler Winklevoss.

Gemini founders the "Winklevoss Twins" best known for suing Mark Zuckerberg claiming he stole their idea (and got a settlement for it) have aggressively been pursuing the goal of running a company in the unregulated cryptocurrency space that still functions with approval from the government - even if it's not needed, yet.

It's an idea that makes a lot of sense if regulations are coming - imagine what they may be, function that way, and when it happens they won't need to change anything.

Most expect any government regulation regarding cryptocurrencies will likely sound a lot like the current rules for the stock market, which is why hiring Wall Street pro's could be a very smart long-term move.

Despite the 2018 bear markets, “institutional money”, a generic term to denote big banks, governments, and corporations, has slowly been making its way into the crypto industry. Although it may be difficult to see on a chart, here are several large companies exploring new patents in blockchain related tech as of July 2018.

Mastercard International
Blockchain powered payment card verification system.

Alibaba Group
Adjusting account balance on a blockchain.

Cisco Technology Inc.
Decentralized asset tracking for supply chain and inventory management.

Fujitsu Limited
Secure data sharing in a distributed network.

General Electric Company
Distributed manufacturing history.

Moog, Inc.
“Outer Space Digital Logistics System”: Traceable manufactured parts, 3Dprinting.

Sony Corp
Digital rights management.

Walmart Stores Inc.
Access to locked spaces using cryptographic keys.
Medical records stored on a blockchain, and obtaining them from a wearable device
Registration-Based User-Interface Architecture
Payment sharing system for vendors

International Business Machines Corporation
Shelf-life management for food products
“Blockchain Gaming”
Verifying news on a blockchain.

This is only a small sample of current blockchain applications. Also, It’s important to note that
these are only patents; they don’t necessarily prove development. However, it is evidence that
businesses are placing bets, or at least hedging, on a future of blockchain.

Being called the "J5" for short - America, the U.K., Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands are teaming up to form an International Task Force called "Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement" with the goal of sharing intelligence to track down tax cheaters.

Their specific targets - tax evidaders using offshore accounts, and cryptocurrencies.

"The unique thing about the J5 is the operational collaboration between five countries on tackling professional enablers that facilitate offshore tax crime, cybercrime and the threat of cryptocurrencies to tax administrations, as well as making best use of internationally available data and technology.” said Hans van der Vlist, General Director of FIOD.

More news on this will come "late 2018" according to a press release from the IRS.

Full information can be found at http://www.irs.gov/J5

“The premiere was a success!” said Dieter Müller, head of communications for the city of Zug, Switzersland, which is one of the more affluent cities in the country.  The city just wrapped up their first test run of a new voting system that relies entirely on blockchain technology!

Feedback from those involved has been overwhelmingly positive - "Almost all participants found it easy to vote digitally" says local news outlet Swissinfo.

The factors they evaluated to determinate if it was a success include voter privacy & secrecy, and that votes were both verifiable, and unchangeable.

While this pilot program was just a 'test' with a non-binding vote, Swiss officials believe the ability for someone to have a digital identity secured by blockchain technology could eventually help citizens streamline many other aspects of how they interact with the government - from filing taxes to paying traffic and parking tickets.

Keeping with a common theme among true blockchain evangelists, the City of Zug has also committed to sharing their code and keeping it open source, saying:

"We believe that this technology should not belong to a single company. We will build the e-voting platform 'Open Source' so that people can understand what the technology is and how it works. We want to encourage more people to develop blockchain-based applications for governments worldwide."

There's a similar program also entering a test phase in the United States, specifically West Virginia.  The program there will begin with US Military personal currently overseas, allowing them to vote in their states Senate election remotely. They believe there are some major advantages to both the voter and the state, and that the ability to vote digitally and securely will one day replace mailing absentee ballots to citizens currently outside of the country.

All of this brings up an interesting possibility - the masses are likely to be introduced to blockchain technology first though something besides cryptocurrency.  But naturally, once the public sees how it improves one area of life, seeing the benefits cryptocurrencies offers over older traditional financial systems also becomes more apparent.

While most of the crypto markets have seen declining prices recently, Binance Coin (BNB) has been on a steady uptrend.

Many attribute this to the high standard upheld by the exchange; Binance.com is proving itself to be a responsible and discerning marketplace. Each coin undergoes a selective process to determine listing eligibility.

Others claim the growth is due to Binance’s new decentralized sister exchange, soon to be released in 2018 and also using BNB as a medium. Huobi Pro’s HADAX has seen significant increase in volume and number of listed coins, and there’s no reason to believe that Binance Chain will be any different.

While many investors and traders are anxiously awaiting the rollout, there will be a few major differences between Binance Chain and Binance’s main platform.

More coins: The Binance crew will have much less, if any, control over what coins get listed. This is the nature of a DEX. “Most likely anybody can list any coin” founder CZ stated in an interview with Bloomberg.

While this sounds like a bonus to crypto enthusiasts, it’s important to remember that CZ and Binance currently choose to list only projects they believe have integrity. So the decentralized counterpart may be lacking in quality tokens compared to what you are used to.

Slower, with higher fees: According to CZ, the DEX will require much more processing power. At least until significant improvements in tech, expect a snail’s pace and heavy cost.

Less customer support: By nature, decentralized exchanges are automated. While Binance.com is known for superb customer support, be prepared to handle your own issues when using Chain.

In general, DEX’s are made to be community-run, open-source marketplaces. They are meant to work outside the control of a central authority. This means they can’t be shut down or otherwise censored. While Binance Chain will likely be more user-friendly than other DEXs like IDEX or EtherDelta, don’t expect the same quality experience as their flagship.

However, since decentralized exchanges operate through a peer-to-peer blockchain, you can rest easier knowing that your assets are distributed among thousands of nodes instead of sitting in a central location. All thanks to the security of cryptography.

The Sichuan province of China has been called the "Bitcoin mining capitol" of the country - and it's just been hit with harsh weather, heavy rains - followed by major flooding.

Initial reports out of the region are claiming losses of "tens of thousands" of mining rigs, worth millions in hardware and even more in lost mining fees.

According to Chinese news outlet Jinse (link)...

"[Translated] Recently, continuous storms hit Sichuan Mianyang, Guangyuan, Chengdu, Aba, Meishan and other places, causing floods. The collapse of the mountains and the rapid rise of the river have caused local hydropower and communication facilities to suffer from various degrees of damage. At the same time, in areas such as Sichuan and Aba, which are rich in electricity and electricity, these areas have become a centralized area for cryptocurrency mines. In the flood, some mines were not spared, and tens of thousands of mining machines were flooded. Inundation, heavy losses."

The good news is, the loss on mining power hasn't had a measureable effect on the Bitcoin network overall - there has been no noticeable decline in transaction confirmation speeds or hash rates.

It is estimated up to 70% of Bitcoin miners are located in China, where low cost coal and hydraulic power gives miners a large cost advantage.