The attorneys for FTX have made some startling revelations at the US bankruptcy court hearing on how the crypto exchange was run by its former boss Sam Bankman-Fried, the collapse of crypto exchanges left an estimated 1 million creditors facing losses to the tunes of billions of dollars.

FTX: Startling revelations by lawyers in court; Attorneys say, 'Was run as Personal Feifdom'

Bankrupt Crypto trading fund FTX confirmed that there was an 'unauthorised access' to its accounts. Moments later, the embattled company's CEO announced that FTX is now switching off the option of trading or withdrawing funds, exactly how much money is involved still remains unclear.

FTX saga continues: Funds vanish at bankrupt Crypto exchange, company confirms 'unauthorised access'

There is simply no end to the woes of Bitcoin exchange FTX and more skeletons are coming out of the closet now. Meanwhile, some experts are calling the crashing of the crypto exchange, the beginning of a financial crisis moment of 2008 for digital assets globally.

Crypto exchange FTX files for bankruptcy; CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resigns

Digital assets and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum and XRP have often been called highly volatile and risky assets used by either speculators or dubious characters for dark web anonymous transactions facilitating illegal activities. Bitcoin has been around for over ten years at this point and it has proven to be useful for more than just speculation, and when it comes to using it for illegal transactions, it is not a clever solution to use a payment where the payment history is ending up on a permanent blockchain freely accessible.

The industries and companies that are developing technology using blockchain are now numbering in the thousands, and with more and more incentive to solve problems with fiat currencies, the industry is set to expand exponentially in the coming years. A fundamental difference between regular fiat currencies like the dollar, and bitcoin, is that the dollar is an inflationary currency that loses value over time due to money printing. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a deflationary currency with a fixed, limited total supply.

Another characteristic of bitcoin besides the limited supply is the periodic halving of the reward handed out to miners processing transactions on the network and in turn increase the security of it. Currently, miners are rewarded with 12.5 bitcoins per block of transactions confirmed on the network, after the halving the reward will be reduced to 6.25 bitcoins per block. The next bitcoin halving is scheduled to happen on May 12, and investors are expecting that the digital asset will see new all-time highs as there will be a smaller supply of newly created Bitcoins.

When bitcoin halvings have happened historically, it has lead to a bull-market pushing the price of Bitcoin up dramatically in the months following the halving, which takes place roughly every four years.

Twitter handle PlanB @100trillionUSD has created a useful data model to explain these periodic cycles of price fluctuations in relation to the halving events: 
 
<img alt="Data Model" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="62d444e9-f7c6-4a9f-aae1-65abf35197fb" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/medium_Com_PlanB_S2F_model%20%281%29.png" />

This model predicts that following the halving event on May 12, the price of bitcoin will rise into a new phase around $100,000 after the flow of new bitcoins into the market gets factored in and reflected into the price. The different phases of this model also take into consideration how the use case for bitcoin develops over time. In the early days, the most popular bitcoin narrative was “proof of concept”, in the next phase that changed to “payments”, followed by “E-gold” where the price of one bitcoin was close to the price of one ounce of gold. This model has proven its value over the previous halvings on the network, but it is worth noting that some of the scaling issues that appeared during the bull-market of 2017 are yet to be resolved.

Twitter user @C3_Nik states: “The Scalability issues surrounding #Bitcoin $BTC haven't been improved over the last few years. Nothing in terms of the technology has changed since the BTC network slowed down to a crawl and the average fee rose to 60$ in late 2017. It can kill the next bull run for BTC, easily.”

During all-time high bull-market of 2017, the network slowed down significantly, while the transaction fees rose to levels above what most people are comfortable with for smaller transactions, leading to a lot of investments flowing into altcoins where transactions were faster and cheaper.

@C3_Nik goes on to state “And this isn't some 'maybe', it is a proven fact. The data is there. Next time it will happen again. #Bitcoin $BTC will become unusable right in the middle of the next bull run. What will happen then? I hope that the market realises that there are better solutions that work.”

In the years following the launch of bitcoin, several other cryptocurrencies have been launched. One notable example is Ripple's XRP that focuses on international remittances and on-demand liquidity. While some people in the digital assets community think of Ripple as the banker's coin that does not follow the ethos of Bitcoin, Ripple labs went to meet with regulators as soon as possible in order to work with regulators and speed up the process of adoption and implementation. XRP is today the third biggest digital asset by market cap and has partnerships with more than 300 banks around the world. With all the developments in the recent months with the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fall out of that, there is now an added incentive for people to use digital payments instead of using cash due to the risk of getting infected. When the governments around the world are printing money on a large scale leading to inflation and the devaluing of their population's savings and retirements accounts, digital assets can, like gold and silver be used as a safe haven investment for protecting their wealth.

Whether or not the stock to flow model holds true and bitcoin reaches $100,000, the cryptocurrency industry is here to stay, and there are many other solutions than Bitcoin for secure digital payments. During these testing times, the future looks bright for digital assets.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL) 
&nbsp;&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Digital assets and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum and XRP have often been called highly volatile and risky assets used by either speculators or dubious characters for dark web anonymous transactions facilitating illegal activities.

Digital assets and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum and XRP have often been called highly volatile and risky assets used by either speculators or dubious characters for dark web anonymous transactions facilitating illegal activities. Bitcoin has been around for over ten years at this point and it has proven to be useful for more than just speculation, and when it comes to using it for illegal transactions, it is not a clever solution to use a payment where the payment history is ending up on a permanent blockchain freely accessible. The industries and companies that are developing technology using blockchain are now numbering in the thousands, and with more and more incentive to solve problems with fiat currencies, the industry is set to expand exponentially in the coming years. A fundamental difference between regular fiat currencies like the dollar, and bitcoin, is that the dollar is an inflationary currency that loses value over time due to money printing. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a deflationary currency with a fixed, limited total supply. Another characteristic of bitcoin besides the limited supply is the periodic halving of the reward handed out to miners processing transactions on the network and in turn increase the security of it. Currently, miners are rewarded with 12.5 bitcoins per block of transactions confirmed on the network, after the halving the reward will be reduced to 6.25 bitcoins per block. The next bitcoin halving is scheduled to happen on May 12, and investors are expecting that the digital asset will see new all-time highs as there will be a smaller supply of newly created Bitcoins. When bitcoin halvings have happened historically, it has lead to a bull-market pushing the price of Bitcoin up dramatically in the months following the halving, which takes place roughly every four years. Twitter handle PlanB @100trillionUSD has created a useful data model to explain these periodic cycles of price fluctuations in relation to the halving events: This model predicts that following the halving event on May 12, the price of bitcoin will rise into a new phase around $100,000 after the flow of new bitcoins into the market gets factored in and reflected into the price. The different phases of this model also take into consideration how the use case for bitcoin develops over time. In the early days, the most popular bitcoin narrative was “proof of concept”, in the next phase that changed to “payments”, followed by “E-gold” where the price of one bitcoin was close to the price of one ounce of gold. This model has proven its value over the previous halvings on the network, but it is worth noting that some of the scaling issues that appeared during the bull-market of 2017 are yet to be resolved. Twitter user @C3_Nik states: “The Scalability issues surrounding #Bitcoin $BTC haven't been improved over the last few years. Nothing in terms of the technology has changed since the BTC network slowed down to a crawl and the average fee rose to 60$ in late 2017. It can kill the next bull run for BTC, easily.” During all-time high bull-market of 2017, the network slowed down significantly, while the transaction fees rose to levels above what most people are comfortable with for smaller transactions, leading to a lot of investments flowing into altcoins where transactions were faster and cheaper. @C3_Nik goes on to state “And this isn't some 'maybe', it is a proven fact. The data is there. Next time it will happen again. #Bitcoin $BTC will become unusable right in the middle of the next bull run. What will happen then? I hope that the market realises that there are better solutions that work.” In the years following the launch of bitcoin, several other cryptocurrencies have been launched. One notable example is Ripple's XRP that focuses on international remittances and on-demand liquidity. While some people in the digital assets community think of Ripple as the banker's coin that does not follow the ethos of Bitcoin, Ripple labs went to meet with regulators as soon as possible in order to work with regulators and speed up the process of adoption and implementation. XRP is today the third biggest digital asset by market cap and has partnerships with more than 300 banks around the world. With all the developments in the recent months with the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fall out of that, there is now an added incentive for people to use digital payments instead of using cash due to the risk of getting infected. When the governments around the world are printing money on a large scale leading to inflation and the devaluing of their population's savings and retirements accounts, digital assets can, like gold and silver be used as a safe haven investment for protecting their wealth. Whether or not the stock to flow model holds true and bitcoin reaches $100,000, the cryptocurrency industry is here to stay, and there are many other solutions than Bitcoin for secure digital payments. During these testing times, the future looks bright for digital assets. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Explained: Bitcoin halving and the expected bull-market for digital assets

Japan-based virtual currency exchange Coincheck said Sunday it will refund about $400 million to customers after hackers stole hundreds of millions of dollars&#39; worth of digital assets.

The company said it will use its own funds to reimburse about 46.3 billion yen to all 260,000 customers who lost their holdings of NEM, the 10th biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.

On Friday, the company detected an &quot;unauthorised access&quot; of the exchange, and later suspended trading for all cryptocurrencies apart from bitcoin.

The resulting 58 billion yen ($530 million) loss exceeded the value of bitcoins which disappeared from MtGox in 2014.

The major Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange collapsed after admitting that 850,000 coins -- worth around $480 million at the time -- had disappeared from its vaults.

The high-profile demise of MtGox failed to douse the enthusiasm for virtual currencies in Japan, which in April became the first country in the world to proclaim it as legal tender.

Nearly one third of global bitcoin transactions in December were denominated in yen, according to specialist website jpbitcoin.com.

As many as 10,000 businesses in Japan are thought to accept bitcoin and bitFlyer, the country&#39;s main bitcoin exchange, saw its user base pass the one-million mark in November.

Many Japanese, especially younger investors, have been seduced by the idea of strong profits as the economy has seen years of ultra-low interest rates offering little in the way of traditional returns.

Major Japanese newspapers on Sunday labelled the management of virtual currencies at Coincheck as &quot;sloppy&quot; and said the company had &quot;expanded business by putting safety second&quot;.

Local media added the Financial Services Agency was expected to take disciplinary measures against Coincheck, which proclaims itself &quot;the leading bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange in Asia&quot;, following the theft.

The major Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange collapsed after admitting that 850,000 coins -- worth around $480 million at the time -- had disappeared from its vaults

Japan-based virtual currency exchange Coincheck said Sunday it will refund about $400 million to customers after hackers stole hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of digital assets. The company said it will use its own funds to reimburse about 46.3 billion yen to all 260,000 customers who lost their holdings of NEM, the 10th biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation. On Friday, the company detected an "unauthorised access" of the exchange, and later suspended trading for all cryptocurrencies apart from bitcoin. The resulting 58 billion yen ($530 million) loss exceeded the value of bitcoins which disappeared from MtGox in 2014. The major Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange collapsed after admitting that 850,000 coins -- worth around $480 million at the time -- had disappeared from its vaults. The high-profile demise of MtGox failed to douse the enthusiasm for virtual currencies in Japan, which in April became the first country in the world to proclaim it as legal tender. Nearly one third of global bitcoin transactions in December were denominated in yen, according to specialist website jpbitcoin.com. As many as 10,000 businesses in Japan are thought to accept bitcoin and bitFlyer, the country's main bitcoin exchange, saw its user base pass the one-million mark in November. Many Japanese, especially younger investors, have been seduced by the idea of strong profits as the economy has seen years of ultra-low interest rates offering little in the way of traditional returns. Major Japanese newspapers on Sunday labelled the management of virtual currencies at Coincheck as "sloppy" and said the company had "expanded business by putting safety second". Local media added the Financial Services Agency was expected to take disciplinary measures against Coincheck, which proclaims itself "the leading bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange in Asia", following the theft.

Japan's Crypto exchange to refund to customers after theft

Israel&#39;s markets regulator said on Monday he will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE).

Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA), told the Calcalist business conference he will bring the proposal to the ISA board next week. If approved, it would be subject to a public hearing and then the TASE bylaws would need to be amended.

&quot;If we have a company that their main business is digital currencies we would not allow it. If already listed, its trading will be suspended,&quot; Hauser said, adding the ISA must find the appropriate regulation for such companies.

Bitcoin plunged by 30 per cent to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency after its sharp rise to nearly $20,000. It recouped some losses to trade above $14,000 on the Bitstamp platform, down 9 percent on the day.

&quot;We feel that the prices of bitcoin behave like bubbles and we don&#39;t want investors to be subject to that volatility and uncertainty,&quot; Hauser said. &quot;There is an importance to signal to the market where things are... Investors should know where we stand.&quot;

Earlier this month, Hauser had said bitcoin-based companies would not be included in TASE indexes and that there was a need for a suitable regulatory framework for such instruments given that the global market value of all digital currencies grew in 2017 to $300 billion from $18 billion.

The proposal will likely be the last for Hauser, who will step down next month after 6-1/2 years as ISA chief.

&quot;But once it&#39;s on its way it will continue to be pursued,&quot; said Hauser, who will be replaced by Anat Guetta.

He said he hopes she will promote easing capital gains taxes and focus on regulatory enforcement.

Bitcoin plunged by 30 per cent to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency after its sharp rise to nearly $20,000.

Israel's markets regulator said on Monday he will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA), told the Calcalist business conference he will bring the proposal to the ISA board next week. If approved, it would be subject to a public hearing and then the TASE bylaws would need to be amended. "If we have a company that their main business is digital currencies we would not allow it. If already listed, its trading will be suspended," Hauser said, adding the ISA must find the appropriate regulation for such companies. Bitcoin plunged by 30 per cent to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency after its sharp rise to nearly $20,000. It recouped some losses to trade above $14,000 on the Bitstamp platform, down 9 percent on the day. "We feel that the prices of bitcoin behave like bubbles and we don't want investors to be subject to that volatility and uncertainty," Hauser said. "There is an importance to signal to the market where things are... Investors should know where we stand." Earlier this month, Hauser had said bitcoin-based companies would not be included in TASE indexes and that there was a need for a suitable regulatory framework for such instruments given that the global market value of all digital currencies grew in 2017 to $300 billion from $18 billion. The proposal will likely be the last for Hauser, who will step down next month after 6-1/2 years as ISA chief. "But once it's on its way it will continue to be pursued," said Hauser, who will be replaced by Anat Guetta. He said he hopes she will promote easing capital gains taxes and focus on regulatory enforcement.

Israel regulator seeks to ban bitcoin firms from stock exchange

The 32-year-old chief executive of defunct Mt. Gox pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges relating to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins and cash from what was once the world&#39;s biggest bitcoin exchange.

French national Mark Karpeles filed the plea in response to charges of embezzlement and data manipulation at the Tokyo District Court, according to a pool report for foreign journalists.

Mt. Gox once handled 80 per cent of the world&#39;s bitcoin trades but filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after losing some 8,50,000 bitcoins - then worth around half a billion U.S. dollars - and $28 million in cash from its bank accounts. 
 
In its bankruptcy filing, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox blamed hackers for the lost bitcoins, pointing to a software security flaw. 
Mt. Gox subsequently said it had found 2,00,000 of the missing bitcoins. 
 
Karpeles was indicted for transferring 341 million yen ($3 million) from a Mt. Gox account holding customer funds to an account in his name during September to December 2013. The prosecution also alleged Karpeles boosted the balance of an account in his name in Mt. Gox&#39;s trading system. 
 
In its opening statement to the court, Karpeles&#39; defence team did not dispute that the transfers took place, but denied they amounted to embezzlement. 
 
Karpeles told the court he was an information technology engineer. 
 
&quot;I swear to God that I am innocent,&quot; he said in Japanese to the three-judge panel hearing his case, according to the pool report.

Licensed exchanges 
 
The collapse of Mt. Gox badly damaged the image of virtual currencies, particularly among risk-averse Japanese investors and corporations. 
 
But the bankruptcy also prompted Japan&#39;s government to decide how to treat bitcoin, and preceded a push by local regulators to licence virtual currency exchanges. 
 
Japan this year became the first country to regulate exchanges at the national level, part of a government effort to exploit financial technology as a means of stimulating the economy. 
 
Interest in bitcoin among Japan&#39;s legions of individual investors - encouraged by Tokyo&#39;s recognition of the virtual currency as legal tender - has spiked in recent months. 
 
Still, institutional investors remain wary, say those running virtual currency exchanges in Tokyo. Japanese firms are also unenthusiastic - only 4 per cent of large and mid-sized firms plan to use bitcoin in the near to medium term, showed a Reuters poll last month. 
 
The value of bitcoin is highly volatile. It hit a record high of $2,980 last month. 
 
Like other virtual currencies, such as Ethereum and Ripple, bitcoin has no central authority and relies instead on thousands of computers across the world that validate transactions and add new units to the system - technology known as blockchain. 
 
Bitcoin can be traded on exchanges in the same manner as stocks and bonds. It has also become a mode of payment for some retailers, and a way to transfer funds without the need for a third party.

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The chief executive of defunct Mt. Gox has been charged relating to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins and cash from what was once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange.

The 32-year-old chief executive of defunct Mt. Gox pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges relating to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins and cash from what was once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange. French national Mark Karpeles filed the plea in response to charges of embezzlement and data manipulation at the Tokyo District Court, according to a pool report for foreign journalists. Mt. Gox once handled 80 per cent of the world's bitcoin trades but filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after losing some 8,50,000 bitcoins - then worth around half a billion U.S. dollars - and $28 million in cash from its bank accounts. In its bankruptcy filing, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox blamed hackers for the lost bitcoins, pointing to a software security flaw. Mt. Gox subsequently said it had found 2,00,000 of the missing bitcoins. Karpeles was indicted for transferring 341 million yen ($3 million) from a Mt. Gox account holding customer funds to an account in his name during September to December 2013. The prosecution also alleged Karpeles boosted the balance of an account in his name in Mt. Gox's trading system. In its opening statement to the court, Karpeles' defence team did not dispute that the transfers took place, but denied they amounted to embezzlement. Karpeles told the court he was an information technology engineer. "I swear to God that I am innocent," he said in Japanese to the three-judge panel hearing his case, according to the pool report. Licensed exchanges The collapse of Mt. Gox badly damaged the image of virtual currencies, particularly among risk-averse Japanese investors and corporations. But the bankruptcy also prompted Japan's government to decide how to treat bitcoin, and preceded a push by local regulators to licence virtual currency exchanges. Japan this year became the first country to regulate exchanges at the national level, part of a government effort to exploit financial technology as a means of stimulating the economy. Interest in bitcoin among Japan's legions of individual investors - encouraged by Tokyo's recognition of the virtual currency as legal tender - has spiked in recent months. Still, institutional investors remain wary, say those running virtual currency exchanges in Tokyo. Japanese firms are also unenthusiastic - only 4 per cent of large and mid-sized firms plan to use bitcoin in the near to medium term, showed a Reuters poll last month. The value of bitcoin is highly volatile. It hit a record high of $2,980 last month. Like other virtual currencies, such as Ethereum and Ripple, bitcoin has no central authority and relies instead on thousands of computers across the world that validate transactions and add new units to the system - technology known as blockchain. Bitcoin can be traded on exchanges in the same manner as stocks and bonds. It has also become a mode of payment for some retailers, and a way to transfer funds without the need for a third party.

Chief of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox denies embezzlement as trial opens

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