What’s going on in crypto land at the moment? Well, Bitcoin’s price plummeted on Wednesday – the largest decline since December 2013. I am not sure of the exact cause, but I imagine part of it is due to growing fears of regulatory scrutiny.
Facebook has also announced that it is going to ban advertisement that promote financial products and services that are frequently misleading or deceptive. I think that’s only right as there are ICO’s popping
up all over my news feed and most, if not all, are total rubbish!
But the big news out there now is the hack on Tokyo-based Coincheck. Over $530 million worth of virtual coins have been stolen, one of the biggest thefts of digital money in recent times. Not only does this show the huge security flaws we need to overcome, it also helps the media to push Bitcoin, Ethereum and all other cryptocurrencies into a downwards spiral. It certainly sounds like some big changes are needed as people and countries are losing trust in cryptocurrencies.
Coincheck confirmed that it has suffered a huge attack and it has promised to reimburse all users accounts within the coming days. The amount stolen could be actually be higher than the figure currently being reported, but we won’t know until further checks have been made. There needs to be ample security in place across every exchange/wallet out there and we must stop anonymous bank accounts being set up for money laundering purposes.
Most currencies have now experienced a dip in value amidst the uncertainty in the market. Things are looking set to recover but the bank of Japan has said that companies offering cryptocurrency services must have ample security in place otherwise they will be shut down.
So what does this all mean? Well, there will be big losses and tougher regulations will be brought in but I don’t think it will slow things down. I actually this all adds to the fact that everyone is taking sharp notice of the whole crypto sphere and I would not be surprised if things shot up in February.
In other news, the UK’s Royal Mint, the institution responsible for producing all the physical money the country has for circulation, has launched its own gold-backed blockchain. This is interesting because one coin is equal to one gram of gold. That means it’s real gold you’re holding when you’re holding one of those coins!
Well, I am sure there’s more exciting news on the horizon in the coming weeks and I, for one, am looking forward to a fun February watching the rollercoaster of volatility swoop and soar some more.
