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The Bitcoin price crashed yesterday after one of the digital currency’s biggest exchanges revealed it had been hacked and bitcoins stolen. Hong Kong-based Bitfinex announced the security breach and froze all customer accounts late on Tuesday. Bitfinex is the largest dollar-based exchange and third-largest globally behind OKCoin and BTC China, both of which are based in renminbi – according to [...]

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The Russian Ministry of Finance are reported to have begun discussions to treat cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, as a foreign currency. This action follows the Party of Growth proposal —a political party in Russia which represents the liberal free market economy—to legalize Bitcoin. Ministry representatives said that while cryptocurrency-based business operations are still illegal in Russia, the [...]

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Absa Bank, the South African subsidiary of Barclays Africa Group, has joined the R3 blockchain consortium representing over fifty major corporations from around the world. Absa will also be working towards developing a collaborative working group with other South African banks to develop the African continent’s first distributed ledger-based banking solution. “The addition of Absa marks another significant [...]

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In an ill advised move, the European Commission is proposing expanding its anti-money-laundering rules to cover virtual currencies and prepaid cards, in a bid to fight terror financing and tax evasion as revealed in the Paris attacks and the Panama Papers disclosures. The proposals from the commission, the EU’s executive arm, also seek to strengthen oversight [...]

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Following the news that a group of Chinese FI’s had grouped together to form an blockchain consortium, a group of Russian banks and financial services companies has formed a private-sector consortium focused on blockchain applications. Announced 1st July, the consortium includes payment processing firm QIWI, B&N Bank, Khanty-Mansiysk Otkritie Bank, Tinkoff Bank, MDM Bank, and professional services [...]

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