Montreal-based digital asset custodian Knøx has secured $6.2 million (8.25 million CAD) in a seed round to support its crypto custody service for institutional customers and fiduciaries. The funding round was led by San Francisco-based venture capital firm Initialized Capital, with the participation of financial services giant Fidelity and venture firm iNovia, Canadian technology-focused news outlet BetaKit reported on Sept. 24. Protection of customers against losses Knøx’s products are geared to asset management firms, liquidity providers and exchanges, specifically addressing the issue of customers’ protection against losses. Garry Tan, a managing partner at Initialized Capital, stated that “there is a …

Disclaimer: This report previously stated that Kik was only considering shutting down its app and has been updated following new information from Kik. The Canadian social media and messaging app company Kik is considering shutting down its popular Kik messaging app. 70 reported layoffs at Kin subsidiary In a Sept. 23 article, Israeli tech publication CTech Calcalistit cites two anonymous sources at Kik, claiming that the Canada-based firm is considering closing down its messaging app. A subsequent blog post by Kik CEO Ted Livingston confirmed the reports, stating that the firm will shut down the Kik app, reduce its staff …

The University of St. Gallen in Switzerland is setting its sights on blockchain technology to fight fake diplomas, a type of fraud that has been on the rise globally in recent years. Degree certification According to a CNN Money Switzerland interview from Sept. 19, the University of St. Gallen has announced that it is introducing a blockchain-based pilot project to verify the authenticity of its degrees in a matter of seconds rather than several days. The university’s CIO Harald Rotter said: “I saw that it could be necessary and it could be a valid use case to transfer or to …

American financial services company Wells Fargo & Company is planning to launch a pilot of a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based internal settlement service in 2020. In a Sept. 17 press release, Wells Fargo described a DLT-based platform designed to perform internal book transfers of international payments within its global network using digitized cash. The company claimed that it has already successfully tested the concept of money transfers between the United States and Canada. Achievement of nearly real-time money transactions The impetus for the idea was the realization of nearly real-time money transactions with no impact on the underlying account, transaction …

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), the country’s tax authority, is auditing the corporate tax returns filed by QuadrigaCX, the now-defunct Canadian cryptocurrency exchange. CRA’s request for documents and information is significant According to an article by the Globe and Mail on Sept. 16, QuadrigaCX is now being audited by the CRA which has requested the tax returns from Oct. 1, 2015, to Sept. 30, 2018. The Canadian exchange has been generating headlines ever since its CEO, Gerald Cotten, was declared dead in India without ever revealing the passwords to access the company’s cryptocurrency reserves. Bankruptcy trustee EY, which oversees the …

Fraudsters in Winnipeg, Canada, have targeted Bitcoin ATM users in the city by simply sticking a poster on the machine. Police issued a warning on Aug. 29 that following the instructions on the poster will lead to an irretrievable loss of their Bitcoin. Low-tech hack attack Even with a digital currency like Bitcoin, security ultimately lies in the hands of the user, and a simple attack can often be the most effective. Scammers in Winnipeg took exactly that tack. They attached a printed notice to the machine. The notice explained that the machine was undergoing a software upgrade. Due to …

Two Canadians of Indian origin were charged in the United States with a $233,220 Bitcoin (BTC) fraud using a fake HitBTC account on Twitter. Scammers posed as HitBTC customer service on Twitter Karanjit Singh Khatkar, 23, and Jagroop Singh Khatkar, 24, of Surrey, British Columbia, allegedly stole 23.2 Bitcoin from a woman in the U.S. state of Oregon, Indian publication The Week reports on Aug. 23, citing charges filed with the federal court. According to the report, the defendants used a fraudulent Twitter account named @HitBTCAssist to trick victims into believing they represented customer service from Hong Kong-based crypto exchange …

Evan Kuhn, the co-founder of Toronto-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinberry, has claimed Bitcoin (BTC) is more efficient for paying taxes than bank cards. As real estate news outlet Mansion Global reported on Aug. 22, Kuhn said his company takes much lower fees than the ones that card institutions impose on their clients, adding: “A credit card company charges a 3% fee. [...] Our fee is .5%, so that’s a lot more beneficial for the municipalities.” Bitcoin transaction fees six times lower than credit cards Coinberry acts as an intermediary because local municipalities are not authorized to hold or accept cryptocurrencies due …

Rwanda’s central bank, the National Bank of Rwanda, is researching how to offer an official digital currency. BNN Bloomberg reported the news on Aug. 22. The central bank is said to be interested in offering digital currency as a means to increase transaction efficiency and foster economic growth. However, Financial Stability Director-General Peace Masozera Uwase warned work remains to be done before implementation is on the table, adding: “There are still concerns about how exactly you convert the entire currency into digital form, how to distribute that and how fast can you process those transactions [...] Challenges come in, if …

A Supreme Court judge in British Columbia (BC), Canada, has denied a motion to set aside an asset freeze, which was requested by the defendants in a multimillion dollar cryptocurrency fraud case. The defendants had filed to set aside an interim preservation order that was issued by the British Columbia Civil Forfeiture Office in order to prevent case-related assets from being sold or accumulating debt. Vancouver news daily The Province reported the ruling on Aug. 19. According to the report, the defendants, Lisa Angela Cheng and Kevin Patrick Hobbs, stand accused of committing fraud, tax evasion and money laundering. Alleged …

As the appeal of cryptocurrency has grown, so has the opportunity for scammers to part naive investors from their money. 2019 has been no exception, with cryptocurrency and blockchain forensics company Ciphertrace dubbing it “the year of the exit scam.” Exit scams are not a new phenomenon, with a 2018 report conducted by Statis Group revealing over 80% of initial coin offerings (ICOs) in that year to have been fraudulent. Here, Cointelegraph explains exit scams and how to spot them, as well as a look at some of the biggest scams that have been discovered by various researchers. What are …

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have used blockchain technology to improve trust in electric vehicle (EV) charging systems, reported academic publication portal EurekAlert on Aug. 14. This development could increase uptake and expand the overall charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. New ventures have no established trust relationships In general, an EV charging service provider will look for property owners to partner with and install charging points. Owners of electric vehicles can then use these for a fee, which is shared between the equipment supplier and the property owner. The supplier runs the equipment, so the property owner …