A Texas Federal Court has ordered two defendants to pay $400,000 for conducting a fraudulent scheme to solicit Bitcoin (BTC) from members of the public, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on July 10. Judge Reed C. O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas filed an Order and Default Judgment on June 28, 2019, alleging that U.S. citizens Morgan Hunt and Kim Hecroft engaged in a fraudulent scheme to solicit Bitcoin from the public to invest in trading products like binary options, diamonds and foreign currency contracts. The defendants allegedly did business …

Vanuatu, a Pacific Island country, has extradited six Chinese citizens to the mainland, according to a report by Odaily Planet Daily on July 10. The suspects were reportedly arrested in the course of an ongoing investigation of the PlusToken cryptocurrency platform which, according to the Yancheng Public Security Bureau, is a pyramid scheme. As per the report, the Yancheng police in China have confirmed that they cooperated with local Vanuatu police to extradite six suspects associated with the PlusToken fund. The individuals were reportedly arrested by Vanuatu authorities at Chinese police’s request, and later released to China following negotiations. The …

The Tron Foundation issued an official response to a recent protest against a ponzi scheme that went under a Tron-like name, today, July 8. As Cointelegraph previously reported, protestors swarmed the Beijing research and development offices of Raybo technology — a partner firm of Tron’s — to express outrage at a local cryptocurrency scam operating under a Tron-like name that reportedly led to $30 million worth of losses and one suicide. The offices were eventually surrounded by police, who contained and subsequently removed the protestors. In its official statement, Tron said that it communicated with the protesters and discovered that …

The Tron office in Beijing has been surrounded by police as a crowd gathered to protest against a Chinese ponzi scheme that went under a Tron-like name, Twitter personality Crypto Authority reports on July 8. Videos with crowds surrounded by police officers in the Tron’s office have spread over Twitter, with people apparently coming to express outrage at a local crypto scam that reportedly led to $30 million worth of losses and one suicide. As can be seen on the videos, people are apparently considering Tron to be the fraudulent entity, with the crowd reportedly yelling "Tron is a scam.” …

Several security vulnerabilities have been disclosed by Monero, including one that could have been exploited to steal xmr from exchanges, reports on the breach disclosure platform HackerOne revealed on July 3. The vulnerability theoretically enabled attackers to send counterfeit xmr to an exchange. Once the fraudster’s account was credited, they could then convert it into other coins and make a withdrawal, leaving the exchange out of pocket. Describing the critical breach they uncovered, the lead developer for CUT coin added: “It is our belief that the vulnerability cannot be used to "mint" real, transactable monero out of thin air.” A …

A scammer has been sentenced to 86 months in prison for running a cryptocurrency-related scheme, the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) reports on July 1 In addition to the 86-month prison sentence, United States District Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein ordered 44-year old New Jersey resident Blake Kantor to pay a total restitution of $806,405 distributed to the victims who invested in his scam, as well as forfeiture of $1.5 million, and forfeiture of $153,000 of stolen proceeds. The scam itself was run through the company Blue Bit Banc (BBB) which offered binary options — an all or nothing form …

Only 66 stablecoins — 30% of total announced tokens — are actually live and operational, according to a study published by the blockchain research group Blockdata on June 26 The remaining 70% are either still in development or have shut down entirely. Researchers from Blockdata believe that one consequence of this is that 2019–2020 may see a record high of new stablecoins going live, with 119 estimated to launch in 2019. Researchers also examined possible factors may have led to the closure of failed stablecoins. Failed stablecoins, according to the study, tend to be commodity-backed by assets such as gold. …

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson claimed that emerging markets are where cryptocurrencies matter, and that Facebook’s announced virtual currency Libra is not going to find success in this area, according to a report by Finance Magnates on June 26. According to Hoskinson, emerging markets are the future. He says: “Emerging markets are where cryptocurrencies matter [...] When I look at the developed world, I don’t care. It’s highly regulated and, in many cases, a rigged system. If I decide to compete with a tech company they can just push me out via regulation. [...] Then I sit down with the prime …

Europol, in conjunction with the United Kingdom’s South West Regional Cyber Crime Unit, the Dutch police, Eurojust, and the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA), has coordinated the arrests of six people suspected of stealing over $27 million in cryptocurrency, according to a press release on June 25. The attackers reportedly were involved in typosquatting, a fraudulent means to steal credentials by setting up a scam website with a similar name to an established one—hence the “typo” in “typosquatting”—and then recording login data. In this case, the report notes that Europol believes the hackers were able to use typosquatting to steal …

46-year-old New York resident Patrick McDonnell admitted to stealing funds obtained from his clients instead of investing them in cryptocurrency, Bloomberg reports on June 21. Per the report, McDonnell — who calls himself the “coyote of Wall Street” — pleaded guilty to wire fraud on Friday in federal court in Brooklyn. He allegedly declared: “I claimed to invest it in virtual currency and spent it on personal expenses.” McDonnell attracted investors to his firm CabbageTech by claiming on social media to have traded over $50 million worth of bitcoin (BTC) for thousands of clients. Bloomberg reports that, instead of investing …

A new survey by Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab introduced on June 17th revealed that 19% of people globally have purchased cryptocurrency. The survey, titled “The Kaspersky Cryptocurrency Report 2019,” was carried out in October and November 2018, with a total of 13,434 respondents in 22 countries. According to the report, 81% of global population have never purchased cryptocurrencies, while only 10% of respondents said they “fully understand how cryptocurrencies work.” Meanwhile, just 14% of those who haven’t ever used cryptocurrencies would like to do so in the future, the report notes. Key findings of The Kaspersky Cryptocurrency Report 2019. …

The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has unsealed a fraud complaint against Swedish citizen Roger Nils-Jonas Karlsson and associated firm Eastern Metal Securities (EMS), according to a press release on June 19. According to the DoJ Karlsson and EMS are charged with committing securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Specifically, Karlsson allegedly instructed investors to pay for his products using virtual currencies, such as the cryptocurrency bitcoin (BTC). According to the complaint, the EMS website was registered to a made-up person, and offered shares of “Pre Funded Reversed Pension Plan” of which investors could allegedly purchase shares at …