On March 3, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that the exchange had removed its votes that contributed to a sudden shift of control over the Steem blockchain. Earlier today, leading exchanges Binance, Huobi, and Poloniex came under fire for allegedly mobilizing customer deposits to vote in what has been described as a hostile takeover of popular crypto blogging platform Steemit. Steemit’s native blockchain Steem uses a proof-of-stake protocol — where a small number of “witnesses” are voted on to secure its network. Votes are allocated according to the number of tokens that an individual holds in their wallet. Steem’s witnesses …

Huobi, a major cryptocurrency exchange, announced the public testnet launch of its open-source decentralized finance (DeFi) blockchain, Huobi Chain, on Feb. 29. Its aim is to provide a regulator-friendly framework for financial services companies to deploy applications in a variety of finance-related sectors. Huobi Chain incorporates a flexible governance model that supports both regulators and enterprises. Based on a delegated proof-of-stake consensus, it allows regulators to contribute to the network through unique regulatory nodes. The implementation of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money lLundering (AML) protocols is complimented by a Decentralized Identifier system to provide verifiable digital identities on the …

While China now has more billionaires than the United States and India combined, Binance CEO might have more money than any crypto person, a new report says. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has overtaken a co-founder of cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain in the latest Hurun Global Rich List, an annual ranking of the world's biggest billionaires published Chinese media Hurun Report. Issued on Feb. 26, the new Hurun Report’s list of 2,816 global billionaires includes six individuals who made their fortune from blockchain and crypto industry. Bitmain’s ousted co-founder lost over one billion dollars in a year Similarly to previous compilations …

Prediction can be a bit of a gamble. And when cryptocurrency and blockchain are involved, it wouldn’t be surprising to see people shying away from scrying experiments of any sort. Blockchain gets a bad rep because of its relation to Bitcoin (BTC), the cryptocurrency that many love to hate due to its apparently volatile value. But according to George Gilder, co-founder of the Discovery Institute in Seattle: “Blockchain is the future...it will usher in a world beyond Google.” That’s a pretty hefty claim to make. In order for blockchain to truly flourish as the next “global fabric for value exchanges …

Huobi is the latest firm to join the Klaytn Governance Council, a part of Kakao’s public blockchain project which runs its distributed network under the shared governance. The council grows According to an early morning press release, the move will bolster a roster of some of the world’s largest digital enterprises, including Binance, LG Electronics and Kakao, Klaytn’s parent company. Commenting on the addition, Sangmin Seo of council-member Ground X said: “We are excited for Huobi to work with other Council members to jointly run and govern the Klaytn platform, as well as create use cases that can foster the …

Binance, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by 24-hour volume, has hired an exec from one of its foremost competitor exchanges, Huobi. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Jan. 30, Binance has hired Josh Goodbody as its new director of European and Latin American growth and institutional business. Prior to joining Binance, Goodbody worked as head of Europe and Americas at Huobi, where in November 2019 he formed the Global Institutional Business department — a team and line of products specifically targeting institutional products, under which the exchange recently launched its Huobi Brokerage platform. Before Huobi, Goodbody worked as a …

If the crypto sector is to attract more institutional investors, it will need to provide more insurance solutions. This point was driven home anew with the recent news that the Gemini crypto exchange has launched a captive insurance company, Nakamoto Ltd., to insure its Gemini Custody business for up to $200 million — reportedly the largest amount for any crypto custody service in the world. This new insurer will help Gemini’s institutional clients to meet their regulatory requirements, Gemini’s head of risk, Yusuf Hussain, explained to Cointelegraph in a Jan. 16 story, and this “is consistent with Gemini’s approach of …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Huobi is launching its first licensed digital asset brokerage, Huobi Brokerage. Huobi, the fifth-largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume as of press time, will now provide brokerage service to its institutional clients, the firm said in a Jan. 21 press release to Cointelegraph. Huobi Brokerage provides simultaneous access to other exchanges and OTC desks via smart order routing Announcing the news at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, the exchange said that Huobi Brokerage is the first product launched under the Global Institutional Business (GIB), an institutional services-focused division established by Huobi in November 2019. …

A new study by Chainalysis finds that terrorists are refining their financing operations using cryptocurrencies. Faster and broader funding Earlier today, Jan. 17, the blockchain analysts identified Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades (AQB), Hamas’s military arm as the first confirmed case of a designated terrorist organization using cryptocurrency to aid their activity. AQB used a website to generate a new Bitcoin address for each donor to deposit funds. It included a how-to video on donating with maximal anonymity. Compared to similar earlier campaigns, AQB raised as much money and garnered more donors but in less than half the time. Cryptocurrency has …

Major crypto exchange Huobi becomes a member of the Blockchain Turkey Platform to cooperate with local players on blockchain efforts. Five months after officially entering the Turkish market, Huobi joined the Blockchain Turkey Platform as a "Platinum" member, the global crypto exchange announced on Jan. 15, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph Turkey. Founded by the Turkish Informatics Foundation in 2018, the Blockchain Turkey Platform (BCTR) is an independent, non-profit organization that aims to create a healthy blockchain ecosystem in Turkey. The platform has members from banking and finance, venture capitalism, technology, and crypto industries. Huobi has become …

Binance and Huobi have together received over 52% of total $2.8 billion illicit Bitcoin (BTC) transfers in 2019, according to a new report. Chainalysis’ findings Over the course of 2019, criminal entities moved a total of $2.8 billion in Bitcoin to cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a Jan. 15 study from Chainalysis. According to the New York-based firm, Binance and Huobi, two of the world’s largest crypto exchanges to date, have received 27.6% and 24.7% of total transfers from criminals in 2019. As such, the two major crypto trading platforms are allegedly responsible for acquiring over a half of all illicit …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has partnered with a real estate firm in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to allow real estate investors to pay in cryptocurrencies. The Singapore-based crypto exchange has entered a partnership with fäm Properties, a tech-driven real estate agency based in Dubai, to offer crypto payment options for its real estate investors, UAE-based business publication AMEinfo.com reports Jan. 12. Crypto to enable more stability and liquidity in the real estate market Specifically, the partnership enables fäm Properties to accept payment in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP and other major cryptos including stablecoins, the report reads. …