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. The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. For the agile trader, cryptocurrency trading offers a great opportunity to earn huge returns within a short span of time. It is also uncorrelated to other asset classes, hence, it can act as a safe haven investment during an economic crisis. In Brazil, which is reeling under a slowdown and high unemployment rate, …

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. The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies had come scaringly close to breaking down below the $100 billion mark in mid-December of last year. At that time, sentiment was very weak and every rally was being sold on. There were talks of cryptocurrencies never seeing their lifetime highs again. However, fast forward seven months …

Cybersecurity company Trend Micro claims to have detected a web address spreading a botnet featuring a monero (XMR) mining component alongside a backdoor. The malware was described on Trend Micro’s official blog on June 13. Per the report, the firm attributes the malware to Outlaw Hacking Group, as the techniques employed are almost the same used in its previous operations. The software in question also holds Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) capabilities, “allowing the cybercriminals to monetize their botnet through cryptocurrency mining and by offering DDoS-for-hire services.” Trend Micro also believes that the creators of the malware in question are …

Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro has confirmed that attackers have been exploiting a vulnerability in the Oracle WebLogic server to install monero (XMR) mining malware, while using certificate files as an obfuscation trick. The news was revealed in a Trend Micro blog post published on June 10. As previously reported, forms of stealth crypto mining are also referred to with the industry term cryptojacking — the practice of installing malware that uses a computer’s processing power to mine for cryptocurrencies without the owner’s consent or knowledge. According to Trend Micro’s post, a security patch for theOracle WebLogic vulnerability (“CVE-2019-2725”) — reportedly …

Bitcoin (BTC) price analyst Oliver Isaacs thinks it will hit $25,000 around the end of 2019, according to a report by The Independent on June 5. Isaacs discussed the reasons he still has high hopes for a rally in the near future, saying: "There are multiple drivers behind the recent resurgence. There are geopolitical, technological and regulatory drivers. The net effect of the trade war between the U.S. and China has led to the sudden interest in bitcoin as a hedge on investments." Draper also reportedly commented on the state of mainstream adoption trends, with giant corporations such as Microsoft, …

The University of Notre Dame and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) released a study on the speed and scale of cryptocurrency discussions on Reddit on May 13. The paper claims to be “the first to qualitatively measure and contrast discussion growth about three popular cryptocurrencies with key distinctions in motivation, usage, and implementation – Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Monero (XMR) on Reddit.” The study covered Reddit threads created in the official subreddits and the broader cryptocurrencies subs between January 2015 and January 2018. This period of time “includes the record high bitcoin price rise at the end of …

Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro has detected a major uptick in monero (XMR) cryptojacking malware targeting China-based systems this spring. The news was revealed in an official Trend Micro announcement on June 5. As previously reported, cryptojacking is an industry term for stealth crypto mining attacks that work by installing malware that uses a computer’s processing power to mine for cryptocurrencies without the owner’s consent or knowledge. The XMR-focused malware — which wields malicious PowerShell scripts for illicit mining activities on Microsoft-based systems — reportedly surged against Chinese targets in mid-May. Hitting a peak on May 22, the wave of cryptojacking …

Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro announced that it found a malware dubbed BlackSquid that infects web servers employing eight different security exploits and installs mining software. The findings were announced in a blog post published on June 3. Per the report, the malware targets web servers, network drives and removable drives using eight different exploit and brute force attacks. More precisely, the software in question employs “EternalBlue; DoublePulsar; the exploits for CVE-2014-6287, CVE-2017-12615, and CVE-2017-8464; and three ThinkPHP exploits for multiple versions.” While the sample acquired by Trend Micro installs the XMRig monero (XMR) Central Processing Unit-based mining software, BlackSquid could …

Privacy-centric cryptocurrency monero (XMR) plans to switch to a new proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm in October. The new algorithm follows an agreement with Arweave, which will fund an audit of the new algorithm, an Arweave spokesperson told Cointelegraph via email on May 23. Arweave, which has launched a permanent and decentralized internet, said that monero will implement the RandomX algorithm, thus replacing CryptoNight, if the audit is successful. Until now, monero developers reportedly hard-forked the network once every 6 months to ensure application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) resistance by implementing small changes to CryptoNight. However, this approach has been criticized for being …

Monday, May 20 — most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting moderate losses on the day by press time, as bitcoin (BTC) has fallen below the $7.900 mark again. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Bitcoin is down over 1.7% on the day, trading at $7,883 at press time, according to CoinMarketCap. Looking at its weekly chart, the coin is up over 10%. Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap As Cointelegraph reported earlier today, strategists from United States banking giant JPMorgan Chase have argued that bitcoin’s recent rally has ostensibly soared past what they calculate to be its intrinsic value. …

A global threat report has concluded that the three most common malware variants detected in April were crypto miners, according to a news release on May 14. Check Point Research said Cryptoloot, malware that uses the victim’s computing power to mine for crypto without their knowledge, was last month’s biggest threat. XMRig, open-source software which is used for mining monero (XMR), was in second place. Rounding off the top three was JSEcoin, a JavaScript miner embedded in websites. Despite their prevalence, the company’s researchers believe that criminals are shifting their focus away from crypto mining. Several popular services used to …

Saturday, May 11 — most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting major gains on the day by press time, as bitcoin (BTC) breaks the $6,900 mark. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Bitcoin is up over eight percent on the day, trading at $6,950 at press time, according to CoinMarketCap. Looking at its weekly chart, the coin is up nearly 22%, surging in price since the end of the week. Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Ether (ETH) is holding onto its position as the largest altcoin by market cap, which currently stands at $20.8 billion. The second-largest altcoin, XRP, …