Being your own bank isn’t for everyone — and that includes companies and fund managers looking to issue cryptocurrency investment vehicles. Cryptocurrency exchange and custodial services provider Gemini announced today the launch of a new service tailored specifically towards funds and ETFs: Gemini Fund Solutions. The new service will offer “custody, clearing, trade execution, and other capital markets” facilities, as well as “provide education around the crypto marketplace” and act “as a centralized hub for crypto liquidity providers,” according to the announcement. The company currently provides custodial services for fund issuers Purpose Investments, whose Bitcoin ETF cracked $100 million in …

One of the biggest trends in recent months has seen Bitcoin flow out of exchanges into wallets. Generally, this is interpreted as a bullish sign — indicating that investors are optimistic about further growth in cryptocurrency prices. But delve deeper, and there’s more to this than meets the eye. The crypto industry has grown immeasurably over recent years — making stars out of a number of exchanges. Platforms such as Binance and Coinbase now handle billions of dollars in trading volumes every day. With this come concerns that centralization is creeping in — and fears that major exchanges are becoming …

While blockchain is known for bringing trust and transparency to multi-party workflows, it can also ensure the immutability of business-critical data. Realizing this potential, technology giant Oracle has announced a crypto-secure data management offering that will be provided as a free feature for Oracle converged database users. Juan Loaiza, executive vice president, Mission-Critical Database Technologies at Oracle, told Cointelegraph that it’s become apparent that customers deploying blockchain solutions often do not require the full capabilities of these implementations. Loaiza also pointed out that the complexity of introducing a completely new technology stack into an IT environment can be burdensome. Blockchain …

It’s every exchange’s worst nightmare: Falling victim to a security breach. An incident can disrupt a trading platform’s operations for weeks, affect customer confidence and damage a carefully cultivated reputation — even causing crypto markets to fall in some cases. Crypto companies have been ramping up their security measures in recent years, determined to ensure that malicious actors don’t get an opportunity to infiltrate their systems. This has prompted hackers, scammers and fraudsters to rely on more sophisticated techniques. One crucial weapon has emerged that helps trading platforms take speedy action in the event that their infrastructure is compromised: Analytics …

A French project is building “The Internet of Trust” — and says decentralized identifiers will be a crucial part of Web 3.0. XSL Labs is developing a Secure Digital Identifier (otherwise known as SDI for short) that’s designed to ensure users have full control over their private information. In time, it’s hoped this approach will diminish the power of tech giants such as Facebook and Google. SDI aims to limit the amount of data that is shared about ourselves online, without impeding access to goods and services. The project intends to ensure zero-knowledge proofs are utilized wherever possible, which add …

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Digital Currency Initiative has revealed a new “Bitcoin Software and Security Effort” intended to foster research into bolstering the Bitcoin network’s defenses. The open-source initiative has received support from a diverse group of crypto industry leaders, including Gemini’s Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, MicroStrategy’s CEO Michael Saylor, Square CEO Jack Dorsey, and major European digital asset manager, CoinShares. In a blog post unveiling the project, DCI said that Bitcoin’s ascent from an “obscure cryptographic toy” to a robust network that “secures on the order of $1 [trillion] of value” was due to the millions of hours …

M31 Capital, a New York-based global investment firm, has filed paperwork with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, to launch a new Bitcoin (BTC) hedge fund. The proposed fund, dubbed M31 Capital Bitcoin Access Fund, is a limited partnership hedge fund based in Delaware, according to a Form D SEC filing submitted on Tuesday. The minimum investment from any outside investor has been set at $10,000. Details about the fund’s structure were not disclosed. M31 Capital is focused exclusively on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. The company also operates M31 Ventures, whose investment thesis is based on uncovering …

Shares of Long Bitcoin Corp (LBCC), a beverage company turned cryptocurrency mining company, have been officially delisted by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. The company was ordered to delist its stock after failing for years to produce any financial reports. Long Bitcoin Corp’s last earnings report was for the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2018, according to Bloomberg. Long Bitcoin Corp is registered in the state of Delaware, according to SEC filings. Originally known as Long Island Ice Tea, Long Bitcoin rebranded during the height of crypto euphoria in January 2018. That was shortly after Bitcoin (BTC) …

As the attacks launched against popular decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols grow ever-more complex, the efficacy of audits from major security companies have in turn come under scrutiny — and some members of the DeFi community have already begun building homegrown alternatives. “I think that now, after all the hacks we’ve had, we basically understand that if you have two audits, three audits, it doesn’t mean you’re safe,” said the co-founder of DeFi Italy Emiliano Bonassi in an interview with Cointelegraph. “This does not mean that audits have no value in this moment, but they are not silver bullets.” This new …

Cybersecurity researchers at Unit 42, the intelligence team at Palo Alto Networks, have published a profile of a new malware campaign that targets Kubernetes clusters and can be used for the purposes of cryptojacking. "Cryptojacking" is an industry term for stealth crypto-mining attacks that work by installing malware that uses a computer’s processing power to mine cryptocurrencies — frequently Monero (XMR) — without the user’s consent or knowledge. A Kubernetes cluster is a set of nodes that are used to run containerized applications across multiple machines and environments, whether virtual, physical or cloud-based. According to the Unit 42 team, the …

On Dec. 23, 2020, the SEC published a statement proposing a framework for broker-dealers to custody digital asset securities in a manner consistent with Rule 15c3-3 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Among other things, the statement, which will expire after a period of five years from publication, provides that a broker-dealer may custody digital asset securities so long as it operates consistent with the enumerated conditions set forth in the statement, including but not limited to, restricting its business exclusively to digital asset securities, instituting robust written policies and procedures, and ensuring that it has exclusive control over …

Much has been written about the Sept. 30, 2020, decision by Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission vs. Kik Interactive. In that order, the judge ruled in favor of the SEC’s motion for summary judgement, applying the Howey Test in the course of determining that Kik Interactive had violated the federal securities laws by selling contractual rights to acquire Kin tokens and later by issuing and selling the Kin tokens themselves. Less has been said about the actual final judgement, entered by the court on Oct. 21, 2020, pursuant …