Malaysia is planning to impose a $6,000 limit on cash transactions in 2020, according to a deputy governor at the country’s central bank. The new restrictions aim to prevent the use of cash in illicit activities, and won’t affect regulated financial institutions or other entities transacting for humanitarian aid purposes. The average Malaysian household spends $1,900 per month Abdul Rasheed, the deputy governor in question who works for Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), claimed that the measures will apply to all transactions involving physical cash, including payments for goods and services, reports local English-language newspaper The Star. The limit of 25,000 …

As many as 99% of all cryptocurrencies will likely go to zero, according to a new prediction by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse. There are too many crypto projects, says Garlinghouse In an interview with Bloomberg released Nov. 5, Garlinghouse claimed that there are too many cryptocurrencies so far, forecasting that only 1% of all crypto is here to stay. That small number of crypto projects will be game-changing and grow significantly in the decades since they will be focused on solving real problems for real customers, Ripple CEO declared. Growth is caused by the hype around the market According to …

How can I be informed of what’s happening with my crypto transactions? Some crypto exchanges are aiming to deliver full transparency to their users. This attitude toward openness can be especially beneficial for users who are using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for the first time. HitBTC, which bills itself as one of the most advanced crypto exchanges on the market today, has created a System Monitor that delivers live statistics concerning incoming and outgoing transactions for each of the cryptocurrencies it supports. Processing times for the last 100 transactions are provided — detailing the slowest and fastest execution times as …

The number of daily XRP transactions is going through the roof, nearing an all-time high of 1.70 million. Daily transactions boom to 1.6 million According to the crypto data tracker BitInfoCharts, XRP’s daily transactions now account for more than 50% of all the cryptocurrency transactions during the last 24 hours. Ether (ETH) comes in second, while Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) settle for a shared third place. The last time XRP’s daily transactions were this high, the crypto markets were reveling in the middle of the famous bull run of December 2017. On Oct. 21, XRP was processing around …

Tracking cryptocurrency transactions is getting easier for law enforcement agencies. On Oct. 16, Cointelegraph reported on how authorities in the United States successfully shut down an international child pornography site. To identify the criminals, the investigators used tools developed by analytic company Chainalysis, which helped to track the Bitcoin (BTC) wallets, used by the criminals to receive payments from customers. As authorities find more and more ways to track cryptocurrencies, criminals use new techniques, and many sites remain beyond government control. Who will win this battle and can the fight against financial crimes grow into total control over users? Cryptocurrencies …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has sparked controversy among cryptocurrency users after suggesting developers could reverse transactions. Buterin’s community feedback falls flat In a Twitter survey on Oct. 26, Buterin quizzed followers about their opinion of reversing chain activity in the event of a major hack of an exchange or similar entity. “Suppose a popular smart contract wallet that a large portion of the ETH community uses gets hacked. This could be reverted by reverting all chain activity since the hack and doing a DAO-style HF to recover the funds,” he wrote. Continuing, he asked how many coins would need to …

The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) is planning to release its own fiat digital currency in order to ensure economies’ resilience in the event of a natural disaster. CBOB governor John Rolle made the statement during his speech at the Counsellors Limited’s Exuma Business Outlook at Sandals Emerald Bay, local news publication the Nassau Guardian reported on Oct. 25. According to Rolle, digital currency has the ability to free the country from dependency on cash — particularly useful after a natural disaster. The Project Sand Dollar The digital currency is being developed under the auspices of Project Sand Dollar …

The number of Americans who own cryptocurrencies has almost doubled in 2019, from 7.95% in 2018 to 14.4%, according to a new survey by Finder. 36.5 million Americans own crypto Finder, an Australia-based financial services firm, has surveyed 2,068 Americans to figure out that 36.5 million people in the United States own some form of crypto to date. Titled “A rising number of Americans own crypto,” the survey was released on Oct. 14, as Finder tweeted. Average $5,447 holdings versus $360 median amount According to the survey, the average amount out of the totally owned crypto by Americans accounts for …

German securities marketplace Deutsche Boerse and Commerzbank have completed a joint pilot transaction settlement of post-trade securities using digital tokens and distributed ledger technology (DLT). Tokens generated from both commercial bank money and securities While the transaction also involved major German asset manager MEAG, which operates under Munich Re-owned ERGO Group, one of the largest German insurance companies, Deutsche Boerse officially announced on Oct. 23. Meanwhile, the underlying technology and the legal concept were jointly developed by Deutsche Boerse and Commerzbank, the firm noted. The prototype settlement performed a delivery-versus-payment transaction and the transfer of tokenized cash. According to the …

The German Federal Ministry of Finance has expressed concerns about rising use of privacy tokens due to their association with criminal activities and difficulties in tracking them. Published on Oct. 19, the ministry’s “First Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing National Risk Assessment” for 2018-2019 provided analysis aimed at the identification of existing and future risks in the field of anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorism financing (TF) in Germany. Among other challenges, the report examines circulation of cryptocurrencies in the darknet for criminal purposes. Pseudo-anonymous vs. anonymous tokens The report marks a distinction between pseudo-anonymous and anonymous tokens, noting that pseudonymity …

Bitcoin (BTC) investor Alistair Milne was eventually forced to send Bitcoin instead of a $2,600 gold bar as part of his recent giveaway. Following a giveaway announcement on Sept. 19, Milne has revealed the winner as well as other giveaway details in a thread on Twitter on Oct. 22. Giveaway background As originally envisaged, Milne should have given away a $2,600 Denarium Bitcoin Decennium 2019 as part of the giveaway with the winner expected to be announced on Oct. 19. In the giveaway announcement launch, the entrepreneur specified that in order to be eligible, participants should follow Milne’s Twitter and …

Web browser Opera now allows making payments with Bitcoin (BTC) directly inside the browser. The company announced the news in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Oct. 21, detailing that Opera’s 350 million users can now send and receive BTC directly from the browser, as well as use the cryptocurrency for purchasing goods and services on e-commerce websites. Additionally, the browser now enables adding a Bitcoin and TRON (TRX) card into the built-in Crypto Wallet to keep track of the cryptocurrency owned. Charles Hamel, head of crypto at Opera, commented on the new feature launch: “We believe that opening …