As the world is still reeling from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, people everywhere are doing what they can to support the effort to find vaccines and treatments. Not to be left out, blockchain projects everywhere have rallied together to supply computing power and money in a concerted effort to accelerate research. What it takes to fight this virus It shouldn’t be surprising to hear that researching treatments, tending to patients and supplying resources are all expensive work. With the added burden of a global pandemic that is threatening the economy, supply chains and the workforce, donating extra resources …

BitMex, one of the world’s biggest crypto derivatives exchanges, announced on April 28 that it will close services to Japan residents starting May 1 amid new Japanese regulations. Earlier this month, the Japanese Cabinet decided in the Cabinet Order to establish regulations on any crypto derivative and fund procurement transactions. The notice explained that: “The restrictions are in response to the amendments to the Japan Financial Instruments and Exchange Act and Japan Payment Services Act effective as of 1 May 2020.” All traders will be affected The restriction will apply to both existing Japanese users and those registering for the …

Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX announced a new Ether (ETH)-based futures contract on its trading platform. According to an April 24 announcement, the new derivative contract will feature a fixed Bitcoin (BTC) multiplier which will be unaffected by the Ether price in U.S. dollars. BitMEX explains that this feature allows traders to long or short Ether’s USD exchange rate without holding either ETH or dollars. The announcement explains: “Traders post margin in XBT [Bitcoin], and earn or lose Bitcoin as the ETH/USD rate changes.” The exchange plans to launch the ETHUSD futures contracts with a maximum leverage of 50x on May 5, …

BitMEX, one of the world’s biggest crypto derivatives exchanges, is still struggling to recover from a major market sell-off that followed the Black Thursday crash in March. According to an April 21 report by crypto analytics firm Coin Metrics, BitMEX has continued losing in both open interest and volume for Bitcoin (BTC) futures since last month’s historic market crash. At the same time, Binance’s Bitcoin futures trading arm, Binance Futures, has been increasingly gaining momentum, the report said. This data comes from Coin Metrics’ 47th “State of the Network” report, devoted to understanding the impact of the Black Thursday on …

Seychelles-registered crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX has become the latest industry actor to join philanthropic efforts to fight the COVID-19 global health crisis. On April 20, the exchange’s operator, HDR Global Trading, launched a dedicated COVID-19 Response Fund and announced its contribution of a total $2.5 million in grants to four recipients. The company contends that as a fintech, the best way for it to contribute to global efforts is through “strategically directed funds [that] can fill gaps in the global response and rapidly empower well-equipped but under-resourced organizations.” Following a consultation with a philanthropic advisory group, HDR Global Trading has …

For 15 days, the Bitcoin price has been stuck in the same range, consolidating at the same support level at $6,700. Although BTC surged to as high as $7,400 recently, it failed to test a key resistance level at $7,700 and has been stagnant since. Often, when the Bitcoin price becomes stuck in a tight range for an extended period of time, it tends to see significant volatility in the near-term. While the Bitcoin price could spike upwards in a strong, short squeeze given the negative funding rate of BTC futures, more technical factors point toward a bearish retest of …

On April 12, the number of Bitcoin (BTC) exchange deposits hit the lowest point since August 2016. Recently, there has been a trend towards Bitcoin holders moving their assets away from the exchanges, with some exchanges hit particularly hard. For instance, the amount of Bitcoin held by BitMex and Bitfinex has dropped significantly in the last few weeks. Source: glassnode But while the amount of Bitcoin held on exchanges has decreased overall, it has not reverted as far back in history as the number of BTC transfers to exchanges. Its current level is equivalent to the middle of 2019. This …

Bitfinex’s Bitcoin (BTC) holdings have decreased by 66,000 in the past four weeks. On March 17, the exchange held 200,140 Bitcoin. By April 13 this amount had dwindled by 33%, to just 134,091 Bitcoin. The massive decrease mirrors that experienced by BitMEX, which saw a 38% percent decline in its Bitcoin holdings after the mid-March “flash crash”. Source: TokenAnalyst Bitfinex BTC Balances & Net Flow. There has been an overall trend recently of users moving their digital assets off exchanges, but most saw much more minor decreases. One exchange, Poloniex even managed to increase its Bitcoin holdings during the same …

Since Black Thursday, BitMex users have been withdrawing Bitcoins (BTC) from the exchange in droves. On March 13, BitMex held 306,814 Bitcoins (BTC), by April 9, this number had dropped to 222,025 — this represents a 38% decrease in Bitcoin holdings. Source: TokenAnalyst Although it coincides with the recent trend of traders moving Bitcoins away from centralized exchanges in general, in the case of BitMex, the drop is more pronounced. Source: glassnode Traders switching to better alternatives The exchange went offline for 25 minutes on March 13. According to BitMex, they suffered two DDOS attacks, which resulted in the disruption. …

Despite hopes that a peak of the coronavirus cases is near, the pandemic continues to impact almost every aspect of daily life, becoming a rolling news ticker in itself. When such a disaster strikes, it can be easy to go through each day devouring the latest news as it occurs and digesting each piece as a story by itself without forming an overall picture. This pandemic is a seismic event with far-reaching impacts across different sectors, and crypto is no exception. In fact, because cryptocurrency markets move at breakneck speeds, the fact that coronavirus has been making its presence felt …

HDR Global Trading, the operator of crypto exchange BitMEX, is giving a $400,000 grant to the cybersecurity nonprofit Shadowserver Foundation. In an April 6 statement on the company’s blog, HDR Global Trading announced that it would offer $400,000 to the organization over the next four years. The BitMEX operator will be acting as a member of the nonprofit’s new industry alliance for Internet security. Richard Perlotto, Shadowserver Director, thanked HDR for “their rapid response to our call for help” and emphasized the organization’s commitment to fighting cybercrime. The director is referring to IT firm Cisco Systems pulling their support for …

Seven crypto companies have been targeted by 11 lawsuits that were filed in a New York federal court on April 3. The suits were filed by Roche Freedman — the same law firm representing the estate of the late Dave Kleiman in the ongoing dispute with self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright. Eleven lawsuits target seven crypto companies The eleven putative class action suits name dozens of parties including cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, KuCoin, BiBox, and BitMEX and parent company HDR Global Trading Limited, and alleged crypto issuers Block.one, Quantstamp, KayDex, Civic, BProtocol, Status, and the Tron Foundation. Many of the company’s …