Police in New Zealand confirmed they are investigating what appears to be a major hack of local cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia worth at least $3.6 million, a press release stated on Jan. 16. Cryptopia, which abruptly shut down its website and exchange services on Jan. 14, subsequently said it had detected malicious activity. “The Cryptopia exchange suffered a security breach which resulted in significant losses,” officials wrote in a statement uploaded to the company’s Twitter account. As users and the media learned of the hack, Cryptopia has since said it will not comment further on the ongoing proceedings as it is …

New Zealand digital assets exchange Cryptopia has suspended services after detecting a major hack that has reportedly “resulted in significant losses,” according to a tweet posted today, Jan. 15. The exchange revealed in the tweet that the hack occurred yesterday, Jan. 14. The platform had initially informed the public it was undergoing unscheduled maintenance, issuing several similarly laconic updates before today’s official disclosure of the breach. According to today’s tweet, the exchange has notified government agencies and authorities, including the New Zealand Police and High Tech Crimes Unit, who have reportedly opened an investigation into the matter and are allegedly …

An alleged fake news website released a crypto-related article employing the image of former New Zealand prime minister John Key, local media outlet Stuff reported Jan. 5. The ad reportedly promoted Bitcoin (BTC) and a company called “Crypto Revolt,” which is allegedly a cloned scam site. The article further explains that the advertisement imitates a Stuff business news page and “purports to interview John Key on his enthusiasm for Bitcoin.” Moreover, in place of the Stuff logo there is an “NZ Times” logo, and all the links reportedly lead to Crypto Revolt’s website. The source that encountered the ad suggested …

New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has added three more crypto platforms to its blacklist that warns about scams, a release by the FMA reveals Wednesday, Dec. 12. OneLife Network Limited and its associated entity OneCoin Limited were added to the list because they “bear the characteristics of a scam” and promise unrealistic returns. Moreover, the FMA has learned that the mentioned companies are holding promo events in New Zealand and offering investments, thus breaching the country’s laws by acting as unregistered financial services. Another crypto company, Bitcoin Revolution Limited, was suspected of being involved in a scam as well. …

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) of New Zealand has added three new crypto-related websites to its list of online scams, an announcement by the FMA reveals Thursday, Nov. 1. On Nov. 1, the FMA listed three companies — Crypto Gain, Russ Horn, and Zend Trade — on its “scam” list, where citizens are warned about the potential risk of dealing with certain websites. In regards to Crypto Gain, the FMA states that the company is posing as a New Zealand company with the same name without permission to do so, noting: “The website www.cryptogainlimited.com is not associated with, nor a …

New Zealand’s state-backed innovation institute Callaghan Innovation awarded a $330,000 grant to a local crypto wallet and trading service, according to a press release published Tuesday, Oct. 30. Callaghan Innovation issued an “R&D Project Grant” to local crypto wallet and trading platform Vimba, a rebranded version of former MyCryptoSaver. Following the grant, the crypto startup is reportedly set to expand its offerings, as well as to list more cryptocurrencies and enable multi-signature crypto wallets. R&D Project Grants are a type of co-funding for a research and development project. A Callaghan Innovation spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the grants fund up to …

New Zealand police have warned the public about online scams after an investor lost $320,000 NZD ($213,000 USD) to crypto fraudsters, the Canterbury police confirmed Wednesday, September 26. The unnamed investor, who made multiple investments in an online cryptocurrency scheme which turned out to be fraudulent, was attracted by its “extremely good returns,” a police report from the town of Canterbury explains. According to the report, which does not mention the kind of operation involved, those returns in the “investments in cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin [...] soon began to decline.” When investments stopped due to the lack of returns, this …

New Zealand digital assets exchange Cryptopia raised concern this week among users after bringing its planned maintenance window forwards “due to unforeseen circumstances.” The announcement was made on the platform’s Twitter account yesterday, July 9. The emergency outage, instigated ahead of schedule, raised yet further questions when it took rather longer than the expected “90 minutes,” which Cryptopia said was because of “unexpected issues” that required further investigation. Although Cryptopia says the outage is now over, several users have tweeted their complaints about withdrawal issues, reporting that their tickets are unanswered or “stuck in processing” since the maintenance was allegedly …

The central banks of Australia and New Zealand denied they would issue their own cryptocurrencies June 26, in a speech calling Bitcoin “fascinating” but “inefficient.” Addressing the Australian Business Economists in Sydney, Tony Richards, head of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) payments policy, appeared hawkish on cryptocurrency as Australia’s government devotes considerable funds to blockchain research. “It's not a high priority for us, but it's something we're continuing to work on,” he said about the bank issuing its own token. “We are particularly looking at the aspect of whether or not a central bank digital currency for B2B use …

Megaupload entrepreneur creator Kim Dotcom has announced he will launch an ICO for his Bitcache project. The announcement caps a long-awaited list of updates on the “encrypted anonymous” content sharing platform, which Dotcom has built to incorporate Bitcoin payments. The ICO, Dotcom announced on Twitter Wednesday, will raise funds towards “building global infrastructure.” At the same time, a limited release of Bitcache will be available for testing by users “next week.” Next week you can register and try the first feature set of K.im and Bitcache. Then we're doing an #ICO to build our global infrastructure. — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) …

Trump advisor and Bitcoin investor Peter Thiel has “secret spy links” to the New Zealand government, a new expose suggests. An investigation by local newspaper the New Zealand Herald reveals that the country’s government had contracts with Thiel’s Palantir Technologies, “controversial in the United States over its long links with National Security Agency surveillance operations.” According to the Herald, the collaboration between Palantir and the New Zealand Defence Force, the Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications and Security Bureau runs back “to at least 2012.” Kennedy Graham, Green Party spokesman on intelligence and security matters, described the implications of …

Controversial entrepreneur Kim Dotcom has announced his mysterious MegaNet venture will become a reality early next year, vouching to raise US$100 million in funding. A Twitter update by Dotcom states that MegaNet, which combines the internet with the unalterable record-keeping capabilities of the blockchain, will be open to crowdfunding from January 20, 2016 – four years since the paramilitary raid on his home by the New Zealand police. MegaNet details will be revealed and equity will be available via crowd funding on 20 Jan 2016, the fourth anniversary of the raid. #Disrupt — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) June 10, 2015 The …