The Ethereum Foundation has announced a $5 million grant to United Kingdom-based company Parity Technologies, according to a post on the official Ethereum (ETH) blog published Jan. 7. According to the post, the grant is for scalability, usability and security work. Namely, this money “will fund Parity’s work on Casper, sharding, light clients, developer tools, QA, audits and infrastructure improvements.” Furthermore, the post explains that funding will be delivered in “several tranches, the first of which supports development that Parity has already completed.” The other parts of funding will be each handed over upon the completion of assembly standard eWasm …

CoinfloorEX, a unit of the United Kingdom cryptocurrency exchange Coinfloor, has been reorganized to offer trading of physical Bitcoin futures on the Asian market. The CEO of the company has revealed this in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Jan. 7. The rebranded CoinFLEX — short for Coin Futures and Lending Exchange — is reportedly owned by a consortium that includes Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin (BTC) entrepreneur and the supporter of the most recent controversial Bitcoin Cash (BCH) hard fork. The consortium behind CoinFLEX also includes another early BTC investor Mike Komaransky, United States investment banking firm Dragonfly Capital, …

The United Kingdom’s finance watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has revealed that it is investigating 18 companies over cryptocurrency use, local daily news outlet the Telegraph reported Dec. 29. Responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request from the publication, the FCA said it had closed the vast majority of its investigations into cryptocurrency-related businesses since May of this year. Out of a total of 67 such inquiries, it revealed, 49 had come to an end, either by issuing a warning to those involved or admitting there was not enough evidence to support officials’ suspicions. The statistics were …

A significant crypto market slump has brought concern and alarm, but also some unexpected side benefits. One such benefit comes from how financial regulators in the United Kingdom now appear sufficiently relaxed about crypto and its growth that they can take their time to carefully consider fair regulation. Without the pressures of a rapidly climbing crypto market, statements from officials have suggested that they will now avoid hastily implementing legislation — and as a result, the cryptocurrency industry in Britain will ultimately benefit from rules that protect customers and innovation alike. However, while U.K. regulators now have more time to …

At least 340 cryptocurrency or blockchain companies were dissolved or liquidated this year in the United Kingdom (UK), British news outlet Sky News reported on Dec. 22. UK crypto companies in 2018. Source: SkyNews The aforementioned article also reports that last year, the number of companies in this industry that had been liquidated amounted to 139, nearly two and a half times less than this year. Moreover, 60 percent of the companies dissolved this year ceased activity between June and November. According to the reported data, more than 200 of the now-dissolved companies “were incorporated with Companies House during 2017.” …

The vast majority of respondents to an ongoing United Kingdom central bank Twitter survey, posted Dec. 17, said they would prefer to receive a gift of money in digital currency. Screenshot of the Bank of England’s Twitter survey. Source: Twitter The Bank of England’s survey asks participants to choose their preferred way to receive money as a Christmas gift, showing the options cash, bank transfer, gift voucher and digital currency. At press time, 8,230 people have responded and 70 percent of them have chosen digital currency. Cash is in second place, with 21 percent of respondents indicating it as a …

Global blockchain platform Waves has raised $120 million in a private funding round for its new project called Vostok, according to an official blog post published Dec. 19. The Vostok project is a “universal blockchain solution” that combines two basic components — its own private blockchain platform, and the Vostok system integrator, a tool for developing and optimizing the platform. The Vostok blockchain is focused on the deployment of Waves technologies for commercial and government IT systems. The new product will reportedly help the Waves Platform to develop new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and …

Iranians are turning to Bitcoin (BTC) mining due to economic difficulties caused by sanctions by the United States, international affairs think tank Atlantic Council reported Dec. 17. Despite the recent crash in crypto markets and fluctuations in the national rial currency caused by recently reinforced U.S. sanctions, Iranian people are still reportedly managing to gain profits from mining Bitcoin. As reported by Atlantic Council, 26-year-old Iranian Ali Hosseini and his cousin Pedram Ghasemi bought a Bitcoin mining device, an Antminer S9, two months ago for $526, when the top cryptocurrency was trading around $6,500. Despite the U.S. dollar reportedly soaring …

The United Kingdom tax collection service published its first detailed tax legislation for private cryptocurrency holders Dec. 19 following a lengthy consultation period. Its new policy paper, “Cryptoassets for Individuals,” sets out likely tax obligations for private investors who buy, sell, get paid in and even lose cryptocurrency. Capping months of uncertainty among U.K. taxpayers over what they need and need not report to authorities about their holdings, the latest information is officially endorsed by tax collection agency HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Specifically, individuals will be liable to pay either Capital Gains Tax (CGT) or Income Tax (IT) depending …

Google data shows ‘What is Bitcoin?’ was the most popular search question in the United States and United Kingdom for 2018, showing Bitcoin (BTC) has topped public consciousness online this year. Capping various achievements in search rankings over the past twelve months, Bitcoin’s latest price volatility saw interest in understanding it peak again following a period of price stability. ‘What is Bitcoin’ currently tops this year’s ‘What is…?’ search list, while the annual listings also include one other cryptocurrency-related entry. While Bitcoin has topped the list of ‘What is…,’ the major currency lost its rank on ‘How to…’ queries to …

The CEO of Allianz Global Investors (GI), an investment management firm with €524 billion ($595 billion) in assets under management, has called for crypto assets to be “outlawed,” Reuters reported Dec. 11. Allianz GI CEO Andreas Utermann is said to have made his remarks during a panel in London on Tuesday, seated alongside the head of the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Andrew Bailey. In light of the recent crypto market crash, Utterman said he was “personally surprised that regulators haven’t stepped in harder,” urging them to “outlaw” the asset class. Bailey countered Utterman, saying “that’s quite strong actually!,” …

United Kingdom-based cryptocurrency payment platform Cubits has filed for administration following a sudden outage that locked customer funds, a company press release revealed Dec. 11. The act of filing for administration means that an insolvent company has appointed an external administrator in order to act on behalf of its creditors. Cubits, the trading name of legal entity Dooga Ltd., claimed it had lost funds worth €29 million ($32.8 million) to “fraudsters” in February 2018 that it was unable to reclaim. Now, Dooga has brought in administrators “to work with those who are owed money by the Company and to collect …