‍Interesting, what we all can get uniting conventional money and cryptocurrency.

GEKKOIN - transparent and realible ecosystem that provide a bunch of solutions to invest effectively.

STRUCTURED DEPOSITS – a turn-key investment strategy, you can make in a specific asset(cryptocurrency), while having full or partial risks protection.
- Deposits from 3 months
- Capital protection up to 100%
- Return 4% per annum guaranteed
- Additional income up to 200% per annum in case of cryptocurreny asset growth

TRANSACTION UTILITIES – developed for our clients to stay in world you live in.

When money counts, time is the best investment in it.

GEKKARD mobile bank keeps you online with all your transactions round the clock. Get physical Mastercard or virtual version and enjoy simplicity and reability saving time for the most important things.

Gekkoin Wallet - ideal solution for individuals, investors, crypto holders.
- Open and earn using structured deposit
- Topping up conventional money, cryptocurrency, EURG token with Gekkard (physical or virtual card)
- Transfer your money between Gekkoin e-wallets immediately with no internal fees.

BANKING&CRYPTO SERVICES
- Purchase of cryptocurrencies in your account in partnership with AtlantEX OU a licenced Payment institution.
- Replenishing of funds using cryptocurrency.
- Withdrawal of cryptocurrency using fiat money.

Gekkoin – modern way to invest.

Tokens THETA, TFUEL, IOTX, and DREP show growth up to 650% in anticipation of the launch of major networks

The Bitcoin exchange rate has declined by 10% over the past week. At the same time, several altcoins have shown steady growth. All of them are united by the quick launch or update of the main networks.

The most noteworthy project in terms of price was Theta Network. Over the past week, its main THETA token has grown by 95%, and Theta Fuel token (TFUEL) used to pay transaction processing fees - by 650%.

Theta Network developers intend to launch the main network 2.0 on May 27. The second version includes support for full-fledged staking and other technical improvements. In early 2018, Theta Network raised $ 20 million to develop a decentralized network for the supply of video content.

The next mainnet in general mode should launch IoTeX. The event is scheduled for June 1. Over the week, IOTX grew by 115%.

IoTeX also conducted ICOs in early 2018, raising $ 14 million then, and specialize in the Internet of things.

By the end of the second quarter, the DREP developers promise to launch the main network. Their token has grown by 60% during the day, while holders continue to expect the announcement of specific dates.

DREP conducted an ICO in mid-2019 and raised about $ 20 million. The project is developing a solution for measuring and monetizing online reputation.

Gemini and Bitwage have opened the reception of American pension contributions to invest in bitcoin

Bitwage, a cryptocurrency remote payroll service provider, announced the launch of a retirement plan with the option of investing in bitcoin. The proposal was framed in accordance with Model 401 (k), the most popular private pension scheme in the United States.

According to Jonathan Chester, CEO of Bitwage, the public launch of the solution was carried out after 10 months of testing with the participation of employees of the company itself.

Under US Tax Code article 401 (k), from which the pension plan was named, employees can transfer part of their salary to their personal accumulative pension accounts before taxes. In addition, the number of contributions may be increased at the expense of the employer's own funds. Typically, such plans are based on a basket of assets, in particular stocks and bonds.

The cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, the custodial services provider Kingdom Trust and the company Leading Retirement Solutions also participated in the development of the solution. Gemini will do the conversion of dollars to bitcoin, the Kingdom Trust will manage the storage of assets, and the Leading Retirement Solutions will do the administrative work. Fiat currency will be converted to digital currency automatically in accordance with the payment period.

Bitwage expects its offer to help companies get the most out of their payroll program, in which authorities provide businesses with a line of credit to support amid a coronavirus pandemic. The state will free companies from the need to repay loans if they use at least 75% of the funds received to pay salaries, including pension contributions.

“Companies now have the opportunity to provide payments for accounts 401 (k) in order to fulfill the 75% condition. We help employers get the most out of this program while providing their employees with new and innovative investment solutions, ”Bitwage said.

Cryptoexchanges store 3.08 million bitcoins. Coinbase leads by a wide margin

According to a study by Larry Chermak of The Block, cryptocurrency exchanges store about 3.08 million bitcoins - 16.5% of the total offer of 21 million.

Coinbase, an American cryptocurrency company, stores 984,300 BTC on its wallets. Coinbase is followed by Huobi (413,000 BTC), Binance (318,000 BTC), OKEx (268,000 BTC) and BitMEX (217,000 BTC).

According to a LongHash study, as of early January 2020, 970,000 BTC were stored on Coinbase, and 966,230 BTC at the beginning of December 2019.

The analysis took into account data from various sources, including bitUniverse, chain. info, Glassnode, BitFury and BitcoinWhosWho.

Top cryptocurrencies of the week: WPP TOKEN, DWS, ALL BEST ICO

Last week, bitcoin and main coins rolled on a roller coaster and returned to the old ranges. Meanwhile, low-cap altcoins continue to show triple-digit growth. This week, WPP TOKEN, WS, and ALL BEST ICO were the luckiest.

1. WPP TOKEN (WPP) + 695%

WPP TOKEN (WPP) takes 1341 place in the CoinMarketCap rating, while its current market capitalization is $ 215 thousand, and the average daily trading volume is $ 75 thousand.The token is registered on only one exchange, Digifinex, and is traded in conjunction with USDT. Over the past seven tokens, it has risen in price by almost 700% and at the moment tested the $ 0,000633 mark. The current WPP rate is $ 0,000622. WPP consolidated in the range near current highs amid declining trade volumes.

WPP TOKEN is backed by Swiss-based renewable energy company WPP Energy. The company has been operating since 2009 and is positioning itself as a repository of green energy and environmentally friendly technologies. WPP TOKEN is supposed to be used as payment for convertible preferred shares that are not yet issued and the date of issue is unknown.

2. WS (DWS) + 494%

At the time of this writing, WS (DWS) is on the 2230 line of the CoinMarketCap rating, and the coin can be bought at a price of $ 0.000089. The price of the token practically did not change over the past day and increased by almost 500% in a weekly ratio. The average daily trading volume of ECO was $ 94 thousand, while the market capitalization is unknown. You can buy or sell a token only on the BitForex exchange in pairs with USDT and ETH. Recall that recently BitForex was involved in a scandal. Users complained about fraud with the price of the Gram token.

DWS can be bought at a price of $ 0.000089, while the historical maximum was recorded on July 12, 2018 at around $ 1.93.

At the time of writing, the project website is unavailable, and no one has looked at Twitter since October 2018. This suggests that the unexpected growth of the coin is due to price manipulations such as "pumping and dumping."

3. ALL BEST ICO (ALLBI) + 329%

ALL BEST ICO (ALLBI) for seven days rose by 329% and at the moment tested the mark of $ 0.003082. The current ALLBI rate is $ 0,000741, and the average daily trading volume reached $ 50 thousand. The coin takes 1456 line in the CoinMarketCap rating with a capitalization of $ 135 thousand. More than 90% of the total token trading volume goes through Crex24 exchange in pairs with BTC and ETH.

ALLBI offers everyone to create a project within their system. The team promises to develop and prepare for them a cryptocurrency with a given set of characteristics, create a website, conduct an advertising campaign and take on all administrative functions. All these services are paid in ALLBI tokens.

The project leads a very active life in social networks, but no fundamental events that could provoke a rally were noticed.

Investors Believe in Ethereum

The number of ethereum hodlers reached a historic maximum, and the number of wallets in the network of the second largest cryptocurrency exceeded 100 million.

Investors continue to believe in the potential of Ethereum.

The number of hodlers (cryptocurrency holders for the long term) in the network of the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization reached a historic maximum - 22.39 million wallets hold 61.22 million coins for more than a year (this is more than 75% more than in June 2019).

At the same time, the number of unique addresses on the Ethereum network, according to the Etherscan browser, exceeded 100 million.

Currently, the coin is trading at $ 255 with a market capitalization of 27.2 billion.

Transactions with millions of commissions on the Ethereum network - the work of ransomware

Hackers gained partial access to the exchange’s hot wallet, but cannot withdraw funds to their addresses due to multi-signature, but can withdraw to other whitelisted addresses.

Transactions with millions of commissions on the Ethereum network - the work of ransomware
According to one of the new versions of PeckShield blockchain researchers, those strange transactions with millions of commissions on the Ethereum network are the work of ransomware hackers who have received partial access to the exchange’s hot wallet, but cannot withdraw funds to their addresses due to multi-signature, but can output to other whitelisted addresses.

Those. attackers control the wallet, but cannot profit from it - they have no choice but to make insane transactions with huge commissions and demand a ransom from the exchange, threatening to completely empty the wallet.

Recall that last week from an unknown address two transactions were made with a small number of ethers and commissions of $ 2.6 million each.

Binance will open a regulated crypto exchange in the UK until the end of summer

Binance cryptocurrency exchange this summer will launch a new trading platform in the UK, reports Reuters.

The new division is focused on serving the needs of institutional and retail investors interested in buying and selling cryptocurrencies for pounds and euros. To make payments to the platform, channels such as Faster Payments and SEPA will be connected.

The trading platform will be regulated by the UK Financial Supervision Authority (FCA). Currently, up to 65 digital assets are being considered for listing on the exchange.

“Interest in the digital asset markets in the UK is growing; “not only in depth from existing participants, but also in breadth,” said Binance UK Director Teana Baker-Taylor. “With the development of cryptocurrency services, we have opportunities to create new options with which we can increase the participation of a wider audience.”

Binance claims that the activity of institutional investors on its platform has increased recently. In the first quarter of 2020, the user base of such investors grew by 47.4% compared with the fourth quarter of 2019. Trading volumes of institutional investors rose by 113% in the spot market and by 217% in the futures.

At the beginning of last year, Binance launched a specialized exchange to service trading in fiat euro and pound, registering it on the island of Jersey, in the British crown.

European Commission Vice President Announces New EU Cryptocurrency Regulation Regime

The European Union is preparing to establish a new cryptocurrency asset regulation regime. This was announced by the Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis.

“This is a good opportunity so that Europe can strengthen its position in the international arena and become a global founder of standards, while European companies are leading the field of new technologies for digital finance,” he said.

The primary goal of this plan is cryptocurrencies, added Dombrovskis. European laws already define the principles for regulating some aspects of the industry, for example, security tokens, while others, including stablecoins, remain in the gray zone. According to the representative of the European Commission, it is precisely the lack of certainty in regulation that is often called the "main barrier to the development of a strong crypto market in the EU."

At the same time, individual cryptocurrency regulatory initiatives of individual countries violate the integrity of the market and complicate the activities of companies with presence in several EU countries. As expected, the new regulatory regime will not only fill legislative gaps, but also bring this legislation to a single standard throughout the block.

The publication of new regulatory proposals should take place before the end of the year. Dombrovskis did not go into details, only saying that they would support and stimulate innovation. At the same time, Libra, which is a prime example of a "global stablecoin", is waiting for a new tightening of the rules, he promised.

“In general, our approach will be proportional and based on the level of risk. This means that less stringent rules will apply to less risky projects. Global stablecoins carry additional challenges and can potentially have significance at the level of the entire system, so our rules for them will be stricter, ”he explained.

Multibillion investor doubled bitcoin mining

Horizon Kinetics (HK), the US multi-billion dollar investment executive, has doubled its Bitcoin (BTC) mining.

After the number of miners tripled with the help of Core Scientific (CS), an American hosting provider, now HK agreed to upgrade to the Antminer S19 and S19 Pro models released by Bitmain, CS said in a press release, not providing, however, no numbers.

However, last week CS announced its accession to Bitmain - this partnership brought the host country the opportunity to purchase 17,595 units of the latest mining equipment models, which are sold at retail at a price of $ 1,785 (S19) and $ 2,407 (S19 Pro). Given these prices, the deal cost about $ 42 million.

This equipment, according to the company, is bought for their own needs and on behalf of their hosting clients. Over the next four months, these units will be deployed in data centers (60,851 square meters) in the United States on 655,000 square feet of Core Scientific.

The S19 and S19 Pro models are designed to help the company remain competitive after the bitcoin halving that took place in May.

Taras Kulik, recently appointed senior vice president of blockchain-based business development at Core Scientific, claims that more and more leading institutional investors, such as Horizon Kinetics, are incorporating digital assets, especially cryptocurrency mining, into their investment assets.

“Given the increasing attention that the digital assets sector is experiencing, over the next few months I will lead Core Scientific's efforts to attract a growing number of institutional players, essentially providing a stable North American-based mechanism for sophisticated investors to gain direct access to this fast-paced asset class, ”he said.

In a separate interview, he also said that we will see how more and more financial institutions transfer their mining operations from abroad to North America.

As mentioned earlier on Cryptonews.com, the share of Chinese BTC miners in bitcoin hash rate or network computing power has declined this year, while the US has returned to second place.

Meanwhile, in his recent reports, HK said that "if bitcoin ever becomes generally accepted, huge returns should be expected in a very short period of time."

“The idea that someone can watch how bitcoin gradually rises, and then buy, may turn out to be a wrong move; it will be too late by then, ”they concluded.

In March 2019, approximately $ 5.3 billion of assets were managed by Horizon Kinetics Asset Management.

Now (10:33 UTC) BTC is trading at $ 9,112, down 1% per day and 1.5% per week. BTC also lost 4% of its value per month and 22% per year.

Correlation of Bitcoin with S&P 500 Index Reaches New All-Time High

The correlation of bitcoin with the S&P 500 stock index has been growing for several months and recently reached a new all-time high, according to data from the analytical portal Skew. On June 30, the figure climbed to a record 66.2% and remained at 65.8% on Thursday.

“While the correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 has always been a very good indicator of market movement, it never stays constant. Bitcoin behaves more like a high-margin position and follows market trends with more volatile ups and downs, ”Wayne Chen, CEO of Interlapse Technologies, told CoinDesk.

Over the past 12 months, the rate has fluctuated between -30% and 50%, which confirms Chen's observations. The annual correlation also peaked at 37%. Please note that the correlation between 30% and 50% is considered rather weak.

“Bitcoin remains a risky asset by all standards. While some have compared it fundamentally to gold, it has yet to prove its status as a hedge or a safe haven at a time when investors are looking to avert risk, said Stack co-founder Matthew Dibb. "We view BTC's strong correlation with stocks as bullish in the short term, as global markets reap unprecedented amounts of monetary stimulus."

At the same time, the number of hodlers' addresses that did not move cryptocurrency for at least 12 months reached a maximum of 20.3 million in June.The previous record was set in May at 19.52 million.

“After the halving, many holders think that the median bitcoin price should be much higher than the current one. Because of this, there is a tendency to hold the asset until the market starts picking up a run again, ”added Chen.

Philippines Launches Blockchain Application for Government Bond Distribution

On July 19, the Philippine Bureau of the Treasury, UnionBank, and the local digital asset exchange launched Bonds.PH, a mobile blockchain application for allocating government Treasury bonds.

UnionBank President and CEO Edwin Batista said it was "Asia's first Treasury bond issue using blockchain technology."

Almost 77% of adults in the Philippines are not served by banks. The Bonds.PH mobile app focuses on simple investment options for such a non-bank population.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said the way is now "open" for investing in the latest RTB-24 Treasury bonds, especially for "non-bank" citizens.

The app allows citizens to easily invest in retail Treasury bonds starting at PLP 5,000 ($ 100). Bonds.PH users will be able to make instant payments through services such as InstaPay, GCash and Paymaya, as well as use UnionBank's internet banking.

The Treasury decided to turn to blockchain technology in order to reduce the time and cost of manual checks and calculations. In addition, the Bureau decided that this is the most innovative, secure and economically viable bond allocation process.

In July last year, UnionBank also launched a payment stablecoin backed by Philippine pesos, which also expands the financial capabilities of various categories of citizens. Earlier, UnionBank CEO also said that the coronavirus pandemic is forcing banks to go digital, which could also mean the beginning of the end of traditional money.

Apple co-founder sues YouTube and Google

Steve Wozniak has sued YouTube and the parent company Google for fake cryptocurrency distributions on his behalf on video hosting.

Thus, Wozniak became one of 18 participants in the class-action lawsuit filed against media resources this Tuesday, July 21.

Apple's co-founder is seeking a jury trial and asking YouTube to remove all fraudulent pranks and promotions using the name and Wozniak.

The court documents cite Twitter as an example, which, as part of a recent hack, “acted smoothly and efficiently,” as a result of which many social network users did not have time to be deceived by fraudsters. In contrast, YouTube posts and keeps on its resources for months deliberately fraudulent videos, because of which users are constantly suffering, and the video hosting monopoly, meanwhile, makes money on it.

Wozniak is not the first to take action against YouTube due to crypto scams. Earlier this year, Ripple Labs, along with CEO Brad Garlinghouse, sued the platform for allegedly failing to effectively control fake XRP giveaways that inflicted monetary and reputational harm on the company.

According to a new complaint filed with the California State Supreme Court in San Mateo County, YouTube “has posted a continuous stream of fraudulent videos and advertisements that falsely use images and videos of plaintiff Steve Wozniak and other well-known entrepreneurs, resulting in multi-million dollar financial losses for users. ".

The lawsuit notes that the reputation of other well-known entrepreneurs, including Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Michael Dell, has been damaged.

Wozniak accuses YouTube and Google of violating his right to publicity, misappropriating his name and likeness, as well as aiding and abetting fraud and negligent refusal to warn its users about dangerous content. YouTube said yesterday that it was not responsible for the actions of crypto - scammers on their platform.

Huobi Launches Institutional Investor Asset Management Platform

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has announced the launch of Huobi Institution's digital asset management and custody platform for corporate clients.

According to the company, the service will allow qualified institutional investors and individuals with high-income levels to transfer assets under the management of specialists from among the leading teams for quantitative trading.

“By bringing the two sides of the market together on our platform, we want to create a link between the traditional financial markets and the digital asset economy,” said Ciara Sun, vice president of global markets at Huobi Group.

The company claims it will conduct a thorough background check on all traders, including their trading histories. Managers will also have to contribute part of their assets. Investors will be offered several plans of return, including fixed rate, capital protection and capital at risk. Huobi, for its part, will exercise risk control, including debt-to-asset ratios and drawdowns, in order to protect investors from liquidations.

During the launch phase, Huobi, OKEx and Binance Markets will be used for trading. Trading will be carried out in spot format, as well as using cross, isolated margins, futures and perpetual swaps. The leverage for futures and swaps trading will be capped at 20x. Supported assets include USDT, BTC, ETH, EOS, BCH, LTC, TRX, ETC, XRP, ADA, DASH, ATOM, BSV, XLM, and ZEC.

Bitfinex will pay up to $ 400 million for the return of bitcoins stolen from it in 2016

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex today announced a reward for “anyone who can help connect it with the hackers responsible for the unauthorized transfer of nearly 120,000 bitcoins in August 2016,” as well as the hackers themselves.

We are talking about assets stolen from the exchange during a hacker attack several years ago. On the morning of August 2, 2016, hackers entered the Bitfinex system and with the help of 2,072 transactions withdrew 119,755 bitcoins from its wallets.

Four years later, the company continues to search for these assets. In total, she managed to return about 27 bitcoins with the assistance of US law enforcement agencies. All this time, stolen assets have been moving between the attackers' wallets, including transactions worth several tens of millions of dollars over the past week.

Under the terms of the Bitfinex offer, the informant will receive 5% of the refunded amount for ensuring contact with hackers, while the hackers themselves will receive 25%. According to the calculations of the exchange, the value of the funds to be restored, excluding those returned earlier, is equal to $ 1.344 billion. Thus, the maximum amount of remuneration is 30% or $ 403,288,427.

To confirm that the assets belong to the hacker, the exchange will ask him to send a transfer in 1 satoshi to the address indicated by it. Bitfinex's offer could be interesting for hackers, as four years later they are still trying unsuccessfully to hide the traces of the assets, and all of their transactions are closely monitored, including by specialized blockchain transaction analysis companies.

“This is a dark page in the history of our exchange. We are pleased to offer the award as further evidence of our intention to regain lost property, ”adds Bitfinex.

Coinbase Names Technical Criteria For Selecting ERC20 Tokens For Listing On The Exchange

The American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has revealed a list of the main technical factors that a project must satisfy to qualify for the listing of its ERC20 token on the platform.

According to the publication, there are four main factors: the availability of verified source code, the use of industry-standard libraries, the limited role of privileged contributors, and a simple and modular design.

As explained by Coinbase Blockchain Security Engineer Nadir Akhtar, verified source code is a paramount requirement for listing. It encourages developers to upload code to trusted platforms like Etherscan or Github.

Also, Coinbase recommends using ready-made smart contract standards and not writing all the code from scratch, as this increases the risks of the token. In particular, developers can use the OpenZeppelin smart contract repository.

At the same time, the administrator's rights in the smart contract should be limited. If a contract allows its creator to stop transactions, change user account balances, or completely change the logic of a token, the likelihood of listing such an asset on Coinbase decreases.

Among other things, Coinbase pays attention to the presence of third-party audits, detailed documentation, code compliance with the latest version of the Solidity language, and testing tools for finding bugs. The exchange notes that one mistake by developers can result in multi-million dollar losses.

Police searched the office of the Korean crypto exchange Bithumb as part of a fraud case

On September 2, South Korean police officers came to search the office of the country's largest crypto exchange, Bithumb. This is reported by the local edition of Seoul co kr.

According to him, the visit to Bithumb's Seoul office is related to the fraud case and the withdrawal of assets abroad. Bithumb Holdings CEO Lee Jong Hoon is believed to be involved.

According to the city authorities, this is an investment fraud with the BXA token. It was released last year during negotiations to sell the Bithumb stake. Investors claim that Lee Jong Hoon sold them Blockchain Exchange Alliance (BXA) tokens on a presale worth about 30 billion won ($ 24 million).

According to The News Asia, after the breakdown of the negotiations, Bithumb, contrary to its own promise, did not list BXA, due to which the investment in the token plummeted. About 300 investors took part in the campaign. One of them said that he invested a million dollars in the token sale, but after the change of Bithumb's plans, these assets did not cost even $ 10,000.

Earlier it became known that the police came to the offices of another Korean exchange - Coinbit. Its management is suspected of falsifying 99% of the trades.

Last week it was reported that the court rejected a petition by the heads of the Komid exchange to reduce the terms of imprisonment. They have also been accused of fraud by falsifying data on their platform.

In June, Korean media reported that Bithumb was planning an initial public offering (IPO).

Tether and Bitfinex Asks Court to Dismiss Market Manipulation Claim

Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, and iFinex, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, are asking the court to dismiss a market manipulation claim that was filed against them last October. Coindesk reports.

A petition filed by attorneys for Tether and iFinex on Thursday, September 3, said the plaintiffs were unable to prove their claims.

Plaintiffs allege that Tether issued $ 3 billion in unsecured USDT tokens over a five-year period, which Bitfinex used to buy cryptocurrencies to support price increases during market downturns. According to the lawsuit, this allegedly led to a sharp increase in the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies to $ 795 billion at the end of 2017.

The plaintiffs are five crypto traders. They claim to have bought the cryptocurrency at inflated prices and suffered serious losses. The lawsuit is collective and "represents anyone in the United States who could suffer losses due to the inflated prices of cryptocurrencies."

The defendants' lawyers argue that Tether's accusations of issuing its USDT stablecoins without any collateral are unfounded, and the plaintiffs were unable to prove that cryptocurrency prices were inflated at the time due to manipulation by companies. The lawyers also ask the court to dismiss the charges of anti-competitive and monopolistic behavior, since the lawsuit does not explain exactly how the defendants tried to claim dominance in the market.

In August, cryptocurrency exchanges Bittrex and Poloniex asked the court to move to summary judgment in this case due to the fact that the plaintiffs were unable to prove their claims. These exchanges were included in the legal proceedings as defendants in June 2020.

Two more lawsuits have been filed against iFinex and Tether, alleging that USDT is not adequately backed up. The first lawsuit was filed by the New York Attorney General's Office in April 2019. The second class action lawsuit was filed in November 2019.

QuadrigaCX Lenders Hired Blockchain Analysis Firm To Investigate Exchange Activities

Canadian law firm Miller Thomson, representing the lenders of the now-closed crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, hired auditing firm Kroll to investigate the loss of $ 190 million in user assets in early 2019.

The financial problems of QuadrigaCX became known after the sudden death of the founder of the exchange, Gerald Cotten, in December 2018. Cotten was allegedly the only person who had access to the exchange's cold wallets. An investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) revealed that Cotten opened accounts under pseudonyms with fake balances and traded with Quadriga clients. When the prices of cryptoassets fell and users were withdrawing funds, Cotten covered the losses with deposits from other clients.

In a September 8 statement, Miller Thomson announced that Kroll will work in partnership with blockchain analytics firm Coinfirm. Kroll and Confirm will need to analyze the transaction data of the exchange. Due to the ongoing investigation by law enforcement agencies, the details of the companies' activities in this case will not be publicly disclosed.

Miller Thomson also said in a statement that the company has sent requests for information about the Panamanian company Crypto Capital, which provided payment services to QuadrigaCX before the crash.

“There is currently insufficient evidence to suggest that Crypto Capital owed Quadriga any funds at the date of bankruptcy,” says Miller Thomson. However, if there is any new information on this case, the auditing company Ernst & Young, which manages the bankruptcy proceedings of the exchange, "will consider the possibility of returning Quadriga's funds."

The statement says that the payment of compensation to users of the exchange may take a long time. "The most significant impact on the speed at which funds will be disbursed will have a CRA [IRS] audit of Quadriga's tax liabilities," said Miller Thomson.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the CRA declined to name the completion date of the audit.

Mastercard Launches Central Banks Digital Currency Testing Platform

Mastercard has launched a platform for testing central bank digital currencies (CBDC). According to a September 9 press release, the platform will allow banks and financial services to simulate the issuance and distribution of CBDCs and evaluate the use cases for such digital currencies.

“Central banks are expanding research into digital currencies in a variety of areas, from increasing financial inclusion to modernizing the payments ecosystem,” said Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of digital assets and blockchain products at Mastercard. "The new platform will support central banks and help them make decisions about the further development of the economies of countries."

According to the company, the test platform could be used to test how CBDCs can “interact with existing payment networks and infrastructures” and how consumers can use digital currencies to buy goods and services.

In July, Visa also announced its readiness to support digital currency initiatives. Visa says it is working directly with policymakers and NGOs to “help build dialogue” around the CBDC.