SUMMARY
The SupremeCourt will now hear the cryptocurrency case on February 26
Digibank by DBS placed a credit freeze in some accounts due to fiat-to-crypto transactions
We can now retrace the stolen Bitcoins, according to researchers
In critically acclaimed, Golden Globe winner for best drama series, Mr Robot, Season 3, protagonist Elliot Alderson once said:
Encrypting Evil Corp’s data was meant to empower us. Instead, it left us powerless, scaring us into even more submission.
With Bitcoin dipped below its threshold where it is no longer efficient to mine in most countries of the world, and millions of Bitcoin getting lost or stolen, Alderson’s statement reflects the real scenario of the real virtual currency too.
Despite presenting itself as the most secure and safest alternate form of currency, time and again Bitcoin has failed to deliver the same. In 2018 alone, according to Credit Karma, Americans alone lost $1.7 Bn worth of Bitcoins.
According to reports, while $1.1 Bn worth of cryptocurrency was stolen in the first half of 2018, out of 17,489,338 Bitcoins mined so far, almost 6 Mn Bitcoin is either lost or stolen.
Can we retrace the stolen Bitcoin?
Researchers Mansoor Ahmed, Ilia Shumailov and Ross Anderson in their research paper “Tendrils of Crime: Visualizing the Diffusion of Stolen Bitcoins” recently published at Cornell University, have described ways to visualise relevant data on a blockchain. Based on the visualisation, they have come up with a graphical model to retrace the stolen coins and then implement this using a variety of visualization techniques.
What’s in crypto this week? Let’s take a look!
SupremeCourt To Hear The Case On February 26
In the ongoing cryptocurrency hearing in Supreme Court, the Court has now scheduled the next hearing on February 26.
Lawyer Rohan Dwaipayan Bhowmick, one of the earliest petitioners in the case told Inc42, that the after listening to their request, the crypto case has now been listed at S.No. 1, on the top of the list on February 26, 2019.
Earlier, in a counter affidavit to a two-judge Supreme Court bench hearing a batch of cases on the legitimacy of cryptocurrency in India, the finance ministry had defended the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) circular which banned banks from extending any services to crypto entities.
After Kotak, ICICI, Digibank Freezes Accounts Due To Crypto Transactions
While Kotak Mahindra and ICICI banks have already frozen some accounts due to the account holders’ engagement in crypto transactions, it’s now digibank by DBS which in a notification informed some of its users that it was constrained to place a credit freeze in their account as the fiat-to-crypto transactions are not allowed in India.
? After India’s Kotak Mahindra Bank, Digibank also starts freezing customer bank accounts for dealing in crypto! pic.twitter.com/KtBj0yH3IV
— IndiaBits (@indiabits21) January 15, 2019
Last year, Kotak Bank had sent a notification to its users stating that,
Kotak Mahindra Bank does not encourage its customers using their accounts maintained with us or who have availed credit cards facility to carry out transactions involving any kind of crypto / virtualcurrencies and hence we request you to refrain from transactions involving dealings in Bitcoin or any kind of crypto / virtual currency from your above mentioned account / credit card.
In line with the instructions issued by RBI, we also wish to advise you that, if transactions relating to any kind of VCs are witnessed on your Kotak Credit Card, the Bank shall be constrained to block your Credit Card without any further intimation.
WazirX Hit 200 Bitcoin Transactions In A Day
Mumbai-based crypto exchange WazirX recently hit 200 BTC in a single-day trading volume. The company claimed that It was the highest 24-hour volume to be achieved by any Indian exchange in recent times.
Commenting on the record-breaking numbers, Nischal Shetty, Co-Founder & CEO of WazirX said, “We have been pleasantly surprised to discover that a single-day transaction on WazirX has crossed 200 BTC. I sincerely hope that the government officials will pay heed to what the youth of the nation wants and will introduce positive regulations, favouring the growth of crypto in India.”
Tron (TRX) Now Listed On OKCoin
TRON (TRX) has been one of the most active cryptocurrency projects on the market lately by announcing a slew of partnerships throughout 2018 — such as its recent deals with NeoWorld, a multiplayer online virtual reality world that runs on the blockchain, and China-based Internet giant Baidu
US-based OKCoin has now listed Tron on its platform; the customers can acquire Tron by depositing US dollars or Argentine pesos and can also trade TRX against USD, BTC, and ETH.
At a current price of $0.026 and a total market cap of $1.707 billion in USD, TRX’s recent surge enabled it to crack the Top 10 among all crypto tokens by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap. The coin also claims 99,249 holders, as of this writing.
In other news, Grayscale Investments, the company behind the Bitcoin Investment Trust, announced on January 17 that it will offer a fund to let professional investors gain exposure to Stellar and its digital currency known as Lumens, reported Fortune.
