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It looks like the South Korean government has abandoned its plans to impose a blanket ban on cryptocurrency trading in the country, but will nevertheless impose certain restrictions.
The authorities will enforce a ban on anonymous transactions and trading through virtual anonymous bank accounts, starting from January 30. Instead, six South Korean banks will be issuing new trading accounts, in compliance with KYC requirements. This means that the name on the traders’ account at the exchange and in the bank must match.
According to Financial Services Commission (FSC) vice-chairman Kim Yong-beom, on the day the banks roll out those new accounts, anonymous trading will be banned.

Bitconnect, a company offering cryptocurrency trading and lending, said it is shutting down its operations.
According to the announcement the lending operations are terminated immediately, while the exchange will continue to operate for another five days.
“We are closing the lending operation immediately with the release of all outstanding loans”, BitConnect said. “With release of your entire active loan in the lending wallet we are transferring all your lending wallet balance to your Bitconnect wallet balance at 363.62 USD.
The reason for this decision is, among other things, two cease and desist orders from the Texas State Securities Board, and one from the North Carolina Secretary of State Securities Division

(Not Bitcoin specific but Crypto related)

"Biggest Theft In Crypto History": Over $400 Million Stolen From Hacked Japanese Cryptocurrency Exchange

Earlier today we reported that cryptocurrencies tumbled overnight after one of the most popular, if unregistered, Japanese exchanges, Coincheck, halted withdrawals amid broad confusion as to what prompted the halt. Furthermore, Coincheck said it had stopped deposits into NEM coins, a hint that something fishy was taking place with the 10th-largest cryptocurrency by market value, which tumbled nearly 20% overnight, dragging the rest of the sector lower.


Speculation was rife: "Coincheck is a very well-known exchange in Japan," said Hiroyuki Komiya, Chief Executive Officer of Tokyo-based Blockchain Technology Consulting. "We’ve seen several outages at various crypto exchanges recently, so the extent and seriousness of Coincheck’s halt isn’t yet clear. We’re all very eagerly awaiting to hear more detail on what’s happening."

Shortly after the halt, theories started to emerge as to what may have happened, with some speculating that the exchange may have been hacked after noticing that a massive ($110 million) transfer from Coincheck's Ripple wallet:

And then, the worst case scenario was confirmed by Coincheck itself told financial authorities that it had lost 500 million NEM cryptocurrency coins in today's cyberheist, which at the current exchange rate amounts to roughly $400 million, according to Nikkei.

NEM Foundation president Lon Wong also confirmed Coincheck was hacked, calling the stolen funds "the biggest theft in the history of the world", as quoted by CryptoNews. According to Wong, the hack had nothing to do with NEM and the blame lies exclusively with Coincheck:

“As far as NEM is concerned, tech is intact. We are not forking. Also, we would advise all exchanges to make use of our multi-signature smart contract which is among the best in the landscape. Coincheck didn't use them and that's why they could have been hacked. They were very relaxed with their security measures," Wong said.

"This is the biggest theft in the history of the world," he added.

The hack, at recent NEMUSD exchange rates, would make it even bigger than Mt. Gox - which lost a total of $350 million in 2 hacks, one in 2011 and 2014 - by $50 million.

While little additional information was available as of this moment, Coincheck added that the hacked NEM was sent illicitly outside exchange, at which point the trail was lost however "no other issues found with other currencies on exchange." Of course, the historic, nearly half a billion dollar hack is a big enough "issue."

The Japanese exchange also said that it was "working hard to secure client assets", and that it doesn't know how many total coins were lost, adding that it was not clear if NEM losses were internal or external.

And while memories of the historic Mt.Gox hack suddenly rush front and center, Coincheck said that it plans to start trading of unaffected currencies. In retrospect that may not be a good idea.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01- ... y-exchange

The Coincheck execs are refusing to admit security flaws.
The executives, including the CEO, held a press-conference and told reporters that the exchange is planning to refund its clients and resume trading, without revealing further details. In fact, it seems, at this point there are no specific plans and nobody at Coincheck knows how exactly the funds were stolen.
The executives, however, refused to admit that there is a flaw in the security of Coincheck, despite the exchange not having a multisignature security measures, unlike many other major cryptocurrency exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase and Bitfinex, who have teamed up with BitGo to make sure that any transaction is verified by a third party, before being processed.

How China's Stifling Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies: QuickTake Q&A

China, home to the world’s biggest community of Bitcoin miners, is cracking down on cryptocurrency activity. From a halt to virtual currency trading on domestic exchanges to banning initial coin offerings, regulators have taken a proactive role in shaping the stratospheric rise of Bitcoin and its peers. The country’s moves come as President Xi Jinping targets financial risk in the economy following a decade of booms and busts in everything from stocks to real estate. The result: China’s once-dominant role in the world of cryptocurrencies is shrinking.



1. What exactly is China doing?
First it banned initial coin offerings, or ICOs -- the equivalent of initial public offerings for new virtual currencies. Then it called on local exchanges to stop trading in cryptocurrencies and outlined proposals to discourage bitcoin mining -- the energy-intensive computing process that makes transactions with the digital currency possible. It’s also moved to stop Chinese companies listed abroad skirting its domestic ban on ICOs. (New York-listed Renren Inc. was said to cancel a planned overseas ICO). Officials now intend to block domestic access to online platforms and mobile apps that offer exchange-like services for cryptocurrencies. Domestic stock exchanges, too, are targeteing companies that promote themselves as blockchain-related to boost their shares. It’s part of a concerted effort by agencies including the central bank, the cyberspace administration and China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

2. Is Bitcoin trading allowed in China?
Bitcoin and its peers can still be traded, but only in over-the-counter markets, a slower process that some analysts say increases credit risk.

3. Why is China cracking down?
There’s been no explicit explanation, but cleansing risk from financial markets has been a government mantra for more than two years. Among the main concerns is the booming shadow banking sector, a potential source of unregulated loans to speculators in whatever the latest craze happens to be. Digital currencies also provide a way to move money out of China, potentially adding to outflows that officials have aggressively set about stemming. Mark McFarland, chief economist at Union Bancaire Privee SA HK, said the clampdown moves “suggest a longer term process of tightening scrutiny of activities that aren’t in the normal sort of monetary realm.”

4. Is China anti-cryptocurrency?
Hardly. The People’s Bank of China has run trials of its own prototype cryptocurrency, taking it a step closer to being the first major central bank to issue digital money. China’s vision, however, seems to be based more on taking full control of such transactions in contrast to the libertarian aspirations of Bitcoin.

5. What’s the impact of China’s actions?
The moves are reshaping the Bitcoin mining industry and driving up costs. Miners initially flocked to China because of its inexpensive power, local chipmaking factories and cheap labor -- now they may have to look elsewhere. Bitmain, which runs China’s two largest Bitcoin-mining collectives, is setting up regional headquarters in Singapore and now has mining operations in the U.S. and Canada. BTC.Top, the No. 3 mining pool, is also opening a facility in Canada. Bitcoin exchanges and wallet services in the country are also leaving, setting up over-the-counter shops in Hong Kong or looking at operating out of Singapore or South Korea.

6. What about cryptocurrency prices?
At first prices seemed to shrug off news of increased Chinese regulation. But analysts say the rising tide of regulation has weighed on digital currencies, helping to explain heavy losses at the start of 2018.

7. Where else are regulators clamping down?
Notably South Korea, home of the most frenzied cryptocurrency trading. The country is inspecting some banks in a crackdown on related money laundering and is considering closing cryptocurrency exchanges. Officials are also reviewing a possible capital gains tax on crypto-trading in South Korea, where demand is so great that prices are often quoted significantly higher than elsewhere. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission late last year started clamping down on some digital token sales.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ium=social

The Chinese government wants to have full control of everything that happens in the country, cryptocurrencies are no exception.

Governments would take all actions which they consider necessary, so they could keep their fingers curled securely round the levers of power.

Well, it is only matter of time for some governments to try take some sort control over the cryptocurrency industry.

Crypto exchanges operating in the EU will have to be registered with the relevant authorities and will be required to introduce customer due diligence procedures, including ID verification.
This became clear after the European Parliament’s members voted to support an agreement with the European Council.
The agreement represents the latest update of the EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive and the introduced measures aim to prevent the use of cryptocurrencies in money laundering and terrorism financing.