Cryptocurrency firms Tether and Bitfinex reached an agreement with the New York attorney general's office to pay an $18.5 million fine to settle a closely-watched legal dispute.

The state's top law enforcement official had been investigating the firms over allegations that they moved hundreds of millions of dollars to cover up the apparent loss of $850 million of commingled client and corporate funds. Tether and Bitfinex — a popular digital currency exchange — are owned by the same company, Ifinex.

Tether and Bitfinex will be required to cease trading activity with New Yorkers and submit quarterly transparency reports, the attorney general's office said. It's a major development in the crypto industry and concludes a long-running legal battle that started in April 2019.

Tether is the company behind a well-known "stablecoin" of the same name. That token is meant to be backed one-to-one by U.S. dollars, the idea being that it's much more stable than most digital coins which have huge price swings.

Many crypto investors use tether to buy bitcoin and other virtual tokens. But there have been concerns about whether Tether had enough cash reserves to back all the tether tokens in circulation. Critics have also raised fears that tether tokens were used to manipulate bitcoin prices, a claim Tether has repeatedly denied.

New York Attorney General Letitia James' office says it found that Tether sometimes held no reserves to back its cryptocurrency's dollar peg. It said that, from mid-2017, the company had no access to banking and misled clients about liquidity issues.

In a 2019 filing, the attorney general's office said that Bitfinex handed $850 million to a Panama entity called Crypto Capital without disclosing it to investors. Executives at Bitfinex and Tether then allegedly engaged in a series of transactions that opened up Tether's cash reserves to Bitfinex.

"Bitfinex and Tether recklessly and unlawfully covered-up massive financial losses to keep their scheme going and protect their bottom lines," James said in a statement Tuesday.

"Tether's claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie," she added.

"These companies obscured the true risk investors faced and were operated by unlicensed and unregulated individuals and entities dealing in the darkest corners of the financial system."

Tether and Bitfinex refused to admit to any wrongdoing Tuesday but said "we share the Attorney General's goal of increasing transparency."

"Contrary to online speculation, after two and half years there was no finding that Tether ever issued tethers without backing, or to manipulate crypto prices," the companies said in a statement on Tether's website.

A spokesperson for the companies wasn't immediately available when contacted by CNBC for further comment.

Earlier this month, Bitfinex said it had repaid the remaining balance of a $550 million loan to Tether.

Crypto investors have been closely watching the New York fraud probe, which has gained more interest recently in light of bitcoin's meteoric surge.

There are now about 34.8 billion tether tokens in circulation, according to data from CoinMarketCap, up from 2 billion three years ago. The cryptocurrency has a market capitalization of $34.6 billion.

Bitcoin was down 10% Tuesday, trading at a price of $48,713. The world's most valuable digital coin was already tumbling ahead of the New York attorney general's announcement.

Treasury puts the focus on cryptocurrencies. The publication of the 2021 Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan, which is currently pending in Congress, includes the obligation to report on operations carried out with cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in the Model 720, to declare assets abroad. Following this publication, the Tax Agency figures the amount of the fine at a minimum of 5,000 euros for each piece of information that is not declared or presented in an “incomplete, inaccurate or false” way.

In addition, the regulations provide for a surcharge of 100 euros for each data that is submitted late or after the deadline, establishing in this case a minimum of 1,500 euros, according to the annual plan.

It is believed that 16 percent of the population has at least one cryptocurrency or bitcoin, of which 7.5 million Spanish people are estimated to own or invest in any of the existing options in the ecosystem.

The Annual Plan of the Spanish Tax Agency includes a questioned declaration of assets abroad, among which Bitcoin has been forced to be included as part of that wealth for taxpayers.

This penalty is in addition to the excessive fines applied for the Model 720, one of the issues raised in the Brussels court, on this controversial form.

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The market capitalization of the USDT stablecoin exceeded $19.4 billion. Tether’s capitalization has been increasing throughout 2020 amid the rising price of BTC and the DeFi boom.

According to Coinmarketcap, the market capitalization of the largest USDT stablecoin has reached $19.43 billion. Stablecoin is pegged to the US dollar in a ratio of 1:1. The market capitalization of the crypto asset has grown rapidly in recent months.

Since August 31, 2020, Tether’s market capitalization has increased by about 90% — from $10 billion to more than $19 billion. Only in November, the capitalization of stablecoin increased by 15%. USDT continues to lead among other similar crypto assets and is one of the five largest cryptocurrencies.

At the same time, the market capitalization of Tether is almost $17 billion higher than that of the second-place USDC token, issued with the support of Circle and Coinbase.

Recall that last month, the USDT operator Tether released almost half a billion coins due to the growth of the bitcoin exchange rate and increased activity of traders.

As the price of bitcoin has risen in recent months, more and more people have come to the cryptocurrency industry, and many have used Tether when starting out in the market. Another reason for the growth of USDT capitalization is the boom in decentralized finance (DeFi), which occurred this summer.

It may not be as well-known as Bitcoin, but Ethereum has had a sterling start to 2021. The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market value reached a record high of $1,824.59 earlier this week, beating its previous peak of $1,761.35.

Ether, the name of the native cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain, has more than doubled in value in 2021, outperforming Bitcoin, which has also reached record highs in the early months of the year. The surge in the value of cryptocurrencies is likely the result of low liquidity across crypto exchanges.

It is thought that many investors may have taken direct custody of their coins or moved them to decentralized finance protocols instead of keeping them on exchanges. If more Ether coins are being stored in hot or cold crypto wallets rather than being listed on exchanges, sell-side liquidity could have dried up, leading to price increases.

Another potential reason behind ether’s value increase this year is the announcement that the Chicago Mercantile Exchange would allow the trading of Ethereum futures contracts – granting further legitimacy to the cryptocurrency.

In addition, although cryptocurrencies have had a few setbacks – including a recent spate of crypto-mining malware – they are now pretty well-established within the financial market. This gives cryptocurrency miners confidence in their assets, which in turn drives up valuations, whether individuals are building their own mining motherboards, using cloud-based mining providers, or simply conducting online trades.

Whatever the underlying reason for the price rises, things are certainly going well for both Ether and Bitcoin owners. While the former has more than doubled in value this year, Bitcoin has experienced a 58% rise.

Robinhood, an online brokerage, announced today that the firm is planning to allow customers to deposit and withdraw through major cryptocurrencies including Dogecoin (DOGE). In January, the broker disabled some of the features on its app amid significant volatility sparked by Reddit frenzy.

According to the official announcement, Robinhood has no investment in cryptocurrency assets, and the firm is not planning to use the digital assets of clients for its own benefit. Also, Robinhood mentioned that due to security reasons, the company will not confirm which crypto addresses belong to Robinhood.

Skrill to Release Direct to Crypto Withdrawals FeatureGo to article >>

The Committee on Financial Services of the United States House of Representatives called Vladimir Tenev, the CEO of Robinhood along with Steve Huffman, CEO and Co-founder of Reddit to testify on 18 Feb, following the extreme market volatility in stocks and cryptocurrencies triggered by retail traders on Reddit.

In January 2021, two major Reddit groups, r/WallStreetBets, and r/SatoshiStreetBets triggered a massive rally in stocks and cryptocurrencies. AMC and GME stocks skyrocketed after a massive demand from retail investors. The Reddit frenzy reached the crypto market with a massive rally in Dogecoin and XRP. The price of Dogecoin sparked nearly 900% within 24 hours. Major financial brokers including Robinhood limited some features on their platforms related to the trading of selected stocks and cryptocurrencies, including GME, AMC and Dogecoin.

In the recent announcement, Robinhood cleared the rumors about the company’s cryptocurrency wallets. “Cryptocurrencies purchased and owned by our customers are held in our wallets for the benefit of our customers. Additionally, we only receive coins when our customer’s trades have already settled,” the firm mentioned in a tweet.

Twitter CFO Ned Segal appeared on CNBC to talk about the recent frenzy around Bitcoin post-Tesla’s $1.5 billion purchase. Segal during the interview revealed that their company is currently considering a lot of things around Bitcoin that include paying employees salary in Bitcoin, giving merchant salary in Bitcoin, and also adding Bitcoin to their company’s The post Twitter CFO Reveal Their Company is Considering Bitcoin Payments and Adding it to Their Balance Sheet appeared first on Coingape.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) vice chairman Charlie Munger spoke at the Daily Journal annual meeting on Wednesday. Munger is the right-hand man of Wall Street legend Warren Buffett, but he is also the chairman of the Daily Journal.

Munger fielded questions from investors on topics such as the psychological challenges of investing during a market frenzy, the explosion of new celebrity SPACs and the possibility of bitcoin being a long-term threat to big U.S. banks.

Ride It Out: Munger said crazy market booms such as the one happening on Wall Street in 2021 are nothing new, and investors just have to stick to their long-term plans.

“I’ve been around for a long time, and my policy has always been to just ride them out,” Munger said.

“A lot of [investors] crowd into buying stocks on frenzy, frequently on credit, because they see that they’re going up. And of course, that’s a very dangerous way to invest.”

See also: How to Buy Bitcoin (BTC)

Munger was also asked about the recent WallStreetBets-fueled short squeeze in GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) and other so-called meme stocks.

“That’s the kind of thing that can happen when you get a whole lot of people who are using liquid stock markets to gamble the way they would in betting on racehorses. And that’s what we have going in the stock market,” Munger said.

“I think you should try and make your money in this world by selling other people things that are good for them. If you’re selling them gambling services where you rake profits off the top like many of these new brokers that specialize in luring the gamblers in, I think it’s a dirty way to make money and I think we’re crazy to allow it.”

Related Link: Market Experts React To GameStop Hearing: 'Congress Needed To Dig Deeper'

Dot-Com Bubble Parallels: Munger said he sees parallels between today’s market and the market during the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s.

“I think it must end badly, but I don’t know when,” Munger said.

He noted that he hasn’t participated at all in the wave of recent SPAC offerings being promoted by celebrities and online influencers.

“I think the world would be better off without them. I think this kind of crazy speculation in enterprises not even found or picked out yet is the sign of an irritating bubble. It’s just that the investment banking profession will sell shit as long as shit can be sold,” he said.

Bitcoin No Threat To Banks: Both the Daily Journal and Berkshire Hathaway have large investment positions in Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) and other large banks, and Munger said he doesn't see Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) and other cryptocurrencies as a long-term threat to U.S. banks.

“The central banks of the world like controlling their own banking system and their own money supplies, so I don’t think Bitcoin is going to end up the medium of exchange for the world,” He said.

Munger, who has previously called Bitcoin a “turd” and said trading cryptocurrencies is “just dementia,” said Bitcoin price is far too volatile to be a mainstream medium of exchange.

“It’s really kind of an artificial substitute for gold, and since I never buy any gold, I never buy any Bitcoin. I recommend that other people follow my practice.”

With amazing gains on most cryptocurrency investments, better mainstream coverage, more applications of blockchain technology and the rise of crypto-based fundraising (popularly known as initial coin offerings), one can arguably say that 2017 has been the year of cryptocurrencies and the enabling technology behind them, blockchain.

Africa has not been (entirely) left behind in the cryptocurrency boom as record trading levels have been seen in different countries across the continent with South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya leading the pack.

While the cryptocurrency boom is exciting, the true innovation lies in the technology powering cryptocurrencies which is the distributed ledger technology (blockchain). The top features of a blockchain include:

These and many other features have made blockchain technology become appealing mainstream. This is with many use cases being developed e.g. decentralized storage, real estate, identity management and many more. However, when it comes to the application, Africa has been lagging behind.

Dividing the global ‘invasion’ of blockchain into three phases i.e. the cash frenzy, tech recognition, and utilization  (as has been seen by the countries/regions where real use cases of the technology has started gaining momentum) will place the majority of ‘crypto Africa’ at the first phase yet.

Where most of the continent is currently. In this phase, what attracts most people is the promise of mind-blowing returns on cryptocurrency investments. This year for example, almost all cryptocurrencies took a parabolic bull run with ROIs in the range of 5x-100x being common.

Also, institutional investors have made strategic investments in African startups. Especially exchanges and remittance based startups such as BitPesa and BitMari. Also, foreign exchanges such as Belfrics have started making moves into the continent.

It, therefore, comes as no shock that the continent’s largest blockchain startups offer crypto-based remittance and/or exchange services.

While this phase is a smaller picture in the larger frame of things, it serves as the first step in introducing people to the innovative technology that blockchain offers.

This is the next phase that follows the cash frenzy. African cryptocurrency enthusiasts who became interested in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology will carefully study and appreciate the innovative tech upon which their investments are built upon.

The many potential use cases start being realized and people move on from being purely crypto enthusiasts and investors to blockchain tech. This is as they begin to realize that the cash returns are just a tiny fragment of what the technology has to offer.

Several blogs, forums, and websites (including CryptoInAfrica) will also aid/have aided in this process to enlighten people.

Reaching this phase is the ultimate target for fans and enthusiasts of blockchain tech. In this phase, applications built on blockchain tech (including cryptos) will get mainstream adoption. More applications will be built across the continent that will utilize blockchain technology.

Currently, there a few other applications built on the technology across the continent. Custos Media (South Africa) is one of such startups that uses blockchain to track pirated media. Bitland (Ghana) is another startup that uses blockchain to provide land registry services.

So far, Africa has shown to be doing quite well in the first phase and progressing (slowly) to the second and third, like the rest of the world. However, Africa almost lags behind the rest of the world in most tech innovations. And it’ll be interesting to watch blockchain technology be an exception.

Companies now hold over 842,000 BTC, which at the current Bitcoin price of $18,200, is worth $15.3 billion. 28629 Total views 97 Total shares Listen to article 0:00 Market Analysis As of Nov. 20, companies hold around 842,229 BTC or 4.54% of today’s Bitcoin () supply, according to the Clark Moody dashboard and data from Bitcointreasuries. This is equivalent to a staggering $15.3 billion at the current price of $18,200. Public companies and institutional investors are. The spark that began with MicroStrategy’s ambitious $425 million BTC purchase has led to a broad institutional frenzy around the dominant cryptocurrency. The demand for Bitcoin from companies and institutions likely comes from its growing reputation as a digital store of value. Bitcoin is unique in that it can hedge portfolios against inflation, like gold, but has the potential to see exponential growth. Hedge assets are typically stagnant and demonstrate low volatility over a prolonged period. They are meant to operate as insurance for a diversified portfolio so that when the market dips, the portfolio is protected. Bitcoin achieves both: it is able to operate as a hedge asset and also expose investors to large growth potential in the long term. As such, Michael Saylor, the CEO of MicroStrategy, said Bitcoin should not be considered as a payment network nor a currency. BTC is highly compelling as a store of value, which also does not put it in the crossfire of regulators. Referring to the of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton saying BTC is not a security, Saylor said: As long as the perception of Bitcoin from institutions and corporations as an established store of value remains, the demand for BTC would likely remain high. Corporations are now holding roughly 4.5% of today’s Bitcoin supply, which is around 18.5 million BTC. This percentage is relatively high considering that BTC has a total fixed supply of 21 million. When lost or dormant coins are considered, the total supply is estimated to be around 17 million in total. Companies acquiring Bitcoin as a treasury asset, like MicroStrategy, is particularly optimistic because it shows they are not expecting short-term returns. Hence, when corporations hold BTC with a low time-preference, it would also result in lower selling pressure over time by decreasing the available supply. For instance, on Aug. 11, when MicroStrategy of $250 million worth of Bitcoin, Saylor said: The prospect of inflation and consistent liquidity injections from central banks further fuel the medium- to long-term outlook for Bitcoin, which some analysts for BTC to shine over time.  Meanwhile, to offset the negative economic impact the pandemic has had on the financial market, regulators are For stores of value, like gold and Bitcoin, such a trend is beneficial heading into 2021.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is struggling to collect the monetary fines it issues, effectively allowing companies in breach of the law off the hook, according to new Freedom of Information (FOI) data.

API company The SMS Works has been tracking the progress of the UK’s privacy and information rights regulator since 2018. Last year it revealed that, since 2015, around £7 million, or 42% of the monetary total, remained unpaid.

The latest findings reveal that the ICO has only managed to collect one more of the 47 outstanding fines issued up to July 2019 — related to Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal. This means £6.6 million, or over 39% of total fines, are still outstanding.

What’s more, the regulator hasn’t been much good at collecting more recent fines, despite telling The SMS Works last year that it would be stepping up its efforts with the help of debt collection agencies.

Of the 21 fines handed out between Jan 2019 and August 2020, only nine have been paid, the FOI data revealed. That means 68% of the monetary value of fines issued during this time remains outstanding.

Of these, the ICO does best at collecting data breach fines, managing to bring in money for 54% during the period. However, just 13% of nuisance call fines were collected.

The ICO should also have benefitted from a long-awaited change in the law which made company directors responsible for paying fines. Previously, many would simply declare bankruptcy to avoid the fine, and start a new company.

However, this process, known as “phoenixing,” is still rife: one company, previously known as Black Lion Marketing, was fined £171,000 in March 2020 but its owner pheonixed the business and is thought to have invented new trading names to escape scrutiny.

The ICO has already been criticized by some for reducing an initial intent to fine BA for a serious data breach from £183 million to just £20 million. In fact, according to the FOI data, the number of fines it has levied for breaches since the GDPR came into force fell from 89 in 2017-18 to just 29 in 2019-20.

Henry Cazalet, director of The SMS Works, told Infosecurity  that resources weren’t the issue for the ICO.

“The ICO does, after all, employ over 500 staff in four offices across the UK, so its not short of manpower,” he continued.

“I believe the main issue it faces is that despite changes in the law, it's still too easy for companies and individuals that break the rules to find ways to avoid paying. In many cases the fines issued have been way in excess of the organization's ability to pay.”

The answer may therefore lie with levying smaller fines for breaches and spam offenses, which the ICO has a better chance of successfully paying, he argued.

The irony is that the privacy experts that drafted the GDPR, including many at the ICO, recommended the large upper fine limit of £20 million or 4% of global turnover as a deterrent to would-be offenders. If the fines can’t be collected, the idea of such a deterrent would seem pointless.

Photo Credit: Claudio Schwarz Regulators say Ticketmaster UK failed to secure its website chatbot on the payments page. Attackers then subverted the chatbot, allowing them to steal payment info from unsuspecting concert goers. After being alerted to the , Ticketmaster UK did not address the problem for nine more weeks. In the wake of that incident, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in Britain announced the fine of 1.25 million pounds ($1.7MM). The ICO is responsible for enforcing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the UK. Ticketmaster UK says it plans to appeal the ruling. The ICO says its investigation was concluded in the UK before it left the EU. It served as the supervisory authority for the EU, and the fine “represents a consensus decision by all data protection authorities across Europe.” The breach the ICO investigated started back in February 2018. The hackers were able to access personal details, including names, payment card details, expiration dates, and full CVV numbers of 9.4 million European Ticketmaster customers. The data breach impacted 1.5 million UK customers. Beyond that, at least 60,000 Barclays Bank cards were tied to fraud from the Ticketmaster UK data breach. Monzo Bank replaced around 6,000 bank cards after it detected signs of fraudulent use. Some compromised accounts were also outside the UK in other commonwealth countries – namely in Australia and New Zealand. Security experts say a group known as Magecart was able to inject code on Ticketmaster’s website to collect payment information. “When customers handed over their personal details, they expected Ticketmaster to look after them. But they did not,” James Dipple-Johnstone, the ICO’s Deputy Commissioner, says. “Ticketmaster should have done more to reduce the risk. Its failure to do so meant that millions of people in the UK and Europe were exposed to potential fraud.” Ticketmaster UK has to the fine, but it did provide written statements to the ICO. In that statement, Ticketmaster blames the data breach on a third-party contractor and says it plans to appeal against the fine. Inbenta Technologies, the third-party Ticketmaster UK blames, says Ticketmaster should have never implemented its software on a secure payment page. “Had we known that the customized script was being used this way, we would have advised against it, as it incurs greater risk for vulnerability,” Inbenta Technologies CEO Jordi Torras said of the case.

Russian lawmakers are actively preparing new legislation for taxing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).

According to an official announcement by the Russian State Duma, the Duma’s Committee on State Building and Legislation has approved a bill on cryptocurrency taxation on Feb. 15. The new bill represents a set of amendments to the Russian federal tax code.

As part of the draft bill, the Russian government officially recognizes cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as property, aiming to tax profits from crypto trading by Russian residents. The bill targets all domestic residents including citizens and foreigners, as well as Russian and international organizations established in the country.

According to the bill, the listed entities will have to report their crypto transactions if a total amount of incoming or outgoing transactions exceeds 600,000 rubles ($8,100) on an annual basis.

The bill establishes penalties for violations like late reporting as well as providing inaccurate information, suggesting fines of up to 10% from incoming or outgoing transactions. The suggested fine for non-payment or incomplete tax payment is 40% of the unpaid taxes, the draft bill reads.

Following the committee’s approval, the Russian Duma is expected to consider the new crypto legislation on Feb. 17, according to official state records.

Cryptocurrency analyst Michaël van de Poppe is telling traders to be cautious, warning Bitcoin’s price is still vulnerable to downward pressure.

In a new strategy session, the analyst says that the severity of the correction and the timing suggests that the flagship cryptocurrency could plummet in price further.

“Are we done yet? I do not assume that we’re done yet because we can just have very corrective moves. Historically, March is not the best period for crypto in general or markets. So I do not believe that we are done. Especially after such a harsh drop down as on lower time frames the construction is bearish right now, while on higher time frames you are still doing fine.”

Van de Poppe says BTC is currently facing a clear zone of resistance between the $50,000 to $52,000 level, causing some buyers to rush in struck by the fear of missing out.

“There are some points of resistance which it’s facing. The first one right now, which is this entire block, and currently some people will probably already think that it’s over with the correction and are FOMO-ing in back into the markets.”

Despite Bitcoin’s vulnerability in the short term, the analyst adds that there’s ‘no need to panic’ even if Bitcoin’s price falls below $35,000.

“The market structure is still fine. Even if Bitcoin drops to $35k, the market structure is still fine as we are still making higher lows [and] higher highs. So it’s very natural to have a corrective move.

Usually those corrections are quite harsh and markets move or crawl upwards and then the corrections are just a very fast-paced drop down as that’s just because of liquidations etc. But there’s no need to panic and you should actually be using those dips to accumulate a bigger position…”

Van de Poppe expects altcoins will trade in a range for most of the next month before beginning to rally as April approaches.

“…what’s next for March I think we can have some sideways, boring period. Maybe some altcoins going left and right as some have been doing well… Kusama (KSM), Serum (SRM), Solana (SOL), they have been doing well. But the real altcoin summer should be happening at the end stage of March and then crawling up towards the summer where everything is going to run.”

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Kirk Wester

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has applied a hardline approach to cryptocurrency regulation for quite a while. This approach has led to a record-breaking year for the agency as it took billions in fines. The SEC’s Enforcement Division recently published its annual report for the 2020 fiscal year, confirming that it had collected a record-breaking $4.68 billion in fines from companies this year. Of the total fines, $1.26 billion came from companies with unregistered Initial Coin Offerings (IOCs). The remainder was paid by firms in other markets.  The agency engaged in 715 cases. Out of those cases, 405 were independent actions concerning crimes such as insider trading, securities offerings, market manipulation, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Of all these independent actions, crypto-related cases took the lead with 130 cases, marking 30.2 percent of the grand total. The SEC also confirmed that it returned $600 million of the fines to the victims of these fraudulent organizations and schemes.   The SEC’s biggest crypto haul came from Telegram after shutting down the company’s aspiration of a digital asset and blockchain network. Telegram had raised $1.8 billion in two ICOs for its Telegram Open Network (TON) blockchain and GRAM tokens in 2018. As the firm prepared for an October 2019 launch, the SEC swooped in and slammed it with a securities violation lawsuit.  Thus began a months-long legal tussle between both parties. The conflict ended in June. Telegram agreed to shut both projects down and pay the SEC $18.5 million in fines and return $1.2 billion to investors, per an SEC press release.  While the SEC took the Telegram victory as a sign of improvement, it was met with widespread criticism. The agency’s pro-crypto Commissioner, Hester Pierce, said at a speech that neither side came out of the case with a win, and that the result was even worse for the crypto industry and its hopes for improved innovation. In part, she said: Despite the criticism, the SEC has remained resolute in its regulatory approach towards crypto ICOs and its issuers.  Along with Telegram, the agency’s report showed that it also got fines from Shopin, Bitclave, NAC Foundation, Bitcoiin2Gen, and Boon Tech. The six cases netted the agency about $40 million, although the SEC and NAC Foundation are still settling their conflict at the San Francisco Superior Court. 4.5/5 75% of retail investors lose money.eToro Reviews https://insidebitcoins.com/visit/etoro-newsCreate your account Hide eToro Reviews 4.5/5 80.5% of retail investors lose money.Plus500 Reviews https://insidebitcoins.com/visit/plus500-newsCreate your account Hide Plus500 Reviews Remember, all trading carries risk. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Article Info Author: Jimmy Aki Last Updated: 12 November 2020 Jimmy has been following the development of blockchain for several years, and he is optimistic about its potential to democratize the financial system.

On 30 October 2020, the UK’s data privacy regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a final penalty notice (Penalty Notice) to fine the hotel chain Marriott International, Inc. (Marriott) for a GDPR data breach caused by a sophisticated hacking of its systems. In a strikingly similar fashion to the recent British Airways (BA) GDPR final penalty notice, Marriot received a near-record breaking initial fine of £99.2 million. Following more than two years of representations, the fine has been cut by over 80% to £18.3 million as a result of co-operation, mitigating factors, and a revision of the ICO’s turnover-centric approach to calculating fine amounts. The Penalty Notice is also a reinforcement of the ICO’s message that all data controllers, regardless of the primary service they provide, must have adequate and up-to-date security measures in place to prevent data loss through sophisticated cyberattacks.

The ICO was notified by Marriott in November 2018 of an incident that exposed approximately 339 million guest records worldwide over a period of four years due to a sophisticated hacking of recently acquired subsidiary Starwood Hotels group. Starwood Hotels experienced a cyberattack in 2014, through which an unknown hacker had installed code on the Starwood computer systems, giving remote access to view and edit data on the network. Marriot acquired Starwood in September 2016 but failed to discover the customer information exposure until November 2018. During this period, an estimated 30 million residents of the European Economic Area (EEA) were affected, along with seven million UK residents. The personal data affected included unencrypted passport details, phone numbers, booking information and credit card data.

The ICO held that there were several distinct weaknesses in the security systems that Marriott ought to have identified and remedied in the four months between the GDPR coming into force and the ICO being notified of the data breach. There were multiple failings from a security perspective, including failing to sufficiently monitor privileged accounts and databases, and encryption failings. The breach serves as a reminder of the importance of effective due diligence in the run up to an acquisition involving any large-scale processing of data and ensuring that any issues raised are quickly acted upon.

In the Penalty Notice £28 million was identified as an appropriate starting point to dissuade future GDPR breaches and to proportionately penalise Marriott. A reduction of 20% to £22.4 million was made considering Marriot’s full co-operation with the investigation, widespread reporting of the attack raising awareness of ongoing GDPR obligations, and to account for financial loss already incurred through reputational damage. A further reduction to £18.4 million due is credited to the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the hotel business.

Like the BA notice, the dramatic decrease between the initial and final fine is a result of the ICO’s shift from reliance on an unpublished, turnover-centric policy in calculating fines. Both BA and Marriott argued it was unlawful to rely on an unpublished policy and that there is no logical relationship between a breach involving a malicious attack and turnover, as the entity hacked does not profit from the breach. The ICO responded in both cases by relying less heavily on turnover as an indicator but refusing to rule out its continuing importance alongside other factors.

The ICO has also reinforced its approach to require high standards from all data controllers regardless of their area of business. BA and Marriott process large volumes of personal information, including sensitive data, and so must have a duty to ensure adequate systems are in place to protect data from sophisticated hackers. The ICO highlights the importance of constant monitoring and stress testing of security systems to ensure this goal is achieved, particularly when acquiring new systems or businesses.