The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a temporary restraining order against Telegram Group Inc. over its 2018 TON blockchain token sale, claiming that the offering was an unregistered security. Telegram, best known for its messaging app, launched its token sale in January 2018 before closing the offering in May 2018, having raised $1.7 billion ...

The floodgates opened today on Facebook Inc.’s Libra Association as no fewer than five more companies exited the group overseeing the social network’s proposed cryptocurrency: Mastercard Inc., Visa Inc., eBay Inc., Stripe Inc. and Mercado Pago. Reports that some companies were looking to withdraw their support from Libra surfaced Oct. 1, with PayPal Holdings Inc. becoming the first to ...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected a rule change proposed by NYSE Acra that would have allowed the debut of bitcoin exchange-traded funds on both NYSE Acra itself as well as the Cboe BZX Exchange. Consideration of the rule change goes back to January. The SEC delayed making a decision multiple times, most recently in ...

A Singapore man has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for stealing cloud computing power for cryptocurrency mining. Ho Jun Hia, also known as Matthew Ho, is accused of using stolen identity and credit card information to open accounts at multiple U.S. cloud service providers which he then used to mine bitcoin and ...

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Heath Tarbert today said that Ether, the main cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain, is a commodity that falls under the commission’s jurisdiction and hence can also be traded on U.S. markets. Tarbert made the comments at the Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit in New York City, where he spoke on ...

Austin, Texas, has a new unicorn in the form of RigUp Inc., a startup that offers a marketplace for contractors in the energy sector. Today it said it has raised $300 million in new funding on a $1.9 billion valuation. The new funding will be used to continue the company’s expansion into renewable energy, midstream oil ...

Uber Technologies Inc. today launched a new service in selected U.S. markets that will allow users to book vehicles that will also happily carry pets. Called Uber Pet, the service allows users to book a car that’s guaranteed to allow pets with a small additional surcharge of between $3 to $5 per trip. Currently, Uber ...

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is heading to Washington D.C. to testify before the House Financial Services Committee Oct. 23. Meanwhile, Vodafone Group Plc, a founding member of the Libra Association that’s overseeing Facebook’s cryptocurrency, is calling for it to be independent of the social network. Zuckerberg will be the sole witness at the hearing, ...

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service today issued its first guidance on cryptocurrencies since 2014, clarifying when taxes should be paid on cryptocurrency transactions. Topping the list was tax liabilities created by cryptocurrency forks, where a cryptocurrency splits or a new group forks off from the original cryptocurrency giving existing holders free cryptocurrency in the process. ...

Routers from Taiwanese firm D-Link Corp. have a serious vulnerability that can allow hackers to steal data, but in unexpected twist, the company is doing nothing to address it. The vulnerability was detailed by security researchers at Fortinet Inc. Oct. 3, after D-Link was informed of the issue in September. The vulnerability, known as CVE-2019-16920, starts with a ...