The four researchers who come from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have apparently found specific flaws with various Proof-of-Stake (PoS) cryptocurrencies.
The Medium blog post refers to "fake stake" attacks, where someone with a relatively small stake could actually crash a network node associated with the cryptocurrency.
Click 'Read More' for details.

EOS Nairobi, a block producer on the EOS mainnet serving the community from Africa, formally joins the EOSForce mainnet, which will promote the globalization of EOSForce mainnet governance, and contribute to the development of EOSForce's international community.

Alex Krüger, a cryptocurrency analyst and economist, stated in an interview with CCN that the lack of movement in crypto markets in the aftermath of the ETF proposal withdrawal either means that not enough investors care about the Bitcoin ETF proposal or key players in the market are yet to process the news.
"Market not reacting means nobody cares anymore or key players did not process the news," Krüger said.

According to a report published by TechCrunch on January 23, 2019, blockchain-based startup Steemit has promoted Elizabeth Powell as their new MD and chief executive.
Powell introduced herself to the Steemit community through a blog post published on January 23, 2019. The post reads in part: "We recently published our updated Mission, Vision and Values, as well as its roadmap focusing on increasing ad revenues, protecting Steem assets' value and cost reductions. My job is to execute the roadmap."

[Policy]
1. A proposal to list a Bitcoin ETF on the Cboe BZX Exchange was withdrawn on Jan 23.
2. CEO of VanEck Jan van Eck said the impact of the U.S. government's shutdown on the SEC hampered the process of ETF's approval;
3. Two New Hampshire lawmakers filed a bill this month that, if approved, would let state-level agencies accept cryptocurrencies as payment, including the state's tax office;
4. The Senate of Italy approved amendment that would give blockchain and smart contract legal value;
5. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has warned an initial coin offering (ICO) issuer not to proceed with its securities token offering in Singapore；
6. Singapore's Ministry of Law has announced that the country does not consider cryptocurrencies as legal tender.
[Exchange & Wallet]
1. Binance opens an Over-the-Counter (OTC) trading desk;
2. Samsung might launch its own blockchain wallet alongside the Galaxy S10;
3. Crypto startups Zilliqa and MaiCoin partner to create a security token exchange, Hg Exchange.
[Cryptocurrency]
1. MIT researchers have developed a new cryptocurrency called Vault.
[Others]
1. Nasdaq leads $20 million funding round for blockchain startup Symbiont;
2. Bitmain may try to save itself through BitDeer;
3. Galaxy Digital is raising at least $250 million for a credit fund to offer US dollar loans to crypto firms.

Finance Magnates learned on Thursday, Jan 24 that Jon Matonis has stepped down from his role as a Director at cryptocurrency exchange operator Globitex. Matonis, who was one of the early pioneers in the cryptocurreny world, will not be leaving the company. He is going to be focusing his efforts on one of Globitex's subsidiaries - UAB NexPay.

Recently, Tencent Yujian Threat Intelligence Center discovered a new ransomware CerBer2019 which had affected some enterprise users.
In addition to encrypting common files, CerBer2019 encrypts files that have been encrypted by other ransomware viruses, such as WannaCry and Crysis. The blackmail document requires the victim to pay 1 BTC within 24 hours. The file's encryption key will be destroyed after 36 hours.

On the daily chart, BTC has created a descending triangle, which comprises a horizontal line connecting a strong support level and a falling trendline representing lower highs.
A UTC close above the upper edge of the triangle, currently at $3,630, would confirm the breakout and could yield a rally to the psychological resistance of $4,000.
BTC's defense of $3,500 amid the bearish news flow likely indicates seller exhaustion. As a result, the prospects of cryptocurrency witnessing a triangle breakout on the daily chart are high. A bull breakout, if confirmed, would expose resistance lined up at $4,000.
A triangle breakdown - i.e. a close below $3,470 - would validate the bearish setup on the weekly chart and increase the odds of a drop to the December low of $3,122.

As of 11:10 (UTC) on Jan 24, the global average price of Bitcoin (BTC) swings below the $3,600 level, marking $3,574.81, down by 0.86% in the past 24 hours.
The broad market is experiencing a downtrend, with 79 coins out of Top 100 by market cap dropping.
The global market cap marks $119.29 billion, and the 24-hour trading volume is $15.82 billion.
Major Coins
1. BTC quotes show $3,551.53 USDT on Binance, $3,613.20 on Bitfinex and $3,551.99 on Coinbase Pro;
2. CoinNess.com Market Index presents quotes for major cryptocurrencies besides BTC as following: XRP marks $0.315 (- 0.82%); ETH marks $116.39 (- 1.91%); BCH marks $129.54 (- 0.85%); EOS marks $2.44 (- 0.55%); LTC marks $31.77 (- 0.79%); ETC marks $4.28 (- 1.86%).
Top 3 Gainers and Losers in Cryptocurrencies
1. Top 3 gainers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: HOT (+ 42.55%), AOA (+ 9.78%), PIVX (+ 9.45%);
2. Top 3 losers among Top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap: XIN (- 10.52%), LRC (- 10.41%), STEEM (- 9.66%).
Top 3 Gainers and Losers in Categories
1. Top 3 gainers among 49 categories: Time and Sale (+ 54.69%), Advertising Concept (+ 8.31%), Crowdfunding (+ 5.20%);
2. Top 3 losers among 49 categories: Authentication (- 12.32%), Notarization (- 7.30%), Energy Service (- 5.32%).
Cap Flows of Coins/Exchanges
1. Top 3 capital inflows within the last 24 hours: DASH (+ $198.62 mln), BTG (+ $138.60 mln), BTC (+ $97.67 mln);
2. Top 3 capital outflows within the last 24 hours: EOS (- $13.63 mln), ZB (- $10.73 mln), MKR (- $3.33 mln);
3. Net inflows/outflows of exchanges: Binance (+ $4.89 mln), Bitfinex (- $627.73 k), Coinbase Pro (+ $652.34 k).

Squire Mining Ltd. has announced that Mrs. Angela Holowaychuk, Chief Operating Officer, will assume the responsibilities of Chief Executive Officer until a permanent appointment is announced.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has warned an initial coin offering (ICO) issuer not to proceed with its securities token offering in Singapore until it can fully comply with regulatory requirements under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA).
MAS reminds all digital token issuers that the offer of securities tokens must comply with all applicable securities laws including the requirement to register a prospectus with MAS. Issuers who intend to rely on the prospectus exemptions under the SFA should note that these exemptions are subject to conditions, including advertising restrictions.
Click 'Read More' for details.

The JohnWick Lab recently found that the apt/apt-get of Debian/Ubuntu, distribution of Linux is vulnerable to the man-in-the middle (MITM) attack. The vulnerability allows "MITM" to execute arbitrary code with root privileges on the machine where any packages are being installed.
The Lab reminds that users should upgrade the apt/apt-get to the latest version in order to avoid being attacked during the update process. Digital currency exchanges using the Linux system need to be aware of this vulnerability.

The Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX recently announced on Twitter that they had completed P2P trades with a net value of Rs 100 crores on its trading platform. The announcement was made by Founder and CEO of WazirX Nischal Shetty via Twitter.

The JohnWick Lab has discoverd a new trend in EOS attacks. Recently, with the increasing use of EOS smart contracts for malicious attacks, various project parties have begun to include the attackers' contract accounts into their blacklist monitoring systems. If it is an attacker's contract to "bet", the attacker will not be allowed to make profits. However, attackers find a new line of attack: the account rights of undeployed contracts are authorized by updateauth to eosio.code (a virtual code authority) of attackers' contracts, so that attackers can manipulate those accounts that have not deployed contracts to "bet" or perform other operations.
The JohnWick Lab reminds each project party not only to control attackers' accounts, but also to include puppet accounts in the scope of control.

The Singapore unit of London-headquartered multinational banking and financial services firm Standard Chartered has completed its first blockchain-powered trade finance deal. The news was reported by Singapore's English-language financial daily The Business Times on Jan. 24.
The bank reported that the blockchain solution, developed by blockchain startup Distributed Ledger Technologies, had enabled an agri-business supply chain deal to be completed within just one day, instead of the typical five to seven days.

Huobi Global will upgrade the existing HUSD Solution and operate HUSD Solution V2.0 on a trial basis since January 24 (UTC+8).
HUSD V2.0 updates:
1. Cancel the fixed exchange rate (1:1) between all stablecoins and HUSD, and the exchange rate will be adjusted dynamically based on the price of stablecoins.
2. HUSD price is bound to the USD price in the fiat-crypto markets of mainstream exchanges.
3. The price of stablecoins shall be determined by the price of all stablecoins in the mainstream exchanges.
4. The exchange between each stablecoins and HUSD shall be adjusted from automatic exchange to manual exchange, and users may choose the exchange time and amount independently.
Click 'Read More' for details.

Galaxy Digital, the crypto bank founded by former Goldman Sachs partner Michael Novogratz, is raising at least $250 million for a credit fund to offer US dollar loans to crypto firms, according to people familiar with the matter.
Galaxy will be offering loans to crypto companies and asking for cryptocurrency assets, properties, and even machines that mine cryptocurrencies as collateral. The firm will close a first round of fundraising in March, two of the people said.
Novogratz's firm already lends to crypto businesses using its own balance sheet. It's also backed crypto lending startups through its investment firm Galaxy Digital Ventures, leading a $52.5 million fundraise for New York-based startup BlockFi last year.

XRP Ledger saw a massive transaction spike on January 23, 2019, as it reached a massive 104 transaction per second [TPS]. The usual number of transactions for XRP ledger lies anywhere between 10-20 TPS.
Click 'Read More' for details.

The Hurun Research Institute today, Jan 24 released the Hurun Greater China Unicorn Index 2018, including three cryptocurrency mining giants - Bitmain, Canaan and Ebang. Bitmain ranks the 11th on the list.
The three companies all see an increase in corporate valuation due to the drop in the prices of cryptocurrencies.

Security shop Securonix reports that its research team has seen a sharp rise in attacks targeting vulnerabilities in Hadoop components such as Hadoop YARN, Redis, and ActiveMQ in recent months.
The team found that the cyber-assaults ranged from single forays to more complex attacks exploiting multiple vulnerabilities ranging from unauthenticated command vulnerabilities and remote command execution holes to remote file execution flaws.

OKEx announces it will upgrade its perpetual swap trading system from 10:30 (UTC), Jan 24. The upgrade will take approximately 20 minutes.
During the time, OKEx will suspend all the perpetual swap functionalities including order matching, order placement, margin adding, and funds transfer between accounts.

MIT researchers have developed a new cryptocurrency called Vault that drastically reduces the data users need to join the network and verify transactions.
In experiments, Vault reduced the bandwidth for joining its network by 99 percent compared to Bitcoin and 90 percent compared to Ethereum, which is considered one of today's most efficient cryptocurrencies. Importantly, Vault still ensures that all nodes validate all transactions, providing tight security equal to its existing counterparts.

Given the recent downtime of LocalBitcoins in Venezuela, the Turpial mesh node device is being created, which requires only a battery to enable anyone to send messages or Bitcoin transactions in the absence of internet or mobile signal.
Even a mesh network must eventually find some kind of access to transmit the information to the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin Venezuela also has that covered, with the larger Harpia device. This acts as a mesh node, can run a full Bitcoin and Lightning Network node, and connect to Blockstream Satellite. With one of these in the mesh, this means that transactions can be initiated and transmitted to the network without any reliance on local state infrastructure.

The CEO of Goldman-backed crypto platform Circle says the technology that secures Bitcoin and cryptocurrency at large is fundamental to our future. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Jeremy Allaire says crypto skeptics simply need to get more familiar with the emerging technology.
Allaire is also bullish on crypto at large, and he thinks Bitcoin will be far from the only cryptocurrency still standing in the future. He says, "We have a phrase: the 'tokenization of everything'. We think cryptographic tokens are going to represent every form of financial asset in the world. There will be millions of them in years."

Hyperledger, a collaborative project focused on advancing cross-industry blockchain technologies, has announced the creation of Grid, a framework aimed at enhancing the development and delivery of distributed ledger technology (DLT) powered solutions for the supply chain ecosystem, according to a press release on January 22, 2019.
With Grid, Hyperledger has now offered shared, open, and reusable tools to make life easier for developers creating relevant blockchain solutions.

Singapore's Ministry of Law has announced that the country does not consider cryptocurrencies as legal tender and ordered businesses to do necessary due diligence before accepting crypto as payments, according to a report by the Business Times.
This came after SK Jewellery, a chain of jewelry stores in the city-state, has partnered with Singapore-based point-of-sale systems startup Bizkey Network to accept Bitcoin and other digital assets as payment. The suspicious transactions involved with the precious stone businesses to launder money has forced the authorities to reiterate its stance on digital assets.

An article disclosed a series of resource exhaustion vulnerabilities investigated by a team of students consisting of Sanket Kanjalkar, LI Yunqi, CHEN Yuguang, Joseph Kuo, and adviser Andrew Miller in the Decentralized Systems Lab.
The article shows that these vulnerabilities have affected 26+ Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrencies in total and would allow a network attacker with a very small amount of stake to crash any of the network nodes running the corresponding software.
Click 'Read More' for the article.

As reported by CoinNess.com, Bithumb launched voluntary retirement system.
Currently, South Korean crypto exchange Korbit is urging its employees to voluntarily retire. Korbit stated that the cryptocurrency industry needs to save costs as cryptocurrencies continue to plummet.

According to the China-based blockchain security firm SlowMist, the thief of IOTA stole case has been captured, who is the owner of iotaseed.io. The case has last for one year.
The data shows that 85 people were victims of the IOTA incident, and the loss was $11.4 million. On January 22, 2018, the hacker attacked the IOTA wallet website and stole $4 million.

Blockstack, the blockchain startup, announced that it has brought on Saurabh Pathak, a former BlackRock executive, as its Financial Controller.