TL;DR: Welcome to In Case You Missed It (ICYMI), a daily crypto news update. The US OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) sanctions crypto-hacking North Korean groups. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) token transaction number rising. Square grants $100K to BTCPay Server. Trump’s Petro banning law could open the doors to ban other cryptocurrencies in the future. Nick Szabo slams Facebook Coin Libra, and futures markets turn to short bitcoin.



US OFAC Launches Sanctions Against Korean Groups

The US OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) launched a set of sanctions against North Korean state-backed crypto-hacking groups. “Lazarus Group,” “Bluenoroff,” and “Andarie,” are the three groups mentioned by the organization that supposedly orchestrated many cryptocurrency hacks to help fund Korean WMD and missile programs. The US OFAC stated these groups could have stolen more than $500 million, an amount considerably lower than the one disclosed in a United Nations report last month.

Bitcoin Cash Token Transaction Number Rising

The number of $BCH token txs is increasing nicely. We're not yet half-way in to this month and already over 50% last month's total. pic.twitter.com/6c5KFVhndA — Gabriel Cardona (@cgcardona) September 13, 2019

Gabriel Cardona, Bitcoin Cash developer and SLP token advocate, announced the number of transactions corresponding to tokens issued on top of the Bitcoin Cash network is increasing steadily. This could respond to the recent rise of two important projects: SPICE, now listed on several exchanges, and Honest Token, the US dollar-pegged stablecoin. The token ecosystem is very young on the Bitcoin Cash platform, so there is still room for growth.

Square Grants $100K to BTCPay Foundation

Square, the financial services and payment company, donated $100K to the BTCPay foundation, the financing institution behind BTCPay server, a standalone independent software that lets anyone accept cryptocurrencies as payment without the need of a third-party payment processor. Square announced their grants can be used for anything, “as long as it’s free and open-source software that improves the security, scalability, privacy, user experience, or fungibility of bitcoin.”

Trump Petro-Banning Law Could Facilitate Banning Other Cryptos Too

An executive order President Donald Trump signed last year to ban the Petro, Venezuela’s state-backed cryptocurrency, could open the door to ban other cryptocurrencies in the future, according to an article published by Forbes. A new piece of legislation built on Trump’s order, called VERDAD act or Senate bill 1025, could be approved by Monday and would set a dangerous precedent for other crypto projects. According to Jason Brett, CEO of the Value Technology Foundation, “the implications for this are huge because it could be bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency inserted into this language.”

Nick Szabo Slams Facebook Coin Libra

Libra is a cryptocurrency in the same way that a doll is a baby. — Nick Szabo 🔑 (@NickSzabo4) September 13, 2019

Nick Szabo, a cryptographer and one of the people suspected of being Satoshi Nakamoto, slammed Facebook Coin Libra in a tweet recently. Answering a question regarding the project, he stated, “Libra is a cryptocurrency in the same way that a doll is a baby.” Libra has faced stiff opposition from US and European regulators, with France and Germany announcing recently they will block the development of it by law due to privacy and currency sovereignty concerns.

Futures Market Turns to Short Bitcoin

The futures market has experienced a turn to the short side of the equation now that most of the funds are betting bitcoin prices will drop. According to numbers from the CFTC as of 10 September, leverage funds are short 2,333 against 1,692 long. Despite this, bitcoin prices have risen somewhat, but it might better describe the sentiment of future contract holders for a specific period.

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