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DAILY HEADLINES Good afternoon and welcome to our rolling coverage of all things cryptocurrency, including price, innovation, regulation and financial crime. The USA Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected a total of nine applications to list and trade various bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from three different applicants, shaking investor confidence today.



BTC dropped another $100 today to trade at $6,332.23 at the time of writing on August 23.







Ethereum rose by 1.21 percent to trade at $288.60.



Ripple also increased by 0.39 percent to trade for $0.288578.



Litecoin saw small gains of 0.25 percent to trade for $55.74 a coin.



Continued uncertainty over the SEC’s decision to ratify any potential bitcoin ETF’s has caused the market to stall, with prices slowly dropping as each day passes.



Can bitcoin recover from the uncertainty? Find the latest news and live updates below - all times in BST.

Bitcoin price LIVE: SEC rejects nine bitcoin ETF applications - latest cryptocurrency price crash

9.30pm UPDATE: Germany gives boost to BTC by backing out of US financial system Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, has called for an independent payment system free of the US, which experts have said is extremely positive for Bitcoin, according to CCN. Throughout the past several months, Iran and Turkey were hit hard by US sanctions, excluded from the global financial system. The two countries have been unable to initiate transactions to other countries, restricted from utilizing the global banking system. In response, Heiko Maas, German foreign minister serving in the fourth cabinet of Angela Merkel since March of this year, said: “For that reason it’s essential that we strengthen European autonomy by establishing payment channels that are independent of the US, creating a European Monetary Fund and building up an independent Swift system.”

The USA Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected a total of nine applications

8pm UPDATE: Institutional investors buying XRP more than ever before, says CEO Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse says Wall Street investors are buying and holding XRP at a record rate. During a live AMA on YouTube, Garlinghouse said the company’s next quarterly report on how much XRP the company sold will reveal the sharp rise in interest. “One of the things I will tease for a future announcement – we’ll do the Q3 XRP markets report, which we always share, where we’re seeing institutional participation in buying XRP. Q3 will definitely be a record of institutional participation in buying and interest in holding XRP.” 5.30pm UPDATE: Bitcoin ETF expected? Maxim Nurov, Fund Manager at Black Square Capital, thinks the SEC rejections of the recent ETF proposals was to be expected. Mr Nurov said: "The denial of ProShares Bitcoin ETF and Short Bitcoin ETF proposals was expected. The performance of these ETFs is linked to bitcoin futures contracts that were launched by CFE and CME less than a year ago. Whether the ETF is based on future contracts or the spot bitcoin price, SEC most likely wants a longer period of underlying market performance before they approve the first bitcoin ETF." 3.45pm UPDATE: Cybercriminals took home a $2.3 million cryptocurrency haul throughout 2018 Paolo Paolo Passeri, Global Solutions Architect, Netskope, wants investors should increase their knowledge in order to avoid becoming a victim of cybercrime.



Mr Passeri said: “New findings from Kaspersky reveal that cybercriminals managed to steal $2.3 million in cryptocurrency in just April-June of 2018.



"This was done via phishing during Initial Coin Offerings (the initial giveaway of cryptocurrencies) with Ethereum proving the preferred target.



"Hackers are tapping into this emerging space that, in 2018, has already seen in the region of 725 initial coin offerings raise over $18 billion.



“This is an example of hackers targeting individuals showing a lack of security awareness and education, and taking advantage of the fact that the companies promoting the ICOs do not seem to consider security of their users as a priority.



"This harsh reality must be taken into consideration by companies and investors in the cryptocurrency space, as scams and hacks are becoming increasingly common according to the numbers.”

BTC dropped another $100 today to trade at $6,332.23