Bitcoin in Brief Saturday: Bulls Test $10,000, Russian Crypto-Millionaire Found Dead, Cobinhood Launches IOTA Trading

Today has seen the price of BTC rally to test $10,000 USD amid the bullish response to the increasing institutional presence in the cryptocurrency markets. In other trading news, fee-free exchange Cobinhood has announced the introduction of trading pairs for the ninth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, IOTA. In international news, Russian cryptocurrency Youtuber Pavel Makushin has been found dead in his apartment. The CEO of cybersecurity firm, Fireeye, has also discussed the challenges posed by cryptocurrencies in an interview today.

Also Read: Indian Investors Flock to Trade Crypto Ahead of RBI Ban

Bulls Test $10,000

The bitcoin markets have rallied in recent days, with the markets currently testing the five-figure threshold.

The gains appear to have been driven by indications of the growing institutional presence in the cryptocurrency markets, with reports indicating that Goldman Sachs will launch trading for bitcoin futures contracts “in the next few weeks.”

The bullish momentum follows bitcoin’s best performing month of 2018 – with April producing gains of nearly 47% after prices steadily grew from approximately $6,400 to close at roughly $9,400. April produced four consecutive green weekly candles for the first time since late 2017. As of this writing, the price of bitcoin is approximately $9,900

Cobinhood Introduces IOTA Trading

Cobinhood, a zero-trading-fee cryptocurrency trading platform, has announced the introduction of trading for top ten cryptocurrency, Iota. The introduction of Iota brings the total number of cryptocurrencies available for trade on Cobinhood to more than forty.

The chief executive officer of Cobinhood, Popo Chen, stated: “We are excited to continue our growth and momentum in the cryptocurrency space through the addition of Iota to the Cobinhood platform. Iota is a promising technology platform that will help to push the market forward, and we look forward to having them on our exchange on their journey to success.”

Russian Cryptocurrency Youtuber Found Dead in Apartment

Russian Youtuber Pavel Makushin has been found dead in his apartment, as reported by RT. The 23-year-old, known online as Pavel Nyashin, had cultivated the persona of a cryptocurrency trader and amassed approximately 20,000 subscribers.

Mr. Makushin was the victim of a robbery in January, which saw 24 million rubles (approximately $38,000 USD) stolen from him. The Youtuber stated that the stolen money was not his own, and attributed the robbery to bragging of his wealth online. Mr. Makushin’s mother was reported to have indicated that the robbery could have led him to take his own life. Russian tabloid media is reportedly suggesting suicide as a potential cause of death.

CEO of Fireeye Discusses Cyber Security Challenges in the Age of Cryptocurrencies

Kevin Mandia, the chief executive officer of cybersecurity firm, Fireeye, today discussed some of the hurdles posed by the cryptocurrency phenomena in an interview with CNBC.

“From a cybersecurity standpoint, an anonymous currency has not been a great thing,” Mr. Mandia said. “It just opens up another avenue to monetize computer intrusions, theft of IP and theft of communications. So we deal with bitcoin from that angle and it’s just been a problem for us.”

Mr. Mandia described the anonymity underpinning cryptocurrencies as attracting some usage from criminals. “They’re anonymous currencies and that’s a very valuable thing,” Mr. Mandia said. “If you can commit a crime from 10,000 miles away, there’s not a lot of risk or repercussions to it. And if you can steal somebody’s email and extort that person in an anonymous currency, that’s a challenge for us.”

“You can’t just be good at network security or just good at endpoint or just good at asset discovery. You’ve got to be good at email security, endpoint security and network security. You want to bring it all together,” he added.

Do you like to keep your cryptocurrency holdings private? Or are you loud and proud with your crypto investments? Tell us in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Trading View, Wikipedia, RT

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