UK financial regulator seeks cryptocurrency and blockchain expert-Computerfanfield

One of the UK’s main financial industry regulators is looking to better understand cryptocurrency.

According to a job listing posted earlier today, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the independent agency that oversees and regulates financial product offerings in the country, wants to hire a cryptocurrency expert.

The candidate

More specifically, the FCA is looking for someone who’s experienced in working with “crypto-assets,” distributed ledgers, blockchains, and emerging fintech products.

Throughout the listing, there is a particular emphasis on compliance, crime, and 5MLD ( EU’s 5th Money Laundering Directive ).

On that theme, the FCA expects the right candidate to also have good working knowledge of specific legislation, including: Financial Services and Markets Act, Regulation of Investigatory Powers, and General Data Protection Regulations.

The job

It goes as no surprise that the main responsibility for the candidate is to act as an internal expert on all things related to cryptocurrency, and its possible regulation.

The successful candidate will be responsible for providing “intelligence support and advice” to other parts of the FCA that are tasked with regulating the sector.

In other words, it sounds like the FCA is looking for someone to conduct due diligence on institutional cryptocurrency and blockchain-based financial products. Ones that may, in the future, be offered to investors.

What does it mean?

Given the prevalence of cryptocurrency in recent years, and the vast number of scams , it’s about time that the FCA stepped up its game in monitoring the sector.

Daniel Williams , a UK-based Independent Financial Advisor at Morgan Williams & Co , told Hard Fork this is a positive step forward for the FCA.

“The FCA has tried to modernize its thinking over the past few years, it’s their duty to try to keep up with new assets and technologies,” he added.

Indeed, the move to hire a dedicated cryptocurrency expert shows the FCA believes cryptocurrencies are here to stay.

Williams is not surprised the FCA is investing time and money to bolster its understanding of digital assets. But it should be noted, this move isn’t about readying the world for institutional cryptocurrency investment products, but rather, it’s about consumer protection, he said.

While the FCA is clearly aware of the dangers posed by cryptocurrencies, more can certainly be done to protect consumers in the UK.

Last year, an FCA found that most Brits don’t have a clue about cryptocurrency, but are still willing to invest . In May, the FCA reported that British investors lost a total of £27 million ($34 million) to cryptocurrency scams over the 2018/19 financial year.

In the long run, Williams expects the FCA to use its understanding in cryptocurrency to move into regulating how crypto assets should be held, whether they are suitable for retail investors, and how they should be marketed to the consumer.

Last July, the FCA announced that it would be regulating some cryptocurrencies , and lobbied for a ban on “crypto-derivatives” to protect ill-suited to retail investors.

With the addition of a cryptocurrency specialist, this could be a sign there’s more to come from the FCA.

Hard Fork has contacted the FCA for comment, we will update this article when we hear back.

Tencent’s offer to buy this Chinese search engine pumped its stock by 50%

Chinese search engine Sogou‘s stock price jumped 50% after it revealed Tencent had proposed to buy all of the company’s remaining stock above asking price, delist it from the New York Stock Exchange, and take it private.

Seeking future profits, traders immediately sent Sogou stock soaring by Monday’s market open. Tencent, China’s largest tech conglomerate valued at $640 billion, had just offered to buy Sogou shares for $9 each, well beyond its $5.75 market close on July 24.

Sogou is China’s second largest search engine in terms of market share with 22%, according to StatCounter. The latest available analysis found Baidu, the country’s top search engine, commanded more than 66%.

Sogou says it still needs to approve the deal… but does it?

According to Sogou‘s press release, Tencent‘s reported $2.1 billion proposal is still pending board approval, so those buying its stock below $9 have still taken on some element of risk.

But as noted by Bloomberg , the Hong Kong-listed tech giant controls around 39% of Sogou‘s shares already, and more than 52% of the total voting power — which effectively means Tencent could just vote to accept its own offer if it really wanted to.

Still, Sogou warns investors the deal could fall apart. The company says a “special committee” of its board “comprised solely of independent directors” still needs to consider Tencent‘s offer.

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“[Sogou] cautions […] shareholders and others considering trading the Company’s securities that the Sogou Board has just received the Proposal Letter and has not made any decisions with respect to the Proposal Letter and the Proposed Transaction,” said the firm.

Earlier this month, Hard Fork reported Tencent was eyeing fellow Hong Kong-listed gaming company Leyou, popular for its Warframe series of video games among others. Leyou had been the subject of a bidding war involving Sony and two Tencent-backed rivals.

Similarly to Sogou, Tencent intends to take Leyou private.

Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘Coinbase says it prevented $280K in Bitcoin from reaching Twitter hackers’

Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day.

Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Jane Didion used to say: Success is just a product of your motivation!

Bitcoin price

We closed the day, July 20 2020, at a price of $9,164. That’s a minor 0.25 percent decline in 24 hours, or -$22.98. It was the lowest closing price in one day.

We’re still 54 percent below Bitcoin‘s all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017).

Bitcoin market cap

Bitcoin‘s market cap ended the day at $168,970,262,859. It now commands 63 percent of the total crypto market.

Bitcoin volume

Yesterday’s volume of $13,755,604,146 was the highest in two days, 39 percent below last year’s average, and 81 percent below last year’s high. That means that yesterday, the Bitcoin network shifted the equivalent of 235 tons of gold.

Bitcoin transactions

A total of 309,606 transactions were conducted yesterday, which is 2 percent below last year’s average and 31 percent below last year’s high.

Bitcoin transaction fee

Yesterday’s average transaction fee concerned $1.5. That’s $2.41 below last year’s high of $3.91.

Bitcoin distribution by address

As of now, there are 13,149 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

Furthermore, the top 10 Bitcoin addresses house 5.1 percent of the total supply, the top 100 14.3 percent, and the top 1000 34.8 percent.

Company with a market cap closest to Bitcoin

With a market capitalization of $170 billion, Oracle has a market capitalization most similar to that of Bitcoin at the moment.

Bitcoin’s path towards $1 million

On November 29 2017 notorious Bitcoin evangelist John McAfee predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of $1 million by the end of 2020.

He even promised to eat his own dick if it doesn’t. Unfortunately for him it’s 97.9 percent behind being on track. Bitcoin‘s price should have been $452,937 by now, according to dickline.info.

Bitcoin energy consumption

On a yearly basis Bitcoin now uses an estimated 60 terawatt hour of electricity. That’s the equivalent of Algeria’s energy consumption.

Bitcoin on Twitter

Yesterday 24,912 fresh tweets about Bitcoin were sent out into the world. That’s 25.8 percent above last year’s average. The maximum amount of tweets per day last year about Bitcoin was 82,838.