Moonday Mornings: Kik preps to fight the SEC over ICO

It’s Monday Morning, you should know how this works by now.

Dive in for a wrap up of the weekend’s blockchain and cryptocurrency news.

1. Peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading website, Localbitcoins.com, was accessed by an “unauthorized source” last Saturday which allowed the illegitimate third-party to send Bitcoin from a number of affected accounts, the marketplace announced on Reddit. The attacker managed to gain access to six accounts by exploiting a third-party forum feature that prompted users to sign in using their 2FA codes. Only these codes were sent to the hacker, allowing them to login to and empty the victim’s account, Bitcoinist reports.

2. A cryptocurrency ATM was lifted from a Californian bakery last week. It seems the criminals kneaded to get their hands on currency in the ATM in Belwood Bakery, Los Angeles. It is one of many attempted burglaries on the bakery, reports CCN. Before you think that this was a highly organized attack, it was far from it. CCTV footage shows a hooded individual with a sledgehammer making their way to the ATM, and then hitting it repeatedly until it broke away from the wall. The individual then picked up the ATM and made off into the street.

3. A Chinese investor is attempting to sue blockchain startup Stox and its founder, Moshe Hogeg, for $4.6 million. Zhewen Hu invested around $3.8 million worth of Ethereum into the blockchain based prediction market, and is claiming its founders misappropriated investments, reports Coin Telegraph. Hogeg denies any wrong doing. It looks like we’ll have to wait to see the official outcome of the lawsuit.

4. A blockchain startup based in Malta expected to be vital in earning the country its status as the “blockchain island” has shut up shop after operating for less than a year. DQR has been forced to lay off more than 60 members of its staff after one of its main investors, Genesis Mining, ran into financial troubles earlier last year, Lovin Malta reports. Indeed, Genesis Mining began terminating the contracts of some of its customers after they were struggling to turn a profit. Given the prolonged bear market and volatility of cryptocurrencies Malta might need to rethink its strategy if it’s to become the “blockchain island.”

5. Ripple released its 2018 Q4 markets report late last week which showed the blockchain technology firm sold $535 million worth of XRP over last year. Ripple sold $129.03 million worth of XRP in Q4 alone, this is equivalent to less than half a percent of total XRP volume.

6. Startup messaging app Kik is heading to the courts and wants a judge to decide whether its coin offering (ICO) should be classed as a security, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) believes Kik’s sale of its proprietary token, Kin, took the form of an unregistered securities offering. Whatever the outcome of this court hearing will undoubtedly set a precedent with regard to how tokens are seen in the eyes of the law.

Well, there you have it. It was hacks, closures, and court cases; but that’s another weekend of news caught up with.