Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Taotao is expected to go live at noon on May 30, as per the company’s official Twitter page. Notably, the new trading platform is heavily backed by Yahoo Japan, marking the local internet giant’s arrival into the field of crypto. The timing seems to be on point, now that the market has finally shaken off the bear. But how likely is Taotao to dethrone its competitors — both current and those to come — in a complex market such as Japan? What is Taotao, and how...

1. What is tokenization? Tokenization is the process of turning things into digital assets. Assume you have a farm that is worth $1 million. It has a big barn, cows, rabbits, a hedgehog — you name it. All of a sudden, you are desperately in need of money, you can sell that farm the old way — fill out the paperwork, wait for an offer, close the deal, etc. But what if you need less than $1 million and would prefer to keep most of the farm to yourself? Imagine digitally printing 1 million tokens...

View photos On June 1, Finnish peer-to-peer (p2p) bitcoin (BTC) trading platform LocalBitcoins quietly removed in-person cash trading from its service. Three days later, the company publicly confirmed the ban on Twitter. As per the accompanying statement, LocalBitcoins had to renounce local cash trading to “adapt to the current regulatory environment.” The removal of the option has angered users, who seemingly began looking for decentralized platforms with more room for anonymity. However, as...

View photos Earlier this week, Dutch billionaire John De Mol launched a lawsuit against Facebook over crypto ads using his image without permission. De Mol claims that consumers have lost as much as 1.7 million euros (over $1.9 million) due to the ads, and his reputation was damaged as a result. It is not the first time the California-based media giant is being sued over fake bitcoin ads — and, despite Facebook’s efforts to eliminate the problem, it seems that the issue persists. Brief...

A new report on the Telegram Open Network (TON) by Russian research agency Aton — published today, June 14, on Cointelegraph — reveals new details about one of the most anticipated projects in the crypto space. TON is a blockchain platform developed by encrypted instant messaging service Telegram, which is widely regarded as one of the primary means of communication within the blockchain and crypto community. The blockchain network reportedly aims to gain wide usage due to the active,...