In investment news, Chainalysis has notched $16 million in Series A funding from Benchmark, TechCrunch reported. The company makes intelligence software that traces transactions on the blockchain — and helped get to the bottom of Mt. Gox.
Chainalysis counts as customers several law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration – and it wants to work with financial institutions.
One of its new products – dubbed KYT for “Know Your Transaction” – reportedly offers real-time feedback on the purpose of blockchain transactions and works with the transaction processing engines of exchanges.
In other news, embattled cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck is expected to accept a takeover offer from Monex Group, CoinDesk reported. The news comes after Coincheck experienced a massive heist earlier this year.
Through the reported deal, Monex may offer Coincheck billions in Japanese yen for a majority stake in the company. While a deal has not yet been struck, an announcement could be made by Friday (April 5).
If the deal were to go through, Monex’s chief operating officer, Toshihiko Katsuya, would become the company’s new president. Coincheck president Koichiro Wada and COO Yusuke Otsuka would relinquish their roles.
And the jump in bitcoin prices in 2017 has created massive tax liabilities – to the tune of $25 billion, per a research note from Fundstrat Global Advisers, Reuters reported. As a result, investors may feel pressure to sell those assets – and the market could see a large outflow from digital currencies to the U.S. dollar before the April 15 tax filing deadline.
Even so, bitcoin’s future is not dim. Beyond tax day, Fundstrat believes the cryptocurrency could rise higher. Its mid-year target is still $20,000, and its year-end target remains at $25,000. As of 11:31 p.m. on Thursday (April 5), however, bitcoin was trading much lower than that – at $6,752.59, according to CoinDesk.
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