Image of The Day, 23 of October: CNBC, MarketWatch, TechCrunch and Others

We're presenting "the image of the day". Bitnewstoday.com has chosen the most important news about the digital economy and virtual currencies. Only the most valuable stories from only the trusted sources. Each and every event from this list will change the world of the digital economy either way. The most important stories of this day in the most indicative quotes are below!

1. MASTERS OF 50 AND 1 (The Next Web)

Report: cryptocurrency hackers earned $20M with 51-percent attacks in 2018

Powerful attacks on blockchains are increasing. So far this year, hackers have effectively executed a minimum of five separate “51-percent attacks” on cryptocurrency projects, with profits amounting to almost $20 million.

Group-IB has just released the full version of its annual report on trends in high-tech crime, which it has shared with Hard Fork. It showed that in 2018, hackers have pocketed $19.5 million worth of cryptocurrency and caused havoc for fledgling blockchains.

2. BLOCKCHAIN, EH! (Blokt)

Bank of Canada runs a blockchain-based pilot for a LOC negotiation platform

CGI, Group Inc., a renowned IT and business consulting firm, announced a collaboration with the National Bank of Canada and Skuchain, a blockchain technology company aimed at optimizing the supply chain, in a pilot program to streamline and improve the process for negotiation standby letters of credit and guarantees.

CGI’s contract negotiation tool will improve processing times and automate the coordination for the issuance of a standby letter of credit or guarantee, by leveraging pre-approved templates by the banks in the blockchain. As the negotiations process will be executed using smart contracts, all terms will be fully visible to all beneficiaries in real-time, in a secure environment guaranteed by blockchain technology.

3. ANOTHER CASE FOR THE ETF (The Daily Hodl)

VanEck, CBOE and SolidX make case for Bitcoin ETF

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Elad Roisman, who took office in September, met with representatives from VanEck, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) and SolidX to discuss their Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal which is currently pending.

Despite the growing derivatives market, allegations of market manipulation and unethical trading practices have caused the SEC to proceed with caution and to issue delayed decisions and/or outright rejections of every Bitcoin ETF proposal to date.

4. REGAINING TRUST (MarketWatch)

What can help Americans regain the trust of Wall Street? Blockchain

The nascent age of blockchain and cryptocurrencies gives Wall Street a once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore trust in financial institutions that have been battered since 2008, when many of the biggest financial brands nearly caused the world economy to collapse.

Since then, trust in financial institutions has improved, but that recovery has stalled. For example, while only 58% of people in the United States trust financial institutions, in 11 of 28 top global markets — including Germany, France and Spain — the majority of people distrust banks, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer. In Ireland 71% of people do not trust their bank.

5. ORACLE ON CLOUD (TechCrunch)

Oracle delves deeper into blockchain with new applications

Oracle is a traditional tech company that has been struggling to gain traction in the cloud, but it could see blockchain as a way to differentiate itself. At Oracle OpenWorld today it announced the Oracle Blockchain Applications Cloud, a series of four applications designed for transactions-based processing scenarios using Internet of Things as a data source.

The company actually introduced a more generalized blockchain as a service offering at OpenWorld last year, but this year they have decided to focus more on specific use cases, announcing four new applications. The blockchain comes into account because of its nature as an irrefutable and immutable record.

6. CRYPTOPHONE (CNBC)

HTC launches its blockchain-focused phone

The Exodus 1 comes with a secure enclave — a secluded area on the phone's chip kept separate from the Android operating system (OS) it runs on — that uses technology made by SoftBank's Arm Holdings to keep a customer's cryptocurrency safe.

"Think of it as a micro OS that runs in parallel with Android," Phil Chen, HTC's decentralized chief officer, told CNBC over the phone. "It basically is a wallet, but the wallet, what it does is hold your private keys." Private keys are lines of code which are meant to be known only to the owner of a cryptocurrency to allow them access to their funds.

7. WITH A LITTLE HELP OF VC (TechCrunch)

Even the world’s largest crypto exchange needs help from traditional VCs

Binance is the fastest growing company in crypto — having risen to become the world’s largest crypto exchange based on trading volumes in under one year — but even it needs help from the old guard. Earlier today the exchange firm, which is officially headquartered in Malta, announced that it has landed an undisclosed investment from Vertex Ventures, a VC firm belonging to Singapore sovereign fund Temasek.

The deal is aimed at launching Binance’s fiat-to-crypto exchange in Singapore which is in beta right now but expected to launch fully, with regulatory compliance, before the end of this year.

8. TWO GIANTS (CNBC)

Cryptocurrency giants Coinbase and Circle form joint venture

Two of the largest cryptocurrency companies, Coinbase and Circle, are joining forces to establish more ground rules in the quickly evolving asset class.The start-ups announced a joint-venture known as the “CENTRE Consortium” on Tuesday, which they say aims at speeding up adoption of cryptocurrencies backed by actual government currencies like the U.S. dollar.

“Coinbase and Circle share a common vision of an open global financial system built on crypto rails and blockchain infrastructure, and realizing this vision requires industry leaders to collaborate to build interoperable protocols and standards,” Circle co-founders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville said in a news release Tuesday.

9. CALL OF DUTY: CRYPTO OPS (The Next Web)

Call of Duty crime syndicate suspected of stealing $3.3M in cryptocurrency

Recently unsealed court documents allege a pair of Call of Duty gamers were key in the success of an aggressive online crime syndicate that stole at least $3.3 million in cryptocurrency.

An FBI affidavit details the active roles played by two individuals, from Dolton and Bloomington, Illinois, in an intimidating hacking campaign that saw hundreds of mobile phones accessed using stolen names, phone numbers, and other information, the Chicago Sun Times reports.

Ultimately, the thieves stole $3.3 million in cryptocurrency, later converting it to Bitcoin or Ethereum to store in their own digital wallets.

10. GOING MAINSTREAM (Blokt)

Genmega atms will now offer crypto purchases to customers

Consumers who use Genmega ATMs will now get access to Bitcoin as well. The company has partnered with LibertyX to start selling Bitcoins via its ATMs. There will be zero upfront costs and hardware adjustments, and the process could be completed at 100,000 automatic teller machines across the US with a simple update process.

The move by Genmega will help several new customers adopt Bitcoin. The crypto buying process is similar to that of withdrawing cash. The users will feed their debit card to the machine and buy Bitcoin instantly. The familiarity of an ATM will be helpful in shortening the learning curve for newly christened users. For crypto enthusiasts, it could be yet another opportunity to buy Bitcoin quickly and easily.