Looking at cryptocurrencies? These altcoins are rising faster than bitcoin

Ethereum, the second-largest by market value, has roughly tripled in the last two months

Bitcoin alternatives are closing the gap with the market leader after names like stellar and cardano became red hot as 2017 was closing.

The biggest cryptocurrency's share of market value has fallen to a record 36 per cent from 56 per cent a month ago, according to CoinMarketCap prices for coins and tokens. Stellar, designed for cross-border payments, has more than doubled in the first trading days of this year, achieving a record market cap of more than $13 billion.

That kind of move raises questions as to whether speculators will drive up second-tier digital coins at the expense of bitcoin, even though they have different purposes. The paper value of all cryptocurrencies combined has more than doubled to almost $700 billion in the past month.

"The altcoins today, in large part, are not trying to be bitcoin competitors," said Lex Sokolin, global director of fintech strategy at Autonomous Research LLP in London. "They are doing something else entirely -- ethereum as a smart-contracts platform, iota as a machine-economy token, ripple for interbank payments, and so on." How each is used "should become increasingly relevant as the novelty of crypto wears off."

Crypto correlation

Relative performance is now a multibillion-dollar question as professional investors search for ways to value digital assets that seem to defy traditional techniques, such as profit and dividend potential for equities, or industrial-demand outlooks for commodities. Correlation, for example, is one of many technical-analysis tools used across asset classes in forecasting, and altcoins historically have moved mostly in step with bitcoin...Read more

Investing in cryptocurrencies? Here's why you should be wary of North Korea

A North Korean hacking unit called Andariel seized a server at a South Korean company in the summer of 2017 and used it to mine about 70 Monero coins

Market: North Korean hackers are hijacking computers to mine cryptocurrencies as the regime in Pyongyang widens its hunt for cash under tougher international sanctions.
A hacking unit called Andariel seized a server at a South Korean company in the summer of 2017 and used it to mine about 70 Monero coins -- worth about $25,000 as of December 29 -- according to Kwak Kyoung-ju, who leads a hacking analysis team at the South Korean government-backed Financial Security Institute.

The case underscores the increasing appetite from cyber-attackers for digital currencies that are becoming a source of income for the Kim Jong Un regime. North Korea is accelerating its pursuit of cash abroad as the world tightens its stranglehold on its conventional sources of money with sanctions cutting oil supplies and other trade bans.

"Andariel is going after anything that generates cash these days," said Kwak. "Dust gathered over time builds a mountain."

The hackers may have seized other computers to mine cryptocurrencies and appear to prefer Monero because the currency is more focused on privacy and easier to hide and launder than bitcoin, Kwak said, citing the analysis of the server. Andariel was able to take control of the server undetected by its operator, he said.

A cryptocurrency can be earned if a complex mathematical problem is solved, but it requires high-powered computers that often only corporations can afford. Not every company spends as much on protecting their computers from hackers. Yapian, the owner of bitcoin exchange Youbit, said in December it would close after getting breached....

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