Current Bitcoin Price: $3853 (as of 10:00 AM PST)

The cryptocurrency market is still pushing forwards today. Bitcoin is up more than 7%, while XRP and Ethereum have climbed by 11% and 9%. Looking further afield, most altcoins are doing even better.

As usual, we’ll take a quick look at the big extremes. There’s EOS, which has stood still on yesterday’s impressive gains, and — on the other end of the spectrum — Bitcoin Cash, which has shot up more than 30% to reclaim its place above Litecoin.

Top Bitcoin & Crypto News Stories for 19th December 2018

Western Union considering crypto

Western Union is a money transfer service that’s extremely popular for its ease of use and international reach. Simply send money to a person in a given country, and they can collect it at a Western Union location of their choice.

Apparently, the Western Union president Odilon Almeida has said that cryptocurrency may become yet another money transfer option for the country, although it’s unclear how much weight this statement carried.

HMRC releases UK crypto tax rules

Yesterday we got some clarification on the French cryptocurrency tax situation, but much of Europe is still undecided on their approach to taxing these digital assets. The United Kingdom was one of them…

However, the United Kingdom’s tax authority — HMRC — has released an updated set of guidelines for the tax of cryptocurrencies, which classifies cryptocurrency profits as capital gains, subjecting them to a 5 figure allowance before taxes kick in.

EOS DApps hacked for $200 thousand

EOS is a blockchain protocol that’s been heavily criticized for its somewhat centralized, node-based consensus and questionable development practices, among other things.

Well, there’s been yet another attack on the EOS network. This time, a bug has allowed hackers to steal over $200 thousand from three different decentralized gambling apps on the platform.