North Korea has this week been accused of stealing bitcoin in order to seek other sources of funding for their regime with global sanctions tightening. Reportedly, hackers have targeted at least three South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges, likely motivated by the restrictive sanctions recently placed against them by the UN. Some countries, like Australia and Russia, are trying to introduce new legislation to regulate digital currency providers. China on the other hand has banned its use. If your business uses Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, be sure to check if you will be affected by any new legislation. Read below to see the full article.

In other international affairs, Facebook has stealthily released its new video chat app, Bonfire, in the Danish iOS App Store. Content and e-commerce business owners should also know that Facebook has announced yet another ban, this time on the monetization of stories about violence and tragedy. This likely follows Amazon’s recent push to ban Merch store owners that have been trying to profit by selling Hurricane Harvey t-shirts for personal profit.

New in listings this week is an extremely profitable c.$1.4M affiliate site in the home furnishing space, with a monthly gross revenue of $37K, rankings for over 18,000 keywords, and strong compounded monthly growth rate of c.6.4%. Also listed this week is a rapidly growing direct advertising site in the gaming niche, with an incredibly strong traffic profile of over 1,750,000 sessions in the past 12 months and keyword rankings for c.10,000 keywords, with many in the top 10 positions. These sites are likely to go fast, so be sure to request information today if you would like to learn more!

In entrepreneurial news, Founder Thomas Smale had a chance to sit down with for an interview on the tech-savvy GiantRobots podcast, where he shared the process of selling a website with Chad Pytel. Online business owners and entrepreneurs alike might be interested to listen and hear Thomas discuss how FE International grew to develop the most comprehensive and successful valuation model and process in the industry. This view is supported by our good friend Haris Bicac, who this week shared his experience selling with FE International in a recent article where he describes FE International, IBBA Deal Maker of the Year in 2015 and 2016, as “the most reputable” online M&A advisor.

In events, Thomas has been busy in Vegas this week attending RetailGlobal. Next week he’ll be at SaaStock in Dublin, and then jetting back to Boston for Boston Startup Week. Be sure to say hi and/or Tweet us if you are attending either of the two!

Continue below for more on North Korea’s hacking efforts, China’s ban on cryptocurrencies, Facebook’s ban on monetizing tragedy, and Bodega’s disruptive funding.

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• Strong and predictable growth reaching a c.6.4% compound monthly growth rate over the trailing 12 months
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Yearly net profit: $442,000
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Direct Advertising – Gaming – $2.1K gross/mo

• Strong traffic with over 1,750,000 sessions in the last 12 months
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• Low owner involvement

Yearly net profit: $15,000
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B2B SaaS – Digital Marketing – $4.5K MRR

In the News…

North Korea Hacks Bitcoin

This week, the UN decided on sanctions against North Korea in response to their lack of cooperation on the nuclear program. Though not as stringent as originally desired, they were strong enough to drive North Korea to steal bitcoin from at least four South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges.

Several countries, including the US, were pushing for a complete ban on oil exports to North Korea, among other strict sanctions to attempt to stifle the development of their nuclear program. China and Russia were among the more lenient negotiators, allegedly the reason the oil ban turned into a simple cap on oil exports to the dictator’s regime. Seemingly in response to these new sanctions, North Korea needed a new way to fund their nuclear program, and so turned to stealing bitcoin.

The UN’s sanctions negotiations were rejected by North Korea, so it remains to be seen whether more cyber attacks to exchange bitcoin for real money to fund the regime will continue.

China Introduces Ban on Cryptocurrencies

The Chinese government has ordered all Beijing-based cryptocurrency exchanges to shut down trading operations immediately. Users are to be notified of their closure, and new registrations were set to be banned beginning on Friday (today).

This mandate signals a that Chinese officials are cracking down on any financial vulnerabilities to which the country may be exposed, as well mitigating the growing speculative expanding market. The response is not entirely unwarranted, seeing as at least three South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges were allegedly breached by North Korean hackers. New sanctions by the UN against North Korea are likely the cause, as North Korea requires oil to fund their nuclear regime and have recently had a cap placed on the oil shipments they can receive.

If your business operates in Chinese cryptocurrency, you will want to be sure to notify all users who will no longer be able to exchange in this way.

Bodega Bodegas

This week, a startup called Bodega just received $2.5M in first round funding led by First Round Capital. The company’s aim is to have a rectangular glass box filled with pantry staples conveniently located in buildings so that customers won’t have to stop at a separate store on their way home.

The news of Bodega’s seems controversial and has received quite a bit of scrutiny from the market. Interestingly, the issue seems to be the fear that the store will eradicate the mom and pop bodega, but Amazon’s Prime Pantry seems to be conveniently absent from the conversation. The model would function in that users would have an app on their phones and a camera would register what the customer takes, and then products get refilled as needed. This is a model we haven’t experienced in the US before, and could be potentially disruptive to the e-commerce and brick and mortar store platforms, as it combines the convenience of one with the functionality of the other.

E-commerce businesses in the home staples spaces might want to keep an eye on models like this, as they can potentially infringe on the convenience offered to customers by the benefit of delivery.

Facebook’s Ever-Rising Standards

Recently, you can’t browse the news without coming across a story about Facebook raising its standards for the content it’s restricting to be published. The latest installment in the saga is this week’s announcement that users or publications will not be able to advertise posts or news articles related to violence, hatred or prejudice.

Yes, that means even journalists reporting on hate crimes or violence will not be able to promote their content on Facebook. The new guidelines focus specifically on what is eligible to be advertised, not necessarily posted, and seem to favor those with a strong online presence: “Creators and publishers must have an authentic, established presence on Facebook — they are who they represent themselves to be, and have had a profile or Page on Facebook for at least one month. Additionally, some of our features like Ad Breaks require a sufficient follower base, something that could extend to other features over time.”

Content sites who focus on the news and who promote these articles on Facebook will want to ensure that their posts will be allowed.