Newsflash: Blockfolio raises $11.5 million in VC funding, Coinbase lists its first ERC20 token while Roubini announces his plan to denounce Bitcoin in front of US government
Today we saw a very familiar scenario happen: Bitcoin experienced a strong red candle which took down the entire market with it. As everything bled out profusely there were a couple of currencies that managed to stay in the green, thanks to some peculiar reasons. Let’s take a look at what exactly those reasons were:
- Yobit exchange goes through with its pump and dump
So it officially happened. A crypto exchange publicly announced a pump-and-dump and went through with it. This is now our reality. And people wonder why the SEC keeps refusing to approve ETF’s all over the place. We already wrote how the Russian exchange Yobit confirmed their p&d in a tweet claiming that they would buy one random coin for 1 BTC every 1-2 minutes 10 times, thus significantly driving up the price of this random low market cap coin. Today they decided to pump a cryptocurrency straight from their country as they gave a helping hand to PutinCoin (PUT). The coin started the day at a low of 118 sats and thanks to Yobit’s intervention it managed to rise to a high of 1768 sats, gaining 1398% of its initial value in about 20 minutes. As of now it’s unclear if the exchange plans on performing any more pump and dumps.
- Coinbase lists its first ERC20 token
In a turn of events that almost anyone familiar with the crypto markets expected to happen, Coinbase officially added 0x (ZRX) to its professional trading platform Coinbase Pro. With this addition, ZRX becomes the first ERC20 token to get listed on this major US exchange. Coinbase Pro now supports the following trading pairs: ZRX/USD, ZRX/EUR and ZRX/BTC. Order books will be in transfer-only mode for at least 12 hours, pending a four-stage rollout: transfer-only, post-only, limit-only and full trading. Coinbase exchange plans to make ZRX available through the coinbase.com website and on Coinbase iOS and Android apps in an upcoming announcement. The addition was barely a surprise as there were plenty of clues out there confirming that Coinbase might make ZRX the next member of its trading line-up. The announcement let to ZRX price boosting upwards in a move which currently has it up 12% on the daily.
Blockfolio raises $11.5 million in VC funding
Blockfolio, the most popular cryptocurrency portfolio tracking app with over 4.5 million users and 6000 cryptocurrencies listed, announced recently that they managed to raise $11.5 million in a fundraising round led by Pantera Capital. The round included several other investors including Bitmex, Huobi, Danhua Capital, DCM Ventures and others. Project leaders feel this new capital can be used to expand beyond acting as a market data provider into somewhat of a mediator role between projects and their investors. The app wants to give coin holders an ability to provide feedback to cryptocurrency projects, letting them get in touch with developers and provide useful insight more easily.
- Bitfinex pauses USD deposits
Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange which has seen its share of controversy in the past, released an announcement that they are stopping all USD deposits for the time being.
BREAKING: Bitfinex suspends all fiat deposits. USD deposits are no longer possible through HSBC. Bitfinex “expects the situation to normalize within a week”https://t.co/ap4spn6qca
— Larry Cermak (@lawmaster) October 11, 2018
The announcement comes at the moment when many people are questioning the exchanges ability to stay solvent. Bitfinex denounced these allegations in a blog post which slammed the constant stream of negative press regarding their solvency and the collateralization of Tether, a stablecoin closely related to the exchange. Bitfinex previously announced they were banking with HSBC through a private account of Global Trading Solutions but this account seems to be suspended as well.
- Nostradamus of Crises announces his plan to denounce Bitcoin in front of US government
Nouriel Roubini, an American Harvard grad economist known for predicting the 2008 recession and his passionate (and negative) opinions on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, has been invited to testify in front of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. The hearing with the name of “Exploring the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Ecosystem” will have Roubini deliver key points from a 37-page statement which he pre-released to the general public. Phrases like “crypto bloodbath” and “the most over-hyped – and least useful – technology in human history” will be said before the Senate today as Roubini plans to expose Bitcoin as a means of facilitating illegal activities such as drug transactions, tax evasion, avoidance of capital controls and money laundering.
