Today on Altcoins This Week, we discuss the recent announcement from Litecoin abandoning Litepay, MIT Bitcoin Expo expresses concerns as ICOs are trading in red for 2018, and much more.
Bitcoiin Brand Ambassador Steven Seagal Resigns
The cryptocurrency Bitcoiin, which was hit with a cease and desist order in New Jersey and a warning in Tennessee about its status, has finished its ICO and announced that Stephen Seagal the actor and brand ambassador and the founders were no longer associated with the project, which will now become truly anonymous. The website is claiming to have raised $75 million and further states:
“A big thank you to the Founders and to our Brand Ambassador. From this point on Bitcoiin will function within its ecosystem and become a genuinely anonymous cryptocurrency with no individual or individuals having control over the entity!”
Many sources in the crypto community view the whole project as similar to many other pyramid schemes such as BitConnect.
Upbit Rewards Users For Reporting MLM And Ponzi Coins
The South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, Upbit, is rewarding users who report suspect crypto coins for being multi-level marketing or Ponzi scams aimed at either pumping markets or extracting money through pyramid schemes. Under the offer, if someone is the first person to report a project that leads to further actions from the exchange and authorities, they will be rewarded approximately $1,000 of Korean Wons. The rewards will initially run for a year and, so far, the plan seems to be paying off as a few reports show that already 20 investigations are in progress.
ICOs In The Red For 2018
At the MIT Bitcoin Expo recently, Christian Catalini claimed that many ICOs launched this year were trading in the red, a reference to the fact that their token prices on exchanges were less than the ICO purchase price being offered to begin with. Other press reports have been sifting through the statistics and have noticed the harsh effect of this year’s bear market on fresh ICOs, putting the figure higher up to 76%.
A quick look through the figures shows many ICOs that were sold out in record times with people frustrated at not being able to participate are no exceptions. MedicalChain launched on February 1st, had its ICO sold out, and now tokens are 45% of their initial price, InsurePal, which launched their ICO on January 16th, is now selling at 65% of the original price. However, these figures only apply to USD comparisons, when many of those ICOs were compared to ETH, they showed in the black, which illustrates the overall power of the bear market.
Litecoin Abandons Litepay And Apologizes
The heavily-hyped Litepay project, which was supposed to launch towards the end of February, and which many market observers believe helped drive the price of Litecoin up, has been abandoned by Litecoin. Litepay was a separate venture from Kenneth Asare, which promised to deliver debit card transactions and easy merchant payment processing, initially funded by Litecoin. However, after burning through the funding and applying for more, Litecoin decided there was a lack of progress and transparency and ceased the co-operation.
Charlie Lee, founder of Litecoin, tweeted in regards to this matter, saying: ‘Like everyone else, we got too excited about something that was too good to be true and we optimistically overlooked many of the warning signs. I am sorry for having hyped up this company and vow to do better due diligence in the future.’
Another Uncertain Week In The Market
In the week where Twitter confirmed they are banning crypto advertising, and with the CLOUD Act coming into law, market suffered major losses. Ethereum suffering heavy losses dropping from $527 to around $420 and possibly still not finding its absolute bottom, taking the price back to November 2017 levels, before its major climb. Ripple went from 69c to 55c. Bitcoin Cash from just over $1,000 to around $800.
NEO followed the same pattern, losing nearly a third down to $54. Apart from EOS, which, with its ongoing ICO auctions and planned network launch, performed better than the others just losing a dollar overall.
Two platforms defying the trend were Tron, seeing 20% growth, and Credits, approximately 10%, both bolstered by upcoming releases.
To see the current prices click here.
