This week in our roundup of all things Altcoin: it’s a recovery week for the Altcoins, Telegram ICO are looking to break past a billion dollars, the Bangladesh authorities hunt crypto traders, Steven Seagal becomes the face for Bitcoiin2Gen, and a Japanese exchange sells coins for free.
Japanese exchange sells coins for free
Zaif, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange run by the Tech Bureau Corp has been forced to admit that due to a technical glitch that for a short period of time, a wide variety of cryptocurrencies were available at a 0 Yen price and that as many as seven buyers were actually able to make trades. One trader ended up being blocked when he tried to withdraw his Bitcoin purchases. The exchange has come out an apologized and has confirmed that these current events will have no impact on customers.
Zaif is one of the 16 Japanese exchanges that are registered with the government. Zaif’s own parent company was under scrutiny when they were faced with multiple checks last month, due to regulators fearing its vulnerability in a cyber attack. Zaif is not the only Japanese exchange whose vulnerabilities have been exploited as Coincheck had over $500 Million worth of cryptocurrency stolen last month.
Steven Seagal becomes the face for Bitcoiin2Gen
A brand new cryptocurrency launched by an invisible team called Bitcoiin2Gen have somehow managed to secure famous Hollywood actor Steven Seagal as their spokesman for their project.
Their press release was tagged with the statement that “As a Buddhist, Zen teacher, and healer, Steven lives by the principles that the development of the physical self is essential to protect the spiritual man”.
Upon further examination of Bitcoiin2Gen, their whole business model appears to resemble a Ponzi scheme, a scheme that is incredibly prevalent in the world of cryptocurrency these days. Only last month, BitConnect was involved in a huge exit scheme, leaving many investors high and dry and without any money. While it may look like Bitcoiin2Gen are about to pull the same scheme, maybe Mr. Seagal can get a few of his influential Russian friends to convince everyone just how legitimate his new venture is.
Bangladesh authorities hunt crypto traders
Recently, Bangladesh has been desperately trying to enforce a complete ban on cryptocurrencies, though they have had little to no success in the matter. They are not alone in their distrust of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole as, back at the start of February, Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that his country does not recognize cryptocurrency as a legal tender. It is viewed by Jaitley as a medium to fuel the “financing of illegitimate activities”.
So it seems as though Bangladesh have followed suit and have taken an anti crypto stance on the matter as officials of the Central Bank have warned commercial banks to be wary of cryptocurrencies and business related to the used of cryptocurrencies. The Bangladesh Financial Investigation Unit has even started to actively look for traders. An official from the BFIU said:
“There is no way to purchase these currencies legally through banking channels. Cybercrime investigators are working on the matter.”
Telegram ICO looking to break past a billion dollars
Pavel Durov, the founder of the popular messaging app Telegram, has been meeting with a multitude of private investors trying to raise capital for his new currency Ton. He has already been very successful in his rounds, receiving over $850 million. There is considerable hype surrounding the ICO and it is reaching feverish levels with reports of bonuses of up to 80% on any public sale price. Some early investors are already flipping their stakes for a 2x return on their investment.
Round two of the ICO is opening privately and there has been an early estimate that it will take funding to twice the amount raised. There has been a decent amount of skepticism felt by a number of potential investors passing on the chance to participate in the project. Concerns surrounded that fact that the package was light on technical detail and that offers kept changing. Obviously, in some minds, this ICO does not appear to have the stability that is desired by those who are careful with their funds.
A recovery week for Altcoins
This week has shown some mercy to a few Altcoins, allowing them some growth. Ethereum has been in a steady climb over the week and peaked at a respectable figure of just under $1000, before dropping straight after. It was steady for a few days after that but is not slipping a touch, sitting at $829. Perhaps this Ethereum drop was due to the stories that came out of Vitalik Buterin, saying that you could lose your shirt on any of the cryptos. Ripple had some stability over the past seven days, staying between $1 and $1.20, it did not even peak despite the large number of opinion pieces masquerading as news saying that Ripple’s debut on Coinbase was imminent.
Litecoin climbed a bit during the week, reaching a peak of close to $250 likely due to the news about their new payment system Litepay. Waves has had a very strong week, growing by almost 35% of its value and holding it well before dropping just as the week ended. Gold backed Digix-DAO also gained, growing by over 30% across the week. Polymath made its appearance in the top 100, growing and attaining a peaked increase of 65% and now holding at approximately 35%. Nano has been in the dumps recently, getting battered down in price following the Bitgrail fiasco from the other week, it seemed to have found its bottom before climbing by 20% in the last day.
