Showing posts with label exchange. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exchange. Show all posts

Exchange Accused of Stealing Millions From Crypto Projects - Calling Them a "Coordinated, Chinese Criminal Group"...

idax


IDAX had become, or at least appeared to be, one of the hot spots for projects to conduct an Initial Exchange Offering - similar to an ICO, but in theory IEOs provide additional assurances to investors by having the tokens sold by an established exchange, and with that comes knowing the token will be listed as well. 

Behind the scenes for weeks now, IEO's that used the exchange had been reaching out to each other to compare their experiences, all were finding one thing in common - what they got did not match what they were told to expect.

Then, one of the more recent companies to attempt to IEO through IDAX decided to take the public route much faster, publishing a post on their blog that reads in part:

"As many of you know, Crypto Market Ads (CMA) project had IEO on IDAX.pro exchange recently. First time it was canceled by IDAX.pro because we do not agreed on their terms (they called us hours before IEO, we have voice call recordings). They wanted to simulate all the sales in 1 hour time!

We tried to get refund, but unsuccessfully, they and our users pushed on us to do IEO anyway, to see what IDAX will do. Note: we do not agreed on simulation."

For evidence, they also uploaded a recorded phone call with the IDAX operations department here.

My editor here at The Global Crypto Press, Ross Davis, runs PR for one of the projects that's caught up in this mess, TuneTrade, asking his opinion on the information coming out, he told me;

"I can confirm that the experience with IDAX seemed to be all about getting their fee, saying whatever they needed to get it, then when the time comes - none of those promises were true."

However, it seems experiences vary, as he points out differences between what came out this week, and their IEO which occurred over a month ago:

"There's 2 pretty big differences i'm seeing with the story Crypto Market Ads posted and ours.  We assumed IDAX dropped the ball when it came to marketing, they told us that tens of thousands of users would be receiving mobile notifications that the IEO was live, letting them know participate. When no one received these notifications, we figured their poor performance was simply because their users were never told the sale was even happening.  

Something happened inbetween the weeks between dealing with us, and Crypto Market Ads. They are saying IDAX let them in on the secret, and tried to get them to agree to faking sales." 

But why? I tend to agree with how he sums things up:

"So here's what I think we're looking at.   We were able to compare their promises with what they delivered and say they didn't uphold their end of the deal.  But if they can artificially make a token sale look like a success, and do with the blessings of the company behind it, nobody talks afterwards.  

No company would come forward to complain 'yes we agreed to let IDAX make our sale look popular using fraudulent techniques, but we thought it would be more profitable'.  These projects would quietly have to move on."

In the interest of fairness, the post by Crypto Market Ads does focus in-part on IDAX being a member of Coinmarketcap's Transparency DATA Alliance, which aims to stop fraudulent or inaccurate trading information from being when in tracking coin prices and trading volume.

However, one of my sources from a company still part of the DATA Alliance confirmed to me IDAX is out, and was before these accusations, saying "They we're a member for a couple weeks, then quietly removed. I never heard why but it looks like we're finding out now."

Other IEO's have already gone public over the last few days since I began working on this story, including Babbber, Migranet, and Stipend - making a class action lawsuit appear to be a likely next step.

For IDAX to make the problem go away some companies have said they'll settle for their money back, they just want to move on. Other say they're preparing evidence for authorities, believing IDAX is deserving of criminal charges. The fees are up to 30 BTC in some cases, not a small amount easily given up by either side.

We will continue to follow this story and bring you the latest!

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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk

Coinbase already UNDER FIRE gets gas thrown onto the flames - inside the past few days of a public relations nightmare...

Coinbase

Coinbase is quickly learning that the power and influence that earned them an $8 billion valuation also comes with people watching every move they make, and listening closely to every word they say.

Lately, a lot of people really don't like what they've been seeing and hearing.

If you need to catch up on things, the summary is - they purchased a company called Neutrino, which was founded by a man named Giancarlo Russo.  There's nothing sinister specifically about Neutrino, or Coinbase's reason for doing business with them - they make analytics software, Coinbase was looking to upgrade theirs.

The problem is - this isn't the only company its founder created, he's also behind the infamous 'Hacking Team' which is accused of everything from helping the US government spy on its citizens, to supplying other countries with spyware they used to arrest journalists and political protestors.

To make matters worse, with the backlash from that still growing - one of their own employees threw gasoline on the fire.

Christine Sandler, Coinbase’s director of institutional sales made a failed attempt at spinning things into a story about how much they care about privacy. Speaking to Cheddar, she said the whole reason they needed new analytics software is that the old provider was“selling client data to outside sources" - opening up a whole new scandal on top of the current one.

No surprise - people didn't hear it how she imagined they would, and Coinbase now says she simply misspoke - client data was never sold by or even supplied to the previous provider.

One of the perks of being headquartered in Silicon Valley and attending way too many conferences and meetups are the people I've been able to become friends with, many happen to be from various companies in the cryptocurrency or general tech industry. Hopefully, I earn their trust by covering their companies honestly, even when they screw up.

This is how I've been fortunate enough to build a decent list of sources, including several inside Coinbase. One of them is ranked pretty high up on the corporate ladder and in a position that effects decision making and policy within the company.

I wanted to understand how they got here to begin with, beyond the official public statements. Usually, I get a 'no comment' back from this particular source - but this time they had a lot to say:

"I agree with some of the critics here and so does [the CEO] Brian. I would never tell a journalist what to say but I reply to you because you've been fair.  In the interest of being fair don't you think it's dishonest to be angry at us but is still be using Google or Facebook?   I see your publication has links to a Facebook page on your homepage and I assume like most people you use Google for searches, do you not? 

Humor me for a minute - what recently came to light over at Google? They were building AI [artificial intelligence] to make military drones better at spying. It took a revolt from low-level employees to stop it, but what that means is their leadership was all for it.


There's a whole other Google for christ sakes, one where apparently the Chinese government has never been criticized on the entire internet, no matter how hard you search for it. Is every company that uses Google services evil now? Or can they separate something like purchasing cloud services from helping China censor their citizens? 


Facebook was even building a tool that would have given the Chinese government the power to censor any post they don't like. It still didn't satisfy the Chinese government enough to let them in so they spun it like they dumped China to stand up for free speech, but that isn't what happened. 

Facebook also says their AI scans your private messages for things to 'flag' for review, do you know what those things are? I don't.

My point is this: Coinbase already holds itself to a standard above other companies that our critics use on a daily basis, some tweets that were directed at us frankly make no sense when you include this fact."


To be fair - all this is true, and valid to bring up - but only for some perspective on the issue as a whole. But two wrongs don't make a right -  so I asked what is the actual company philsophy? How did this all go down to begin with?

"Remember this is a company started by a guy who also has a *separate* company [hacking team], that separate company is the one accused of doing some bad stuff.  Right off the bat notice how far removed Coinbase is here.  We didn't know the extent of the things they were accused of, and you can be sure we'll be doing deep research from here on out before any other acquisitions.

We were focused on was answering: does the software work? Testing it was the focus of our research.

The craziest tweets I saw basically were saying 'Coinbase has put their security at risk' a conspiracy theory that the software could contain spyware. Let me add and emphasize - WE OWN THE COMPANY AND THE SOURCE CODE. To imply we wouldn't notice spyware built into it is downright dishonest. Please put that in bold, it's the most important takeaway here for your readers.

Even with these fears being unfounded we announced today that we're letting go of all employees who were working at Neutrino before we acquired it. All we wanted was the tech and our team is capable of keeping it up to date from here.

 Trust me when I say we never imagined Coinbase's name thrown into articles about international 'black ops' and 'government spying' when looking into analytic software solutions.


All I'm saying is think big picture. Coinbase participated in none of the acts people are against - it was guilt by association, and we've ended that association."


I think what we're seeing here absolutely is a double standard - but it's one I'm glad we have. We're aware some tech giants have done a lot wrong and we don't want to see crypto go down the same path.

So, while I cannot support Coinbase's initial decisions I can applaud how they handled it in the end. As mentioned above, the complete statement from CEO Brian Armstrong says:

"We took some time to dig further into this over the past week, and together with the Neutrino team have come to an agreement: those who previously worked at Hacking Team (despite the fact that they have no current affiliation with Hacking Team), will transition out of Coinbase"


In closing I just want to say - I love that the cryptocurrency world is like this.  I love that Coinbase doing business with people who violate free speech was enough to unite us in disapproval, and I love that Coinbase basically said 'you're right' and took action.

Something just rubs us the wrong way when we hear of governments restricting it's citizens basic rights like free speech.  I don't know exactly what to call it, and I don't know many people I'd describe as 'political activists' in crypto - but there are some lines you just don't cross.

Whatever this is called, let's never stop doing it.

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk


Uber Founder & ETrade Executive’s new crypto trading app 'Voyager' beta released, they’ll give you $25 to try it now...



The new cryptocurrency app "Voyager" has just launched the first beta version, and they're currently giving new users $25 to help them test it out. 

Voyager's founders include Uber co-founder Oscar Salazar, as well as early Uber investor Philip Eytan. The company CEO is Stephen Ehrlich, who previously ran the professional trading arm for online stock broker E-Trade.

The Voyager app feels like any other trading app, you buy and sell with the push of a button. But behind the scenes it's searching for the lowest price of the coin you want on multiple exchanges.

While giving the app a test run, I honestly didn't even notice that I was actually shopping multiple exchanges, I just chose a coin, put in the amount, pressed "buy", and a second later the tokens were in my wallet - i'm not even sure which exchange the app found the coins on.

The current list of tokens supported include:
Bitcoin (BTC)
Ethereum (ETH)
Ripple (XRP)
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV)
EOS (EOS)
Stellar Lumens (XLM)
Litecoin (LTC)
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
Ontology (ONT)
Zcash (ZEC)
Tron (TRX)
Cardano (ADA)
Iota (IOT)
Neo (NEO)
VeChain (VET)
Qtum (QTUM)
ICON (ICX)

Voyager has partnered with universal wallet Ethos which will provide integrated storage for all of the coins you've traded with Voyager, keeping them in 1 central wallet that you control.

The app is in beta testing now, and the official launch comes soon.

You can now help test the app, and they'll start you off with $25 worth of Bitcoin in your account balance.

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk


Stock giant TD Ameritrade becomes the latest to set their eyes on the cryptocurrency market...

Online stock brokerage firm TD Ameritrade touts $38.627 Billion in assets held for their investment clients - now they're the latest to want a piece of the emerging cryptocurrency sector.

They're doing this a little differently from other stock brokerage firms which are looking to add cryptocurrency options to their clients using their existing platforms.  TD Ameritrade instead has invested in a little-known new exchange called ErisX.

“We wanted to find a platform that would be fully regulated, and something that has that capital markets feel” said JB Mackenzie, the head of futures and foreign exchange trading at TD Ameritrade.

ErisX supports trading, deposits and withdrawals for bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, and litecoin.

"We listened to our customers — what we continued to hear was that they wanted access to trade digital currency products." added Mackenzie.

ErisX is also soon planning to offer Bitcoin futures, pending approval from the CFTC.
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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk

New exchange is coming from executives of Uber and E-Trade - with no fees, and fresh features...


The exchange and company behind it is called "Voyager" and among it's founders is Uber co-founder Oscar Salazar, as well as early Uber investor Philip Eytan.

“We saw an opportunity to build a dynamic smart order router that can take advantage of the marketplace and also offer customers no commissions” Voyager CEO Stephen Ehrlich explained. Stephen previously ran trading arm of the online stock trading site E-Trade.

Now here's the part that sounds most exciting - Voyager will have the ability to pull price data and make purchases though over 10 global exchanges - and execute the trade on whichever has the lowest price for that coin at that moment. Prices can vary for the same coin from one exchange to another, and sometimes widely - knowing you're always getting the best price is a pretty big advantage.

Then as icing on the cake - there's zero fees (for now), which is why I expect this to take a large bite out of Cobinhood, the cryptocurrency trading platform launched by stock trading app Robinhood which also boasts "zero fees" - but features a lot less coins.

They aim to launch with 15 cryptocurrencies and rumor is among them will be Ripple's XRP, and Stellar - making them the first mainstream US based exchange to feature them.

Beta testing has just began, with a tentative official launch in October of this year.

You can signup for updates at http://investvoyager.com

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk


Coineal rejected API mining, aiming to help the greater public earn profit! The question is HOW?


Coineal is the only platform that develops a unique strategy. The legendary “Ultraman” trading platform the first proposed Liquidity Mining model, also alternates the overall style which is completely different from other platforms.



The three major innovations of the Coineal platform:
1. Upgrade from "trading mining" to "Liquidity Mining" model
2. The first exchange platform to roll out different classes of limited "mining account"
3. The first exchange platform that integrates entertainment elements such as anime IP and barrage

In addition, Coineal's internationalization distribution is far ahead of other exchange platforms, and it has already landed more than 50 top global blockchain platforms. Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia are all covered, and the wind of “Ultraman” will soon swipe across the digital currency market.


"Liquidity Mining" refuses click-farming, being more stable and sustainable than trading mining

"Trading mining" allows everyone to see the power of tokenomics and capital leverage, but there are also fatal loopholes existing. The mechanism of providing 100% return on transaction fees and 20% bonus on invitation registration will attract a large number of click farmers and quantified trading teams. These miners can make the trading volume of the platform explode rapidly. However, as soon as mining revenues decrease, the same people will quickly withdraw and dump platform currency, resulting in a rapid decline in trading volume and a plunge in platform currency prices. If the platform trading volume cannot be refilled from the real users’transactions after the miners withdraw, the entire system will collapse.

As long as the platform awards the click farmers’ and quantified trading teams’ self-trading transactions, the trading volume will increase or reduce sharply, accompanied by the platform currency rollercoasting at the same time. This will not only lead to the result of investors bearing huge losses, but also negatively impact the proper development of the platform itself. The self-trading transaction is equivalent to artificially increase the leverage. However, the leverage is a double-edged sword where it can let a country rise rapidly as well as falls abruptly. The development of the platform, ultimately, is determined by the combined positioning of technology, operations, marketing, and capital. If the platform’s own capability is not in place, the leverage will only accelerate its demise.

The core competitive advantage of the exchange platform is to provide real liquidity for the digital assets. Coineal focuses on the original purpose of the trading platform, optimizing the "trading mining" tokenomics model and upgrading it to "Liquidity Mining" model. In the system of Liquidity Mining, Coineal will leave the mining profits to the real individual investors at the initial stage. Users will generate income through time and work, and thus provide real liquidity to the platform as well as reinforce the community foundation. This is also the the purpose that Coineal launched different types of mining accounts.

Coineal will open the API interface so that everyone has the access, but it will not provide any mining incentives for the self-trading exchange platforms. The professionally quantified trading teams can only rely on trading strategies to earn revenue, rather than on colliding transactions with no barriers to competition. This move will inevitably lead to discontent from click farmers and quantified trading teams. However, the feedback from the Coineal’s community shows that individual users are being very supportive. This not only allows the community to form a positive atmosphere, but also enables the platform to develop in a healthy and long-term orientation. After all, in order to really expand the platform, it cannot only reply on click-farming to make it appears to be prosperous. The key determination is whether the platform has the ability to get the most real users and trading volume, as well as the ability to screen high-quality currencies.


NEAL's tokenomic system can be a positive lever for capital, and it will be more stable and sustainable than the existing "trading mining" gameplay. Coineal is very clear about its own strategy in all stages of development. In the early development stage, it has decided that the profit is given to the individual traders on the platform, so that each real trader can work only 2 hours a day and earn 10 times more.

The first batch of mining accounts, each worth several tens of thousands yuan, was acquired in no time and the mining rate of return was much higher than other platforms

Coineal's first batch of mining accounts was acquired rapidly by investors as soon as it was released. The revenue of the first-class mining account can reach from 50,000 to 150,000 yuan just from the daily transactions of mining, and the second-class accounts can earn 20,000 to 30,000 yuan per day. In addition, there are platform revenue from dividends and invitation registration incentives.

The process of "refunding transaction fee at the equivalent amount of platform currency" is called "trading mining". Your account on the trading platform is just like the bitcoin mining rig. Different configuration account acts as different models. The "virtual computing power" of different accounts varies and thus the mining rate of return also differs to great extent. Coineal, maximizes the profit to the users and directly provide a series of highest configurations - "ASIC mining rig". The mining return rate excels all other trading platforms.

Coineal's mining accounts are divided into four categories:

1. First-class mining account: limited to 65 accounts, and have already been released. The first 10,000 transaction fees from the first-class mining account are returned with 150% equivalent amount of NEAL. The first 10,000 transactions of the first 500 users invited by such account are returned with 35% equivalent amount of NEAL.

2. Second-class mining account: limited to the first 65 accounts that register and complete KYC through the first-class account are considered as the second-class account. Each second-class mining account can enjoy the policy of which the first 10,000 transaction fees are returned with 135% equivalent amount of NEAL. The first 10,000 transactions of the first 500 users invited by such account are returned with 25% equivalent amount of NEAL.

3. High return award account: the existing and new users who complete the KYC registration before 12:00 noon on June 30. The first 10,000 transaction fees are returned with 125% equivalent amount of NEAL. The mining transactions of users who are invited by such account are returned with 25% equivalent amount of NEAL.

4. Ordinary account: the account registered after 12:00 noon on June 30th is considered as an ordinary account. The first 100 daily transaction fees are returned with 125% equivalent amount of NEAL. The following transactions throughout the day are returned with 100% equivalent amount of NEAL. The mining transactions of users who are invited by such account are returned with 20% equivalent amount of NEAL.

 (Note: Details of the event can be found from the official announcement at https://www.coineal.com/index.html#en_US )

The first-class mining account earns twice as much as other platforms. However, these mining accounts are all limited. Investors who want the accounts need to spot the opportunity quickly and acquire immediately. Coineal’s first batch of mining accounts have been taken by the investors who spot fast and act quickly. Some investors have already profited several thousands of yuan by reselling these accounts! Users who did not grab the first batch of mining accounts can pay attention to the second batch. The Coineal platform will formulate the release and distribution plan for the second batch of mining accounts based on the consumption rate of the first batch. The second batch of mining account issuance will be decided on the basis of transaction volume, asset inventory, and dissemination capacity. In the following stage, the automatic "generation and distribution" of mining accounts will be realized gradually.

If you want to participate in mining and earn more NEAL, but cannot always be on watch. How can you make it happen? The Coineal platform provides an "Ultraman mining robot" for each trader and the transactions can be given to Ultraman to handle. It will automatically trade at the best price in the market. This is just as if you adopt a money-making machine that can help you mine without a break. The author has only seen such considerate service experience once - in Coineal.
(I am the hardworking "Ultraman", helping the master to mine and make money without a break~)



Integrating anime IP and entertainment elements, Coineal makes the trading full of fun

Coineal's style is completely different from other platforms. It is the first exchange platform that has integrated entertainment elements such as anime IP and barrage. Coineal's platform logo is a cute "Ultraman" image, and people in the community call it "Ultraman" or "little NEAL". Ultraman is an iconic character that everyone loves , especially for Japanese people. Coineal has attracted a group of Japanese users without even promoting in Japan. This has clearly proved the Ultraman's charm.

The Coineal community has infinite creativity. Ultraman’s IP image has evolved to a variety of plays. Besides the “Ultraman robot” mentioned previously, there are emoji packs, derived products (T-shirts, hats, dolls, pillows, cups, etc.),and three-dimensional cartoons... Little NEAL's emoji kits have been rapidly circulated in various communities and it is estimated that they will soon be spreaded to the entire currency circle.

 (NEAL emoji)

Coineal's trading interface incorporates entertainment elements such as the 90's favorite barrage and special effects. In the future, users no longer need to sneak into various groups in order to roast; instead, they can send barrage directly on the trading page. It is soooo much fun! THIS is really the young people's favorite trading platform - professional and entertaining at the same time. Trading and mining in Coineal not only makes money, but also makes lots of fun. You would want to spend the whole day in Coineal.



 (Barrage + Special effects, blingbling~)


Strong landing on more than 50 top international platforms, an instant coverage of the global market

Coineal is the fastest-growing dark horse among the exchange platforms this year. It began operations in April and started MyToken (MT). It only took 10 days to jump to the #1 of MT trading volume.Among the top 10 exchange platforms at that time, Coineal was the youngest with its products and operations being most unique. It constantly maxed out tokens. After three months of accumulation, the number of Coineal users exceeded 500,000. A complete team has been established and the underlying technology of the trading platform has been continuously upgrading which can provide advanced algorithms. The matching efficiency has reached the capacity to handle millions of transactions per second. Meanwhile, the world-class security and risk control system have been established.

With a solid foundation, Coineal began its journey of transformation and globalization. It has upgraded from an exchange platform to a fully-circulating platform for digital assets, moving from China and Korea to the world. In late June, Coineal will appear on the top international blockchain platforms one after another. The marketing promotion will surpass 99.99% of other exchange platforms. You can check out the “Ultraman” image in the list of stations below:


More than 90% of blockchain media and platforms in China, including MyToken, Cointime, and BiShiJie…
·  Over 20 top English sites, including CoinMarketCap, Bitcoins, Global Cryptopress, Coin Turk,nCCN, Cryptogains.fr, Cryptoninjas, NEWS BTC, Cointelegraph, Cryptopotato...
·  More than 10 top platforms in Korea, over 10 top platforms in Japan, and more than 10 top platforms in Southeast Asia

NEAL is scheduled to go online at 12 noon on June 30th. Coineal's "Liquidity Mining" tokenomics model and the global strategy layout can provide excellent liquidity for digital assets and instant coverage for global markets.It takes at least 3-5 years for the traditional financial market to complete the issuance and asset tradings whereas Coineal only needs one day in the future! The efficiency of asset circulation will be tens of thousands of times higher than that of traditional markets. If the blockchain and the tokenomics are considered as the turning points between the new and the old world, then Coineal is the “rocket launch center” for global digital assets.
Coineal makes it easy to earn profit and have fun. It's indeed a different exchange platform! Register now:
https://www.coineal.com/index.html#en_US  


Official Telegram Group:@coinealclub

Official twitter@CoinealExchange

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Information provided via press release.

NY Attorney General targets 13 exchanges in inquiry including Coinbase, Binance, Bitfinex and Gemini...

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman today launched what he's calling "Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative" - a fact finding inquiry to learn how cryptocurrency exchanges are running behind the scenes, by requesting "Disclosures on Their Operations, Use of Bots, Conflicts of Interest, Outages, and Other Key Issues".

Schneiderman said today on twitter:

"Today, we sent letters to 13 major cryptocurrency platforms requesting key information on their operations, use of bots, conflicts of interest, outages, and other key issues.  Too often, consumers don’t have the basic facts they need to assess the fairness, integrity, and security of these trading platforms. Our Virtual Markets Integrity Initiative sets out to change that, promoting the accountability and transparency investors and consumers deserve."

The information was requested from the following 13 exchanges: Coinbase, Gemini,  bitFlyer, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Kraken, Bittrex, Poloniex, Binance, Tidex, Gate.io, itBit, and Huobi.

So far, the Winklevoss twins (owners of the Gemini exchange) are the only ones to issue a response, stating to CNBC:

"Gemini applauds the Attorney General's focus on this industry and the Virtual Markets Initiative, and we look forward to cooperating with and submitting our responses to the questionnaire that has been circulated".

The Attorney General's office has requested the questionnaire which can be viewed in full here, be returned completed by the exchanges by May 1st.
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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk


Glitch in Japansese exchange allowed user to place a $20 trillion Bitcoin order...

Japansese exchange 'Zaif' experienced a glitch that allowed users to place buy orders without having the funds to do so.

17 people attempeted to take advantage of the glitch, which only lasted 18 minutes.  The boldest - one order for $20 trillion in Bitcoin. (Funny because Bitcoin's market cap is only $182 billion)

While the exchange quickly canceled orders and corrected their account balances, unfortunately it was still enough to catch the attention of Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) - which is now investigating the exchanges security methods.

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk


This exchange is giving a $500 credit for people try them...

A new exchange launching soon and promising 99.999% uptime, strong security and a large variety of coins.  They're called UPCoin and part of their pre-launch promotion they are offering a $500 credit to new users.

Check them out at www.UpCoin.com

Will it meet the hype? We'll see, but if it turns out to be decent the credit could come in handy.

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Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle News Desk


The most hated man in crypto is plotting his comeback...

For those new to the cryptocurrency scene, you may be lucky enough to never have heard of Mt. Gox.

Mt.Gox was a bitcoin exchange that at one point up to 70% of Bitcoin trades were going through.

It began in 2010, and ended horribly in 2014 when they announced that approximately 850,000 bitcoins belonging to customers and the company were missing and likely stolen, an amount valued at more than $450 million at the time.

Mark Karpeles, although not the sites founder, bought the site in 2011 and took over as CEO.  While his level of personal fault has been debated, he was the man in charge when in June of the same year when in response to a security breach Mt. Gox moved bitcoins from "cold storage" and it was all downhill from there. 

Then, beginning in Nov 2013 customers were experiencing delays of weeks to months in withdrawing cash from their accounts, and by Feb 2014, Mt. Gox halted all bitcoin withdrawals, and by the end of the month the fiasco was blamed for a 36% loss in Bitcoin's value.

Fast forward to today - Mark Karpeles is back and considering starting an ICO to bring Mt.Gox back.

In a post updating people on their bankrupcy, he laid out the option to:

Launch an ICO to raise money to hypothetically revive MtGox. This sounds more challenging, both legally and because there is no guarantee of raising enough to revive MtGox. In case there is not enough raised it could still be locked to be distributed to creditors, which would be better than nothing.

The upside, the revival of Mt.Gox would mean paying some of their debts, however - the price of Bitcoin has risen dramtically since then, so people would be recieving a fraction of it's current value back.

The downside... well, Mt.Gox would be back. 

Mark knows where he stands in the community, saying:

At this point there is little hope for anything to be actually accomplished, and I have been pondering how to proceed should I want to solve this matter myself - which sounds better than being the object of hate of thousands of people for the rest of my days (it seems I already am anyway, yet sometimes some people send me nice messages, that keeps me going).

Do I expect anything to actually happen? Unlikely.

The price tag on a Mt.Gox revival is placed at $245 Million, and it's hard to imagine an investor seeing a bright future in a Mt.Gox comeback.

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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk