Something strange is going on with the stablecoin issued by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss’ Gemini Trust Company. Over the past several days, CoinMarketCap data on trading using the Gemini dollar (GUSD) has spiked dramatically—and it all seems to stem from one exchange, the China-based OEX. Seemingly overnight, there was a surge in GUSD daily trading volume. From December 2 to December 13, that number was in a range between roughly 1.4 million and 2.3 million, according to CoinMarketCap. However, on December 14 and 15, daily trading volume was around 18 million. On December 16 and 17, it was around 30 million. Before then, the figure never exceeded 17.6 million. As…
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Bitfinex’s new tactic: Attack journalists
Tether’s sister company goes after reporter who published something they didn’t like
Bitfinex, the embattled exchange with a reputation for opaqueness, has taken on a combative approach against journalists—specifically, targeting one from a big name in crypto reporting. About a week ago, CoinDesk’s David Floyd began focusing on the crypto soap opera that is Bitfinex and Tether. On October 19, he wrote a piece about how traders were moving their Tether tokens on to Kraken. It appears those traders were then selling their tether for U.S. dollars because the exchange rate touched a low of 85 cents. “With users apparently unable to convert their USDT into dollars in the way envisioned by Tether’s white paper, they seem to be trying to accomplish…
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BitForex accused of using Tether, wash trades to manipulate CoinMarketCap data
Never heard of BitForex? You’re not alone, but on Friday, they dominated Tether and Bitcoin trade volumes
Another day, another Tether controversy—and a new exchange is being accused of inflating trade volumes in the process. On Friday afternoon Eastern Time, CoinMarketCap data showed that a tiny upstart exchange called BitForex was responsible for nearly $4.3 billion worth of tether transactions in 24 hours. That’s a shockingly high amount given that the average daily volume of tether has been $2.8 billion worth over the past 30 days. It also put BitForex in second place for bitcoin trading volume, more than eight times that of third place Binance. Such volume from a little exchange was very unusual and CoinMarketCap excluded BitForex’s data from its totals. BitForex is an outfit…
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You can't tell from this picture but South Korea's government is frowning on cryptocurrencies (source: Wikipedia)South Korea goes nuclear on cryptocurrencies
An FAQ on what just happened so people think you know what you’re talking about
Thursday was a brutal day for cryptocurrencies and many new investors were no doubt sweating bullets as they checked their trading accounts. Hopefully, this FAQ will help. What happened? South Korea’s justice minister, Park Sang-ki, said in a press conference that the government was, “basically preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading through exchanges,” according to Reuters and several other media outlets. This comes after it was reported that the South Korean tax authorities and police paid a visit to the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinone and Bithumb. Whoa! Why are they so much against cryptocurrencies? Two big reasons: The government is trying to crack down on crime and…
