Crypto’s Open Secret: Its Multibillion-Dollar Volume Is Suspect (Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance) Nearly two months ago, we wrote about BitForex, the Singapore-based exchange with suspicious trade volumes and a horrible logo. Bloomberg has finally caught up to Modern Consensus and they have some more details about it. Why would BitForex do it? “Transaction mining, also known as trade mining, is a controversial practice. On BitForex, users earn the equivalent of $1.20 in digital tokens issued by the exchange for every $1 they pay in transaction fees. It’s a system that critics say is tailor-made to encourage wash trading — in which a trader, or a team of traders, buy and…
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Congress’s first-ever report on crypto may be bigger than it seems
It’s somewhere between an idiot’s guide and a cheery report of the future of blockchain
The U.S. Congress delivered, for the first time, a report on the importance of cryptocurrencies to the American economy. The Joint Economic Committee distilled a myriad of reports from the Congressional Budget Office and other sources to make recommendations in an annual report to the Speaker of the House. This year the bipartisan committee spelled out the advantages of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. “Policymakers and the public should become more familiar with digital currencies and other uses of blockchain technology, which have a wide range of applications in the future,” the report said. It’s most jaw-dropping chart is just titled “Cryptocurrencies Made the Stock Market Gains Look Insignificant.” The report,…
