Category: Exchanges

Who’s Left, Joined and Almost Joined Coinbase Since Its $300 Million Raise

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Crypto exchange startup Coinbase is a hot place to work – and undoubtedly a coveted resume destination for technologists looking to advance their careers in Silicon Valley. One of the cryptocurrency industry’s few unicorns – or companies with a valuation over $1 billion (Coinbase was valued at $8 billion in its last $300 million funding round in October 2018) – the San Francisco-based exchange has nearly 800 staff members and is adding “dozens of employees each week,” spokesperson Rachael Horwitz told CoinDesk. This aggressive expansion has included opening an office in New…

Thai Stock Exchange Plans to Launch a Token Trading Platform

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The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is looking to capitalize on investor interest in cryptos by offering a new digital assets exchange. According to a report from Bangkok Post on Thursday, the SET is planning to apply for a license from the country’s Ministry of Finance to operate the platform. The move comes as the exchange looks to capture the growing investor demand for cryptos, Pattera Dilokrungthirapop, vice-chairwoman of the SET board of governors, said in the report. The stock exchange will work to have a sound technical system in…

Please Do Not Store Crypto on Any Exchange

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Featured Image from World Government Summit/YouTube Jesse Powell, the CEO of a major crypto exchange Kraken, warned users of digital assets to not store funds on trading platforms. The warning of Powell follows a high profile security breach suffered by Cryptopia, a New Zealand-based crypto exchange known for its listing of a wide range of small market cap tokens. Why Investors Shouldn’t Hold Crypto on Exchanges Any application or platform connected to the internet by nature is hackable. In essence, centrally operated crypto exchanges are similar to banks in that…

OKCoin Founder Star Xu Seeks to Acquire Public Firm for $60 Million

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Star Xu, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin, may be seeking a possible backdoor IPO for his firm by buying a majority stake in a Hong Kong-listed company. On Jan. 10, Xu (under his real name Xu Mingxing) filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) for approval to buy a 60 percent stake in a construction engineering firm called LEAP Holdings Group Ltd. Through his company OKC Holdings Corp., Xu is aiming to purchase approximately 3.2 billion shares of the company for HK$0.15 (around $0.02) per share. In total, the acquisition,…

QuadrigaCX Crypto Exchange Users Still Can’t Get Their Money Out

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QuadrigaCX customers are complaining they still can’t get their money out more than a month after the cryptocurrency exchange won a court dispute that had held up $19 million of funds. While that would be worrisome enough, users’ concerns were compounded by the company’s announcement Monday that its CEO and founder, Gerald Cotten, had died more than a month earlier. In a statement attributed to Jennifer Robertson, Cotten’s wife, the exchange said he died on December 9 from complications arising from Crohn’s disease while traveling in India. The same statement also…

Booming Chinese Capital Outflows May Result In 2019 Crypto Bull Run

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Increasing rates of Chinese capital outflows over the past few months are presenting the cryptocurrency space with an unprecedented opportunity as citizens of one of the world’s most strictly regulated jurisdictions find ever more ingenious ways to get around financial movement restrictions. China’s Capital Restriction Problem In theory, China has perhaps the most stringent capital restrictions of any major world economy. Regulations state that individuals are not allowed to move more than $50,000 out of the country and companies are only allowed to exchange yuan for other currencies with approval…

Binance Targets EU, UK Traders With New Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange

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Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by adjusted trading volume, has launched a new fiat-to-crypto exchange on the island of Jersey, a British self-governing dependency. The firm announced Wednesday that, through the new exchange, users are able to trade in pairs for bitcoin and ethereum against the British pound and the euro in Europe and the U.K. “Binance selected Jersey for its highly developed digital infrastructure, robust regulatory framework, and world-class financial services sector,” the exchange’s chief financial officer, Wei Zhou, told CoinDesk. He further clarified that Binance Jersey is…

Game of Coins: Inside the Paxos-Gemini Stablecoin Discount War

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The rise of new stablecoins was a defining story in the second half of 2018, but the reality is exclusive discounts partly fueled their growth. Dollar-backed stablecoins are generally supposed to be worth $1, whether it’s Gemini’s GUSD or Paxos’ PAX. But according to four sources with knowledge of these cryptocurrency exchanges, both stablecoin-issuers privately offered over-the-counter [OTC] trading desks up to a 1 percent discount if traders used these tokens in some fashion before redeeming them for USD. “They were offering that as a sweetener for getting it kick-started with…

European Blockchain Startup Launches Trading in Tokenized Securities

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Belarus-based blockchain startup Currency.com has launched a trading platform for tokenized securities. The firm announced Tuesday that the platform would allow investors to directly trade and invest in financial instruments using the cryptocurrencies bitcoin or ethereum, without first converting to fiat. The platform will initially host over 150 tokenized securities, tracking the underlying market price of financial instruments such as equity and commodities, it said, while over 10,000 similar offerings could be available in the future. Currency.com explained that the service lets investors buy a token that would reflect the…

Hong Kong Crypto Exchange BitMex Shutting Down Trading Accounts in the US and Quebec

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The Hong Kong-based bitcoin futures exchange BitMex, is pulling the plug on trading accounts in the US and in the Canadian province of Quebec amidst growing regulatory restrictions in North America. Although BitMex is one of the most active bitcoin trading platforms in the world with a current turnover of $928 billion, the trading platform is rightfully nervous on the impact of the tighter laws for exchanges on the continent. BitMex Ditching US Accounts Amidst Regulatory Crackdowns BitMex is currently in the process of shutting down US trading accounts and…