Image of The Day, 15 of October: Fortune, The Guardian, Forbes and Others
We're presenting "the image of the day". Bitnewstoday.com has chosen the most important news about the digital economy and virtual currencies. Only the most valuable stories from only the trusted sources. Each and every event from this list will change the world of the digital economy either way. The most important stories of this day in the most indicative quotes are below!
1. DEFECTOR! (Fortune)
Coinbase veteran is changing sides in cryptocurrency
A prime architect of America’s largest trading platform for digital currencies is changing teams. Adam White, who helped build Coinbase into a crypto-colossus with 25 million customers, is joining Bakkt, the venture launched in August by a consortium led by Intercontinental Exchange (market cap: $42 billion), parent of the New York Stock Exchange, as chief operating officer.
The announcement came on the morning of October 15 via a post on the blogging platform Medium from Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler. For sixteen years, Loeffler worked alongside ICE’s founder and chief Jeff Sprecher, who’s also her husband, to assemble a highly regulated, mainstream trading empire for equities, ETFs, and commodities ranging from Brent crude to cotton.
2. BINANCE KNOWS DA WAY (The Next Web)
Binance will launch its first cryptocurrency-to-fiat trading pairs in Uganda
After a registration process lasting some four months, Binance will finally offer fiat-to-cryptocurrency trading pairs through its new Uganda exchange, with deposits opening on Wednesday. Announced via press release, Ugandans are now able to fully submit identity documents and begin depositing fiat ahead of live trade, something expected to start in two weeks.
Binance Uganda will initially allow verified users to trade Ugandan Shillings for Bitcoin and Ethereum, but it promises to add more cryptocurrency pairs in the future. Wei Zhou, Binance’s chief finance officer, called the trading pairs an “innovation,” and commented they are the “first step” of its efforts to use blockchain tech to “support sustainable economic development in Africa.”
3. ROUBINI IS SALTY (The Guardian)
Blockchain isn't about democracy and decentralisation – says Dr. Doom
Infamous professor continues his rhetorics, claims that blockchain is a bad technology, that is pretty much a “glorified” spreadsheet. That crypto development is centralised and once again compares crypto with North Korea,
It’s hard to judge the guy as he tends to mistake Tinder for Twitter, and his overall expertise in the field of hi-tech industry is really questionable.
4. STILL IN THE SHADOW OF THE BROTHER (Blokt)
Ethereum continues to mirror Bitcoin
Ethereum has continued to mirror Bitcoin with the recent bullish and bearish movements. Bitcoin broke out of its triangle pattern which it had been forming since January on Thursday. Bitcoin underwent a bearish movement which saw it drop below the lower trendline of the triangle.
Ethereum followed this movement on large volume and underperformed. While Bitcoin depreciated about 6% during this move, Ethereum declines around 16% moving from $224 to $188 on Coinbase. This has been similar to the movements we have been seeing all year for Ethereum in relation to Bitcoin. Ethereum has been underperforming in declines showing traders still consider Bitcoin a better store of value.
5. THREE WISE MEN (Forbes)
Randi Zuckerberg, Ripple and TechCrunch execs advise new $17 million blockchain startup
The blockchain-based crowdfunding platform Pledgecamp has raised $17 million in a private funding round and is advised by Randi Zuckerberg (Founder/CEO Zuckerberg Media), Matt Curcio (VP Data at Ripple), and Keith Teare (Founding shareholder at Techcrunch) in the lead up to its $3 million public token sale.
Founded by Kickstarter serial crowdfunding veterans Jae Choi, Eddie Lee, and Sam Pullman, the San Francisco company is trying to change the current crowdfunding model with a Backer Insurance escrow model that uses smart contracts.
6. WOZ AND BARONESS DUO (Financial times)
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak become a co-founder of the blockchain company, EQUI Global
FT already reported that Woz would become a co-founder back in September. That was in the same story that we reported EQUI had canned its initial coin offering (ICO) after failing to get enough investment, that there had been a big row over how much the people who had been promoting it should be paid, including warnings of criminal consequences if EQUI were “bad-mouthed”, that the company had threatened us with lawyers and told us our every move was being watched, and that they had used a parliamentary email address to correspond with us.
EQUI says it's a “tokenised” venture capital fund focused on tech, that aims to open up VC investing to a wider group of people. It also describes itself as “a potential cryptocurrency of safety”.
7. SNAKE EYES (The Next Web)
Hackers target EOS gambling dApp once again, $338K believed stolen
Hackers are believed to have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of EOS cryptocurrency from blockchain-powered gambling dApp EOSBet — again.
Thieves have exploited another vulnerability in the automated dice game, allegedly taking at least $338,000 from its operational wallets.
By injecting standard EOS accounts with malicious code, digital baddies appear to have tricked its smart contract into mistakenly crediting their accounts with large amounts of cryptocurrency.
8. RAPID ACCELERATION (Market Watch)
Bitcoin is trading at a 10% premium
Bitcoin rose sharply Monday after a credit scare on a major cryptocurrency exchange created a rush for the No.1 digital currency. After beginning the day around $6,200, bitcoin traded to an intraday high of $6,960.68 on the Kraken exchange. However, on the Bitfinex exchange, the third largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, according to CoinMarketCap data, the price of bitcoin traded to an intraday high of $7,788, creating a premium of more than 10%.
“People were willing to pay more to get hold of bitcoin and get off USDT as worries circulated about credit risk,” said Charles Hayter, co-founder of CryptoCompare.
9. 40% For $350 Million (International Business Times)
Bithumb sells 40% stake for $350 million
Bithumb, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea by trading volume, confirmed that it sold over 38 percent of its total ownership to a blockchain consortium based in Singapore. BK Global Consortium, led by plastic surgeon and startup investor Kim Byung-gun, paid $352 million to become the largest shareholder in Bithumb.
BTC Holdings Company — Bithumb’s erstwhile majority shareholder with 76 percent stake in the company — agreed to sell 50 percent of its total shares, and one additional share, to BK Global Consortium. As a result, it went from owning 76 percent of Bithumb’s equity to just under 38 percent, a move that made BK Global Consortium the largest shareholder of Bithumb. The acquisition deal valued Bitthumb at over $880 million.
10. FAMILY AFFAIR (CNBC)
Fidelity just made it easy for hedge funds and other pros to invest in cryptocurrencies
Financial services giant Fidelity is taking a huge step into cryptocurrency.
The 72-year-old firm announced the launch of a separate company, Fidelity Digital Asset Services, on Monday that will handle cryptocurrency custody and trade execution for institutional investors.
“Our goal is to make digitally native assets, such as bitcoin, more accessible to investors,” Fidelity Investments Chairman and CEO Abigail Johnson said in a press release. “We expect to continue investing and experimenting, over the long-term, with ways to make this emerging asset class easier for our clients to understand and use.”