Image of The Week, April, 8 — 12: Chepicap, The Verge, Coindesk and Others
THOR token “closed its doors”, blames regulatory issues (Chepicap)
After the successful ICO launch 2 years ago and attracting more than $21 mln in investments, THOR Technologies CEO David CHIN announces the closure of the project. The news followed recent reports of 50% of employees being fired from the company. Chin apologized to the owners of the tokens for a long silence, saying that the company worked “behind the scenes” searching for a way out of the situation, but all attempts were unsuccessful. “Companies’ hesitation and doubts of cryptocurrency had a major effect on sales and adoption. Thor was not able to gain traction and achieve commercial success, and will be shutting its doors”, says Chin. THOR’s CEO also said that the closure was also caused by significant regulatory issues faced by the project.
Bitcoin Is More Popular That The SpaceX Launch And Elon Musk (Bitcoinist)
Everyone knows that people from different parts of the world are fascinated by the business magnate from South Africa, admire his electric cars and modern top-notch spacecraft, and any mention of Elon MUSK in online media usually boosts the traffic significantly. However, numbers cannot lie: over the past seven days, the number of search queries with the word “Bitcoin” has surpassed the number of people who want to learn more about Elon Musk or the SpaceX launch. According to the Google Trends charts presented by Bitcoinist, the world’s population is now much more interested in a sustainable alternative financial system that will serve their interests, rather than banks’. Statistics show that even at Musk’s homeland South Africa, users are not so much interested in the technological feats of their compatriot. The “bitcoin” query here is also ahead of any requests related to SpaceX and Tesla. But we should not forget that South Africa is the country with the largest number of cryptocurrency owners in the world.
Trade Organization ICC Eyes Blockchain Adoption for Its 45 Mln Members (Coindesk)
On Thursday it was announced about the start of the partnership between the largest trade organization and blockchain-startup Perlin from Singapore. All members of the International Chamber of Commerce from 130 countries of the world will be able to connect to the new platform, whose main goal is to improve transparency and track the supply chain of products. According to the Secretary General of the ICC, John DENTON, the new partnership will open the way for breakthrough changes and transformations for enterprises in all conceivable industries. Collaboration with Perlin is also working on the Business Initiative to Combat Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP), which was developed by the Chamber of Commerce to raise awareness of the economic and social harm caused by counterfeiting and piracy.
Bitcoin dealer gets two-year prison sentence for unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange (The Verge)
In the US, a 22-year-old man was sentenced to two years in prison for illegally selling bitcoins. Jacob Burrell CAMPOS, a US citizen, and resident of Mexico was engaged in the exchange of cryptocurrencies without the necessary registration in the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the US Treasury. He pleaded guilty in October 2018, agreeing that he did not take any measures to combat money laundering and did not check the origin of his clients’ funds. Burrell was not accused of committing any other criminal acts, such as theft or fraud, — the charges in illegal exchange activities turned out to be enough to get 2 years in prison. As the investigators managed to find out, Burrell sold bitcoins 5% above the regular exchange rate and received cash payments, which made his services attractive to potential money launderers.