HTC's Bitcoin Smartphone; BitMEX Enjoys Trading Volume Record; Bitfinex Privately Raises $1 Billion

The crypto news certainly didn't stop over the weekend. One of the most notable headlines was from HTC, announcing it will soon release the world's first smartphone with built-in capabilities of verifying transaction on the Bitcoin network. BitMEX celebrated a record-breaking $10 billion in daily bitcoin volume, while Bitfinex announced it had sold all one billion of its $LEO tokens in a private token sale.

Bitcoin ($BTC) finally retreated from its recent meteoric rise to $7,500. Over the past 24 hours, $BTC has dipped 0.31% to $7,153.7. As for ether (ETH), it has risen slightly by 0.58% to $191.2. Finally, the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 3,199.6, a 0.40% jump across the past 24 hours. (All pricing data is recorded at the ime of writing.)

HTC Unveils Blockchain Phone with Bitcoin Full Node Support

Taiwanese electronics manufacturing giant HTC will soon be releasing the EXODUS 1s, a new smartphone that will feature the ability to run a full Bitcoin node. Announced at the Magical Crypto Conference in New York by decentralized chief officer Phil Chen, the EXODUS 1s promises to be the world’s first smartphone to have built-in capabilities of verifying transactions on the Bitcoin network. HTC is reportedly aiming to release the ground-breaking device in the third quarter.

BitMEX Celebrates $10 Billion Daily Bitcoin Volume Record

Daily bitcoin volume on BitMEX surpassed $10 billion for the first time ever on Sunday, according to Arthur Hayes, co-founder and chief executive of the HDR Global Trading-owned cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform. Making BitMEX’s milestone all the more notable was the fact it happened over a weekend; two days the cryptocurrency market generally records relatively low trading volume.

New record for BitMEX trading volume. Praise be to volatility and our wonderful traders! pic.twitter.com/iLMGdpz65n

— Arthur Hayes (@CryptoHayes) May 12, 2019

Bitfinex Sells $1 Billion in $LEO Tokens

It has taken only ten days for Bitfinex to successfully raise $1 billion from the private sale of its native $LEO token, according to CTO Paolo Ardoino, who shared the below tweet early on Monday morning (PT). Ardoino’s announcement confirms news shared several days ago by Dong Zhao, a Bitfinex shareholder who reportedly posted a message on WeChat stating the $LEO token sale had received enough commitments to meet its $1 billion fundraising target.

. @bitfinex is able to raise 1b USDt in 10 days, in a private sale. Private companies, giants in our industry and outside, made investments for > 100m each. A legion of inside and outside users made investments for > 1m each.

— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) May 13, 2019

The controversial crypto exchange conducted the token sale in order to cover the $850 million currently frozen in several accounts controlled by payment processing company, Crypto Capital. As detailed in Bitfinex’s recently published whitepaper, with the $LEO token sale’s hard cap reached in the private sale – which ended on May 11 – Bitfinex will not proceed with a public sale.

“Private companies, giants in our industry and outside, made investments for >100m each.” Ardoino shared in another tweet on Monday, before also adding that “a legion of inside and outside users made investments for >1m each.”

When asked on Twitter what he meant by ">100m," the Bitfinex CTO clarified that investors hadthe option of purchasing $LEO tokens with tether (USDt) or a USDt equivalent, such as the U.S. dollar. "I'm saying that people also could invest via dollars sending to Bitfinex, not just USDt. They could also sell crypto for either USDt or USD to participate to $LEO sale," Ardoino went on to highlight, before admitting "I think it has been misleading (I apologize for that) using only [the] USDt term."