The DAO has broken the $100 million mark in funds raised, and exchange Gatecoin has been hacked. Here are the cryptocurrency highlights of week 19:
- The Ethereum project “The DAO” continued to break records with its crowdsale this week. The second week was remarkably successful, as the project manage to raise more than three times the amount raised in the first week. The idea of decentralized venture capital fund led by the wisdom of the crowd is clearly speaking to the imagination of many people. As a result, more than $100 million worth of Ether is now invested in the project. This equals more than twelve percent of all Ether currently in existence. The DAO is only the second known crowdsale ever to pass the $100 million mark. With two more weeks to go, the project is also well on track to become the most successful crowdsale in history.
- Before The DAO has even completed funding itself, one of its Curators, Gav Would, already announced that he would be stepping down. Would states that misconceptions about the role of Curators in The DAO have led him to his decision. It is clearly stated that Curators are only involved in confirming the identities of those submitting proposals to The DAO. As such, their role in the project is a trivial one. Would repeats this, but adds that “the term ‘curator’ seems rather misleading, suggesting some authority for independent judgement.” Hence Would decided to resign, in order to emphasize the irrelevance of Curators to The DAO’s operation.
- Rumours have surfaced that R3CEV, the start-up exploring blockchain technology for the financial industry, is facing some troubles in raising additional funding from its member banks. More specifically, R3 is seeking $200 million in funding “to develop a utility-based banking service using blockchain tech”. In return the banks, that are already paying a fee to work with R3, would get an equity stake in the new utility. It is said that this “not gone down well with the core members of the R3 consortium”, as they want a “bigger return on their investment and for their support of the overall project”. Moreover “an insider has described the situation as an ‘implosion’, adding that ‘the big banks are apoplectic with the high-handed approach and are busy considering their options.’ The articles featuring the former mysteriously disappeared shortly after they were published, although at least one (milder version) can still be found here.
- Bitcoin and altcoin exchange Gatecoin has been hacked. The exchange itself has gone offline, while an announcement on the home page states: “the Gatecoin team can confirm that we experienced a breach of our system, and lost 15% of our crypto-asset deposits”. The exchange also details the amount of funds lost in the attack: “In total, the hot wallet breach resulted in the loss of ETH 185,000 and BTC 250, which is equivalent to USD 2 million.” In the case of Ether, the exchange lost more than the 5% limit placed on its hot wallet. According to Gatecoin this is due to the attackers altering the system, and routing more coins to the hot wallet than should be possible. It is currently unknown when users will be reimbursed, and whether the platform will become available again.
- Bitcoin again failed to make it past the 3,000 CNY ($459) resistance level this week, adding even more significance to the level that has already proven to be able to hold BTC back quite well for the past few weeks. With a current exchange rate of $457 per coin, Bitcoin is even trading slightly lower than one week ago. On the other hand, Ethereum continued to benefit from an increasing interest for The DAO. The price of Ether increased by more than seven percent this week, taking the exchange rate to $10,03 per ETH.
