Bitcoin is starting the year with a crash, and Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp has resumed trading after being hacked earlier this week. Here are the cryptocurrency highlights of week 2:
- Bitcoin’s New Year started with a crash. After hovering around $300 per Bitcoin last week, the price subsequently dipped to almost $260 per coin. Some of the losses have been recovered over the past days, but Bitcoin’s weekly loss still exceeds eight percent. One Bitcoin is currently trading at about $275, roughly 14 percent lower than the start of the year.
- Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp lost 19,000 Bitcoins (about $5 million) in a hack attack earlier this week. Bitstamp is one of the largest and also one of the older Bitcoin exchanges. The hack confirms that despite actions taken by many exchanges after the collapse of Mt.Gox, users can still only hope that these exchanges know what they are doing with respect to security. Bitstamp had a 55 out of 100 rating concerning compliance (closely related to security), rated by Digiconomist. The platform resumed trading on Friday.
- Bitcoin wallet start-up Bitreserve has managed to raise GBP 6.3 million through crowdfunding platforms Crowdcube and Venovate. Bitreserve was not just the first digital currency company on Crowdcube, but also managed beat the fund raising record on the platform by GBP 4 million.
- Precious metals dealer Amagi Metals was already known for its plans to completely abandon fiat currency payments in 2017, and has now announced that it is paying its entire staff in Bitcoin via payroll service provider Bitwage. Publicity stunt or not, the company is well on its way towards being one of Bitcoin’s most fanatic supporters. Interestingly, online retailer Overstock.com has reportedly offered its staff a similar option.
- Litecoin, Dogecoin, Blackcoin and Neoscoin have requested to be delisted from exchange Coin-Swap. The reason for the boycott is the acquisition of Coin-Swap by Paycoin wallet Paybase. Paybase is owned by GAW Miners, which is also responsible for launching the altcoin Paycoin. This creates a considerable conflict of interest, and raises concern that GAW Miners will artificially inflate the price of Paycoin.
