Cryptocurrency Startup LoopX Pulls Exit Scam After Raising $4.5M in ICO (TheNextWeb.com)
Another day, another exit scam: an emerging cryptocurrency startup more commonly known as LoopX has suddenly vanished out of thin air along with millions worth of its investors’ savings. The sketchy investment platform, which promised to earn backers’ money with its proprietary trading algorithm, has abruptly gone dark after raising $4.5 million in a series of initial coin offerings (ICO). The company has since also pulled its website and deleted its social media fingerprint, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Telegram accounts.
Cryptocurrency Businesses Find Ways Around Facebook Ad Ban (IOL.co.za)
INTERNATIONAL – Cryptocurrency ads have found their way onto Facebook despite a ban, using a workaround popular with email spammers: changing spelling. In one recent ad, the “o” in “BITCOIN” was replaced with a zero, and the capital I’s were replaced with lowercase L’s. The tactic was noticed by French entrepreneur Matthieu Suiche on Twitter, who said he was surprised by the ban’s lack of sophistication. Facebook Inc. banned ads tied to cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings and binary options last month, saying they were associated with misleading and deceptive practices.
Pixabay/Public Domain
Neo Price Stabilizes: Small Banks in Europe Support Cryptocurrency Success (FXStreet)
Neo stabilizes between $110 recorded on Friday 9th Feb 2018 and $115 on Monday 12th Feb 2018. NEO/USD is trading at $113 on Monday as trading opens this week. Neo has been on an upward trend for almost two weeks now. The news in the highly speculative market has been in support of both major and small virtual currencies. Most cryptocurrencies are thriving in Europe including Neo as small banks decide support cryptocurrencies.
Iceland will Use More Electricity Mining Bitcoins than Powering its Homes in 2018 (Qz.com)
Bitcoin prices may have plunged in the first months of 2018, but the cryptocurrency craze is still burning bright—and using up a lot of electricity in the process. Some headlines have claimed that bitcoin mining worldwide uses more electricity than all of Denmark or Ireland, while others argue that such figures are inflated. Now figures from an energy firm in Iceland provide some context. In 2018, HS Orka estimates that Icelandic data centers mining cryptocurrencies will use 840 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity—more than what the country’s entire population consumes in the same year to power their homes.
Bitcoin Getting Ready to Hit $10,000 Again – Here’s What’s Happening Around the World (BGR.com)
The Bitcoin bloodbath of early February, the second and biggest such event of the year, seems to be forgotten. After plunging through $10,000 and dropping below $6,000 on bad regulation news from Asia, Bitcoin recovered plenty of ground in the past few days, trading for as high as $9,000 across exchanges — one Bitcoin costs just over $8,700 at the time of this writing. It’s good news across the board, as all cryptocurrencies are doing well in early trading. We’re looking at single-digit gains for most of them — ranging from 2.49% (Bitcoin Cash) to 8.83% (Neo) when looking only at the top 10 coins by market share.
Ethereum Will Pass Bitcoin In April 2018 (Cryptodaily.co.uk)
It seems a wild statement to make, given the disparity in value between the two cryptocurrency giants (at time of writing, Bitcoin’s value exceeds Ethereum’s by a factor of ten), but we’re not talking about pricing, but market dominance. Since it kickstarted the digital currency phenomenon back in January of 2009, Bitcoin has always been way ahead in terms of its dominance of the market cap. We determine this through the comparative growth of Bitcoin as a percentage of the overall growth of the market.
China’s State Media Takes Aim at Crypto Trading, ICOs (CoinDesk.com)
China’s state-owned news agency appears to be stepping up rhetoric on over-the-counter (OTC) crypto trading and overseas initial coin offerings (ICOs), calling the blockchain use cases attempts to bypass domestic regulation. In a news report published Feb. 12, the Xinhua News Agency detailed how purchasing cryptocurrency assets through OTC channels is easily available by having reporters register on exchanges such as Huobi Pro and buy bitcoin using accessible payment tools like AliPay. As reported previously, following the ban on ICO and closure of order-book trading platforms last year, the country’s domestic exchange platforms have shifted to OTC trading and largely moved their businesses overseas.
ICO News – NeuroChain- Blockchain Meets Artificial Intelligence (Invezz.com)
Blockchain technology has brought huge changes and advancements to our world, but it seems we’re at a turning point and this may only the beginning of what can be achieved. ICO NeuroChain has plans which they believe will accelerate the current possibilities. The upcoming ICO is an enhanced blockchain, which is designed with the intention of advancing the capacity and performance of distributed systems.
Global Fund AlphaBit Backs Singapore Blockchain Startup BitCar (CoinJournal.net)
BitCar, a Singapore-based blockchain startup, has announced that AlphaBit, a fund launched last year, has purchased a “substantial number of BitCar tokens.” BitCar is currently conducting a token sale to fund the development of its blockchain platform, which intends to facilitate the pegging of cryptocurrency to scarce hard assets such as rare and exotic cards. The startup claims it has already sold S$8.2 million (US$6.1 million) worth of BitCar tokens. AlphaBit, a hybrid between an open-ended mutual fund and a hedge fund, raised US$300 million last year to invest in digital currency assets around the world.
Litecoin Price in an Upward Trend Despite Rumors of an Overhyped Fork; Possibility of a Scam (FXStreet)
Litecoin is up 9.8% on Monday and is trading at $160. LTC/USD at 08:00 GMT, traded at $154 and has since been on an upward trend line in spite of news in the market that the impending fork is merely hype. Charlie Lee, the creator, and founder of Litecoin had warned that fork scams would be coming to Litecoin. Litecoin is one of those cryptocurrencies where disagreements rarely occur. The overhyped “hard fork” comes to shake things up in the somehow “boring” Litecoin network where everything is built on a consensus, and the project goes forth without disagreements.
