• What’s New at CoinCentral?
• Cryptocurrency News from Around the World

This Week in Cryptocurrency – January 12th, 2018

Crypto Roller Coaster Continues: This week, the total market cap for all coins hit a new all-time high around $835 billion on January 7th and took a steep correction losing over $200 billion in a just a few days to land at $628 billion on January 11th. At the time of writing, the market has seemed to stabilize (as stable as something can be in the Wild West World of Crypto) around $718 billion.

Bitcoin: The flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin was down roughly -15% to a price of $14,000.00 this week.

Ethereum: Despite the violent twists and turns of the market, Ethereum went up 25.91% this week hitting an ATH of around $1400. It regained its number two spot from Ripple.

Ripple Knocked Down to 3rd Spot: Following an explosive few weeks of growth, Ripple took a major hit when CoinMarketCap removed South Korean exchanges from their listings, instantly dropping prices from ATH’s. Down 34.91% this week, Ripple saw some alleviation with the announcement of its partnership with MoneyGram.

Cardano: Currently in the 5th position, Cardano was trading at $0.80 at the time of writing. The altcoin took a major blow along with Ripple, decreasing 21.22% this past week.

Tron Takes a Tumble: The recent allegations against Tron along with the market being overall down affected Tron pretty hard, moving the currency from its short-lived number 6th spot to 13th. The currency is down 47.24% this week.

Binance Coin: Binance Coin (BNB) is up 72% in the last 7 days. The coin, owned by major exchange Binance, offers discounts for using the coin when trading for other currencies on its platform.

Alt-coin “Vibe” Increases more than 400% in A Single Day: Vibe, a live-music focused cryptocurrency, exploded in growth after it was added to the Binance exchange. The coin, currently trading around $1.40, created a major buzz after it sold out in under 5 minutes during its ICO phase.

Tron Accused Of Plagiarizing in Whitepaper: CEO of Tron Justin Sun has had a bumpy week after facing a string of allegations, which include accusations of selling off all his coins by Litecoin founder Charlie Lee (later resolved between the parties). To add insult to injury, Tron was accused of copying their whitepaper by the founder of BitTorrent client JoyStream.

Famous Wall Street Trader Mike Novogratz to Start Cryptocurrency Bank: Former Goldman Sachs Partner Mike Novogratz has been an avid supporter of blockchain for some time, and is now looking to take his stake in the industry to new heights. According to Bloomberg Markets, Galaxy Digital Holdings will be publicly listed in Canada and will build the “best-in-class, full service, institutional-quality merchant banking business in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space”.

Computer Vulnerability Causes Major Exchange Shut Down: This past Wednesday, Bittrex took many wallets offline to secure the safety of data within its platform. The flaws, primarily found in Intel chips that were created from 1995 and beyond, affects “pretty much everyone” who uses them to connect to the internet.

Telegram Wants to Raise More Than $1 Billion for ICO: Instant messaging service Telegram plans on launching the Telegram Open Network (Ton) cryptocurrency in the near future. With roughly 200 million users on the app, users will be able to make purchases with “grams” for such tools as concealed browsing and file sharing.

Brains & Brawn, NFL Superstar Richard Sherman Weighs in on Crypto: Cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks Richard Sherman says people need to do research and educate themselves when investing in cryptocurrency.  He also lays out three major issues with cryptocurrency, including expensive trading fees, slow transaction times, and “skepticism” injuring the market’s potential for mass adoption. With more spare time off the field due to injury, Sherman looks to crypto to “stimulate [himself] mentally”.

Self-Proclaimed “Crypto Genius” James Atlucher to Launch Exchange: You may recognize James from your FB ads or in your newsfeed, trying to convince “average Joes to ride the crypto boom” by enrolling in his crypto courses. Also called the “Guru of Finance”, the author and podcast host is now looking to start an exchange called “Bitzumi”. According to Altucher, the company intends to compete with the likes of well-known exchanges such as Bitstamp and Coinbase.

Former Bankrupt Company Kodak to Launch ICO: A day after announcing the creation of “KodakCoin”, Kodak shares tripled in value. According to the Kodak website, the coin will allow photographers to “receive payment for licensing their work immediately upon sale, and sell their work confidently on a secure blockchain platform.”

Warren Buffett States Cryptocurrency Will “Come to a Bad Ending”: In a sea of speculation, it’s no wonder the generally conservative investor steers clear of cryptocurrencies. In a CNBC interview, Buffet exclaimed that cryptocurrency “is a mirage… the idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke”.

What’s New at CoinCentral?

An inside look at CoinCentrals trending articles for further crypto insight. The articles this week include:

SALT Lending Guide: Have a big expense but don’t want to sell off your blockchain assets? SALT might be perfect for you.

What is Dogecoin?: Is there more to the world’s most valuable meme? We think so.

Understanding ERC20: ERC20-based tokens are popping out of the woodwork in masses. Find out how they function and the rules they have to follow.

Cryptocurrency Fundamentals: Learn more about hashing and other cryptography basics used by cryptocurrencies.

What is Dash?: Learn more about how this project is looking to solve the challenges of instant, private payments.

What is 0x?: This open, permissionless protocol allowing for ERC20 tokens to be traded on the Ethereum blockchain could be big in 2018.

Who is the Coinbase Team?: Find out more about the team of one of the most influential companies in the cryptocurrency world. Currently headquartered in San Francisco, the company was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.

Partnerships That Will Help Form 2018:  These partnerships will play a substantial role in how several projects shape up in 2018.

What is Vertcoin?: Vertcoin exists solely as a currency, and it uses proof of work to reach distributed consensus.

Vertcoin’s 1-Click Miner: Now that you know some more about Vertcoin, check out the 1-Click Miner. Too good to be true?

What is Ardor?: Ardor offers a main chain that offers a ton of out of the box solutions for businesses.

How to Convert Altcoins to USD and Other Fiat Currencies: Explaining the simplest ways to cash out your altcoins to USD and other fiat currencies.

Cryptocurrency Fundamentals: Hashing Basics & History: A generic hash function is a special type of programming function that is used to map data of arbitrary size to data of a fixed size.

To see some of the biggest names in the cryptosphere like Tim Draper, Brad Garlinhhouse (CEO of Ripple), and Charlie Lee (Founder of Litecoin) speak, check out Blockchain Connect in San Francisco on January 26th, 2018. Our readers will receive 30% off with the code “coincentral” ????

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Cryptocurrency News from Around the World

NEO’s Founder Doesn’t Expect Stricter Government Regulations: NEO’s Founder Da Hongfei noted in an interview with Bloomberg that the Chinese government has already been very strict with cryptocurrencies in China, but does not expect stricter regulations coming.

North Korea Mining Ultra-Anonymous Monero: North Korea is at the cyber attack game again, this time hacking peoples computers to mine Monero through them. The currency, which is being funneled to a university in Pyongyang, is said to “provide a financial lifeline to a country hit hard by sanctions” by U.S. cybersecurity firm Alienvault.

China Threatens to Ban Mining: According to Fortune.com, China wants an “orderly exit” from cryptocurrency and is willing to limit miners electricity supply in order to do so. With mining being an integral part of cryptocurrency and China being the largest market for Bitcoin mining, such a move could have devastating effects on the industry at large.

Venezuela’s “Petro” Cryptocurrency Considered Illegal by Congress: According to the Venezuelan congress, the “Petro” coin is just another way for President Maduro to “illegally mortgage the cash-strapped country’s oil reserves.” The Congress also adds that issuing the digital currency disregards legislative authority to approve borrowing.

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