This Week in Cryptocurrency: June 7th, 2019

• What’s New at CoinCentral?

Cryptocurrency market update: Cryptocurrency markets saw a slight correction this week, however, some tokens still saw their time in the sun.

The losers: Bitcoin down 4%, Ethereum down 3%, EOS down 16.44%.

The winners: Litecoin is up 7.55%, Tron up 6.54%, Cosmos up 12.6%, Chainlink 21.1%, Zilliqa up 26%.

Blockstream Developers Accused of Being Paid $850,000 Annually: Blockstream, the Bitcoin Core development company, has allegedly been paying its employees up to $850,000 per year due to an agreement in which employees are paid 20% of their salary in BTC pegged to its 2014 price. This infers that employees are being paid 85 BTC annually, which is about a $680,000 bonus on the year. However, it’s worth taking this information with a large grain of salt, as it was released in a hit piece by Cashbleed, a site registered this week, which fires some inflammatory shots such as accusing Blockstream of having “siphoned millions worth of Bitcoin to personal wallets.”

Cryptocurrency Ban Bill in India? Never Heard of Her ????????: Cryptocurrency has been a contentious subject in India, with predictions that the country is planning to ban all cryptocurrency setting an undertone of uneasiness. This week, an Indian lawyer named Varun Sethi received a response to his Right to Information (RTI) request with India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The RBI denied having sent or received any official communication to other departments “for this matter.” However, the cryptocurrency climate seems to be fairly apprehensive with a slight chance of ban, as a few government departments such as the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and the Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA) have all supported the idea of completely banning the purchase, sale, and issuance of all cryptocurrency.

What’s New at CoinCentral?

Former Poker Pro Launches MintDice: Online Crypto Casino: We got a chance to connect with Bryce Daifuku and pick his brain on the evolution of the casino space and what the cryptocurrency industry needs to do to evolve.

NSA Denies Leaked Hacker Tool Was Used to Create Bitcoin Ransomware: The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has denied that any of its hacking tools were used by cybercriminals to propagate an attack on Baltimore’s government systems.  

Bitcoin Price Predictions, Uncovering the Real Crypto Market Drivers: A collective of crypto market analysts strongly believe that a rally past the $10,000 mark will trigger considerable FOMO and propel the prime coin to new heights.

Crypto Whales Might Be Able to Manipulate Markets but Not in the Long Term: It, however, also allowed bitcoin whales to purchase hundreds of thousands of bitcoins at downgraded prices. Cryptocurrency whales were able to acquire over 450,000 BTC in less than nine months.

Justin Sun Announces Lunch with Warren Buffet: BitTorrent (BTT) Price Goes “Meh”: Sun is the first person to donate over $4 million for the awe-inspiring lunch, beating out the previous record of around $3.5 million in 2016. While Glide and those involved with the auction are likely ecstatic about the donation, others aren’t so pleased.

6 Blockchain Startups Taking on the Freelancer Economy: A decade ago, freelancing was seen as somewhat of an island of misfit toys – people who were otherwise barred from the larger corporate workforce either by job qualifications, geographic location, or discriminations such as tattoo sleeves, or those crazy few that decided to start their own business. Today, the blossomed freelancing ecosystem has shaken up the traditional professional itinerary.

Former Mt. Gox CEO Reveals New Blockchain Startup: Mt. Gox getting hacked for $460 million was a pivotal moment in cryptocurrency’s history, as well as the life of CEO Mark Karpeles. Some would say it’s difficult to bounce back after a $460 million hack, especially when faced with embezzlement charges in Japan, a country with a 99% conviction rate. In March, Karpeles got off relatively clean, with a suspended sentence of 2.5 years, which he wouldn’t have to serve if he doesn’t get into any trouble. This week, Karpeles announced he’s jumping back into the cryptocurrency world to launch a venture called Tristan Technologies, with claims of wanting to help Japan become a powerhouse within the blockchain economy.   

Darknet Drugs on the Rise: The Global Drugs Survey questioned over 123,000 people from over 30 countries and found that darknet drug purchases have been growing rapidly. The survey found that 87% of respondents were white, 59% were male, and a mean age of 29, with the most popular illegal drugs used in the last year, were cannabis, MDMA, cocaine, amphetamines, LSD, and psilocybin mushrooms. Many people purchasing drugs on the darknet used BTC, although popular threads on onion forum encourage the use of Monero. Cryptocurrency antagonists often point to the ease and anonymity to transact with cryptocurrency on the darknet.

Facebook Targets Cryptocurrency Debut for June 18th: Last name, Libra. First name, Facebook’s cryptocurrency project people won’t stop talking about called. According to TechCrunch, multiple investors briefed on Project Libra were told that Facebook plans to release the Libra whitepaper on June 18th.