{"id":12608,"date":"2019-04-11T20:29:24","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T20:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=12608"},"modified":"2020-04-14T22:35:53","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T22:35:53","slug":"news-coinbase-suspends-bitcoin-quadriga-officially-bankrupt-bittrex-out-of-new-york-bitfinex-margin-trading-on-tethers-blockstack-reg-a-token-offering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2019\/04\/11\/news-coinbase-suspends-bitcoin-quadriga-officially-bankrupt-bittrex-out-of-new-york-bitfinex-margin-trading-on-tethers-blockstack-reg-a-token-offering\/","title":{"rendered":"News: Coinbase suspends Bitcoin, Quadriga officially bankrupt, Bittrex out of New York, Bitfinex margin trading on Tethers, Blockstack Reg A+ token offering"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t forget \u2014 you, and your friends and colleagues, can <a href=\"#byemail\">sign up to be emailed new posts to this blog!<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase, the most popular US crypto exchange, <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/hardfork\/2019\/04\/11\/coinbase-pro-bitcoin-markets-wiped-clean-technical\/\">suspended trading on the BTC-USD pair<\/a> for two hours today \u2014 the pair that&#8217;s one of the most important Bitcoin price measures, as it&#8217;s a relatively high-volume channel to and from actual money. Trading was <a href=\"https:\/\/status.pro.coinbase.com\/incidents\/fd85xb73vkwb\">disabled<\/a> at 06:08 PDT (13:08 UTC) and re-enabled at 07:49 PDT (14:49 UTC) \u2014 though they cancelled all outstanding buy or sell orders. Coinbase have not said what the problem was.<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase Pro has <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.coinbase.com\/eos-eos-augur-rep-and-maker-mkr-are-launching-on-coinbase-pro-25ef414793eb\">listed more altcoins<\/a> \u2014 EOS, Augur&#8217;s REP and Maker DAO&#8217;s MKR. Coinbase Pro <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.coinbase.com\/ethereum-tokens-dai-dai-golem-gnt-maker-mkr-and-zilliqa-zil-are-launching-on-coinbase-3065eeb42d5b\">first announced MKR in December<\/a> \u2014 but (according to Larry Cermak) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lawmaster\/status\/1116429703567630338\">never bothered actually listing it<\/a> at the time, due to low volume. (Despite considerable coverage in the crypto blogs.)<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase UK is launching a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/0aac6c9a-5b88-11e9-939a-341f5ada9d40\">crypto-backed Visa debit card.<\/a> Despite the massive appeal of these to crypto hodlers, Visa has usually <a href=\"https:\/\/ftalphaville.ft.com\/2018\/01\/05\/2197305\/crypto-cards-just-suffered-a-major-setback\/\">punted the card issuers<\/a> after investigation \u2014 they&#8217;re generally really bad at anti-money-laundering compliance. Presumably Coinbase&#8217;s partner, <s>Apto Payments, previously Shift Payments,<\/s> is on a sturdier footing. <a href=\"https:\/\/ftalphaville.ft.com\/2018\/12\/10\/1544439535000\/Gibraltar-slaps--250k-fine-on-WaveCrest--CEO-stands-down-\/\">Hopefully.<\/a> <b>Update:<\/b> The FT article appears incorrect \u2014 Coinbase say their card issuer is <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.coinbase.com\/spend-your-crypto-instantly-with-coinbase-card-4c840e59a8d8\">Paysafe.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Quadriga Financial Solutions has <a href=\"https:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/pmn\/business-pmn\/quadrigacx-cryptocurrency-exchange-officially-placed-in-bankruptcy\">been moved from CCAA protection to bankruptcy<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20190410094706\/https:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/pmn\/business-pmn\/quadrigacx-cryptocurrency-exchange-officially-placed-in-bankruptcy\">archive<\/a>), as Ernst &amp; Young requested in their <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2019\/04\/02\/quadriga-ccaa-fourth-report-of-the-monitor-from-politely-savage-forensic-accountants\/\">fourth report<\/a> as monitor \u2014 the money is gone, the company is dead, and now it&#8217;s a matter of cleaning up the mess. EY is the bankruptcy trustee, and &#8220;now has the right to compel production of documents and testimony from witnesses.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When did Michael Patryn and Gerald Cotten start working together? Before Quadriga, they ran a Liberty Reserve exchanger called <a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/2019\/04\/09\/quadrigacx-patryn-cotten-and-midas-gold-a-liberty-reserve-exchanger\/\">Midas Gold<\/a> \u2014 send them dollars, they&#8217;d credit you LR tokens for a mere 5% fee. You could then exchange the LRs with other Liberty Reserve users for, uh, completely legitimate purposes that certainly didn&#8217;t involve drug deals or money laundering. Liberty Reserve was <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Liberty_Reserve#Criminal_investigation_and_charges\">shut down in 2013,<\/a> and Midas Gold&#8217;s domain name was confiscated by the FBI. It&#8217;s not clear when Cotten joined \u2014 but the exchanger was registered with Liberty Reserve with the email address <i>geraldcotten@\u200bgmail.com.<\/i> &#8220;A few months after M-Gold.com was seized, QuadrigaCX launched in beta.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Bittrex exchange has had to cease operations in New York state. Apparently customers were using fake names like &#8220;Donald Duck,&#8221; &#8220;Elvis Presley&#8221; and &#8220;Give me my money&#8221; to trade, and the New York Department of Financial Services was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblockcrypto.com\/2019\/04\/10\/bittrex-customers-were-using-fake-names-like-donald-duck-and-elvis-to-trade-and-now-the-exchange-has-to-leave-new-york\/\">not so happy.<\/a> Their letter to Bittrex (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dfs.ny.gov\/system\/files\/documents\/2019\/04\/dfs-bittrex-letter-41019.pdf\">PDF<\/a>) is brutal. Bittrex has issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/bittrex.zendesk.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/360026708551-Bittrex-Statement-on-the-New-York-Department-of-Financial-Services-NYDFS-Decision-\">statement<\/a> about how unfair this all is.<\/p>\n<p>Bitfinex has enabled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitfinex.com\/posts\/350\">margin trading on Tethers!<\/a> That is, you can bet on the price of a dollar-pegged token, gambling on how much the peg is failing by today \u2014 on the exchange that issues the token. Trading pairs are BTC-USDT and ETH-USDT.<\/p>\n<p>Bitfinex has also removed its $10,000 minimum equity requirement for trading \u2014 &#8220;opening the world\u2019s most advanced trading platform to everyone.&#8221; The intention is to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/paoloardoino\/status\/1115552403032543232\">encourage developers<\/a> to interface to their systems. They haven&#8217;t announced changes to <em>withdrawal<\/em> limits, which are still a minimum of $10,000.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cDear diary,<br \/>It took a larger pump than usual to entice those suckers to buy in, but boy did we cleaned them!<br \/>Every single time, I feel like we\u2019ve reached the limits of their stupidity, and every single time, they prove me wrong.<br \/>Who could have thought idiots have so much money.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HqMBqMg83j\">pic.twitter.com\/HqMBqMg83j<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Trolly McTrollface (@Tr0llyTr0llFace) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Tr0llyTr0llFace\/status\/1116287101820076034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 11, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Belgium&#8217;s Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) warns of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fsma.be\/en\/warnings\/cryptocurrency-fraud-fsma-updates-its-list-suspicious-sites-0\">seven new crypto scam websites.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Blockstack, a distributed file system blockchain startup, has announced plans to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblockcrypto.com\/tiny\/blockstack-announces-plans-to-raise-50m-in-a-sec-regulated-token-offering\/\">raise $50 million<\/a> in a token offering \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/1719379\/000110465919020748\/a18-15736_1partiiandiii.htm\">under SEC Regulation A+,<\/a> rather than as an ICO\/SAFT under Reg D 506(c). They previously raised $52m in an <a href=\"https:\/\/coinlist.co\/blockstack\">ICO in 2017,<\/a> which was run as a SAFT. The previous sale was only to accredited investors \u2014 but the nice part of a Reg A+ is that you can sell to retail investors.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Blockchain Startup Funding Strategy:<br \/>&quot;Legal said we passed the Howey test, so we&#39;re good.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Blockchain Startup InfoSec Strategy:<br \/>&quot;Everything on the blockchain is encrypted, so we&#39;re good.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Blockchain Startup IP Strategy:<br \/>&quot;Everything in blockchain is open source, so we&#39;re good.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Zach Smolinski (@ZachSmolinski) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ZachSmolinski\/status\/1114855857114710017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 7, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Programmer help site Stack Overflow has released the results of its 2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/insights.stackoverflow.com\/survey\/2019#blockchain-in-the-real-world\">Developer Survey<\/a> \u2014 &#8220;The more experienced a respondent is, the more likely they are to say blockchain technology is an irresponsible use of resources.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A bitcoiner takes advantage of the short squeeze to turn a profit, and buys a lovely engagement ring! Surely his fellow Reddit \/r\/bitcoin posters will be happy for him, and not just post <a href=\"https:\/\/np.reddit.com\/r\/Bitcoin\/comments\/bbgroe\/traded_some_bitcoin_to_get_my_girl_the_engagement\/\">a spew of incel misogyny &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Someone wrote some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Buttcoin\/comments\/85984y\/epd_ethereum_protection_department\/\">\/r\/buttcoin fan fiction<\/a> featuring <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/book\/\"><em>Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SCENE: a Crypto CEO sells a house<\/p>\n<p>Appraiser: *Steps into well-lit, furnished entrance&#8230;*<br \/>&quot;Very nice. And the rest of the house?&quot;<br \/>CC: &quot;yes, that&#39;s for sale, too&quot;<br \/>Appraiser: &quot;And we&#39;re going to tour it?&quot;<br \/>CC: &quot;Well it&#39;s in private beta right now&#8230;&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kyle S. Gibson (@KyleSGibson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KyleSGibson\/status\/1116157622896427008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 11, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">You built a system designed literally to be controlled by whoever threw the most money at it (Proof of Work\/Stake) and decided this was your way to destroy the financial elites. ????<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Banjooie (@CocoaEyebrows) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CocoaEyebrows\/status\/1114207879261646848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The more experienced a respondent is, the more likely they are to say blockchain technology is an irresponsible use of resources.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[155,1229,639,1226,21,38,168,1227,288,165,754,1141,1225,6,1636,1164,594,938,1230,1228,39,354],"class_list":["post-12608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-rbuttcoin","tag-apto","tag-augur","tag-belgium","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitfinex","tag-bittrex","tag-blockstack","tag-coinbase","tag-eos","tag-ey","tag-gerald-cotten","tag-liberty-reserve","tag-links","tag-makerdao","tag-michael-patryn","tag-new-york","tag-quadrigacx","tag-shift","tag-stack-overflow","tag-tether","tag-visa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12608"}],"version-history":[{"count":52,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12709,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608\/revisions\/12709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}