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| FUNDING CUT: A long-awaited capital infusion for Overstock and its tZERO security token platform has been delayed again – and significantly downsized.
GSR Capital, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, was supposed to close the $404 million investment on Feb. 28. But on Friday, Overstock said the deal had not closed, and the parties are now in talks for a much smaller cash infusion – $100 million – to be completed in April.
What’s more, an additional investor has been brought in: Makara Capital of Singapore. Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne described the firm as a “key partner of GSR Capital" in a press release.
GSR and Makara have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with tZERO to set the terms for a future transaction in which “Makara and GSR would co-lead an investment of up to $100 million in tZERO common stock and close the transaction in April subject to due diligence, negotiation of binding contracts and regulatory approval,” Byrne said.
The two firms will also help tZERO with its expansion in Asia and other parts of the world and connect the U.S. startup to the companies they invested in before.
“The news is disheartening,” trader Sean LaFlamme told CoinDesk. “It’s another extension in a long list of them. … If I am not sure tZERO is adequately funded, I won’t be putting further investment in it.” Full Story
ISTANBULLISH: Two long-anticipated upgrades have officially activated on the ethereum blockchain, the world’s second-largest by market value, without incident.
At 19:57 UTC Thursday, the sixth and seventh system-wide upgrades to the software, dubbed Constantinople and St. Petersburg, respectively, rolled out on the main network at block number 7,280,000. As seen on blockchain monitoring website Fork Monitor, there was no early evidence of a chain split that would suggest a portion of ethereum users are still running an older ethereum software.
Past hard forks of the ethereum blockchain have encountered such setbacks, most notably in 2016 with ethereum classic, a group that continued running an older software instance when a controversial upgrade was introduced.
With the apparent activation, the St. Petersburg code has also disabled part of the Constantinople code deemed back in January to host security vulnerabilities that could be used by attackers to steal funds.
With today’s release of Constantinople and St. Petersberg, four different ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs) have been officially activated on the ethereum network – one of which introduces a new “corner case” affecting smart contract immutability. Full Story
Not familiar with the upgrades? You can catch up here.
SEEKING SLEUTHS: Crypto exchange Kraken is offering up to $100,000 to anyone who can help solve this year’s biggest blockchain mystery: what happened to QuadrigaCX’s coins?
Kraken announced Thursday it would pay the reward to users who could help it locate the missing funds. Any tips sent to the platform will, in turn, be shared with law enforcement, the company said in a blog post. The reward is payable in fiat or cryptocurrency.
To participate, Kraken is encouraging users to listen to a pair of podcasts that outline both what is already known about QuadrigaCX, the Canadian crypto exchange that collapsed last month, as well as what Kraken’s operators believe happened.
“Kraken is giving up to $100,000 USD (fiat or crypto) as a reward for the tip(s) that best lead to the discovery of the missing $190 million US dollars,” Kraken’s post said.
In fact, according to court filings QuadrigaCX owes roughly 115,000 customers about $137 million in cryptocurrencies and another $53 million in fiat, or $190 million overall (though later filings indicate that there may be additional funds owed, bringing the total as high as $196 million). Full Story
CRYPTOS BARRED: Thailand’s financial markets regulator has banned several cryptocurrencies as a means to invest in ICOs and as a base in trading pairs.
The country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued rules last July, stipulating that only Thailand’s national currency, the baht, and seven cryptocurrencies can be used to invest in ICOs: bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH), ether classic (ETC), litecoin (LTC), XRP and stellar (XLM).
In an announcement Thursday, the SEC said it has now removed bitcoin cash, ether classic and litecoin from the list of eligible cryptocurrencies.
The watchdog did not provide any detail as to why the list has been reduced, though it said it takes into account different factors such as news and other developments related to tokens.
“In any case, the list update has no impact on investors or digital asset businesses because so far no ICO has been launched and the operating digital asset exchanges have never used BCH, ETC or LTC as base trading pairs,” the SEC said. Full Story |
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| NO WINNERS: With bitcoin buyers and sellers battling it out in a narrow trading range, the immediate outlook is neutral. That said, a large amount of demand is still present near current prices as all of the dip on Wednesday has been bought up, which gives credence to the bullish triangle breakout observed on Feb. 19. On the downside, $3,658 is the level to beat for the bears. Full Story |
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BEST OF THE BEST
INVERSE: An analyst from research firm MoffettNathanson has said that payment firms like Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal need to make a move into cryptocurrency to avoid losing out, Inverse reports. Lisa Ellis said that while bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are unlikely to replace such big payments players anytime soon, cryptos could prove more useful in a number of situations. “Cryptocurrency systems (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple) are potentially disruptive to private payment systems. Their core design characteristics – which are aimed at enabling ‘freedom of money’ – are in direct contrast to the characteristics of most traditional, private payment systems,” Ellis said. THE REST FORBES: The problems of “looping” and “Smurfing” in the U.S. cannabis industry could be tackled with blockchain, according to a piece from Forbes. Looping occurs when people try and get around legal purchasing limits – in place to prevent users selling the product on the black market – by buying their maximum, leaving the store, and then going back in again to buy more. Smurfing on the other hand, sees buyers simply buy from one store and then head out to another. The issue has seen marijuana dispensaries closed over the issue, with one Colorado store alleged to have been involved in a multimillion dollar looping scheme, the piece says. The rules could be supported by blockchain, though, with tracking systems tying users' IDs to their purchases at any store. While the infrastructure may not be developed enough for such a system right now, the youthful cannabis industry could take charge and make it happen, says Forbes. NASDAQ: A student from the University of Stanford Graduate School has criticized a guest professor named Susan Athey for what he claimed was an inaccurate lecture on bitcoin, according to a report from Nasdaq. Athey gave a presentation on the topic “Blockchain and the Future of Finance” last month, that contained “multiple misstatements" about bitcoin and its fundamentals, the student, Conner Brown, claimed. The professor reportedly said that bitcoin is "controlled by a small group of miners in China” and also that it "wastes electricity by stealing from rivers to solve useless math problems." Brown was “dissatisfied” by how bitcoin was referenced by Athey. So he wrote an email to the school board, to which he received only the reply, "We will get back to you on this." |
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WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER  |
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