Market Crashes, Binance Pivots and OpenBazaar Developments: This week in Crypto

What happened in crypto this week?

Price Watch

• Bitcoin is down about 8% this week to $7,800.This has been attributed to low volume, FUD, and the ICO hearing. The news isn’t all bad though, several experts are saying now might be a good time to buy.
• Ethereum is down about 16% this week to $560. This is likely caused by bitcoins slump and exacerbated as more projects announce they’re leaving Ethereum for competitors.
• The entire crypto market is down 16% this week as trade volumes fall and FUD becomes pervasive.

Exchanges

• Binance announced it will be creating a decentralized exchange with its own blockchain. Despite no launch date being given Binance Coin (BNB) was up 25% on the news. Binance is currently the worlds largest exchange by trade volume.
• Circle takes aim at Coinbase: Circle announced a retail facing trading app will launch in 46 states. The Goldman Sachs backed company poses a threat to Coinbase who currently dominates that market.
• 82 Coins Being Delisted from exchange Bittrex because of low liquidity. Bittrex cited rampant fraud as the reason for removal. Unfortunately for investors 28 of the 82 coins have broken withdrawal mechanisms.

Startups

• OpenBazaar Marketplace: E-commerce Startup OpenBazaar announced it has secured $5 million in Series A funding to build a decentralized marketplace. Should Amazon be worried?
• $2.5 million was raised for Lightning Network provider Lightning Labs this week. Despite its low capacity (about 4.5 BTC) the network has about 1,000 nodes.

Bad Press

• Olver takes aim at ICO’s in Last Week Tonight citing scams such as BitConnect and comparing it to EOS. Oliver was simultaneously condemned by the community at large for spreading FUD and praised for presenting a two-sided, non-Dimon esque argument
• Google Banning Cryptocurrency advertising this week in an effort to stamp out rampant fraud.

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