cryptocurrency exchange

Binance Announces System Upgrade for Improved Performance and Stability

Binance, the popular cryptocurrency exchange, has recently announced a scheduled system upgrade to improve the overall performance and stability of its platform. The upgrade is set to take place on April 23, 2024, from 06:30 (UTC) to 09:30 (UTC).

According to the announcement posted on the Binance Support website, the system upgrade aims to enhance the user experience by addressing any existing performance issues and ensuring a more stable trading environment. During the upgrade, users may encounter system errors while accessing the Binance website or using the Binance App.

Impacted services during the upgrade period include new user registrations, user logins, and trading services. Binance advises users to be prepared for temporary disruptions and inconvenience during this time. However, the exchange assures its users that all funds will remain secure throughout the upgrade process.

It’s important to note that the duration of the system upgrade is an estimate and may vary. Once the upgrade is complete, all impacted services will resume without any further announcement from Binance. Users are advised to refer to the original announcement on the Binance Support website for the latest and most accurate information.

Binance acknowledges that there may be discrepancies in the translated versions of the announcement and advises users to refer to the original English version for the most up-to-date information.

As always, Binance reminds users that digital asset prices are subject to high market risk and volatility. The value of investments can fluctuate, and there is a possibility of losing the invested amount. It is crucial for users to carefully consider their investment decisions and seek advice from a financial advisor if needed.

In conclusion, Binance’s system upgrade is a proactive measure to enhance the performance and stability of its platform. Users should be prepared for temporary disruptions during the upgrade period but can rest assured that their funds will remain secure. Binance continues to prioritize the user experience and strives to provide a reliable and efficient trading environment for cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

Image source: Shutterstock

Bitfinex Permitted to Withhold Documents About Alleged $850 Million Cover-up

The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court has ruled that Bitfinex is legally allowed to withhold documents pertaining to the alleged cover-up of an $850 million loss on its trading platform.

A court order authorized by court justices David Friedman, Peter Tom, Troy Webber, Ellen Gesmar and Jeffrey Oing has stopped the previous ruling of New York Supreme Court Judge Joel Cohen that required Bitfinex to produce documents and information related to the loss of $850 million from its trading platform.

The story so farIn April 2019, the New York Attorney General’s Office filed a complaint against Bitfinex, parent company iFinex and affiliated stablecoin issuer Tether—alleging that the companies were in violation of New York law in connection with activities that may have defrauded New York-based crypto investors by covering up the loss on the Bitfinex trading platform.

Attorney General Letitia James revealed that her office obtained a court filing which alleged that Tether had given Bitfinex access to $900 million of Tether’s cash reserves through a series of masked corporate transactions. The funds were then used to hide the losses and satiate clients’ withdrawal requests.

James wrote at the time that the Attorney General’s office had determined that, “Operators of the ‘Bitfinex’ trading platform, who also control the ‘tether’ virtual currency, have engaged in a cover-up to hide the apparent loss of $850 million dollars of co-mingled client and corporate funds. New York state has led the way in requiring virtual currency businesses to operate according to the law. And we will continue to stand up for investors and seek justice on their behalf when misled or cheated by any of these companies.”

Image via Shutterstock

Tokocrypto Gets Green Light as First Indonesian Crypto Exchange

Tokocrypto becomes the first cryptocurrency exchange platform to be approved by the Indonesian government. This approval could mean a significant boost in the trading of cryptocurrency assets in this nation.

Tokocrypto has acknowledged that this registration will enable traders to avert legal concerns. This will be instrumental in permitting them to sell and buy cryptocurrency assets, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, on the platform with more certainty and confidence.

Indonesia’s thriving digital economy

According to a report by Temasek and Google, Indonesia’s digital economy is speculated to quadruple to US$ 133 billion by 2025 from the current US$40 billion.

Tokocrypto’s interest in the Indonesian market can be linked to this trend because it was founded in 2017 by Pang Xue Kai, a Singaporean entrepreneur.

Having being established in Indonesia, Tokocrypto seeks to stamp its authority in this nation’s crypto space. Since 2018 to date, it has facilitated at least US$250 million in cryptocurrency assets.

Pang noted: “Being the first cryptocurrency exchange to be registered with Indonesian regulators to operate legally in the country is a huge milestone for Tokocrypto as it brings us one step closer to being the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in Southeast Asia.”

Pang also added: “We will also continue our efforts in engaging the cryptocurrency community across Southeast Asia as the leading cryptocurrency exchange platform in the region. With the high potential of cryptocurrency in the region in terms of investments and transactions, we are confident that we are the pre-eminent gateway for traders and consumers alike to seize opportunities as they arise.”

Following the approval, Tokocrypto ascertained that it was committed to working closely with various government agencies across Southeast Asia for collaboration and licensing opportunities.

Image via Shutterstock

IDAX Freezes Cold Wallet Transactions Following CEO Disappearance

Chinese cryptocurrency exchange IDAX has frozen withdrawals and deposits after the alleged disappearance of its global CEO. The cryptocurrency exchange made an announcement on Nov. 29, claiming that it had closed down its operations after its staff members were unable to make contact with the company’s CEO.

In the announcement, IDAX stated that it is still trying to locate its CEO’s whereabouts and trying to make sense of the situation. While the announcement highlighted that the IDAX team is in the process of establishing a contingency plan for the exchange, there was no mention of a timeline to enact the proposed contingency plan or regarding when normal services can be expected to resume.

IDAX Cold Wallet Locked Up

The exchange announced that the reason for the CEO’s disappearance is still a mystery at this point. The exchange has informed users that access to its cold wallet which stores nearly all cryptocurrency assets has been restricted and withdrawals and deposits are not allowed. It has advised all crypto users to stop using its services and platform for the time being. The company’s cold wallet is, therefore, on lockdown to protect users’ money.

However, the exchange hasn’t specified the value of cryptocurrency held in its cold wallet.

The crypt exchange didn’t directly link the CEO with cold storage wallet access nor did it say that users’ funds were at risk.

The announcement comes just days after the cryptocurrency exchange informed users on Nov. 24 about congestion holding up withdrawals and deposits and that it would no longer offer services to China-based users.

Image via Shutterstock

Pressure Piles Up on BitMEX as Recent Outage Exposes Network Holes

Once branded a “Bitcoin casino,” BitMEX has plunged into a series of crises over the last few years. The crypto exchange found itself trending on Twitter in the US recently because of the recent shutdown. BitMEX announced that its trading engine went offline for over an hour because of an incident, which the exchange identified as a “major outage.”After some investigation, the exchange later announced that that platform restored its online operations.

The exchange announced that all funds were safe, and no liquidations happened during the downtime. Once the platform resumed its operation at full capacity, the exchange said that full postmortem would be conducted and released to the public within the next few days.

Recent outage exposes BitMEX’s network holes

Such outage of BitMEX’s trading engine is the latest in a series of negative circumstances facing the exchange. Currently, as Bitcoin price hits $10,000, the major outage has prompted warnings that the exchange is becoming increasingly unreliable. The outage left customers unable to access their funds.

Closely-watched crypto and Bitcoin analyst Scott Melker said that he has been warning people about BitMEX for nearly three years now, saying BitMEX is a “horrible” exchange.

Another Bitcoin trader stated, “I just do not understand why people still trade there.”

In recent months, crypto and Bitcoin exchanges across the globe have experienced increasing new user signups and surging demand partly due to lockdown measures put in place to slow down the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

The rising demand is putting the stability of some Bitcoin exchanges into tests, with Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, went offline as Bitcoin price crashes earlier this month.

Jim Nevotti, the president at software provider Sterling Trading Tech, said that recent outages experienced by some crypto and Bitcoin exchanges have exposed fault lines in their underlying infrastructure.

BitMEX’s market share has been eroded by other crypto exchanges expanding their crypto and Bitcoin derivatives offerings. But BitMEX’s problems have also caused users to seek alternatives.

In March, a sudden decline in the Bitcoin price to fall under $4,000 was caused by BitMEX before the crypto exchange was closed for maintenance.

In the previous year, BitMEX sparked panic amongst investors and traders after accidentally exposing thousands of its customers’ emails – with the exchange’s Twitter account compromised shortly after.

The latest outage comes just a few days BitMEX was hit with a lawsuit on May 18. The lawsuit accused the exchange of having engaged in multiple illegal activities, including wire fraud, money laundering, and market manipulation.

The lawsuit also reported that a full 15% of BitMEX’s crypto trades in 2019 came from US-based traders despite the exchange not having the appropriate license to allow such kind of trading.

The crypto exchange disputes the allegations, with its spokesperson said that the exchange would deal with the complaint through a normal legal procedure and is completely confident that the court would make a fair ruling.

Recently the exchange was forced to restrict access to users in Japan because of increased crypto regulations enforced by the nation’s Financial Services Agency (FSA).

UK’s financial watchdog raises the alarm on BitMEX being unauthorized

Recently, the UK’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), warned local consumers about the operations of BitMEX. The independent financial regulator announced that the crypto exchange has been targeting UK residents without approval or obtaining permission to offer services. The agency confirmed that it holds information that proves that the cryptocurrency exchange had been illegally conducting activities that must be regulated and require approval from the regulator. In other words, the financial watchdog stated that BitMEX was operating in the UK without being given the green light by the regulator. Now it remains to see how BitMEX would address the challenges highlighted above.

Image via Shutterstock

Binance Completed Their "Largest Upgrade" in 2 years, What was Improved?

Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, recently announced that it successfully upgraded its trading platform. The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ) called the upgrade on Twitter the “biggest upgrade” Binance has ever gotten since launch.

“This is the largest upgrade to date. We switched the matching engine to a new programming language (and re-wrote all code from scratch, as required). That’s as big an upgrade as you can get. 2 years in the making, all for faster performance. Readying for the next wave… #BUIDL”

Earlier, Binance announced that they were going to upgrade their trading platform, the upgrade took about 2 hours. All deposits, trading, and withdrawal were disabled on spot and margin trading, P2P trading, OTC Portal trading, savings & redemption, as well as asset transfers from sub-accounts at the time of the upgrade.

Binance biggest upgrade

Binance has had major upgrades since 2017. Some were noticeable, and some were not. Many Binance upgrades were aimed towards improving the performance of the trading platform, as well as giving the best user experience to their users.

A year ago, Binance introduced staking, lending cryptocurrency, and margin trading. Not only that, but Binance has also introduced other projects since the start of 2020, which includes Binance P2P and Binance B2B. Binance P2P operates similarly to LocalBitcoins and Paxful; it allows users to buy cryptocurrency from an individual using an escrow that protects buyers from fraud. Binance B2B, B2B, means business to business; it will enable platform owners to integrate the “buy crypto” option to their site using Binance access standard API. It allows users to buy cryptocurrency using fiat currency, the cryptocurrency is then stored in the user Binance account.

Binance growth

Binance started their cryptocurrency exchange business with one of the fastest engines in the market at the time; it was able to handle up to 1.4 million orders per second.

The number of active users using Binance has increased with a high amount since the last three years. Upgrades and improvements as needed to keep Binance striving.

Binance CEO confirms the function of the upgrade

As pointed out by a Twitter user, Binance was already able to manage their existing volume, which begs the question: what exactly has been upgraded? CZ, Binance CEO said on Twitter that the platform is:

“Probably 10x more, so in theory can handle 100x volume. But when real volumes hit, there will be some other peripheral systems that may temporarily bottleneck, but will be fixed quickly.”

BitMEX Invests in South Africa’s Largest Bitcoin Exchange

In a bold financial move, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has decided to invest in South Africa’s biggest Bitcoin exchange, VALR.

Bitcoin Crypto Exchange, VALR

The newly founded Bitcoin exchange offers safe digital trading for anyone and popular cryptocurrencies supported by their exchange include but are not reserved to Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and Cardano. Although it was only launched in 2019, it has now grown to be a popular international exchange.

100x Ventures Dreams of Going Global

Parent company of BitMEX, 100x Ventures, was hypothesized to have invested in VALR for three key reasons.

The first reason that came into consideration was that it enabled the investment arm to expand its fintech horizons and it allowed the company to grow in overseas markets. Furthermore, 100x Ventures was able to meet the demands of regional exchanges as well as trading services with the new alliance formed with VALR.

Lastly, the investment might have executed by 100 Ventures because of the ever-growing and trending regional Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Bitcoin market. Outside of dominant countries hosting major cryptocurrency markets, Bitcoin exchanges are known to be less well-regulated or not as transparent in their crypto transactions. Consequently, this led to a surge of Peer-to-Peer crypto exchanges, which allowed investors to trade directly with each other.

Places in the world that record huge P2P crypto trading volumes include India, Mexico, and the Philippines, where a proper exchange infrastructure is often lacking. Since there is an increase in demand for regional exchanges around the world, 100x Venture thinks that its investment could be a bridge that joins predominant crypto markets with smaller ones. CEO and co-founder of BitMEX Arthur Hayes commented regarding the alliance with VALR Bitcoin exchange:

“South Africa has an incredibly exciting and fast-growing cryptocurrency ecosystem, and we believe VALR is well-placed to capitalize on future growth of bitcoin trading. In VALR we’re backing not only a successful early-stage business, but a management team with the ability to scale operations significantly.”

BTC Future Continues to Shine for BitMEX

Because of their investment, 100x Venture is now able to gain exposure in a developing crypto market as promising as South Africa. For several years on end, its finance affiliate BitMEX has also remained on top of their game. However, with the newly formed crypto alliance, both the P2P crypto trading platform and its parent company are now able to diversify their business even more, due to regional investments.

BitMEX remains a competitive player in the crypto field. In fact, the cryptocurrency exchange possesses an open interest of $1.02 billion dollars, which consists of double the amount of its competitors, such as Binance and Bybit.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Unaffected Despite $150M Hack Suffered by KuCoin

Major coin exchange KuCoin reported a huge security breach that resulted in the loss of $150 million worth of Bitcoin, ERC-20 tokens, and Ether that were stored in its hot wallets. However, despite the huge blow suffered by the cryptocurrency exchange, Ethereum and Bitcoin prices have been unaffected on the market.

Stolen crypto will leave a blockchain trail

Crypto traders on their end have also been unfazed by the possibility that Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) prices may potentially dip as a result of the hacker’s attempt to sell off his stolen ERC-20 funds.

It has been observed that the KuCoin hacker has tried to sell off his stolen ERC-20 tokens on Uniswap. However, though this method would allow the anonymous hacker to obtain Ether once the ERC-20 tokens were converted, the stolen amount would still leave traces, as it runs on Ethereum blockchain.

With block explorers, the crypto trail can easily be traced. This will enable coin exchanges to suspend suspicious exchange addresses associated with the stolen crypto and lead them to the hacker.

With the stolen assets amounting to millions of dollars, any attempts to sell off the funds would also prove to be a risky task.

KuCoin alerts other exchanges, Tether freezes funds

Since the security breach, KuCoin has been quick to react to the security leak, taking matters into its own hands and alerting other coin exchanges of the hack. Bitfinex, Binance, Huobi Global, OKEx, and BitMex were among the crypto exchanges that were contacted.

Chief technical officer of Bitfinex and Tether (USDT), Paolo Ardoino announced that Tether had also frozen $33 million worth of USDT in an attempt to avoid the stolen crypto from being laundered. He said:

“Tether can decide to freeze funds in 2 situations: law enforcement/regulator request; funds are sent to unrecoverable addresses (completely at tether discretion). This ability does not entitle crypto users to participate to stupid scams or paying less attention.”

DeFi tokens, ETH, and BTC unfazed

With KuCoin’s active effort to regain the funds, it has been increasingly difficult for the anonymous hacker to liquidate the funds. It has also been observed that DeFi tokens, Ethereum, and Bitcoin’s prices have barely been impacted by the hack, with Ether’s price barely budging from its $350 level.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin has even surged higher than last week, sitting at around $10,930, according to data on CoinGecko. Bitcoin’s consolidation above the $10,700 point may be a potential indicator that the overall market sentiment is strong, as the crypto asset’s price was unaffected despite a huge security breach.

5% of Coinbase Employees Leave the Exchange, Rejecting Its “Apolitical Stance”

About 60 employees have left Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange because of the firm’s new controversial policy. Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO, has announced that 5% of the company’s workers have decided to take the generous exit package that the exchange offered last week.

A few days ago, Armstrong informed employees that they could quit if they don’t agree with the company’s apolitical culture. The deadline for workers to express their interest in taking the exit package was Wednesday, Oct. 7.

Company Executives Failed to Handle Difficult Conversations

The CEO acknowledged that the company norms have blurred lines between what is political statements and what is not, and therefore expected workers to make use of good judgment.

Armstrong said: “Our goal is not to look for violations, but rather to support employees in adapting to these clarified expectations.”

According to Armstrong, the company executives “could have done a better job” in explaining how the apolitical culture works. This resulted in confusion among workers who had several difficult conversations regrading “what our apolitical culture means in practice.” The CEO also acknowledged that the number of workers leaving the exchange could be higher as there are several other conversations still continuing, despite the deadline elapsed for workers taking the severance package.

The CEO said that he was worried concerning the impact on people from the under-represented minority population, but the outcome has been good. He said: “It was reassuring to see that people from under-represented groups at Coinbase have not taken the exit package in numbers disproportionate to the overall population.”

Despite the number of employees leaving the cryptocurrency exchange, the CEO feels that this would eventually help the entire team to become more united, come together, and be stronger than before.

The CEO states that the company’s mission is not merely to focus on generating revenues but instead to stand for realizing the mission and building a “great place to work.” Nevertheless, Armstrong admitted that growing profit and revenues is the only way that the crypto exchange would be able to build its team and develop things required to achieve the overall company’s mission.

Coinbase Refused Mixing Business and Politics

Last week, the Coinbase crypto exchange announced that the company would not tolerate mixing politics with business at its workplace. Armstrong offered a generous severance package to workers who feel that they don’t want to work for the firm that has declared itself as an apolitical mission.

The CEO shared a post advising employees about the firm’s core values following a forthcoming US presidential election and a global pandemic crisis. According to the post, employees need clarity so that to be guided on how the firm responds to various societal matters, including politics.

Armstrong emphasized that the focus of the exchange revolves around building products, including cryptocurrencies and working as a team, instead of the nation’s politics (social activism). However, the message elicited controversial responses from several prominent public figures, including Jack Dorsey Twitter CEO, who openly disagreed, claiming that engaging in cryptocurrencies is already direct activism.

OKEx Crypto Exchange to Resume “Unrestricted Withdrawals,” Causing OKB Token Price to Rise More

Cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has announced that it will resume what it describes as an “unrestricted withdrawal,” following a temporary suspension of digital asset withdrawals on the platform.

Per an earlier report from Blockchain.news, the suspension of withdrawals by the exchange was prompted when the crypto platform was obliged to cooperate with an ongoing police investigation.

Per the report, OKEx suspended all cryptocurrency withdrawals upon the news that one of its private key holders was cooperating with a public security firm in regard to an ongoing “investigation.” In light of the recent announcement, OKEx said that its platform has been confirmed not to have been involved in any wrongdoing or illegal activities and that the private key holder has now returned to his normal business functions. Per the official announcement on the exchange:

“Because OKEx has insisted on maintaining 100% reserves since its establishment, 100% of user funds can be withdrawn without any restrictions after withdrawals are reopened.”

The resumption of the withdrawals will begin no later than November 27, 2020, or even before, and the exchange noted that its experts will “conduct strict security checks to resume normal operations of the hot wallet system and to ensure the safety” of its users’ funds. In addition, OKEx said it will be launching a loyalty reward campaign to show gratitude to its community members for the inconveniences caused by the previous suspension of its withdrawal services.

OKEx Native Token OKB’s Price Rises Even More

Earlier today, news broke out that OKEx founder Mingxing “Star” Xu, who was arrested after the exchange suspended its withdrawals, will soon regain his freedom. Following that revelation, the exchange’s native token OKB surged by about 10%.

The coin has seen its price plummet after the suspension of crypto withdrawals, but with the news of Xu’s release and the resumption of withdrawals and business as usual for the exchange, the coin has surged upwards. It now trades bullishly, up 11.8% in the past 24 hours according to Coingecko.

While the coin’s performance on the market is influenced by events surrounding the OKB coin, better days are expected of the cryptocurrency, as traders look forward to it maintaining the 109.5% growth it has recorded in the past year.