Stablecoin operator Tether accidentally minted and subsequently burned 5 billion USDT tokens, Whale Alert tweeted on July 13. Whale Alert — a Twitter account dedicated to reporting large cryptocurrency transactions — noted that 50 million USDT tokens were transferred from cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex to the Tether Treasury via the Omni protocol on the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. The account subsequently reported that Tether Treasury minted 5 billion USDT tokens on the Tron blockchain, after which it burned them. Then, Tether minted another 50 million USDT on the same chain, burned another 4.5 billion USDT, and finally transferred 50 million Tron-based USDT …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex announced that it now allows its customers to use credit cards and bank accounts on the platform in a Medium post published on July 9. Per the release, exchange users from 80 countries can now directly move funds to and from their bank accounts, which will be automatically converted into stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) on Poloniex. Initially, the weekly limits are $50,000 for deposits and $25,000 for withdrawals, but the exchange admits that those limits can be increased to fit the needs of specific customers. Customers in more than 60 jurisdictions will be able to purchase …

America is the land of opportunity, so long as you don't happen to be a cryptocurrency exchange. For several years now, a number of prominent exchanges have opted not to serve U.S. citizens; in fact, the list of trading platforms avoiding the U.S. is still growing, with Bancor recently announcing that it would block U.S. citizens from using its website to convert tokens. As can be guessed, regulation — or rather, the lack of clear regulation — is the main reason why crypto exchanges are increasingly shying away from the U.S. Exchanges complain about the uncertainty of U.S. securities legislation, …

At the start of June 2019, reports emerged that Binance DEX’s website was blocking users with IP addresses from 29 countries. This news immediately caused confusion with some commentators, using it as an opportunity to reaffirm their stance that Binance DEX is not truly a decentralized exchange (DEX). However, as it turned out, the initial reports were somewhat inaccurate, as the geoblocking only applied to Binance.org — the website for the DEX platform. Traders could still access the DEX via some supported wallet apps, bypassing the need to go through the website to reach the DEX service. Responding to the …

Margin lenders on American cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex have lost around $13.5 million due to a flash crash. Poloniex announced about the incident in a blog post published on June 6. Poloniex revealed that on May 26 a severe price crash in the clams (CLAM) market led to margin loans losses amounting to roughly 1,800 bitcoin (BTC), or approximately $13.5 million at the time. The incident affected 0.4% of all users and resulted in the reduction of all active BTC loans by 16.202%. The exchange subsequently froze all of the defaulted borrowers’ accounts and will keep them frozen until the borrowers …

Cryptocurrency asset management company BlockFi announced a change to its interest rates in a monthly update on May 21. Accounts with bitcoin (BTC) balances over 25 BTC will receive a .15% increase in interest rate, and those with ether (ETH) balances between 25 and 75 ETH will decrease from 6.2% to 3.25%. According to BlockFi, the lending environment for bitcoin has flourished while for ether it has floundered. Ether in particular is being offered at a 0.01% borrowing rate on major crypto exchange Poloniex and crypto lending firm Compound, and comprises only 3% of crypto lending giant Genesis Capital’s portfolio …

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex will stop offering nine coins to United States-based customers due to uncertain regulations, according to a blog post published on May 16. Starting from May 29, Poloniex will stop offering trading in Ardor (ARDR), Bytecoin (BCN), Decred (DCR), GameCredits (GAME), Gas (GAS), Lisk (LSK), Nxt (NXT), Omni Layer (OMNI), and Augur (REP) for its customers in the U.S. Trading with the aforementioned assets will remain available for the exchange’s customers outside the U.S. Poloniex said that the decision was motivated by the uncertain regulatory environment in the country. “Specifically, it is not possible to be certain …

The world’s largest stock exchange, Nasdaq, announced that it has introduced XRP Liquid Index (XRRLX), a new XRP index, to its global data service. The news was announced in a post on its website published on April 29. Per the announcement, the development is part of Nasdaq’s data dissemination partnership with cryptocurrency analytics company Brave New Coin. The company will reportedly send its real-time XRP index level information on the Nasdaq Global Index Data Service SM (GIDS). In a separate announcement, Brave New Coin noted: “The XRPLX sources data from only the most liquid exchanges by volume and order-book depth …

Cryptocurrency analytics firm Messari has added a new index for 10 cryptocurrency exchanges, the company announced in a blog post on March 26. Messari launched a new product dubbed “Real 10 Volumes” on its OnChainFX dashboard to limit its default volume calculations to the chosen exchanges. The “Real 10” trading platforms include Binance, Bitfinex, Bitflyer, Bitstamp, Bittrex, Coinbase Pro, Gemini, itBit, Kraken, and Poloniex. In the post, Messari said that the aforementioned exchanges reported “significant and legitimate trading volumes via their APIs [application programming interface].” The company further revealed that in the coming months it will add other exchanges, adding …

Cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX probably stored a significant quantity of Ethereum (ETH) in other crypto exchanges, according to new evidence. This claim was made in a report published by crypto research and consulting platform ZeroNonCense on Feb. 28, which obtained corroborating information from Kraken CEO Jesse Powell and MyCrypto CEO Taylor Monahan. More precisely, the author of the report reportedly “believes that there is a very strong possibility” that nearly 650,000 ETH belonging to QuadrigaCX were stored on the Kraken, Bitfinex and Poloniex crypto exchanges during QuadrigaCX’s operations. The report claims that the fact that QuadrigaCX had accounts on all those …

The latest Exchange Security Report from independent analysts at ICORating has given 16 percent of the world’s biggest crypto trading platforms an A rating, and none of them an A+. The analysis, published Dec. 18, ranked Kraken (A), Cobinhood (A) and Poloniex (A-) as the top three most secure exchanges globally. ICORating assessed 135 crypto trading platforms, all of whose daily trade value reportedly exceeds $100,000, on the basis of four security categories: user account security, registrar and domain security, web security and DoS attack protection. No exchanges sealed an A+ ratings, two exchanges (representing 1.5 percent) received a solid …

With the increasing trend for major financial institutions to invest in Bitcoin, United States crypto exchange and wallet provider Coinbase announced the launch of over-the-counter (OTC) trading for institutional customers on Nov. 27. OTC trading allows investors to carry out direct trades with each other. It means that the company’s institutional users won’t be trading through a crypto exchange or an intermediary. Coinbase’s latest trading initiative began on June 6, when President and COO Asiff Hirji explained that obtaining a regulatory license would enable the company to set off on a “path to offer future services that include crypto securities …