GulfBase Live Support
Leave a message and our representative will contact you soon
26/01/2018 14:12 AST
Cryptocurrencies slumped after one of Japan’s biggest Bitcoin venues halted client withdrawals, spooking investors in a country that’s still wary of digital-token exchanges four years after the collapse of Mt. Gox.
Coincheck Inc., based in Tokyo, said in a series of tweets that it had suspended all withdrawals, halted trading in all tokens except Bitcoin and stopped deposits into NEM coins, without explaining why. When reached by phone, an exchange official wouldn’t provide further details and didn’t respond to a subsequent emailed request for comment. Additional calls to Coincheck went straight to voicemail.
NEM, the 10th-largest cryptocurrency by market value, fell 15 percent in the 24 hours through 5:52 a.m. New York time, according to Coinmarketcap.com. Bitcoin dropped 6.5 percent and Ripple retreated 11 percent in that period.
“Investors and traders are very sensitive to any news involving the big exchanges,” said Peter Sin, a trader and co-head of the digital currency sub-committee at ACCESS, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency and blockchain industry association. “This will accelerate price declines.”
Cryptocurrency exchanges, many of which operate with little to no regulation, have suffered a spate of outages and hacks amid the trading boom that propelled Bitcoin and its peers to record highs last year.
In Japan, one of the world’s biggest markets for cryptocurrencies, policy makers have introduced a licensing system to increase oversight of local venues, seeking to avoid a repeat of the Mt. Gox exchange collapse that roiled cryptocurrency markets worldwide in 2014. Coincheck has yet to receive a license, according to the website of Japan’s financial regulator.
“Coincheck is a very well-known exchange in Japan,” said Hiroyuki Komiya, Chief Executive Officer of Tokyo-based Blockchain Technology Consulting. “We’ve seen several outages at various crypto exchanges recently, so the extent and seriousness of Coincheck’s halt isn’t yet clear. We’re all very eagerly awaiting to hear more detail on what’s happening.”
Coincheck, founded in 2012, had 71 employees as of July with headquarters in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, an area popular with startups that was also home to Mt. Gox, according to Coincheck’s website. Last year, it began running commercials on national television featuring popular local comedian Tetsuro Degawa.
Bloomberg
Ticker | Price | Volume |
---|---|---|
SABIC | 114.77 | 5,915,941 |
SAMBA | 26.98 | 1,138,683 |
DARALARKAN | 13.47 | 74,648,349 |
US Dollar | 1.00 |
Saudi Riyal | 3.75 |
Derham Emirati | 3.67 |
Qatari Riyal | 3.65 |
Kuwaiti Dinar | 0.30 |
Bahraini Dinar | 0.38 |
Omani Riyal | 0.39 |
Euro | 0.81 |
British Pound | 0.71 |
Japanese Yen | 104.70 |
05/04/2018
Oman has the means to maintain its currency peg and has no plans to change it even though the decline in oil prices has hurt its finances, central bank Governor Tahir Al Amri said.
Oman’s g
Gulf News
02/04/2018
China’s yuan firmed against the dollar on Friday and is set to post its biggest quarterly gain in a decade, as the country attracts capital inflows and US trade frictions bolstered expectations of a
Gulf News
01/04/2018
The US dollar’s share of currency reserves reported to the International Monetary Fund declined in the final quarter of 2017 to a four-year low, as other currencies’ shares of reserves grew, data rel
Gulf News
29/03/2018
The US Dollar Index, a measure of the value of the US dollar against a basket of currencies, teetered and dropped to quarterly lows in March, which also happen to be the lowest the index has been sin
The National
29/03/2018
Turkey’s lira weakened beyond the psychologically important level of 4.0 to the US dollar yesterday, bringing it close to a record low, as concerns about double-digit inflation, and politics, continu
Gulf Times