In the Daily: Bitcoin Begging, NEM Foundation Fights to Survive, Huobi Prime

In the first weekend edition of The Daily, we examine the biting effects of crypto winter, which might have frozen out ETH scambots, but hasn’t prevented the penurious from panhandling for crypto by more direct means. We also look at the latest restructuring of the NEM Foundation, which has faced the full force of the crypto cooldown. Finally, we preview Huobi’s new Binance Launchpad competitor – Prime.



Also read: Onecoin Leaders Indicted in the U.S. for Operating ‘Fraudulent Pyramid Scheme’

NEM Foundation Rolls Out Plan B to Stay Afloat

The NEM Foundation, which oversees development and community initiatives involving the NEM (XEM) cryptocurrency, has released a new financial plan. The organization, which recently laid off the majority of its staff, is seeking to source developers from the community to contribute to the NEM mobile wallet app. On Feb 20, 210 million NEM tokens were unlocked by the foundation, with 25 million of these earmarked “to set up processes and structures for a new product-focused, revenue-driven approach for NEM Foundation.”

Excessive spending, coupled with mismanagement of funds and of human resources, left the foundation teetering on the brink when the crypto market went south. The NEM cryptocurrency, which was periodically disbursed to fund the organization’s efforts, is down 98 percent from its all-time high and would have to multiply 49x to reach its previous pinnacle. Even before the organization ran into difficulties, few within the cryptocurrency community grasped the blockchain project’s purpose, and what its foundation was doing to foster an ecosystem that would attract developers and users.

Bitcoin Beggars Bother Bigshots

Among the many perils of being a successful crypto trader is the constant begging requests from strangers seeking a little BTC to ease their worries. The severity of the problem was illustrated on March 8 when well-known trader Crypto Cobain shared some of the DMs he receives on a regular basis, including some individuals who spam him incessantly with fund requests. “Well, I won’t post all of them because it would take a week,” he tweeted. “But here’s an idea. Now imagine this from 10 people per day. Closing my DMs again, ain’t about this life.”

Cobain then added playfully: “Hey Cob. I wrote to you but you still ain’t calling. I left my BTC, ETH and XRP address at the bottom,” prompting crypto Twitter to break into an impromptu version of “Stan.”

Huobi Prime vs Binance Launchpad

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi is believed to be preparing a token launchpad that will directly compete with Binance’s offering. “We’ve got something amazing on the way called Huobi Prime. Stay tuned for more details,” wrote Houbi head of marketing, Ross Zhang. It is anticipated that Prime will enable new projects to sell their tokens directly to Huobi users, before they are listed on the exchange a few days later. Binance Launchpad has proven extremely successful in this regard, with token sales several times oversubscribed, followed by significant market demand for the newly listed assets.

What are your thoughts on the stories in today’s news roundup? Let us know in the comments section below.

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