The Daily: Fake Volume, Tether Troubles, Bitcoin’s “Inevitable” Mass Adoption

Rumors, allegations, and assertions can all be found in today’s news roundup. Specifically, we have rumors of impending trouble with Tether, allegations of another Chinese exchange conjuring up fake volume, and assertions that Bitcoin and blockchain’s mass adoption is “inevitable”. We’ll reveal who made that bold claim, as well as substantiating the others, in this episode of The Daily.

Also read: A Guide to Building Your Own Crypto Mining Rig

Magical Chinese Trading Volume

Like a dog worrying a bone, Crypto Exchange Ranks (CER) has been toiling away at uncovering fake trading volume for months. Much of the suspicious activity it’s unearthed during the course of its meticulous and granular investigation has originated in the East. Its latest target is ZB.com, a Chinese exchange that appears in Coinmarketcap’s top five by reported volume, placing it above the likes of Bithumb and Bitfinex. CER is having none of that, and has torn ZB.com’s claim to shreds in its usual dogged manner.

“While analyzing ZB.com, we found definite patterns of unnatural and obviously artificial trade volume performance on 10 out of the top-20 most-traded exchange’s pairs,” reports CER. “Furthermore, we discovered that 4 dash pairs volume on this exchange totaled more than $288m, accounting for 24.58% of the exchange’s total 24h volume and for 80.56% of all dash traded on all exchanges. All of this directly points to the fact that trade volume manipulations are taking place on ZB.com.” The full report is pretty damning.

Maltese Prime Minister: Global Bitcoin and Blockchain Adoption “Inevitable”

Maltese PM Joseph Muscat is known for his pro-crypto stance, having welcomed major players from the burgeoning cryptoconomy to his island state with open arms. In a recent address to the United Nations General Assembly, the Prime Minister preached ebulliently, espousing his belief that Bitcoin and blockchain will inevitably enjoy mass adoption. “I passionately believe [the] technology revolutionizes and improves systems,” said Muscat. “This is why in Malta, we have launched ourselves as the blockchain island…the first jurisdiction worldwide to regulate this new technology that previously existed in a legal vacuum. Blockchain makes cryptocurrencies [the] inevitable future of money.”

Tether’s Bank in Trouble?

Noble, the Puerto Rico-based bank whose most famous crypto customer is Tether, could be in trouble. It has been reported that the bank has cash flow problems and, if it can’t find a backer, may be forced to wind up operations. Where this would leave Tether, and the customer assets it presumably has stored in the bank is unclear. The story, while unverified, comes from Modern Consensus, a site which broke the story of the Circle-Poloniex takeover weeks before anyone else, and thus has some credibility.

Modern Consensus also reports a figure at a “major trading crypto desk” as claiming that an entity has been trying to offload “tens of millions of tethers” but failed to find a buyer. While publicly all signs point to Tether losing its grip on the stablecoin market, it remains top dog in terms of trading. Despite several exchanges announcing that they are phasing out the controversial stablecoin, volume has remained steady at over $3 billion a day, 30x more than its closest competitor, Trueusd.

The Web’s Creator Wants to Decentralize It

If decentralization is a meme, it’s one that’s spread so far and wide that even the web’s creator is jumping on the bandwagon. On Saturday, Tim Berners-Lee revealed Inrupt, a project he has been developing in stealth for the past nine months. It aims to remove power from the web monopolies by returning data to its owners and allowing them to assign it to platforms on a permissioned basis only. Solid is the name of the platform Berners-Lee is developing in which each user’s data is contained in a “pod”. He said defiantly: “We are not talking to Facebook and Google about whether or not to introduce a complete change where all their business models are completely upended overnight. We are not asking their permission.”

“It’s time to reset the balance of power on the web and reignite its true potential,” proclaims Inrupt.

What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits as featured in The Daily? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Inrupt.

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