TL;DR: Welcome to In Case You Missed It (ICYMI), a daily crypto news update. Japanese exchange BitPoint hacked. PayFast retires support for BTC as payment method. Litecoin is now Miami Dolphins’ official cryptocurrency. Veil prediction market closes its doors, and Binance’s CEO thinks retail investors are still driving the market.



PayFast Ends Support for BTC, “Too Slow”

PayFast, a South Africa based payment processor, is abandoning BTC as a valid payment option on their platform. They declared in a PR statement that “the overall slow performance and computational power consumed by the Bitcoin blockchain to validate transactions, make Bitcoin less useful currently as a means of exchange and better-suited as an asset.” The payment processor also mentioned fees and general network unreliability as causes. PayFast will end support for Bitcoin as of 20 July 2019.

Japanese Exchange BitPoint Hacked, $32 Million Stolen

The Japanese exchange BitPoint suffered a hit recently, having been hacked by a still unidentified group, and losing $32 million worth of several cryptocurrencies. The exchange had to suspend deposits and withdrawals, and went into an unannounced suspension of their services. BitPoint lost $23 millions from customers’ funds and $9 million that were part of the exchange’s own funds. Not much has been said about how the hackers accomplished their ends, nor how the exchange will ultimately respond.

Litecoin Becomes Miami Dolphins’ Official Cryptocurrency

Litecoin scored a partnership with the Miami Dolphins, an iconic NFL team, to be their official cryptocurrency. According to a press release from the Litecoin Foundation, this will give fans the opportunity of paying 50/50 raffle tickets with Litecoin, giving 50% of the earnings to charitable non-profits. Litecoin will also enjoy in-game branding. Charlie Lee, creator of Litecoin, declared he was “thrilled to see Litecoin become the official cryptocurrency of the Miami Dolphins.”

Veil Prediction Market Closes Its Doors

The cryptocurrency market is ruthless, and most startups won’t make it far. This was the case for Veil, a startup that introduced a prediction market based on Augur, an Ethereum toekn platform. Veil is retiring their prediction product and refocusing its purpose, acknowledging they “didn’t offer a good onboarding experience” and they “weren’t decentralized or regulated,” key elements that weighted against their proposal for a niche market.

Retail Still Driving the Market, According to Binance CEO

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, offered his take on the supposed institutional influence on the rally that has taken bitcoin from $3K to almost $13K this year. Zhao thinks institutions are still entering the market at the same rate they did last year. “We have not seen institutions growing faster,” he declared on an interview with Bloomberg. While they have experienced a rise in both kind of customers, Zhao said 60% of their transaction volume is handled by individual investors.

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