The Daily: Kucoin Enables Credit Card Payments, Coinbase Pro Adds Zcash

Digital asset exchange Kucoin has partnered with an Israeli startup to introduce credit card payments for cryptocurrency purchases and we’ve covered it in The Daily. Also, Coinbase has added privacy coin zcash to its professional trading platform, while Okex has delisted dozens of trading pairs with low liquidity. And in Ghana, over 100,000 investors have lost millions of dollars in a coin scam.

Also read: Coinbase Launches OTC Desk, Huobi Opens Derivatives Market

Kucoin Introduces Credit Card Payments

Kucoin has teamed up with Simplex to allow its users to buy cryptocurrencies with credit and debit cards. The Singapore-based exchange’s new service is now available in over 100 countries. Its customers can use U.S. dollars and euros to purchase bitcoin core (BTC), ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC).

Simplex is a provider of payment processing solutions headquartered in Israel. The fintech startup operates globally and has subsidiaries in the U.S., U.K. and Lithuania. Merchants using its services receive their payments from Simplex, even in the case of fraudulent chargebacks. The company already cooperates with some of the leading platforms in the crypto space, including Shapeshift and Changelly.

Kucoin recently raised a total of $20 million in a series A funding round. The exchange, which started trading digital assets in September of last year, now has more than 5 million registered users in over 100 different jurisdictions.

Coinbase Pro Adds Privacy Coin Zcash

Leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has listed privacy-centric digital coin zcash (ZEC) on its professional digital asset trading platform, Coinbase Pro. According to an official announcement, Coinbase Pro started accepting ZEC deposits on Thursday, Nov. 29.

“We will accept deposits for at least 12 hours prior to enabling trading,” the company explained in a blog post, which also detailed: “Once sufficient liquidity is established, trading on the ZEC/USDC order book will start.”

The San Francisco-based exchange also revealed that initially ZEC trading will be available for residents of the Unites States, excluding New York, and Coinbase Pro users in the U.K., EU member states, Canada, Singapore and Australia. Support for other jurisdictions may be provided in the future, Coinbase noted. The company will also consider adding ZEC to its consumer platform and mobile apps if there are no technical issues with trading on Coinbase Pro.

Following the announcement, the price of zcash jumped by about 15 percent. At the time of writing, the coin was trading at around $88.

Okex Delists Trading Pairs With Low Liquidity

Okex, currently the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume, announced that it’s delisting 38 trading pairs and tokens with weak liquidity and low trading volume. The decision pertains to firstblood, district0x, iconomi, santiment network and singulardtv, among other coins. The full list is available on the platform’s website.

The trading pairs will be delisted on Nov. 30. Okex advises users to cancel their orders with the affected coins or the exchange will cancel them automatically and credit the assets to the trading accounts. Okex customers holding a number of tokens — VEE, LEV, AVT, CBT, WRC, QVT, MTL, DNA, DNT, OAX, 1ST, CAG, UKG, BRD, SAN, ICN, ATL, SUB, REQ, NGC, AMM, LA, DENT, CIT, DAT and MAG — have been asked to withdraw them to other cryptocurrency platforms before Dec. 14.

Investors in Ghana Lose $27M in Coin Scam

More than 110,000 Ghanaians have been reportedly defrauded in a scheme involving cryptocurrency investments. According to local media, Kwaku Kumi and David Opatey — executives of an entity called Global Coin Community Help (GCCH) — have been arrested and interrogated by the country’s Economic and Organized Crime Office. Both have been released on bail, however.

The swindled investors lost an estimated 135 million Ghanaian cedi, or roughly $27 million, the Ghanaian news outlet Daily Graphic reported. According to investigators, GCCH accepted deposits without a license from the Bank of Ghana. The company promised to pay customers a monthly interest rate of 27 percent for a period of one year.

Unable to pay the high interest rate, the fraudsters later offered to compensate the investors with digital coins traded on an exchange called Mintcrtx. When their deposits were converted, the tokens were valued at 20 Ghanaian cedi per coin, but their price has since dropped to only 2 cedi. Police found that the trading platform is owned and operated by GCCH.

What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits? Tell us in the comments section.

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