News of the Week

👍 Ledger Announces New Mobile Hardware Wallet

The crypto wallet company revealed its new, Bluetooth-enabled Nano X device Sunday at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

The added Bluetooth means that the Nano X can readily be used with mobile devices, which has been a pain point for many users of the company’s current wallet, the Ledger S.

The Ledger Nano X can store the apps for up to 100 crypto assets, a six-fold increase over the Nano S.

😬 DX.Exchange In Hot Water

The past few days have showered plenty of favorable attention on a new trading platform called DX.Exchange, with glowing profiles by Bloomberg News and CNBC. The only problem is that the site, which allows people to trade currencies and digitized versions of Apple, Tesla, and other stocks, has been leaking oodles of account login credentials and personal user information.

Ars Technica fed this information back to DX.Exchange and they responded immediately by introducing a security patch to rectify the issue.

Reddit user /u/Priest_of_Satoshi also created a thread outlining a huge number of red flags about the exchange.

😔 Cryptocurrency Ransom Demanded for Wife of Norwegian Tycoon

The wife of a wealthy Norwegian businessman has been kidnapped, and demands have been made for a hefty ransom paid in cryptocurrency, the police revealed this week.

Anne-Elisabeth Falkevik Hagen went missing on Oct. 31 from her home near Oslo, and international police investigations and back-channel negotiations with the people believed to be her captors have so far failed to secure her release.

A scarcely decipherable ransom note was left for Mr. Hagen, containing death threats and requests for $10 million worth of Monero (1.4% of the total supply).

😢 ShapeShift Gets Leaner

Crypto exchange ShapeShift has announced a round of layoffs, citing a range of difficulties including a tough market climate.

In a blog post published Tuesday, CEO Erik Voorhees wrote that the startup had laid off 37 employees, or a third of its staff. He described the process as “a deep and painful reduction, mirrored across many crypto companies in this latest bear market cycle.”

In one of the most transparent testimonies of its kind to date, Voorhees detailed several problems that worked against Shapeshift heading into this decision. Besides the mounting legal concerns that have impeded the entire industry, Voorhees contended that the company grew too fast and spread out its efforts into too many product areas (such as CoinCap, it’s CoinMarketCap competitor, and KeepKey, an acquisition).

🤔 Bitmain Founders Step Aside

Bitmain Technology, the world’s biggest maker of cryptocurrency mining rigs, is poised to name a new CEO to replace company co-founders Wu Jihan and Zhan Ketuan, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The potential successor is Wang Haichao, who currently holds the position of product engineering director at the Beijing-based company, but has already taken over duties from co-CEO Wu and Zhan in a transition period that started in December, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

There is no timetable yet for Wang to take over the CEO position from Wu and Zhan, who will remain as the company’s co-chairs, one of the people said.

⛏️ Ethereum Classic Suffers 51% Attack

Ethereum classic saw more than 100 blocks “reorganized” during a 51 percent attack last Sunday, according to at least two different block explorers — Bitfly (Etherchain) and Blockscout. Coinbase said in its blog post that it detected some 88,500 ETC being double-spent (totaling some $460,000).