The largest trading platforms, among which are Bitstamp, Bittrex, Bitfinex, Kraken and others, are trying to cope with the active adding of newcomers and their amazing demand for crypto-currencies. Also, new exchanges are opening: for example, the Japanese entertainment conglomerate DMM Group launched its cryptocurrency trading platform.
Only last week the representatives of the Korean Binance, which is the leader of trading volume (daily turnover of the exchange — $ 9.5 billion), reported that on one day on the exchange 540,000 new accounts were registered. Binance was forced to stop the registration of newcomers, Bittrex, Bithumb and Bitfinex previously did the same. Bitfinex again opened the doors for new users, but the exchange makes demands to their accounts, which will not certainly satisfy everyone: now it is necessary to deposit crypto-currencies or fiat funds for a total of $ 10,000 before accessing all the functions of the exchange. It is immediately specified that this is a necessary measure and the funds can be take off after account activation.
At the crypto currency exchange Poloniex, one of the users was blocked in the withdrawal of funds, agreeing with the fact that the bitcoins were transferred to the address belonging to one of the largest illegal marketplaces of darknet called Hydra. According to deepdotweb, tracking the markets of the “dark” Internet, Hydra is in the top 10 non-English-language markets in the Tor network. In the ticket it is reported that Poloniex “has the right to temporarily freeze funds and close accounts in case of detection of high-risk activity”.
The power of South Korea is also concerned about the legality of crypto-currency funds. They made a statement this week indicating that they will monitor how strictly banks opening accounts for crypto-currency traders are complying with laws and regulations on customer identification and countering money laundering. Nevertheless, South Korean authorities aren’t yet planning to close the crypto-exchange markets. Recall that the exchange rate of bitcoin at the end of December fell below $ 14,000 on the background that representatives of the South Korean authorities issued a statement on the further regulation of trading on the country’s crypto-exchangeswith the aim of reducing speculative risks.
And the exception by CoinMarketCap administrators of price data on South Korean exchanges from the general price index led to Ripple has “lost” $20 billion of capitalization. CoinMarketCap explains its decision by the desire to reduce the level of confusion due to the very different values of the exchange rate compared to the largest international bitcoin-exchanges, and this doesn’t mean that one day people decided to withdraw billions from this market.
The South Korean investor had the imprudence to brag about his profit on air: he said he invested $ 90 in bitcoins and earned a profit of $ 22 million. By this statement, he caused lively discussions among market participants. They began to discuss the tax policy of South Korea and the question of whether it is now possible to tax the profits earned by the lucky winner. Excessive talkativeness of this investor can be costly to him, since the South Korean government may charge him with tax evasion.
