The Daily: Bittrex Invades Europe and Blockchain Gets Raunchy

From the sublime to the smutty, today’s Bitcoin in Brief runs the full gamut of emotions and stories. These include Bittrex’s new foray into Europe, EOS’ quest to offload its billion-dollar warchest and Jackson Palmer’s viral new project, 50 Shades of Blockchain.

Also read: Switzerland Considers Granting Crypto Businesses Access to Banking Services

Bittrex Teams Up with Invest.com

US-based exchange Bittrex has released details of a new venture with Invest.com. The pair will be creating a digital asset trading platform, to open to EU traders initially. It will feature over 200 tokens whilst leveraging Invest.com’s knowledge of derivative trading, equity trading and portfolio management. “We believe that excellent product experience coupled with supreme customer support, value added services and regulation state of mind will provide the community of traders with the ultimate platform to trade cryptocurrency in a safe and secure environment,” said Invest.com cofounder Itai Avneri. “Our goal is to become the most reputable platform in the EU and later in numerous countries across the globe.”

Bittrex will handle trade execution while Invest.com takes care of marketing, sales and compliance. Interested parties can now register for the service.

BIS Chief Rages at Cryptocurrency

Yesterday we reported on the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) assertion that the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies is in fact a weakness. It’s since emerged that its rotund leader Agustín Carstens has complained that young people should “stop trying to create money” in the form of cryptocurrency. Only banks are allowed to do that, apparently. Carstens also took the time to share the kindly advice that cryptocurrencies are “a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster.” The crypto community took the BIS’ chief’s wisdom in their usual measured manner. “Keep dismissing bitcoin, it will make the next bull run that much sweeter,” countered Matt Odell.

Monaco Spends Millions on Crypto.com

Crypto debit card service Monaco has purchased the coveted domain Crypto.com, Tech Crunch reports. It’s believed to have cost them several million dollars. The publication explains:

Registered in 1993 by Matt Blaze, a professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania who sits on the board of directors of the Tor Project, the domain has attracted a vast amount of interest as you’d expect given the explosion of crypto in recent years. However, Blaze has turned down all offers. In January, Blaze repeated that the domain was “not for sale” and that people shouldn’t both to contact him.

It appears that Monaco made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. As part of a rebrand, Monaco will take on the name of its new domain and will rename its native token as simply MCO, which is its current abbreviation, in a move reminiscent of Ripple and XRP.

EOS Creates $1 Billion Fund

Faced with the question of what to do with the billions of dollars raised in its year-long ICO, EOS has turned to VC. Block.one have appointed Michael Alexander, former CEO in Asia of an investment banking firm, to identify projects to nurture with VC money. Focus will fall, naturally, on ventures that are built on the EOS platform. While the news will be welcomed by blockchain projects wishing to integrate with EOS, it’s been criticized by some as further evidence of EOS’ excessive raise, leaving them with more money than they can spend.

Blockchain Gets Sultry

Fifty Shades of Blockchain is the latest venture from Jackson Palmer. The former dogecoin and Are We Decentralized Yet creator is unrelenting in his quest to point out the idiocy and vacuousness of most ICOs and crypto whitepapers. The @blockshade account he’s created combines machine learning-generated whitepaper snippets with extracts from EL James’ much mocked novel. The results are as amusing as they are unsettling.

What do you make of the BIS chief’s indictment on cryptocurrencies and today’s other stories? Let us know in the comments section below.

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