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New cryptocurrency bitcoin cache surpasses $9bn in capitalisation
The new cryptocurrency bitcoin cache, which emerged from the split of bitcoin, has surpassed $9 billion in capitalisation.
According to the Coinmarketcap exchange, the value of one unit of bitcoin cache exceeded $558. At launch, it was worth around $300.
The new currency ranks third in the top three in terms of capitalisation, behind "parent" - the original bitcoin - and ethereum.
Bitcoin now has a capitalization of $44.511 billion and a unit value of $2,700.
As of December 11, 2021 miners have already mined 90% of the Bitcoin (BTC) emission, which amount of 21 million bitcoins was initially invented and created by Satoshi Nakamoto. The last 10% will be mined over the next 119 years, CoinDesk writes.
According to Glassnode, miners have mined 18.89 million BTC in all that time, accounting for 90% of the total issue. The first bitcoin appeared on January 9, 2009, which means it took 12 years to mine that amount of BTC. The remaining 10% will be mined for 119 years - until February 2140.
It is noted that by the time the last bitcoin is mined, its price should increase by at least 30 times the current cost of mining. That said, at least double the profitability, as well as a century of inflation, must be added to the $240,000 figure.
On April 6, 2021, the cryptocurrency market capitalisation reached a record $2.021 trillion. On 19 May, the cryptocurrency market lost $1 trillion in capitalisation after the Chinese authorities banned cryptocurrency transactions.
On November 8, 2021, the global cryptocurrency market capitalisation surpassed the $3 trillion mark for the first time.
Major Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex suddenly suspended its operations on Wednesday, 21 April. This caused thousands of traders to lose their ability to withdraw money and accused Thodex of fraud worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Bloomberg reported.
The Financial Crimes Investigation Commission has blocked the crypto-exchange's accounts and launched an investigation. And the day before, Thodex's founder fled the country.
What happened
The Thodex exchange was founded in 2017 by Farouk Fatih Ozer. The trading platform handled transactions in crypto-assets. According to Reuters, its daily sales volume was $538 million. The exchange had 391,000 active users.
On Wednesday, 21 April, Thodex said that the crypto exchange is suspending all transactions for five days. Thodex cited the transfer of parts of the company to outside investors as the reason.
What happens next
Thodex said the "negative" media reports were untrue. The company added that the financial regulator did not find any irregularities in their reports.
A Thodex spokesperson described the incident as a "liquidity problem".
"Thodex's assets plummeted. When too many users demanded their money back, the company was unable to satisfy them," a Thodex spokesperson said.
Oguz Evren Kilic, a lawyer for users of the exchange, said two lawsuits would be filed against the company at once: economic and criminal. He believes hundreds of millions of dollars could have been stolen from users.
"It is not clear where this will lead. Thousands of claims have been filed in many places in Turkey," said Thodex traders' lawyer Oguz Evren Kilic.
A lawsuit has been filed against the company's CEO alleging aggravated fraud.
"There could be fraud here because there have been problems with this exchange for several days," said Oguz Evren Kilic, head of the Turkish Capital Markets and Finance Commission.
Exchange CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer blamed the bourse's financial problems on a "hacking incident" that took place several years ago. He promised to return to the country and give traders their money back.
"From today, my only goal is to pay you back your debt. The day I pay back all my debt, I will return to my country and bring myself to justice," Ozer said.
As of 8:19pm, Bitcoin was at $54,191 (-2.45%).
Updated at 9:06pm. In March, Thodex began offering free Dogecoin cryptocurrency tokens to attract new users.
Users noted that Dogecoin was trading 30% cheaper on this exchange than on other platforms.
The day before Thodex shutdown, Dogecoin accounted for 53% of all transactions with $585 million.
"This exchange had been experiencing a lot of traffic for days because of Dogecoin. Tens of thousands of customers flocked to the site. Even this price imbalance was suspicious," said Kilic, head of the Capital Markets and Finance Commission.