Mike Kayamori:
Dear QUOINERs
Today’s weekly update is going to be short.
This week has been one of the more challenging weeks for the Cryptocurrency industry.
The price of bitcoin and alternative coins/tokens is half from its peak.
And with continued negative news, we still do not know how low it could go. Major negative topics are below.
- Coincheck hack in Japan
- India to ban cryptocurrencies
- Uncertainty of Tether (Subpoenas of Bitfinex/Tether)
- SEC lawsuit against Cryptobank ICO
- Facebook banning ICO/Crypto Ads
And due to the incident in Japan, the Japan FSA has mandated all exchanges to revisit all security measures and vulnerabilities and to report with all relevant evidence.
This is a lot of work and we are working around the clock but will ultimately make us stronger.
We are the only exchange that is 100% cold storage and we put customer asset safety above anything else.
Due to the above, we have put other initiatives on hold while we finish all relevant reporting and put in additional security measures.
But here are three quick updates.
- LIQUID / World book -
Step one of the LIQUID/Worldbook is to upgrade our Matching Engine (ME), Smart Order Routing (SOR), Multi-market order (MMO) and other subsystems.
This is already running in test mode but still not in production.
Since all of our resources are consumed with security, we will continue to monitor this and will let you know when we upgrade.
- New Token Listing -
This coming week will be busy.
We will list SALPay Token, Medicalchain, Etherecash, Gat coin, STU coin, Blackmoon, and Electroneum on our QRYPTOS platform.
Also, on Feb 8th, we will conduct the GBX ICO on QRYPTOS. This is the first ICO since our own QASH Token ICO.
More information below.
- Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX) and Rock Token ICO
We will do our last AMA with Nick Cowen (CEO GBX) tomorrow night in Singapore (8pm SG time).
Regarding the Rock Token ICO, we have two new updates.
- As I explained before, we have USD2.5M worth of Rock Tokens available for the ICO. We initially announced that half will be available on QRYPTOS (Global) and half for QUOINEX JP (Japan).
With the recent incident in Japan, we are still not clear if we have clearance from the JFSA to offer the Japan allocation on Feb 8th. In such case, we will offer all to QRYPTOS users.
It will be unfortunate to Japan residents but I will make the announcement tuesday after we hear back monday from JFSA.
- Previously, we explained that we will put a cap on sale amount per buyer but after discussing with GBX, we will not put a cap.
Hence if you are interested in the Rock Token ICO, please make sure to fund in advance as this will be first come first serve. There will be no pro-rata either.
Finally, It is one of the most important times for the crypto industry. We are all being tested but ultimately this will make us stronger and better.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I will be speaking at the Blockchain Economic Forum on Feb 6th and attending the GBX event on Feb 5th.
Kindest regards,
Mike Kayamori
