CLIMATE OF FEAR: It’s not just bitcoin. Stocks, bonds, gold, normally stable traditional markets, are in turmoil. The current crisis reveals a hastening narrative shift as fear of the unknown takes hold and assumptions run riot, writes CoinDesk’s Noelle Acheson. Full story
TOKEN DELUSION? The idea of everyone issuing their own tokens, and transacting freely without government involvement, is a utopian pipe-dream, according to finance writer and speaker Frances Coppola in her new CoinDesk column. "The dream of tokenizing all assets, enabling people to issue their own coins and have them accepted as money, founders on the problem of trust," which simply isn't there, she argues. Full story
POWER SUIT: Micree Ketuan Zhan, the ousted co-founder of Bitmain, has filed another lawsuit in his fight to regain control of the bitcoin mining giant – this time in China. Zhan previously filed a lawsuit in the Caymans seeking to overturn Bitmain’s decision to curtail his voting power at the firm. Full story
SECOND ATTEMPT: The Boston Options Exchange modified its plan to launch a security token exchange, this time stressing records held on Ethereum would only be "ancillary.” The tZero-affiliated firm filed an amended proposal with the SEC that will also increase its required market makers and bring its listing standards closer to the New York Stock Exchange's. Full story
FRAUD WARNING: Scammers have been sending fake versions of CoinDesk's daily newsletter to try to trick recipients into visiting a suspicious "XRP giveaway" site. If you received this message, which copied our logo and design and even used our executive editor's name in the "from" field, know that it did not come from us. (Note that the actual sender's address is not a CoinDesk.com domain.) Please forward to fraud@coindesk.com and nik@coindesk.com, and block the sender if received.
SCAM EFFECT? Bitcoin has dropped to two-month lows below $8,000 alongside a crash in global equities, oil prices and U.S. government bond yields. Some observers think the price slide has been fueled by a flood of 13,000 BTC liquidated by PlusToken scammers. With the drop, the cryptocurrency's broader uptrend looks to have ended and a deeper drop to levels below $7,500 could be in the offing. Full story
DOUBLE TROUBLE: As asset markets crater due to virus fears, CoinDesk's Markets Daily digs into the complementary narrative behind bitcoin's 1 month lows: a $100 million liquidation by PlusToken scammers. Listen to the latest on Apple Podcasts
Fear itself