Ep.29. Kraken on With Crypto After the Market Bloodbath

On today's show, we just had to start with crypto price bloodbath January has brought. Simon and Colin dissect rumours of centralised exchanges being banned in China & South Korea, as winter comes for crypto markets. Next, Mike Novagratz makes a '$400m bet' attempting to form a giant crypto merchant bank. Novagratz (who went big on both Bitcoin & Ethereum early) had plans for a crypto hedge fund which were cancelled in the past, so it remains to be seen what happens with this project. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum founder, is another blockchain personality in the news today, who left VC firm Fenbushi Capital. Drama is never far from the cryptocurrency ecosystem and Tron, a Chinese crypto project has been accused of plagiarism with regards to their whitepaper. Translation issue? Or is there more in this story? ICO's were most certainly hot in 2017 and chat app Telegram hopes to raise up to $1.2 billion in an ICO. How will ICO's develop in 2018? The explore what could happen with that regard, but it seems initial coin offerings will still be a prevalent in 2018. Kraking on, Kraken, the world's 5th largest cryptocurrency exchange is back after a troublesome upgrade. Many speculated that some of the upgrades were un-professional with fears surfacing that some money could be lost. Sticking with exchanges, we discuss Binance-the fastest growing 'unicorn' in the crypto-currency world which has now surpassed a $1 billion valuation less than 6 months after launching. Truly extraordinary! Last but not least, we bring you interviews with two Ryan's! We were spoilt today as Ryan Shea came on the show to discuss Blockstack, a new internet for decentralized apps. The second Ryan, Ryan Selkis- came on to discuss his interesting blog titled 'I see You XRP' discussing all things Ripple, XRP and what's happening in the markets. We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe. Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @bchaininsider and if you really love the show, why not leave us a review on iTunes? Special Guests: Ryan Selkis and Ryan Shea. Links: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, cryptocurrency prices fall on January 16 - Business Insider Michael Novogratz $400 Million Bet: Form Giant Crypto Merchant Bank Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has left VC firm Fenbushi Capital Tron’s Whitepaper is Copied, Plagiarized Telegram plans multi-billion dollar ICO for chat cryptocurrency Kraken Exchange Is Back Online After Troublesome System Upgrade Binance: the fastest profitable unicorn in history?