Bitcoin Daily: $2B PlusToken Pyramid Scheme Could Hurt Bitcoin; R3 Finishes Trade Finance Blockchain Test On Corda Platform

Bitcoin may struggle to recover from the effects of one of the largest digital currency scams, Bloomberg reported Monday (Dec. 16). The popular cryptocurrency could stay under pressure as those behind the PlusToken scandal unload tokens.

PlusToken conspirators have reportedly sold approximately 25,000 bitcoins as well as another 20,000 tokens distributed throughout over 8,700 anonymous crypto addresses. Additional cryptocurrencies like Ether were also utilized to reportedly swindle investors. Bitcoin has plunged nearly 50 percent from its peak this year in June. The price of bitcoin was $6,875.71 as of 2 a.m. ET on Tuesday (Dec.17), according to Coindesk.

And the reported “tech mastermind” who assisted Bitmain Technologies Ltd. in growing into the biggest maker of bitcoin mining rigs in the world before starting his own firm was reportedly arrested, according to Bloomberg. Yang Zuoxing was reported held by police in October reportedly over a legal dispute with his prior employer per unnamed sources in the report. However, a December statement from prosecutors noted that an individual was recently arrested on suspicion of embezzlement. However, the statement reportedly didn’t have one of the characters that comprise his full name, which could have possibly been to protect his identity per the report. Yang’s reported arrest comes amid heightened rivalry between Bitmain and its competitors.

On another note, R3 has finished a trade finance blockchain pilot with over 70 organizations from more than 25 nations, Coindesk reported. The effort piloted working capital applications that TradeIX created and homed in on the receivables finance product on the platform of Marco Polo, which was started by R3 and TradeIX. As many as 340 participants came out from sectors like information technology, financial services, logistics, telecommunications and real estate. Marco Polo claims that over 700 funding requests were finished in the pilot, with user training only needing a day of time on average. Marco Polo seeks to make openness in trading as well as settlements in real-time.