Bitcoin Daily: Coinbase Overcharges Customers, Bitcoin Pushes Past $10K

Bitcoin is back — the cryptocurrency reached above the $10,000 mark again, CNBC reported. Thursday (Feb. 15) was the first day in two weeks that bitcoin traded at that level. A host of other digital coins — including bitcoin cash and litecoin — also reached higher levels on Thursday.

And in a decidedly retro twist, Atari, which brought Pac-Man to the world, is rolling out its own cryptocurrency called “Atari Token,” Coindesk reported. To make this digital coin happen, the company has licensed its brand to Infinity Networks, Ltd, which is based in Gibraltar. Atari acquired a 15 percent stake in the firm, but the company said that it was “made without cash disbursement by Atari.”

In the finance world, hedge funds are getting very interested in cryptocurrency, Reuters reported. Autonomous NEXT said that a whopping 226 hedge funds are using a crypto strategy, which is just over double the 110 hedge funds recorded in October investing in crypto. And assets under management (AUM) are now somewhere in the neighborhood of $3.5 to $5 billion.

And Coinbase has a slight problem with the way it is currently handling cryptocurrency purchases, CNBC reported. Users are apparently being charged multiple times for a legitimate transaction without authorization. Representatives from Coinbase have fielded complaints through Reddit for about two weeks, but the number of issues seems to have increased dramatically over the last day.

In response to complaints from investors, The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is now warning about “pump-and-dump” scams for cryptocurrencies, Reuters reported. The regulator is telling consumers to be wary about purchasing digital coins after they see tips on social media platforms, which could very well be bogus information meant to artificially drive up crypto prices.  “As with many online frauds, this type of scam is not new — it simply deploys an emerging technology to capitalize on public interest in digital assets,” CFTC Director of Public Affairs Erica Elliott Richardson said in the statement.