Every Monday, we round up important cryptocurrency and blockchain news that you might’ve missed while you’ve been out socializing/spending time with your loved ones/inhaling macaroni and cheese while you binge-watch some Netflix bullshit.
Here’s this week’s edition. Enjoy!
1. South Korean electronics giant LG is reportedly prepping to launch “blockchain-friendly” smartphones, reports The Block citing local media sources. The move is considered to be a response to its competitor, Samsung, and its recent pandering to the crypto-crowd.
2. Financial.org, an unregulated UK firm that once sponsored a Formula One team, has shut down. According to Reuters, the “company” converted all its investors’ dollar accounts into its own cryptocurrency (FOIN) in June last year, later blocking them from withdrawing their funds. What cool chaps.
3. The city of New Bedford, Massachusetts revealed it had been hit by the dreaded Ryuk ransomware virus in July, with attackers demanding $5.3 million to reverse their malicious encryption. Local media reports, however, that the city refused to bow to their request, instead paying an independent contractor somewhere in the ‘hundreds of thousands’ to recover it themselves.
4. Turns out Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs) suck just as much as ICOs. Blockchain data firm Longhash reports that two-thirds of IEOs that finalized sales in the first half of 2019 have dropped in value since they created a new wave of bagholders. Seriously: median return on those investments have hit NEGATIVE 81.4 percent. Stop trying to make token sales happen, they’re not going to happen.
5. When TRON founder Justin Sun won the chance to have a bougie lunch with famed investor Warren Buffett, many believed it simply wouldn’t happen. Well, it never did, but Business Insider has revealed Sun’s supposed full list of invitees – and it included Donald Trump.
Enjoy the week! And if that’s not possible, do you best to at least survive it, cos you’re worth it.
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