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CoinMarketCap rival CoinGecko acquires NFT startup Zash

November 22, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

CoinGecko has acquired the NFT data infrastructure platform Zash as the firm remains bullish about the NFT market. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Major cryptocurrency tracking website CoinGecko is scaling its data offering by acquiring the nonfungible token (NFT) data infrastructure platform Zash.

CoinGecko plans to integrate Zash’s NFT data into its Application Programming Interface (API) by the second quarter of 2024, the firm announced on Nov. 21, though the deal terms have not been disclosed.

“API users will be able to enjoy a unified crypto data offering, where they can access fungible and nonfungible token data seamlessly and enjoy enriched crypto market insights,” CoinGecko co-founder and chief operating officer Bobby Ong told Cointelegraph.

According to the exec, front-end users of CoinGecko’s web and mobile app will also be able to access the on-chain NFT data through the NFT floor price tracker next year.

CoinGecko didn’t disclose the cost of the Zash acquisition to Cointelegraph. Founded in 2021, Zash operates an enterprise-grade NFT indexer and API, allowing users to track NFT data across 87 unique marketplaces — or a total of 102 marketplaces — like the major NFT exchange OpenSea.

“Zash’s data also encompasses secondary sales, bundled trades, converts settlement in 12 currencies and encompass ERC-721 and ERC-1155 token standards,” Ong noted, adding that Zash’s coverage is “over four times more than alternatives.”

CoinGecko’s latest move into the NFT market comes despite a significant decline in the NFT market, which is sometimes interpreted as a signal the NFT technology is maturing rather than a sign of distress. CoinGecko is bullish on the NFT industry despite the ongoing market decline, Ong said, stating:

“We hold the vision where any asset that can be tokenized, will be tokenized. We believe that NFTs will continue to innovate beyond PFPs, GameFi and unlock new opportunities and use cases worldwide. For that reason, we’re optimistic about the NFT market’s resurgence.”

After Binance acquired CoinGecko’s major competitor, CoinMarketCap, in 2020, CoinGecko was also open to acquisitions as of July 2022. However, the firm was considering potential acquisitions in the long term rather than in the short term.

“This will be our third crypto winter, and we are focused on improving CoinGecko to prepare for the eventual bull run that will come again,” CoinGecko’s Ong told Cointelegraph last year.

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Crypto firm claiming $1.4B in trades on CMC flashes reportedly fake license data

September 26, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Crypto firm claiming .4B in trades on CMC flashes reportedly fake license data

Bitcoin Scams

A crypto exchange claiming $1.7 billion in daily trades and reporting $1.4 billion of daily trading volume on CoinMarketCap had reportedly displayed false license data until Estonian regulators checked it.

A number of cryptocurrency platforms reporting billions of dollars in daily trades on CoinMarketCap appear to have been misleading their customers about holding certain crypto licenses, an investigation by Cointelegraph has found.

Bitspay, a crypto exchange that reports a $1.4 billion daily trading volume on CoinMarketCap, claimed it held a license in Estonia, and is regulated under Estonian law. However, after Cointelegraph reached out with questions about this license, the company swiftly erased its reportedly fake license data.

At the time of writing, Bitspay is the fourth-largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume on CoinMarketCap, following platforms like Binance, BitForex and Topcredit International.

*Top four crypto exchanges by daily trading volume. Source: CoinMarketCap*

According to Bitspay’s page on CoinMarketCap, it is a centralized exchange (CEX) based in Estonia. The exchange was launched in 2020 and claims to be regulated under the Estonian “Anti Money Laundering Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2019,” which appears to be referring to the country’s Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act.

*Bitspay’s info on CoinMarketCap. Source: CoinMarketCap*

Bitspay also claimed it was licensed and regulated by Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). “Bitspay Limited registered with the registration number FVR000796, under the Laws of the Republic of Estonia,” the firm stated on one of its domains, Bitspay.io, until it erased the information immediately following Cointelegraph’s inquiries.

*Bitspay claiming to have a license in Estonia on Bitspay.io. Source: Wayback Machine*

Contacted by Cointelegraph, Estonia’s FIU reported that Bitspay didn’t hold any valid license in Estonia. “We took a look into it, and it seems that the license number which they have previously announced refers to an Estonian company, Globe Assets OÜ,” a spokesperson for the FIU said in a statement on Sept. 21. The license was also valid for less than a year, from March 2019 until January 2020, the representative noted.

The FIU didn’t respond to additional questions about Bitspay’s legal status in Estonia.

Bitspay was showing its website visitors information on the license mentioned above until at least Sept. 18, 2023. The firm subsequently rebranded its website from the briefly unavailable Bitspay.io to Bitspay.global on Sept. 21, removing all data about being registered or regulated in Estonia.

At the time of writing, Bitspay has not provided any information about its registration or license on its new website. The exchange also claims on its website that its daily trading volume amounts to 65,249 Bitcoin (BTC), or $1.7 billion. Despite reporting that much in trading, the exchange appears to have no more than around 400 subscribers on Twitter and some 16,000 members on its Telegram channel.

Kelly Nova, said to be the founder and CEO of Bitspay on its website, told Cointelegraph that the exchange is working on licenses in both Estonia and the United Kingdom. “We have some copyright issues and that’s why we closed the Bitspay.io domain,” he said. The exec didn’t respond to Cointelegraph’s request for further information about Bitspay founders or why the firm previously claimed to have a license in Estonia on its website.

Bitspay appears to be far from the only platform reporting massive trading volumes on CMC while little is known about its licenses, founders or background. Exchanges like Topcredit, which reports $1.8 billion in daily trades on CoinMarketCap, and Bika — reporting $1.2 billion — have been unwilling to talk to Cointelegraph about their background and founders as well.

“We have long been aware that self-reported data can be problematic but APIs are the only viable source for data collection,” a spokesperson for CoinMarketCap told Cointelegraph.

The representative also referred to the website’s scoring system, pointing out that platforms like Bitspay, Topcredit or Bika have a significantly lower score than major exchanges like Binance, which has owned CoinMarketCap since April 2020. “We always encourage our users to perform their own due diligence, especially with low scoring exchanges,” the spokesperson said, adding:

“We know our data isn't infallible. Our role is as an objective and comprehensive information aggregator, not a regulator. [...] In short, CMC numbers are as credible as they can be, using our industry leading experience, technology, verification methodology and feedback loops [...]”

The spokesperson cited the crypto adage “don't trust, verify” and said it embodies a foundational principle of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

According to a public announcement, Bitspay was listed on CoinMarketCap in July 2023. CoinMarketCap’s major rival, CoinGecko, hasn’t listed this website, nor has it listed Topcredit or Bika. Despite this discrepancy, CoinGecko has significantly more spot exchanges than CoinMarketCap, does. At the time of writing, CoinGecko lists a total 784 exchanges, while CoinMarketCap lists only 225.

Websites like CoinMarketCap have frequently been criticized for providing inflated exchange trading volumes. In 2019, Bitwise Asset Management claimed that 95% of volumes on unregulated exchanges reported on CoinMarketCap were fake or non-economic wash trading in nature. Another investigation by the data analytics firm The Tie suggested in 2019 that more than 86% of reported crypto trading volume appeared suspicious.

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Crypto users turned to DEXs, loaded up on USDC after Silicon Valley Bank crash

March 17, 2023 Coin Telegraph

CEX

The collapse of FTX led to a similar exodus from centralized exchanges, as users worried they may lose access to funds during crises.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank saw investors loading their bags with USD Coin (USDC), along with an exodus of funds from centralized exchanges (CEXs) to decentralized exchanges (DEXs).

Outflows from centralized exchanges often spike when the markets are in turmoil, blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis said in a March 16 blog post, as users are likely worried about losing access to their funds when exchanges go down.

*Funds sent from CEXs to DEXs following SVB’s collapse. Source: Chainalysis.*

The Chainalysis data shows that hourly outflows from CEXs to DEXs spiked to over $300 million on March 11, soon after SVB was shut down by a Californiaregulator.

A similar phenomenon was observed during the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX last year, amid fears that the contagion could spread to other crypto firms.

However, data from the blockchain analytics platform Token Terminal suggests that the surge in daily trading volumes for large DEXs was short-lived in both cases.

*Daily trading volumes for large DEXs from September to March. Source:* *Token Terminal*

USDC was identified as one of the top assets being moved to DEXs, which Chainalysis said was unsurprising given that USDC depegged after stablecoin issuer Circle announced it had $3.3 billion in reserves stuck on SVB, prompting many CEXs like Coinbase to temporarily halt USDC trading.

What was surprising, Chainalysis noted, was the surge in USDC acquisitions on large DEXs such as Curve3pool and Uniswap. “Several assets saw large spikes in user acquisition, but none more than USDC,” the blockchain analysis firm wrote.

*Token acquisitions on Uniswap from March 7 to March 14. Source: Chainalysis*

Chainalysis theorized that this was due to confidence in the stablecoin, with some crypto users loading up on USDC while it was relatively cheap and betting that it would regain its peg — which it did on March 13 according to CoinMarketCap.

*USDC’s brief depeg from March 11 to March 13. Source: CoinMarketCap*

Vitalik dumps $700K worth of shitcoins that he never asked for

March 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Vitalik dumps 0K worth of shitcoins that he never asked for

Coin Telegraph

As Vitalik Buterin’s holdings represented a large portion of the circulating supply for some of the tokens, the sales resulted in huge price drops.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has gone on a shitcoin selling spree, exchanging nearly $700,000 worth of tokens previously airdropped to him for Ether (ETH).

According to Etherscan, a wallet belonging to Buterin on March 7 offloaded 500 trillion SHIKOKU (SHIK) for 380.3 ETH ($595,448), nearly 10 billion Cult DAO (CULT) for 58.1 ETH ($91,021), and 50 billion Mops (MOPS) for 1.25 ETH ($1,950).

*A screenshot of token transactions from Vitalik’s wallet. Source: Etherscan*

Due to the low liquidity of the tokens the sales had a huge effect on their prices. The largest price drop from the tokens was SHIK, which recorded an 86% drop following Buterin’s sale according to CoinMarketCap data.

#PeckShieldAlert $SHIK (SHIKOKU) has dropped -95.8%
Vitalik Buterin-labeled address has dumped ~5T $SHIK, and gained ~164 $ETH (~260k) and transferred 214 $ETH ($337k) to EthDevhttps://t.co/Uw6TA1RDKP pic.twitter.com/FuIbgGgrdA
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) March 7, 2023

The total circulating supply of SHIK is 1 quadrillion, with the 500 trillion previously held by Buterin representing 50% of the current supply.

In May 2021 the Ethereum co-founder initiated a similar offload selling tokens such as Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogelon Mars (ELON) that resulted in price drops of 40% and 90% respectively.

While some within the cryptocurrency community shared their frustration at Buterin’s decision to sell considering the outsized effect it had on the tokens, others suggested it was motivated by the tax implications of receiving airdrops, which are subject to income tax in most countries.

Seems like a strange move, he is more than aware this would tank prices and drain liquidity. My one assumption is that his accountant warned him these tokens would count as income on his tax sheet. Selling to cover the expense
— SecureZero  (@securezero) March 7, 2023

Buterin confirmed he owned the wallet in a 2018 tweet after he was accused of hoarding 75% of the supply of Ether with fellow Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin during the token's pre-mining sale.

Bitcoin’s Crypto Market Action Holds the Upper Hand as Dominance Level Surpasses 40%

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‘Infected by fraud’ — Projects claim CoinMarketCap airdrops were gamed

January 10, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Airdrop

A crypto project claims a promotional token airdrop campaign led by CoinMarketCap was riddled with "fraud" that left its token price crumbling.

Two crypto projects have cried foul play over promotional airdrops conducted by CoinMarketCap (CMC) on their behalf, which they allege was "gamed" for the benefit of a small group of exploiters.

These promotional airdrops — designed to be distributed to thousands of wallets to raise awareness of a crypto project — ended with the tokens funneling to just a handful of wallets, suggesting potential manipulation of the system.

SATT token drop

Blockchain advertising solution SaTT alleged to Cointelegraph that a promotional airdrop it paid CMC to conduct in Dec. 2022 ended with 84% of the airdropped tokens funneling to just 21 wallets.

The promotion was meant to see 25,000 winning wallets receive 4,000 SATT each, worth $6.30 at the time per CoinGecko data.

However, SaTT claimed that shortly after the airdrop was distributed, 20,953 wallets “automatically transferred the tokens to 21 wallet addresses” which then sold off their token holdings days later around Dec. 10, netting around $142,000 for those 21 wallet owners.

The sell-off plunged the price of SATT by 70% between the end of the airdrop on Dec. 1 to when the wallets sold their tokens on Dec. 10.

*SaTT claims wallet* *0x929…* *(pictured) has over 4,500 transactions of its token, the largest it found out of the 21. Blockchain data shows the wallet sold over 4.3 million tokens through PancakeSwap.* *BscScan*

TokenBot token drop

A similar experience was shared by TokenBot co-founder Shaun Newsum, who told Cointelegraph that it did a similar CMC-led airdrop of its TKB token on Dec. 9.

Newsum said CMC provided its 30,000 airdrop winners but he chose to “stagger” the airdrop “just in case something happens.”

TokenBot sent out its tokens to a batch of 4,000 winners to start, but around 3,300 ended up sending the funds to one wallet, said Newsum.

*Blockchain data shows thousands of TKB transactions flowing to wallet* *0x5AF…* *before initiating a cross-chain swap and then selling its holdings.* *BscScan*.

Newsum said around $20,000 was lost by TokenBot in the incident and the project had to deploy more liquidity from its treasury.

“Obviously some person figured out how to game CMC,” he added. “If we were to have bulk sent, the whole airdrop would’ve been a complete disaster.”

Newsum however said he has since received an apology from CMC and was told that it was investigating the airdrop and would return with an updated winners list for the project.

In its investigation, SaTT claims to have found another 18 tokens or nonfungible tokens (NFTs) airdrops conducted by CMC since Jul. 2022 that were also allegedly “infected by fraud” to the tune of $6.6 million.

This included airdrops for projects including TopGoal, OwlDAO and AgeofGods.

SaTT theorized two possibilities of how the “fraud” occurred:

“Either a group of hackers injected tons of fake accounts [into the airdrop on CMC’s website] [...] or it was actually an inside job.”

CoinMarketCap responds

Speaking to Cointelegraph, a CMC spokesperson addressed some of these claims, arguing that at least four of the projects identified by SaTT have yet to distribute rewards, meaning it would be “impossible” for them to have faced “malicious” activity.

It also noted that while three projects, including SaTT, AgeOfGods and TokenBot have spoken to the CMC team about their concerns, it has not received any communications from other projects about the alleged issues.

The spokesperson however acknowledged that “bots are an issue that touches nearly every industry.”

“The industry has been facing this issue among airdrop programs for some time and the reality is that not a single industry has been able to solve the bot issue entirely.”

“We are continuously working to improve our systems and services to limit this issue and will work closely with these projects to find solutions and help resolve any current issues,” the spokesperson added.

CMC added that any claims of bot participation in its airdrops are taken “very seriously” and itis “working on resolving each case individually.”

It also shared several features it has employed to deter bot participation, such as a CAPTCHA challenge and email verification requirements for participants. It’s also developing a two-factor authentication integration.

Cointelegraph contacted TopGoal and OwlDAO for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publicati. AgeofGods could not be reached for comment.

CoinMarketCap

SATT token drop

TokenBot token drop

CoinMarketCap responds

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