After what seems like months of speculation, the supposed introduction of Ripple to the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange – the world’s biggest – proved to be little more than chat-room gossip.
Coinbase took to Twitter yesterday to counter the rumours, saying that it had no plans to add new currencies to the exchange while also linking to a blog post outlining its criteria for adding new assets.
“Coinbase will announce the addition of new assets only via our blog post or other official channels,” the post read.
While a segment on CNBC’s Fast Money later on Tuesday with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Coinbase president Asiff Hirji will go ahead, it seems this is more likely to be a general discussion of cryptocurrency trends. As a result of COinbase’s statement, the price of Ripple’s token slipped back more then $0.10 to around $0.95.
Bitcoin volumes hit two-year lows
Despite a mini resurgence in price, climbing and staying above $11,500 for much of Sunday and Monday, Bitcoin’s sluggish performance in 2018 has resulted in record low volumes.
According to Blockchain.info, February 26 and March 4 both saw fewer than 200,000 confirmed Bitcoin transactions – levels that haven’t been seen since March, 2016. This perhaps demonstrates the desire to “hodl” among investors as more price rises are expected – although it also underlines its limits as a currency.
Mercedes-Benz to launch on cryptocurrency
Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz and Smart, is planning its own cryptocurrency to promote eco-friendly behaviours, such as smooth and safe driving at low speeds.
MobiCoin has gone into testing with 500 drivers. All their driving data will be submitted to Daimler and positive scores translated into tokens – which will then be stored in an app. It seems these will be used to convert into Mercedes-based prizes and offers rather than cash or other cryptocurrencies.
US Marshals to auction $25 million in Bitcoin
On March 19, the US Marshals will hold an auction for 2,170 Bitcoins,it announced late on Monday.
The coins were confiscated in a range of confiscations, in “connection with various federal criminal, civil and administrative cases”, according to a statement. Anyone wishing to participate in the auction must deposit $200,000 with the Marshals service by March 14.
Many of the Bitcoin belonged to Shaun Bridges, an ex-Secret Service agent who was imprisoned for stealing some of the cryptocurrency during the Silk Road investigation.
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