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Crypto Mania Rages With Bankruptcy, Stock Suspension, ETF Plan

By Jeremy Herron, Lily Katz

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The wave of cryptocurrency news turned into a tsunami Tuesday.

Before traders broke for lunch in New York, a Korean crypto exchange went bust after getting hacked; a stock unheard of 24 hours earlier surged even after its CEO gave a rambling defense of its business; U.S. regulators halted a coin trader’s stock on suspicion of manipulation; alt coins from ether to iota reached new highs; and an app maker tripled after buying a bitcoin ATM patent.

The frenzy of crypto news is reminiscent of the heady days of the dot-com bubble, when stories of mailroom millionaires sparked a rush to list anything remotely related to the internet.

That’s not to say the digital currency craze has to end any time soon.

Tuesday even brought a sign that it’s just getting started: A unit of Cboe Global Markets filed to list a bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

Here’s a roundup of the day in crypto:

Trading Suspended

U.S. regulators temporarily suspended trading in Crypto Co. over concerns that the stock is being manipulated after it surged more than 2,700 percent this month, making paper billionaires out of top executives.

Crypto is the product of a reverse merger with a company that made water and radio-wave resistant sports bra pockets, according to a November filing.

Last week it issued stock to accredited investors at $7, a 97 percent discount to the prior day’s closing price.

Rally Resumed

Just when there looked to be a limit to the mania, LongFin Corp. captured the attention of the masses. The stock’s four-day rally reached 2,600 percent on Monday, earning its chief executive an appearance on CNBC.

The interview did not go well for him as he got into a heated debate with the anchors, telling them, “you don’t understand.” Overnight LongFin shares stumbled…but they resumed their ascent in regular trading, rising as much as 23 percent.

Belly-Up Exchange

South Korean coin exchange Youbit became a casualty of hackers, saying it will close and enter bankruptcy after a cyberattack.

Korea has emerged as a sort of ground zero for the global crypto-mania, with so many Koreans embracing bitcoin that the prime minister recently warned that cryptocurrencies might corrupt the nation’s youth.

Riot Offering

Riot Blockchain Inc., a stock virtually unknown three months ago, had a secondary offering as its shares pushed their gain since September to 700 percent.

The company issued 1.64 million restricted units at a purchase price of $22.50 each. The stock closed Monday at $36.47. Short-seller Citron Research said yesterday it was betting against Riot, citing “full mania.”

First ETFs?

Cboe filed for a proposed a rule change to list and trade shares of the GraniteShares Bitcoin ETF and GraniteShares Short Bitcoin ETF, a series of the GraniteShares ETP Trust.

The exchange is a unit of Cboe Global Markets, which became the first to offer futures trading on bitcoin nine days ago.

Bitcoin ATM

DNA Dynamics surged 700 percent — to 3.25 cents — after saying it agreed to buy a patent “that requires any Bitcoin ATM operator to give a royalty on every Bitcoin ATM transaction” throughout the U.S.

The company says it could see up to $1 million in revenue a year. It’s not clear how many such ATMs exist or how often they are used.

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