Crypto Synthesis December 21, 2018 - Consensys Planning Redundancy of More Than 60% Of Staff - UPbit Exchanges Managers Accused of Fraud

Bitcoin's difficulty drops 7% though the price remains at $ 4000

The difficulty of the Bitcoin mine has fallen by more than 7% over the past 24 hours, as the number of miners is still falling. Despite the recent recovery that led to a price increase of more than $ 4,000, many miners still have difficulty maintaining profitability.

Reducing the hash rate triggers an automatic adjustment of the difficulty level to avoid the delay of transaction confirmation. It is expected that this adjustment will continue as long as the Bitcoin price remains below $ 6,000.

In the near future, many analysts believe that Bitcoin will remain in a wide range between $ 3,000 and $ 6,000. They expect high volatility until the market stabilizes in the long run.

Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV and Tron have risen by over 25%. The rest of the crypto had mixed evolutions with variations of 1-5%.

Chief executives of the UPbit exchange, accused of fraud

The chief executives of UPbit, South Korea's largest crypto exchange, have been accused of fraud. Between September and December 2017, they would have manipulated transaction volumes on the platform. These amounts are about $ 226 billion.

They are also accused of selling 11,550 Bitcoin that belonged to clients to get 133.8 million dollars through fraudulent transactions.

UPbit denied allegations, claiming they did not withdraw money because company accounts do not have this function. They admitted, however, that they traded for marketing, artificially increasing volumes to attract more customers.

Bloomberg says Facebook will develop a stable crypto

Social Facebook giant Facebook plans to develop a stable crypto for transfers to WhatsApp platform. According to Bloomberg, the project will focus first on the Indian market, where the demand for astfeld is very high. WhatsApp messaging application was acquired by Facebook in 2014.

Bloomberg argues that the launch of the stable crypto does not have a settled term because the initiative is at a stage of strategic planning. Currently, WhatsApp has over 200 million active monthly users in India.

India is one of the largest remittance markets, with the World Bank reporting that migrants sent $ 69.59 billion home in 2017.

Consensys plans to lay off over 60% of staff

Blockens' software company, Consensys, plans significant staff cuts, according to Verge sources. Restructuring will particularly affect the Consensys Labs start-up incubator, which will be reorganized as a traditional investor.

Consensys currently employs more than 1,200 employees, of which more than half can be fired.

Joseph Lubin, CEO of the company, said that "we must retain and, in some cases, regain our starting mentality, efficiency and ambition." Officially, the company announced that it plans to allocate staff from closed projects to other initiatives, but does not rule out layoffs.

Management's decision is largely based on the negative evolution of prices on the crypto market. Consensys' original plans were based on the premise that Ethereum will continue to grow in value. Current reality forces them to reorganize the company.