Cryptocurrency News: 21st - 27th of May (Coinbase, Verge, Ripple, Request, Funfair, Bitcoin) Market situation The market recorded significant losses this week. Current prices: BTC = around $7.2k (-15%) ETH = around $532 (-25%) XRP = around $0.57 (-18%) NEO = around $49 (-23%) IOTA = around $1.41 (-22%) VEN = around $3.30 (-26%) EOS = around $12.70 (-13%) LTC = around $113 (-18%) OMG = around $9.94 (-23%) This week has been very bad for cryptocurrency with all main cryptos losing in value. Suprisingly Ethereum and Vechain were the biggest loses. Coinbase acquires trading platform Paradex On 23rd of May cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has acquired Paradex, a platform that enables users to trade virtual coins directly with each other Coinbase plans to make some enhancements to the technology and launch Paradex's services to customers outside of the United States, enabling them to trade "hundreds of tokens," it said The move will significantly expand the types of cryptocurrencies that customers will be able to access through Coinbase, which has traditionally been more conservative than competitors in listing new types of coins. Verge (XVG) getting exploited again On 22nd of May cryptocurrency Verge has suffered what executives are claiming is a DDoS attack. The platform is experiencing a serious delay in its blockchain, which has led to security concerns amongst users and worries about the currency’s stability. Developers said: “It appears some mining pools are under DDoS attack, and we are experiencing a delay in our blocks. We are working to resolve this.” The problem may be more serious than the company is implying, however. The attack lasted more than a few hours and has resulted in over 35 million XVGs (worth approximately $1.7 million) being stolen. The theft occurred when hackers exploited a specific glitch in Verge’s technology by mining multiple blocks virtually one second apart using the same algorithm - same was as last time. Ashton Kutcher with $4 million Ripple donation On 24th of May Actor and tech investor Ashton Kutcher surprised Ellen DeGeneres on Wednesday with a $4 million gift in cryptocurrency Ripple XRP The comedian and talk-show host received the donation to her wildlife charity in XRP tokens for her 60th birthday, live on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” “Usually people come out with the big, giant check and do the big giant check thing,” Kutcher said, noting the donation was on behalf of Ripple. “But . . . all we have to do is push this button and it’s in your account.” Considering Ellen has 78M followers on Twitter this is an impressive advertisement for Ripple. Request Network Major Updates On 25th of May released a Project Update highlighting upcoming developments that include but are not limited to: The introduction of a new roadmap: A way to track progression real-time A visual preview of the Crowdfunding Application built on the Request Network AirSwap and Request Network partnership to to positively impact decentralised marketplaces The new Request Network documentation Javascript Library updated to be more developer friendly Request Network hiring Product Managers & Back-end Developers These are big updates for the project that continue to show a potential of becoming the next crypto based decentralised Paypal. Funfair New Showcase and Start of Closed Beta Testing Around 24th of May FunFair Technologies have released the latest version of their Showcase offering as external participants begin testing on closed beta. The redesign of the Showcase area includes a full user interface overhaul across all games and a complete games lobby rework, all on a responsive layout allowing users to use the platform on any supported mobile device. The redesigned Showcase platform is available for ALL users to sample and will be updated with new features as the beta process progresses over the next four weeks. Funfair has been the leading crypto casino project and continues to impress. Criminal Probe into Bitcoin Price Manipulation On 24th of May it was annouced that the Justice Department has opened a criminal probe into whether traders are manipulating the price of Bitcoin and other digital currencies The investigation is focused on illegal practices that can influence prices -- such as spoofing, or flooding the market with fake orders to trick other traders into buying or selling. Authorities worry that virtual currencies are susceptible to fraud for multiple reasons: skepticism that all exchanges are actively pursuing cheaters, wild price swings that could make it easy to push valuations around and a lack of regulations like the ones that govern stocks and other assets. Follow me on social media: Telegram: https://t.me/crypto0coins Twitter: https://twitter.com/Crypto0Coins Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crypt0coins/ Steemit: https://steemit.com/@dmae Not a financial advice.