Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian says "Bitcoin winter is great for crypto industry"

Cryptocurrency investors “should have been thinking long term,” says Reddit cofounder and Coinbase backer Alexis Ohanian.

Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and known crypto bull, claimed that the crypto hype is gone, leaving space for true crypto believers. Ohanian spoke on the subject in an interview with YahooFinance released on Feb. 22.

Alexis Ohanian Sr. (u/kn0thing) - Redditt
Alexis Ohanian Sr. - alexisohanian.com

alexis ohanian reddit bitcoin crypto coinbase
Reddit co-founder and Coinbase investor Alexis Ohanian said that Crypto Winter is actually good for bitcoin. | Source: AP Photo / Jeff Chiu, File

Bitcoin investors should not be discouraged by the brutal Crypto Winter because the mass purge is actually good for the long-term health of the industry. That’s the observation of Coinbase investor Alexis Ohanian, better known as the founder of social media network Reddit.

‘This Is the Spring of Crypto Innovation’

Ohanian — the husband of American tennis star Serena Williams — admits that bitcoin is experiencing a prolonged market slump.

However, despite the Crypto Winter, he says now is actually the “spring of crypto innovation.” Why? Because the people that remain in the industry after the market crash are die-hard enthusiasts, not flaky, fair-weather speculators.

“This is the Crypto Winter, no doubt,” Ohanian told Yahoo. “But a friend of mine, Brian Armstrong — who’s the CEO of Coinbase — said, ‘This is the spring of crypto innovation.'”

“What he means is, ‘Yes, the prices are depressed. The speculators have fled, and that’s great.’ Because the people who are now building on crypto are true believers. They’re actually building the infrastructure that it’s going to take to really make this happen.”

Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian: Bitcoin bear market is good for the crypto industry.
Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian: Bitcoin bear market is good for the crypto industry. (Yahoo)

Market Attrition Reveals the True Believers

While naysayers point to the market slump as evidence that bitcoin is dead, Ohanian says nothing could be further from the truth.”

“Some of the smartest people I know in tech are still working on solving these problems. They’re building companies that are built on blockchain.”

“The hype is...


Korea’s 2nd-Biggest Cryptocurrency Exchange Bithumb Resumes User Registrations

Crypto markets are stabilizing and improving. Enabling companies to begin focusing on their next phase of growth.

Bithumb

Bithumb, South Korea’s second-biggest crypto exchange by daily trading volume behind UPbit, will officially resume registrations for new investors as early as this week.

NH Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the country, is set to sign an agreement with Bithumb on August 30 to provide virtual bank accounts to Bithumb users, which will allow new users to trade on the trading platform.

In South Korea, cryptocurrency exchanges are required to operate virtual bank accounts so that users can withdraw and deposit Korean won without having to directly deal with their respective banks for efficiency and security.

What Bithumb’s Registration Resumption Means

Since early 2018, as its partnership with NH Bank was dematerialized and it experienced a $40 million security breach which disabled deposits and withdrawals on Bithumb for a whole month, Bithumb has not been able to accept new traders on its platform.

As CCN previously reported, an official from Nonghyup Bank told Business Korea:

“We have decided not to renew the contract because Bithumb still has problems in protecting consumers and information and preventing money laundering.”

As seen in its decline in profits in the third quarter of 2018, the trading volume and user activity of Bithumb stagnated due to its inability to support new users and facilitate trades in July.

But, this month, the government of South Korea approved UPbit, Bithumb, Korbit, and a few other cryptocurrency exchanges for having...