Viacoin: Why This Asset was at the Center of the Binance Storm
Viacoin is a relatively unknown digital asset, which has been around for a while, but so far has been overshadowed by more ambitious projects. Yet it was precisely this coin that was selected for outlandish bidding by trading bots on Binance.
“be the Via dev> code for hours> take a break to watch anime> check telegram messages> Viacoin pumped, binance hack claims> missed out on a 10x on your own coin> people thanking you because they made their first million dollar.— [ Romano ] (@RNR_0)March 7, 2018”
Viacoin is one of the digital assets where atomic swaps were tested, most recently with theDecredblockchain, but potentially with other SHA-256 coins, most notably Bitcoin.
Yet curiously, despite the outlandish price bets and bot orders, the VIA price has remained depressed, sliding below $3 once again. VIA previously reached peaks both in Bitcoin and dollar terms, but now seems set for depressed prices, as markets lack the strength of previous months.
After the unauthorized trading, volumes on Binance remained rather high for VIA, putting it again in the second place, with trading upward of $140 million in 24 hours. Thus, the hack has created inadvertent publicity and demand for the coin, which remains one of the less explored assets on Binance with the potential for higher returns.
It is possible that the VIA market was chosen precisely for its low liquidity and the ease of increasing the coin's price:
“Official Binance Statement:https://t.co/veAbOdACRj Yesterday the hackers used the API keys, placed large market buys on the VIA/BTC market, pushing the price high, while 31 accounts sold VIA at the top. They selected VIA, a coin with smaller liquidity, to maximize their gains.— Viacoin (@viacoin)March 8, 2018”
In essence, the moves of the hacked bots resembled the perfect pump and dump scheme, which did not even need to rely on real people making a decision, but making just the right orders to bring the price of VIA to the desired level. The Viacoin team reminded that they are in no way related to the hack.
Binance listed the coin only a month ago, and during that time, Viacoin remained relatively obscure. Yet technologically, Viacoin remains an active project, with new developers on board. The project also relies on Romano, a well-known developer and one of the influential voices of the crypto community.
All Funds are Safe
The Binance exchange once again proved its capabilities to remain safe and tackled the trading orders so no losses were incurred. Yet the event revealed that exchanges remain one of the weak spots in the world of crypto coins.
“Binance has reversed all irregular trades. All deposit, trading and withdrawal are resumed. will write a more detailed account of what happened shortly. Interestingly, the hackers lost coins during this attempt. We will donate this to Binance Charity.— CZ (not giving crypto away) (@cz_binance)March 7, 2018”
Binance remains beset by phishing attacks attempting to steal user credentials, while redirecting users unnoticed to the real website.