CoinDesk Acquires Crypto Index TradeBlock

CoinDesk has acquired digital asset index TradeBlock, the cryptocurrency news platform announced in a press release Tuesday (Jan. 5).

TradeBlock provides price references, customizable algorithms and other cryptocurrency data. With its acquisition, CoinDesk plans to invest and expand TradeBlock’s enterprise trading tools and order management platform, the release stated.

“Mainstream acceptance of bitcoin is accelerating right now as Wall Street wakes up to its potential,” said Kevin Worth, CEO of CoinDesk, in the release. “With that has come an urgent need for the kind of robust data and professional tools that enable institutions to participate.”

As a wholly owned subsidiary, TradeBlock will operate fully independently to ensure data security and client confidentiality and to preserve CoinDesk’s journalistic integrity, the release stated.

In other news, Mate Tokay, co-founder of Bitcoin.com, is suing Bridge.link Founder Sina Estavi for allegedly failing to compensate advisors and misrepresenting the available supply of Bridge tokens, according to a press release.

As a Bridge.link advisor, Tokay was contracted for 37.5 million BRG, but said Estavi later refused to pay this amount and tried to renegotiate for a lower sum, the release stated. He claimed other advisors experienced similar interactions.

By failing to pay the advisors their agreed amounts, the release stated, Bridge’s circulating supply is being misreported on the markets.

“It’s unfair to BRG investors,” said Tokay in the release. “Coin market cap aggregators show a much larger BRG supply than there actually is. This is clearly market manipulation by disallowing BRG investors from spending their tokens.”

Meanwhile, Argentinian cryptocurrency firm Ripio has acquired Brazilian crypto exchange BitcoinTrade, reported CoinDesk, a deal that will strengthen Ripio’s presence in Latin America’s crypto market.

“Brazil has always been a very important market for us,” said Ripio CEO and Co-Founder Sebastian Serrano, according to CoinDesk.

The acquisition gives Ripio access to some 300,000 BitcoinTrade users, as well as the platform’s established relationships with several banks in the country, including Santander, Banco du Brasil and Banco Itaú, according to the report.

In other news, in the wake of bitcoin’s recent record high price of over $34,000, J.P. Morgan analysts said bitcoin could rise all the way to $146,000, CNBC reported.

The investment bank noted that for bitcoin to hit this price, its market cap would need to climb dramatically from $575 billion, where it currently sits, to match gold’s $2.7 trillion market cap. To achieve this, it would need to see a drastic drop in price volatility and an uptick in institutional investor confidence.

“This long-term upside…