Bitcoin Daily: ICOs Raise $6.3B In Q1, Police Halt $13M Crypto Pyramid Scheme

Following an investigation in China, police have taken in multiple suspects in connection with a supposed blockchain pyramid scheme, Cryptovest reported. According to reports, the schemers said that those who invested 3 million yuan could earn 80,000 yuan per day. Authorities said that 86 million yuan – or $13 million – was invested in the scheme. The news comes a few months after the country launched an initiative to identify blockchain scammers.

In other news, initial coin offerings (ICOs) saw astronomical growth in funding over the first few months of 2018, CoinDesk reported. ICOs notched $6.3 billion in funding during the first quarter, which marks 118 percent of the total amount of funding raised in 2017. In addition, the size of average funding found – as well as the rate at which projects receive funding – was at a high. One particularly large ICO was for Telegram, which took in a whopping $1.7 billion in funding.

And while more British citizens might know about crypto, they are not necessarily crazy about digital currency, The Next Web reported. According to a survey by D-CYFOR, 93 percent of Brits know about bitcoin, which marks an increase of 2 percent from the company’s January poll. But that increased awareness has not necessarily translated into increased confidence: About 30 percent of those surveyed believe that the price of bitcoin will fall in the next six months – and just about as many people think that bitcoin will be worthless.

In bitcoin news, miners of the popular cryptocurrency may not find that their efforts are all that profitable – unless it rises above $8,600, CNBC reported. Analysts for Morgan Stanley said that miners may not make money creating the currency unless the digital currency reaches that level.

“We estimate the break-even point for big mining pools should be US$8,600, even if we assume a very low electricity cost (US$0.03 kW/h),” Morgan Stanley equity analyst Charlie Chan and his team wrote in a note on Thursday (April 19). The price of bitcoin was $8,341.85 as of 8:17 p.m., according to CoinDesk.