Neo Surges On Weiss A Rating

Neo enjoyed a notable pop from the latest Weiss Ratings.

The system seeks to rank cryptocurrencies based on several criteria including utility and scalability and has now issued two series of ratings, the latest of which gave Chinese-developed NEO an A- rating – the first crypto to achieve that grade to date.

As a result, the crytpocurrency surged in value over the last 24 hours, climbing by more than 14 percent to trade at more than $133 for most of the day. It led a sector-wide climb as most of the major currencies enjoyed broad gains.

NEO is similar to Ethereum in that its blockchain was developed as much for other transactions as the transfer of the token.

Litecoin stalls as Litepay is delayed

Litecoin was supposed to announce the launch of LitePay, a payment card designed to mainstream the use of the token in day-to-day transactions. However, in an e-mail to their mailing list, they have announced that they were holding off for now, citing “hostile actions” by card companies.

It is thought the January move by both Visa and MasterCard to re-classify cryptocurrency purchases on their cards as cash advances, – and so incur higher transaction fees – is one of the main reasons for the delay. Litecoin prices fell to $212 on the news.

Circle buys Poloniex

Circle, a cryptocurrency-focused financial-services firm, has announced that it is buying crypto exchange Poloniex in a move that a move that will make Circle one of the largest companies in the space.

According to Fortune, the pricetag will be around $400 million and is another step in the acceptance of cryptocurrencies as an investment asset.

Circle Trade, the tarding arm of Circle, already handles more than $2bn a month in cryptocurrency transactions – with a minimum deal size of $250,000.