One of the leading crypto-currency exchanges has halted its newly introduced Bitcoin Cash after suspicions of insider trading. Coinbase is alleging that one of its employees leaked the company's move to introduce cash as a spin-off of the original coin.
On Tuesday Coinbase let its users buy, trade, sell and receive Bitcoin cash but froze the operations after they saw the price had a drastic spike, that means possible illegal activity.
"It appears the price of Bitcoin Cash on other exchanges increased in the hours before our announcement," he said, via Medium. "If we find evidence of any employee or contractor violating our policies - directly or indirectly - I will not hesitate to terminate the employee immediately and take appropriate legal action."
This possible leak of information on Bitcoin's new trading habit follows behind recent data from Australian researchers that prove half of all Bitcoin activity is used to buy and sell illegal goods and services such as weapons, drugs and pirated software.
"...This sort of illegal activity risks stunting the adoption of this technology and limiting the potential benefits to society,” Talis Putnins, Professor at the University of Technology Sydney tells Business Insider. “A lot of people think bitcoin is highly anonymous and untraceable, that it is outside the view of regulators and authorities, but once you start digging into it it’s surprising how much sense you can make of it."
As we write this, the value of Bitcoin sits at $17,189.64.