Suspicions of cash shortage at card issuing banks; Crypto.com to launch derivatives exchange by year-end, cryptocurrency prices hit new highs.

Although briefly clouded by the 1.9 billion euro cash shortage scandal of the issuing bank Wirecard, the price of Crypto.com Coin (CRO) tokens not only did not fall but rose instead. Later the same day, it announced that its exchange had completed a major upgrade and would launch derivatives and high leverage margin trading in the second half of this year.

Entering the Derivatives Market

The test version of the Crypto.com exchange was launched in November last year, and according to an announcement released on June 18, the new system upgrade will increase the performance and throughput of the Crypto.com exchange by 10 times, including the matching engine, order management system, and optimization of APIs.

Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com, told CoinDesk:

It is expected to end the test version before the end of this year and formally provide users with derivatives and high-leverage margin trading. With the performance improvements brought by the system upgrade, we hope to eliminate any reasons for users to choose other exchanges and become a trusted one-stop platform for them.

Crypto.com was founded by Marszalek in 2016, originally named Monaco. The ICO in 2017 raised $26.7 million for the company, which was later renamed Crypto.com the following year. This highly discussed fintech institution was also introduced in a previous topic on cryptocurrency debit cards.

Crypto.com not only issues its own VISA debit card, with attractive card benefits and its own passive income scheme, but also has millions of users worldwide. However, the CEO stated that Crypto.com's three core businesses include: payments, trading, and lending. As of now, "trading" has brought them the most profit.

Wirecard's €1.9 Billion Cash Shortfall

German payment giant Wirecard revealed a €1.9 billion shortfall on its balance sheet on June 18, equivalent to the total profits since 2012. The company's CEO, Markus Braun, also resigned, and the stock price plummeted by nearly 80%, leading to it being downgraded to junk status.

Coincidentally, this institution is the issuing bank for Crypto.com, and promptly released this news. It is understood that Crypto.com stated that the issuing fund is not affected at all, and Ernst & Young was unable to confirm the existence of the €1.9 billion in cash.

The related token CRO of Crypto.com is not affected by the news, poised to challenge the historical high of $0.12 set on June 9.