I still don't get the appeal of bitcoin other than as another way of gambling.
Ratings firm issues first grades on cryptocurrencies, sparking outrage online and a cyberattack
- Weiss Ratings gives ethereum a "good" B rating and bitcoin a "fair" C+ rating.
- The ratings agency says bitcoin faces major challenges that have resulted in delays and high transaction costs, without immediate plans for an upgrade.
- Weiss Ratings also said it suffered denial of service attacks from Korea in the hours heading into the ratings announcement, and blamed Korean social media posts for raising fear the agency would release negative ratings on certain cryptocurrencies.
Evelyn Cheng | @chengevelyn
Published 6 Hours Ago Updated 4 Hours Ago
Weiss Ratings, which claims to offer the first "ratings" on cryptocurrencies, has judged ethereum to be better than bitcoin.
The securities ratings agency announced Wednesday that it gave ethereum a B rating because it "benefits from more readily upgradable technology and better speed, despite some bottlenecks."
Bitcoin received a "fair" C+ rating because the digital currency is "encountering major network bottlenecks, causing delays and high transactions costs," according to a release. "Despite intense ongoing efforts that are achieving some initial success, Bitcoin has no immediate mechanism for promptly upgrading its software code."
None of the 74 cryptocurrencies the agency covers received an "excellent" A rating. B-rated ethereum and digital currency EOS have the highest ratings.
That tough take is apparently a trademark of the 47-year-old independent financial ratings agency. Reports from Barron's and The New York Times from 2002 and 1992, respectively, note Weiss' lack of A ratings in coverage of insurance stocks, mutual funds and other securities. The Florida-based company usually flies under the radar in comparison to better-known agencies such as Standard & Poor's and Moody's. Weiss says it does not accept compensation from the companies it rates for issuing the rating.
Foreign cryptocurrency investors were apparently very worried that Weiss would issue negative ratings on digital currencies.
The agency said in a release Wednesday that "staff was up all night last night fending off denial of service attacks from Korea" and cited Korean social media posts calling others to bring down the ratings agency's website. The hackers then broke into the website, took information from it and are distorting it on social media, the company said.
continues at cnbc.com |
