Forbes Announced Beta Launch Of New Data-Driven Cryptocurrency Platform

Forbes announced in a press release Monday it would be licensing its brand to a new cryptocurrency website. The platform, called Forbes CryptoMarkets, was developed in collaboration with private investment company NewCity Capital and cryptocurrency exchange trade.io.

The platform — launched in a beta version — is a data-driven portal that offers to track cryptocurrencies worldwide.

"Forbes provides the most comprehensive coverage of the cryptocurrency and blockchain marketplaces of any major media business brand in the world. Forbes CryptoMarkets, a new licensed business, represents a natural extension of our powerful brand into a new venture that promises to deliver immense value to investors, traders and market watchers," Forbes CEO Mike Federle said in the press release.

It will serve real-time pricing data for the top 200 cryptocurrencies — ranked by market capitalization. Aside from providing financial data, the platform would also include a news aggregation column which lists top stories from major cryptocurrency publications.

"We are excited to partner with Forbes to create a trusted source for those seeking information on the new digital economy, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, cryptocurrencies, tokens and the companies underlying them. [Forbes CryptoMarkets] will be the definitive resource for everything crypto and blockchain," said Chein Lee, the current chairman of NewCity Capital and the person expected to head the new platform.

The press release also explained the website will present “insights and information” from various cryptocurrency exchanges, such as the available trading pairs, prices, and trade volume. Similar platforms — in terms of user interface — already exist, such as CoinGecko and WorldCoinIndex, but they don't have a news aggregation service.

“Forbes is the most-respected business media brand in the world, and our partnership allows us to bring the same high standard of quality to this cryptocurrency industry. We plan to continue to grow the platform to include all aspects of the industry, such as related investment funds, ICO information and other relevant data," said Jim Preissler, CEO of trade.io and executive director of Forbes CryptoMarkets.

The new service would track the market performance of cryptocurrencies and index them, with crypto indices like Forbes CryptoMarkets Top 30 Global “FB30,” Top 10 Global "FB10,” Top Cryptocurrencies Global, Top 10 Blockchain and DApps Global. The platform would also segregate the data by sector, industry, and cryptocurrency use-case.

Forbes CryptoMarkets’ team includes data scientists and programmers who would leverage quantitative data sources from cryptocurrency exchanges and blockchain data sources, to clarify and present real-time view of the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem.

On Sunday, trade.io announced in a Medium post it had suffered a security breach. A cold storage wallet was compromised and $50 million worth of TIO utility tokens (trade token of trade.io) were withdrawn by an anonymous entity. While the investigation was ongoing, the company was forced to disable trading on its website, as well as on Bancor and Kucoin cryptocurrency exchanges.