As in every weekend, Forex Magnates brings you a collection of the best articles from our specialized DCmagnates website, covering the world of cryptocurrencies. This week we encountered several notable stories and industry players who are worth keeping track of.

Colossal Counterfeit

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The Italian Police have uncovered the largest stash of counterfeit euro coins in history.

The stash was discovered by chance at a Naples port while detectives were inspecting metal pipes. The coins apparently originated from China. Police say the Italy-China route is popular for smuggling counterfeit goods to Europe.

Investigators usually focus their efforts on uncovering counterfeit bills which typically carry much higher value than coins. The discovery comes as the currency hovers near post-euro-crisis lows versus the dollar.

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Fee-Free Trading?

eCoin, a bitcoin trading venue, has said that it is charging no fees for trades made on its exchange, which support bitcoin and litecoin trading against the dollar.

If confirmed, it will make them a rare venue where this can be implemented. It will follow a similar model to China’s “big 3,” namely Huobi, OkCoin and BTC China, offering no-fee trading against the yuan.

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BitGold Startup Secures $3.5 Million Funding

BitGold has secured $3.5 million in Series A funding. Participants included PowerOne Capital, Soros Brothers Investments, Sandstorm Gold and PortVesta Holdings.

The Toronto-based company is set to “provide global access to gold for payments and secure savings, making this extraordinary element useful and empowering again,” and will be officially launching its services in February.

Similar offerings have been launched earlier this yearthough none have reportedly secured such funding.

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Litecoin’s Founder Speaks

Litecoin, the scrypt-based clone of Bitcoin,  struggled in 2014, which saw a myriad of other altcoins – themselves clones of Bitcoin – vie for recognition as the ideal cryptocurrency.

Market apathy toward Litecoin is reflected in its price, which has lost nearly 90% of its value year-to-date. Volumes have also dwindled, now routinely eclipsed by those of Ripple’s XRP.

In an interesting Twitter chat, however, the currency’s founder Charlie Lee replied to passionate litecoin fan. “Then ask not what Litecoin can do for you, ask what you can do for Litecoin.”

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Bitcoin Operator as an Ancient Greek

This week we also heard an exceptionally poetic defense for the bitcoin exchange operator Charlie Shrem. In a moving sentencing memo, Shrem’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, portrayed his client through the lense of ancient Greek literature as Shrem was sentenced last Friday to years in prison for operating an unlicensed money services business.

The revelation raises speculation that Shrem and his legal team managed to move the heart of Judge Jed Rakoff, who only sentenced Shrem for two out of a theoretical maximum of 30 years. Shrem seemed highly satisfied with the outcome saying that justice has been served.

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