Crypto
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A life after crime: What happens to crypto seized in criminal investigations?
Earlier this year, during the annual Queen’s Speech in the United Kingdom, Prince Charles informed the Parliament about two bills. One of them — the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill — would expand the government’s powers to seize and recover crypto assets. Meanwhile, the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) seized more than $3 billion worth of crypto in 2021. As digital currencies’ monetary stock grows and enforcers’ scrutiny over the maturing industry tightens, the amount of seized funds will inevitably increase. But where do these funds go, assuming they aren’t returned to the victims of scams and fraud? Are there auctions, like there are for forfeited property? Or are these coins destined to be stored on some kind of special wallet, which might end up as a perfect ...
Social media blamed for $1B in crypto scam losses in 2021
The Federal Trade Commission has labeled social media and crypto a “combustible combination for fraud,” with nearly half of all crypto-related scams originating from social media platforms in 2021. Published on June 3, the report found that as much as $1 billion in crypto have been lost to scammers throughout the year, which was more than a five-fold increase from 2020, and nearly sixty times up from 2018. New analysis finds consumers reported losing more than $1 billion in #cryptocurrency to scams since 2021. Most of the losses consumers reported were to bogus cryptocurrency investment scams: https://t.co/MYGTcaw1aS #DataSpotlight /1 — FTC (@FTC) June 3, 2022 As of March 31, 2022, the amount of crypto lost was already approaching half of the 2021 figure, showing that momentum ...
6 Questions for Nikki Farb of Headline
We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes! This week, our 6 Questions go to Nikki Farb — an active investor and advisor to technology companies who is currently a venture partner at Headline, a venture capital firm. I invest in consumer tech (with a real love for marketplaces) and Web3. I’ve invested in Consensys (MetaMask), AfterParty, Fractal, Aloft, Wander, MarketerHire, SudShare and a few others I can’t share just yet. Before investing, I co-founded Darby — a video shopping app that connected creators and their fans. It was such a journey. We built Darby up to 50,000 creators making videos for 5 million viewers. Working with the team at Darby was one of my...
Who accepts Bitcoin as payment?
This is a list of some of the biggest places that accept Bitcoin, such as Microsoft and Whole Foods. First, we’re going to take a look at businesses that accept Bitcoin. There are some early adopters, but most of them recently started to accept payments using this digital currency. These major companies are the ones where you can pay via Bitcoin: Microsoft Microsoft is one of the early adopters of BTC, as they started accepting payments with Bitcoin in 2014. Users could buy games and applications with digital currencies, but digital coins were far from usual back then, so Microsoft stopped accepting BTC in 2016 and once again in 2018 due to high volatility. We’re eight years into the future, and now it’s way more usual and trustworthy to pay with dig...
Bitcoin price needs to close above $29,450 for its first green weekly candle since March
Bitcoin (BTC) kept traders guessing into the June 5 weekly close as BTC price action closely mimicked last weekend. BTC/USD 1-week candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView BTC price traders $300 in the gree Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD circling its May 30 opening level at the time of writing, just $300 higher than seven days ago. With hours to go before the weekly candle closed, the pair thus retained the threat of sealing yet another lower low. This would take Bitcoin to a new record in terms of consecutive “red” weeks. Discussing the potential outcomes, traders had mixed opinions. Very hard to tell, again all about daily trend and the recent highs put @ 32k. Gaps above big enough to be interesting to play even > 32. A close li...
3 reasons Ethereum price risks 25% downside in June
Ethereum’s native token Ether (ETH) has dropped more than half of its value in 2022 in dollar terms, while also losing value against Bitcoin (BTC) and now remains pinned below $2,000 for several reasons. What’s more, ETH price could face even bigger losses in June due to another slew of factors, which will be discussed below. Ethereum funds lose capital en masse Investors have withdrawn $250 million out of Ethereum-based investment funds in 2022, according to CoinShares’ weekly market report published May 31. The massive outflow appears in contrast to other coins. For instance, investors have poured $369 million into Bitcoin-based investment funds in 2022. Meanwhile, Solana and Cardano, layer-one blockchain protocols competing with Ethereum, have attracted $104 million and ...
Weekly Report: New York passes bill limiting Bitcoin mining, El Salvador delays Bitcoin bonds again, Japan limits stablecoin issuance, and more
Here are this week’s most intriguing stories in the cryptocurrency sector: Not yet Bitcoin bonds, El Salvador’s Finance minister says When El Salvador adopted Bitcoin for use as an official tender in September last year, it also set out on several Bitcoin ambitions. Among them; are building a Bitcoin city and establishing Bitcoin bonds worth $1 billion. The bonds, having been postponed earlier in the year, seem set for another delay as Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya confirmed that the nation would not venture into offering them in the current bear market. Speaking during a recent interview with a local news outlet, the finance minister was queried on the state of the $1 billion bonds that were not issued in mid-March as initially planned. No official date when the ...
The crypto market dropped in May, but June has a silver lining
May 2022 was not for the faint-hearted. Even the most embattled and experienced crypto traders were tested in the first two weeks of the month on a brutal drop following the United States Federal Reserve’s announcement that interest rates would be rising by 0.5%. Crypto used to exhibit a lower correlation with real-world events and was generally unaffected by capitalistic successes and failures. However, a very steady approximate peg between Bitcoin (BTC) and the S&P 500 index was seen throughout the first five months of 2022. Inflation and war fears have not been kind to both markets either. Crypto mimicking the equity market could be due to the massive market capitalization growth in 2020 and 2021. At unprecedented rates, retail investors from equities have flocked to cryptocurrencie...
5 metrics to monitor before investing in crypto during a bear market
Cryptocurrency bear markets destroy portfolio value and they have a dangerous tendency to drag on for longer than anyone expects. Fortunately, one of the silver linings of market-wide pullbacks is that it gives investors time to re-focus and spend time researching projects that could thrive when the trend turns bullish again. Here’s five areas to focus on when deciding whether to invest in a crypto project during a bear market. Is there a use case? The cryptocurrency sector has no shortage of flashy promises and gimmicky protocols, but when it comes down to it there are only a handful of projects that have delivered a product that has demand and utility. When it comes down to determining if a token should continue to be held, one of the main questions to ask is “Why does this project ...
Global Web3 metaverse and tax initiatives continue in the face of a market meltdown
In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. In 2021, nonfungible tokens became the biggest disrupter in art, with artists minting, exhibiting and auctioning them and investors buying, selling and trading them. But by May 2022, NFT sales had dropped 92% from the market peak. According to data aggregator Layoffs.fyi, more than 17,000 technology laborers lost their jobs in May. The recent downturn is similar to 2018, when leading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fell by 80% or more. Related: 2021 ends with a question: Are NFTs here to stay...
Bitcoin ATM installations record low in May, biggest drop since 2019
Bitcoin (BTC) ATM installations across the globe have seen a steep decline throughout the year 2022, with May recording just 202 new BTC ATMs, a range last seen three ago in 2019. Over the past five months since January, Bitcoin ATM installations saw a gradual slowdown, eventually falling down 89.75% from December 2021’s 1971 new installations. However, data from Coin ATM Radar reveal an evident comeback in the installation numbers as the world saw 817 Bitcoin ATMs getting installed in June — in just the first five days. Net change of cryptocurrency machines number installed and removed monthly. Source: Coin ATM Radar Some of the key factors contributing to the slowdown of crypto ATM installations include geopolitical tensions across the world, unclear or anti-crypto regulations, market sa...
JPMorgan secures DeFi partnership in Singapore as crypto giants leave for Dubai
The Monetary Authority of Singapore is partnering with JPMorgan Chase to lead a pilot program exploring the DeFi niche The move is an initiative to explore the economic potential and value-adding use cases of crypto by the central bank of Singapore The project involves creation of tokenised bonds and deposits in a liquidity pool for DeFi applications The Monetary Authority of Singapore recently announced Project Guardian, a pilot digital asset program to examine the potential of tokenisation of bonds on public blockchains. The project intends to establish a liquidity pool of tokenised bonds and deposits. Involved would be trusted financial players who will serve as trust anchors, including JP Morgan Chase & Co, DBS Bank Ltd, and digital asset venture Marketnode. Project Guardian ...
