Crypto Currency

31-year-old Oyster Protocol founder Amir Bruno Elmaani — aka “Bruno Block” — has been sentenced to four years imprisonment for tax evasion. Amir Bruno Elmaani, the 31-year-old founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency scheme Oyster Protocol has been handed the maximum sentence of four years in prison for tax evasion. The United States Attorney’s Office said on Oct. 31 that Elmaani — also known by the alias “Bruno Block” — was sentenced to prison following his April 6 guilty plea where he admitted to secretly minting and selling Pearl tokens while not paying income tax on a swathe of profits from the project. Elmaani admitted that he caused tax losses of over $5.5 million. “Amir Elmaani violated the duty he owed to pay taxes on millions of dollars of cryptocurrency profits, and he also violated the trust of investors in the cryptocurrency he founded,” said District Attorney Damian Williams in relation to the sentencing. Between September and October 2017, Elmaani promoted a cryp...

The Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCO) now appears on the clearing house’s site but doesn’t indicate an impending approval. The ticker for Invesco and Galaxy's spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) — BTCO — has appeared on the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation’s (DTCC) website.  Invesco's Galaxy spot Bitcoin ETF product is listed on the DTCC's site. Source: DTCC According to web archiver WayBack Machine, no listing under the ticker BTCO was present on Oct. 25 — meaning that the ETF has been added to the list sometime in the last six days.  It is important to note that a ticker being added to the list of "ETF Products" on the DTCC site is by no means a guarantee of an approval of a given product in the future. A DTCC spokesperson said it’s standard practice for it to add securities to the NSCC security eligibility file “in preparation for the launch of a new ETF to the market.” “Appearing on the list is not indicative of an outcome for any...

Two of the CFTC’s crypto tipsters scored $15 million alone which brought successful enforcement cases for the regulator. The United States commodities regulator has paid $16 million this year to whistleblowers who gave information leading to successful enforcement actions with a majority of the tips involving crypto. In an Oct. 31 statement , Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said most of the tips received this year involved crypto which she claimed was “an area that continues to have pervasive fraud and other illegality.” Very proud of these offices and their outsized results. As a former IG, I know firsthand how important whistleblowers are. The CFTC could not fully protect customers and markets w/o them. Click to read about the highest # of tips, crypto tips & environmental fraud tips. https://t.co/C4I9tgnxRU — Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero (@CFTCcgr) October 31, 2023 Two whistleblowers received $15 million alone f...

Don’t be surprised if we see more investment, more regulation and more artificial intelligence defining crypto during the last two months of 2023. As the holiday season approaches, anticipation in the cryptocurrency world heightens for the annual phenomenon known as the "Santa rally." Amidst this festive period, market dynamics tend to shift. This season, there are several factors that could influence the last few months of the year. Institutional investment surge Cryptocurrency prices spiked notably at the end of 2020 and 2021, driven by increased investor optimism and institutional interest. Major financial institutions and hedge funds began viewing Bitcoin ( BTC ) not just as a speculative asset but as a hedge against inflation and a potential store of value. Large companies like Square and MicroStrategy added major Bitcoin holdings to their balance sheets, further solidifying this image shift. Additionally, Bitcoin reached all-time highs , igniting a positive se...

While unlikely, Bloomberg’s ETF analysts conceded that there’s always a possibility that SEC Chair Gary Gensler could be waiting until the last moment to deny the flurry of pending spot Bitcoin ETF applications. There’s a slim chance the United States Securities and Exchange chief Gary Gensler could pull the plug on spot Bitcoin ( BTC ) exchange-traded funds in one “amazingly sadistic” move, according to Bloomberg ETF analysts.  In an Oct. 31 tweet directed at senior Bloomberg ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas, ETF commentator Dave Nadig posed whether Gensler may be allowing for spot Bitcoin ETF applications to pile up just to deny them all at once in a “semi-comedic rug-pull.” “I'm sure it will be much more boring than this -- but sometimes it does feel like this is all a setup for a giant Gensler semi-comedic rug-pull,” said Nadig. I'm sure it will be much more boring than this -- but sometimes it does feel like this is all a setup for a giant Gensler semi-...

Do Kwon, the co-founder now-collapsed Terraform ecosystem maintains he and his firm did not skirt U.S. securities laws. Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon has requested a United States district judge to reject the securities and fraud suit from the federal securities regulator, claiming it has failed to prove they did anything wrong. In an Oct. 27 filing to a New York District Court, lawyers for Kwon and Terraform argued its cryptocurrencies Terra Luna Classic (LUNC), TerraClassicUSD (USTC), Mirror Protocol (MIR) and its Mirrored Assets (mAssets) that reflect stocks on-chain are not securities as the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged. “After two years of investigation, the completion of a discovery period that resulted in the taking of more than 20 depositions, and the exchange of over two million pages of documents and data, the SEC is evidentiarily no closer to proving that the Defendants did anything wrong,” the lawyers wrote. They added the “evidence does not ex...

According to an internal memo reportedly circulating within X, the company is now valued at just $19 billion. Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), is worth less than half of what the tech billionaire bought it for in October last year, an internal memo has reportedly revealed. According to an Oct. 30 report from Bloomberg, the internal memo and sources familiar with the matter said that restricted stock units recently paid to employees of the company were valued at $45 a share, which puts the company’s value at around $19 billion, less than half of the $44 billion that Musk paid for the company on Oct. 27, 2022. Musk has made a series of controversial moves since taking over the platform, including rebranding it to X , changing many of its content rules and laying off approximately 80% of the company’s workforce. X's daily active user count has declined nearly 20% since Musk's takeover. Source: WSJ Musk’s drastic changes, along with his outspoken ...

Veteran investor Stanley Druckenmiller praised Bitcoin for establishing its own “brand” during an interview with hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones. Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller praised Bitcoin (BTC) for establishing a “brand” over last decade and half — admitting while he doesn’t own any Bitcoin, he ought to. The billionaire shared his latest thoughts on Bitcoin in an Oct. 30 interview with hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, where he made comparisons between Bitcoin and gold as a store of value. “I’m 70 years old, I own gold. I was surprised that bitcoin got going, but you know, it’s clear that the young people look at it as a store of value because it’s a lot easier to do stuff with. 17 years, to me, it’s a brand. I like gold because it’s a 5,000-year-old brand.” He added: “So, I like them both. I don’t own any Bitcoin to be frank, but I should.” Stanley Druckenmiller is one of the most successful hedge fund managers on Wall Street and is worth $6,200,000,00...

Analysts say an approved spot ETF will be “a bedrock moment for Bitcoin,” the Astrid Finance exploiter has sent back 80% of funds stolen, and Celsius has issued a new warning about phishing scammers. Analysts ‘increasingly confident’ of a spot Bitcoin ETF approval Financial analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald are “increasingly confident” that the United States regulator will grant approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF, based on recent amendments to pending ETF applications. VanEck was the most recent firm to amend its spot Bitcoin ETF application on Oct. 27 and financial firms such as BlackRock have followed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s request in adding surveillance-sharing agreements over the last few months. Andddddd @vaneck_us joins the amendment filings for spot #bitcoin ETF issuers. h/t @NateGeraci pic.twitter.com/zdYuUTAaE6 — James Seyffart (@JSeyff) October 29, 2023 Cantor Fitzgerald research analysts Josh Siegler and Will Carlson told Bloomberg in an Oct. 29 report...

Despite Bukele’s popularity, some critics argue he isn’t eligible to be re-elected under El Salvador’s constitution. El Salvador president Nayib Bukele has filed paperwork to be re-elected in the country’s upcoming 2024 presidential election in February. Bukele, a Bitcoin advocate, received strong support from the public on Oct. 26 after he was officially nominated by his party to run for re-election. “Five more [years], five more and not one step back,” Bukele said in a speech in front of thousands of El Salvadorans. “We need five years to continue improving our country,” he added. | ÚLTIMA HORA: Al grito de “cinco más, cinco más y ni un paso atrás” Nayib Bukele da su discurso delante de miles de Salvadoreños luego de inscribir su candidatura presidencial para la reelección. “Necesitamos 5 años para seguir mejorando nuestro país.” pic.twitter.com/ApaP8yyQBm — Eduardo Menoni (@eduardomenoni) October 27, 2023 Bukele rose to power in 2019 when his political party, Neuva (New) Id...

Estimates in September revealed that at least $35 million in crypto has been stolen from victims of the LastPass breach since 2022, with the latest hack adding to the toll. At least 25 people have reportedly seen $4.4 million in crypto drained from across 80 wallets due to a 2022 data breach that impacted password storage software LastPass. In an Oct. 27 X (Twitter) post, pseudonymous on-chain researcher ZachXBT said they and MetaMask developer Taylor Monahan tracked the fund movements of at least 80 wallets compromised on Oct. 25. “Most, if not all, of the victims are longtime LastPass users and/or confirm having stored their [crypto wallet] keys/seeds in LastPass,” Monahan said in an accompanying Chainabuse report . Just on October 25, 2023 alone another ~$4.4M was drained from 25+ victims as a result of the LastPass hack. Cannot stress this enough, if you believe you may have ever stored your seed phrase or keys in LastPass migrate your crypto assets immediately. pic.twitter...

“It’s not just a piece of artwork”: Mintable CEO Zach Burks argues that the United Kingdom government still hasn’t caught up on what NFTs are becoming. The United Kingdom’s government is in danger of regulating nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in a way that doesn’t suit the true nature of the nascent technology, says Mintable CEO and founder Zach Burks.   In an interview with Cointelegraph, Burks said he believes a recent report from a U.K. parliamentary committee  significantly exaggerates the role NFTs play in copyright infringement and fails to recognize that they are more than just volatile digital pictures. “NFTs are in a transition phase where they’re moving away from the speculative boom of PFPs, and now it’s going into utilities of brands implementing NFTs across a whole range of different things,” Burks explained. In the Oct. 11 report, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee urged the government to take action to protect artists and content creators from copyright ...

Open-source protocols have numerous advantages over proprietary protocols. They include greater transparency and accessibility. Understanding open-source protocols Open-source protocols have become a mainstay in the tech world and are gaining traction due to the myriad benefits that they offer over their proprietary counterparts. The protocols are typically created with the intention of being used by the public, enabling anyone to examine, alter and share their code. The benefits of open-source protocols are multifaceted, ranging from their inherent transparency to their wider accessibility.  Additionally, they rely on peer evaluations, a cost-effective and inclusive model that distinguishes them from their proprietary counterparts. Prominent examples of open-source software include widely used operating systems such as Linux and Android and the popular Firefox web browser.  When it comes to open-source cryptographic protocols, the Bitcoin , Ethereum , Cardano and P...

ProShares and Grayscale lead a surge of activity in Bitcoin investment products, with analysis confident of implied demand for a Bitcoin spot ETF. Bitcoin ( BTC ) institutional investment vehicles are seeing a major volume boost as excitement over possible United States regulatory changes takes hold. Data from resources including Bloomberg showed Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and others nearing record weekly inflows. BITO, GBTC trade $2.5 billion  Hints that the U.S. might soon allow a Bitcoin spot price-based ETF have not only impacted BTC price action — the surrounding ecosystem has benefitted in kind. In addition to exchanges and mining firms, embattled institutional investment options are also seeing a resurgence in demand. As noted by Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, at least two household names saw “notable” volume in the trading week through Oct. 27. Among them was the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), the first futures-based ETF to get the g...

Clayton emphasized that regulatory agencies should introduce regulations and legal cases they believe will successfully withstand judicial scrutiny. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse strongly criticized former United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Jay Clayton’s remarks regarding the agency’s regulatory approach. Since the first quarter of 2023, the SEC has initiated various regulatory actions against crypto exchanges and companies. During an interview with CNBC on June 29, 2023, Clayton expressed his view that the SEC should pursue legal action against specific companies only when they have strong legal grounds. He emphasized that regulatory agencies should introduce regulations and legal cases they believe will successfully withstand judicial scrutiny. Watching this clip makes my blood boil. The hypocrisy is shocking. @CNBC @SquawkCNBC should be calling him out for the bullshit. (As a reminder, jay clayton brought the case against ripple, me and Chris Lar...